Late to bed and early to rise...

9/06/06 - 4th Day - Before Supper. We fellas stayed up too late last night and it was somewhat regrettable at 4:30, but we got the cows milked and after breakfast we went back to sleep for a few hours. In the long run the fellowship was worth it, but you sure feel your age when you do that.

We (the guys) went to the park for water and showers, then ran errands in Bangs and Santa Anna, including picking up about 9 bags of feed. By next year I pray (Lord Willing) we are growing most of our own feed, and pasture raising most of our animals and birds.

Danielle has been building a little "doghouse" for a blind goat she is getting for Sarah. Don't ask me, I just work here.

The guys have been working on preparing the garden for the fall planting, and I have been splitting wood. Once again, you stay up late and get up early and then split wood and you begin to feel your age. We want to have about 6 cords of wood split and stacked before winter to build up our emergency stash. A good part of that wood has already been cut and is laying in piles around the land. We will have a good mix of mesquite and oak wood.

I have had the children gathering mesquite pods for coffee, meal and other purposes. I am currently testing the "Mesquite Molasses" recipe that was posted yesterday on the BiblicalAgrarianism.com site. I will keep you updated on that, to see if it works out well. We might have a breakfast of Mesquite pancakes and Mesquite syrup sometime this week. It has kept the children busy when they are not doing their school work.

It is exciting to see the land so green, and to enjoy such cool temps. Today was a real blessing. It is also a great blessing to have close, like-minded brethren to work with and commune with every day. I look forward to Ranchfest coming up next month, it should be a great time.

Well, it sounds like Mihai is done with my axe and is back working in the garden, so I will go split a few more logs before dinner time.

God Bless,

Michael