Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you. - 1 Thessalonians 4:11
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
In The Woods Out Back
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Before the Cold Blew Through
The last week of December, we had a cold front that blew through. Other parts of the country get this type of weather and are quite accustomed to it. We are not. We were just recovering from the hard freeze a couple years ago and now we have to deal with it again. Temperatures were projected to be 17 degrees with wind chills colder and it was going to stay below freezing for three days. What to do? What to do?
First, I wrapped all of the pipes outside with pipe insulation and a bag of old t-shirts. Then I brought ferns and tropical plants indoors and all other plants into the garage. Then I got a heat lamp out of the attic that we normally use for baby chicks. I set it up in the garage for Belle and Ginger to keep warm. Belle has a thick winter coat. She enjoys this type weather. Here she is playing hide and seek in a hole that the cows ate out of the center of a round bale of hay.
First thing was to say goodbye to the tomatoes. Three rows of beautiful, healthy plants full of tomatoes. But it just wasn't meant to be. We had harvested a handful of red ripe ones, but most are still green.
Some were big and plump and nearing maturity.
Others were smaller, but nice looking with no blemishes.
I filled up a big bucket full and we spread them out in several boxes to ripen. We covered them with a paper bag and put a banana in the box. Some are turning red. Those that don't turn red, we'll eat fried green tomatoes or make green tomato sauce.
I filled another bucket with peppers. Tons of Anaheims, jalapeno, lilac bell, horizon bell, emerald sweet bell, and criolla sella peppers.
The cole crops will generally handle a freeze, but I covered them anyway. I also picked all the mature heads off of them. Here's a nice PURPLE cauliflower that I harvested.
Monday, January 2, 2023
The Ozark Trail Family Vacation
Dad & Mom organized a big family vacation for Christmas this year. They rented from Airbnb a five bedroom lodge between Yellville and Harriet, Arkansas. They rented a 16 passenger van and Mom and Dad, my sister, her husband and her six boys, Tricia, me and Laura Lee, Russ, and Benjamin departed the morning after Christmas. Unfortunately, my brother and his wife were unable to make the trip.
We live in flat country in South Louisiana. There's not a rock in sight. We were anxious to get into the Ozark Mountains and do a little hiking and have good family fun. That afternoon late we arrived at our destination. The lodge was absolutely perfect! Here's Dad & Mom in front of the fireplace. It was cold, but we brought firewood and kept a roaring fire burning. We also lit a fire in a fire pit out back. The first night, my brother-in-law cooked quail that he had raised and injector marinated. They were delicious!
It was so relaxing. We woke up early, read the Bible and prayed while watching the sunrise. So spectacular! It was peaceful.
We brought two 18 count packages of eggs from home and cooked big breakfasts of bacon and eggs, grits, ham, toast and bagels and lots of coffee. There were wild turkey and deer at the bottom of the hill that the boys spotted.
The lodge had a game room with a pool table, foosball, and other games to keep the crew occupied. We also played a big bingo game in the family room and worked on a puzzle at night. There was a pond below the lodge that was completely frozen over. We aren't used to ice being that thick that you could actually walk on. The boys were running and sliding on it.
It was still cold, but warming up a little. While we were standing on the ice a big crack went all across the pond. Probably not a good idea to stand on it for too long!
Once everyone was fed, we loaded up in the van and headed to Buffalo Point where Mom & Dad hiked the Buffalo River Overlook Trail. We hiked the Indian Rockhouse trail. The scenery was gorgeous!
There were numerous caves and rock formations to explore.
The highlight of the trail was the Indian rock house. This was a shelter for native Americans many years ago. Archeologists excavated the cave and found all sorts of tools, food remains, and other relics. The Indians used this as a shelter and meeting area.
There was a perfect chimney in a part of the roof of the rock house.
Not only were they protected from the elements, but a creek ran through the cave at the end. They could get fresh water without leaving.
It was the most perfect day for hiking. The sky was blue, the sun shone brightly, and we all worked up a sweat on the hike that was about a 3.5 mile round trip.
This was a tree lined trail at the very end. You can see that it had warmed up. Tricia had her coat tied around her waist.
We brought lots of food on the trip and stopped in parks and made sandwiches, but on this day, we drove into Yellville and found a pizza joint and ordered 7 pizzas. There was a large kitchen in the lodge where we did some cooking, too. We made a big chili. We enjoyed chili dogs and frito pie!
We organized a scavenger hunt at the lodge, breaking up the kids into two teams and set them out on an adventure to find local items. Some of the more memorable items to find were: a piece of ice from the pond, fire, two different types of wild animal poop, photos of a live animal seen around the lodge, and another odd item for them to collect. They had a real good time.
The next day we loaded up and went to Rush, Arkansas. It is a ghost town of sorts. During the first World War, there was a town here of approximately 5,000 people mining. They built the smelter below hoping for silver, but found zinc. They used it for the war effort. It was called the Morning Star Mine.
Old entrances to the mine dotted the hills, but they were closed off.
At the base of the trail was the Buffalo River. The water was crystal clear and cold. In fact ice was floating in the river. It didn't stop Russ from rolling up his pant legs and wading out there! The boys skipped rocks across the river.
Just a beautiful sight! Living in Louisiana, we aren't accustomed to seeing the bottom of the river. Our water is MUDDY!
This little tributary was flowing into the Buffalo River. I think its called Clabber Creek.
The next morning at 7AM we loaded up the van and headed back home. It was sad to leave. Arkansas is a beautiful state.
It was a relaxing vacation and we all made memories to last a lifetime! Thanks Dad & Mom!!
Sunday, January 1, 2023
Happy New Year! 2023
Happy New Year to All from the Sonnier's at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm. We wish you and your family the very best in 2023. We have been away for about a week on vacation.
We will be back tomorrow with lots to talk about. May our Lord richly bless you this year!!
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Merry Christmas to All!
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
What a great day! Merry Christmas everyone. Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, so we had abbreviated services at our little church. No Sunday School - just Morning Worship at 10 AM. I hope you were able to make it to Services to honor our Savior. We opened the service reading about the birth of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2 along with prayer and special music: "Sweet Little Jesus Boy."
We sang a few carols - Silent Night, Joy to the World and Beautiful Star of Bethlehem. It was a beautiful time of corporate worship. Jesus is truly that Light that shines brighter and brighter even in this darkened world. Over 25 years ago, this tree of light was made and we light it up with candles. Each family comes up and takes turns lighting up the tree.
It takes quite a while to light it all up, but once its done, it is a sight to behold!
It was truly a good time of worship together. We had a number of members that were out today, but we had a number of guests to join us in praising God.
Once the tree was all lit up, we sang, "There's Something About That Name."
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, There's just something about that name.
Master, Savior, Jesus, Like the fragrance after the rain,
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, let all heaven and earth proclaim.
Kings and Kingdoms will all pass away,
But there's something about that name.
The Sonnier Family at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm wish you and yours the very best Christmas and a blessed and Happy New Year.
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Picking the Low Hanging Fruit
We had a big freeze a couple of years ago that really hurt our citrus trees. In fact, I thought they all perished. But they came back. Although we got zero fruit last year, this year they bloomed and produced fruit again - not as much as before the big freeze, but fruit nonetheless.
However, the weather forecast showed a big chill moving in. The wind is howling outside as I type this. The temps were in the 50's today. Right now it is 34 and by morning it will be 19. No telling what the wind chill will be. One of the things on the list today was doing a better job of protecting the citrus trees in advance of the freeze. I didn't wrap them last freeze. I did my best to get a tarp over them. I also, as you can see below, piled wood chip mulch high around the trunk, well above the graft. Next task was to pick the fruit and then cover with a tarp.
This is a grapefruit tree - a small one. It has four grapefruit on it. Because of its size, it was an easy one to wrap in a tarp. I tied the tarp on tight as the winds were gusting 40 mph all night.
While I could stand on the ground and pick the grapefruit, the tangerines were a different story. I had to get the ladder out for the rest of the citrus - 2 tangerines and 1 navel orange tree. First, I (literally) picked all the low hanging fruit. You can see that I picked everything that was easy. Many people use the phrase "picking the low hanging fruit" as a description of doing the easy things first. That's exactly what I did.
Then I got on a ladder and hung a 5 gallon bucket on the ladder where a paint bucket normally would hang if I was painting. I picked every single tangerine off of the tree.
Finally, I moved to the navel orange tree. There was a lot of big fruit on this tree. As I was picking, I saw a wasp nest as big around as a softball. It was cold, so they were all gone, fortunately.
Most of the fruit is baseball-sized, but about a third of them are the size of softballs. We like to cut these in wedges and eat them chilled. We'll also make fresh-squeezed orange juice. So good.
We picked three buckets of tangerines and four buckets of navel oranges. We brought these inside and then I went back out and did the best job I could of protecting the trees with a tarp. Hopefully, I'll be able to save them!
Then we went over to the neighbors and picked 2 five gallon buckets of satsumas. We wanted to get them all off before the freeze. We'll let you know if our mulching and tarping of the citrus trees was able to save them. I hope we're successful. We do love our citrus.
Monday, December 19, 2022
A Strange Visitor Behind the Barn
Just behind our barn right beyond the perimeter fence that borders our little 5 acre property on the south is a little patch of woods. We don't own it. It is overgrown with privet, ragweed, Chinaberry trees, and dewberries and briars. It's home to a bunch of squirrels, possums, snakes, and other critters. Every year I go out back and chop a 5 foot clearing to keep the wilderness from encroaching.
Things, as we see all around us, move from order to disorder. The Second Law of Thermodynamics or Law of Entropy states that when left alone in natural states, eventually everything goes back to disorder. We see that played out in society, in our possessions, and heck, even our bodies. Clearing a swath beyond the fence is a small way to keep wildness at bay. It may even keep critters from coming onto our land as they're exposed to hawks and other birds of prey.
I always glance out back. There's no telling what you might see. Yesterday, I saw a strange sight indeed!
I couldn't believe my eyes! A black rabbit!! Now we have our share of cotton tail rabbits. We've talked about them from time to time. They got into the garden one year and mowed down all of our snap beans. But this rabbit was different. I've never seen a black rabbit in the wild before. I showed Tricia the photos and she actually saw it again today.
The rabbit is big and fat and healthy. We even wonder if it was a domesticated rabbit that somehow got away or was turned loose, but none of our neighbors have rabbits. I looked up on the Internet to try to learn about black rabbits. They apparently are extremely rare. There's even a lot of superstitious talk of black rabbits, but I'm not superstitious.
I stood there and watched the fellow (or gal) for a long time. The rabbit was nibbling on some of the fresh growth I had chopped down. As I tried to move closer, the bunny hopped away. What a gorgeous sight to see.
As strange as it is, I like having this strange black rabbit around. I hope the rabbit stays out of the clearing, though, as the black rabbit is not quite as camouflaged as the brown cotton tails are. It would be easy to see by the hawks and owls that patrol the skies near the patch of woods. As it hopped away, I noticed that it does NOT have a cotton tail. It is jet black, except for one foot that was white, as if it had a sock on.