July 21, 2009 by Debbie.

Grace is described as unmerited favor. The most amazing grace of all is the unmerited favor God showers on us as salvation but there’s also God’s grace that is shown to us by others around us. On Sat. I visited my Faithful Friend and while there she handed me a gift her Mother had made for me. I lost it. I couldn’t do anything but stand there and cry (bawl, if you must know). Overwhelmed by unmerited favor. I met this friend’s Mother one time and since then she has given me a wonderful iron because I commented that mine leaked while using the steam feature, sent books for me to share, promised to save fabric scraps for quilts, gave me an  absolutely stunning purse that she had sewn and now a set of hand embroidered kitchen towels. I don’t mean a tiny little edge of embroidery, but full picture, hand done, time consuming, beautifully detailed embroidery.

I have another friend who would say this Mother is a ‘giver.’ I’d have to disagree to a point although I totally believe she gives and gives and gives but I think it’s because giving is as natural as breathing to her. If someone told her she was a ‘giver’ she’d look at them like they were speaking in a foreign language. Giving, loving, must be part of her DNA. If a scientist put one of her cells under a scope they’d find giving there. I know because I’ve seen it and I’ve seen it passed down, just like other physical genes, to her daughter. Both have such giving hearts they don’t even know they have them.

Lest I go completely sappy, on to Progress here at Beulah Land ………

I’ve picked several zucchini, cucumbers and 3 cantaloupe from the gardens lately. Pastures are mowed (return for allowing our neighbor to run his cattle on 50 of our acres), the yard is mowed and trimmed along with the herb garden, the front flower bed is taken out and the white stone border removed and reset in another area, the cattle panel fence is completed (YES!) and the goats love their new pasture area, most of the metal recycles have been taken in from the hay shed, three of the bucklings have been claimed and will go to their new home this week, AND we have found someone to repair and paint the wood on the house starting tomorrow.

This picture doesn’t do John justice but he just put in a full+ day of fencing work - one dirty, exhausted, pleased man! and one of his goats out to pasture!

It  feels like we are making definite progress to killing off the “Ma & Pa Kettle Lifestyle” around here.  I am so grateful for grace in the many ways it shows up in my life.

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July 10, 2009 by Debbie.

John says he remembers the old saying “Now you’re cooking with gas!” but I don’t. Course we didn’t have natural nor propane gas when we were growing up nor did I know anyone else that did so that’s only natural I wouldn’t have heard the expression before. Same as “a shot in the arm”. First time I heard that I thought the person speaking was referring to drugs and not just a boost - maybe it came from the old time B-12 shots women frequently got.  Regardless, both expressions were unfamiliar to me. Just as unfamiliar as cooking with the sun could be to you so here’s an example of baking with no energy cost.

First is to prepare whatever is to be baked/roasted. In this case, it’s a Mexican casserole for our supper.  Notice that it’s in a dark pan that will hold and not reflect the heat.

I set the oven up on this cabinet to keep the nosy dogs from burning their noses on it, sniffing at our supper, wanting to share, “please, huh, mom, please, just a bite? ouch! it bit me!” This is also an area protected from the wind which will deflect a lot of the heat when it bounces the reflector panels around. Closed, the sun oven is easy to haul around; some people even take it in the car/truck for picnics.

I usually let the oven preheat without the food in it. The temps will go to 300+ during the hottest part of the day so I usually bake 1:00-3:00 while the sun is at it’s Texas fiercest.

You can see how neatly the panels fold away so the food can be placed in the oven. Just be careful to not blind yourself with the panels reflecting the sun light while folding them away.

Since I forgot to take a picture of the final product you will have to take my word for it being delicous, hot through with melted and not scorched cheese on top. That’s one of the best things about the sun oven, food doesn’t burn.

If you want to make your own sun oven, it’s cheap and easy using a cardboard box and roll of heavy duty foil. Google sun ovens and you’ll find a wealth of info as well as some great recipes. Sun ovens work in the North, too, but somehow it seems to well justify the sun and high temps here in Texas for me!

Snake update - #7 got his head blown off by John (my hero) last weekend or so. I had a friend who said her snake went up a tree……… well, dummy me, I thought that would be neat to see so I asked God about seeing it ’sometime’. It is neat but it’s even neater to see John shoot it’s head off as it slithers overhead in the branches. Yes, it was full of eggs. I thought it had swallowed one of my ceramic eggs so we had to cut it open to get it out. Wish I’d thought to skin it and try it’s meat out for the dogs. Don’t ever play with prayer. It works.

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July 3, 2009 by Debbie.

I had a wonderful week this past week. I did minimal house/barn work and spent some time working piecing the 1930’s print Star Quilt and hand quilting the Compass Quilt. Here’s some of the results ……. (first couple of pictures look fuzzy cause I had fingerprint on the lens!)

Almost at the center of the quilt now! All the corners of the center square will have this rose and cross hatching so slow quilting times ahead! You can see the small rug I’m making on the table behind the quilting frame, too.

Have a safe 4th of July weekend everyone!

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July 1, 2009 by Debbie.

I have a few heroes in my life. Top of the list is Jesus, then John and not too far down the line is Tom Himelick, Director of Community Projects at Emory University and Coordinator of the South GA Farmworker Health Project.

Tom contacted me a few years ago for soap donations (Beulah Land Soaps) to use to entice the shy women farm workers in for their health checkups at the Clinics. That was the start of a lasting friendship. Tom doesn’t just organize this project and send out health workers. He’s out there in the heat working with them. Tom’s son, who has had some serious medical problems himself this past year, is also out there, doing whatever is needed. Tom is passing down his heart to serve and love others.

Here’s the results of this year’s Farmworkers Health Project direct from Tom:

We had a very successful trip. It appears (unofficially yet) that we had over 1700 patient visits in the 12 days! Our previous “record” was 1594 last year. Even in our slower clinics we found single patients that made the whole clinic site worthwhile - people with serious issues that otherwise might not have had some attention.

The heat was horrible. Workers in the first week told us one evening about 6 of their co-workers passing out in the fields that day from the heat. I kept a student and several interpreter volunteers in one night as I was worried the heat was making them sick.

Here’s a newsclip about the Project and the South Georgia Farmworker Health Project website. Emory’s Physician Assistant website is excellent - make sure you visit the Community Service page.

Last year I closed down the soap business but Tom still keeps in touch with me. This Project touches my heart because I can still remember the farm worker family that lived down the road from us. I remember one of the few times my Mom got furious about someone being poorer than us. The dairy farmer who lived down the road paid the man $6.00 a week and gave him a ‘house’ to live in. He’d give him a piglet every year to grow out and he may have given him some of the milk from the dairy but I’m not positive on that. The ‘house’ was a two room shack that had a dirt floor and no electric, no water and no bath, of course. There were 7 children. Several of the kids slept in the shed which was in worse shape than the house. The piglet the farmer gave the worker was one of their most valuable assets - it would feed them later - so it was kept in the living room until it was old enough to go out in a yard pen.

If there’s any thing you can do to help or encourage the Farmworkers Health Project please feel free to contact them!

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