Summer has arrived on High Mountain!
How wonderful is the summer after the harsh winter we had; the deep snow now a memory quickly fading. The garden is alive now as the plants have shot up with the recent rains. Turnip greens, cucumber, squash, cabbage and spinach are ready to pick while the other vegetables take a bit longer. We have planted the Corie Wilson cornfield bean this year. It is an old variety which has been passed down. There may be another name for it, but we just don’t know it. What we do know is that we no longer grow any other bean because I love the flavor of this particular variety.
The goats, dogs, and chickens have survived another winter but are thrilled that the snow has finally left. Now, the goats are playing on the large rock behind the house again while the dogs lay on the cool ground watching them (I think). I’m never really sure who is guarding who out there. The two Great Pyrenees seem to love their lives with the goats and have never attempted to leave the pasture. Molly is bred and will be in soon so there will be a new baby to photograph. I suppose I should say try to photograph. There are so active it is really hard to capture a good picture.
The beauty of what God has given us here on High Mountain always overwhelms me.
Everywhere I look is proof that God exists and for some reason unknown to me, has blessed me tremendously. Like Paul in the New Testament, I know the enormity of my sins past and present and am always in wonder that Christ would have died to save me.
But he did and now we wait for his return. Oh…you don’t think the Bible is true or are unsure if he is coming back for his children! Let me assure you that Christ is coming back and that whether by the grave or the rapture of his children, I will be with him in eternity for I can feel him in my heart. I am his and he is mine.
God Bless
Melissa
LATE WINTER ON HIGH MOUNTAIN
Job 37:5 God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.
Job 37:6 For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.
The older people of the community call this an old timey winter like the ones they had in their youth and I believe they have loved it. Here on High Mountain in the mountains of Western North Carolina, we have only seen the ground for two days since the 18th of December.
Our Great Pyrenees have also loved the snow. They appear not to feel the cold and Jake, our adult male sleeps outside the dog house in the snow most of the time. The older female, Dawg, has taken to sleeping inside the doghouse this winter and both dogs go inside the goat house as soon as we open the door in the mornings. We still have 2 female pygmy goats which are white with red/tan faces and stockings. We now call the Billy ‘little Bill’ as he never did grow up. He is also white with a tan/red face but he is only half the size of the other pygmy’s. He is a pygmy, pygmy. I have never seen such a small Billy before. He is simply adorable but has the loudest cry of any of the goats. He does not care for the snow as he can’t get around in the deep drifts.
WINTER
Winter has wrapped her snowy arms around us and turned High Mountain into a winter wonderland. As I place wood in the old cook stove, I notice the outside temperature has fallen to 4ºF. Our small home here on the mountain is very well insulated so the cook stove supplies adequate heat to sustain the warmth within.
Snow has covered the ground for the past three weeks causing the mountains to appear as scenic winter postcards you see at the store. We have two female Great Pyrenees puppies remaining along with Smoky, the male we are keeping. The pups are weaned now and the “Dawg,” their mother, is regaining her strength. Great Pyrenees love the cold and snow. The now 10 week old pups romp and play happily with each new snow.
I have added The Christian Smoker to the articles page. The Christian Smoker is my testimony and experience with smoking cessation. If, like myself, you are struggling with smoking, take a few minutes to read this brief article.
Stay Warm and God Bless
Melissa
Puppy Update
The puppies are doing well. They are now 4 1/2 wks old and are eating well. They will be ready to go on the 12th of December.
Late Fall 2009
Our Halloween angels are now 3 weeks old and getting chubbier by the day. “Dawg”, our Great Pyrenees is a doting mother and often I will find her laying outside the doghouse staring in at the pups as if they were the most beautiful things she had ever seen. There are three males and two females. One male, has already been sold and his new owner, who is Cherokee, has given him the Cherokee name for bear which sounds like ‘Yo-nah’. I do not know the correct spelling or Cherokee symbols.
We got our hog meat last week. My husband, Mr. B., stills cures our hams in our meat house. He uses black and red pepper, brown sugar, and canning salt. The meat will stay in the meat house several months until the meat is cured and ready to eat.
Mr. B. has also built me an ash bin to make my lye which I will use for soap making. So far, I have not been successful in getting the lye water strong enough but I keep working at it. He even placed tin over the pan to keep rain water from getting in and diluting it.
Fall 2009
The smoke from the cook stove drifts through the air and combines with the raindrops on this damp autumn day. Mr. B. is splitting firewood down at the wood shed. It always amazes me how much wood he can split in one day.
Fancy, our youngest pygmy goat, gave birth to twins about a month ago and they have been a joy to watch. A handsome little boy with a white body and tan face. His adorable sister is all tan. This is our first set of twins and I have decided that they should always have two at a time. What fun they have playing together and each morning, we find them curled up together in the feed trough located in the goat house. Just as before, the other females love the little boy but have no use for the little girl. Frances actually butts her.
The chickens are growing back their feathers. You may remember that we had tried everything. We treated them for mites several times even using old oil and dusting them with 7 dust. None of which had any effect at all. Finally, we took them off the laying mash and although we are getting very few eggs, they have feathers again. Everyone had assured me that the mash couldn’t possibly be the problem, but they were wrong.
We were able to get some grapes this year. Our vines are still too small. I made grape jelly which turned out too sweet for my taste. I will cut down on the sugar next year. The mountain berries were fairly good and I managed to get two runs of blackberry jelly out of the pickings. We ended up with about 5 bushels of Irish potatoes this year which we will store for the winter. We also had enough tomatoes and peppers for two runs of spaghetti sauce this year.
Burnice completed my ash bin for making lye to go in my soap. This will be my first year of lye making. I will keep you posted on how this goes.
I have just completed my facebook page which is dedicated to those living in darkness without Christ in their lives. I will be updating it on a weekly basis. Feel free to join us at “The Wind Ministry” group page and join in the blogs already begun or start new ones and remember, Christ came to save sinners and that includes you and me. Take care.
Melissa
Summer 2009
It’s seems like only yesterday that we were planting the garden and now we have cucumbers, squash, turnip greens and some peppers. A garden is labor intensive in the beginning when you are planting and hoeing trying to keep the weeds and bugs from destroying the tender plants before they have a chance to grow strong roots. The same is true for a new Christian. Their lives are full of obstacles. Satan knows that a new Christian is very susceptible to temptation so he sends every thing he can think of to discourage. As with the garden, if you stand firm in the word, soon you will begin to reap that which you have sown. I realize that I write about this every year but you can’t imagine how much sweeter the harvest when it is produced by the sweat of your own hand.
The chickens are still plucking themselves. No… the motor oil had no effect at all so don’t bother trying it. We only have 10 chickens and my husband says they are ‘self plucking’ chickens. He’s very funny. We have completely cut out the laying mash. At first, they didn’t lay well but it’s been about 3 to 4 weeks now and they have begun to lay well again with no artificial help. We give them an apple every day and have begun giving them an occasional cabbage hung from a wire to supplement their feed and of course their favorite food, cornbread.
Baby Joe, our Great Pyrenees pup, has gone to his new owner and we miss seeing his sweet face greeting us at feeding time. For some reason, one of our female goats decided that she didn’t like him and did her very best to see to it that he knew it. We will have to put the next litter in a pen until they get large enough and aware enough to run!
Mr. B is in the process of building me an ash bin to make lye. So next year, perhaps I will truly have homemade soap. I will keep you posted. If you have an interest in purchasing my homemade soap, please contact me at jeannie@highmountainbooks.com . Please put the word ‘soap’ in the subject line so I will know it is not junk mail. I usually make smooth hand soap, “Coffee and Cream”, and a rough for scrubbing the hands, “Coffee, Coffee”. Next years soap will not be ready until June of next year (2010). It is $4.25 a bar plus postage which varies with the order but should not run over the $8.00 flat rate postal rate as long as the order fits in the box.
Also, if anyone wishes to purchase the seed from the Corey Wilson cornfield bean, please let me know early as the supply will be very limited this year until I get my stock built up. 25 seeds will be $4.25 plus 2.25 for postage. You can reach me at the same email as above. Simply put the word ‘beans’ in the subject line.
Early Summer 2009
A new addition has arrived on High Mountain. The much anticipated birth of “Dawg’s” pups took place on the Sunday before Memorial Day. Our surprise was that she only had one pup! No matter…she loves him dearly and as you can see he is fat as a little pig. I have decided to name him Joe.
We have been having a terrible time with the chickens plucking each other. At first, we thought they had mites so we cleaned, sprayed and dusted to no avail. Then we discovered that they were plucking each other and eating the feathers.
Fearing that they would soon begin killing each other, (they will do that),we have greased them with some motor oil so now they are black and greasy along with missing their feathers. Not very attractive, but we’re hoping to break them of this very bad habit. I will keep you posted.
Winter 2008
An early winter has come to High Mountain and God has sent us the beauty of snow to grace the barren landscape. The goats don’t care for the snow and spend most of their time in the goat house with the dogs. We have a new Great Pyrenees now that we call Jake. He is a rambunctious eleven month old who is into everything and is already as big as our female. He loves to run and play and recently my husband gave him an old pair of leather boots to play with and he still has both of them. He carries them around and chews on them during the day finding comfort in my husband’s scent when he is alone.
We, as children of God, have been given a wonderful gift from our father, which is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit never leaves us and is our comforter in all things. He is with us during times of sorrow, sadness or joy. The Bible tells us this in John 16:7 then Christ died to make it a reality.
John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” (Scoffield KJV).
Recently, my friends, Bev, Jules, Colleen and I started a Book Club which we have named “Words Through Christ.” Below is our mission statement:
Though distinct and vastly different experiences have formed our adulthood,
we share a single bond; to serve God and through our life experiences and understanding help others find security, acceptance and love--however that translates to individuals that we may touch.
High Mountain Book Club is our alpha toward this endeavor. This provides a forum to openly and candidly discuss specific topics while unveiling our strengths and diversities. This initial medium serves as a guide to how we are able to support each other while each enlarges their territory in a specific ministry. This challenge is not a means to and end, but it is our journey-one that we choose to take together-and share with others, with God’s direction.
If you have a desire to join us or begin your own chapter, please contact me at jeannie@highmountainbooks.com. We would love to hear from you.
SUMMER 2008
The first day of summer has come at last to High Mountain. The garden is growing and the potatoes look really good this year which is comforting with the soaring grocery prices. The blackberry vines were full of blooms this year so there will be fresh blackberry jelly. Last year, we had a late freeze which killed all the fruit blooms so there was no fresh fruit for picking.
The baby goats are growing and playing. The big rock behind the house is still their favorite place to play and they spend countless happy hours there butting heads and practicing their jumping skills. The last born, Fancy is about 3 weeks old now and starting to find herself. I worried about her at first because she was so tiny and the adult female goats tried their best to hurt her if they got a chance. Maybe they were just teaching her where she was in the pecking order but I did not see this behavior with the 2 boys when they were born. Everyone loved them and if they even whimpered all the girls would run to them.
The chickens look almost grown now but it’s still too soon for them to start laying so they spend their days in the chicken pen chasing bugs and each other. We close them up at night in their coop just as we close the goats up. The coyotes are never very far away and I worry that they will try to slip in even though my husband has gone to great lengths to try and keep them out.
I am taking some classes now at the local community college so much of my time is spent studying but that’s OK. I feel that I am following the path that God has set before me and if he wants me to go to school, then I will go to school. When you are saved, your life belongs to him. I always say “I am his and he is mine.” The Holy Spirit comforts me when I’m tired and helps me to follow God’s will. God has greatly blessed me and I thank him daily for all he has done for me. Melissa…
