Grow Where You are Planted

I don't have to tell you that 2020 has already been one heck of a year.  We are all adjusting to new guidelines, new ways of doing everyday life and a lot of changes and change is never easy.

Here at the farm there have been a lot of changes as well. The biggest change for us came at end of March. My farmer man's job of 25 years came to a sudden, very unexpected end. At first we were in total shock and it felt like we had been punched in the gut. Over the course of several weeks, we slowly started to realize that if this had to happen it really couldn't have happened at a better time.  Because of Covid 19 there was additional assistance for those who had lost their jobs.  This was a light in the darkness for us while we tried to decide what was next.

We, first and foremost, wanted to do our best to keep everyone here at the farm and keep the farm itself by any means possible so we started brainstorming.  My farmer man would continue to build his resume, and start looking for jobs and putting his resume out there while I focused on the upcoming hatching season.

We were blessed that we had added a new breed of chicken to the farm, Lavender Orpingtons. This new breed, along with our new chicken breed addition for 2019, Jubilee Orpingtons and our ever popular Guineas 2020 was shaping up to be possibly our biggest hatching year yet.

 We moved through April and May still waiting for direction as to what my farmer man was supposed to do while hatching season was now in full swing and looking very promising.

 

My farmer man is a very gifted and talented carpenter.  He built our beautiful home, our awesome barn and all the enclosures that safely house all of our animals. He enjoys working with his hands and the thought of returning to an office job started to look more and more unappealing. Thanks to some dear friends, they reached out to us asking if Scott would help them with small building projects since he was currently unemployed.  These small projects were a God send!  These projects gave him something to focus on that was constructive and positive and during that time he began to wonder if this may be what direction he should be going.

 Hatching season was HUGE this year. By June we had two difference kinds of chicks available as well as guinea keets and most weeks we sold out before the next hatch. It was amazing to see God at work and I prayed that we would continue to have a good hatching season and we would be given direction about a job and income.

As I was taking the daily pasture clean up of alpaca and llama beans to the compost pile, I noticed a large vine growing in the pile that had been left to compost and rest.  I was thrilled to discover that we had not one, but several volunteer pumpkin vines growing the compost pile and they were already producing pumpkins! 

As I looked the this beautiful vine, healthy, thriving and blooming, I was reminded of the phrase, "Grow Where You are Planted".  This vine had grown out of a rotten pumpkin that we had tossed into the compost pile because it was no longer good for decoration or for a treat for our animals. This pumpkin took advantage of where it had been placed. It had been thrown away, into a pile of poo and spent hay and straw and the seeds of the this discarded fruit did what they were supposed to do. They grew.

I literally stood there and felt the words. This pumpkin took advantage of the changes that were forced upon it and it is now flourishing! It is producing fruit. It did what The Creator made it to do.

This really touched my heart. None of us like change. We like to be comfortable. We like to know how things are going to go and where we will land....but change is necessary for growth and sometimes we have to be forced into situations where change is necessary. That pumpkin had to break down and rot to allow the seeds to sprout. All the while providing the nutrients for those seeds to grow.

That pumpkin is the epitome of 2020. Things change, things rot and stink sometimes, but through this change there can be growth if we just choose to embrace it. It may not be the plan or the way we think things should go, but if  we remember that the good Lord has our best interest at heart and He sees the whole picture, not just our current circumstances, we can step out in faith.

I continued to watch the pumpkin patch grow and each day I went to the compost pile it was a reminder that I needed to grow where I have been planted.

June turned into July and July into August and we were starting to wind down for our hatching season.  It had been our busiest and biggest hatching season!  We are blessed to meet the most wonderful, caring people who come to purchase our chicks, keets, and ducklings.  Many folks shared their stories of job losses, sickness and financial problems, often because of Covid 19, and we shared our story as well, offering words of kindness, understanding and prayers. Several times we were blessed with offers of prayers for our situation too. I am so thankful for the kind, thoughtful people God sends our way!

During this time, my farmer man had been blessed with more offers for him to help friends and neighbors with small projects.  I kept praying there would be clarity as to the job situation as we moved month to month and the Lord did not disappoint.

My farmer man has decided that he will be starting his own handyman business!  He thoroughly enjoys working with his hands, he is very gifted and talented, he is so very conscious about doing quality work, and he enjoys helping people complete projects they do not have to do themselves or are unable to do. He takes pride in a job well done and I fully believe this is what he is supposed to be doing. Our 2020 pumpkin is about to produce fruit!

In the meantime, I am working with our Etsy store, continuing to provide quality products that we use right here on our farm.  I am processing the fiber from sheep, alpaca, llama and angora rabbits and hope to have beautiful, home grown, hand spun yarn available very soon as well as some new fiber products too.

The Lord laid it on my heart, quite sometime ago, that I need to write. Being the stubborn child that I can be, I have been putting it off....until today.  I am listening to My Father and allowing the fruit of my 2020 pumpkin to grow.

Our compost patch pumpkins have done amazingly well....

What changes have 2020 brought into your life? What pumpkins have been placed into your compost pile? What are you doing with the seeds of your pumpkins? Are you encouraging them to grow? Are your pumpkins producing fruit?

Change is inevitable. How we react to that change and what we do with the opportunities is totally us to us.

I encourage you to embrace the change, look for opportunities for growth, support each other and remember.....be kind....you never know what kind of "compost" others are dealing with.