• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

mamakay

managing a household of 10 by the grace of God

  • 2020 Book List
  • Seasonal Living
  • Blogging
  • Investment Cooking

Grandma

1000 Gifts – Made it!

October 4, 2011 by mamakay Leave a Comment

After beginning my list of 1000 Gifts (inspired by Ann Voskamp) in November of 2006 I actually completed my list. (I have been ever so much more diligent in adding to my list over the last year.)

Here are some of my final entries:

957. A beautiful harvest yesterday: tomatoes of all kinds, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, & lemon cucumbers

964. Apples ripening on the tree

967. Waking from a nap to a cool breeze blowing in the window

977. Great Grandma celebrating birthdays with us

988. Van is paid off!

991. Homemade Apple Cider

994. Circle Time Restored

999. Sharing Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts with the ladies at church

1000. Made it to 1000!

I am only beginning. I already have a new journal for my next 1000 gifts.

I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.
Psalm 9:1

Filed Under: 1000 Gifts Tagged With: Amp, Apples, Blowing In The Window, Celebrating Birthdays, Circle Time, Cool Breeze, Gifts, Grandma, Heart, Homemade Apple Cider, Nap, O Lord, Psalm 9, Tomatoes, Voskamp, Yellow Squash

Homesteading

June 1, 2011 by mamakay 1 Comment

We moved to Montana last January with plans to homestead. After much work and many false starts we settled on a nice piece of property just outside of town with no restrictions. We have 1.33 acres. The property came with several trees including 6 large cottonwoods, 1 pine tree, 4 plum trees, 2 apple trees and 1 unknown tree :). We have a pasture with 3 irrigation ditches running through it. There is a small barn of sorts as well. We also have a well.

Our goal is to have a sustainable homestead that will provide food enough to feed our family with exception to a few things we can’t grow (i.e. wheat, coffee, some fruits, oils, etc…) and have enough to sell to support our family. We intend to use as many permaculture ideas as we can and to use intensive grazing using multiple animals. So far we have 50 chickens (half for meat & half for eggs), 3 rabbits (for breeding, possible eating & for fertilizer), a dog for herding, watching & playing and 2 kittens for mousers. We plan on adding sheep, a cow for meat, dairy cow and maybe a goat.

While in Arizona we planted several raised bed gardens and last year we used Grandma’s 20 x 40 ft row garden. This year we have greatly expanded our gardening. Several things are experiments and we had to break lots of new ground so we will be fighting grass all summer.

Here is a list of what we’ve planted:

Potatoes: Yukon Gold, Red, & Russets in potato bins

6 crowns of rhubarb

25 raspberry canes (thanks to a friend who gave us her thinings)

2 blackberry canes

2 blueberry canes

75 strawberry plants (again thanks to a friend) planted in mound planters

8 crowns of asparagus

Herb Mound: Chives, Lavender, Basil, Thyme (English, German, Orange & Lemon), Parsley, Mint, Echinecea, Yarrow, Chamomille, Rosemary

Onions: (some for storage & some for green onions) white, yellow, red and Walla Walla

In our backyard beds we have:

Lettuce (multiple kinds)

Beets

Broccoli

Peas

Kale

Swiss Chard

More Onions

Acorn Squash

Carrots

Spinach

Lemon Cucumbers

Zucchini

Sweet Peppers

We also have tomatoes planted in Topsy Turvey Planters & some in the garden

Out the other garden plot we have:

A 3 Sisters Plot with Corn, Pole Beans and Butternut Squash

A Pumpkin patch

Zucchini

Yellow Summer Squash

Watermelon

Cantaloupe

Rows of Carrots, Peas, Green Beans & Yellow Wax Beans

We also have planted a patch of Sunflowers in front of the fence.

I hope to keep this blog updated regularly this summer as things grow and we take dominion over this plot of land that the Lord has given us dominion over.

Link here to see more gardening posts:

Filed Under: Homestead Tagged With: Acorn Squash, Amp, Apple Trees, Basil Thyme, Bed Gardens, Chamomille, Chickens, Cottonwoods, Dairy Cow, Fertilizer, Ft Row, Goat, Grandma, Green Onions, Homestead, Irrigation Ditches, Kittens, Mousers, New Ground, Orange Amp, Pasture, Pine Tree, Plum Trees, Potato Bins, Rabbits, Russets, Sheep, Strawberry Plants, Walla Walla, Wheat, Yukon Gold

Blessings 9/20/2010

September 20, 2010 by mamakay 1 Comment

holy experience

311. 10 days with Nana & Papaw

312. 2 date nights with my husband

313. apples overflowing buckets

picking apples

314. bags of apples saved in the freezer for months to come

315. time spent with grandparents cutting apples

apple picking

316. Hearing my grandpa say that he was afraid when they sold the farm & the apple orchard they wouldn’t have apples but every year they have had plenty of apples….God certainly provides

317. Jars of pickles made with my own hands

318.  Pickled beets just like my mom used to make from my own garden

319. fun at the water park

320. Amazing finds at the Farmer’s Market

farmer's market

321. Running into cousins and friends from long ago wandering the streets at the Farmer’s Market

322. a Mother of many who are nearly grown stopping to help me with little ones during church services

323. A Walking Baby Boy

walking boy

324. 5potato is 3!

5potato's Bday Cake

325. Time celebrating life with our loved ones near & far.

princess dress

326. Princess Dress made with love by Grandma Di

327. Answers even if they weren’t the ones we wanted

328. The changing of leaves — our first fall in Montana — beautiful!

329. New mercies every morning

330. Hope

Filed Under: 1000 Gifts Tagged With: Amp, Apple Orchard, Apples, Baby Boy, Blessings, Buckets, Celebrating Life, Changing Of Leaves, Cousins, Freezer, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandparents, Little Ones, New Mercies, Pickled Beets, Pickles, Princess Dress, S Market, Water Park

My Grandpa

November 8, 2007 by mamakay 2 Comments

I’ve been quiet this week because my grandpa passed away last Friday evening. This is the first grandparent I have lost. I know that I have been blessed that I had him for so long. He was 85 years old and had been sick for the last year and was on Hospice so it wasn’t really a suprise but that doesn’t make it any easier. Please pray for our family and especially for my grandma as she learns to live without her husband of nearly 56 years.

Here’s a picture of my mom, sisters and I with my grandparents from my grandpa’s 80th birthday and their 50th wedding anniversary in 2002.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 50th Wedding Anniversary, 80th Birthday, Friday Evening, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandparents, Hospice, Last Friday, Mom, Suprise

Continuing on 1000 Gifts

November 21, 2006 by mamakay 1 Comment

81. My Grandpa whose love for Jesus is evident to all he encounters
82. My Grandma’s playful spirit
83. Chances to visit them in Montana — I pray we will get another chance soon
84. Charles C. Coffin’s book The Story of Liberty
85. Those who went before us to make way for our liberty
86. God’s hand in history
87. Men like Luther, Wycliff and so many others who worked so hard to make the way easier for us
88. Our natural food co-op & the opportunity to come together and purchase good food for our families
89. Our CSA farmer who works so hard to grow good food for us
90. Fresh eggs straight from the farm — I never knew yolks could be so bright & orange instead of pale yellow

Blog Widget by LinkWithin

Filed Under: 1000 Gifts, God Stops Tagged With: Charles C, Coffin, Food Co, Fresh Eggs, Gifts, God, Good Food, Grandma, Grandpa, Jesus, Love, Montana, Natural Food, Op Amp, Orange, Playful Spirit, Wycliff

Primary Sidebar

Stitch Fix outfit

So glad you stopped by. I am a Christian wife and mother of 8 in the middle years. My kids are aged 4 to 20 and just about every 2 years in between. I write about our life as a big family, what God is personally doing in my life, food and books.

Hopewriters

Our Sponsors


This website includes affiliate links. Please help support our site by clicking through and purchasing from our sponsors! Thank you!

Newsletter

Simplified Organization Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

Recent Posts

  • How Yoga Helped Me Fight Depression
  • What is the Best Way to Practice Advent?
  • Amazon Prime Days 2020
  • What I Learned This Spring 2020
  • Favorite Family Read Aloud Books

Categories

Copyright © 2022 · Wellness Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in