This year, we have a garden that is not dying! Well, lots of it is alive and thriving. Last year it was just the thistles and grass, this year it is the thistles and grass and blackberries and blueberries and some other stuff! On request from my Mom, here is a tour of our garden today, June 12th.
Hello garden!
Hello little lettuce patch, peppers and lots of volunteer tomatillos.
Oh and hello tomatoes and snap peas!
I just love tomatoes.
Brian built all these rows by hand. With a shovel and a hoe. It was a lot of hard, heavy work and I just love it!
Blooming sage and rosemary near the brussel sprouts
Second year fruit trees! (They were bare root trees last spring)
Lots of delicious, approachable blackberry blooms!
Brian says I am fascinated by bees.
I admit that I am. I can’t wait until we have our own hives next year. See the bee flying away on the top right?
Can’t wait until august! How should I preserve these?
Isn’t she lovely? I love how close I can get. I could have sat down by the blackberries and just watched them for awhile.
This bright yellow furry bee must be some sort of bumble bee!?
This one got away (flying to left)
Here are our chicks – 5 weeks old today.
There is a: Buff Laced Wyandotte, Gold Laced Wyandotte, Barred Rock, Australorp, Welsummer, Americauna/Easter Egger, Buff Brahma and a Rhode Island Red. I had a lot of fun choosing them. They all lay brown eggs except one is dark brown and one will be blue or green.
Some people have wondered about my parents and their time in Uganda and what they’re doing. So here you go:
Uganda is a gorgeous African country with wonderful people and a thriving church. However, like most countries, there are troubles. One, there is a lot of poverty. Also, there is corruption in medical areas. For example, doctors and nurses will leave a patient to die (quite literally) if they are not first paid and likely bribed as well. On the flip side, if money is not demanded prior to treatment, many patients would not pay anything after treatment is given. Another trouble is a negligent, unkind, undertrained and ultimately traumatic medical system for when women give birth. The maternal and baby death rates are awful.
Therefore, Mom and Dad have been willing to uproot their comfortable lives here in the states to be facilitators for a group trying to build a Women’s Health Clinic in Uganda. The clinic will serve local women and also be a prototype of improved maternal care. At this time, my parents have worked to make the house on the clinic property livable. This project is finished, though water, electricity and mosquitos are still a problem. Also, the clinic property is properly fenced and gated, a reputable contractor has been located and plans for the clinic are being reviewed, modified, reviewed, and modified again as counsel is sought and taken. The process is very interesting! There are so many details.
Anyway, this project is not fully funded. Many people are standing behind the project, including our family, and if God wills, more will come alongside. If nothing else, I am honored to be gaining the heritage my parents continue to create as they serve God and others above themselves. We are blessed through them as we witness the good friendships that have been developing. A number of small gifts of food and clothing and medical payments have gone through them as they witness situations and give whatever they can. I know that I and they covet your prayers for wisdom as they go about each day.
Here are a few links and pictures if you’d like to stay in touch:
The “umbrella” ministry is a small non-profit called Next Generation Ministries. This medical clinic is not their usual ministry, but they are excited to see it beginning. (Donations can be made via paypal or by check)
Some things are not a walk in the park. Here is Grandpa, Dad (Jeff) and the girls together. Grandpa recently lost his second wife to cancer. We miss Nancy a great deal. I am glad Grandpa came for a visit.
Family
Treasures
Snuggles for Great-Grandpa
Other things come so quickly! Like the eighth birthday party of my firstborn and her first sleepover.
Playing with Jordan
Resurrection roll birthday cake?
Eighth birthday!
First loose tooth
Elsa
Some things truly are walks in the park. And that is true even when you run out of breath.
Here we go again!
This is a very big fir tree!
The slowest person on the walk is the person who takes the most photos……
