When You Are In a Storm, Part 6
Author: ObtainingMercy
When You Are In a Storm, Part 5
Fifty
Fifty
by Alesha Conklin, saved July 2, 1972
For fifty years, my God has carried me.
For fifty years, He’s held me so close.
For fifty years, my needs He has provided.
For fifty years, He’s spoken to my soul.
For fifty years, my heart has been His habitation.
For fifty years, He’s guided day by day.
For fifty years, I have been forgiven.
For fifty years, His best for me, come what may.
For fifty years, His Word has spoken to me.
For fifty years, my soul has been at rest.
For fifty years, my home has been in Heaven.
For fifty years, His blood has been my forgiveness.
For fifty years, His love has never wavered.
Even through days when mine has grown cold.
For fifty years, I’ve loved to tell of His salvation.
For fifty years, the story has never grown old.
When You Are In a Storm, Part 4
Last Week was Busy in the Croft
Just a few pictures from this week:
We’ll be harvesting the leaves and roots of this plant to be dried for later use.
We hope to use this attachment to our Champion juicer to grind our dent corn when it’s dried and ready for harvesting.
None of the things we canned were grown in our garden. The okra was given to us by a friend. The blueberries were frozen. And the potatoes were given out for free at a truck stop just down from our house. We were sent home with 144 pounds of potatoes! We still have MANY quarts to go!
We’re drying some of these for use later as spices and some as a blend of healthy herbs that can be added to dishes to increase the health benefits.
Jicama is a plant that grows a tuber underground that is a very tasty starch. The good thing about this starch is that it doesn’t spike blood sugar, so it’s pretty healthy. The thing you must remember though, is that the leaves, stems and flowers of the plant are poisonous.
That’s it, I think. We did try a loaf of bread in our bread maker. My mother-in-law sent it early for our July anniversary. It looks pretty, but didn’t taste the greatest. We’re still working on our bread recipe to find something we like.
We made a few goofs with our canning too. It seems like preserving our garden harvest is much like the gardening itself – lots of trial and error.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might…
Ecclesiastes 9:10
No worries. We’re not discouraged. We’ll just keep trying until we get it right.
Alesha Kay
When You Are In a Storm, Part 3
Information Gathering
We started gardening, in earnest, in February of 2021. Because we’ve been doing this just a little over a year, now, we are still learning so many things.
We learning that radishes aren’t a food we enjoy, ginger grows really well in our soil mixture, oregano is happy, happy when crowd-grown in a 5-gallon bucket, and we love fresh black eyed peas.
We also find ourselves researching different plants, trees and vegetables that we’ve never heard of until this last year: chayote, cassava, jicama, strawberry tree, chaya, cucuzzi gourd, and Spanish hog plum.
This month, I’ve looked up “how to harvest echinacea”, “how to clean jars for canning”, “190* Celsius to Fahrenheit”, “how to can potatoes” and “how does chicory grow”, just to name a few.
It’s so great to have search engines and web sites to find the information that we need on any given subject. It’s fast and easy to find almost anything on the interwebz these days.
You know, life has a lot of unknowns, too. Every day of our life, we experience situations, emotions and troubles that we’ve never dealt with before.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a search engine to find all the answers we need for every question in life?!
We do have that Source of answers! It’s the Bible!
But you have to know that it works a little differently than Google.
You can’t just run to the index to figure out how to deal with a back-stabbing friend. And the word “vaping” doesn’t appear in the King James Bible. And where do we go to read instructions on budgeting or construction?
[9] Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.
Psalm 41:9-10
[10] But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.
Interestingly enough, the Bible does speak to these subjects. But sometimes it’s hard to nail down the exact verse that you need.
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
I Corinthians 6:12
That’s why it’s so important to just read the Word. Every day, multiple times a day, spend time just soaking up the words that God left here for us.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Luke 14:28
And don’t just read. Pray! Ask the indwelling Holy Spirit to lead you to the right verses and open your eyes to the answers that the Lord has for you.
The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Proverbs 22:7
And lastly, don’t give up! Keep reading. Keep studying. Keep digging into the Words of God, looking for your answers.
The Bible isn’t a search engine, as we think of it today. But it does have the answer to every question we have in this life.
When you don’t know, read until the Lord gives you the answer.
Finding out everything I need to know,
Alesha Kay
Obtaining Mercy 