Happy Thanksgiving!

"He who thanks but with the lips

Thanks but in part;

The full, the true Thanksgiving

Comes from the heart."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wishing you all a day that finds you surrounded by those you love.  As we sit down with family, we will be counting your friendship among our many blessings.  Thank you!

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.

A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week

A simple, special extraordinary moment.

A moment to pause, savor and remember.

Participating with the SouleMama blog.

Memorial Day

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC

excerpted from

General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land.

We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders.

Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull, other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain to us.

Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from hishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation's gratitude, the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week.
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Thirty

For those who came before us, we are truly grateful!

As this month ends, we are giving thanks for the four generations of our family that have made this farm our home.

(1) Andrew and Amy moved from Greene County, Pennsylvania to our farm in 1890. They were in their 60's when they came . Grandmother Amy, who was always frail, came in her buggy, with her beautiful buggy horse.

(2) David and Hannah were married only about a year when they came along with Grandfather Andrew and Grandmother Amy. They moved from Pennsylvania in wagons, driving their cattle along with them.

(3) Lena and Cecil Ray, Grandma and Poppy

(4) Robert and Dorthy, our Dad and Mom

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty-Nine

Mt. Olivet

They sing of the church in the valley,

But my heart receives a great thrill

When I think of the home of my childhood

And the little white church on the hill.

It stands as a symbol of Gods love

And mother's and father's love too.

For they went with us each Sunday morning

To show us the pathway so true.

God's acre is near, and our dear ones

Lie under its green grassy sod.

Their lives have been our inspiration

We know they've gone home to God.

I've seen very beautiful churches

Some that I'll never forget.

But none so dear as the church on the hill

The one that we call Olivet.

-- found among Great Grandfather David Dixon's papers, written by our Great Aunt Ida Amanda Dixon Price (shared by our Great Aunt Mary Florence Dixon Hardesty)

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty-Eight

"The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools." -- Henry Beston, "Northern Farm"

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty-Seven

Giving thanks today for the FAMACHA eye color chart and the system developed by South African livestock parasitologist, Francois 'Fafa' Malan. This system allows us to identify and treat only the sheep that are infected with Haemonchus (Barber Pole Worm). This greatly decreases the development of flock resistance to anthelmintics.

We are also grateful to Susan Schoenian, Sheep and Goat Specialist for University of Maryland Extension, for the Integrated Parasite Management Workshop. that enabled us to participate in this program.

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty-Six

Today we are giving thanks for a day of good food and good company; for family and friends and for their constant love and support.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty-Five

We are giving thanks today for breeding supplies - for breeding harnesses and Sheep Management Wheels that enable us to pretty closely predict due dates for lambing. These are things we are very grateful for in the spring; things that make our lives just a little bit easier during lambing season.

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty-Four

Giving thanks today for ancient herbal wisdom and those who share it --

-- Laurie Ball-Gisch at The Lavender Fleece who introduced us to pumpkin and carrot treats among many other things. She shares her thoughts on shepherding both on her web-site and in numerous articles in national magazines.

-- Melissa at Skylines Farm for sharing her garlicking recipe and schedule. She also shares her extensive knowledge and experience on many topics including pasture management on her web-site. Skylines Philosophy is inspiring.

-- Juliette de Bairacli-Levy (1912-2009) and her book The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable. Her pioneering work in holisitic veterinary medicine resulted from her time studying herbal medicine while living with gypsies and farmers in Europe, Turkey, North Africa, etc.

This generous sharing of knowledge has helped us raise our sheep in a more organic, more sustainable manner. For this, we are truly grateful.

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty-Three

Giving thanks today for NPR, without which we would not have had the new to us revelation that leaves do not really fall off trees but are in fact shoved off by the tree itself.

This unfortunately has now led us to puzzling question - "Why do some oak trees stubbornly cling to their leaves?"

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty-Two

We are thankful for the Mt. Olivet Church bell, just as our Grandma Lena was when she wrote this poem (commemorated here in scrapbook form for the sisters).

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty-One

We are very thankful for The Peeps at Sheeps and Peeps Farm - for their hard chicken tractor-like work in the garden, for all their different kinds of beauty, and most especially for the wonderful eggs that they produce. Thanks, Peeps!

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty

Giving thanks for the tools and truck lights that enabled us to finish placing our breeding groups together on Wednesday. A quick summary of the day -

::: winds averaging 22 mph all. day. long.

::: taking down old fence, putting up new paddock fencing, making lanes for moving sheep

::: finished trimming hooves and crutching

::: drenched all the adults with a mixture of garlic powder and molasses (will devote an entire post to this sometime soon); attempting to sort breeding groups as we go

::: it is now almost 5 p.m. getting dark and beginning to rain, still windy :(

::: going over to the other side of the pasture, we find the rams and put the breeding harnesses on using the truck lights to see - warning, this is not for the faint of heart

::: take Saul, on halter, back across the pasture, retrieve his girls and head down the hill to his assigned paddock... get everybody down the hill using a flashlight, through the gate.. unfortunately when we try to shut the gate the girls take off back up the hill at a trot

::: finally catch one of the girls and manage to get her through the gate to keep Saul company overnight

::: head back up the hill, adjust lanes to move Liam's group up to his paddock

::: go to Liam's paddock and there are two sheep not one standing at the gate, this is not good

::: get halters on both and discover that Hercules has broken through a tubular, wire-filled gate

::: fix the gate with a rubber mallet and tools shown above; put up another temporary electric fence to protect the gate from another jail-break

::: back to the barn then back up the hill bringing up Liam's group

::: bring out Aragorn's group into the barn pasture

::: move Poseidon's group to the nursery area awaiting his recovery from last Sunday's injury

::: take down most of the lane fencing after finally locating Saul's runaways, get them into a pen in the barn

::: it is still raining, still windy... give up until morning light... thankful that we are finished... almost

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Nineteen

Giving thanks today for Etsy! We are so grateful for this 'place to buy and sell all things handmade'! Etsy has given us the opportunity to sell fleeces and other wool products from Maine to Alaska. We even sold a couple of our Border Leicester fleeces to a wonderful lady in Argentina!

The Month of Thanksgiving - Eighteen

We are thankful today for temporary electric fencing. This seemingly insignificant contraption has made the lives of the shepherdess/s soooo much easier! With our fencing we are able to --


... create numerous paddocks within our perimeter fencing for rotational grazing


... separate paddocks for each breeding group


... utilize the hay field way over there for grazing with the help of a solar energizer

... release the bio-mowers in the barnyard

... create a nursery area for new mamas and their little ones

... create new paddocks for weaned lambs (with several empty paddocks between them and their mamas)

The list just goes on and on and on...

So thank you, Mr. Temporary Electric Fencing Inventor Guy!

The Month of Thanksgiving - Day Seventeen

We are very thankful for Raven - for her BIG BARK, her very protective and loving nature and her outside of the fence support of Samson!

The Month of Thanksgiving - Sixteen

We are thankful that we had the opportunity to visit The Mountaineer Week Quilt Show this weekend.

Many, many lovely quilts but... oh, Sunbonnet Sue how we adore you! (If you are curious about Sunbonnet Sue, here is an interesting history.)

The Month of Thanksgiving - Fifteen

MT. OLIVET

Upon the hill so bright and clear
Stands the church we love so dear
The church was founded by our fathers fifty years ago
There it stands upon the hill beat by rain and snow

Every Sunday rain or shine, we went through the door
To attend Sunday School alike for rich and poor
And in our early childhood, each and every lad and lass
Did not want to grow so old we had to leave Miss Eva’s class
But when we became reconciled to our older fate
We had Aunt Bertha for our teacher and thought that she was great
As we grew to man and womanhood all our interests still
Centered around the little church that stands upon the hill

Some had left us, how we missed them, when we met to pray
For now they rest in God’s acre just across the way
In World War One, our young men were called to go
To fight for their country against the foreign foe
When the war was over most of them came home
Got married, settled down never more to roam
Now their children run over farm and shout at will
But on Sunday come to worship in the church upon the hill

Lots left the hill and country and scattered all around
On farms, in villages, cities and in many little towns
From Baltimore to San Francisco from Maine to Florida
You can find Mt. Olivet’s children all along the way
I believe that looking back upon their childhood still
Their thoughts will return with longing for the church upon the hill

Years rolled swiftly by, our children all are grown
And like the birds of the air some from the home have flown
Our sons were called to fight in World War Two
And many were the heartaches felt by me and you
They were in all of Europe, some in Africa
Many they left behind them when they came away
Others were in the Pacific zone and helped to take Japan
I think that we can always say, “They do the best they can.”
But God was with Mt. Olivet’s boys, each and every one
He brought them safely home again, when the war was won.
Now again they are answering to our country’s call
And we pray that God in heaven will not let them fall
But bring them all home safely, if it is his will,
To worship once again in the church upon the hill.

When our work here on earth is o’er
And we make our last trip through the door
Across the road to the cemetery fair
For our last sleep with kinfolks there
May our children and their children too
Take up the work with love to do
The Master’s will and carry through
For fifty years or more

Written in 1950 by our grandmother, Lena Gertrude Dixon Wiles, to celebrate the 50th birthday of Mt. Olivet, our family church.