Keeping the Faith

 

Home-shopping is hard.

One place has a nice home on it, and the yard is too small. One place has a great yard, but the home is in poor condition. Another place is a lovely mini-farm, but the home has foundation issues. Expensive ones. This other place looks promising… until we drive to it and realize it is waaayyy far away from civilization. This seller wants too much. The bank won’t finance this one. sigh

Nice Barn! 

When things get tough, the tough keep the faith. When I feel like God isn’t listening or doesn’t care about our situation, I think about myself and my daughters. I love them deeply. And I want only the best for them.

Jesus said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” NKJV Matthew 7:11

God knows what we need before we need it. He knows what will happen to us before it does. It is our job to keep the faith, believing in His providence, power, and good.

My Temporary Homestead

 

We are temporarily living in a singlewide mobile home near my family. It’s small, but it’s close to world-class babysitters, and my kitchen window overlooks the pond. I love to sip my coffee and watch the birds play in the water. Yesterday, I watched a huge catfish skim the surface. YUM. Ben needs to fish for me!

Even though I am technically home-stead-less, I cannot stop planting and growing. It’s like an addiction, folks.

FarmGirl Forever!

So here’s my flowerpot garden.

Petunias, Basil seeds, lavender rootings, and German Chamomile.

My bolting red lettuce is on the shelf to the right. I am eagerly awaiting those seeds. I’ve never seen such a bright red lettuce.

My new homestead, wherever it may be, will have red lettuce seeds growing on it this fall.

A Farm Girl Without A Farm

 

For the past three years, my family has lived in rentals. At first, it was a motor home 5 minutes from Ben’s job. Then, it was an efficiency apartment close to the beach. After that, we lived in a small house near the beach. At least the little house had a yard. It was there that I finally began my FarmGirl Evolution.

My first garden was a 4 foot by 8 foot raised bed made from reclaimed fencing. And a plastic storage box that I called my “Box O’ Lettuce.” When I ran out of room, I started putting things in whatever I could find- clay pots, 5-gallon buckets, bags of soil, and even a reclaimed kitchen sink. Some things grew (lettuce); some things didn’t (corn. tomatoes. basil). But I was hooked.

The next year, we expanded the yard by fencing in part of the front yard. In that crowded and busy neighborhood, a fence was a necessity. For some reason, transients flock to the beach. Then, of course, they wander around the neighborhoods. So we doubled the size of the fenced yard and I increased my garden size with another raised bed.

Then I hung some flowerpots on the fence,

made a compost pile, and started my own seedlings.

Arugula was a huge hit. It was growing like weeds in the yard. My 3 year old helped me plant. :)

That summer, I finally got the chickens I’d been dreaming about: three gorgeous pullets. A Rhode Island Red and two Americaunas. Oh, how I love my girls. I practiced the deep bedding method in their run, and those three had made a perfectly grass-free, scratched and composted garden plot for me. So we moved the chicken coop and planted potatoes. Then we moved the chicken coop again and planted sunflowers.

But we’ve moved. I thought, at the time, that I may not be around to see my sunflowers bloom. But I planted anyway. That’s what FarmGirls do. We plant, we nurture, we grow; even when we’re not around to reap the harvest.

My Beach Garden

I started gardening after we moved to Jacksonville Beach. I learned to use raised beds when the drainage is bad. I also learned that raised beds need more water and water more often. I got my chickens while living in Jax Beach. And now free-range them in the back yard.
Above is my harvest of heirloom Mustard greens and one egg from each of my girls.

Coal and the chickens and the kids share the backyard.

I worked hard to make my beach garden with raised beds and great compost. And I've been reading and researching for three years now. I look forward to the future where we will find a home and turn it into a homestead. We'll see if I can remember all I've learned.

Blessings!
Lainie

I am Lainie (but I write as "Phyllis")

I never imagined I'd want a farm. I never wanted livestock. I never thought I'd be a farm girl.
Never say never.

It all began with the birth of my daughter, Lyliana, in 2006. I thought I was making good decisions for our family. Hospital birth. Vaccinations. Doctor visits. Store-bought food.
To sum it up, we were mainstream.
We wanted better for our family.

My grandmother made my husband read Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures book. He insisted that I read it as well. So I did. Then I read the sequel. I seldom agree with everything anyone says, and these books are no exception. But they got me started. I began researching. I started reading books about natural birth and organic foods and GMO's. Terrifying. I watched Fast Food Nation and subscribed to Mother Earth News. I've subscribed to Organic Gardening, Natural Home and Garden, Urban Farm, and, my current favorite, Countryside Magazine.

I started making our own soap and cooking from scratch. We stopped the vaccines and unnecessary medicines. We changed our diet and stopped eating fast food.

Three years ago, we moved from our pretty house in Live Oak, Florida to an efficiency apartment in Jacksonville Beach. Over time, we've relaxed about certain things, especially the fast food. We do the best we can, but don't stress as much. If I'm too tired to cook, we eat pizza. And I won't judge you if you do, too.

Over the past three years, I've evolved more and more into a farm girl, even though I live in a rental in Jax Beach with a yard the size of a postage stamp and neighbors who think I'm crazy. They hope I'll move away, and I am trying! lol

When Lyl turned five, we took her to the mall to Build a Bear. It was supposed to be our special turning 5 event, and I had been planning it since I was pregnant with her. But the mall freaked her out big time. She got a little teary and looked up at me and said, "We're not mall-girls, we're farm girls." I hugged her and agreed. Since then, I've become even more determined to set up a homestead for our family.

I will chronicle this portion of our journey here, at Evolution of a Farm Girl.

I chronicled the previous three and a half years at Beach Cheap. From decorating an efficiency to fit a family of three to Making Soap to Getting Chickens.

I hope you'll join me here, farm girl or not.