Vaughnshire Farm

The children harvested some of their corn today. 

 It was a very exciting site to watch.  The older ones picked and the younger ones shucked. 

I explained the art of shucking.  The 3 year old was the most intent.  She kept saying, “..but his corn hairs keep touching me…”

Corn shucking proved to be an excellent attention keeper for those 5 years old and under.

Never mind cooking…she ate a cob before we got it in the house…and took a few bites out of some other cobs. 

I took my first sip of our goat’s milk not too long ago— very cautiously.  We have heard bad stories about how horrible goat’s milk is…it’s goaty, tastes gamey, you won’t like it…

However, I was pleasantly surprised that the goat’s milk we have been getting was far from the stories we have been told!  Maybe the taste of milk differs drastically between breeds or maybe all the bad goat milk comes from animals that eat all the brush and wild onions?  All I know is our goat milk is absolutely delicious and we are enjoying having an additional supply of milk.  At a later date, I would love to draw up a comparison between milking goats and milking a cow.  There are many things we have learned about milking cows and goats.  Many differences, but both provide great raw milk for the family. 

Miss. Nathania Tyler has been helping us out around here the past few weekends…amazing how having a capable, responsible 19 year old around immediately makes life a bit easier!  She was a wonderful help to me and was always on top of things!  She even helped us milk our cow which was such a blessing!  Not many young ladies know how to do that!  We were quite impressed with her and are so thankful for the time she spent in our home as my helper!

Many thanks to the Tyler family as well!  They were represented well in Nathania’s hard work and servant heart. 

I have a couple of pictures I will post as soon as I get them downloaded.

Part of the Schultz family came for a brief visit to pick up our New Zealand visitors as they were to off to Alabama for a short time before heading back home soon. 

We met brother and sister; Trey and Lindsay, part of the siblings of the Schultz family, and found our brief moment of visiting delightful as we talked a bit over lunch and took them on a tour of the farm. 

It is always refreshing to meet likeminded Christian families who have similar goals and visions for their family and hopefully we can be an encouragement to those who are seeking a more sustainable lifestyle. 

We indeed were very blessed to have two young ladies come and stay with us all the way from New Zealand.  They have been in the states for a brief couple of months helping Nancy Campbell over at Above Rubies and finished out their stay here in Middle Tennessee here at Vaughnshire. 

What a blessing it is to have two beautiful, servant hearted ladies serve us in our home!  Much appreciation goes out to their parents!  We hope to meet you all one day! 

Allison and Felicity quickly dove into all the work awaiting around here with joy.  They cooked meals, cleaned up, did laundry, played with children, worked in the garden even, took the babies on walks while I homeschooled the older ones, and kept the house running when I was unavailable — they were a huge help to me!  We cooked them some traditional American food:  meatloaf, mashed potatoes, cornbread, peach cobbler and the like.  We even visited our Amish grocery market which they thought was very interesting.  We learned many things about New Zealand and I bet my children asked a thousand questions — I know we wore them out! 

Thanks Ladies for all you did!  Hope to visit you soon in New Zealand! 

On a recent trip to Middle Tennessee, the Schiffman family from Indiana called on us and were able to stop by and visit Vaughnshire with their 4 children (who are 4 years old and under!)  before they headed home.

We had a great time even if was a short visit.  We gave them a brief tour of the farm which looks similar to a desert right now.  The boys decided to build a “bobcat” cage to catch all those “bobcats” we have around here.  Our 4 year old is convinced he hears them at night in the woods.  Of course, young master Schiffman was all interested in building a bobcat trap with the boys and though they didn’t get very far in the short visit, they had a great time playing and running around the farm getting very dirty.   We hope to visit again very soon with them and are very grateful for the families who we are providentially crossing paths with!

We had a very special visit from one of my dear high school friends and her family. She and her husband with their 3 boys have been missionaries in Turkey for the last 6 years and have recently returned to the States. Some may remember me posting almost a year and a half ago for prayer for a friend of mine whose baby was having life-threatening heart problems and eventually had major heart surgery. We were able to finally meet this miracle baby and are happy to see that he is definitely full of lots of boy energy and zest for life! We were able to meet her husband and children for the first time during their short visit. The guys hit it off right away and were unstoppable in manly-take-over-the-world conversation the whole time. The Rays have great insight into overseas mission work and have been developing a vision to reach Turkey through local Christian community because the Western idea of “get-um-saved” mission work is not lasting in a culture that is highly dependant on community.

The ladies enjoyed catching up on old times and updates on family and life in general. It was great to see you after 10 years!

We learned a lot from our Turkish missionary friends and the children really enjoyed the Turkish language lesson and information about the country and its people.

Unfortunately, we were unable to get some good pictures because of the quick visit! We hope to catch up soon and post more about what the Rays are doing here in the states and possibly in Turkey again!

The Zastro’s stopped by to share a brunch with us this morning on the way home from the Operation Save America event in Birmingham, Alabama.

Paul and I met Cal Zastro many years ago in jail.  We were locked up together in the Birmingham jail in 1994 for praying on a public sidewalk.  It was a “hoot’n” time, as Cal would say, and we learned much not only about the horrid state of our Nation, one that locks Christians up in jail for praying on a public sidewalk, but learned that we had found a family in Christ. 

We were so blessed to have Cal and his children stay with us several times last year as they traveled back and forth to Mississippi engaging the city of Jackson over the last remaining abortion clinic in the state.  But during this short visit we had the wonderful privilege of meeting the lovely Mrs. Zastro!  What a treasure!

We had a wonderful time!

Part of the joy of having the eldership teaching this weekend was having the Steve Breagy family stay in our home.  As always it is refreshing and encouraging to sit down and break bread with like minded Christian families.  Steve and his “co-conspirator” Dan Horn are expecting to be set in soon as elders in their home church, Hope Baptist Church. 

Our families had a great time together.  Steve and I made use of some quite time in the late evening to discuss key issues of the day.  The children had a good time of fellowship and hymn singing Sunday morning as we prepared for the Lord’s Day.

 It was a joy to met his wife Kristina, and the children God has blessed them with.

In a recent visit I was able to sit and chat with Les Riley about all kinds of exciting Kingdom advancing topics.  We covered hymnology, the Welsh Revival, and reviewed a history of the prolife movement in America.  Just your average Saturday evening discussion.  We greatly enjoyed our time with the Riley family and look forward to having them back soon… or perhaps making the short trip to Mississippi to visit with them.

Les is running for the Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture & Commerce in 2007.  If you live in MS, there is not a better man for the job.  I would encourage your support for a strong, Biblically thinking, Constitutional candidate!