Tuesday, April 24, 2012

to be a farmer

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is to pray storms don’t strike right after the garden is planted,

to romp and play in the grass,

to realize that doing school can wait when all you want to do is haul dirt,

to raise chickens and laugh as they begin to grow,

to watch rainbows arch across the sky,

to pray and seek and trust that God’s got it all figured out, no matter what.

Monday, April 23, 2012

dear blog followers

the Lord has truly blessed me this year. From graduation to a family that loves me to a new used camera… how blessed I am!

And all this because of the great grace of Christ!

So, dear blog followers, as I follow this road, it came across my mind that perhaps I could be a photographer. Like, one that sells photos perhaps. :)

So I am giving it a try- I have opened an Etsy shop with the top photos of mine for sale on canvas prints of all shapes and sizes.

Click over here to see…

All truly is blessed grace, dear friends!

jk

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Downtown

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My sister Lillie and I have always been close. We share a room, we share books, and we also have birthdays very near each other.

Each year, my grandparents graciously take us out for our birthdays. This year we decided to mix it up a little and to visit the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. We used to live so close to this great free museum, but now that we are out of the cities, we miss being downtown. It was so much fun to be in the city!

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The picture above was voted our favorite painting of the day. We spent probably an hour and a half meandering through our favorite part of the museum: the Impressionist gallery, where these next few paintings were found.

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The strangest gallery was the modern art gallery. Why some of those paintings/random slathering of paint were considered art, I’ll never know. But as we made our way into the

The one upside to this was the crazy cool car:

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Also in the modern art gallery was this kitchen whose designer holds the same last name as my grandma

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The textiles gallery was under construction, but it was fascinating to see the few quilts they did have up. I really liked this one:

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Me and Lillie loved these next few ‘art’ pieces, and thought of Ann Voskamp when we saw this first one:

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The whole museum is an art piece unto itself: from the stair cases to the beautifully crafted ceilings.

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After enjoying the morning in the art museum, we decided to head down to one of our most favorite restaurants of all time: French Meadow!

And oh was the city charming that day!

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Lunch was delicious, and we loved spending time with our grandparents.

We took a drive around the Lake of the Isles, enjoying all the beautiful houses and the garden starting to appear.

We wove our way back around to Sebastian Joes Ice Cream for desert. Yum!

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What a beautiful, fun, art-filled day we had!

Thank you, Granny and Grandpa! It was a blast!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

To Move a Coop

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This past year, my sister has acquired a new name for herself: The Chicken Mama. It has been a blast to see her build a coop, raise 6 chickens from 2 weeks old, and now, to move them outside.

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My grandpa and grandma up north helped her to build the coop, and it was housed in our garage for a few weeks. The older chickens (who are now 4 months old) moved into the coop in the garage, while the younger ones (now 10 weeks old) took their place in the large rubbermaid container in the basement.

Now that the weather has warmed up, we were able to get the chicken coop to it snew location in the backyard. If only we could lift it all the way back there (the coop weight at least 150 lbs).

To save our arms and backs from pain, my parents devised the idea to back our minivan up and into the garage, then lift the coop only the 12 feet to the back of the car.

And praise God, it worked!

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this picture below is a photo of the new area where the coop will be going. It looks much cuter now, as we have put up the fence, black metal gate (so charming!) and strung grapevine along the fence to add some sweetness. This summer, my sister Lillie will be putting in 4 raised garden beds in this now fenced area.

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To say the least, my dad is a great driver, and managed to back the van across the vacant lot next door and into the chicken area- great work, Dad!

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A few minutes later, we lifted the coop off of the van and onto its stand, connected to the run. These chickens are living in high style with a beautiful coop and nesting boxes, and a large run to, well, run around in.

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We are so excited to start getting possibly 3 eggs a day (about 21-24 eggs a week!) from our girls, and are so so happy to have them outside and all settled in.

In case you wanted to get an inside view of “Ruthie’s Rhode Island Red Resort,” here’s a photo of the interior of the coop:

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The stick-on tile is attached to a board that slides out for easy spray-off cleaning :)

And the nesting boxes attached to the left there.

Who knew that we would get chickens? It still makes me laugh some days…