It has been a long time since I posted and lots of things have been going on around the Donaldson homestead. I will try to give you a quick recap of the past month.
First of all, we said goodbye to a dear friend and brother, Jim Hartman.
Dane spent a wonderful two weeks with Jim in Pennsylvania before the Lord took him home and we are so thankful that they had that time together. The Lord's providence in the whole trip was amazingly clear - what a blessed gift.
During Dane's absence, the Lord was very gracious to the children and I. We had no major catastrophes and farm life went on. The few trials that we faced were great learning experiences for us all.
While Dane was in Pennsylvania, he got to experience the snow again. He took this picture of it for us. Here in the southern hemisphere it is the beginning of summer, and while he was gone we were having some of the hottest days we've had all year.
Dane was also so kind to take some pictures of the food that he ate while he was there. Our diet here, although very good, is much different than what it used to be. We do miss things like jalapenos, peanut butter, pepperoni, cheddar cheese, etc.
Mmmmmm.........Mexican food!
Mmmmm...... Pepperoni Pizza!
Dane brought us home a bag of corn chips (which exploded on the airplane from the pressure, but we ate them anyway :) ) , a jar of salsa, and some cheddar cheese. They were very happily enjoyed by us all.
And speaking of food - Since the Bible speaks of their cleanliness as a food source, the children and I experimented with eating grasshoppers while Dane was gone. The grasshoppers didn't taste bad, in fact Joseph loved them, but it is hard to get past the idea that you're eating a bug, so we haven't prepared any since. Maybe we will work up the nerve again soon - I'll let you know.
Since Dane's return flight stopped for a three hour layover in Houston, his mother Sue and stepfather, Leonard made the drive from Waco to spend a little time with him. Although short, it was a very nice visit for them all. Meme, as the children call their grandmother, sent us all some clothes, as did Jim's wife, Pamela. Thank you!
The Lord blessed us with another special treat as Dane's return flight conveniently coincided with the visit of our friends, Mr. and Mrs. New from Texas. They met up in Houston and got to travel together all the way to Misiones. We enjoyed a great time of fellowship while they were here and were blessed by their generosity and kindness. They brought Dane some parts that he had ordered for his hydroelectric turbine and some much desired reading material. They were so kind to help us out around the homestead and to lend us some helpful advise too.
Here is a picture of Mrs. New, or "Ni", as she let the children call her, reading to the children. They loved it!
And here, is Mr. New, or "Lolo" as the children affectionately think of him, taking a break from his marathon of helping Dane with some of his projects teaching Joseph to ride the calf.
After five days, we said goodbye to our friends. What fun it was to have them here, and we hope to welcome them back again soon.
All sorts of other exciting things have been going on since Dane returned home. Two of the children have had some pretty bad splinters. Joseph had one that was completely embedded in the fleshy part of his palm below his thumb. It took a local anesthetic and a razor blade at the local hospital to reveal a large orange tree spine in his little hand. And below is the huge splinter (or "kindling") that Dane pulled out of Elisabeth's wrist. Ouch!
One of our dogs was bit by a snake and she has been making a slow recovery. We have found two different kinds of venemous snakes right here at the house in the past week and a half.
One day, while we were working outside, Elisabeth discovered this snake right inside our back door. As she ran to get her father, the snake made its way behind the sink in the kitchen. Dane got it with the snake catcher that he made out of a piece of hose and a rope and on his next trip to town, he took it by the snake guy who identified it as a Yarara (pronounced Jadada), a highly venomous snake in these parts.
And remember this snake that Dane got back in July. It turns out that it is venemous too. We had been told this previously by one of our neighbors who saw the picture of Dane holding it then and then the snake man confirmed it. He found another one just like it - or maybe the same one - living in the big Ford truck under the carport. We don't know which one of the snakes bit the dog, but we are now convinced after what the dog has gone through (I will spare you the details) that dog's are quite resilient animals.
We still have so much to learn about farming here. Tending to the soil is an ongoing need as we are learning the hard way when it comes to many of our garden plants. The green beans did great, as did the lettuce and swiss chard but now seem to be suffering from some type of deficiency, so we are trying to rectify that problem. The tomato plants are growing in abundance, but have slow developing fruit, another sign of nutrient deficiency, so we are working to rectify that as well. I think that we are learning a lesson in the dangers of cross pollination when it comes to melons and squash, as those plants are thriving, but have little fruit. We have found that corn, onions, cucumbers, cabbage, black beans, parsley, and leeks do great here with little attention at all. Praise the Lord, we have more of these things than we know what to do with, a particular blessing since we have been eating a vegetarian diet since the proprane refrigerator stopped functioning properly. We have also been picking pears by five gallon buckets full off our neighbor's property for a couple of weeks now. Yum! We certainly have come a long way from last year's gardening venture and are thankful with what the Lord has seen fit to provide us and pray the lessons we are learning now will pay off in the year's to come.
Here is some of the corn that the children harvested yesterday and fruit from the Philodendron Selloum plants that grow right outside of our house.
As you can see, we sure are enjoying the corn.
Here are some pictures of other interesting things that we have found around the farm:
Abby found a twig outside that had what looked like a shell attached to it, so she put it in our pen cup. Well two days ago, we discovered what the shell like thing was - an egg sack for praying mantises. We had no idea they were so small when they first hatched. Interestingly, they let themselves down to the floor on strings of spiderlike silk.
Here is a pretty moth that Abby caught in the house the other day.
And one of the children found this interesting looking little bug on the firewood pile. It looks kind of like a bug version of the long horn cow.
And lastly, Dane was marking off where he wanted to make a new road on our property using Google earth and made a silly observation. He said, "I was looking at the river Bonito that runs next to our property and I thought hey, that kind of looks like the gulf. Anyways, it puts our house a little too close to Oklahoma but oh well. We would own everything from Wichita falls to Texarkana, and down to Houston and over past San Antonio."
Have a blessed day,
Jessica
