Category: gardening

Comprehension

I am grateful for a good sweet potato harvest and most of the garden cleanup done!

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

John 1:4-5, 6-13, 16

Me: Good morning, Father!

Abba: Good morning, Jon!

These opening passages of the Gospel of John are stirring, no matter how many times I read them! And yet, I know those walking in the darkness do not comprehend it. So Sad!

Abba: In Him is life. The dead comprehend nothing of light. Just as life is light, so darkness is death. Light comes in relationship with Me. Darkness is just absence of a relationship with Me. Just as John the Baptist was called by Me to bear witness in the darkness, so everyone who has come into the Light is called to bear witness.

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:1-10

Me: Thank You Father! How marvelous is Your gift! I love You!

Abba: You are welcome! I love you, as should be clear from these truths!

Part of the 2025 Sweet Potato Crop – 15 of these tubs total.

Holey Work

When we bought the place we live in 2012, we had a yard hydrant that was seized and couldn’t be turned on. With a new garden plot on that side, near the barn. That would have proven to be inconvenient, had we not had more than our share of rain this summer.

I have been working lately to dig up the offending hydrant to replace it with a new one. Here in Iowa, the “extreme” freeze line requires the water lines to be five feet deep to avoid having your water freeze up on the coldest winters.

The rusted, formerly galvanized pipe, leads me to believe this hydrant has been in the ground a long time!

I can tell you tonight I am feeling every shovelful of dirt I have thrown out of the hole. We bottom two feet was definitely still plenty wet (and heavy and gummy) from the earlier rains.

The block structure is a previously used well pit. The blocks are merely stacked and not mortared. When the water was converted to supply by the local rural water supply, the metered water was connected in the existing pit and the well was retired (I was told the well was sulfurous, which might explain the bad drain and waste yard hydrant). There are cut-offs in the pit, which I will need to access when the new hydrant is installed.

Right now I am looking for a source for a stainless tee than can insert into the poly pipe and provide a 3/4″ NPT (normal pipe thread) to attach the new hydrant.

These hydrants have a drain hole near the bottom that allow them to empty when shut off so they don’t freeze in winter. It seems to me the four-inch drain tile and handful of rocks (still on the ledge next to the block wall) was a pretty poor installation, given that the level of the drain hole is in a pure clay strata.

June First Slips

It is the first of June. I can hardly believe it. We have been a littler cooler on average this spring.

slip one of thirty-one

The sweet potato slip above is one of thirty one that I planted in the garden today. They have been “hardening off” outdoors during the day in 4″ pots of potting soil for a couple of weeks. I am able to plant them without disturbing the roots at all by this method.

The Mother Slip

The sweet potatoes in the plastic tub above produced all the slips that I potted up. The tub is setting on a heating mat (set for 80F) in the basement under a high intensity LED grow light. Some start sweet potato slips in a jar with the potato supported by toothpicks. I have had much better results with the tubers horizontal in a tub of garden soil.

When the slips get to around 4″ tall, twist them off of the parent. This year I placed some in water until they developed roots, then put them in pots. Others, I placed in the pots directly. The pots were all kept well watered by keeping them in restaurant bus tubs with an inch or so of water in the bottom. I couldn’t really tell the difference between the two methods. Next time, I think I will skip placing them in water first.

The ability to propagate these is a gift from God. I am grateful for all the plants that He created to be food for us! He is truly Jehovah Jireh, God our provider!

At Least …

… the moles are happy.

Beneficiary

It seems in my life; I am often the beneficiary of the love and grace of others. Does it go without saying that I have unfathomably received of the love and grace of God? How can I let such a gift pass without a thank you?

6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Romans 5

Thank you, Jesus!

The picture at the head of this post is of some garlic that I was gifted by my friend Cheryl last fall to plant in our garden. I harvested the results the middle of August. I needed a way to hang it to dry, as I understand one is supposed to do that.

That brings me to another gift that I was given. Another friend had an unsuccessful political campaign years back and had a lot of heavy wire sign frames, of the type that typically are used by stretching what is essentially a printed plastic bag over the frame, which is then poked in the ground. This friend figured since I was politically active, that I could make use of them. Frankly, political signs are always provided with new wires frames of one type or another. Still, I seem to have found a near endless array of things I could make from the heavy steel wire. Which brings me to this picture:

It occurred to me that if I had a really big heavy needle, I could use it to run a string though the stalks of the harvested garlic. So, with a bolt cutter I cut off a length of steel sign wire. I clamped it in a vise for my drill press and used a Dremel tool cut-off wheel and a steady hand to grind a slot through the wire, halfway on each side. I sharpened one end on my bench grinder and polished the rust off with a wire wheel. Viola! A needle!

And the result, hanging in the pole barn.

By the way, some pieces of that same sign wire became S-hooks to connect the string between some shelving units, via a simple loop tied on each end of the string.

The very presence of mature garlic from little cloves planted in the ground prior to winter is still one more example of my status as beneficiary.

26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; 27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. 28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. 29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. 30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? Mark 4

God made all these mysterious things to work according to His design to sustain and keep us. I am thankful to Him! Praise His holy name!

P.S. I have been pretty occupied with things this summer and posting here has certainly suffered. But all is well.

The Source of Gratitude and Peace

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies (heart of compassion), kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Colossians 3:9-13

Whoso offers praise glorifies Me: and to him that orders his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God. Psalm 50:23

Do the things that Colossians 3:9-13 lists that we are to “put on” seem difficult? Does the prospect of attaining prevailing gratitude, love and peace seem a distant hope?

First, Paul was speaking to those who have accepted Christ as savior. Outside of His indwelling Spirit, these things are not just difficult, they are impossible.

Second, these traits do not come after getting our sin in submission by our own efforts, any more than we can evict all the darkness out of a room so it will be light in there. If the light is turned on, the darkness is driven out by the presence of light. [Let me observe here that light does not fill a room in a static manner, as water fills a container. It flows from its source in a continual manner. The speed at which it travels is considered the “universal constant”, the fastest physical thing in the cosmos.] Rather, it is the instantaneous saving transformation of our sprits at salvation, and the purposeful transformation of our minds by the Word that enables banishment of the things that we are to “put off” and the adoption to the characteristics that we are to “put on”.

“Put” is a verb. This passage is not saying the process of transformation is automatic. We do have to resist the flesh and the devil. I am not backpedaling on what I have said in the previous paragraph; I am saying that the power to resist comes from the Spirit of God and that must come first to drive out the darkness.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my Strength, and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Further, we must stay deliberately engaged in the Word. Engagement in this sense is not mere reading. It implies willingness to be conformed to the revelations of the Holy Spirit.

Graphic depicting some aspects related to the mind, heart, and spirit.

Well-Fed Grinnies

The sweet potato patch didn’t produce many extra-large ones this year. The plot these came from was about 15′ x 20′. They struggled to get going when they were planted in the spring. Our soil it heavier with clay than sweet potatoes like, even after some years of amendments. Quite a few of these grew in a horseshoe shape, or some other crazy bend, due to the difficulty of pushing through the soil. It doesn’t affect the taste of course, but they don’t look like the ones that are commercially grown in sandy loam.

five bus tubs of sweet potatoes
Sweet Potato Harvest

We didn’t see many thirteen-line ground squirrels in the yard this summer. It turns out they were hiding under the foliage of the sweet potatoes, digging and having a feast. Hardly any of these escaped with no squirrel damage.

sweet potato damaged by thirteen-line ground squirrels.
Squirrel Damage

We should be well fed too. We just have to not mind eating after the rodents.

Incidentally, the term grinny or grinnie seems to be a local name for these critters. I haven’t heard anyone who claims to know where the name originated.

Ground Squirrel Photo by Skyler Ewing on Pexels.com

Dehydrating Apples

Apples in the Dehydrator

The process takes about fifteen hours in this “commercial” dehydrator. Once sealed in a plastic bag these will keep an incredibly long time. This batch is about half done. Thank you, Jehovah Jireh, (God our Provider)!

Honeycrisp Blossoms 2023

Above is a shot of the honey crisp tree this spring. I have been picking apples off of this tree all season to prevent it from overloading the branches. The tree is about ten years old. This is the first season that we have really had a bumper crop.

Just Picked

Frequent travel mode of Covid the Cat. Are we there yet?

Appearance of a Naked Lady