The girls, the garden, hedges

Cheyenne spent the night with us Sunday night. Aubrey wanted to come also but that was not going to happen. It may be another year or two before her mommy allows her to sleepover at Mama Kim’s. Cheyenne has done so several times now – so it was old hat for her. Once they were up and had eaten breakfast, Mama went to town to retrieve Yilin and Aubrey. The three played all morning and into the afternoon while Mama dealt with noise levels far above the ambient noise she is used to. They toured he farm, checked out the pigs, petted the chickens and collected eggs, caught our little wether goat and petted him. Mama was worn out and hurting by the time she took them to Wendy’s for lunch late in the afternoon. She had them home by 3:30 pm. They had a good time. There were chalk drawings and tic-tac-toe grids on the patio and the refrigerator magnets had all been rearranged. There were works of crayon art left on the table in various stages of completion. Farm shoes were abandoned in several locations and coats were dropped indiscriminately near the patio doors. All a testament to the active day Mama gave the girls during their visit. She said none of them wanted to get out of the vehicle when she pulled into their driveway. Aubrey started crying. I can sympathize. I don’ t like being away from Mama either. As a consolation, Mama will get Aubrey tomorrow to take her to Story Time at the library.


Alex allowed the girls go to church with us Sunday night. Monday was a school holiday. Craig Brian preached both services Sundays. In the evening service he preached about the hedge God puts around us to protect us from the ongoing attacks we face from those who oppose us. Bro. Brian used a passage from the Book of Job; Satan’s argument to God that Job would not serve Him if the hedge God had placed about Job were removed to allow him to attack Job. To illustrate the lesson, he called a teenager up to the front and compassed him with his mom and dad, our pastor and his wife, our youth leader, his grandma and grandpa, his Sunday School teacher, his Christian friends. When all were in place, he tried to get to the teenager and was not able because he was resisted by those standing in the hedge. He pointed out that although the teenager was constantly protected, physically surrounded, he could mentally reject those protections and one by one sent his protectors away voicing the common excuses we use to reject Godly counsel, until only the pastor was left. Leaving him open to attack from almost every angle. It was powerful illustration especial to the young people in the service. Yilin picked up on the concept and began to gasp as his protection was taken away. How quickly we allow ourselves to be offended, to be jealous, to be envious, to become wise in our own eyes. All of which cause us to push away those who would protect us if they could. Ecc. 10:8 says…” whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” Stay in the hedge. God graciously offers us that protection. We would be wise to stay within its safety. It will not keep us from trials. They are to exercise our faith. But it will keep us from exposing ourselves to unnecessary assault from our adversary.


Yesterday evening Craig Shaw came by the farm to look over our garden spot. Mama and I enlisted his help because he has so much success with his gardens and we have not been successful with ours. The first thing he noticed was that the garden may be too shaded. Especially for the early planting required in this area. He loved the raised bed in our garden, but it will not get a full eight hours of direct sunlight when the oak trees on the east side of the garden are leafed out fully. His argument is that filtered sunlight is not as beneficial to vegetable plants as direct sunlight. I can see the argument and concede its merit. But it is hard to imagine that the brutal sunlight of mid-summer would be required when it so quickly burns up the plants. It is difficult to get enough water to the plants during those extremely hot hours of those days. Mama and I will trim a few branches to allow more morning light on the garden, but I will not be too aggressive. Greenhouses filter sunlight by design, but they are rarely shaded. So, in theory, they get direct sunlight all day. The only place on our little farm that gets sunlight all day is the circle in front of the house and the back yard. Neither of those places would be acceptable to Mama for a garden spot.


Somehow, we will make this work.