The Dream of Farm Gardens

When I was a child, my parents converted a muddy mountainside lot in North Carolina to a lush, rock garden with trails lined by timbers and great patches of perennials.  It was my playground, my escape, my refuge. Then, when we move to Virginia, they did it again...

The Grace and Mercy of This Farm

God’s mercy and inexhaustible fertility are such that much good came from what might have been an irredeemable mess.  — Kathleen Norris in The Quotidian Mysteries This morning, I reserved two puppies – a male and a female Great Pyrenees from two...

What You Trash, We Will Redeem

Right now, Philip is outside tilling the garden with the rototiller he just repaired in our driveway.  One thing saved. Next weekend, we’ll be helping to dismantle and old deck and the foundation from a trailer, and we’ll use those materials to begin...

The Routine of Farming and Writing

I’m ready for winged and four-legged needs to tie me down.  For them to rope me into a rhythm that keeps them alive and breathes pattern into the chaos. Of words and travel and meetings. In just over a week, 6 guinea keets and 16 chicks will arrive here at God’s...