A Land Update!

Warning: This is long and has lots of pictures, including two non-vegetarian photos.

Welcome to
Merrick (the non-existent town) Valley Farm

I will do a separate post regarding the interior of the Ahlgren Jungle Hut of Adventure (aka Casual Cottage) at a later date. So for now here are some pictures of a wee litl' bit of the land we have been so bountifully blessed with!
We have a mailbox! :) And it gets mail! Across from our place is big cattle operation. Lilian and I love going up to get the mail and she talks to the cows and makes them stampede and it's so incredible to be still and listen to the thunder of their hooves and yes I know this is a run-on sentence. Sunsets are so pretty from here! This is the view of our driveway from the road. It's a circle drive once you get down in there. This spring we will be planting "something" to block the view of pretty much anything from the road. We want the drive to be thick trees etc. and then once you get down in the land, BOOM, it's opens up to the valley! Lili Bug literally just hanging out!Further down the drive. Shop on the left, house on the right. Annnnnnnd... our favorite view! Our partially cleared valley! This picture doesn't even begin to do it justice! This was right around the most beautiful time when the sun inflames the tops of the cottonwoods and the trees on the hill! It is SO beautiful! Oh how we praise God for blessing us with the beauty of His creation all around us! This was taken from the front porch, and like I said, it doesn't begin to communicate how lovely it can be! And this is what it looks like now.This pic, from a few months ago, is the same area where the hammocks are in the picture above!
And this is across the burm into the valley looking south.
And this is looking southeast.
Clearing, burning, clearing, burning...

God has enabled us to make so much progress! It's amazing to look at old pictures and see what He has done! My wonderful Man is such a hard worker and he LOVES working outside! There is so much potential! We can't wait til this spring!
Here is Lilian's first time to swing (thank you neighbors for the swing!) and a view of the south end of the porch.

Here's a view from the north end to the south.
Burning a BIG pile of brush. David thought it was getting out of hand and tried to call the fire department and couldn't get a signal! But with much prayer we beat the spreading flames to death. Here's the big kid mentioned previously. The building is our goat shed. It was originally built in the 1930's on the state capitol grounds (for oil rig tools). The previous owner got the building in the 60's or 70's and my amazing skilled-in-practically-every-area-of-life husband welded the pieces up for a little shelter! Here you can see the goat shed in the valley, the house on the right, clothesline in the middle.
We let a friend hunt and he got a doe. David and I helped him track it for 572-3 yards! It was a lot of challenging fun and the meat was tasty(thank you Micah!)!
David had a run in with a hog while deer hunting a month or so ago. He won.David discing an area in the valley in front of the house for some some wheat. The front of our home! Don't worry, it's not a blue roof! The porch doesn't have the (green) metal on it yet. The house isn't sided here either.Hope you enjoyed this little virtual "tour" of a wee bit of our new land! Praise the Lord for His good gifts and His enabling power to take dominion for His glory!

Happy and Dirty Little Farm Girl

*Anniversary pictures have now been added to that post.

I was going through pictures tonight and found this from the end of August. She got this dirty because she did a face plant out of her bouncer into some sandy soil. She wasn't happy then but she was later and I think she's so cute with dirt all over her face! This is from the beginning of October. Dad's lil' helper!We got five goats at the end of September! They escaped and were lost for about a week and then a neighbor two miles away called and had them! Praise the Lord that we didn't loose that investment! This goat is a LaMancha (no ears) that we named Coconut and she had a Boer cross kid a little over a week ago! Praise God our farm is being fruitful! :D
This doeling is a Kiko, the hardy and resilient breed we hope to pursue. Her name is "Liko" for "Lilian's Kiko". Guess who she belongs to!?!?!
All of our pictures were on my Beloved's computer (that I do not touch), but through a string of events I now have the pictures! Woohoo! Hopefully I'll soon be sharing newer pictures of our house and land!

Since I now have all of the pictures... I'm overwhelmed with thousands of adorable pictures of our precious little Blessing! The first twelve months of life go by WAY TOO FAST and WAY TOO MUCH changes at once! Oh how I treasure every little detail of her! Anyways... here's some pics of her first encounter with sand at the end of June!
This stuff is sure different...
But I think I kind of like it...
Hmm, what to do with a whole fist full...
I know! I'll taste it!

Whoa! I'm not sure about this.


Guess I'll have to try it again!Ya know, it's really not that bad...

And it was with that mindset that she set the stage for the photo at the top! :) We love being parents! Thank you Lord!




And even if she can't be out helping she always like to watch her handsome Dad (wonder where she gets that?)! July1st.

2 YEARS!!

Would you go with me if we rolled down streets of fire

Would you hold on to me tighter as the summer sun got higher

If we roll from town to town and never shut it down

Would you go with me if we were lost in fields of clover

Would we walk even closer until the trip was over

And would it be okay if I didn't know the way

If I gave you my hand would you take it

And make me the happiest man in the world

If I told you my heart couldn't beat one more minute without you, girl

Would you accompany me to the edge of the sea

Let me know if you're really a dream

I love you so, so would you go with me

Would you go with me if we rode the clouds together

Could you not look down forever

If you were lighter than a feather

Oh, and if I set you free, would you go with me

If I gave you my hand would you take it

And make me the happiest man in the world

If I told you my heart couldn't beat one more minute without you, girl

Would you accompany me to the edge of the sea

Help me tie up the ends of a dream

I gotta know, would you go with me

I love you so, so would you go with me

"Would You Go With Me" by Josh Turner

We've now been blissfully married 2 whole years!

It doesn't seem possible that it's been that long! But in light of eternity, two years isn't really that long!

We are so thankful to be together! Praise be to God for bringing and keeping us together and making us one! And thank you to our precious family and friends who have loved us, shared wisdom with us, supported us, admonished and encouraged us! :)

We've laughed a lot lately, just in general but also because we've been thinking about our adventures together over the past two years and what a blessing it all is and how thankful we are to be together! The lyrics above are from a song we enjoy and the title is similar in thought to what my Beloved said when he proposed. The lyrics show the man asking the woman if she'd go with him on an adventurous sounding life, and our life has certainly had some adventures! I started to write an overview of each year of marriage, but I'd want edit the list a thousand times and it would never truly be complete so we'll just say,

"The LORD has done great things for us;

whereof we are glad!" Psalm 126:3

I tell ya, it's nearly imposable to get a picture with David's eyes open! That's why kissing pictures are the BEST, well, just one of the reasons why, in those it's perfectly fine to close your eyes!


Somewhere there's a picture that one of Micah Morris's deer cameras got of us taking a lovely anniversary hike, I need to find that...

Family picture the next day. "I'm in love! I'm in love! I'm in love with a WONDERFUL guy!"

Food for thought...

I recently read this blog post called "Fashion Slave" and thought it was thought provoking! Fashions are eternally changing and can often be impractical. (I recognize that practical is a relevant term and the application varies from person to person based on the dictates of their chosen lifestyle and calling.)

I am NOT saying "trendy" is inherently bad or evil (Obviously there's nothing intrinsically wrong with wearing dog tags or lime green tennis shoes!). But, constantly striving to keep up with the way the world(or Hollywood or the fashion designer...) looks wastes time and effort and can possibly feed our own vanity and self focus; at least that my imperfect opinion. :)

There is wisdom in the blogger's suggestion that we should aim for a look that doesn't age out so quickly, that is good for our body type, is modest, good colors for our skin... practical! I'm NOT against cute and pretty etc., but may I suggest practical pretty?!

The point is just to not be consumed by (anything other than loving the Lord and our neighbors) the fickle fashions and trends. Defy our current culture; don't be like everyone else; "if everybody does it we don't"; don't be a lemming! Be who God made you to be, not who everyone else is! Take our freedom in Christ and properly apply it to be free from the dictates and traditions of men! And that is definitely an area of life that I can always use the Lord's work in!

We should use some common sense and "good" taste in our clothing, but just let's not allow ourselves to be consumed and enslaved to the latest and greatest fashions and trends! Hope you enjoy and are encouraged by the blog.

Romans 12:1-3

I beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world:

but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you,

not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly,

according as God that dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Pray for Jaynee Lockwood and Family

http://www.lockwoodfamilytomexico.com/

If you happen to read this and haven't already read this somewhere else, please pray for Jaynee Lockwood. The Lockwoods are missionaries in Mexico, they have 12 wonderful children and recently had a miscarriage. Yesterday, Jaynee and her husband went to a hospital 3 hours from their home for a D&C and there were major complications and she not doing well. Please pray for them!

http://www.lockwoodfamilytomexico.com/

Act for Eternity

"Whatever be your condition

and calling in life,

keep in view

the whole of your existence.

Act not for the little span of time alloted you in this world,

but act for eternity."

Unknown Wise Man

The Truth Regarding Canola Oil

While in the grocery store the other day I stood for a long time looking at the cooking oils trying to select one that I thought was fairly healthy and low priced (I know, a rare combination). I finally selected Canola oil and went on my merry way. Yet in the back of my mind I wondered.... "I'm pretty sure 'canola' is a plant but where does it come from?" Ignorant me.

Well, tonight I have become a little less ignorant and wanted to share my newfound knowledge with you in hopes that it will save you some health miseries down the road. :)

Here is an tid-bit about canola oil from from this article at www.healthwyze.org. It saddens me to see how I was misled to think that Canola oil was "good", or at least a better choice.

The Truth About Canola Oil

Many companies are selling canola oil as the "healthy" alternative, but canola oil is a *counterfeit oil made from genetically engineered rapeseed plants. Canola oil, in fact, was invented in 1976, and it wasn't merely the product of selective breeding, as its proponents contend. Its parent, rapeseed, was banned for food oils, because it attacks the heart to cause permanent degenerative lesions. Canola is not exactly the healthy choice either, and as mentioned earlier, it is officially an E.P.A. registered pesticide. What remains of canola oil (after cooking) is just another hydrogenated oil being pushed by the industry, solely for greed; and it will damage the cardiovascular system in time, like all such oils. Part of the word games used to deceive you about canola oil involve the fact that it is a healthy oil until it is actually heated. Then it undergoes a chemical transformation. So yes, canola is a healthy cooking oil provided that you do not actually cook your food in it. As long as it remains cold and inside its air-tight bottle -- it tests to be healthy! However, once heated, canola oil produces 1,3-Butadiene, benzene, acrolein, formaldehyde, and other related compounds which become infused into the foods being cooked.

Canola has been F.D.A. banned from infant formula because it stunts the growth, and there are likely other reasons not disclosed.

Canola oil is also noted to produce cancer causing toxic fumes when heated at much lower temperatures than are required to cause smoking by other oils, and of course, heating is its intended use. Rapeseed and canola oil fumes are the primary reason for the surprisingly high incidence of Asian lung cancers, despite tobacco smoking being a rarity. Canola fumes have been known to kill pet birds, and many readers will remember that pet parakeets were once used in coal mines to detect the presence of poison gases.

While we do not always see eye-to-eye with Dr. Joseph Mercola, we do respect him for having guts. He was the first to go against the collective grain to attack the deceptive canola industry, and it was right that he did. As reported by Dr. Mercola:

"Canola oil was developed from the rape seed, a member of the mustard family. Rape seed is unsuited to human consumption because it contains a very-long-chain fatty acid called erucic acid, which under some circumstances is associated with fibrotic heart lesions. It has a high sulphur content and goes rancid easily. Baked goods made with canola oil develop mold very quickly. During the deodorizing process, the omega-3 fatty acids of processed canola oil are transformed into the dangerous trans fatty acids, similar to those in margarine, and possibly more dangerous. A recent study indicates that 'heart healthy' canola oil actually creates a deficiency of vitamin E, a vitamin required for a healthy cardiovascular system. Other studies indicate that even low-erucic-acid canola oil causes heart lesions, particularly when the diet is low in saturated fat."

Which reminds me that one of the retail "vegetable" oils even boasted about having Vitamin E. Of course, it was the synthetic variant of Vitamin E, which actually does almost nothing; but in addition, becomes highly toxic whenever heated. It is important to remember that it was in a cooking oil. That made it so "healthy" after all, because the canola and soy were not healthy enough without it. I really had to wonder why they didn't simply add some paint thinner too -- which is technically very chemically similar to these oils when broken down by high heat.

To learn the painful details about the chemical engineering required to make canola oil supposedly fit for human consumption, see our previous article, The Bomb Shell Truth About Canola Oil.

Our strong recommendation is that you use cold pressed extra virgin olive oil for almost everything, or even pure butter. Cold pressed extra virgin olive oil is unchanged from God's hand. Sunflower oil (not to be confused with safflower) is a second best if it is unavailable. Use peanut oil for deep frying, because of its resistance to breaking down in high heat.

*edit, a word substitute

Hmmm. I haven't opened it yet, so I might just return my brand new bottle of an "E.P.A. registered pesticide" and get some sunflower or olive oil! :) I wonder in what other areas I've been bamboozled into thinking something is "healthier"?

Trusting God, Together

I just read a book review on one of my old time favorite sites, LAF, and it reminded me of the overwhelming peace and blessing that comes from trusting God, together.

While my Love and I were still just brother and sister in Christ (ie, before we were engaged) we discussed all kinds of things and soon knew that we were in agreement regarding who should control of the womb. But once betrothed, some topics are destined to be discussed again when you see the bright possibility of becoming a parent glowing in the seemingly near future.

So one evening we discussed it together.

The thought of controlling, planning, tracking, and stressing about having children was… stressing me out! We exchanged a few phrases trying to... I don't know... just discuss it. Then, he said it, the words that set me free!

“Why don’t we just trust God with it.”

Pure. Simple. No words can fully describe the immense swell of peace that I was lifted upon after he said that! Exactly what was busting to get out of my heart came lovingly sweet out of his mouth. I smiled at him and quietly gave my wholehearted agreement! No matter what other's thought, we stood together under God. And the peace of standing under the shadow of His wings is entirely immeasurable!

We bring so much misery (fear, stress, selfishness, anxiety, guilt, frustration…) upon ourselves when we try to take the control of something away from God. It’s an understatement to say that God knows what He’s doing! We open ourselves up to so many blessings (peace, oneness, rest, increased faith, freedom, unity…) when we quit fighting God and acknowledge that He is Sovereign and will work it all (many children, few children, or no children) for our good and His glory!

Just voicing my thanks for the leading of our Lord

in the leading of my Beloved

in the oneness of our hearts and life as we

trust God, together.