Verbena Farm

       Its Saturday evening. The sun is setting as the snow clouds start to roll in. A winter storm is on the horizon, and I couldn't be more excited to spend my day tomorrow sitting by the fire watching the snow fall. I have come to realize that I am like no one I know. ...other than my mother. She always tells me" it's the Bolitho in me." The Bolitho clan is originally from England. This is my mothers side of our family. Her and her sister and two brothers are without a doubt like no other people I have ever met in my life. If you can picture....Off grid Alaska people, with a splash of Hilton Head style and  Old English manners. That's the best I can do to describe them all. My Uncles will live weeks in the woods, in a tent, or in the backseat of their trucks, under a tree or even in a tree for that matter. Rough and Tough without any question. Their voices are deep and masculine and full of wisdom. Yet, they create the most beautiful things.  Their homes, built

Good Morning from Opie and Finn My sweet little chicken coop          Good Morning all. We awake today to fresh blanket of snow. Obviously this is beyond joyous to me. Nothing better than a fresh snow to start the day. I am so thankful for this beautiful day. I have a huge pile of work to manage through today, along with a huge pile of laundry..... I plan on working by the fire for the day, with some sort of stew on the stove. Sounds like a picture perfect day right? Don't be fooled.....Its only 9:30am.....my plans will be crushed I am sure shortly. I often wonder what life is like for those that can snuggle on the couch and binge watch Netflix all day.....like, do they not have house work to do? no cooking to be done? no chores that have to be done or else an animal will die? I cant understand that life. My life never stops...there is never time to do any mindless activity for a whole day. I cant say that I feel like I am missing out on anything.....My life brings me so much joy..

Frankie trying to make his way to me through the snow.         Winter in Ohio. It comes in like a lion....lasts a few days.... then warms up just enough to create a massive about of mud and yuck. Wait a few days, and it will become frozen mud with sheets of ice. Maybe some snow....then it starts the cycle all over again. This first snow storm we had dropped about a foot of snow on us. It was amazing! Snow is magical. It creates the most beautiful scenery. The calmness that it causes in nature here after a good snow is like God presses the pause button and everything stands still. Just for a little while. Soon after, the thaw comes and mud is back.      Yesterday it went from 45 degrees to 25 degrees in a matter of hours. Rain to snow right before our eyes. Now, some find this to be nasty and annoying. I think its magical. The seasons and the weather is a remarkable assurance that we as humans have very little control of what's happening around us. Even with all the technology and b

           What a crap shoot.  seriously. I don't care who you voted for. I don't care who you support...No matter what side your on, this is terrible. Here is what I have to say..                    Habakkuk said " Lord please tell me what you're doing" and God said, " No, I'm not going to tell you. Because if I told you what I was doing you wouldn't believe it"                        If God today told us what He's doing in the world , we wouldn't believe it. Don't you think God's given up, and Gods abdicated, and Gods left his throne. .... Well, He hasn't.  He's still on the throne. And those of us that know Him put our trust in Him and Him alone. I don't put my trust in Washington, or the United Nations, or the Presidents or even money. I put my trust in God himself. We all need to put our trust in Lord Jesus Christ.  When all the rest of it fails, and crumbles and shatters down....He will still be there.  I have ba

 I sit here at my kitchen table, listening to a podcast called "The Bible in a year". I am on day 13 there. While I have some sort of an idea of what I'm hearing....I sure wish the Bible was in a language I can easily understand. I mean, why cant it just say " hey man, you didn't follow my rules, so now your gonna get it" ? The same way most parents speak to their children. Now that, I would have no problem understanding. While I do my best to listen, I am thinking of my kitchen table. Its large, sits 10 people. This table has seen so much. Most of my life is spent here in this kitchen, based around this table. If this table could talk it would have enough stories to fill a book twice the size of the Bible. There's a good book idea....the life of the kitchen table. Our large group of friends that we have developed over the years of living here.....we all sit at this table. Even though I have many couches and chairs....I mean seriously, a lot of them in m

       The world of blogging....it wouldn't be so intimidating if I had any idea what I'm doing. How exactly is this supposed to work? and more importantly ..Why in the world is anyone going to care about my crazy life. That all being said, many people have told me to put our world out there to the world to watch. So, here I am. Be nice :)      Day one ....As if this is the first day of my new life or something. I have three kids...a daughter Mckenna who is 14 years old. She a very mature lady. Her gift to this world is her ability to do great things with animals. Its as if they speak the same language. Maybe they do, I don't know, all I do know....is I now have all these animals that don't actually contribute to this " farm " at all other than being her best friends. And that's ok with me. Teenage daughters are scary enough as it is, I'm thankful that mine is only addicted to animals.  Next in line is Henry, hes 9 years old, going on 80. That boy has