Category Archives: Reflections

Monthly Inspiration

Inspiration, Reflections

Hello and welcome. It seems that November snuck up on and the holidays will be here before we know it. For our monthly inspiration I decided to share a poem that I recently was reminded of. I remember this poem, from when I was young, as being a favorite of my parents.

Footprints in the Sand 

One night a man had a dream.

He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand:
one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it.

“Lord, You said that once I decided to follow you,
You’d walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.

I don’t understand why, when I needed you most, you would leave me.”

The Lord replied,
“My son, My precious child, I love you and I would
never leave you. During your times of trial and
suffering, when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I Carried You.”

Carolyn Carty, 1963

While searching for the “Footprints” poem I came across the following poem that I like as well and thought worth sharing.

In His Footsteps

When someone does a kindness
it always seems to me,
That’s the way God up in heaven
would like us all to be…
For when we bring some pleasure
to another human heart,
We have followed in His footsteps
and we’ve had a little part.
In serving Him who loves us
for I am very sure it’s true.
That in serving those around us
We serve and please him, too.

~ Helen Steiner Rice

The above poems were found at https://poem4today.com/footprints-poem.html

Thanks for reading!

Peak Color and the Garlic is Planted

Chickens, Fall, garlic, Planting Garlic, Reflections

It was Thursday, October 16, in the afternoon that we headed to the farm to plant the garlic. This was our best chance to get it planted since there was rain in the forecast for Friday and the weekend.

Despite having some frosty mornings this week our roses were still flowering.

This one had me confused as it was growing up through one of the hibiscus bushes. I had to take a close look to see what kind of blossoms they were. It is indeed a rose pretending to be a hibiscus. LOL!

Our pond is very low – the lowest we have seen it since it filled up in 2013.

Any rain that we get is very much needed and will be greatly appreciated.

I suspect that the fall colors were at peak, since the rain will likely bring down many of the leaves.

Some trees had already lost many of their leaves.

While others were putting on a grand display.

I spotted this apple that had dropped into the crotch in the tree and was being eaten by several types of bugs – yellow jackets, hornets, beetles, and flies all sharing the same fruit.

The sky was deep blue with fluffy clouds as my husband worked the soil where we would plant the garlic.

Rex (our rooster) and company showed up to help.

We set out our planting grid and it seemed in no time we had the garlic planted. 2 2/3 rows this size (338 bulbs). Less than last year but still enough for us and to share with family and friends. Our 2026 gardening season has begun.

Thanks for visiting.

Are you experiencing fall colors in part of the world?

Bugs and More

Birds, Bugs, Family, Leaf Bug, Reflections,

Hello and welcome.

Yesterday morning I was blessed to be able to spend time with some of my family: my aunt, one of my sisters, two of my daughters and my sister’s granddaughter (my great niece). We met at a local coffee shop and spent at least an hour and a half just drinking lattes and talking.

At one point the conversation turned to bugs. My daughter mentioned that she has been seeing a lot of spiders lately. Then my sister said she had been seeing stink bugs (like the one pictured below).

I agreed about the stink bugs and added that I had been seeing a lot of “those bugs that look like giant mosquitoes” (like the one pictured below).

I have since found out that they are called crane flies, and they seem quite harmless.

My sister then mentioned that she likes seeing leaf bugs. I said I had never heard of leaf bugs, so she described them as looking “just like a leaf”.

“I probably just sweep them off the deck never realizing they are there,” I joked. (These days I’m always sweeping leaves off the deck.)

Later in the day I was on our deck and grabbed the broom to sweep the leaves off. One of the leaves stood out from the rest as it was bright green instead of the browns, yellows, and reds of the rest of the recently fallen leaves.

As I took a closer look, I realized it wasn’t a leaf at all. It was a bug! I grabbed my phone and took a photo. I sent it to my sister who quickly replied, “That’s it.” I am still amazed that the first time I ever saw one of these bugs was when it showed up at my front door just a few hours after my sister was telling me about them.

I did a little research and found out that these bugs are also called Katydids. I have heard of katydids but never knew what they looked like. I do think they are a neat looking bug.

While I had my camera out I was able to get a picture of the squirrel that has been a frequent visitor to our yard and driving Ranger and Ruby crazy.

This black capped chickadee paused in the cherry tree for a minute or two so I could get a couple of pictures

as did this little bird in the picture below.

I’m not sure what kind of bird this is and am hoping some of my smart readers can help me out. Please leave me a comment if you recognize this bird.

Thank for visiting?

Have you ever seen a leaf bug?

Preserving the Harvest – Apples

Apple Cider, Apple Pie, Apples, Preserving, Reflections

I know I’ve said this several times, but we’ve had a wonderful year for growing foods. Apples are no exception. At least three of our trees were heavy producers which have given us plenty of apples do what we want with. In past years I have made apple pie filling which I freeze for making pies throughout the year, I have canned apple sauce, and we have dehydrated apples.

We have found that we usually don’t eat much of the applesauce or the dehydrated apples, so we decided to do something different this year.

So far, I have enough pie filling in the freezer to make 8 pies. The other thing we are doing is making apple cider.

We have never made cider before because we do not have an apple press, but this year we figured out how to make cider without a press.

It’s not as efficient as using a press, we first peel (the peel could be left on), core, and slice the apples then put them in the blender. We are doing small batches.

We add just a little bit of water to get them going and we blend the apples until they are pureed.

We then strain out the juice (cider). To do this we put the puree in a fine mesh juice bag, then set that in strainer over a bowl or pot.

We then put a smaller bowl on top of the juice bag and press down on it to help squeeze the juice out. We’ll let it drip for a while then come back and press some more.

I have been pasteurizing the cider then freezing what we don’t drink, but we are also going to make some hard cider which will be made with raw (unpasteurized) cider. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Thanks for reading!