Heritage Hill Homestead

Of Plymouth Plantation-The Truth About The Pilgrims

We have been reading this book for the past month. It is the diary of William Bradford, of Plymouth Plantation. It chronicles the Pilgrims experiences and trials while they were establishing their new home in America.

There are so many details in this book. So much that I have learned that will not be found in todays textbooks. You can truly see God's hand in these peoples lives throughout their journey to establish a new colony for the glory of God.

They had so many hardships, yet they continued to put their trust in God no matter what the outcome. These people really should be remembered as heros in this land today. Christian heros who loved God enough to leave ALL that they had to serve Him as the Bible commands.

If you have the chance to read it, PLEASE do so. It is FACTUAL information on the pilgrims with NO political reinventions. You will learn the truth about the first Thanksgiving!

Bless all who pass this way!

Amanda <><
II Corinthians 5:7

No Condemation

No Condemnation

In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve. (Jeremiah 50:20)

A glorious word indeed! What a perfect pardon is here promised to the sinful nations of Israel and Judah! Sin is to be so removed that it shall not be found, so blotted out that there shall be none. Glory be unto the God of pardons!

Satan seeks out sins wherewith to accuse us, our enemies seek them that they may lay them to our charge, and our own conscience seeks them even with a morbid eagerness. But when the Lord applies the precious blood of Jesus, we fear no form of search, for "there shall be none"; "they shall not be found." The Lord hath caused the sins of His people to cease to be: He hath finished transgression and made an end of sin. The sacrifice of Jesus has cast our sins into the depths of the sea. This makes us dance for joy. ( I am so thankful that The Lord Saved me!)

The reason for the obliteration of sin lies in the fact that Jehovah Himself pardons His chosen ones. His word of grace is not only royal but divine. He speaks absolution, and we are absolved. He applies the atonement, and from that hour His people are beyond all fear of condemnation. Blessed be the name of the sin-annihilating God!

By Charles Spurgeon

The Joy Of Anticipation!

   It's been very cold here in the northeast with temps and windchills in the  lower teens and dipping into the single digits at times! Brr!!!!  While we're used to having cold temps and some snow we're not used to having it this cold nor as much snow as has been falling in mid November in our neck of the woods!  Some areas have been hit hard with a whopping 2 feet of snow or more at one time with the recent lake effect snow bands sweeping through!  It's hard to not want to get the Christmas decorations up with the weather adding to the holiday feeling but we'll wait it out until after Thanksgiving as we always do.  Half the fun of most things in life is looking forward to them and so we'll enjoy these days of anticipation and remain patient a bit longer knowing the delight will be felt even more when the time finally arrives.  

    I often think that half the stress of life these days (besides these hard economic times, of course) is that most folks fall into the trap of instant gratification.  Somewhere along the way we've forgotten the fun of anticipation.   When the stores decided to be rid of free lay-away plans many (ourselves included) stopped saving and planning for purchases and out came the credit cards!  It was easier to justify buying something on credit because it seemed the thing to do, no one, not even retailers promoted the idea of waiting for purchases any longer. The stores ended layaway and started to jump the seasons and holidays, it's no laughing matter that Christmas decorations are out and available in October and yet come two weeks before Christmas and you're needing a new set of lights or tree topper it's harder to find those items because everything is picked over.  While the bargains may be great I don't like the way the stores look right after Christmas, merchandise strewn here and there, everything has lost it's shimmer and shine and what we may be okay with paying big money for something before Christmas now doesn't warrant even a second look even with a clearance price!  And why, you may ask? Well, I believe it's because there is not much to make the item worthy of buying, the anticipation is over and with it the fun of making the purchase. How many times have we all bought something for someone we care about just for the simple joy of watching them open it and squeal with delight on Christmas morning!  At the time the price wasn't as important as the fun of anticipation we experienced in the giving of the gift. 

   So, while Christmas songs blare on the radio, holiday shows air on TV and we're bombarded with gift giving ideas in glossy newspaper ads, store signs and seemingly unending strings of commercials, let's remember it's still only November.  Thanksgiving has yet to arrive,  although we are eagerly counting down the days and anticipating a blessed and thankful day shared with family as we feast and have fun together!  On our road, we're proberly one of only a few houses that is still displaying a harvest decor of cornstalks, pumpkins, pilgrims and turkeys!  Most have given in to the Christmas decorating spirit (some as early as the end of October!) and seemed to have forgotten all about Thanksgiving.  The cold temps and snow do make it easier to want to push ahead towards the next holiday but for us, we'll wait it out and relish in the added joy of  anticipation!   Wasn't it Little House's -Ma Ingall's that told her girls "half the fun of something is looking forward to it!" and ya know I have to agree with that statement, many times I've found it to be true! 

  Peace, Sher

Daily Devotion 326

Such Blessings!

Blessings!

   Well, we finally met the Landlords...well have of them anyway:P

   Last weekend we received an email from his lovely wife letting us know that he would be arriving the next day (Sunday)~! It's not easy finding a day in the fall up here in Oregon, that is dry let alone sunny:P So, it's important to check the weather daily to see if there will be a window of time. They did and he was on his way.

   I want to share a wonderful thing here quickly. I was blessed to see the title of the email that she sent..."Greetings!! From your landlords wife!" It was wonderful to see that she acknowledged that she belonged to her husband:) Not as a possession but rather as his helpmeet, his adoring wife! Something not to be ashamed of in the least. It was truly refreshing:)

   Back to the visit:)

   He showed up Sunday morning around 10:30am. I had not been feeling well the night before and so had not slept well. This meant sleeping in just a tad the next day;P Miss Sarah was the only one dressed so she greeted him first while Miss Mary-Ann and I got dressed. Shame on me for being so lazy that day:P

   I went out to meet him and my what a blessing. He was very sweet and pleasant. For all of my silly conserns about things, it was wasted as he had no real expectations of us and so the fellowship was quite sweet and encouraging:) He spent time speaking with our Miss Sarah while she helped him at one point which she enjoyed greatly. She has since shared some little stories that he shared with her about himself.:)

   I had the blessed opportunity to correspond with his lovely bride and get to know her a bit better. I am looking very forward to getting to meet her in person. Perhaps Spring:) Lord willing:)

   We sent him home a few days later with some homemade soaps, peaches, pearbutter and oatmeal cookies which I've been told he ate half of on his ride home:P

   We have truly been blessed by the Father in our moving her. He has given us godly landlords, plenty of room for our homesteading needs and the sweet fellowship of this past week:) How could we ask for more?

   I know they read our blog now and again so I want to say...Brother and Sister...thank you for your sweetness and your encouragment here. You are truly a God breathed blessing in our lives.

God be with thee!

Sister Lori

It's a wonderful life

I love the movie It's a wonderful life.  How a bout you?   I love the love story, faith, how people help one another out.   What made me and my best friend Janet laugh was how much the price of a home was.  In the movie they talked about a home costing $5000.00 !!  For some people that is just a monthly payment not the total price of a new home!!

What happened to those days??  When a neighbor cared and help out a neighbor??  When you broke down (cars) people would help.  Where you would share you blessing more, like the extra in your garden.  Where people really respected each other.  When it was safer for children to be children.  What do we have for the kids today?  On t.v we have sex, drugs, drinking violence , porn.  Do you know that some underwear adds would have been porn back then??  What happened???  We need to go back to stronger values , to what is really important.  God , family , friends, others.

Bring back the good old days......

God Bless, mj

It's Always Something!

Blessings!

   Well, it's always something. Just as Miss Mary-Ann and I were arriving home from our class, there was Miss Sarah sitting at the front porch. She had gone out to feed the animals and found one of our whethers laying oddly in the pen. Closer inspection showed he was dying so she gathered him up and came to the front of the house to wait for us. He died just as we had arrived. Poor little thing. And our poor Miss Sarah. It seems she's always the one that is on hand at these times. Perhaps the Good Lord has given her this gift of comforting the dying animals we have.

   We were all saddened by Pi's passing but we expected it. Well, at least I did. I had been giving him injections for what i suspected was pneumonia. This was positively revealed at his passing this morning. I had hoped the medicines were working but it was already too late by the time I had figured out what it was. Such is farm life.

   This winter is supposed to be colder than last year and much wetter so we've decided to sell off the goats for this year and look into purchasing bred does in the Spring. We'll see. In the meantime, the ones we have, both Nigerians and Nubians, need to be sold.

   We will still have our chickens and ducks and rabbits. Of course the inside animals too but Brother Craig and I thought we would maybe take a break from the larger animals for a bit. It will be easier for us to afford wintering if we aren't feeding goats as well. It's a very difficult decision to make but we feel it's the best thing to do for this year.

   The Lord has brought us this far and we know He will walk us further on as we endeavor to do His Will in our lives. Times are going to get tougher before they get better so we are sure that the Lord is guiding us to make these changes for now. It will be better financially if we are able to cut back in a few ways and feeding the goats while they are not producing anyway is not a sound thing to do. One day, we won't have to pay for the feed, but until we are able to grow our own it's choices and decisions that need to be made:)

   Well, that's the haps for this day. We still have plenty of chickens for meat and eggs, ducks for meat and eventually the rabbits will be a good source for meat:)

   Now to pray for our Sarah as she needs a bit of uplifting this evening. God is so good! I know He has another wonderful adventure in store for us. I can't wait to see what it will be:)

God be with thee!

Sister Lori

Saving money

Every one likes to save money on groceries.  I usually don't use cupons, but last week my ddil showed me a web site that I could print off cupons.  Now I know that some of you are pros on this, yes this old granny can be taught new tricks.  Our local store ( we only have one major one) had some good sales on Thanksgiving foods.   And I was able to print off several cupons for things I wanted.  Well I saved $118.75 or 55% of my total bill.  I was thrilled. All my married life I have bought in bulk and cooked from scratch, so most cupons aren't usable for me, but now I see some possiblities.  Of course time to research the cupons could be a problem.

My immediate family now numbers 65, children and grandchildren,  Only 24 will be eating at our table this year.  That means 24 pies.

My ddil offered to do 4 of them.  The most I have made at one time was 32.  I will try to photograph them.  I want to wish all of you a very enjoyable Thanksgiving day. 

Wet Felting and Needle Felting

There is quite a difference between the two.  Up until about 2 weeks ago, I hadn't done much wet felting.  I took a class a few years back on wet felting and one of the projects was to felt around a rock.  The whole idea was to create a box with a fun design on the inside as well as the out.  When the whole thing dried, you cut it off the rock and VIOLA!, you have a surprise pattern on the inside of your box.  My rock was such that I could actually make an eyeglass case out of it.  It was a lot of work and I said I'd never do that again.  Yea, fast forward a couple three years and here I am, wet felting my brains out! 

With wet felting you have to layer the wool roving in about 3 to 4 layers, alternating the fibers.  You lay it on bubble wrap and put more bubble wrap over the top of the wool once you have poured hot soapy water all over the wool.  Then you begin to massage the wool!  The friction and hot, soapy water makes felt! 

One example of my work is the Thanksgiving Table Runner in the top left corner of my etsy avatar to the right.  It's the brown thing that looks like carrots laying on it!  Check it out and see what you think.  FYI, this is probably my most "normal" wet felting project so far!

Our eyes were opened

Hubby and I talked last night about the girls and how spoiled they are.  How it came about was we had the roof repair man come over to look at the leak.  He asked why we wanted to build a large house at our ranch.  I told him the home that is there  is only 1082 square feet and this house we live in is feeling smaller to us because we would like the grand babies to have a room just for them.  How many square feet is this house he asked?  1500 square feet.  He said his family of 4 live in a 865 square foot home.  ( I feel bad for looking at a 4200 square foot home). 

Then our daughter Shayna drove up, he asked if that was her truck? I looked at him and said yes.  He just looked at me.  He then asked if Kristi will be getting her own car?  I said yes ,as soon as we can find the truck we are looking for.  Then the girls started talking about what kind of 2 horse trailer they want because our 4 horse is to much from them to  haul just 2 horse or pigs.  The man asked me if we were going to buy them a 2 horse trailer?  I said yes.  He then had a look on his face that said they are spoiled.

It really open my eyes!!  They are really spoiled!!  Most children in a family do not each get their own trucks or a horse trailer.  They would use mom and dads.  They will share a horse trailer though. We do need a two horse trailer, it is not just for them.  When we go to horse shows it is a waste of gas to haul a huge 4 horse trailer with just an Arabian and a pony.

So last night we talked and it was really an eye opener for us both to see that our children have never wanted for anything.  My husband has worked very hard to give us what we need and more.  But we realize we need to change some things.  To see it through some ones else's eyes was the opener.   We are going to change some things.    I am not bragging or anything like that just sharing my growing some more.  It was just a real eye opener.  I mean a real eye opener !! 

God Bless, mj