We look at cattle, a lot! We look at cattle everyday, really. Somedays, husband and I will just jump on the four-wheeler or side-by-side in the afternoon, and ride through the cattle for relaxation. I know, it’s weird. We talk about our day or whatever is coming up; sometimes we talk about the cows. We make decisions on who should go and who should stay. It’s our time together. Yesterday, we did this as a wind-down from a full weekend and on our way back to the house, I asked him to stop the buggy so I could get out and take a few pictures.
Like a lot of other times, I knew there was a Word brewing in my spirit. I looked at the pasture that was overloaded with cattle. We have brought home the entire herd from the winter pastures. All of the cattle are here at home while the winter grass is dying and the summer grass is trying to take off. There are a LOT of cows all together and it is pretty unusual for us to have most of them all in one pen.
We returned home from our recent trip to Starkville, MS with a large box of apples. We attended a cattle sale there, at our friends’ sale, The Magnolia Classic. They bring in several varieties of apples from their hometown orchards in West Virginia to share with all of the people visiting their farm and supporting their sale. We definitely brought home more than we could eat, so I had to figure out a new thing to do with them!
I made apple pie filling last year and canned it, but we still have some left and I didn’t have as much time to commit to that again. I put in a little research and realized that apple sauce was easy to do and could be used in quite a few recipes, if I don’t just end up eating it out of the jar! It was so easy to peel and cut up the apples, throw in a few ingredients, turn on the crockpot and walk away!
After a few hours in the crockpot and a good stir, the applesauce was done. I poured it into some jars, canned it and ta-da, homemade applesauce! I ended up doing a couple of batches and still had to give some apples away because there were so many. A few still remain on the counter, hoping to be eaten!
I really didn’t intend to write about the sale or the apples, but something struck me as I watched my kids this weekend. They went out on a search to buy a pumpkin. Last minute and on a Sunday evening, they had a hard time finding a suitable pumpkin to carve. Do you know what they ended up doing? They bought watermelons! Watermelons!
I mean, who does that? Who decides, there aren’t pumpkins available, so let’s carve a watermelon instead? My kids, that’s who! And by doing so they taught me a valuable lesson!
I took a look at the creativity and the ingenuity of what they had done and I was amazed! But it’s quite the same thing that moms and wives do every day cooking supper/dinner, right? You take something and turn it into something else! Just like turning apples, that will spoil and go bad, into applesauce that will be shelf stable for a few years.
Just like those apples, without a vision to make them last, they will perish. Just like my kids, without a vision, the plans of carving a pumpkin would have vanished. Instead, they took the vision and ran with it and were able to turn their plan into a reality.
Can I encourage you today, along with myself, to grasp the vision? Take hold of His vision, His plan and run with it! Don’t get bogged down in the things that you cannot change. Don’t get stuck in situations or what you see in front of you. If you do, it may perish. But if we could see things with His vision, through His eyes, we can see Him do a new thing! We will see our dreams and our visions become reality!
Maybe your vision is for a lost child, a broken marriage, or a financial crisis. He is doing a new thing! We just have to have His vision to see it! Listen to what He said, he is not a man that He should lie. If He said it, He will do it!
Have vision and see those apples turn into a new thing!
Well, it’s that time of year and everyone is getting up to date on their vaccinations. All of the cattle, that is! Cows getting ready to calve are being brought home from summer pastures and we are preparing the open cattle for fall breeding. It has been quite a few long days of syringes, needles and shots!
Each group of cows has been caught up and sorted. Open, not pregnant, cattle have been separated from those that are bred and each has been put through the chute to be wormed and vaccinated in preparation for the upcoming breeding season. The cattle need to be in top condition to obtain optimal results. Bred cows were treated and moved to proper pastures in preparation for calving. We have had our first calf hit the ground and are expecting quite a few in the coming weeks.
