Happy Monday

Last week a Texas lady in a Chewbacca mask broke the Facebook record of most views to a video with 130 million views! Did you see it? Probably, 130 million views! And the remarkable thing is it wasn't that fancy, didn't have fancy effects and wasn't R rated! She was laughing, experiencing good old JOY, and it was contagious. You couldn't help but laugh along with her.
Have you ever watched the videos of "babies laughing"? Same thing there, babies get the giggles over one thing or another and next thing you know you have them too.
It's wonderful!!

When my grandson Ezra was younger he would get the giggles watching our dog Turf chase bubbles!  It was great!               The face of pure Joy!

Proverbs 17:22 says "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

I hope that today we are all able to experience that kind of Joy.  Throw your head back and belly laugh. If you need help getting started you can look up "lady in Chewbacca mask" or "babies laughing" on YouTube.

Or better yet think about this, 

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."  Psalm 118:24

The Bin is In

Well it was really as simple as that...

We've been saving egg shells and coffee grounds for about a week and today was carrot juice day!

Caleb helped me with the drill and bin set up. 

We used cardboard as the filler between the layers of our kitchen waste.

Now we wait a week to get our worms and put them to work

Red Worm Composting

Red Worms

Today is Red Worm Composting Set-Up Day! 

Since we won't be getting the goats or chickens until this summers growing season is over we have decided it might be fun to get a "worm farm" going!  Vermicomposting is an excellent way to reduce food waste, produce organic fertilizer, and enrich garden bed soil naturally by eliminating dangerous chemical fertilizers.  

We already had some Rubbermaid tubs that were not being used so today I'm going to follow the instructions in the video below and we'll see what happens.  I will post pictures later!  :-)

Did you know?

There are over seven thousand species of earthworms; however, one species in particular is well suited for indoor composting: Eisenia fetida, also called red wiggler worm. 

Some fun worm facts:

• Worms do not have eyes; they have cells in the front part of their bodies that can detect light. 
• Worms do not have teeth; they grind up food by using the grit in their gizzard. 
• Worms living in an indoor worm bin (Eisenia fetida) can eat half their body weight in food scraps every day! 
• Worms have both male and female reproductive organs but still need another worm to reproduce. 
• Eiseniafetidahave5“heart-like”organscalledaorticarches. 
• Eisenia fetida start reproducing when they are about 2 months old. 
• One mature worm can produce about 100 worms in a year. 
• Worms live up to one year. 
• Worms“breathe”throughtheirskin,soitisveryimportanttokeepthemandtheirenvironmentmoist, but not sopping wet as they can drown if it’s too wet. 
• If you hold a worm long enough, you will likely see a yellow secretion on your hand, called coelomic fluid. 
• Coelomic fluid is thought to be a defense mechanism against predators as the liquid can smell bad. This bad smell is thought to be the basis of their name fetida or foetida which is the Latin scientific term used for many foul-smelling species. 
• Coelomic fluid is also a way for worms to remoisten their bodies when conditions are dry. 

What a find, it's a sign!

Proverbs 12:10-11 "The righteous care for the needs of their animals,......
Those who work their land will have abundant food.

Today Erik had some time between stores so he stopped at a library used book store to pass the time. Anybody who knows Erik knows he loves books.  Look at the treasure he scored today for only $1.00!  Perfect timing!
"The Homesteader's Handbook to Raising Small Livestock" fits into our new adventure perfectly!
Of course there is no shortage of information on the internet but if we ever are in a post zombie apocalypse and need good old "hard copy" we will have it! ;-)

Welcome to the  "Hinkston Homestead"

Proverbs 12:10-11     "The righteous care for the needs of their animals,.......................Those who work their land will have abundant food."

According to Wikipedia:

"Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of foodstuffs, and it may or may not also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale." 

So it seems like we are about to start on a new adventure at "Mammy's House" Goats.... 

Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats.  These are tiny little bundles of energy and high butterfat milk.  

We used to have goats, Pygmy and Nubians and we loved them. They are intelligent and sweet and make fun loving pets.  Our new goats will be more, we are going to try our hand at dairy farming!  Goat milk cheese and soap will be the "small scale production" on our homestead and the goats will be most helpful with the compost pile for our garden and subsequent  "preservation of foodstuffs"  we are very excited.

Starting any new adventure is a lot of work and takes some planning so I don't expect to get the goats soon, we have to get a proper enclosure built, (pintrest has been most helpful with ideas) and we are researching breeders in our area.  The Del Mar Fair starts this weekend and we will be there to talk goats with the folks that know their stuff. This will be fun, I will keep you posted.

Day 8 Walking the City

Caleb and Camel!!

Yeah that crazy thing I mentioned that I did on the mount of olives... I rode a camel lol




So today was a walking day. We were dropped off at the temple mount and got to go inside and walk around and get up close to the mosque. Just behind the dome there Is a smaller one and this is directly infront of the main gate to the temple mount, this little tiny dome is called the "some of spirits" When the Muslims would do their "ceremony" around the dome of the rock they felt a presence every time they passed this tiny patch of bedrock so they built an arch over it and left it. But this spot is actually believed to be the same spot where the holy of holies was!...and even the Muslims couldn't deny feeling the presence of God! They may not have known who it was but they felt him. 
Really cool. From there we toured the actual underground ruins, I was mistaken earlier, that was actually just the wall of the temple mount lol. But this was the real city. After this we went to lunch on mount Zion and then saw the temple institute where the Jews are preparing the holy artifacts for there new temple.  We saw a 4 foot tall solid menorah that weighs about 95 kilos if I remember correctly. After seeing this stuff we went down to the southern steps where an had a teaching and then back to the hotel and it's wifi haha....did I mention we WALKED THE WHOLE DAY!! Yeah no bus all feet -_- but I'm taking off now for another feast of dinner have a good day America =)

Day 7 Israel

Pastor Josh and his sweet family

Good morning home and goodnight israel lol. 
So we started today with a trip to the Mount of Olives and there I did something crazy! haha I'll post pics later. We had our fist teaching of the day over looking Jerusalem and then walked down the path of palm Sunday and had worship in the Garden of Gethsemane. Then we went to the western wall of the Temple mount and took a little tour of the underground ruins of the original wall and the City of David and saw a solid pice of the wall weighing in at a crazy 900 tons...ONE STONE!!! Lol  Then we went for lunch on the house courtesy of the CEO of coral tours. After that we went to emmaus where Jesus followed the two girls who were grieving his death and then showed them he had risen and also where Joshua asked God to extend the day just so that he may defeat his enemies. Even different cultures have an account of a strangely long day and even the Aztecs have a record of a abnormally longer night!.....how does one deny his power with this proof?? After that we went to the birth place of Samson. From there we went to my favorite part of the day, the same river bed where David picked his five stones and we all got to pick our own as a little reminder that no matter how big our giants in our life may be we always have God on our side and can do all things through him. And that brings to the end of the day at the hotel next door enjoying the free wifi, but I'm tired thanks for reading I appreciate it because this is take two...first try it got deleted so...goodnight home I'll see you in four days haha...peace