In the Beginning

Each of these ducks is an offspring of a grey duck and buff drake. You can see the vast array of colors of genetic diversity. As breeders we look at what trait we like or suit’s a given man made breed standard, then we isolate it. This is done by breeding desirable traits and culling undesirable traits. By the third generation you have locked in a trait. On occasion you will get a throw back of one of the original colors or traits mixed in the gene pool. As the variety of each species were placed on Noah's Ark, they were dispersed and spread to different locations while adapting to their environment. The strongest survived, while the original genetic information remained intact. God has created what environment and man has isolated.

 

Genesis 7

² Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
³ Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
⁴ For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
⁵ And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.

Genesis 8
¹⁵ And God spake unto Noah, saying,
¹⁶ Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.
¹⁷ Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
¹⁸ And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:
¹⁹ Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
 ²⁰ And Noah built an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
²¹ And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

Genesis 9
 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
⁹ And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
¹⁰ And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
 ¹¹ And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
 ¹² And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
 ¹³ I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
 ¹⁴ And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
 ¹⁵ And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
 ¹⁶ And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
 ¹⁷ And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

 

 

Grandma Esther

Esther and her brother Albert

I often wonder, if those in heaven can hear and see us on our earthly journey. I did not really appreciate my Grandmother until after she had gone. It seems the older I get the more of her attributes, I hope to acquire.
Grandma Esther left the farm in Deary, Idaho to come be close to my mother, her only child. She lost three husbands over the years, all to heart attacks. My mother still recounts the stories of her daddy having attacks when she was a child. Looking back, we feel that his heart must have been weak from childhood. How frightening that must have been for a child to see her daddy slump over and fall to the ground. The clincher for him was the inoculations he received when he enlisted in the military. His heart could not withstand the onslaught of viruses and weekend what little he had left. After his passing, my grandmother met a man named Henry. He was a kind, Christian man that helped raise my mother. I never heard anything but kind words throughout the years from both my mother and grandmother about him. Many years after Henry’s passing, grandma met a man named Paul. Paul was financially secure, something my grandmother had not known growing up on the farm. They married and he later became an alcoholic. I remember my grandmother leaving on a midnight train as she feared for her own life. It did not seem like she was in Phoenix that long before a Western Union Telegram arrived from Portland. We were all sitting in the living room as my dad read it out loud. Paul had been found on the sidewalk. He had been stricken by a heart attack. Grandmother covered her eyes and wept…
Grandma still owned the 220 acre farm in Deary. She had left it under the watchful eye of a neighbor. She received news that someone had broken in and stolen her oval picture frames and other cherished items that had been brought by her parents from Sweden. Deciding to stay in Phoenix with my mother, she quickly sold the farm long distance. It was sold for a meager ten thousand dollars. The people that purchased it, sold the timber and paid for the farm in full. My grandmother's deepest regret in life was that she had not listened to her daddy. Swan had homesteaded the place during the 1800‘s. He would often tell her, "Esther do not ever sell, there is enough wood to last several generations."
After the sale of the farm, she purchased a little shanty of a house on Montebello. When asked what color she would paint it, she would reply, “Pink of coarse” and pink it was. Monetarily she did not have much. She lived off of a small pension, she received from her long and tireless hours spent as a sales clerk at Montgomery Wards. She always had money for a birthday’s and Christmas. We would often tease her about making money in her kitchen. I can not recount a time that she sat idle. She was either cooking up as storm, baking, canning, crocheting, knitting or quilting. There was nothing that woman could not do.
My memory takes me to times of seeing her in the grocery store with a cart full of empty boxes. They would be stacked so high, you could not make out the little old lady behind the cart. If you went to the back room, you could get boxes for free in those days. Those were the very boxes that our Christmas and birthday gifts would be wrapped.
Grandma would travel the grocery stores like a circuit and calculate who could offer her the best deal. She would make a deal on seconds with the produce manager and purchase it for much less. Then she would travel home to begin her endless hours of canning.
She would never watch a violent or any movie that had an ounce of immorality. Her favorites were a ball game or Lawrence Welk. In her younger days, she loved to dance. She would often times go to a place called the Odd Fellows. It was nothing like what we know of today. Latter in life, she had a small group of friends that would meet once a month to play cards. It was nothing fancy, just a time to put together some treats and enjoy good company. One by one, they passed on.
When greeted at her home, you would always find her wearing a dress that often times was laden with a pretty floral gingham apron. She would quickly remove it and begin her ritual of asking, what she could get you. She bestowed a servant's heart. Her family was always number one. Her generosity was boundless. Esther Betty Swanson was quite a lady.
If you can hear me from heaven, I love you and miss you dearly.

Cheryl Anne

“Are you afraid to die? Remember that for a child of God, death is only a passing through to a wonderful new world...” Corrie Ten Boom

The Serenade

Winter is definitely not my favorite season. Although I can appreciate it's beauty, I am a sunshine kind of gal at heart. There are those first snows that bring me the feeling of walking in a winter wonderland and then I dust myself off and look forward to long awaited arrival of spring.

This evening while putting in the chickens, turkeys, and ducks, I was being serenaded by what sounded like a symphony of birds nestled deep within the braches of the cedar trees. As I paused to listen more closely, I realized that this beautiful sound was not birds at all, but an abundance of tree frogs. The weather has been unusually nice the past couple of days. My thoughts are that they have been tricked into thinking it is spring. It will only be a matter of days that they will hibernate deep within the ground and become temporarily frozen. While they are intricately designed, they will survive the desolate Pennsylvania winters to find themselves in full harmony once the ground begins to warm.

C.A. Bresin

Job 37
God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. 6 He says to the snow, fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty and downpour.’ 7 So that everyone he has made may know his work, he stops all people from their labor. 8 The animals take cover; they remain in their dens. 9 The tempest comes out from its chamber, the cold from the driving winds. 10 The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. 11 He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them. 12 At his direction they swirl around
over the face of the whole earth to do whatever he commands them. (NIV)

Homemade Kefir

Homemade Kefir is well worth your effort and contains all natural ingredients.

Place two tablespoons of milk Kefir grains in 1 quart of raw cow, goat, or sheep milk.

Place on top of your refrigerator for 24-48 hours in wide mouth canning jars.

Cover with cheese cloth. Place a rubber band around the top to secure your cloth.

After your Keefir is done. Remove grains and place in refrigerator. You may begin the process again or save grains until you are ready for your next batch.

Add 2 cups or 1 package of frozen raspberries (or fruit of choice) and  ¼ cup of maple syrup to the Kefir.

Blend in blender. Chill in covered glass containers.

Give it a shake prior ro serving.

If your worried about bacteria from raw milk, you can heat it to 160* for three minutes. This does not pasteurize it but kills bacteria.

Kefir grains should be lightly rinsed in cool water every few days. You can freeze Keefer grains to share with friends. You will need approximately 2 tablespoons of Kefir grains per quart of raw milk.

Freeze Freshly Picked Berries Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Cover with freshly picked berries. Place in your freezer until frozen. Then simple transfer to a Mason Jar or covered glass container. This prevents fruit from sticking together.

Recipe from the kitchen of C.A. Bresin