Peanut Butter Love...

Are you a peanut butter lover?
I am.
I could sit with a big spoonful, maybe two...
and eat it all by itself.
But, my favorite is homemade peanut butter.


Oh, Foxie.

Yeah, Mom?


Would you like to help mommy shell the peanuts?

Wellllll...I was really hoping you would throw some balls for me.
And, really mommy,  peanut butter isn't my favorite food, especially when it sticks to the roof of my mouth. yuk.


Go on, then girl, and fetch your ball.

*****
I buy raw peanuts and roast them lightly to get the peanut taste going...at about 200* in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
They are then cooled and shelled.


Honey, salt, peanut oil, spoon and a food processor are the added ingredients.
Put the peanuts into the processor and pulse about 20 times...


it should look about so in the photo below...
kind of crumbly but, not smooth, yet.


For every cup of peanuts...
 put in 1/8 tsp sea salt...
1/4 tsp honey...
1/2 tsp peanut oil
Turn the processor on and put in the ingredients...
bringing it to almost smooth.
From there, take a taste and see if you need to add any more of the ingredients to taste.
This is really about how you like your peanut butter to taste...
how thick or thin you want it. 


Once you are satisfied with the taste...
continue processing until smooth.
Optional: if you like chunky peanut butter...
you can add whole peanuts and just give it a few pulses to chop the peanuts into smaller sizes.


Spoon into a super clean jar.


May your day or night be smooth going by God's grace.
 Puppy 2 


Another Monday, Monday...

Oh, good morning!

I'm just hanging around...
while Foxie is checking out the garden...

We two doggies like to hang around together...
while mommy...

brings out her garden things...
and gets her seedlings ready for planting

Yep...
we like Mondays.
"Make a joyful noise unto God,
all ye lands:
Sing forth the honour of His name:
make His praise glorious."
Psalms 66:1,2

May your day or night be joyful.
                                                                                                                                                                                            

Of no Man's Religion...

The Gospel of Jesus Christ belongs to no man's religion...


It is the well-message of God's salvation to those who are His people.
The well-message comes from the Greek "euaggeliou"...
it signifies that those who are saved by this very Gospel of God are made whole from the sickness of sin.
In Matthew 9: 11-13, the Pharisees asked Jesus' disciples why He ate with the publicans and sinners.
His answer was...
"They that be whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick.
But, go ye and learn what that meaneth."
This Gospel of God is not given on any merit we have...
we have no merit to speak of.
We are depraved...
and...

"The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked: who can know it"?
Jeremiah 17:9

In the original Greek of the Bible,
the heart is described as crooked from all and
being mortally ill.
Mortally ill...
in other words, dead.
We are sick unto death...
hopeless, helpless in ourselves to find salvation.
We are not able in ourselves to do
anything good for salvation.
The only hope is that the grace and mercy
of God might find us...
electing to save our wretched selves from the wrath of everlasting punishment for sins against God.
Because we are dead in our sins, only God can make us alive.

"For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
1 Corinthians 15:22

And, in Titus 3:5...
"Not by works of righteousness that we have done,
but according to His mercy, He saved us,
by the washing of regeneration,
and renewal of the Holy Ghost;"

May you find grace and mercy in the Lord.

The Fence is Growing...

We didn't chop the large trees down that bordered the road and our cottage...
we cut them down to about 4 feet and used them as the posts for the bamboo fence.


They are now starting to shoot green branches again...
which is what we wanted.
We will have the trees again...
 and they will give us wonderful shade.
I do so hate chopping down trees into nothing.
I'll take shade trees to gold anytime.


While those trees are growing...
our plum "sticks" are producing plums.


They were just bare sticks that looked hopelessly dead...
but, they had plenty life in those twiggy trunks...
which as soon as my husband planted...
began to work at growing.


Can you see my little friend, the lady bug?
I watched her traveling up the trunk...
 stopping here and there...
perhaps, shopping for buggie food.


She'll keep the bad critters off my plums...
so, she is quite welcomed as my guest...


a tiny red dot busy with the life God has given her.
*******
The photos below show our plum tree at our seaside cottage.


The tiny buds come out dressed in pretty pink...
which grow into tiny green plums...


that grow into little globes of a lighter shade of burgundy...


growing sweeter and jucier by the day...
until they are ready to be picked...
and eaten by the bowlful.


May your day or night be a bowl of sweet plums today.



Quiet Rest...

The last two days have been of quiet rest...
from farmwork;
it's been raining almost non-stop.

With a hammock beckoning on the veranda...
what else could one do?

He really did try to read;
but, the sound of the soft rains...
and a cool breeze whispering through the veranda...

eventually...
the book found it's way to his lap...
closed it's pages...
and took it's nap along with husband

There is a place of quiet rest more precious than a hammock...

"Return unto thy rest, O my soul;
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee."
Psalms 116:7

"There is a place of quiet rest
 near to the heart of God.
A place where sin cannot molest
near to the heart of God."

"O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
sent from the heart of God;
hold us, who wait before Thee,
near to the heart of God."
hymn lyrics and tune by Cleland Boyd McAfee (1866-1944)

May you find rest in God today.

Bounty...

Welcome back to pilgrim's cottage and farm!
Please do enter and visit a bit...
see what we are doing today.
This morning, we harvested sweet potatoes, cassava, bananas...
cauliflower, broccoli
papayas...
lettuce and cabbage...
and a soursop aka guanabana...
which we opened up...
a sweet fruit that makes a great smoothie
We also harvested a few cacao pods...
cracked them open and set them to "sweat"...
after which, they will be laid out in the sun to dry.
Did you know the white pulp covering the cacao is edible?
It is very sweet and juicy.
We are also preparing more wax cones for our bees...
they are making honey very fast and will need more cones today.
In the bottom left of the cone photo, you can see that the tiny maribone wasp is looking over the wax cone.
This morning, I also picked basil and lemongrass for making ice tea
I simply rinse them well, wring them to get the juices started...
put them in with organic tea leaves in a heat-proof pitcher...
pour hot (not boiling) water over them...
and let them steep for a few hours to bring out the flavors and medicinal properties from the herbs.
I strain the tea and put in honey to taste.

Proverbs 12:11 says:
"He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread..."

This is actually speaking on spiritual things, but often the Lord uses earthly pictures to give us information on His salvation. We can know that by what it says in the next sentence of that verse...

"...but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding."

In the last verse of chapter 12, we read:

"In the way of righteousness is life;
and in the pathway thereof there is no death."

It is in the righteousness of Lord Jesus Christ that we put our till in for salvation. 
There we will have bread of life eternal and can avoid the pitfalls 
of the wicked who know not God and die in their sins.

May it be the Lord guides you today in His truth. 

A Matter of Little Importance...

The "what to do with the veranda" dilemma
is of little...
or, rather...
of no importance...
at all.
I'll explain.

The sun sets on that side you see on the veranda...
putting the sun into our eyes at suppertime.
I am trying to decide if lace curtains...
my own sewn curtains...
or shades would look best there.
And, that bench needs better seating pillows.
I'll work on that, too.
It's a bench we pull up for guests so,
it needs to be more comfortable for them.
In the meantime...
my after farm work frock is finished...
time doing other things took over for awhile.

A simple frock...
with just a small detail or two


** * **
I enjoy hand-sewing the edges around the neck and armholes...
it gives it a homemade look detail

French seams...
are my favorite kind of seams...
looking neat and clean.

A ruffle is all that's needed for the front...
and gathers rather than darts for a untailored look.


** * **
These things above in the photos mean nothing...
in the scheme of things.
Psalms 32:10,11 says what is really important:

"The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought:
He maketh the devices of the people of none effect."

on the other hand...

"The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever,
the thoughts of His heart to all generations."

May the grace of God find you this day, or night.