Building with mud bricks

Progress is slow but the animals don’t seem to mind.

Cows and Sheep roam the hills together

Our first baby turkeys
Cute and little. I am told they grow fast.
I thank John for caring for our animals on his farm.

It is good to have a caretaker and pasture for our cows and Turkeys without taking play area from our kids in the village. Urukundo does supply a supplement to John’s grass land for food and care of our animals.
Animals need more than just pasture. They need salt and mash etc.
We have one milk producing cow at the village. The milk from this cow (Dolly) takes care of the babies and those who require milk in their diet for health reasons.
Counting Dolly we have we have 4 cows. At the farm we have a 7 month pregnant cow named Pansy. Her baby will make number 5. We are hoping for a girl calf. We have a one year old calf, and a one 5 month old calf, all females. We hope soon to have enough fresh milk and butter for all the kids and some to sell.
I am learning a lot about the care and feeding of livestock.
In the long run it benefits our kids.
We now have our own milk, eggs, and limited meat.

John has acquired a piece of land in another location and we are moving part of our farm from the village to that new location. This will give us more land at the village to develop for housing and schools. The chicken farm will remain where it is but the cows, turkeys, goats and sheep and larger animals will move to John’s location. There is just not enough ground in our village to expand or to allow for grazing animals and so another location is necessary. This allows John to own and develop a land and home for his children while working with Urukundo Village. There is just not enough ground in the Urukundo Village to expand for animals and John has agreed to grazing and caring for our animals. John has not given the farm a name yet maybe “Urukundo Land of Joy farm”. Hokey???

This location will also one day be the new ‘Home for widows with no means of support”. This is John’s vision fulfilling his dream to repay the women who sheltered him in his youth. The new area is in Inyanza, South Province and is about an hours drive from the village also in South Province. Pray for this to be a wise move. My prayer is for wisdom all the time. “God in Charge.”

Grazing for the cows. This farm is part of our commitment to serve the Lord and his children.

Our own source of water at the farm. Further development is needed. Water on our property is a pure gift from God.

Support for the farm can be designated as “farm development” through Pay Pal on the web site or a check to Hope Made Real, Pittsburg address OR Saint Johns/Newberry.

Look at Todd in our Sunflower Jungle.

Some of these plants are 10 to 12 feet tall. We have our own Sunflower jungle thanks to Betty Grunstra from Pennsylvania.

At last our baby has been born. She is beautiful and looks like her mother Blossom. Her name is Daisy.

Well, as you all know it was my desire to have all white turkeys on the farm. Too that end we bought a white Tom for breeding with the white hen. I also bought a black Tom and several hens to be our Christmas dinner. Sounded like a good plan.

Didn’t work.

The day before Christmas I sent word to the farm manager to slaughter three turkeys for the Christmas dinner and he did as directed. However he wanted me to have the biggest turkey for our dinner and so the white tom was selected and is no more. Needless to say Christmas dinner was not good for me. The kids had no such problem and enjoyed the meat very much.

Our turkey population is growing as we now have 6 chicks hatched from our own eggs and I hope one of them is a white Tom. We shall see.

We purchased three turkeys to help fatten up our Christmas dinner.

Now for the problem: the white one was so pretty we decided we would find her a mate and not eat her for Christmas. Then the black ones started laying eggs.  Now, no one wants to eat them for dinner.  For now, we are collecting the eggs to set a hen and raise chicks.

The radishes serve two purposes. I get to eat them and the chickens get the greens.  This gives the egg yolks a healthy gold color.  Most egg yolks in Rwanda are a pasty white.  Our eggs are special and when our chickens are in full production they should pay for their own food and feed our kids.

We are planting every inch of land available. This should help with food for the kids. The lettuce and radishes and spring onions are for me. I remember my mom planting onion sets but never onion seeds. Different, No?

Opportunity for employment
Farmer needed
Must love animals and kids
Especially
Chickens, cows, turkeys, dogs and in the future goats and rabbits. Planting is a must.
The Children are a bonus.
This job pays no wages, has lots of side benefits and the retirement plan is a home in heaven if you have done a good job.
Kidding aside, our farm will one day be an asset. For now it is in process.

Blossom should deliver a calf in November and then we will have milk for David and all our kids.
We’ll have an update on the chicken farm next month.

The Puppies

Our puppies are soon ready to leave their mother. Two of the dogs are spoken for, but of course the kids want to keep them all.

An Experimental Seed Garden

After trying our patience, the rains have finally started and so is my first American seed garden. This is an experimental garden and, yes, I got down on my knees in the soil and planted the seeds. A young woman helped me and thought the way I planted my seeds was very strange. Next month’s update will bring with it news as to whether this little experiment is successful.

A Gift of Trees

Talking about gifts from God. Hope, a house mother at the boy’s home, told a family member we were having a hard time getting timbers for building our roof. Trees are scarce here. He called and gave us 300 trees from his property and will help pay the labor to have the trees harvested and prepared for our use.

A Gift of a Cow Named “Flower”

As you may remember, last month Mary Claire, one of our first mama’s, was married. Well, in Rwanda, they still practice the tradition of a dowry, and as such, Claire’s parents were given two cows. Claire’s parents consider us family as well. They brought us gifts here at the village. We were given a large mat woven by hand, two cases of Fanta, a beautiful wooden lidded bowl filled with candy, and lastly and most importantly, a cow named Flower. What a wonderful gift.

The cow is young but a very good breed and will give us a calf and much milk in the future. Out of materials we had on hand we were able to build her a house with enough space for a second cow and a baby calf. We are expecting a second cow from the kind delegates of People to People who visited us in August. That cow will be fresh and will have milk for our baby David.