The other side of farming

Often people romanticize about living off the land, being a farmer, or or even studying abroad. While these things are wonderful, the reality is there is another side to everything most people hear about or see.

On Saturday, the 10th of October, went to our first dairy cow class at Five Nine Heifer Farm in Questa, NM. You can learn more about them at: www.handmilking.com. Joy and Robert train cows, people, sell trained cows, and loads more. If you want a family cow, and need to learn from knowing nothing to becoming a professional, Joy and Robert are the people to see.

The following pictures might make you rethink about owning a family cow, but it's better to rethink now before you bring her home. We had to perform internal exams on a pregnant and a non-pregnant cow. There are many reasons why this must be done; they are mostly the same reasons they are preformed on humans.

I'm sure some will have questions, so don't be shy to ask. That look on my face isn't fear, I'm just focused, lol.

August 2015 Developments

Non-stop activity and a to-do list that overwhelmed us, we started the month focusing on getting the shipping container, called The Shelter, organized and kitted out. It is to function as an emergency shelter, with a complete kitchen and storage, with sleeping facilities for our family of six. We bought six large 4 ft x 2 ft x 6 ft shelves to store our belongings and food in an organized manner. Over the early days we bought two sets of bunk beds (second hand), a futon sofa, and a gas stove. We stocked shelves with food, got the kitchen and Berkey water filter set up, and were in business. We set up a privacy tent in the back to house a composting toilet and The Shelter was good to go, al hamdulillah. 

We then dug a large 3 x 6 x 3 hole for our composting. We used the dirt to fill 17 tires for planting. We also weeded and prepared to straw covered planting beds and made 6 more planting beds.

We used our telephone poles, given to us last summer by Springer Electric, to outline our private cemetery, so it is clearly marked. Alhamdul'Illah, we do not have to bury in a casket and can have completely Islamically compliant burials.

Corner posts went in for the 23 acre plot and for a 2 .2 acre livestock corral on the 28 acre side. The 2,2 acre corral was then fenced in with goat and sheep fence and a gate put up.

19-21 August: Went to Dallas, TX for our first job doing Permaculture evaluations for some land sites being considered by a family friend.

22 August: received 40ft shipping container to be used as a masjid, In striving to emulate the example of our beloved Prophet Muhammad, sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam, our first priority after established safe shelter was to have a masjid. Masjid Al Muqarraboon is now at Healing Earth - al hamdulillah!

22 August: While trying to adjust the position of the masjid to be more exactly in line with the qiblah, our recently purchased Ford Excursion burned to the ground with 500lbs of chicken feed, most of our electronics, and many other belongings inside - al hamdulillahi Rabb il aal ameen! Nobody was hurt and it was a test greeted with gratitude and patience. What a purification, expiation, and elevation bi idhn Illah!

The fire and replacing certain key things like the organic feed, phones, and computers changed the near term plans by the Will of Allah. We had to postpone getting the next shipping container, which was to be the barn for our dairy cow and bull calf, and also postpone the training and purchase of the cow and calf until spring 2016, However, we turned our focus on planting for autumn, looking for smaller animals, and setting us a shop front/office space in the village to serve as our homeschooling center and online teaching base for Shariyf. Rent is $50 per month, internet and phone are reliable, and it has a glass store front window so we can use it to display our goods for sale, inshaa Allah. Allah is ever Merciful and all success lies with Him alone.

Upon Arrival: July 2015

This is not an exhaustive list, but will give you an idea of what we have done since arriving in the USA on 8 July 2015.

10 July: got our 10 cylinder Ford Excursion and drove with all our belongings from Northern Virginia to Pennsylvania to pick up our 28ft travel trailer

11 July: started our 4-day, cross country drive to New Mexico while fasting the days of Ramadhaan

14 July: arrived in Roy and stayed at the village bed and bath, until we got water

16 July: Started unpacking and setting up a storage tent for our boxes of belongings

17 July: Eid Al Fitr: Went to Amarillo, TX for 3 days, to see the Muslim community

19 July: returned to Healing Earth to receive a delivery of four 1,650 gallon water tanks and a manual water pump. Placed 3 water tanks on 23 acre plot and one more on the 28 acre plot

21 July: welcomed Shariyf's mother and aunt who visited for 9 days

24 July: Camper Shell

25 July: drove to Colorado Springs to purchase blue egg laying chickens from a British man - 20 organically fed beautiful hens nearly ready to lay and a handsome rooster to rule the roost, maashaa Allah!

26 July: added roosting bars to their chicken coop and started putting up chicken wire around our fruit tree orchard for their foraging area

30 July: Delivery of 40 foot shipping container - to be used as our emergency shelter and kitchen. Moved RVs to form a small yard area

Planning for Success: Ramadhaan 1436

Bismillah wa assalaamu alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

For major events in life, we usually make plans so that they will be a success. Well the "Month of the Year" is coming up, a month that can turn hearts, set lives in order or back on track, repair broken connections with our Creator, and be an expiation for all that has gone before it. Ramadhaan deserves planning - planning for success!

Something I find very beneficial in Ramadhaan is to have a study plan, or lessons, that fit the month -
30 days:30 lessons. Here are some suggestions for your Ramadhaan study plan.


SISTERS ONLY CLASSES: Making the most of Ramadhaan and The Qur'aan: A Light and a Mercy

This 29-day course consists of two daily classes during Ramadhaan:
Making the Most of Ramadhaan:
Using the book Fasting from Alif to Yaa, compiled by Umm Mujaahid, Khadijah bin Lacina Al Amreekiyyah, and
Sittings during the Blessed Month of Ramadan By Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Saalih Al-Uthaymeen
The Qur'aan: A Light and Mercy:
This interactive class will cover a Surah a day from the Surahs of Juz Amma as well as Suratul-Fatiha. It will include: Tafseer, rules of Tajweed and evaluation of recitation, tips on memorization and review, the importance and benefits of learning and reciting the Qur'aan, especially within the month of Ramdhaan, and much more.

Disciplining the Soul by Ibn Jawzi, raheemahullah. This is truly a self-help/self-improvement book for Muslims, maashaa Allah, with 30 short, life-changing chapters. We have recently read it as part of our Islamic Studies curriculum, so we are not including it in our Ramadhaan study plan, but it is something I plan to revisit yearly bi idhn Illah, ta'ala either in Ramadhaan or in preparation the month.

Shk Uthaymeen's Daily Sittings in Ramadhaan
We did these for 3 or 4 Ramadhaans in a row, maashaa Allah, and they are wonderful!

Bitesize Articles 2011
Short lessons for each day of Ramadhaan by Abbas Yahya, found on Al Miraath Publications website.

Bitesize Articles 2013
A different set of short lessons for Ramadhaan by Abbas Yahya, found on Al Miraath Publications.

Our family will be having a very international Ramadhaan, bi idhn Illah ta'ala, with the first week spent in Madinah, the second in Makkah, the third England, and the last traveling across the USA from Washington DC to New Mexico inshaa Allah. We are planning a course of study that can be done on the road, on the run, offline, and pretty much wherever we find ourselves. This year, we are focusing on tafseer of the Qur'aan. We seek greater understanding and connection with Allah's perfect words. What more appropriate time to do that than the month the Qur'aan was revealed?

We have found some wonderful technology to assist us, an application called Quran Tafsir Pro. This application has the Qur'aan ayah by ayah by a huge range of qaaris, including Ibrahim al Akhdar, the qaari we learn our recitation from exclusively. It also has the translation, and at one touch, the tafsir of each ayah. Not only that, but it has an ayah test and random ayah test feature where you are shown an ayah and have to chose the translation/meaning of each word and are scored at the end. On the touch of a word it will give you the grammatical information about it, maashaa Allah. Now that's beneficial entertainment we can all happily indulge in bi idhn Illah ta'ala! And lastly in my promo for this application (ha ha ha!), it has a feature where you can see the du'a from the Qur'aan - beautiful, wal hamdul'Illahi Rabbil aal ameen!

We will be tapping in to Umm Mujaahid's class, Making the Most of Ramadhaan whenever we can inshaa Allah. We are also planning to use the interactive Qur'aanic Arabic Quiz Programme, www.80percentwords.com These things, along with our goal to complete the recitation of the complete Qur'aan over the month, will be our plan for Ramadhaan 1436 bi idhn Illah ta'ala.

We seek Allah's success for our family, your family, and our whole ummah in reaching and exceeding our goals this  Ramadhaan - ameen!

Subhaanaka wa bihamdika laa ilaaha ilaa ant, astaghfirukah wa atoobu ilayk.