The wonder of the Hens

Six months is starting to peek its head around the corner, as I am counting up the time since we got our new chicks. So sweet and small when they arrived. Now as there are thoughts of egg laying popping into their heads, it is hard to remember where the time has gone!
 It has been a marvel of loving and learning, failure and success, and oh the joy of responsibility. Chickens never sleep in. Most days the girls and I have enjoyed scrapping out of bed in the morning to get them their breakfast, but as the days grew colder, it got harder and harder. Thankfully we are now out of the din of deep winter and about to turn the corner of spring. With that, the hens seem to have taken on a new love of life and egg laying. Our egg count is up from a meager 4 a day to whopping 20! Almost everyday, Chloe and Gwen, tell me we have a new record high! Today we are hoping for 25, oh, the excitement of it all! One of the best parts in how amazing they are. There is just something about enjoying eggs from a farm, you know where they came from, what the hens were treated like and what they ate. We love our ladies and really love their eggs! Here is a bit of the process of where we started to where we are now.

Pasture Pork!

  We are now taking reservations for spring piglets here on the farm. We require a $150 deposit for a whole or $100 for a half a pig. We respect animals and feel that they should be allowed to live as naturally as possible while under our care. These pigs will really live the good life and they are to be butchered as humanely as possible. We will be using a small time butcher, not a commercial slaughterhouse, we want to ensure that these animals are treated humanely and the meat is not mixed up with that of other animals. We feed predominately Poulin grain which is hormone and antibiotic free and garden scraps.

 Fill your freezer this year with good, healthy, humanely raised, delicious pork. Every year the taste is so much better than store bought, and the pigs enjoy their lives while they're here, unlike the meat you buy in the supermarket. These pigs will be raised free range. Living in a natural environment gives them access to the things pigs need and love. We will be ‘finishing’ our pigs on orchard apples to help improve the meat.

We sell our pork by the pound as a whole pig or half of a pig. Our pork is $3.50/lb and you also pay the processing which will total about $.75 cents/lb. A whole pig is about 180lbs of pork and a half is about 90lbs.

**We plan on buying piglets in the spring for those who have pre-ordered (w/ deposit). We raise them for about 7 months before they are large enough to butcher.

***Customers who refer a friend who then pre-orders (w/ deposit) will receive $20 dollars off their bill! 

Stop by and visit our farm (and your pig) anytime and see for yourself the benefits of ‘farm fresh’.

First Day Of Snow

There is just something so exciting about the first day of snow. Even now, as an adult, I still get all giddy and can't wait to see it. Well, that was today. As soon as we woke up, we could start to hear little squeaks of delight coming from the kids rooms.

 This is the first time Isaiah has ever really seen snow and been old enough to take notice of it. He loved it! I just have to say, I am so thankful for the seasons. Each one has its own little joys and excitements. What an amazing God we have!

~Ruth

A bit of a change

I sit, looking out my window at the leaves changing color and falling. My two year old (almost three I might add) is also tumbling on the bed. I hear an occasional, " k, watch me!" and then she thumps down.  I feel like our life has also taken so many twist and turns over this past year and a half. We have hidden away for awhile, reconnecting as a family.
 God is good and has provided a place for us to be refreshed and rested, friends and family to encourage us. Life is a gift, I have really loved being able to sit back and enjoy it this past year.
Now we are coming back to the world of communicating. Hoping to keep you all up on what is happing here in New Hampshire.
~Ruth

Isaiah

So we are working on painting the inside of the house room by room as we have the time and funds. I had left a plastic container of that 'whole filler'. Thinking a 'closed' container wouldn't be a problem I was WRONG!  Thanks Son.  ; )

New Generator :)

A big hardy THANK YOU to Freedom Fellowship in AZ, and the families in it for funding us with a generator for our family.

Here is what happened. I was talking with a friend of mine in AZ and in our conversation I mentioned that I'm a bit scared that if we get a big storm this winter and our power goes out then our heating system also stops working and then our pipes could freeze and burst and then that would be offal to say the least. Unbenouced to me he started a church collection and funded us the money to purchase what we needed. Isn't it awesome when the body of Christ helps each other! Something we wont forget.

Again, Thank you,
~The Kane's

Kane Update: Moving again... What?!

“I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever;
   with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.” Psalms 89:1

It’s been a few weeks since our last update and we have MUCH to share about God’s faithfulness in our lives. Some of you may not know that a few years ago with the help of my parents Ruth and I were able to purchase a house (just 8 min. away from Ruth’s parents). We’ve always had renters in the house and had hoped that this house would be a ‘home base’ for us when on furlough. Since being back our plan was to stay with Ruth’s parents until next year when the lease agreement was over with our current (Christian) renters. But.... instead we have epic news! About 10 days ago our renters called us and said, “We know you have plans to move into your house next summer and it would also be at that time that we would need to find another place and with our home business doing well, we’ve decided to move somewhere else and want you to move into your house while we continue to pay our lease agreement until next summer.” Can you believe it?! Isn’t God amazing! So, we now have plans to move into our house in just a few weeks. And seeing as how God has continued to close every door opportunity with  ‘full time’ work. I’m excited to paint the interior, refinish the floors, and work on cutting/stacking 10 cords of wood before moving in. Please continue to pray for ‘full time’ work opportunities for me. I’m still waiting to hear back from a construction job, microchip job, and prison correction officer job, as well as continuing to look for anything else.

On other news this is our LAST month that will be receiving financial support through NTM. Any support sent to NTM for us after this month will be returned. If you would like to continue supporting us through the end of the year please send personal checks to our house address. We have continued to be amazed with God’s faithfulness in our lives and continue to look to Him to provide for our basic needs of utilities, gas, food etc. 

Email: benandruthkane @ gmail .com

We love you guy’s and are thankful for you. 

~Ben & Ruth

Chloe, Gwen, Addie, Isaiah

Kane Update #2

"In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:6

This verse above has become very real to our hearts over the last few months. There are so many promises of God that we continue to believe in and cling to during this time for us. How about you? Have you found yourself in a situation where everything was changed and you’re hope was in God to ‘make your paths straight?

As you can see from the picture above and the picture below we have continued to keep ourselves busy. We were able to find a nice 1998 Volvo Wagon that can fit 7 people for only $2,000. Praise Jesus! So far all it’s needed was some e-brake work and a tone-up but that’s all been things that I’ve been working on myself to save money. We are still on the look out for a good commuter vehicle for me in that I’ll most likely need to drive 45min to an hr for work. How is the job search coming you ask? That’s a good question and hard answer! The chaplain job that we were so excited about turned out to not work out for unknown reasons. But I have applied at a few other places both chaplain and not and I’m waiting to hear back from them. Our goal and hearts desire is to still see me find a new career that will work for a our family and we’ll be able to tell you “Thank you for your support and we are pleased to say we are no longer in need!” but we are yet unable to say that.Please be praying with us as the Lord guides and directs in His timing. 

Other news. There is news on the farm! With the lack of ‘outside income’ we’ve decided to divide our efforts with ‘saved money’! Last week Chloe and I picked up our 75 baby chicks from the post office. We with 2 other families agreed to pitch in with the work load and we are caring for these little guys for the next 7-8 weeks before the BIG day. Why you ask? Raising our own chickens is looking to be better for us and way cheaper then buying at the store. These chickens will help provide us with meat through the winter. And onto other BIGGER news our 2 yearling beef cows (Jupiter & Reese)were just delivers 2 days ago! The idea with these cows is much the same in that we with 2 other families are buying in together but for the most part these two guys are in my care with the help of Ruth’s Dad. Me being a California boy, I’m pretty excited about owning 2 cows at the moment. Should make for some good BBQ’s next year! : )

On other, other BIG news please be praying for us and keeping us in mind tomorrow morning during Church times and through the day. Hurricane Irene is on her way and last I heard Ruth’s parents said that New Hampshire (where we are living now) is in a State of emergency and we can expect up to 9 inches or rain with heavy winds. With this in mind we’ve closes everything up outside, Pinned down the chicken coop, and pulled everything else inside. We’re praying the storm is exciting and not tragic. 

OK, I’ve got to go to bed and get some sleep, big day tomorrow!

Grace & Peace,

Ben, Ruth, Chloe, Gwen, Addie, & Isaiah

What are the Kane's doing?! (with pictures)

"This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him"

1 Jn. 4:9

First let us start with an apology. In our websites (benandruthkane.com) history and general effort to communicate to you over the last 6 years + we have never taken a sabbatical/laps of updates as we have presently. Again, sorry!

Life for us has continued to be a bit crazy but thanks be to God things are slowly settling down and we’re gaining more and more of a normalcy or stability here at Ruth’s parents house in the separate apartment in NH. It feels really nice to be settled down a bit in that Ruth and I counted our moves in the last 2 years and we actually counted 9 different moves (places stayed at for as least a month)! These were all moves that we had to make but looking back I just don’t know how we did it.

So what have we been up to you ask?

Great question. We have been keeping busy with our visit in CA for about a month. We got to visit many family and friends and even got to drive out and visit some friends and my Mom in AZ. Although we sure wish we could have seen everyone we just didn’t have enough time. :(  After flying here to NH, I (Ben) have been doing my best to help our family adapt to life back in the States, our new living quarters and life on a small family farm.  The kids have loved being able to take care of the chickens and check the eggs. It has also been a great learning experience for me with how to take care of a farm. We are hoping to be able to raise a couple of cows for beef this winter. It's just amazing to see how God works, with this being our first time trying to raise animals, it has been such a blessing to be living with Ruth's parents and just glean from their knowledge. 

Since arriving back in the States, I was thinking, I would have to put formal ministry on hold and get a job in computers, construction, state prison officer, micro chip assembly work, or possibly a job with Indonesians in our area. But in the back of my mind I was thinking God had other plans and I just needed to wait for Him to revel himself. With this in mind someone from our church told me just last week that a job opening as a full time chaplain at the VA center (veterans home) about 40min away just opened up. We’re VERY excited about this new potential career in ministry. I have an interview this monday at 1:30. Please be praying! If I got this job it would be a huge relief on many levels for our family, not to mention the awesome opportunity I would have to share Christ with so many people at the home.

Please keep praying for us in that we are still looking for vehicles and are still trying to settle in as a family. We love you all and are so thankful for all the encouragement and support you have been to us! OK, without further a du I’ll show you some photo’s of what we’ve been doing (as promised)!

Because of His Love,

Ben, Ruth, Chloe, Gwendolyn, Adelaide, & Isaiah

Our girls LOVE riding bikes and living on a dirt road in Indonesia made it hard for them to enjoy that childhood experience. But now they can't get enough time in ridding around!

Camping is something that Ruth and I both enjoy and our girls also love. We've gone camping twice now and hope to do more later. This picture was taken last night before Chloe, Gwen and Daddy spent the night together on the front lawn. We had s’mores and watched a little kid movie in the tent before going to bed. Fun time!  : )

The girls really enjoy chickens and eggs so I built them a chicken coop! Chloe feeds them, gives them water, and collects the eggs every day. 5 chickens, 5 eggs...

This is a picture of 1 of the 3 gardens Ruth parents have at the house! We are enjoying sharing in the harvest of corn, pop corn, zucchini, summer squash, winter squash, butter nut squash tomatoes, peppers, carrots, broccoli, lettuce, green beens, water melon, brussel spouts, cabbage, cauliflower, egg plant, cantaloupe, blue berries, raspberries and more! 

Here is a picture of a small 'part' of the cow field. We are talking with local ranchers to see where we can get two yang cows to 'take care of' until next fall. You think you have a lot of lawn to mow? Ha!

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Happy 31st Ben! This year has had it's ups and downs, but you have always been faithful to look to the Lord for His direction. Leading our family where you know God is leading you. Thank you for being my friend to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, a nurse when needed, a Daddy that listens to jabbering kiddos, the fix it man, and so much more. 

 I love you and am excited to see what the Lord holds for our future. Happy Birthday, Love!

~Ruth