The Harris Family mission statement

The Harris Family Mission Statement 

 Every evening we spend about thirty minutes having family time. Family time is an opportunity to read scriptures, say the family motto and give good job moments. Twelve years ago we came up with a family motto for our family to live by “We have a home of safety where love and the spirit can dwell.” After we have all said this together, I choose someone to say what they think we have done as a family or individually to allow the spirit to dwell in our home, I then will ask what we can do to improve on having the spirit in our home more often. After we have said the family motto we go into our good job moments time, this is the time that we each get to say something we like that someone in the family did for us that day, this helps us to all think positively about one another. As a family we will strive to

 • Read scriptures as a family every evening
 • Eat dinner as a family
 • Work together Saturday morning to clean up the house to prepare for Sunday
 • Respect each other’s personal space
 • Go to the person to talk and not yell through the house
 • Go to the temple every Wednesday to do baptisms as a family
 • Find at least one way to serve another member of the family each day 
 • Seek opportunities to share the gospel with others

Back Home in San Diego & stuff

Since our last post in July we have done so much that has gone unrecorded on our Blog, shame on us for not keeping you all updated. I am going to try and bring you all up to speed on what we have been doing. Sonny & Tinkerbell got together at some point in the last month or two and now have a few puppies here is one of the fuzz balls.


After the puppies were old enough we tried to sell them but there was just not a good market for these puppies out in Tennessee so we gave them all away. Our house slowly fell into further decay since it got so wet in May, the mold & instability became more than we could handle physically and mentally. We felt that if we had stayed in the house we would be trapped and our health was at risk so we had to make a decision and fast. As the summer came to a close we were leaning more towards the idea of moving back to San Diego, we were still very unsure as to how it would all come together. While we were working on making up our minds God saw that we needed some help in that processes, he sent in a colony of yellow jackets to live in the siding and attic of our house. The bees were manageable as long as you did not get in there way, I would have to say that we all, including the dog, got stung several times over about a months time sometimes even in our sleep. We had made the decision to move back to San Diego, Steven started looking for jobs online & having interviews over the phone with many different companies; but we could see that you could only do so much of that from so far away. ( as a side note just before we moved a 200ft tree fell right across our water source for the house, guess God wanted to make sure we did not change our minds and stay) On October 7th we loaded up our truck and headed for San Diego with no job & no place to live all we have was faith and prayers. We left Thursday night and Steven drove through the night & got us to Oklahoma. We spent the rest of the day driving through Oklahoma,Texas and arriving in Albuquerque New Mexico that night. After a very short stay in a hotel we arrived in San Diego on Saturday night very tired & ready for a LONG nap.

Now that we have arrived we are going to place our faith in God that he will lead us in our path. "Faith isn't the ability to believe long and far into the misty future.
It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step"
- Joni Erickson Tada

Life

We have had a crazy past few months- even weeks. It seems as though in the Harris family there is always something different and new. We have been racking our brains to figure out what we can do about our "home" that is sinking and stinking. We have looked into many different things. We several weeks ago while praying about what to do we were lead to an answer (we think).

Steven had found listing on craigslist for free brick. We thought that we could use it on our property somewhere so we drove down to get it. In talking with the couple we found out that they are members of our same church. We started to share our story of how we moved here to save our son and family and that we put everything into the farm. When they were told about our house being uninhabitable they suggested a straw bale home. We have always wanted to build a house out of something different. We asked about how much it would cost. They said that they have run the numbers on their floor plan and could have it dried in for $10,000. Since the other options have run short we decided to give it a try. So now we are on a quest to build a straw bale house.

In other areas of our life we are no longer staying on our farm. Several weeks ago we had gone to Lebanon to stay with a friend and her daughter or a few days over an exceptionally hot spell. We were decided to stay a few days longer because Chantelle was feeling better there. That Wednesday she lost her job- the company had tried to grow too quickly and needed to downsize.
The next Friday our friend we were staying with had some medical problems that needed a constant "babysitter" as she puts it. So we have been staying with her and trying to fix our housing situation. Chantelle has been acting as her medical adviser and advocate when she goes to her appointments.

The girls have done okay with adjusting. B-man has had a hard time. Steven takes him out to the house every other day so he can get away from the noise of the city and try and calm down. Overall we are doing just fine.

One thing that we have really learned since we have started this venture is this: If you place a seed or grain of rice on your flat hand and blow it rolls right off. If you cup your hand and place the same grain in your hand and blow it doesn't blow away. The flat hand is like the world. The cupped hand is like living in the hollow of God's hand. I feel such peace knowing that we are living in the hollow of God's hand. I hope and pray that each of you who read this can have that kind of peace.

Our growing Farm

Our Farm is moving forward despite all of the trials that we have had. FEMA came & looked at our property a second time, it was determined that there was damage enough to warrant giving us a grant to make the much needed repairs. FEMA does not cover foundation damage, this was the most heavily damaged part of the house. We are planning on taking whatever money we can get for repairs and fixing our bridge & getting a double wide brought in.

On Wed June 2nd one of our dogs Lucy was hit by a semi truck in front of our house, she has a broken pelvis, brain damage and internal bleeding. We did not put her down because we decided it would not be right to take away the opportunity for God to work a miracle. Lucy disappeared for a few days and we figured that she probably we into the woods & died. Today Lucy showed up very worn & not walking as well as she once did but alive non the less. God can work miracles if we let him, people are so quick to try and do everything themselves which takes away the opportunity of God to step in and show us he cares for all of his creations.

Because we thought we had lost our dog Lucy, Chantelle got a puppy on Friday night and brought her home as a surprise, she is 1/4 Begal 1/4 Coon Hound 1/4 Rat terrier 1/4 Mountain Feist she has two hunting dog blood lines and two hyper blood lines it will be interesting to see what traits she will come out with, my guess is she will need a firm hand & some good training.

This is Steven's Dog Dakota



On Saturday we were given six guinea fowl chicks this will help take care of the tick & bug problems that we have had. Guineas diet consists of 90% bugs as the primary food source, Guineas will go out early in the morning & eat the ticks that have gotten wet over night, ticks are helpless when they are wet.



This past week we have gotten almost our entire garden planted, Steven measured it out to see just gow big it is. Our garden is 55ft x 77ft that is 0.097 acres that may not seem like a lot to some but it is plenty for us. We have corn beans beats Squash zucchini water melon pumpkins carrots red cabbage dill broccoli tomatoes asparagus and hay potatoes This will be the biggest garden we have ever done, we have been working with a mother & daughter at church who does not have a place to garden, this not only gets us free help but also gives us a chance to share our garden with others.




For some reason our goat Jimsbaugh loves to lay on the shovel


I love how they work together to get those rocks out

Ok Dad I have had enough gardening for the day

What exactly has been going on

We moved to Tennessee on March 13th 2010 we have been here for Eleven weeks now. It seems like we have been here for so much longer that that, so much has happened in this small space of time. While we have been here we have remodeled several parts of our house, put in fencing plowed and tilled for a very large garden and went through a big flood. Many would say wow why are you still there with so much that has gone on in such a short amount of time, I wish I had an answer for you but I do not.




Chantelle has decided she wants to go to work & Steven is going to be a stay at home Dad. Being at home with the kids has been a great experience for Dad to be able to work on the farm with the kids by his side. This is not Steven on the tractor but he sure wishes it was



On May 1st-2nd we had a major storm that came through our area that caused a lot of flooding and damage to the area including our own home. Our house sustained a lot of foundation damage that is causing our house to become very unstable. Many of the piers that our house sits on has ether fallen or are tipping towards the front of the house. We have gotten an estimate on getting the foundation fixed and we are looking at $27,000.00 needless to say that is not going to happen anytime soon. We have been looking at the option of having a double wide brought in that will cost about half of that, we have been trying to see if FEMA is providing any funds to help cleanup & pay for the damage repairs. We had an estimate on replacing our bridge that is very dangerous to drive over, we are looking at $ 5,500.00 that would make it so we never had to replace it ever again, we are trying to get a new pipe put in ourselves.





We have been trying to start raising our farm animals we have chickens & goats, it has been a learning experience. Our new Pygmy buck got sick this morning & died this afternoon. J girl was very sad & wanted to know why god would take our goat away from us. It was very sad. :( We have been working with a new friend from church who loves animals & knows all about animal husbandry

The Flood of 2010

Last Saturday we had a really big storm come through, there was more water all at one time than we had seen for a very long time. When the rain had receded we saw that God had performed a great miracle for us. In from of our house was have a drainage ditch with a metal culvert that runs under the drive way. After the storms had stopped we surveyed the damage, we found that some wire that we were using to mark our fencing with had come off and gotten into the ditch. When we looked at the wire that was wrapped around a tree branch as big as your thumb, the wire was wrapped around a chair frame. We can see that god was watching out for us, he truly knows are trials and what we need even when we do not.

Here is the branch that was holding back the debris in the ditch, also here is the pile that was being held back by the wire.




Now that last Saturdays storm was gone we had a week of sunshine and clear weather. On Friday night we heard that there was a chance that we might be getting some rain for the next few days. The rains came & came hard they were more than expected. We went to Lafayette TN to do some shopping when we came home a few hours later to feed our goats we found that the rain was flooding out our yard, we decided at that point that we could no longer stay at the house durring the storm. We loaded up the things we thought we would most need and went to a hotel.

There was so much water falling it made some really pretty waterfalls



After we had stayed a night in the hotel Steven went back to the house to see what damage had been done. When he got there everything with the house was just fine. There was some debris in front of the culvert but that was about it.



Steven tried to pick out the debris in order to clear a way for the water to better flow through, shortly after he had started it began to rain very heavily. Steven went inside the house gathered a few things and felt a very strong feeling that he needed to get off of the property right away. Steven got in his truck & drove over the bridge.

Within a mater of about two minutes after leaving the property this was what happened. If he had not followed the promptings of the spirit he would have become trapped. We pray that it will all turn out good in the end, I know that if we have faith in our lord all will be well.."Trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thin own understand , In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct they paths" Proverbs 3:5-6

Goat Berries

Now that the goats are on the way back to recovery, we have decided to test the kids knowledge on what they have learned so far about taking care of goats.







It looks like we might have to take the kids back to the class room for a review on goats what do you think?