Happy St. Nick Day!

December 6 is the celebration of the real Santa Claus — a saint who showed us how to truly love and care for one another. And so I invite you to see how we celebrated last year at Old Stone Well Farm — and get to see just how little Fritz was!!

Hope Often Comes in Unexpected Ways

It’s the first Sunday of Advent — a time when we light the candle around the wreath which represents hope. But what really is hope? Better yet, how can we see true hope, as that hope often comes in unexpected ways. I think to see this hope, what I call “holy hope,” we need Advent eyes — eyes that can see God working in the mysterious ways all around us.

So, as I attempt making homemade mincemeat (yes, I am using my colonial stone bake oven!), I invite you to pull up a seat here at Old Stone Well Farm and join me…well, not at the table, but rather another part of my 1700’s home, where I reveal a quirky detail!

Blessings, Donna

It’s Time for Stir Up Sunday — And Remembering What Is Really Important This Season

Today at Old Stone Well Farm I share a few post-Thanksgiving traditions with you as I collect evergreen to decorate my 18th-century home here in Vermont and fire up the almost-complete stone bake oven (it just needs a slate roof!).

This is a time to prepare for the holidays…and I don’t find meaning in the malls and shopping. Rather, I find meaning in the simple things — and, of course, in whipping up my Christmas puddings and fruitcake, because today is the day to do so.

The Sunday before Advent is not only Christ the King Sunday, but Stir Up Sunday, when all the Christmas puddings and fruitcakes should be made, giving the brandy and rum a full five weeks to soak in!

I’m curious. Do you like fruitcake? Let me know. And share a favorite family recipe if you have one. I love collecting family favorites.

Thanks for coming to the farm. Please take a moment to hop over to YouTube and like and comment on Old Stone Well Farm’s channel there — and tell a friend or two to stop by. Blessings!

(Click below to start playing the video)

And Still, I Am Thankful

This is a little bit of a different Thanksgiving video. No cooking this year. I had wanted to use the outdoor bake oven for my pies, but it has been snowing and raining here in Vermont. Sigh. Perhaps I will fire up the oven for Stir Up Sunday — the Sunday before the start of Advent in which it’s a tradition to make your Christmas fruitcakes.

But for now I share with you a very raw and honest video which began when I got reacquainted with the song, “Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go…” Something about this 1844 poem, later set to music, which was originally written for Thanksgiving, not Christmas, tugged at my heart.

I began wondering, what if grandmother’s house is no longer? What if “home” has changed for you, or is changing? I am going through a trying time, but no matter what, on this day, I can say, “and still, I am thankful.”

Where do you see blessings among trials? And I need to know, which Thanksgiving pie do you prefer: pumpkin or apple?

It’s a blessing having you part of the Old Stone Well Farm family! Click on the video below, pass it along to friends, like and share on YouTube.

I’m Starting Advent Early with a Saint!

It’s St. Martin’s Day (Nov. 11) here at Old Stone Well Farm, and it is the start of early Advent. No, I’m not talking about Celtic Advent which begins Nov. 15. Rather, in the early church, Advent would begin on Nov. 12 with that was known as St. Martin’s Lent — 40 days of showing acts of kindness and compassion just like St. Martin did in the 4th century. And so, I share my little cape (where we get the word chaplain and chapel from) and invite you to join me these 40 days leading to Christmas by showing our love to others in need. Join me and learn more about St. Martin and make your own St. Martin Advent lantern! Click below and join me. And send me pictures of your St. Martin Advent lantern. Email them to oldstonewellmedia@gmail.com.

Blessings!

Halloween at the Farm: This’s Year’s Pumpkin Message Revealed!

What does an old hymn — reputed to be set to a beer drinking tune and sung by martyrs being led to their death — have to do with Halloween here at Old Stone Well Farm? Well, it inspired the message in this year’s pumpkins.

Yes, the tradition of carving a message in the pumpkins is back, but this time, rather than lighting them on Sofie’s Hill, we go to the back woods for a little old time spooky leaf crunching.

But do not fear, there is nothing spooky here…just an important message of how to live in a world filled with fears and frets.

Come, join me! Click below and transport your self to rural Vermont. What would your inspirational message be if you were to carve one out of pumpkins? Leave a comment. And invite your friends to come to Old Stone Well Farm! There’s plenty of room around the farm table! Blessings!

Have you ever heard of a witch window? I just discovered this Vermont architectural anomaly and the fun folklore behind it. (You can click on the image below and fast forward to the video to the 4:44 mark to get a preview of it)!

But such a window got me thinking about the things we do to “protect” ourselves from harm. The world we live in seems so unsafe at times, but there is what I call an ancient security system that we have forgotten about and it involves God.

In this season of harvest, as our Jewish friends just finished their celebration of Sukkot (or Festival of Booths), I turn to the Hebrew Scriptures — the Psalms and the Book of Deuteronomy — to remember the promises of God to not only provide for us manna from heaven and water from a rock, but to protect our loved ones — to send “an angel of the Lord to encamp” around us.

Drop me a note and let me know your thoughts! What do you think of the witch window? And what can you do in your household to remember always the goodness of God in this world that is so full of darkness and so broken?