Our Ant Farm

A few years ago, Daddy kept talking about how he wanted an ant farm.  So, the kids and I got him one of those cool Antworks Gel antfarms. 

He never got around to ordering the ants to put in them so it sat in the box until we moved here.  Connor got his hands on it and begged us to order the ants for it.  SO, we finally did and couldn't wait til they arrived.

They came in a padded envelope in the mail.  It was a very cold day.

Since the envelope said "urgent" we got to work getting them into their new home right away :)

Rachel prepared the Gel as the instructions said and we got ready to dump them in.

We were very surprised that it took them so long to start digging in the gel.  The instructions said it could take them up to 48 hours to even start digging.  We put the ant farm in a safe place where the cat wouldn't be tempted to knock it over and then....waited.

While we waited, we decided to figure out a name for our Antfarm.  We wanted a Biblical name for it.  Should we find someone in the Bible that had characteristics similar to an Ant: hardworking, diligent, etc?  Or should be find a town in the Bible that represented characteristics?  Should we just pick a name we liked?   You might think that what we decided on was somewhat silly, but we thought it was a very cool (and accurate) name for our antfarm.

In Judges 6 we learn that the Midianites were a people that enslaved the Israelites.  They were terribly mean to them and stole all of their food, made them slaves, even stole their crops and livestock.  The Israelites cried out to God to save them.  God did save them and he used a simple man named Gideon to do it!  God sent an Angel to tell Gideon that God would be using him to save his people.  Gideon obeyed God and called an army of 32000 men.  God told him that was way too many men to use.  If an army that size defeated the Midianites, the men in the army could claim they succeeded all on their own.  God wanted to use this to show His power and Authority.  So, he ultimately dwindled Gideon's army down to only 300 men.  The Bible is not really clear on exactly how many Midianites there were, but speculation says there were a few hundred thousand!!  How could 300 men defeat that big of an Army??  Exactly!  They couldn't!

God told Gideon to lead his army to carry lamps, but to cover them so they were not seen and to carry trumpets and to go at night and surround the camp of the Midianites.  At Gideon's signal, they were to break the covering of the lamps and blow their trumpets and shout!  They did this and when they did, the Midianites woke up TERRIFIED and it was pure chaos!  They were startled awake, scared and disoriented so they started running around like crazy and killing their OWN men.  The men that weren't killed, tried to get away, but Gideon's army went after them.

So, all of that to tell you the name of our Antfarm.  What do Ants do when you stomp on their anthill or shake them up a bit?  They run around like crazy bumping into each other-seeming to have no idea what's going on.  So we decided, in fun, to name our antfarm "Midian".

Progress was slow in their digging, but they did start digging tunnels.  Here are some pictures (in no order, but you can see the progression) of their antfarm as they worked.

Here's a picture from today, 2/14.  We believe they are finished digging and now will basically just live...until they die or we let them go.

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest."

Proverbs 6:6-8