The Sifford Sojournal

The Blog Days of Winter

2010-02-23T14:53:00.011-06:00

This Winter has gone on a bit longer than usual, at least from what we've experienced in our time here so far; and it's also been wetter and colder than normal. With that continuing, yesterday, the Lord brought a decent amount of the "white stuff" to the land.

This was how things were first thing in the morning:

Texas Snow Feb 23, 2010 in the Morning

And this is how it was in the early afternoon:

Texas Snow Feb 23, 2010 in the Afternoon

We once again thank God for His mercies in the weather, the provisions of warmth and shelter He has allowed us, and for the provisions of the moisture for the ground.

-- David

Nessa Makes a Mess-a

2010-02-17T21:11:00.002-06:00

We still haven't been able to figure out what she's trying to get at here; but Nessa, one of our Border Collies, loves mud puddles:

Nessa our Border Collie Digs in a Puddle

We've been trying to think of ways to harness this to our advantage here in agrarian-land. Maybe she's a new kind of post hole digger. Or maybe we could put her over a bucket of dirty clothes that are soaking; and she could be a fancy, automated laundry agitator.

Anyone out there have any other suggestions? :)

-- David

Farmer's (Goat) Cheese aka Neufchatel

2010-02-09T09:35:00.001-06:00

I just finished eating a few crackers topped with my first (successful) attempt at Farmer's Cheese, a soft "cream" type cheese.

A neighbor said she had made some Farmer's cheese with the inexpensive Junket rennet tablets found in the local grocery store, so I thought I would try that first. An online cheese making blog said not to use Junket rennet because it is not the same as cheese rennet. But it was here and within my budget, so it was cheese rennet to me! :)

My "first" first attempt was a bust, using the original recipe from the Junket instructions. Not to say it doesn't work, but that my attempt didn't work. The recipe calls for buttermilk, which I didn't have; so I looked online and found you can substitute with milk and lemon juice. So I did that, along with adding 1/4 tablet of rennet dissolved in a little water. In hindsight, I don't think the combination of those was enough to coagulate the milk. I heated the milk to 65 degrees F according to the recipe, added the "buttermilk" and rennet, and left the covered pot out overnight per the instructions. It was supposed to solidify overnight; but it just never did, even after I left it another 12+ hours. So that went to the chickens.

My next attempt was a conglomeration of a couple of recipes. This time I heated two quarts of our raw goat milk to just below boiling, and added two generous tablespoons of white vinegar (one per quart) and 1/2 tablet of the Junket rennet dissolved in a little water. Since this was previously frozen milk, it was a bit watery; so I decided to err on the side of caution and add too much vinegar and rennet rather than too little. The last thing I wanted was to ruin another batch:

I whisked it all together, covered the pot, and hoped for the best. Well, this time it started to coagulate much more quickly, which gave me hope. By the next day, it was not as solid as I imagine a really good cheese probably would be; but it was close enough!

According to the recipe, the cheese is ready when you can poke your finger in and lift the top, gelled layer cleanly from the lower, liquid layer:

Then, you are supposed to cut it into 1/2 to 1 inch cubes in order to assist with the "draining of the whey" (sounds like a ceremony). The instructions call for the first cut starting down the middle, holding the knife at a 90 degree angle, and then each subsequent cut tilting the knife a little until you get to 45 degrees by the time you reach the side of the pot. You turn the pot 1/4 turn, and repeat the process, which eventually makes a grid of curd cubes. I forgot to tilt the knife as I cut -- oh, well. But, it came out okay anyway:

Then, I spooned out the cubes of curds into a handkerchief-lined strainer with a bowl underneath to catch the whey drippings. They say to use cheesecloth, but it just seemed too loose of a mesh, and the handkerchief worked very well for this type of cheese:

Here it is all spooned into the strainer. You can't tell here, but it's draining like crazy underneath:

Quite a bit of whey drained quickly, but it takes 2-3 hours to fully drain:

Here are the curds with the majority of the whey drained. Pretty cool, huh?!

After the main draining, I hung up the handkerchief to draw out the rest of the whey with the help of a bit longer exposure to gravity:

Well, this looked like it might resemble Farmer's, or some kind of cheese, and not too much like a train wreck:

So I seasoned it with a little salt, garlic and onion powder, spooned it into a container and put it in the refrigerator overnight. Using two quarts of milk is supposed to make approximately 3/4 lbs. of cheese, and this looked about right:

I'm very pleased with the mild, seasoned taste. It has been too easy to eat a lot of crackers topped with the cheese at one sitting! But I'd rather have to combat will power than have to hold my nose closed and gag it down :)

All of our does have dried up in preparation to deliver more kids in the Spring, if the Lord wills; so this was my last opportunity to attempt making goat cheese until then; and I'm very thankful it turned out. I'm excited (and not as scared) at the future possibilities! What a great way to preserve milk; and we are, as always, very thankful for God's direct provisions. Believe me, I know I probably could have done this much better and more "properly;" but, hey, it worked for me; and it's food! I hope to continue to improve with more practice and maybe somebody out there can learn from my mistakes. Bon appetit!

Susan

David's Digest: The Truth, or Not the Truth: That is the Question

2010-01-28T11:09:00.004-06:00

It is of the utmost importance for us as Christians to have the truth as given to us by God's Word. We can not lay hold of Christ nor worship God properly if we don't know who we are, who He is, and what He in the personages of the Trinity has done.

If we are to have any hope of having truth, then something in and of itself must declare it, wholly; and if salvation is indeed to be had, and if we are to know how to love and worship God properly, then those must be revealed as well. Thankfully, according to His graces, God has provided us with His truth in His Word, the Bible, which in and of itself contains the whole truth necessary as God would have for us. It then, and it alone, must be our measuring stick, otherwise truth becomes relative, which then cannot be trusted as truth.

By its very nature, truth is absolute: a truth can only be truly one thing at one time. If a thing is entirely the color green, it cannot also be the color blue. There is no such thing as "my truth" or "your truth"; there is only THE truth.

Also by nature, the truth divides, showing what is true and what is not true. Not having the truth is having a lie. Jesus Christ, being the truth Himself (John 14:6), was a divider: Matt 10:34-35 - "Think not that I come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

The Bible says that the Lord Jesus is the Word (John 1:1) and, as noted, the truth. It follows then that, if we do not have the truth as described in the Word of God (ie. we have a lie), then we do not truly have Christ. Therefore, it behooves us to make absolutely sure that we have the truth as it is brought forth in Scripture.

Paul says in 2 Cor 13:5, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith..." Being in the faith does not just mean having faith versus not having faith. It also refers to which faith we have: whether our faith is an alive faith versus a dead faith (Jam 2:17,20,26), whether we believe in another Jesus versus the true Jesus Christ (2 Cor 11:4), or whether the Gospel to which we hold is the true Gospel or not (Gal 1:6). And so to discover whether we are in the faith or not, against what can we examine ourselves? It must be against something that shows the truth of our beliefs, so that we can know whether our faith is a true faith, our Jesus is truly Jesus Christ, and our Gospel is the true Gospel. Since God's Word contains those truths, we must examine ourselves against it.

Is the way to heaven via a false faith, false Jesus or false Gospel (ie. via a lie)? How can it possibly be? And so examining our beliefs is of great importance. We had better have THE truth, or it could be to our eternal detriment.

Further, when we examine ourselves, can we say that we have a love of the truth? The Bible declares a love of the truth is given by God: 2 Thess 2:10 says, "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." We therefore need to pray for a love of the truth, for our benefit and because of the warning that follows in 2 Thess 2:11-12: "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

May God's graces and mercies in this regard be with us, may God grant us a love of His Truth and Word, and may He grant us the desire and ability to honestly examine ourselves in the light of His Word.

-- David

Operation: Chicken Peritonitis - Update

2010-01-21T20:41:00.003-06:00

This is a follow up to the first post on the procedure we did on our chicken with peritonitis.

The week following the first two weekly procedures, her abdomen was filling up again; and she was starting to waddle and stand up straight. And so I went in with the needle, and pulled nearly 70cc of fluid again. This time though the hole didn't leak anymore. I tried to extract some more with another needle insertion, but nothing came out.

She seemed not too bad after that; but over the next several days, she was still walking quite a bit upright; and on the third day after the procedure, she lost her appetite. It is my experience when chickens get like that, the end is soon. Regardless, I force-fed her some goat milk; and in the evening, she was eating some food scraps on the ground and chicken scratch from my hand, and even drinking the goat milk, all on her own. However, as I said, they're usually in a bad way when they generally stop eating; and by the next morning she was dead. The Lord was merciful in allowing it finish quickly.

I'm not sure what happened: perhaps I punctured something internally in her; perhaps I introduced bacteria or otherwise during the procedure; perhaps her immunity was low and she caught something; perhaps none of those. I tried to be as antiseptic as possible during the drainings, but perhaps something still got by.

It's sometimes a little difficult when you try to care for something, and it doesn't work out the way you had hoped, or worse, you worsen the situation. Also with this chicken, I used to be able to "talk" to her by making chicken sounds; and she would respond, which was fun to hear. And it is just an animal, but it's also God's provision. Still, it was her time according to His will, and we're thankful she went quickly; for the allowing us the provision of her; and for what the Lord would teach us, spiritually as well as temporily.

Death -- eternal, spiritual and temporal -- are a result of sin, and my sin; and I try to be reminded of my sin when I'm around death. And that reminds me to plead the blood of Christ for His atonement as He is the only way of redemption from the wages of our sins.

May He continue to teach us, and we pray and are thankful for His guiding hand in our earthly pilgrimage.

-- David

Operation: Chicken Peritonitis

2010-01-17T10:36:00.003-06:00

Recently, one of our hens started walking upright like a waddling penguin instead of the horizontal way chickens typically walk. I thought one of our chickens might have had something like this in the past; and so in this instance, I tried to do a little research on the Internet. I discovered that there is a condition called peritonitis, which in general is a swelling of the abdomen; and in chickens, it can be caused by a yolk missing the "funnel" (called the infundibulum) that "catches" them as they move from the ovary to the oviduct. They fall into the abdomen, which causes the peritonitis, and a build up of fluid in the area. Thus, the condition is called egg yoke peritonitis; and there are two kinds: sterile, where bacteria hasn't developed in the swollen area, and the chicken still has an appetite and doesn't die quickly; and septic, which is the opposite.

Besides our chicken not having a problem eating (which basically required that we lift food up to her), I examined her abdomen; and it was much like a water balloon; and so I suspected we had our diagnosis. Here are a couple of pictures showing her condition. At this point, she had one foot back and would sit on the other foot, and all she was able to do was slowly scoot around in a circle (we kept her isolated in our mini chicken tractor, to keep her from being picked on or hurt by the other chickens, which they will do to weak ones):

But then, with the problem identified, what to do about it. Some of the articles I read talked about draining the abdomen with a catheter, but that seemed pretty complex and involved. I did find a video though, which shows a person draining a chicken with peritonitis using just a needle.

It so happened that some friends of ours had just given us some large syringes and needles a few days before; and so, I decided to "operate." The needle I chose to use was 1/2" long and 1/16" in outside diameter. Here is a photo summary of the procedure. I made very sure that everything, from the syringe, to the needle, to my hands, were as sterile as could be, including cleaning the syringe and wiping it with, bathing the needle in, and wiping my hands with rubbing alcohol.

Here I'm just getting her into position:

And then I flipped her onto her back:

I cut away the feathers around the area where I was planning to insert the needle:

And then I did so. I tried going at an angle parallel to the skin as much as possible to avoid puncturing her internal organs, but couldn't seem to pull anything out with the syringe; so I found I needed to insert the needle at a steeper angle. Once I did, the fluid extracted pretty easily; and I was glad it was clear and didn't have pus in it:

I pulled about 40ccs worth before stopping. One of the articles I read said to only pull half of the fluid out because the loss of too much could cause shock:

When we were done with the draining using the syringe, the hole continued to leak fluid; and over night, she lost quite a bit more. However, after it was all done, first, when I would pick her up, she was noticeably lighter than before; and second, she was able to bend over and eat and drink by herself somewhat, and was actually walking around. This went on for a few days, but her underbelly seemed to start to grow again. I decided to try the procedure again, and was able to pull out around 70cc. I tried going in again a couple more times, but couldn't seem to find any more fluid -- I tried keeping the needle at a flatter angle again, because there wasn't nearly as much puffiness to her abdomen as before, and I believe I might not have been getting past the fat layer as it was basically impossible to extract anything out. However, I didn't want to puncture any organs; and so I stopped; but it ended up that at least one of the needle holes continued to leak similarly to first time we drained her.

The next day she was doing much better, and was almost walking around like a normal chicken. Here is a video of her (the "other one [that] was only a still frame" that I mention refers to the fact that the "before" pictures were only still photos -- the ones shown above):

Chicken with peritonitis walking around after draining fluid from her abdomen.

A couple of days later, I took a pair of toe nail clippers and clipped the tip of her beak as it had started to grow past what looked to be normal as compared to the other chickens. My guess was that it had grown more since she hadn't really been able to use her beak normally for some time.

I don't know what will further happen with this situation, but it was neat to see her act like a chicken again and be able to "do chicken things." It does seem that the liquid starts to collect in her abdomen again as the days go by, and perhaps we'll have to continue to try draining it. However, we are thankful the Lord granted us this opportunity to learn about and care for the chickens, and that I didn't apparently infect her myself when performing the procedure, nor poke her internal organs; and hopefully, if God is willing, she will once again become a productive member of the flock.

-- David

(Please see our chicken peritonitis update for more information.)

Susan's Musin's - Gossip

2010-01-07T09:41:00.001-06:00

This subject has been on my heart over the past year after witnessing its path of destruction personally.

To backtrack a bit, I grew up in a home where, thankfully, gossip was never very comfortable or welcome. I'm grateful to my parents for creating and maintaining that environment. I don't want to paint an incorrect picture here though. Every person is born into sin with a carnal man who loves to gossip and lower others in order to raise himself. I certainly had, and still have, those temptations; but the environment in my home did not create a dark, moist place for those seeds to grow and produce bad fruit.

Living in mainstream Christianity can be very sterile and convenient sometimes, and you are able to just walk away from someone you don't like or someone who gossips, etc. So I ended up playing "dodge ball" many times in the church and schools I attended in order to escape much of the drama that goes along with hanging out with gossipers. I inevitably was sucked close to the drain a few times while trying to help friends who had been hurt, and that was plenty. Gossip truly is like a cancer, damaging everything in its path, and left unchecked can turn into a vicious monster.

Now that I am living in Christian community, it requires an entirely different perspective. The Bible is very clear about loving your brothers and sisters in Christ. As much as you try to put your best foot forward, all of your faults and weaknesses are eventually exposed, and vice versa; and you can't just walk away from people who are this or are not that, gossipers included.

The Bible is also very clear about gossip and how God views it. And it generally comes as a package deal bringing along its invested partners: ("Good morning, law offices of Gossip, Jealousy, Pride and Envy, how may I help you?") And I believe that women are especially vulnerable to gossip, although men are certainly not immune. Again, I don't want to paint myself as some kind of "saint." I'm not. I struggle with things all the time. Thankfully, my husband really helps me to nip my gossipy thoughts and words in the bud.

As you can see below, God is VERY vocal in His Word about gossip. The more I have studied about it, the more I have been convicted and impressed of its gravity -- a very serious sin, and an indication of a sick spiritual heart condition.

Lev. 19:16: "Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour; I am the LORD"

Psalm 5:9: "For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue"

Psalm 34:13: "Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile"

Psalm 101:4-5: "A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person. Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer"

Provers 6:16,19: "These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:...... A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren"

Proverbs 10:18: "He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool"

Proverbs 11:9: "An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered"

Proverbs 11:13: "A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter"

Proverbs 15:4: "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit"

Proverbs 16:28: "A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends"

Proverbs 17:9: "He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends"

Proverbs 18:8: "The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly"

Proverbs 20:19: "He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips"

Proverbs 21:23: "Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles"

Proverbs 26:20: "Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth"

Proverbs 26:28: "A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin"

Matthew 12:36: "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment"

Eph. 4:29: "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers"

Eph. 4:31: "Let ALL bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice"

2 Thess. 3:11: "For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies"

1 Tim. 3:11: "Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things"

1 Tim. 5:13: "And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not"

Titus 2:3: "The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things"

Titus 3:1-2: "Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men"

James 4:11: "Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge"

1 Peter 2:1: "Wherefore laying aside ALL malice, and ALL guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and ALL evil speakings"

1 Peter 3:10: "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile"

These are just verses on gossip. There are also many on the fruit of the spirit, meekness, humility, and how we are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, even MORE so if we do not like them.

A.W. Pink states: "Remember we cannot successfully 'pursue peace' if the heavy burden of pride be on our shoulder: pride ever stirs up strife. Nor can we 'pursue peace' if the spirit of envy fills the heart: envy is sure to see faults where they exist not, and make trouble. Nor can we 'pursue peace' if we are loose-tongued, busybodies, talebearers."

My husband and I, as most of you know, have lived in Christian community with like-minded believers for over four years now. Over those four years, it has been exciting to watch our community grow in the knowledge of God's Word, in repentance, obedience and maturity. However, there was a spirit of gossip, jealousy and pride in a few people that managed to shroud the community; and I watched it come to a head several times after it had pulled other members of the community into its web; and it had to be reprimanded back into submission, which lasted for a while until its ugly head couldn't help but show itself again and again.

I am a person who believes, in general, no matter what a situation looks like, there are always two sides; and it is best to hear both sides before coming to a conclusion. The interesting thing is that, living in such close relational proximity with the community members, I was very familiar with both sides. Finally, when jealousy and envy couldn't get their way anymore in a few members, I witnessed a monster manifest itself when, knowing both sides, it was easy to identify when lies and conjecture were injected into the mix to feed the needs of the beast. I had never witnessed such vile perversions of the truth and betrayals of confidence, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was truly, truly sad. What is saddest to me is that the husbands of the women involved fueled the fire and did not stop their wives from sinning in this manner but joined in with them. What a mess.

Sadly, those people chose to leave the community rather than pursue peace, grow in longsuffering and love towards the brethren and submit to godly, proper authority -- all because of gossip and its partners leaving a path of destruction behind them (and probably ahead of them). Thankfully, there is a peace in the community now that could not be found before, but not before friendships, trust, and Christian community were deeply wounded. So I would gravely challenge my sisters in Christ to truly examine and check yourself and your motives before opening your mouth. And then, STILL choose to keep your mouth shut and pray, pray, pray by yourself for the situation. God is fully capable of handling things the proper way in His time. Our duty is to pray. Nobody else needs to know about it. Ask God to grow in you proper perspective, wisdom, discernment and maturity. DON'T DO IT when you are tempted to talk about someone. -- and this includes crying on someone's shoulder about perceived mistreatment, etc. If you must speak to someone, limit it to your husband or proper spiritual authority. Meditate on the Bible and what it says about this sin, and ask God to write these truths on your heart. And if someone comes to you with inappropriate gossip, nip it in the bud. Gossiping is a horrible example of feminine Christian graces, especially to younger girls who are always watching older women and their example. I pray for God to grow each of us in maturity, and for the Holy Spirit to keep our consciences soft to recognize and stop ourselves immediately before committing this ugly sin.

Susan

("Did you hear about that lady, Susan, who wrote that blog post on gossip?........Well, who does she think she is!?.......") It's your choice.

Flurr-ye, Flurr-ye

2010-01-01T13:07:00.002-06:00

It gets cold here in Texas, relative to what Sue and I were used to in California. The last couple of Winters have been mild compared to second year we were here, which included an ice storm. We've had a couple of Winters where there were extended periods (three to four days, and eight to nine days) where it remained under freezing.

Well, this Winter so far started early in November but hasn't been too drastic. We've had at least one or two nights in the teens Fahrenheit, but haven't had complete days under freezing...yet. :) However, it has snowed here a couple of times, one accompanied with quite a bit of wind, which caused some snow flurries.

Here are a few pictures of that. I know it's a little difficult to get the effect, and I should have taken a video, but the white fuzziness in them is the snow blowing around:

Even though I'm not a fan of the cold and snow -- in fact, I have a pretty strong aversion to cold -- snow is good for soaking the ground and healing the land. Also, out of the Winter, which is a time of death, for plant life especially, comes Spring, and a time of new life -- just like out of Christ's death comes new life for His people.

Learning to live in colder weather has taken some time to adjust to; but the Lord has granted us better attitudes about being more uncomfortable; and He has allowed us resources for things like polypropylene thermal underwear, which helps immensely; and we have learned to layer and bundle up. Also, we are grateful for the shelters He has allowed us all in the community to have. He has graciously seen us through, and is gracious in helping us continue to learn how to live out here in the country, quite a bit more exposed than we were in the too comfortable city, where the conscience is numbed and heart condition is hidden. You learn a lot when you're uncomfortable, about God's providence, His sovereign will, and your true trust and faith in Him.

May God use whatever means He sees best in His goodness, gentleness and firm hand of love to make us more obedient servants of Him; and may we see His glorious attributes in His workings.

-- David

Garden 2009 - Spring - Update V - Sweet Potatoes

2009-12-23T21:55:00.001-06:00

Last year, Dave and I cut up some sweet potatoes and planted the pieces in one of our garden beds. We were very excited at the end of summer to dig up our hopefully large, robust sweet potatoes. Well, when we dug them up, about the only thing they were good for was to use as replacement shoe strings :( We sort of gave up after that and planted turnips in that garden bed this year. About half way through summer, we started to see these weird green leaves coming from the turnip bed; and by the end of summer, the leaves had taken over the entire bed. Go figure, the sweet potatoes from last year had been growing and had really taken off. The picture above is our yield! For reference, the larger ones are at least 6-7" long. What a blessing to have this unexpected crop of good lookin' sweet potatoes.

(I was so inspired about it, I'm writing the sequel to the children's book "Green Eggs and Ham" entitled "Sam I Yam".......and I'm also waiting to hear back from the Broadway producers regarding my musical remake of "Anna and the King of SiYAM." Hmmmmm, not sure why I haven't heard back from them yet. Another musical I've pitched is "Yamalot." Then there's my nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Yam".....I got a million of 'em folks...well, four anyway.......<tap, tap>...um, is this thing on?)

I was excited to start using them, so I made sweet potato biscuits for our Sunday community fellowship meal. Here they are before being put into the oven. (Note to self, let the potatoes cool before mixing them into the dough. That's why these are spoon-dropped biscuits and not perfectly round):

And here they are fresh out of the oven:

We're very thankful to God for the unexpected blessing and provision of these sweet potatoes.

Susan

A House - Update IV - Foundation Piers Complete!

2009-12-13T01:03:00.001-06:00

Apparently, concrete doesn't cure as well in colder weather as it does when it's warmer. From what I've read, it's not ideal to pour standard concrete in "cold weather," which is defined as three consecutive days with lows and highs in the 40-50 degrees F range. And my understanding is that freezing weather is not good for the setting of new concrete. So, I've been trying to beat Winter in building our concrete piers for the foundation of our house.

Well, even though things started to cool down with the weather quite a bit, I learned there are some things you can do to allow you to go ahead and pour anyway, if the temperatures aren't too low. You can add more cement, and you can warm the concrete mixture (I suppose this is more applicable if you're having concrete delivered). You can also attempt to keep the poured concrete warm with blankets, and even heaters, if necessary.

And so, for the last several piers, I covered or wrapped them in blankets in the evening after the pour. For the upper part of the pier, I would let the piece of board holding the bolt in place remain there for two days before removing it (whereas before I was only keeping it there for one day). And then, if the sun came out, I would uncover the concrete to let the sunshine in:

Throughout building these piers, I had no trouble with the concrete tubes. On the second to the last pier, after finishing the top part and setting the bolt in place, I was cleaning up; and I turned around, and the concrete had sunk probably 3/4" down. I wondered what was happening; and when I looked, the bottom of the tube had cracked open, and the concrete was pushing out. Oh no. I didn't know what to do. Should I pull the concrete tube and try to salvage the concrete, quickly cut another tube, and put the concrete back? But I figured that was going to be difficult to even physically accomplish, and the whole area would be difficult to reset with the amount of concrete used (the tube was nearly 3' tall), among other potential problems. And so, I ran and got the duct tape and taped around the break to try to "stop the bleeding." I had to pull the pier back up to being level too and reset the wood bracing form to hold it upright. And then, I just put more concrete on top. It sank some more, and I had to add concrete again; but after that, things seemed to set. And it appears to have worked ok. Thanks to the Lord for granting that!

And with that pier done, it was on to the last pier. Here it is!

And here's me prepping it for cold weather:

This is me reading it a bedtime story from its favorite book, after tucking it in for the night:

After 38 piers, using 312 1/2 bags of concrete, all mixed with water by hand, the piers for the pier and beam foundation of our house are finished!

This is a view from the north:

And this is from the east:

We thank the Lord for granting us the provisions and strength to work on the house.

-- David

Homemade Fat Lamp - Update I

2009-12-04T10:12:00.002-06:00

After being able to fashion a homemade fat lamp with a wick consisting of one rope of a cotton mop head, I thought it would be interesting to see if I could form a wick holder that would hold multiple rope strands so that the wick would be more similar in width to a common lamp wick, and thus produce more light.

And here is my attempt to do just that. I bent a single, elongated loop to surround the rope strands:

Well, it appeared to work pretty well, and produces quite a bit more light!

With the extra light comes extra heat, so I tied a cord around the mouth of the jar; and now it functions as a lantern:

We thank the Lord once again for granting resources and provisions to continue to learn the old paths, may He increase His light within us daily, and may we shine brightly His light to the world.

-- David

A House - Update III - Root Cellar/Storm Shelter

2009-11-19T09:21:00.001-06:00

Part of the house design was to have a root cellar/storm shelter in the vicinity. I wanted to have house access to it so it would be quick and convenient to be able to get into in an emergency. In thinking about designs, I had hoped to not interfere with the layout of the foundation piers as much as possible. And so, the plan was to dig out the main area of the cellar under where the porch is to be, have the landing area go between two piers, and then have the entrance way under the actual house structure; this would allow for the cellar to be covered by structure (the porch), easy entrance from within the house, and the foundation to continue to be laid out as it was without having to add piers or other modifications to it.

I decided to hire a contractor to do the digging, partially because the hole needed to be dug fairly precisely since the landing was going between the two piers, and also so I wouldn't have to deal with damage that might happen to the equipment. But, after several weeks of delay with an inattentive contractor, I decided to just rent a backhoe and do it myself.

And so, here I am starting the digging process:

Well, not more than a few feet down I hit that rock layer that I've been setting the piers on. I thought for sure I'd be able to get through it with a backhoe, but one by one the teeth caps on the backhoe bucket started to break off. I went through several before stopping. We thought about it and then came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth proceeding because more possible damage could happen; I could possibly disturb the ground under the piers, thereby potentially weakening the house structure; and we already have a root cellar/storm shelter. So I filled back in what I had already dug, and parked the backhoe.

We had to pay for the damages, but the folks from whom I rented the backhoe went out of their way to help us. We rented from iRent in Brownwood, TX, and Milt the manager there really helped us in diminishing the fees as much as possible. He was a breath of fresh air in customer service, especially given our experience with the local contractor noted above.

I lost about a month of time with all of this but have restarted the foundation building process, and here is where it is currently...only five piers left!

Thanks again to Milt at iRent for his excellent customer service; and we again thank the Lord for His graces, mercies, wisdom in and sovereign power over all circumstances.

-- David

Kids' Graduation 2009

2009-11-09T22:04:00.001-06:00

So that they don't have any kids until after most of Winter has past, we waited to put our bucks Shatner and Eastwood with their respective does until now, as the gestation period of goats is around five months.

And so, this past Lord's Day was the time!

We put Shatner with Winnie, Betsy and Pammy (shown back to front):

And we put Eastwood with their daughters Minnie, Tapioca and Marie (shown left to right, with Eastwood between Minnie and Tappi). Any kids God graciously grants will be their first ones. They've now graduated into being a part of breeding process! (They grow up so fast! :) :

And here are Aramis and Porthos (left and right), and Donny (center), which, with Shatner being gone, are now kings of their castle:

We pray the Lord perpetuates the herd, in accordance with His will and divine wisdom; and we thank Him for the opportunity and resources to be able to set apart the goats for breeding.

-- David

Time to Come Clean

2009-11-01T11:39:00.003-06:00

Before Dave and I moved to Texas, we lived in a small cottage, which did not have washer/dryer facilities; so we had a laundry "date" every couple of weeks. We packed up all of our laundry and took it to my mom's for her to do (haha Mom, just kidding). No, we took it to Dave's mom's house for her to do (haha, Mom Sifford, gotcha!) But seriously folks, we took it to the local laundry mat. It was so nice to get all of our laundry washed, dried, and folded in a few hours and not have to worry about it for another couple of weeks. Then on the way home, we usually picked up some tacos from the local eatery (a romantic way of saying Taco Bell) and made a fun afternoon of it.

After we moved here to Texas, thankfully there was a local laundry mat that worked well for our needs. This time, I had the pleasure of going into town with our neighbor, Danielle, for the first several months, to do laundry together. But I knew, with our new off-grid lifestlyle and our worldview, I would need to eventually set up a system of hand washing and drying our clothes here on our homestead.

I had been drying clothes on the wonderful clothes line my mother-in-law had given me but had not yet started hand washing clothes here at home, even though the Lord had by now granted enough water to be available in our cistern. To be honest, at first, I was more than a little apprehensive about washing all of our clothes by hand. Why was it that I was so afraid of broaching this laundering method with myself when it is the way it had been done for centuries before the industrial revolution? The unknown scared me a bit and seemed overwhelming. Eventually though, I began to "scour" the internet and research all of the wash tubs to be found, and spent probably too much time searching for the "perfect" set up. In retrospect, I believe I was procrastinating and in denial. Finally, Dave and I discussed it, and realized, uh, any old tub should do the trick. So we went out and bought a few inexpensive, galvanized tubs locally, I took a deep breath, and I've been hand washing our clothes for several months now! I know, pretty anti-climactic, isn't it?

Anyway, for those of you who, like I was, might be wondering how to get started, it's pretty simple. By the time I got to washing clothes this way, Danielle had already been washing clothes by hand for some time; and she helped me a lot, and has some hand washing laundry tips and then some info about her manual laundry set up. For myself, I use four buckets: one for pre-soaking clothes, one for the main washing, and two rinse buckets. I put about six ounces of hydrogen peroxide in the main wash bucket per load of whites as my bleach (try it, it works!) and I use a splash of white vinegar in the final rinse bucket to soften the clothes. One of my other neighbors puts a bit of fabric softener in her rinse, and I might try that as well.

First I put a little laundry detergent and some water into the pre-soak bucket, along with the dirty clothes, let that set for a little while, and then transfer the pre-soaked clothes to the main wash tub:

I highly, highly recommend the Rapid Washer sold by Lehmans. If anything happened to it, I might drop on the ground sucking my thumb in the fetal position -- that is how valuable it is to my clothes washing experience (I wouldn't really do that, but you get the point :) ). The proof is in the dirty wash water, and you can get a good amount of clothes clean in a short amount of time. I see they've raised the price a couple of dollars, but it's still a good deal in my opinion at $17.95:

I use it for about 10 minutes per load:

Time to transfer the washed clothes to the first rinse bucket:

And then onto the final rinse. Another neighbor recommended using the Rapid Washer for not only the wash cycle but the rinse cycle too, to push all the soap out of the clean clothes. I tried that, and it works really well:

We decided to invest in a commercial grade wringer, considering the anticipated heavy usage. Dave put together a sawhorse for it as a stand, and with some bracing, it works beautifully:

Last stop, clothes line:

I also began making my own laundry detergent, which saves a lot of money. You can find recipes at the website Soaps Gone Buy. The one I use most often is to grate three bars of Fels Naptha soap, and combine that with 1 1/2 cups of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, and 1 1/2 cups of Borax. Some people use Zote soap in place of Fels Naphta. The recipe mixture works great, and costs pennies per load, using only two to three tablespoons each. As an alternative, one lady I know uses only baking soda for her wash; and her clothes look fine!

This experience has brought me another step closer to not being afraid to try new (or old, in this case) things, and to think outside the box to do whatever works best. It used to take a good chunk out of a day away from our homestead to do laundry. Now I can simply step outside when I have a free hour to do a couple of loads, while staying at home helping Dave on the homestead. It's also a step closer to less dependence on outside resources. What a blessing!

And I love working outside in the fresh air and not melting away in the stuffy laundry mat. It also provides a great time to pray or listen to a sermon or Christian audio teaching as well. (Eph. 5:15-16: "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.")

Once again, I'm very thankful to God for allowing me to live this lifestyle, farther from the distractions of the world, so I may focus on Him, His Word and living obediently before Him.

Susan

New Goat "Piney Tim" - Update - Name Changed to "Eastwood"

2009-10-20T11:00:00.003-05:00

Well, because of some character traits we picked up on, and because the previous name is too much associated with Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," which celebrates Christmas in a way, which is something that we reject, thus causing us a conscience problem, and because we were probably just going to be calling him Timmy anyway, we are changing his name to Eastwood, because he seems to often give us those squinty eyes saying, "Go ahead...make my day!"

You can see it in the difference between these two pictures. You'll probably have to click on each picture (and maybe enlarge them from there) to be able to see it; but in the second one, he's giving "the look":

We probably spend a little more time than is necessary on our animals with this type of stuff (naming, etc.), but we also like to try to be cautious and consistent with what we do.

-- David

New Goat "Piney Tim"

2009-10-17T21:45:00.002-05:00

Although apparently inbreeding goats is a defined method for increasing a herd, we decided to use outbreeding instead, as inbreeding can bring to surface undesirable traits (as well as desirable ones, which from what I've read is why people inbreed); so our plan is to trade our males born here with other folks who are raising dairy goats. Our neighbors the Sustaires are doing just that, and the Lord had granted them twin bucks around the same time as He did our triplet bucks, which are half Nubian and half what Winnie is, which is part LaMancha. We also had Donny available, who is a little older and full Nubian. Theirs are Alpine-Nubians, and so we agreed to swap goats. They chose to take Athos, the first born of the triplets, partially because of how well Winnie is producing milk vs. how well Betsy, Donny's mother, is; and we chose the one of theirs that had horns (one of theirs was born without them) so that he could compete with our other males since we are not de-horning our goats.

Since he's part Alpine, that makes him rather "Piney," and so we decided to name him Piney Tim (we'll probably call him Timmy for short). And so here he is:

We're thankful to the Lord for allowing the perpetuation of the animals for all of the families here on the land, and for allowing us to have this opportunity with a local family to husband the animals in this outbreeding way.

-- David

Garden 2009 - Spring - Update IV - 24 (Pint) Carrot Gold and Other Precious Commodities

2009-10-06T21:45:00.002-05:00

Boy, if there was any doubt carrots grow well in West Central Texas, may it be forever removed. We planted carrot seeds in one entire bed this year; and, wow, the carrots took advantage of every bit of space in that bed. This blog post reflects the second round of thinning of the carrots; and I still have one, maybe two, rounds to go!

The carrots grew very densely because there was so much depth for them to grow in the double-dug, raised bed. So each pull of the greens revealed a handful of carrots:

"Ehhhhhh......what's up, doc?" Gary loves carrots. The greens, eh, not so much:

So I filled the bucket with greens knowing they would be appreciated somewhere else......

Shatner, on the other hand, loves carrot greens. (In a high-class maître d’ French accent..."Taybelll for one, Monsieur?")

I stopped pulling carrots when the basket was fairly full, knowing this many would take several hours to prepare for canning:

What a blessing to sit out in the fresh air and sunshine to work at my "day job." I had two buckets for the initial processing of the carrots: one was for a first rinse to get the major dirt off, and the other was to give them a good scrub with the vegetable brush to get them as clean as possible:

Next, I gave them a final rinse, cut off the ends, and cut up the carrots into smaller pieces. I munched along the way and loved knowing these carrots are God's direct provision, and that any middle men and chemicals have been eliminated:

Here they are in the jars ready to go into the canner:

And, yippeeeee! Fresh garden carrots preserved to be used in many delicious dishes:

And speaking of delicious things for meals, I thought I'd provide an update on our other garden adventures.

In addition to our abundant yield of Zuchini, we were blessed with an abundance of summer squash:

We also shredded up much of the summer squash and put it in jars with salt for lactic fermentation, and placed them down in the root cellar. It tastes great - just like sauer kraut. And it makes a very flavorful and healthy salad when you add cucumber and tomato:

Our peppers are still going gangbusters. Here is a bowl of freshly cut peppers ready to be put in jars. I have found it to be very handy to grab a jar of these off the shelf and saute them with onions when I'm making fajitas. Thanks to one our readers, Ginny, we also got the idea to cut them up and dry them in our solar dryer. They are great to add into recipes, and I was very pleasantly surprised at how much taste is packed into even one of these small pieces:

Here they are ready to be canned. As I was going through the pepper plants harvesting the ripe ones, I found that a plant with smaller red and green peppers resembling chili peppers had popped up. (Imagine, if you will, what the Chili's Restaurant pepper logo looks like.) Well, I haven't been canning those because Dave likes to eat them raw here and there. HOWEVER, we have found that somehow these peppers were rubbing elbows with some of the other peppers; and sometimes when we bite into a sweet red or green pepper, we'll get a HOT surprise! So some of these jars are packed with more taste than we bargained for! :)

We planted 17 tomato plants this year hoping that we might have a successful crop; but for some reason, none of them did well at all. We have harvested probably fewer than 40 tomatoes the entire summer. Not sure what happened. But, thankfully, the local produce market was selling fresh tomatoes at a fraction of the normal price to keep them moving. We paid a whopping $5.00 for these tomatoes and got 22 quarts! Thanks to the Lord!

Hmmmmmm, then there is okra (not to be confused with Oprah). Okra and I are still getting to know each other. Coming from the West Coast, I had never eaten okra and don't believe it is on any menu I've ever seen in California. So I'm still becoming acquainted with these Southern crops. To be completely honest, okra and I have a kind of love/hate relationship. They are SO prolific, I could not keep up with them. Do you know that okra can grow to maturity in four days?! It's almost too much of a good thing. They are fibrous by nature; so if you don't catch them when they are young and tender, they can get pretty tough and stringy. However, in the canning process, they do soften up and are very edible. I only tried to fix fried okra once but had to put doing that on the back burner (no pun intended) after that until I have more time to experiment with the seasonings. For now though, we are very grateful to have several jars of nutritious okra put away in the root cellar. They're actually quite tasty when I process them with lemon juice and a little salt:

We planted a half bed of turnips this year as a kind of experiment to see how they would grow. They did very well, and we had many great salads with turnip greens. The greens are a bit misleading because the actual number of turnips that were harvested were not that many. But we were very thankful to have this basket full of them:

Dave put them in freezer bags to be kept in our large freezer (which we had running because I was in the process of canning our two butchered hogs at the time) until I could get around to canning them. Here, we paid Gary a couple carrots to guard them until Dave could put them in the freezer:

Sadly, they thawed just enough in the freezer that they started going bad by the time I could get to them. So our turnips were, instead, enjoyed by our hog, Missy. Maybe next year.......

We also have gotten some great green onions and red onions from our garden, of which I don't currently have pictures. I still haven't gotten used to knowing I can just walk outside over to the garden and pick a bunch of fresh produce to put into our meals. What an amazing blessing for which we are so thankful to God.

Susan

Agridioms

2009-09-24T20:30:00.002-05:00

One of the ways agrarianism still affects culture is in the form of some idioms in the English language. We thought it would be fun and educational to mention a few, which I obtained from http://www.brownielocks.com/wordorigins.html (of course, others may have different versions of the origins):

No Spring Chicken

New England chicken farmers discovered that chickens born in the Spring bought better prices, rather than old birds that had gone through the winter etc. Sometimes farmers tried to sell the old birds as a new spring born chicken. Smart buyers often complained that a tough fowl was "no spring chicken" and so the term now is used to represent birds (and even people) past their plump and tender years.

Beat Around the Bush

This comes from boar hunting in which the noblemen hired workers to walk through the woods beating the branches and making noises to get the animals to run towards the hunters. Boars were dangerous animals with razor-sharp teeth (you really did not want to meet one-to-one, esp. with no weapon). So the unarmed workers workers avoided the dense undergrowth where the boar might be and beat around it, rather than going into it. Thus, this evasive technique was termed "beating around the bush" and today represents anyone who avoids approaching anything directly

Old Stomping Ground

The prairie chicken was often observed by early settlers dancing around at dawn with their fancy mating steps, making noises and strutting as part of their courtship with the females. They were so intense on this, they actually wore some areas of the ground bare! Soon, settlers could just tell by looking at some bare land that it was the mating spots for those frisky prairie chickens, and soon got called their "old stomping grounds." Today the term is used both for areas when males and females gather to meet each other, or for any place in which a group of people just go to have fun and kick up their heels etc.

Henpeck

Biologist W.C. Allee gained fame when he discovered the pecking order of hens, and the female's habit of using her beak as a weapon among other females. The hens never peck the male roosters. And yet the term today is often referred to represent the verbal attacks females put upon males. Go figure!

Chicken Feed

As far as farming goes, chicken feed is the poor quality wheat or corn given to chickens. Soon, city folks used the phrase in regards to our lower denominations of coins. And, the phrase soon became really popular among riverboat gamblers to mean a small amount of money, and it stuck.

Goose Bumps

It's a phrase used to describe visible small bumps on our skin because of fear, shivering, etc. The phrase is based on the fact that geese were plucked of their feathers every couple of months, leaving the birds pretty bare. So, when they'd get a chill from the cold air, their skin would shrink and create these large pimples.

A Gift Horse in the Mouth or Straight from the Horse's Mouth

When you get information straight from the horse's mouth, it means you are suppose to be getting honest, correct information. The phrase comes from the old days when determining how old a horse was was done by looking at his teeth. So, before betting on a horse, people wanting to check its teeth to see how old this horse was. Therefore, anyone who worked around the horse (stable hand?) knew how old the horse was and could let the others know. Therefore, the information was acquired, 'straight from the horse's mouth' and not the owner of the horse.

On the other hand, if someone gave you a horse for free, it was considered rude to look in its mouth and check to see how old it was. Therefore, you were not to "look a gift horse in the mouth." Today, this means not to question the quality or motive a gift you get from someone.

Web Behind the Ears

This refers to someone who has absolutely no knowledge or skill in some craft or job assignment. It goes beyond being a beginner. It means to know zip, nada, nothing! The origin is simple. It refers to newborn animals, who are wet from the womb when born. They dry slowly and often behind their ears stays wet the longest. Newborns are pretty helpless and know nothing, just like someone who has to do something that they don't know how to do.

Caught Red-Handed

The phrase today means simply to be caught doing something wrong, usually while you are doing it so there's no doubt you are doing something wrong. In the old days, it simply meant to be caught with the red blood of an animal on your hands as a result of butchering an animal that didn't belong to you. According to the laws back then, just having freshly cut meat didn't make you guilty. You had to be caught with the fresh blood of the animal to be convicted.

To Be At the End of Your Rope

Today it means that you have used up all possible resources, solutions, ideas, etc. in order to surmount a problem you have. It originated from the tethering of horses to eat (but not allowing them to run free). So, horse would eat in the area his rope allowed. When the horse ate all the grass that was easy, he then was stretching and eating in the area that was "at the end of his rope."

To Gum-Up the Works

Someone (or something) that suddenly stops a project from running smoothly is "gumming up the works." The phrase originates in old lumbering days when the men had to deal with the Sweet Gum tree. It's sap gummed up their saws. They hated that. But, they discovered that the gum was fun to chew. So, they'd go collecting it and as a result, oftentimes returned all sticky from head to foot. And, it was hard to wash off! So, a person was all gummed up and stuck (lacking freedom of movement).

Scapegoat

On the Day of Atonement (Hebrews) the priests would take a black goat as the representative of all the sins of the people. During this ceremony he would lay the sins of the people on the goat's head. Afterwards, the goat was let go (escape). Later on, anyone who was made to take the blame for the actions of someone else was called a "scapegoat" just like the ceremonial goat did for the sins of the people.

To Go Haywire

Logically, this phrase has to do with bailing hay. Back in 1828, Moses P. Bliss patented a machine that bailed hay. It worked pretty good, but there were times when the wire used on the machine would get stuck in the machine, wrap around the horse's legs, etc. When the men cut it to untangle the mess, it often snapped, causing injuries. The situation soon slipped into social talk to represent anytime anything gets all messed up and can't work properly (machines, projects, ideas etc.).

Kick the Bucket

It's an expression meaning death. The phase originates from slaughter houses. When a cow was to be killed, a bucket was placed under him, while he was being positioned on a hoist. Sometimes, while adjusting the hoist, it made the animals legs jerk and he'd kick the bucket before he was killed.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Settlers hunted raccoons, possums and squirrels. Most hunting dogs would chase them up a tree and then bark until their masters came and shot the animals. Sometimes, the animal managed to sneak across to another tree w/o the dog seeing. So, the dog would continue to bark up a tree that didn't have any prey. Soon, the phrase became known in social circles to mean anyone who is wrong about something and/or is being mislead.

To Build a Fire Under Someone

We all know that mules are pretty stubborn. Sometimes they just firmly set their legs and well... So, farmers decided that building a small fire under the mule's belly would get him moving. There's no proof this was really done a lot by muleskinners. But, the idea and imagery was such that people started using the phrase to mean "trying to get someone to move or take some action."

Poppycock

It's just a name for barnyard excrements from chickens. The phrase first appeared in stories written by Charles F. Brown (aka Artemis Ward) in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1858. He used the phrase to described the political talk he was hearing from candidates. It seemed to then catch on as a way of expressing any talk that was worthless and stupid, whether political or not.

A Stuffed Shirt

Anyone who is rather immobile (rather in actions or in ideas) is said to be a stuffed shirt. The phrase comes from scarecrows in which shirts and pants were stuffed with hay, supported by a stiff pole to create a figure to scare away pesky crows. It didn't really move, it just stood there.

To Live High on The Hog or To Eat High on The Hog

The origin is pretty simple. It comes from the fact that the best part of meat on a hog is cut high on the thigh. The lesser quality meat comes from the lower thigh (has lots of fat). So, the meaning of the phrase is basically when you are eating (or living) the very best that is available to you; and, are not having second best or lower quality.

Fork Over of Fork It Over

"Fork over the dough!" is often heard on old 1940's gangster movies. The term originates from England where peasants had to pay their landlords (Noblemen) rent in silver. When they didn't have any silver, then they had to pay their rent from their crops. Shrewd rent collectors would decrease the market value of the crops to get more. In the meantime, the peasant was paying his rent via his pitchfork as he shoveled his crop into a wagon and grumbled. Rather than a pitchfork, today we just use our hands and "hand over" whatever is asked.

Stool Pigeon

It's not about pigeons in the park sitting on stools. The origin goes back to when pigeons were eaten as a good meat source. In order to get one, many hunters took a tame pigeon, tied it to a stool in order to attract the wild pigeons to shoot at. Because the pigeon that was tied to the stool was used to trap the other birds, the name "stool pigeon" soon was used to represent anyone to tells (betrays) on his friends.

Hogwash

Two origins: First, male pigs are called swines. When they are castrated they are called hogs. The castration process required that the hogs be washed afterwards. The water was tossed out as worthless.
Or....it's just the name of the swill fed to swines which really has no nutritional value at all. Today, if something is said to be hogwash, it just means talk that is stupid, invalid or illogical. In other words, it has about as much value as the nutrition in hogwash.

Pull Up Stakes

When you leave a place where you've been and go to a new spot, you are said to "pull up stakes." The origin goes back to homesteaders, were stakes were put in the ground to mark survey lines. But, sneaky settlers would go out at night and move the stakes of other people to their benefit.

Fishy

Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of England wrote in his novel, Coningsby in which he has the phrase "the most fishy thing I ever saw." to describe a suspicious political deal. He observed that both fish and politicians could be slippery. Today, if something is said to be fishy, it means there is something suspicious about it.

Nip It in the Bud

Horticulturist learned years ago that in order to produce good fruit, a plant had to have a lot of buds snipped off. This improved garden produce, but was disastrous to individual buds. It became proverbial that when a bud was nipped off, it would definitely no longer produce any fruit. Today the word is used to refer to a sudden halt in any plans or project in which no further progress will result.

And finally, here's everyone's favorite deputy sheriff demonstrating the usage of this last one...well, sort of...

:)

To me, word and phrase origins can be quite interesting. The site noted at the top of this post has many other English language words and phrases and their origins, in case you're inclined to read about some more of them.

-- David

David's Digest: Introduction to Type and Antitype (Typology) in the Bible

2009-09-05T21:37:00.007-05:00

This is just an introduction to a large topic, but I wanted to take a moment and talk about it briefly in hopes it might benefit someone as it did me when I first learned about it.

There are two elements of the Bible called "type" and "antitype" (together referred to as "typology"). Types, or shadows, are spiritual "pictures" shown in the Bible that represent concepts or persons. The fulfillment of a type is referred to as its "antitype." Some have been fulfilled, perhaps in multiple ways (or layers) over time, and some have not. Also, a type may not represent an antitype completely, and the picture may only go so far; and there can be multiple types for one antitype.

Webster's 1828 dictionary defines type and antitype as follows:

type:

A sign; a symbol; a figure of something to come; as, Abraham's sacrifice and the paschal lamb, were types of Christ. To this word is opposed antitype. Christ, in this case, is the antitype.

antitype:

A figure corresponding to another figure; that of which the type is the pattern or representation. Thus the paschal lamb, in scripture, is the type of which Christ is the antitype. An antitype then, is something which is formed according to a model or pattern, and bearing strong features of resemblance to it.

The following are just a very few, brief examples:

Type	Antitype
Egypt	The world, its systems and culture
God bringing the Israelites out of Egypt.	God separating unto Himself a specific people; the people of God leaving the world (including its systems and culture) to worship God; the salvation of God's chosen from the bondage of sin and the world
Angel of death passing by those households in Egypt with blood on the door posts	Christ's blood saving His chosen from eternal destruction
Noah saved in the Ark	Salvation in Christ
Ark of the Covenant	Christ, His humanity (ark made of wood) and His deity (gold); as Christ's blood for propitiation (blood sprinkled on mercy seat for propitiation)
Sun – too bright to behold its glory; brings life; is the light of the world	Christ, the Son – too bright to behold His glory; brings life; is the Light of the world
Israel of the Bible (physical Israel) – God's chosen people on earth	Spiritual Israel – God's chosen people who are or will be in heaven
Moses – the deliverer of God's chosen people (physical Israel)	Christ – the deliverer of God's chosen people (spiritual Israel)
Joshua – brought God's chosen people (physical Israel) into the promised land	Christ – brings God's chosen people (spiritual Israel) into the Promised Land (heaven)
High priest for Israel and all of his duties	Christ in His office as spiritual High Priest of His people
David – King of Israel; savior of His people against their enemies; shepherd; the least of his brothers	Christ – King of spiritual Israel (and over all); Savior of His people against spiritual enemies; Shepherd of His people; clothed in servanthood and humility
Saul – enemy of David	Antichrist – enemy of Christ (who is the antitype of David)
Goliath – enemy of David and God's people	Antichrist/Satan – enemy of Christ and God's people
The animals slain, and skins clothing for Adam and Eve after the fall	Christ's sacrifice with blood, and the clothing of righteousness for His people
The 12 tribes of Israel (12 is the number of completion) – all of God's chosen people at the time	All of God's spiritual chosen people (His elect, throughout time)
High priest entering the Holy of Holies with the names of the 12 tribes (God's chosen people), and only them, written on the stones put on the shoulders of the ephod (Ex 28:11-12) on behalf of those with whose names he enters (and thus on behalf of only them)	Christ entering the Holy Place with the names of His chosen people, and only them, on behalf of those with whose names He enters (and thus on behalf of only them)
The paschal lamb during Passover	Christ as the sacrificial Lamb
Marriage of a man and a woman	The union of Christ and His bride (the Church)
A woman taking a man's last name upon marriage, forsaking her own name for his. Keeping her name or any part of it is not forsaking herself to her husband completely	A Christian taking the name of Christ, forsaking their own name for His. Their forsaking of themselves must be totally
Jonah – in the belly of the whale for three days and nights (Jonah 1:17); vomited out from the belly of the fish after that (Jonah 2:10)	Christ – in the grave for three days and nights; resurrected out from the grave after that (Matthew 12:40)
Christ raising Lazarus – he was dead, He gives him life, calls him forth, Lazarus is now able (now that he's alive) to respond and does so	The beginnings of salvation – the person Christ will call is dead in his sins, He gives him spiritual life (regeneration), calls him forth to Himself, and the person is now able (now that he's alive spiritually) to respond and does so
God's people, when most were rebellious, although there were a some righteous, like Joshua and Caleb, or the remnant gathered by God (Jer 23:3; Jer 31:7) after His judgment against wicked Israel (Jer 1-23:2), or His true disciples while He was here on earth vs. the religious leaders of the day	Professing Christians, who are mostly rebels (Matt 7:21-23), although there are some righteous (true Christians), who are the remnant/elect of God, the true spiritual seed of Abraham (Rom 9:6-8; Gal 4:22-31)
Sabbath day rest	Resting alone in Christ's righteousness (working on the Sabbath breaks this “antitype,” in essence claiming our works are our righteousness); eternal rest with Christ in heaven

Learning about type and shadow in the Bible really opened it up to me, especially the Old Testament. I believe the Old Testament events truly happened; but I believe just about everything in it also is some sort of type, mostly of Christ as the anittype. Hebrews talks quite a bit about Christ as the fulfillment of many of the Old Testament types. It's a beautiful work of wisdom by the Holy Spirit that paints such glories and wonderful pictures of our Saviour and His essence, characteristics, offices, etc.

If you have never heard of type and antitype in the Bible, I really hope you will spend some time learning about them. Here are a couple of starting points:

Here is Wikipedia's entry for typology

From A.W. Pink's The Divine Inspiration of the Bible, Chapter 6, "The Typical Significance of the Scriptures Declare Their Divine Authorship

Also, here are a set of sermons from our teacher, so you can get a better idea of typology. The teachings aren't about type and antitype, but they use them extensively. Plus, the sermons are spiritually edifying: Darkness and Light, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

We are very thankful to the Lord for His gift of His word, preserved in our language through heavy persecutions; and we thank Him for granting us this understanding of type and shadow that He put in there to help us understand Him and His glory better.

-- David

Garden 2009 - Spring - Update III - A Borsch is a Borsch, Of Course, Of Course

2009-08-24T10:43:00.004-05:00

We planted cabbage in our summer garden again this year. If you'll remember from our garden last year, we didn't have any cabbage heads to speak of; but this year the Lord has graciously blessed us with large, beautiful cabbage heads to eat fresh and preserve.

I can probably count the number of ounces of cabbage I've eaten in my life in single digits. I have nothing against cabbage in the least but just didn't grow up eating much of it. So I was stumped to find a good way to preserve all of this cabbage with which God had blessed us.

I surfed online a bit under canning cabbage and found a recipe that sounded pretty tasty to me. Fast forward several weeks, and I now have over 60 quarts of borsch in my root cellar! (NOTE: For you proper spellers, "borsch" is, indeed, an approved variant spelling of "borscht.") I had heard of borsch but had never eaten it to my recollection. I'm not certain if this recipe is an "official" borsch; but, regardless, it's tasty! Wow! All these years I've been missing out! This recipe calls for five pounds of tomatoes per batch, so we were very thankful when we discovered the local produce market was having a sale on tomatoes at about $.50 per pound.

I've listed the recipe below in case anybody is panicking like I was, wondering how to capture and preserve their garden cabbage crop. Or if you just have a "hankerin'" for borsch :D

Here is the official link to the recipe, but I made a few changes so I thought I would post it here also with a few personal notes in italics:

Yield: Eight pints (or four quarts) although I was generous with the ingredients and consistently got five quarts each time.
- 5 lbs. tomatoes (about 20 medium tomatoes)
- 8 cups coarsely shredded cabbage (I tried using a grater but realized coarsely chopping the cabbage works just as well and is much faster)
- 6 cups water
- 2 cups chopped onions (approx. 2 medium onions)
- 1 cup chopped apple (approx. 1 medium apple)
- 2 tablespoons instant beef bouillon (store-bought bouillon contains MSG, so on some of the batches I used pork stock from previous canning sessions of our pigs in place of the six cups of water, and added a little garlic and onion powder seasoning in place of the bouillon; and it worked fine)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper

1. Wash, peel, remove stem ends and cores, and quarter tomatoes. Use a small spoon to scrape out the excess seeds, if desired. (I didn't take the time to peel the tomatoes or scrape out any seeds, and it was fine)

2. In a four to six quart kettle or dutch oven combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil; boil uncovered five minutes.

3. Ladle hot soup into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space.

4. Adjust the lids.

5. Process in canner at 10 pounds, 45 minutes for pints or 55 minutes for quarts. (Please look online for altitude instructions if you live 1,000 feet or more above sea level)

6. Makes eight pints (or four quarts) (As I stated before, I was generous with the ingredients and consistently got five quarts)

Here are the tomatoes we were blessed to be able to buy very inexpensively. A 20 lb. box yielded three to three and a half batches:

I cut up each tomato in half and then into quarters and placed them in the soup pot:

I coarsely chopped up the cabbage and placed it in with the tomatoes:

I was amazed at how many cups each head of cabbage yielded:

Here are all of the ingredients introducing themselves to each other and ready to be boiled:

The ingredients have now been boiled for five minutes and are ready to be ladled into the canning jars for processing:

MMMmmmmm, delicious Borsch all cooked, processed and ready to eat!

What a blessing to have been able to capture and preserve these abundant, direct provisions from God. Dave and I have had some borsch for supper a couple of times now. Dave said it doesn't smell that great but tastes delicious! It can stand on its own as a very tasty and nutritious soup, or meat may be added to make a wonderful stew. I added in some canned brisket meat recently along with some homemade bread, and it made a well-rounded supper for us. All thanks to God for granting us this food from our garden as a type of the spiritual food He gives us from His Word.

Susan

A House - Update II - Foundation

2009-08-19T10:47:00.008-05:00

We just wanted to catch you up on the progress of the house the Lord is granting that we be able to build right now.

I decided to use a pier and beam foundation, using 12 inch concrete piers.

And here is the first hole! I've found that below the surface is a layer of boulder rocks; and so I've been digging down to that point and leaving them so the piers will sit on the rock, hopefully creating a more firm foundation:

I cut rebar pieces and pounded them into the sides of the hole in eight places to help hold the pier in the ground against any lift that might occur:

And I tied them together with cross pieces so they act as a single piece in the concrete:

Here I tied in some vertical rebar pieces that would actually stick up into the pier:

And here is the base after the concrete pour:

For the pier part, I decided to use concrete tube forms. We're finding the height of each tube by using a water level, which is just clear, plastic tubing with water in it. One person takes one end to an already established pier, the other person the other end to a leveled, empty concrete tube in place on the concrete base. The person next to the unfilled concrete tube gets in place, and the person at the established pier moves the tube up and down until their water level is level with the top of the pier. Then, the other person marks the concrete tube where their water line is showing. We're doing this on four places on the tube, then marking a line all the way around the concrete tube and cutting it to size on that line. Also, we take each measurement from the same pier so that any error introduced only affects the new pier and doesn't compound from pier to pier:

Once the tube is cut to the proper height, it is re-leveled on the concrete base and held in place by a wood form and stakes pounded into the ground:

This is the bolt that is set in the concrete which will hold on the brace which holds the beam. I tied in a couple of small pieces of rebar at the bottom to a washer held on by a nut to better lock it into the concrete:

And here the bolt is ready to be set into the concrete using the plywood to hold it "suspended" in the concrete:

Here is the pier after the concrete pour with the bolt set into place:

I decided to do the first two front corner piers so I could run a string between them so as to be able to line up the whole row of piers:

And here is the first row completed!

This past first Wednesday of the month was our community work day, and the men helped us with our foundation work. We poured a pier and three new bases:

I decided to complete the other two corners so I could have straight lines for all of the other outside piers, and here is where we are now:

We are again grateful to God for the provisions, ability and community to work on the house.

-- David

Storing Rain II - Update

2009-08-02T19:56:00.012-05:00

In a previous blog post, we showed a tank (pond) expansion project we worked on. As I mentioned at the end of that post, it had rained enough at one time to fill it up quite a bit, but much of it leaked out the sides; and since then it hasn't had much water in it. In doing some other work to help fill the tank, I've built up a berm of dirt in a drainage area from our upper field, directing runoff water from it down toward our tank.

Well, recently, the Lord in His graces and mercies brought rain -- four to five inches in around a week time period. This really did a lot with filling up tanks in the area, including here on our land. For our tank, God filled it up to about one and a half feet from the top. Again though, some of it is leaking out, but not as much as before, it appears. Hopefully over time the sides will continue to seal up.

And so, following and including the one above are pictures of the gracious bounty of water God has provided:

We thank Him for His abundant provisions, the water here on the land, and the Water of Life in His Son, Christ Jesus.

-- David

Goat Milk?

2009-07-29T21:23:00.003-05:00

The background music came from fiddle champion Tony Ludiker's free mp3s page. The recordings have Terry Ludiker and Darin Meeks on guitar.

This was fun to do. Here's a bit of raw footage, some of which hit the cutting room floor.

In this first one, I held out as long as I could, until the end:

I almost didn't get the part after this take. Also, based on the last few seconds, it appears that for some reason eating cookies makes me think I'm playing Hannibal Lecter:

Here, finishing up after getting the last goat back into the pen didn't work out quite as expected:

And just for the record, the milk I drank was from a previous day's milking that had been kept very cold. Apparently, it's better tasting and lasts longer when the goat milk is chilled well right away.

There is a lesson in the main video, in case it wasn't evident: most people go to the store for their provisions; agrarians go straight to the source, which is provided by God directly in accordance with His will, without the need for the world and its government approval, degrading pasteurization, shipping companies, grocery stores, and all of the other in-between means the industrial system requires for sustenance to go from where it's produced to where it is used or consumed.

Which way is the proper way for a Christian to live?

We are thankful to the Lord for the provisions of our goats and the milk He is allowing us to have.

-- David

P.S. In case you weren't aware of the TV commercials, etc., our video is a take off of the California Milk Processing Board (and then licensed by others) ad campaign, "got milk?"

Snake, Rattle and Hoe

2009-07-25T21:36:00.009-05:00

Last night, it was time to go to sleep. Sabbath had begun a few hours earlier, I had already laid down, and Sue was preparing to retire. It seemed there were an unusual amount of insects in our camper; and while She was at the sink, a medium sized beetle-looking bug was trying to crawl out of the sink, but kept slipping back. As Providence would have it, Sue decided to help the little guy, grab him, and toss him outside. She got a hold of him with a tissue, opened the screen door to our camper, started shaking him out, and looked down only to behold something unexpected. She called to me; I was already starting to doze and wasn't pleased: I thought she must have seen an extra large spider or something. I complained, but she said that she had seen a snake just below our camper door slithering around my rain boots, which sat next to the palette at the bottom of the steps. I looked down but didn't see anything. She said it had crawled back underneath the camper. I walked down the steps with the flashlight; and sure enough, there it was. It was a rattle snake, and a fairly thick one too!

Wow. Ok, what to do. It was now coiled up between the two tires of the dual axle on this side of our camper. Shooting it with a pistol or shotgun, or even a .22 from the angle I was standing would probably just cause the bullet to ricochet into the camper. I figured I'd try to poke it enough with something so it would move out into the open, where I could shoot it. I got prepared with the shotgun and .22 rifle, Sue and I donned our rubber rain boots, and I grabbed our hoe and started poking it with the head-end. Well, all that did was cause it to move farther under the camper, coil up behind the rear tire, and start rattling. Hmmm. I went around to the back of the camper with all of the (literal) hardware, and examined the situation from there. It appeared I might have a shot with the .22 from back there without causing a severe ricochet. I prayed I was correct, because the 100 pound propane was off to the side but sort of down line. We prepped the shotgun in case it decided to escape, I lined up the .22 using the backside of the camper wall to brace the barrel against (the shot needed to be pretty accurate as the snake was right next to the tire), aimed for the body because I couldn't see the head, prayed for a true shot, and fired. The Lord answered the prayer with a hit. This stirred up the rattler; it shook its tail and snapped at the bottom of the camper, but then recoiled, only this time exposing his head. I aimed again, fired, and connected. The rattling stopped, and its movements slowed. It exposed its head once again, and I shot it there again, and this time its movements mostly ceased. We waited a little bit to make as sure as possible it was dead, and using the hoe I slid it out. Sue went and got the machete for me. I pinned its head against the ground with the hoe and chopped it off to finish the ordeal.

And here it is:

This is it the next day, minus the rattle:

And here's Sue taking it to the chickens for breakfast:

This was no youngin'! (ie. it had been to the "molt" shop for "shakes" many times. :D )

We thank God for His mercies in all of this (these are just the ones we've recognized): Sue rarely picks up bugs from inside the camper to throw them out; I often step outside with only sandals on during the night for restroom breaks; the propane tank hadn't blown up; and the rattle snake was disposed of. Thanks to Providence for granting and causing our safety, and for His guidance and protection. We are very grateful to Him.

We also thank the Lord for granting this as a faith builder for us in His always seeing and caring eye, and we thank Him for His mercies in bringing us safely through this.

-- David

Providence's Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf "Secoya"

2009-07-23T21:18:00.000-05:00

The Lord once again saw fit in His graces, mercies and wisdom to grant us a new calf, a heifer, to our heifer Catalina (who with this calf has now become a cow). The calf sort of has the color of a redwood tree, so we decided to call her Secoya, which is Spanish for "redwood."

Here is the new little one:

And here she is again, in action:

We are again very grateful to God for His provisions of this new calf.

-- David