The Blog Days of Winter

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

Flurr-ye, Flurr-ye

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

Goat Milk?

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

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"

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

Providence's Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf "Dulce"

Once again God has seen it in His graces to grant another calf, this time to Casi Blanca, daughter of Amistosa. Casi is the calf shown with Ami in the second picture under "Our Herd" in the cattle introduction post. This is Casi's first calf, a little heifer; and her name is Dulce (which means "sweet" or "candy") because she looks like a chocolate dipped ice cream cone.

Here she is:




And here's a video:




We are again grateful to the Lord for His provisions of this new calf and the growth of the herd.

-- David

Providence's Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf "Adelina"

The Lord graciously saw fit to grant us another calf, a little heifer, from Rosalinda, daughter of Rosa. Rosalinda is the calf next to Rosa in the first picture in the "Our Herd" section of our cattle introduction post. This is Rosalinda's first calf; and we have decided to call her Adelina, which means "little noble."

Here is a picture:




And a moving picture:




We are once again grateful to God for His providence and graces and mercies in granting this addition to our herd.

-- David

Providence's Perpetuation Provisions: New Kid "Tapioca"

We recently obtained a doe Pammy that had been brought down to the land from Mrs. Judy's herd. We had placed her with Shatner our buck, and Thursday she gave birth to her first kid. Please meet Tapioca, because she's the same color as tapioca pudding -- we'll probably call her Tappi mostly :) :





She seems to be very healthy and is getting around and suckling, and Pammy seems to be doing the proper mothering things:




We once again thank the Lord for Him granting the provision of Pammy and her new doe, and we pray for help and guidance to take care of His gifts properly and biblically.

-- David

Providence's Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf "Lajoya"

The Lord by His graces and mercies saw fit to allow a calf to be born three or four days ago to one of our heifers, Tiara. Please meet our new heifer calf Lajoya, which in Spanish as two words (la joya) means "the jewel" -- a jewel being something that might come from a tiara. :) :




Tiara is the little calf you see walking next to her mother Amistosa in the first picture of our blog post introducing the cattle. And now with Tiara having her first calf, Lajoya is the first grandcalf from one of Sue's and my cows.


Here is a video of her just a day or two after being born. We've seen her prancing around in the morning and evening, and so I think daytime is sleepy time:




We thank God once again for His gracious provisions and blessings!

-- David

Providence's Providential Provisions: Wild Hogs

Around 6PM two evenings ago, a couple of the men spotted some wild hogs hanging around our (Sue and my) domestic ones. Well, we rounded up a couple more of the guys, and the hunt began! We were able to nab three of the four; they didn't go easily, some being shot several times before a finishing shot to the head was required.

And then the butchering began, with 7 or 8 folks involved. It was probably about 45 minutes to an hour before sundown, and so we all put it into high gear, trying to get them skinned, gutted and quartered before dark. With all of the practice we've had, we were able to get it done pretty much with no problem.

Apparently, the wild hog population is exploding and becoming a real problem, which is bad in that they can be destructive to land and animals, but good in that there's a bunch of free meat running around.

And so, we are very grateful to the Lord for granting this food. He is most gracious and merciful.

1 Tim 6:8 - "And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

-- David

Providence's Perpetuation Provisions: New Kids "Athos", "Porthos", and "Aramis"

The Lord has granted that our doe Winnie give birth to triplets, all males. Please meet Athos, Porthos and Aramis. This is Winnie's second litter, and our pure-bred Nubian buck Shatner is the sire:




Here's an introduction to them:




And the next evening them getting around (I'm a little out of breath at the beginning after running to get the camera):




We are once again grateful to God for His provisions of these goats, and the health He has graciously granted them and Winnie thus far.

-- David

Providence's Providential Provisions: Wild Hogs

Again, one of the reasons we moved out here was to try to remove ourselves from dependency upon the world and its systems and place ourselves directly under God's providence. Well, as I mentioned with water, the Lord's faithfulness continues to be shown.

An acquaintance of one of the men on the land here informed us that he had been catching wild hogs, and quite a few of them. This being brought to Michael's attention, he thought it would be of great benefit to the community to take advantage of this gift of meat from God. And so, he put together a plan, which involved building a pen to hold them. We built the pen, bought the wild hogs for a very nominal fee, and began to raise them. The whole community has been involved and has benefited from this provision from the Lord. We have since been able to gather several more pigs the gentleman has captured.

However, with this has brought the processing of the pigs from the very beginning to end, which for Sue and I has involved a new venture for us in the realm of farming: slaughtering and butchering. For me personally, this has been interesting, given what I said in a previous David's Digest; however, as we continue to progress into more proper, biblical perspectives, the Lord has shown us that He has granted us dominion over these animals and has provided them as food.

And so, it had come time to do what needed to be done. Here are some pictures (for those that aren't used to seeing this process, it may be a little discomforting).


Here are several after being shot in the head with a .22 caliber rifle (meaning they were basically instantly dead) and their throats being cut to bleed them out:




And then the butchering began:









In reality, it wasn't too bad. And for me, once you get the skin off, it really just starts to look like meat from the store. Also, now after participating in this process several times, it is not as shocking as it was at first.


Preserving

Typically with our pigs in the past, we would simply can the meat in all of its various forms (bacon, sausage, chops, etc.) after getting it back from the meat processing place. This time though, in hoping to continue our education in the old paths, which includes reducing our dependency on the world for its canning supplies, I wanted to take one section of the meat obtained from one of the pigs, and dry cure it by hand. And so, Michael gave us a recipe, which started by rubbing the meat all over with a mixture of salt, sugar and salt petre, followed by covering it with a cloth and storing it in the root cellar for a week, after which time the container is cleaned and the rub-down step is repeated. This sits in the root cellar for 1 week per inch of meat thickness. After that, it is washed and soaked for an hour in cold water, is drip dried, and then it sits in the container for 2 weeks to "equalize" the meat, which helps permeate the curing mixture throughout it. And then technically that's it; it's ready to be cooked to eat, and should stay preserved in the root cellar for some time. Here is a picture of the ham with the dry cure mixture on it:




Before final storage, Sue "painted" on a flavoring mixture of brown sugar, honey, pepper and salt petre, and we hung it in the root cellar for future use:





We pray the Lord continue to teach us His ways and grant us His continued provisions, in accordance with His will. And we are most grateful to Him for both.

-- David

Providence's Perpetuation Provisions: New Kids "Donny" and "Marie"

The Lord graciously granted Betsy, one of our nanny goats, to give birth to twins. They are pure Nubians. One is a male, the other a female; and so, please meet Donny and Marie. Here is a picture (Donny's on the right, Marie's on the left):




And here is a video:




They were born just before sunrise on a near freezing morning. Due to some confusion in our understanding of when new-born goats need to be up, around and suckling, we let them be for several hours. Well, for some reason Betsy didn't clean them off, and when we checked on them again, they were still laying down, one struggling to get up stuck in the birth wetness. Needless to say, we got them up and cleaned out their little shed and put fresh hay in it. We went and looked up some new-born information in our goat books, and they indicated they needed to be up and suckling within 30 minutes. Sigh. They looked very weak, weren't really up and about, and weren't eating; and so, we decided to milk Betsy for her colostrum and bottle feed them. We did this a few times throughout the afternoon. Before our community meeting that night, we closed them into the shed because it was going to be a cold night again. After the meeting we checked on them, and they appeared to be walking around a bit and even latching on to Betsy's teats a little, and so we decided to not interfere for the night. And we prayed.

Well, God was merciful, and in the morning they were up and standing when we let them out. We watched them throughout the day and saw that they indeed were suckling. Since then they've only gotten stronger and are now getting around quite well.


Here is another video:




We are thankful once again for the Lord's provisions, and his mercies in allowing the new little ones to live and begin to grow healthy.

-- David

Providence's Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf "Leandro"

The Lord most graciously allowed yet another calf to be born to one of our cows. Introducing Leandro, which means "lion-man"; of course he's not a man though :). Rosa gave birth to him this past Monday, and he is our first bull (male) calf:




Here is another picture of him:




And here is a video (which was shot Wednesday):




God is very gracious and merciful, and we are thankful for Him granting perpetuation provisions.

--David

Providence's Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf "Sarita"

The Lord in His graces and mercies granted a new little heifer (female) calf be born this past Sabbath (Saturday) to one of our cows, Amistosa. The calf has a little "dot" of white fur on her otherwise red (brown) head, and that reminded us of a East Indian princess, which apparently is not what the dot means and was just an improper perception we had; but we decided to go with it anyway, so please meet Sarita, which means "princess" in Spanish. She was up and about following her mother in just about 6 hours, we figure.

Her mother's name means "friendly" (because she has been from the moment we got her), and it appears this little one picked up the gene, because she walked right up to us, which allowed us these pictures:






And this video:

We are very grateful once again to God and His many provisions.

-- David