Page 67 of 93

Meat Dryer – Update I

February 14, 2012 / David & Susan Sifford / 5 Comments

In a previous blog post, I showed a meat dryer I had put together. This was for the purpose of brining and drying meat as a method of food preservation that didn’t require freezing or canning. We are always looking for ways to do this, as freezers and canners require dependence on the world systems for continuing supplies (fuel, electricity, parts, etc.).

The final picture of that blog post showed meat from one of our Longhorn bulls that had been butchered hanging and drying.

After a few weeks, at which time the meat looked about dry, I had collected the meat off of the dryer and put it in a plastic bucket and covered it, just as a place to contain it as I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it (we’ve never processed meat like this before, you know 🙂 ). Well, since it was in plastic, which doesn’t breathe, I was a little worried that moisture, which is a seedbed for bacteria, had got in the bucket perhaps; and so I put the pieces back on the dryer again for a couple more weeks (they probably didn’t need to hang that long — I sort of just left them out there). This actually seemed to dry them out further.

And then, all that was left, was to try out the goods! We soaked them in water for 24 hours, as after 12 hours the meat still wasn’t very pliable. Even after 24 hours, they weren’t much more softened; but I didn’t want to leave them out in the open in water like that too much longer for fear of bacterial growth, although the water was probably somewhat salty, which perhaps would have prevented any problems:

And then I cooked them on the grill:

And here they are all cooked:

And here is the meal that Sue prepared for it:

Drum roll please….

Well, obviously by the fact that I’m writing this, we didn’t die, which we thought was a plus on the whole experiment. 🙂 (Did I mention we’ve never preserved meat like this before, and being so colonized in our thinking that things MUST be frozen to keep, it was hard not to worry.)

At any rate, it was a little dry and a little tough to chew, but just tasted like well-done steak. It wasn’t salty, was certainly palatable, and except for the chewiness, was pretty good actually.

It did seem to stop up “the system” a little, but shortly things “moved” along as normal.

All in all, it wasn’t too bad, for meat that had never been processed the way the world says to do it. Perhaps we’ll try soaking it in a meat-tenderizing marinade the next time, Lord willing. Anyone have any recipes?

We are very grateful to the Lord for granting the knowledge of this food preservation method; His creation that graciously allows for the survival of man (eg. salt killing bacteria); His granting of a successful experiment in living according to His order of things; and for this step away from the world, we pray, as unto Him, for His glory.

— David

A House – Update XIII – Internal Walls

February 8, 2012 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

After the house porch roof was covered, it was time to start on some of the internal walls.

Here is header tied to the footer for stud marking of the first wall that goes all the way from west to east:

And here is the view of the bedroom from the library with the closet in front:

And here is the view of the library from the bedroom:

This is a short blog post because this process was “interrupted” by the materials arriving for the next major stage of the house project — the roof! We hope to have a blog post on that up soon, if the Lord wills.

We thank the Lord again for the resources and progress on the house. It’s neat to see some of the rooms actually begin to take shape!

— David

David’s Digest: Living in the Darkness

January 31, 2012 / David & Susan Sifford / 5 Comments

At the fall, all men — Adam and his progeny — were brought into darkness — complete spiritual darkness due to a loss of the spiritual Light of God, which results in complete blindness to spiritual things:

John 1:5 – “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.“

Men are blind to the light of nature that points to God (it does nothing salvific in their lives); and they are blind to Christ, the Light of the world (for some, this is blindness to who He truly is and what He truly did, even if they have a claimed knowledge of Him!). A soul that is not born-again cannot see the kingdom of God:

John 3:3 – “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.“

which is here now:

Matt 3:1-2 – “1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, 2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.“

and

Mark 1:14-15 – “14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.“

The noted Puritan commentator, Dr. John Gill, says this about the kingdom of God in these verses:

for the kingdom of heaven is at hand: by which is meant not the kingdom of glory to be expected in another world; or the kingdom of grace, that is internal grace, which only believers are partakers of in this; but the kingdom of the Messiah, which was “at hand”, just ready to appear, when he would be made manifest in Israel and enter upon his work and office: it is the Gospel dispensation which was about to take place, and is so called; because of the wise and orderly management of it under Christ, the king and head of his church by the ministration of the word, and administration of ordinances; whereby, as means, spiritual and internal grace would be communicated to many, in whose hearts it would reign and make them meet for the kingdom of glory; and because the whole economy of the Gospel, the doctrines and ordinances of it are from heaven. This phrase, “the kingdom of heaven” is often to be met with in Jewish writings; and sometimes it stands opposed to the “kingdom of the earth”; by it is often meant the worship, service, fear, and love of God, and faith in him: thus in one of their books having mentioned those words, “serve the Lord with fear”: it is asked, what means this phrase, “with fear?” It is answered, the same as it is written, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”; and this is “the kingdom of heaven”.

Here is what he says about seeing the kingdom of God:

And by this phrase our Lord signifies, that no man, either as a man, or as a son of Abraham, or as a proselyte to the Jewish religion, can have any true knowledge of, or right unto, the enjoyment of the kingdom of God, unless he is born again; or regenerated, and quickened by the Spirit of God; renewed in the spirit of his mind; has Christ formed in his heart; becomes a partaker of the divine nature; and in all respects a new creature; and an other in heart, in principle, in practice, and conversation; or unless he be “born from above”, as the word is rendered in John 3:31; that is, by a supernatural power, having the heavenly image stamped on him; and being called with an heavenly calling, even with the high calling of God in Christ Jesus: if this is not the case, a man can have no true knowledge of the kingdom of the Messiah, which is not a temporal and carnal one; it is not of this world, nor does it come with observation; nor can he have any right to the ordinances of it, which are of a spiritual nature; and much less can he be thought to have any true notions, or to be possessed of the kingdom of grace, which lies in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; or to have either a meetness for, or a right unto the kingdom of glory

Besides God’s kingdom, as Dr. Gill noted, there is the kingdom of this world, over which Satan has rule as prince:

Eph 2:2 – “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience“

Again, Dr. Gill:

according to the prince of the power of the air: which is not to be understood of any supposed power the devil has over the air, by divine permission, to raise winds, but of a posse, or body of devils, who have their residence in the air; for it was not only the notion of the Jews, that there are noxious and accusing spirits, who fly about “in the air” and that there is no space between the earth and the firmament free, and that the whole is full of a multitude of them; but also it was the opinion of the Chaldeans, and of Pythagoras, and Plato, that the air is full of demons: now there is a prince who is at the head of these, called Beelzebub, the prince of devils, or the lord of a fly, for the devils under him are as so many flies in the air, Mt 12:24 and by the Jews called “the prince of spirits”; and is here styled, the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; by which spirit is meant, not the lesser devils that are under the prince, nor the spirit of the world which comes from him, and is not of God; but Satan himself, who is a spirit, and an evil, and an unclean one; and who operates powerfully in unbelievers, for they are meant by children of disobedience, or unbelief; just as “children of faith” in the Jewish dialect, designs believers; and over these Satan has great influence, especially the reprobate part of them; whose minds he blinds, and whose hearts he fills, and puts it into them to do the worst of crimes; and indeed, he has great power over the elect themselves, while in unbelief, and leads them captive at his will; and these may be said in their unregeneracy to walk after him, when they imitate him, and do his lusts, and comply with what he suggests, dictates to them, or tempts them to.

With the world full of darkness, ruled by Satan, and given that the darkness cannot comprehend the light, it stands to reason that, if you live as part of the world, by its rudiments (Col 2:8 — its economic, political, social, religious systems and principles, etc.), you have surrounded yourself with a barrier of spiritual darkness that hedges AGAINST the Light of the Gospel. You live in a situation where everything around and that has influence on your life RESISTS spiritual Light.

Is that the best for a person who claims the name of Christ? Or perhaps, if you see no problem living as part of a world that is darkness, surrounded and affected by that darkness, then perhaps you are part of that darkness.

Of course, every person is in darkness until God, by His own sovereign will, shines His Light and pushes out the darkness of one’s heart, as the sun does to the darkness of the night every morning; but if the Light is shining, does that mean you plant your garden in a box with no windows?

And so, where can a clearer, less obstructed view of the Light be found? Christ is the Light…

John 8:12 – “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.“

…the Church is the body of Christ…

1 Cor 10:16-17 – “16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.“

and

Rom 12:5 – “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.“

…thus the Bible says that the Church is the light of the world, which is as the moon that reflects the light of the sun onto the earth:

Phil 2:15 – “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world“

I submit to you that the proper way a Christian should live is:

separated from the world and its darkness with the world being your provider

separated to living life with the body of Christ, in daily fellowship, under the direct provision of God to supply your needs (Him providing rain, Him providing the increase of plant and animal food, etc.)

This isn’t something you do once or twice a week: it requires the entirety of your life. You need to be AWAY from the DARKNESS and WITH the LIGHT.

I have found this to be true. By living separated from the world in Christian community, I have come to a greater knowledge and understanding of the darkness in my life and heart — my sin and lack of love toward God and the brethren, what it means to love and trust God and to love the brethren (Matt 22:36-40), who Christ is and what it means to be a part of His body, my lack of meekness and humility, and many other areas of spiritual Light. I submit to you that unless you do that, the best you’ll have in your Christian walk is living an unfruitful life; the worst you’ll have is that you never realize that you are actually lost (2 Cor 13:5).

The darkness DOES NOT comprehend the light. And so, by the way you live, how is your comprehension of the Light?

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Kids “Ralphie” and “Alice”

January 22, 2012 / David & Susan Sifford / 5 Comments

So, a little over five months ago, Sue saw Minnie, one of our does, with her hind-end backed up against the fence, and one of our bucks, Shatner, her sire, trying to perform his male duty. From a distance, it looked like he was able to accomplish his task — through the fence; but after Sue told me, I just couldn’t see how that was physically possible. But over the past couple of months, we saw Minnie looking pregnant; and I believe I felt one of the kids through her side.

Well, about a week and a half ago, I was looking over at the goats from our orchard and saw a black and white goat laying next to Minnie. I thought, “Wow, Minnie and Adeline (our black and white doe that is in the same pen with her) are sure cozying up.” But then I realized that the goat next to Minnie had long, floppy ears, whereas Adeline has the tiny LaMancha ears.

I ran up there, and sure enough, Minnie had given birth…to twins — a male and female.

Introducing Ralphie and Alice. Here’s Ralphie:

And here’s Alice:

And them together:

And here is a video of them a few days old:

Although the inbreeding situation wasn’t what we had planned, we are thankful to the Lord for the new provisions, and that they appear to be healthy, and for the safe and healthy delivery for both Minnie and new kids.

— David

A House – Update XII – Porch Roof

January 13, 2012 / David & Susan Sifford / 2 Comments

With the porch post cross beams now in place, it was time to move onto adding the porch rafters and plywood. I wanted to do this so that we would have something to walk on when we starting putting up the main roof.

We started with a header plate against the house, to which the rafters would be fixed. Eventually, the plan is to lag bolt this plate to the wall studs:

We needed then to position the cross beams equidistant from the house. Here are some braces in place to hold them there:

And then the rafters started going up:

Mr. Gurau, who has been helping with the house, cut seats into the rafters as well, so more of the rafter is touching the cross beam, thus making it sturdier:

Once the rafters were in place, it was time to run a chalk line across each rafter, cut each rafter, and install the face plate:

Here is how Mr. Gurau did the hip corners of the porch roof:

He also added some of the rafter hangers now in the corners to give them more support, as the hip rafter itself holds most of the corner weight:

Once the rafters and face plate were built, it was time to add the plywood on top. It was recommended that we use actual (CDX) plywood, 1/2″ thick, rather than OSB, as the CDX will stand up to weather better, and the underneath of the plywood at best will be painted only (and maybe not even that):

And here are some pictures of all of the plywood installed:

Here’s how the hip corners look from the top:

It’s been a long time since this whole house project started, and with being able to stand in the shade of the porch now, it’s starting to feel like a house. It’s also starting to get a little more exciting; but we’ve learned out here to relax expectations, as most often things don’t go according to our plans (which, if we trust God and His plans, is a much better place in which to be!). This is the view out the front door:

And out the great room windows:

And here’s a full external view of the porch roof:

Here’s a calf enjoying the new shade too!

We are thankful to the Lord for allowing continued progress on the house, and for the help in Mr. Gurau and his expertise.

— David

Garlic 2012

January 7, 2012 / David & Susan Sifford / 4 Comments

From our garlic harvest from last year, we thought we’d try replanting the cloves dried and preserved instead of purchasing garlic.

Here are the dried garlic stalks from last year:

And here are the cloves soaking in preparation for planting (here is how we did the garlic preparation last year):

We got a bit of a late start, but here are a couple of current pictures of the growing garlic. I would that more of them had sprouted; but we know, as it is spiritually, that all that can be done by man is planting and watering, and the results are God’s, in accordance with His will:

1 Cor 3:7 – “So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.“

We’re grateful for the opportunity to try to grow our garlic perpetuating it from the land only, and for the continued health benefits of being able to have garlic, and we pray that the Lord might grant a harvest in due season.

— David

Meat Dryer

December 28, 2011 / David & Susan Sifford / 2 Comments

In continued efforts to separate from the world, unto God, one of the things that keeps us currently tied to it is how we process the meat after butchering the animal. At this time, we typically fire up the freezer, running off the generator, and then Sue pressure-cans it all. Processing the meat this way has two main problems: 1) running a generator and an electrical appliance, both which require ongoing maintenance and can break; and 2) using a canner, which also can require maintenance, and for us requires propane. Now, one can pressure-can using a wood burner; but it’s apparently not very easy to do correctly; and still, the canner can lose parts or require replacement ones.

And so, how was it all done before there were these things we use today? Or even, how is it done by people today who don’t have them either?

If you’ve studied this at all, you’ll know that salt is typically used for preserving meats; but what do you do with it after that, especially when dealing with larger quantities of meat? Again, with further study, even today, especially in countries where freezers, etc. aren’t available, the meat is hung in the wind to dry — the air helping pull out the moisture — the seed bed of bacteria — out of the meat. And this can be done any time during the year.

Excellent!

And so, I wanted us to start heading down this direction. With all of the insects we have during the warmer months, I really wanted our place of drying to be enclosed in some way; but in looking for ideas on the Internet, there really weren’t many I could see — it appears in the countries where they process meat like this, they just simply hang it up in the open air. Still not really wanting to do that, I started to try to put a design together myself. And so, the plan was to have something that had removable doors, was screened in, and allowed the hanging of lots of meat of all different lengths.

Using left over sections that were cut off from our house porch posts, I made a base frame using them and treated 2x4s. The overall plan was to use as little wood as possible, being able to fit the dryer’s frame under one piece of plywood as a roof, allowing for a little bit of roof overhang all around. I had originally thought about making a large dryer, but then figured I wouldn’t use that many more materials if I made multiple dryers instead as needed, and they would be somewhat portable:

And then added the main frame and bottom frame joists:

And I planned for the removable doors to fit inside a frame, which is shown here:

Here is the bottom of the meat dryer with the screening in place:

And frame strips in place to hold on the screening. The strips are made by ripping the 2x4s into 4 strips each and then cutting to size. They are held by screws, as I wanted to be able to remove them to replace the screening if necessary. I also cut them to size to run counter to the bottom frame/joists connections (the strip would overlap where the joist butted up to the frame), to make it stronger; but next time, for expediency sake, I may place them in the same directions as the frame and joists:

I thought to use rebar on which to hang the meat hooks. I was going to hang rebar from wires that were hanging from the roof rafters; but one of the men here suggested I take a 2×4, drill holes along it, rip it in half, and us the half circles as the rebar holders. Great idea!

Here are the roof rafters and blocks in place:

With the bottom screening in place, the one thing I told myself was, “Do not drop anything on it.” Well, that didn’t last too long:

Oops. It was the thin corner of the roof rafter that got away from me. And so, I caulked it:

And here it is pretty much dry. I purposely designed everything (with screws, etc.) so that I could fairly easily replace the screening if I ever need to:

With Gary, the goose we use to have, being gone and no longer able to supervise as foreman, our cat, William, has apparently taken over:

Here is the first frame of the removable screen door with the screening stapled in place:

And then the other frame pieces were placed on top a piece at a time, secured with wood screws, in pilot holes:

Each frame piece was cut to overlap the pieces of the other frame (like the strips over the bottom frame joists):

I wanted to make sure the door was fairly square and a little stronger, and so I thought to add plywood corners. Here is a scrap piece of plywood, marked for cutting the corners:

And then with the corners cut:

And here is the removable screen door in place on the dryer, showing the corners attached, handles in place, and wood latches on top and below, holding it in place:

Here’s a picture of the plywood roof in place:

I decided to use flashing for the roof:

On the low side of the roof, I had to move the screen door latch to the side, because I had planned to attach strips of wood under the overhang that the grommeted screws would attach to (which would also help hide the screws so they wouldn’t become a skin or clothing hazard):

And here is the roof with the flashing installed:

And here are the flashing overhang supports/screw covers:

Here are the rebar hangers in place:

And some meat hooks bent in shape. I used a coat hanger, cutting the ends to be pointed, and I sanded the paint off. I needed an extra one after the coat hanger was used, and so I thought to use a piece of galvanized electric wire, because it appeared the coat hanger hooks were rusting some. In the end, I might need to have stainless steel ones:

Here they are hanging from the rebar:

I initially had the meat dryer facing broadside to the north and learned the hard way that the dryer wasn’t very aerodynamic — a strong wind not only tipped it over, but flipped it upside down. Nice. So, I turned it to be long-ways north and south and staked the legs to the ground:

And finally, voila! Brined/spiced meat hanging in the meat dryer!

We’re still waiting for it to finish drying; and Lord willing, we’ll report on that process at a later time.

We are grateful to the Lord for His provisions, and showing us how to handle those He’s given us in a way that He has invented (with salt and air) instead of using man’s enslaving methods.

— David

The Sifford Sojournal

Page 67 of 93

Meat Dryer – Update I

A House – Update XIII – Internal Walls

David’s Digest: Living in the Darkness

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Kids “Ralphie” and “Alice”

A House – Update XII – Porch Roof

Garlic 2012

Meat Dryer

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