Homesteader Life

What a week. It all started when I noticed that the infection in my thumb was getting worse. My whole hand and lower arm was hurting so I finally got around to soaking it and doctoring it. Praise the Lord it got better, in spite of my care for myself. The next day I got an awful cold or something, chills, sore throat, weak, just felt crapy. Felt so bad after I got the barn floor scraped I was so tired I decided to lay out on the grass in front of the barn. Layed right on stinging ant hill! Them little buggers have quite a bite. The next day I went to siphon some diesel fuel out of a big barrel and forgot that I was using a much shorter hose than usual. Took several good gulps before I could stop it. Blahh, what nasty stuff that is to digest. Burped diesel fuel for several days. After that I did something to my neck and had an awful headache. All this went on while I was trying to get caught up on the gardening and get the haybine back together so we can get at mowing hay. Had to replace the whole pitman and all the little joints and such involved in moving the cutter bar back and forth. The haybine is all done except for one bolt that has to be special ordered from some third world country. Got up to 92 today, ain’t ready for this kind of heat, it got down to 28 just a couple weeks ago. The kids and I transplanted tomatoes tonight. Only got about half in, well not quite half. Still have peppers to get in after that. Looking forward to the Lord’s Day, put up the trowel and the wrenches and enjoy the sabbath rest and worship.

In years past I could count the number of families that had had gardens on my hand (with a few fingers left over). As most of you know we build some manure piles every year so that we can have composted manure for our gardens. We always have a few folks stop and ask for manure for their gardens, less every year as the generation “from a’ the old a’ country” gets older and dies off. Then this year, families have been coming in steady stream looking for manure. Somedays 5 or families! Young men, middle aged wives, old folks and every age in between. There is certainly a lot more folks gardening this year. Went to pick up the seed taters and they were all out. Never had that happen before. They said it was strange, never sold out so early. Had to call all over to find the kid’s their Pontiacs (they won’t grow anything else). Seed companies are saying its the biggest sales year since just before the Y2K scare. I for one am happy, its nice to see all the folks in countryside growing their own food again. Everyone asked what they owe us for the manure and are suprised that we don’t want any money. We are just tickled pink to see people asking for it! People are catching on, better late than never I guess.

Been busy with the garden the last week or so. This has a been a strange spring and I’m way behind where I’d like to be this time of year. It will get down bellow freezing tonight, so the tomatoes and peppers will have to wait a few days before I dare put them out. The boys got there potatoes planted on Monday. Thats their big project, John and Noah take the responsibility of being “in charge” of the potatoes crop very seriously. If you ever get the chance to talk potatoes with them they will talk your ear off. All of the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage transplants are in the ground. If memory serves me right we put over 70 of them in. The spinich and chard is looking good and we have some good lettuce (seeded and transplanted). Beets and carrots are in and so are about half the onions. Peas are up and reaching for the sky. We’ve got about 70 tomatoes to put in this week and the peppers. I forgot that the garlic rotation was missing last year and now this year my poor planning has me scrambling for space to get everthing else in. I’m tilling up a fourth plot now so i can fit in all the other stuff one needs to make it through a winter. When we get done I’ve got treat to celebrate with. This past Lord’s Day a friend gave my a bottle (750ml-corked-cellared a year) of one of my favorite ales. If you are ever in NY you have to go visit Brewery Ommegang These folks produce the finest Belgian-style ales you have ever tasted. I look forward to pulling the cork and sitting back looking over my planted crop with thankfulness to Almighty God. The pastures are starting to come back now after the rain. The girls have done a good job of staying ahead of it this year. I love this time of year, cows coming in off pasture at milking time and then going right back out the door to harvest their own food. A true creation of wealth, cows grazing free grass and producing milk that did not exist before.

Dear Brothers and Sisters

Regular readers of Homesteader Life probably remember that in 2007 we held an essay contest on Restoring the Home Economy. If you missed the fun, you can check it out Here. Folks have been asking if we we’re planning on having one this year. It had been my plan to try again this year, but until now I’ve been to busy to get the ball rolling. Well, nows as good a time as any to get started! Its all still in early planning stages but I wanted to alert folks that its coming up. I’ve already had some money donated to get the prize pot started. If anyone would like to help out this year with donations of money or prizes please email me. Also, anyone with ideas for a topic for this years contest is welcome to send them to me for consideration. I hope to split the contest prizes into different age groups this year. Last year we had entries from children as young as 7 and as old as 17. I know last years contest was a real blessing to those who participated, to those who helped out with prizes and to those who just got to read them. Remember, these children are the future of this great undertaking we are boldly engaged in. Without them continuing the fight, our work will amount to little.

For Christ’s Crown and Covenant
Scott Terry
scott@christianagrarian.com

A common complaint by those who want to dive into agrarianism is that they just don’t have enough land. They sit and dream, they dream and grumble. How much land do I need? That is the ever asked question these days. As Salatin wisely asked, “What are you doing with what you have now?” Be a good steward with what you have before you grumble that you need more. Chris Ortiz at the Chalcedon Blog posted a You Tube video of the folks at Path to Freedom. I had heard of them and years ago they used to link to this blog. I hadn’t been to their new site until today. These folks are not Christian Agrarians but they are a good example of doing what you can with what you’ve got. Check out this Link to see what they have done with 1/10th of an acre. I think everyone will be challenged to see that we all could do more with what we have. It also shows what weird times we live in. The Old Left and Old Right have found a common enemy, globalization and industrialism. We must be aware that we are coming to some of the same conclusions from completely different presuppositions. It is however, interesting to watch happen.

One thing I like about James Jordon is that when ever I read or listen to him I learn some really neat detail about the scriptures that I’ve overlooked. I was reading something that Jordon wrote the other day about Mary. When it was written “Blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:42) it was a reference to Jael in the book of Judges. As Jordon puts it “Mary birthed the tent peg that would pierce the head of the serpent”(paraphrased). Now I love the story of Jael, in fact it will be the middle name of my first daughter if the Lord ever blesses me with one. I never caught the connection, so I went back to Judges and sure enough in the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:24-27) the words appear “Most blessed among women is Jael….Most blessed is she among women in tents.” I love finding things like this, and the cool thing is the bible is so full of them that in our lifetimes we will only scratch the surface of the all really cool stuff in the bible.

The other night, Noah had put some thing that looked like a crown on Isaiah’s head. I laughed and said that he was the “supreme ruler of Nanticoke”. Johnny looked at me with awful look on his face. He said, “Dad. I really don’t think thats very funny at all. We really should not joke about things like that.” I didn’t get it, “Why” I asked. John says, “Because. Jesus is the King and He is the Supreme Ruler of Nanticoke! Isn’t he?” Humbling to be theologically corrected by a five year old. Happened twice this week

Its been wet and chilly the last few days. Hard to get to exited about anything, didn’t even make it back to my blog to follow up on the comments of my last post. The wood fire is putting off some heat and I’m enjoying it, so I thought I’d stop in here at the old blog for a few minutes. It will struggle to get out of the 40s today and drop down well bellow freezing tonight. Had to go and cut some more fire wood up, I really thought I was done burning wood. We got some much needed rain the last couple of days, an inch and a half since saturday morning. Now the grass can start growing back. Made the garden pretty soggy though. We have chard, spinich, beets, sugar snap peas and snow peas up and out of the ground. Wish we were further along but the weather has kept me back from getting to crazy with plantings. Old Fred and Betty sold out and moved down off the hill last week. We’ll miss them, that for sure. Another area farm is selling out this month as well. I read the auction notices like city folks read the obituaries in the paper. The countryside is changin’, and it ain’t for the better. All this fallow land around here just proves that americans don’t get it. Jeff mentioned in the last post’s comments that wealth is not created from trading goods, it is created out of the ground. God gave us topsoil, rain, sun and the dominion mandate. Thats how a nations wealth is created, from crops and timber and minerals and the subsquent trading of them that allows industry of any kind to exist. Any nation that builds an economy on the idea that selling, buying and trading stuff that others produced creates wealth is destine to fail. On the same note though we can’t get to thinking that economy based on raw materials without God’s law can exist either. That is a trap we must avoid at all costs, faithful obedience is what God requires of man. Now, obedience to His word will by default set up that kind of economy but if you only want the economy and your heart is still set on wickedness it won’t do you a federal reserve notes worth of good. God sees a man’s heart. He curses nations for their disobedience and blesses them for obedience as well. On the other hand American Christianity has bought into this weird false notion that they can have salvation without it effecting them on “the outside”. The response is always “I’ve got Jesus in my heart and thats what really matters”. Thats the problem though, they say “come into my heart” and then say “STAY down in there”, “Don’t get in the way of my earthly life”. The truth is, faith without works is dead, a good tree dose not bare bad fruit. These autonomus people have no life in them, you can’t have Jesus “in your heart” without it showing through in how you live. In a nutshell thats were we are in this country. We are reaping what our culture has sown. A belief that we could have a “personal religion” a kind of “fire insurance for the soul” and act any way we pleased, that somehow God’s grace was a reason to “sin all the more”. Well, I’m kind of scarterbrained today, hope all that made some kind of sense.

In the past I’ve taken a lot of flack from “conservatives” for pointing out that Austrian Economic Theory is a form idolatry. The center of the austrian world is “The Market”, it governs all things and has its own system of “Laws”. It is incompatble with biblical Christianity, which says that Christ is the King and center of the universe and that God’s Law is the standard which governs men. My friend Rick has come across this little tidbit that exposes the austrian school for what it is, Market Worship. Be sure to check this out, Capitalism the Creator.

It sure seemed like spring would never get here this year, but it is now in full swing. The milks cows have been grazing for a few weeks and the dry cows are now out on their own pasture so the milkers don’t have to compete with them. All the calves, except the ones on milk, are now on the calf pasture so the barns are empty except at milking time. Grass was late and the hay supply was down to the wire, so I’m happy to see everyone out and eating of the fat of land again. I wanted to be further along on the garden than I am, but I had equipment break down and it took a while to get it figured out. The gardens are making progress now anyway. Today I planted some sugar snap peas, spinich and swiss chard and gat a lot of tilling done. If you remember, last year I did some heavy liming and heavy compost on about half of the big garden. Wow, what a diference that lime made. That half tilled up like a breeze and drainage is unbelieveble. I was out on it within 12 hours of some very heavy rain. The other half tilled up like a patch concrete compared to the heavy limed half. It will probably take twice as many passes before it is good enough to plant anything. I’ll be hitting the second half with lime before the season gets to far. If it dosen’t rain tonight I’ll try plant a few more early season things tomorrow. Turkeys have been gobbling every morning but I’ve not made a trip out to talk to any. Spring season gets neglected around here, can only hunt till noon and I’m pretty busy this time of year. Heard the coyotes yipin’ it up this evening. Fighting over something, they were. Found a fox den the other day not far from the house. I’ll try to get some pictures of the babies when they come out. They are always cute little buggers to watch. John and Noah have been out practicing with their bows in the evenings and that is always fun to watch too. They are getting to be pretty good shots with their air rifles too, Johnny is probably a better shot than his dad. Well, my back is sore and I’m tired. I’m going to finish off this honey porter that a friend gave me and hit the hay.