Homesteader Life

Moved On To Greener Pastures

2006-05-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Homesteader Life has Moved.................Heres the LINK

New Agrarian Book

2006-04-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

Our good friend Herrick Kimball has Just Announced the release of a new book titled Writings of a Deliberate Agrarian. Best order your copy soon!

Please Pray for Noah

2006-04-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

I got a phone call while I was milking this morning from Leah. She was calling from a hospital in Maryland. Little Noah came down with something called croup--??---, I've never heard of it and can't spell words I know very well much less new ones. Anyway the poor feller was having trouble breathing and he is in the hospital, they have him in some sort of tent-like-contraption. They said he would be in there for at least another day(they spent the night there). So....they will be out there longer than we had planned and I'm stuck out here with the herd and can't go see them. Please pray for Noah and Leah. I have to get back to the barn, I'll check in here later and let you all know if anything changes.

Prayer Request

2006-04-19T06:18:00.000-07:00

Please keep "Puritan Mamma" in your prayers.

My Wife Left Me, and a Short Story on Being Poor

2006-04-17T04:23:00.000-07:00

Boy, things are kind of quite around here this morning. My wife and the boys left at 5 am to go visit kinfolk down in Maryland(you didn't think they LEFT ME like that, did ya). They will be gone untill friday. They got a chance to ride down with Leah's mom, so I said "go and have fun". I'm already bored to tears! When your used to having little ones running all over and doing everything with you, it seems mighty strange when they're gone. Fear not, I won't starve. I like to cook, but I won't have to, one of the perks of a multigenerational farm is no matter how old you get.....mommy will still cook for ya :) So, Leah, John and Noah, if your reading this.....hurry back I miss you already and its only been two hours!!

Heres a neat story I heard a few years back.

There was a well to do rich man you lived in the suburbs with his wife and an only child. The dad was worried that his son didn't undersyand how good they had it. He made a phone call to his realitives who had a rundown little hill farm a few hours away and arranged a visit. He figured the best way to get through to his son was to show him just how poor some folks were. They pulled in the gravel driveway and were greeted by half a dozen hound dogs and a goose. Next, the children and grown folks came out of barns and fields and lined up to say hello. The city boy spent the whole weekend doing chores and playing with farmers 6 kids. The farmers kids were bare foot and had holes in their pants. The barns were in poor repair, the tractor an old rust bucket and the old farm truck had bald tires and a dent in the drivers side door. The more the father looked around, the more sorry he felt for the poor hillbillies. He knew had done the right thing, his son would know what poverty looked like, it now had a face. The weekend was over and the goodbyes were said. They got a few miles down the road and the father looked over at the boy. "Do you know why I brought you out here?", he asked. Kid shakes his head "no". "I wanted you to see just how poor some people are.", he said. The boy said, "You know dad, I never knew just how poor we were." The father, with a shocked look on his face, replies "What do mean?". "Well dad, that pond was really cool, its so much nicer than our pool...I mean its got fish and frogs and crawdads you can catch. We have those street lights so we can see at night, and those folks have a million stars and the moon to light up their yard. And ya, the yard, wow. Ours is so small and they have a hundred acres with rocks and trees. I like our poodle, but those hound dogs were so fun to play with. They swim and hunt and everything. Did you notice, the mother, she dosen't even make the kids wear shoes! They don't have to go to the playground ethier, they have hay forts and trees to climb, did you see that creek...I think it goes on forever. We have to buy our food at the store, those poeple Grow Their Own! Rows and rows of food in the garden, did you see how they could just go out and pick it themselves! They all get to work together Every Day, the father doesen't have a job. Those kids have lots of brother and sisters too, its like having freinds over to play Every Day. I think that lady even made her own bread, dad. Thanks for taking me out there dad, I'll never forget how good those farmers have it." The father didn't say another word. He looked straight ahead and drove back toward home. He was starting to see "just how poor they were".

What We're Doing

2006-04-12T05:21:00.000-07:00

On Monday the rep from Organic Valley came to the farm. The meeting went very well and it looks like we are planning to start the transition process by June 1st. I was kind of suprised that my Dad agreed to it, but thrilled never the less. Our land has not had anything bad on it in 12 years or so, which means the land can be certifed now. The cows take a year for certifiction. Being a grass based dairy, the "transition" won't be too difficult or different. I am looking forward to starting a new chapter in our farm's history.

I almost have all the parts and peices I need to start my "eggmobile" project. I've been collecting scraps and junk to build it with. It will be a neat way to control flies.

We have been wanting to start a "market garden" for a while. What we lacked was a good tiller. This year we spent our life savings(a whole $600 :) and bought a new tiller. I've been bustin' sod all over the place! We planted some peas last night and will be spending alot of time in the gardens this summer. This will be our first time doing farmer's markets.

A cow kicked silage in my eye and scratched it pretty bad. Its better now, but man, it was sore for a few days. I had to put a patch on it. The funny thing is this....ever since I was a lad, I can't keep my left eye open if my right eye is closed. So, I got to milk the cows blindfolded! Always wondered if I could, but never felt compelled to try it. I was amazed how well I did. I suppose if you do something ever day, twice a day, all your life, you don't really need the luxury of eye sight.

Our freinds the Marbels are new converts to Christian Agrarianism. Its a blast seeing how exited they are about getting chickens and working in the garden.

Bird Flu....The Untold Story

2006-04-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

Few news stories have been full of more nonsence and alarmist insanity than the recent Bird Flu stories. Fear is a mighty fine tool for those who want total control. We have seen the goverment, the multinational "big chicken" factories, the drug companies and the money changers all scrambling to make the most of it. In true Orwellian fashion, the healthy chickens are to blame and the those of the "fecal soup variety" are good. Here is an article that sheds some light on the Bird Flu story.

Even Chickens Praise Our Lord

2006-04-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

If you've been a Christian Agrarian for very long, you know that much of what you say about "any old thing" tends to earn you puzzled looks from other folks. American Christians ain't much for rocking the boat. Many people would be fine letting us live like "darn fools" and leave us alone, if it wasn't for the fact that we believe our position on how to live is more biblical than theirs. I often get the 5th degree on sustainable vs industrial agriculture from fellow Christians. You really think its more biblical to let chickens scratch the dirt and see the sunlight? What's wrong with "taking dominion over hogs" by locking them in little crates and keeping them on concrete? Those are good questions! I think the answer depends on how you view the relationship between God and His creation. In the bible we are told that after creating all things God declared them good. God made no mistakes when He made.... the chicken for example. God made chickens to live outdoors and eat bugs and grass. He made them so the would follow herbivores and scratch out the fly larva, thus improving the life of the herbivore. God made hogs to dig and root. The scriptures tell us that He made grass for the cattle to graze. It is important to remember that God created all things for his Gory. That's right, a scratching chicken Glorifies the Lord. In the Psalms we read(and sing...hint hint) that creation itself praises the Lord. Rocks, mountains, birds, rivers and more all praise and glorify God by their very existence. Most people enjoy watching a scratching hen more than they do watching one in a wire cage. We were created in the image of God, which I believe explains why. Call me a nut case, but when I see a group of cows grazing or a momma hen and her brood scratching in the sun, I can't help but think of how these animals and all their wonderful habits praise our Mighty King Jesus. If we spent as much time learning ways to let the habits and gifts of our animals help us than we do fighting against the God given traits of our little servants, life in the countryside wouldn't be half as stressful.

For Sale..Extra Dark Maple Candy..$75 per pound

2006-03-29T16:45:00.000-08:00

We have a saying around here. "When it rains, it pours". We have had string of troubles lately. The last week and a half we had the stomach bug, the transformer burning up, Leahs uncle had a stroke, my neighbor (the one with the hogs) was hit by a snowplow and was killed and now my syrup operation is out of commision. I'll admit, one of the things I'm most proud of is my welded SS pan. I treat it with care and always keep a watchfull eye over it. The weather finally broke and the sap was really comming. I took the pan down and set it on the arch, gathered some wood and started a fire. The wind was kind of strange that day and the fire was not drawing real good. I went over to the barn and did up some chores and then stopped back over to the sap house. She was boiling pretty good, not great, but pretty good. I stoked up the fire, set the valve so it would trickle in at the right speed and ran up the hill for some lunch. I was not gone more than 45 minutes to an hour. John, Noah and I went back to check it and to our horror we saw smoke and flames.....in my pan. In all my years of syurp making I have never burned up a batch. I wanted to cry. My pan, oh my pretty little pan. It was warped and black. I got the twist out of it but I've been 3 days scraping and scrubbing the black crust and still have a lot to do. 200 gallons of sap in storage, the buckets are running over on the trees and I have no way to boil it down! Out of desperation I have started a big pot of it going on a 51,000 btu gas burner while I scrub. With 60 degree days, I'm running out of time. If I don't get it going soon the sap will spoil and I'll have to dump it. After all that work, I'll have to dump it. Anyone have any ideas for getting burned sugar out of a SS pan?

Hill Top Happenings

2006-03-25T04:21:00.000-08:00

Sorry for my lack of posts lately. The first part of the week we were all sick with some stomach bug. We are all better now and getting back into the swing of things. For a few days I was the one man army around here and I'm feeling pooped. Thankfully, my brother helped me with silage feeding both ends of the day but I still had to keep hoppin' to get it all done. Wendsday, when I went to start the afternoon milking the transformer that runs the pulsation for the milking system shorted out and burned itself out. After several hours of troubleshooting and and an emergancy call from the service folks we were back running. I have not got the bill yet, but I'm sure it will be several thousand dollars. The joys of dairy farming. If you think its going bad, just wait.....it will get worse! We have a meeting with the folks from Organic Valley next week, I think. We are still weighing the pros and cons on certification. The sap business is really poor this year. The first run didn't amount to a hill of beans. I didn't have enough to fire up the evaporator, so I let it sit. We got one whale of a cold spell and it froze up soild! The sap started running a bit yesterday and the tank is thawing out. Hoping to boil the begining of the week, at this rate I'll be lucky to have enough for myself. I've started getting some calls on broilers. I wasn't sure if I was going to bother with them this year, but now I'm thinking I might. Did I mention, I'm Ready For Spring!!!! This morning a woke up to another fresh blanket of snow.

In other news....Gwen and Mark will be moving to NY. They won't be to awfull far away from us and we look forward to them visiting.

New Blog to Watch

2006-03-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

Puritan Mama now has a Blog ! I am looking forward to reading about their adventures.

A Break in the Weather...So a break from the Blog

2006-03-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

This past week we had temps in the 50's so I suddenly had a burst of energy! Tuesday we tapped some maples, about 25 buckets hanging. I've been busy getting everything together to start boiling. So far the yields are poor. The end of the week we will be back in the 20's so we might get another run or two....I hope. We have been hauling manure out of the heifer barns. Its getting a little soft out there now, so we will get some more out when the ground freezes back up. We have to get the manure out early so it has time to break down. The key to good hay yields out here, is a good dose of manure. This year we are hoping to get the farm more selfsufficient in the hay department. I am happy to report that the garlic lived through the winter. Looks like it all came up. The extended family, My folks and us, are researching the possibility of going certified organic with the dairy. Lots of figurin' and thinkin' and prayin' going on. Dad is willing to think about it, IF we can prove it will all pencil out. The organic grain is very expensive and would be the only really big change in how we farm now. Oh yah, the water is thawed! After almost a month without any up on the hill, it finally thawed under ground. Only problem is a few busted pipes under the house that need fixing. Well, I've got some feeding to do, some cows to milk and an evaporator to get up and runnin', so I've got to hit the trail now.

This and That

2006-03-02T17:13:00.000-08:00

Acres USA is sponcering the Polyface Farm Intensive Discovery Seminars. Click Here for the details.

This looks like a good book.

Gene Logsdon tells us about "What he learned from his Grandpaws."

Farming Magazine has a another good article titled Sabbath Farming in the winter issue. The article is supposed to be online, but the link is not working. Give it try latter, perhaps they will fix it.

Joel Salatin speaks out against VA Poultry Proposal.

My old friend John got to deliver his own baby! Welcome Susannah Wren

In case you missed it,our old freind Heidi, aka Puritan Mama, stopped in the other day. Glad to know she is alive and well! For those who are newcommers here, Heidi was a regular commenter here in the early days. She and her family moved on to a non-electric homestead in Indiana and this is the first we've heard from her since.

Noah's Birthday Cake

2006-03-01T05:40:00.000-08:00

I suppose the high society crowd would find this cake a little strange, but I know my agrarian freinds will think its pretty neat. I admit, some of the frosting looks like crap.....but hey, its supposed to :)

It was my idea and Leah's handywork. Noah loved it, he called it his "Banure Cake".

Praying for an Early Spring and Farmer Noah

2006-02-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

Same ole same ole up on Mt Seiberia. The wind is blowing, the snow is driftin', waters froze and the wood seems to burn a lot faster than I'd like. I sit here at the computer with a stack of seed catologs and a bottle of hard cider, yup....I'm praying for an early spring. It been a tough winter, the drought last summer left us very short on feed. We've been buying hay all winter and its really sucked what little profit we make on a 40 cow herd right out of our pockets. All winter I've been mumbling to myself, "we just have to make till grass". We're almost there, almost there. I can just picture the girls all spread out on that fresh green grass, muching away, making cheap milk. I covet the prayers of the saints, its too easy to lose hope sometimes when the everything seems to be stacked against you. Times like these I like to get down my copy of Spurgeon's Farm Sermons. Spurgeon writes, "He must leave his business in the Lord's hands, for who else can be his helper? Faith which is daily tried, and tried all the day long, has a fair opportunity of becoming unusually strong..." It is my prayer that through these trails, my faith becomes stronger. Little Noah has started going to the barn almost every day now. He will turn 2 this Tuesday. He absolutly loves the farm and doesn't miss a chance to go out and do some work. We have been buying corn silage this month. They dump it up stairs and dad puts piles down the hayholes with the bobcat. We feed it all with a shovel. Noah has figured out feed with a man sized shovel. He lays the shovel down and fills it up with his hands. He then walks around and grabs the handle and drags it to the cow he wants to feed and flips it over in front of her. He always tells the cow, "There you go". He takes his job VERY serously and will work at it for a half hour or more. He likes milking with his dad, he hands me towels. He has already mastered the art of squirting milk out of old Freeda's tit and likes to ride Elsie. His other favorite job that he does well with is scraping turds off the floor into the gutter. He has only fell in once. He never cries or asks to go to the house. When he is in the house, he now spends most of his time pretending the couch is his "track-a-door". When asked what he is doing he replies, "Spreadin' Banure". Its such a blessing being able to work with my boys. You know, its hard to worry about money and such when you're working with Noah and John. They do a good job of making me and my dad smile, even on days when things are not going very smooth.

The Delaware Chicken

2006-02-17T10:18:00.000-08:00

I've always been interested in preserving rare breeds of livestock. Those of us who advocate localized small scale agriculture and economics must give some thought to how we can be good stewards of the livestock breeds that have been devoloped and handed down to us from past generations. Many of these breeds that were the bread and butter of localized agriculture have been all but forgoten by modern, specailized industrial ag. One of John and Noahs projects for the next year is to choose a breed of chicken to preserve and husband. Little John insisted that the breed be of the setting varity, and that narows the pool of canditates a bit. He brought over a catolog the other day and asked "Do these chickens set on there own eggs, dad?" The chicken was a Delaware. I did some research and she will set. John wants to keep a breeding flock of Delawares. We did some digging and found out that they were once one of the most popular broilers grown on the east coast. They were replaced by the cornish rock cross in the 50s and have fell out of favor with growers. They are good layers of brown eggs as well as fast growing meat birds. This is what the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy has to say about the Delaware......

Delawares, originally called "Indian Rivers," were developed by George Ellis of Delaware in 1940 and were used for the production of broilers. The breed originated from crosses of Barred Plymouth Rock roosters and New Hampshire hens. A few off-colored sports were produced that were almost white with black barring on the hackles, primaries, secondaries, and tail. This coloration is very similar to the Colombian color pattern, but with the barring substituting for the black sections. For about twenty years the Delaware and the Delaware x New Hampshire cross were the most popular broiler chickens on the Delmarva Peninsula, because of the Delaware’s ability to produce offspring with predominately white feathering. This is an advantage for carcass appearance since white feathers don’t leave dark spots on the skin when feathers are growing in. Both the Delaware and the Delaware x New Hampshire were replaced in the late 1950's by the Cornish x Rock cross (solid white) that has come to dominate the industry.Though its economic dominance was short lived, the Delaware still makes an excellent dual-purpose bird. It has well-developed egg and meat qualities, and a calm and friendly disposition. The breed is noted for rapid growth and fast feathering of the chicks. Cocks grow to 8 pounds and hens to 6 pounds.Delaware males may be mated to New Hampshire or Rhode Island Red females and produce chicks of the Delaware color pattern. Delaware females mated to New Hampshire or Rhode Island Red males produced sex-linked offspring; the males having the Delaware color pattern and the females having the solid red color of the sires. Chicks from this second cross can even be sexed by their down color when hatched.

Status: Critical

While not a very old breed, the Delaware seems like a fine dual purpose bird that should be saved. It would make a fine "homestead chicken" and might fit the bill for those looking for an alternative to the cornish rock crosses.

A Sappy Love Story

2006-02-14T16:54:00.000-08:00

The weather man says that its warming up into the 40's for the next few days. Good thing, house waters froze up and the wood pile is gettin' low again. I've got a million things to do and not a whole lot of time to get them done. Cutting up some more wood is first on my list. Some one remind me next year to cut some more when I think I'm done :) . Besides getting wood for the house, I need to get a bunch done for the evaporator. In years past I would have started tapping today. Many Valentines Days have been spent tappin' trees. This year I'm not quite ready and I think we have another good cold snap or two before season is in full swing. Come to think of it, Leah's and my first Valentine's Day was spent tapping trees. Our whole courtin' experience only spanned a maple season. I got up the nerve to ask her out to dinner just before the season started. She helped me with the syrup and a few milkin's, so I figured she was a keeper. We were engaged 6 weeks after that dinner, no sense beatin' round the bush. I sold my prized savage .22-250 and bought a ring. On the way home from the store I swung by her house and asked her if she wanted to go down to the bottom of the hill and see how much sap we had in the buckets. I parked the pickup by a big maple (a 4-tapper) , whipped out the ring and asked her to marry me. We was hitched 3.5 months later (after the cows were out on grass). The rest is history. A true "Sappy Love Story"

A New Christian Agrarian On The Way!!!!

2006-02-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

The Lord has answered our prayers!!! The Terry clan will have a new member making an apearance sometime in October. We are full of joy and thankfulness for another little blessing to raise up for the service of King Jesus. The boys are very excited and full of questions. Please pray for a healthy pregnancy and a safe delivery!

Cuttin' Wood

2006-02-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

The old wood pile was getting low again, so today I got all my barn chores done up early and spent the day in the woods. It was 40 degrees and the sun was shining, a fine day work in the wood. I drove the old Ford 601 down the hill with a wood cart in tow. In the cart was my wife, two sons and "Buddy the dog". As I picked my way down the winding logging road, dodging holes and ruts and rocks, I thought about how blessed I am to live this kind of life. Here I am, middle of the week, middle of the day, working outdoors with my family. Countless legions of dads marched off to the office today. They were, as I was crossing streams and tossing wood, sitting in a room breathing stagnet air. Perhaps they were thinking about the weekend when they might have time to spend with the kids. No sir-ree, I haven't got many greenbacks in my wallet, but I wouldn't trade places with the rat racers for any price. The more I talk to "regular folk" who have "real jobs" and "retirement funds", the more I value this life we have out in the sticks. Sometimes I take for granted all the time I get to spend with my boys. Then I'll be talking to someone who's gone all day and sees the kids for a couple hours before bed and on weekends, and it really hits me. I suppose if its all you ever knew, it might seem normal. I could never do it though. Today my family worked together to provide heat for the house. The boys learned to work hard. They saw there mom and dad working together, subduing the earth, following Gods command. Then they learned the all important, "things don't always go as planed" lesson. They learned what 2 flat tires on the wood cart and a stuck tractor mean. They learned how to walk a 1/4 of a mile. In other words, they learned what it means to live a life worth livin'!

Breaking News!

2006-01-30T15:46:00.000-08:00

It is with a thankful heart and beer in hand that I report this breaking news story. Arhen Lea Imperial Elsie is now EX 91 at 14 years of age! We also had 2 new Excellents, Ter-View Top Prize Sondra and Ter-Veiw Choise Mia. Sondra is just fresh with her 2nd calf and was scored for the first time, she was to fresh the first time around. Mia was raised from VG87. Ella, my favorite Counsellor daughter was raised to VG87 as well. We did some 2 year olds today with the lowest one being 81 and the highest being 85. All in all it was a very good day. With the "big day" out of the way, I hope to get back the blog and answer some emails.

A Cold and Windy Night

2006-01-25T17:49:00.000-08:00

Well, I've boarded up all the cracks and have a good pile of wood stacked up in the house to feed into the stove tonight. Snowing a bit and the wind is blowing hard. I was over loading the inlaws outdoor furnace and the drifts are waist deep and just happen to be right over the only wood left on the place. The weather has been goofy this January, cold for 3 days and then warm for 3 days. Between the barn cleaner screwing up, fresh cows and baby calves, some frozen pipes, a busted pipe and a small fire in our bedroom one night, I've been a little to busy to blog. Yesterday we had some cattle customers out looking at cows. I got to spend the morning doing one of my favorite things....talking cow families, bulls and bloodlines. Its always nice to sell cows to people who are breeders, folks who plan on continuing all the hard work you put in to devoloping a maternal line. I don't care to sell stock to folks who are just looking for more connon fodder for the industrail dairy machine. I perfer to sell to folks who love cows as much as I do and will put some thought into what they mate them to and will have them scored every year. We have had some positive devolpments on the soap making front. I think this may turn out to be something we accually make some money with. I'm starting to think about maple season a little bit. As I get stuff cleaned up and set up, after 2 years of setttin' idle, I promise to get some photos up for everyone that has asked in the past. Matt has quite a bit of hard cider made up and the boys from church have decided we should make some apple brandy. I'm going to dig out the still this week and clean it up. If we ever get started on this project I'll let you all know how it turns out. We made one of our rare trips off the farm and into the concrete jungle this last week. We have a new covenant child in our congregation!!!! Dave and Michelle had a little boy named Timothy and we had to go welcome the little guy as soon as he was born. He is fine looking youngster who I trust will grow up to serve King Jesus. I can't wait for the baptisim, and the feast that will follow.........I'll provide the meat, Dave...if you provide the brew!

What Happened to Christian Stewardship

2006-01-17T17:15:00.000-08:00

The last year or so, I have been thinking about what caused the church in America to lose sight of basic stewardship values considering creation. I mentioned this was on my mind in my last post post, which got this response from the Missouri Rev....

I look forward to the discussions as to why “the church as a whole has abandoned
the concept of covenantal stewardship and why they have a negative view of
creation in general.” Covenant means boundaries and sacred obligation, for which
our autonomy worshipping culture despises and mocks. I believe the Lord’s people
have, to a greater extent then they would admit, bought into the false
neutrality of “American freedom” where they can pretty much do as they please
when it comes to earning a living, using earth’s resources, planning for the
future, investing, and all the other things common to daily living. After all,
“the Bible really doesn’t address these things in detail and, besides, we live
in the age of grace where such archaic “Old Testament” practices as covenantal
faithfulness and obedience to commandments are no longer required.” There is an
arrogant ambivalence that permeates American Christendom that assumes, because
of short-term, live for now thinking, that the economic system that runs our
nation today is biblically based and, thus, condoned of God. “Just look at all
of the prosperity and opportunity we have compared to other nations.” This
carnal worldview is based upon subjective comparisons and not the Word of God
which emphatically states that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This carnal “Christian” worldview also
involves ungodly compartmentalizing where no associations are made between
covenantal faithfulness and God’s blessing and covenantal unfaithfulness and His
curses. This form of secular tunnel vision leads to a blindness which refuses to
see that the brazen, overt paganism that has taken our nation captive is
directly related to the ungodly economics that we embrace, in covenantal
unfaithfulness, for the mother’s milk of a pagan culture is pagan economics. The
same is said for the ungodly agrarianism that is destroying our nation’s created
lands and resources. Oh well, there is my two-cents worth of musings; perhaps it
will spark some discussion.

Needless to say, I agree with the good pastor's thoughts. I was thinking some more about it during milking. What follows are some random thoughts I have....

In a sense, one thing that happened was a case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. When the godless, pagen leftism of the 60's made creation itself a golden calf, the church responded in the ussuall reactionary way she has done before. She threw the baby out with the bathwater and proceeded to smash the bathtub with a 9 pound sledge. In my younger days I had this half witted to enviromental issues. I took the stance, "Anyone remotely censerned with the enviroment was a closet commie."

Bad Theology...... America is largely comprised of a theological system that is only a couple hundred years old not very biblically sound. Dispensationalism and premillenialism have created a "why polish brass on a sinking ship" mentality that may take generations to reverse. Why bother conserving or improving "the late great planet earth"?

Quasi-Gnostic Amillenialism. I'm sorry to have to say this but, a good portion of the reformed world is plagued with some strange kind of "christian gnosticism". They will deny it if confronted but they hate all matter and anything remotely "earthy". Only the invisible and spirtual have any value. Sorry folks, God made it all and proclaimed it was Good!

There you have it. Chew it over and tell me what you think.

Has it Been a Year?

2006-01-16T05:17:00.000-08:00

This morning I noticed that Homesteader Life just had a birthday, I think they call that a blogaversery. It doesn't seem like its been year since I started this crazy thing. Looking back, I have to laugh, I never thought anyone would read it(much less take it seriously)
and within a years time it sort of took on life of its own. I had no idea that there were other Christians who had the same thoughts and ideas that I did. People were stopping in here, not because I was a gifted writer or that I "had all the answers", but becouse they were just plain thrilled to see that they were likeminded folks out there. They found a place to hang out where they we not treated as bonified nut cases but valued contrbutors. Frankly, the quality of the stuff I've been doing here the last few months has slipped a bit. I've been taxed for time and energy, as of late. The beauty is it don't matter anyhow becouse most of my origanal readers and commenters have started their own blogs and they have far surpassed this one in many respects. The whole idea of distinctivly Christian Agrarianism has come a long way, and our merry little band of bloggers has played a role in the advancment of this cause. I'm looking foward, Lord willing, to continuing the battle of ideas in this new year. One thing I would like to tackle is how the church as a whole has abondoned the concept of covenantal stewardship and why they have a negative veiw of creation in general. Stay tuned.

I'm Still Here, but older

2006-01-13T17:18:00.000-08:00

Wow, today was a heat wave. It was 51 degrees and the snows almost all gone. Fear not, the temps should drop into the teens by tomorrow night, boy thats going to feel chilly. Today I turned 31 years old, and this evening I feel like I'm 65. I spent most of the day cutting, splitting and stacking wood with my boys. One log was a big old maple, oh I hate splitting maple! That snarly ole stuff takes the steam right out of ya. We had a nice calf born yesterday, a Deluxe daughter. Very big, very dairy, very stylish. We really like the Deluxe calves and heifers, we sold one at the Top of the World sale in Madision last year. I got some neat stuff to listen to for my birthday from Wordmp3.com. If you've never been on the site be sure to check it out. They had some stuff on sale this week. I'm a big fan of James Jordon and Peter Leithart. I was thrilled to see their Knowing the Scriptures Confrence was only $5. I thought this looked interesting and it to was only $5. This was the icing on the cake, if you will. Now that I've shared my gifts with you, I'm sure there a few people smiling and more than a few making a mental note to pray for me tonight :)

Emily has a blog. She writes,

"We have taken a road that is perhaps not uncommon to the world in general, but in our respective families it is. Some would call us oddballs but we consider ourselves blessed. Our politics are conservative and our faith is Reformed. We are a one-income family. We homeschool, homebirth, doctor ourselves, and do not vaccinate our children."

I look forward to hearing more from her. We at Homesteader Life welcome all Reformed Agrarian Oddballs. Its nice to know we're not alone!

The Old Homeplace

2006-01-09T04:35:00.000-08:00

When I was a young lad, we lived on 100 acre little farm in western NY. My dad managed a farm for some cattle dealers. They bought and sold cows and heifers and also had a 30 cow dairy. Dad ran the day to day operations for the dairy and the satalite heifer farms. This farm we lived on came with the job. They grew some corn and hay there, but the barn, house, and pastures were ours to do what we pleased with. This is where our present herd was built. The house was an old jeffersonian farm house. The barn was a gable roof barn with a 9 cow stable and lots of box stalls and such. It was kind of a 3 story set up. It had one poured concrete silo that we pitched out by hand. When we got there the farmstead was all over grown and the house and barn were in very poor shape. We fixed it up over the years and it eventually was quite a place. This is where we bred and devoloped our French Alpine goat herd, which is now just a memory. We milked about 40 goats there and fed the milk to veal calves. Those were the days when veal was a good money maker. We latter sold off most the goats and milked cows there, again putting the milk through veal and hogs. The soil in that area was great and we grew huge gardens there that feed us most of the year. Dad also built and devoloped huge perrenail flower gardens on that farm. The farm was divided off with stone walls. They were crumbbling from time and neglect but I always marveled at those walls. Someday I will build some of my own. What I rember most about those walls were the fossils I'd find in the rocks. That and spending a deal of time, at one point in my childhood, crouched behing the walls with a stick that resembled a rifle. I was fighting back the advancing northern agressors from destroying my beloved home. Yup, even as a boy I had a love for the Confederacy and there agrarian vurtues! I once, in the 4th grade I think, wrote an essay; that was not reqiured, defending the south and there culture. I rember sitting on that stone wall , at 11 or 12 years of age, already noticing that evrything I loved had been under assualt for many years before I was even born. Those surrounding woods were also my playground. I killed my first coon, squirrell, possom, woodchuck and fox there. My old friend Dave came out last weekend for a visit. The converstaion soon turned to the good ole days we had on that farm. "Best woodchuck huntin' ever" Dave remebered. Us kids could spend a whole afternoon shooting chucks back there. Run out of shells before we ran out of chucks! At one time we even resorted using a shotgun, to make it more challenging. We ran our first traps there on that farm as well. Sold my first $50 coon from that line. I was young enouph to catch the end of the last great fur boom. When I look back, that land....the soil, the buildings, the trees....all had a tremendous amount of influence on my life, for good and bad. The sad thing is, its all gone. The farm was rented from an old lady who eventually went to be with the Lord. Her kids sold it to the highest bidder. The highest bidder built $500,000 cookie cutter houses. The old hay field, the one with the woodchucks, was the first to fall. Some yuppie parks his car were us kids used to pitch our tent when camping. It slowly moved throught the farm like cancer. Dave told me they finally struck the final blow. The bulldozed the farmhouse down, its gone forever. They can't destroy the memories though.

Short Saturday Post

2006-01-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

Wow, I haven't been a very faithful blogger lately. We are keeping busy out here and the weather has been better than average. It cooled down last night pretty good but they are forcasting temps in the high 30s again for the upcoming week. We've used a lot less wood the last few weeks and for that I'm thankful. The pile is shrinking and I'll have to cut more before spring, thats for sure. The website project is going well. In case you hadn't figured it out, the very talented Valerie is doing our work. She has set up a shopping cart thing-a-ma-bob for our soaps. I've been playing around with that the last couple of days, with the little spare time I've had, instead of blogging. Since I can not think of anything of substance to write about tonight, I'll just give you a few links to click. Papist Pete tipped me off on an interesting article on agrarianism that you might like reading. Kelly Klober asks the question Avian Flu: Pandemic or Mass Hysteria? Bret McAtee shares the Banking Catechism over at the Backwater Report.

Thoughts on the New Year Ahead

2006-01-04T04:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I've lived to see the coming of another year, which is no small accomplishment on the mountain named Hunger. Last year had its ups and downs like an other year and I figure this next one will too. We are making progress in the journey to be less dependent on the "system" and more dependent on the Lord and our fellow saints. Whats on the plate for 2006 you ask? We plan to extend the garden every year. This year we hope to get enough new ground tamed to start market gardening. We plan to have a new chicken coop this year. We are going to try a hand at growing some pole beans with sweet corn, small plot this year to see how it works. I'd like to start a pair of oxen this spring, but it will depend on few things. Dad has agreed to look into the possibility of marketing some raw milk from the dairy. Another thing we're working on is website for our Heritage Hill products. We have been very blessed to enlist the help of fine Christian lady who has agreed to do some website design work us......more on this soon. We are having good results selling soap. The soap will be our first priority for the future website. I plan on offering a few E-Books this year. This is something that has been in the works for a while, but had been put on the back burner for spell. So we head into the new year with some projects to keep us busy. We pray for all the fellow Christian Agrarians out there, that you will make progress in the journey toward your goals and that would grow in the Grace of Jesus Christ. Let us continue to encourage one another as we advance the Kingdom and build a culture that honors God and His laws.

Faith Like Little Children

2005-12-29T04:44:00.000-08:00

The bible teaches us that Christians should have faith like little children. This often is turned into a play on words to drive home the point that we need to be "born again". For the record, I believe that people need a rebirth and I am not saying otherwise. I would however like to float out another thought about the faith of little children. Could the bible accually be saying that our faith should be like that of children? Mainsteam american evangalicals find such thoughts troubling becouse they commonly believe that little children can't have faith. They watch the kids growing up, waiting ever so nervously for them to reach an age were they can have "real faith". I'll share a story that got me thinking about all this. Last week Noah was sick with some sort of bug. He was pretty sick, with a fever and all. As Leah and I are getting out medicine and comforting him and worring about what we could do for him, John who is 3, comes up with a novel idea. John interupts our confusion and doctoring, to say "We should pray that God would help Noah feel better". Hmmm, Ok, why the heck is a 3 year old reminding me to pray. Its one of those time where you are so happy and proud of the boy, yet ashamed that you the grown up had to be reminded, by a 3 year old, to have faith like someone that was redeemed by the blood of Christ. Fast forward..... Noah gets better. Noah and John are playing together, Dad is reading a very important book on theology, Mom reading important book by Doug Wilson. John walks over with Noah to Mom and Dad. John says"We should pray and thank God for makin' Noah feel better". Perhaps the bible does teach we should have faith like little children.

Eventfull Weekend

2005-12-27T05:07:00.000-08:00

Hello to all. I have not had alot of computer time lately. I'm still recovering from last Lord's Day and all. Our friends John and Abby were back in town to visit Abby's folks and we were able to spend some time with them. Friday evening John and I took a trip out to the Marble's house to discuss theology over thick, dark beer. Saturday we were feeling ecumentical and all went to my inlaws Baptist church for their Christmas Eve service. While there, John and I discovered that the pastor believes in some kind of strange purgatory for old testament saints. If this doctrine is true, father Abraham must be really sick of twiddling his thumbs. On The Lord's Day we all went to visit a new reformed church about 45 min from home. It is a very interesting story. The congregation was originally a "oneness" Pentecostal church. "Oneness" is some heresy that denies and/or confuses the doctrine of the trinity. Anyhow, they not only became reformed Calvinists, they are also postmill, partakers of weekly communion and practice Paedocommunion . It was really exiting to see how God was working in this church. There worship liturgy was very good, much like what we saw in Bristol. These folks are seeking membership with Federation of Reformed Churches. Keep them in your prayers as they move ahead with all the changes. These folks are really exited, happy and joyful about the whole thing and I was blessed to be able to take the trip down and encourage them and worship with them.

Agrarians and Technology

2005-12-20T04:16:00.000-08:00

Someone once commented that they would take nothing I say seriously because I was promoting agrarianism via a weblog. There is large group of people who do not understand our positions on technology, and a smaller group that misrepresents them on purpose to discredit our camp. I shall try to explain my views on this topic.

Technology in and of itself is not good or evil. At the same time, I want to stress that technology is not a word that is interchangeable with word progress. This is the presupposition that many have, whether they realize it or not. The phrase "you can't stop progress" has come to mean that you can't stop or limit any technology. This is the holy grail of the chronological snobs, new is always better. I also think that our hatred for any type of real work, any that produces sweat on ones brow, has helped us redefine progress as anything that "saves us labor". I am not opposed to all labor saving improvements, no one would be, but there must be a point where these "improvements" infringe on our ability to form real human relationships with family and the fellow saints . I advocate rejecting some technology because some technology inhibits our ability to have healthy, vibrant covenant communities. Some technology inhibits our ability to be godly stewards of creation. What kind of technological improvements am I exited about? How about space age electric netting that can keep chickens in and grizzly bears out, all with a small car battery! This allows us to move birds around pastures in healthy rotations which improve the soil, reduce manure run off in ground water and provide birds with a happy productive life. This is not grandpas fencing! This is technology doing good, actual progress! Should we spray toxic poison all over our food just because its "new technology"? Should we continue to kill all the life in our soils just because chemical fertilizers are newer than manure or sea water? Should we shove 20,000 chickens in one barn just because we can? I believe the answer to our problems with progress lies in our definition of progress. As a group of people, be it a nation, a town, a county or the larger community of Christ, we should be having dialog about the pros and cons of technologies and whether or not they help us live godly lives or present a stumbling block. Ideas have consequences.

Weather, New Blog and a Prayer Request

2005-12-16T05:08:00.000-08:00

Mornin' folks. Its warmed up a bit out here. Its now 32 with a mix of freezing rain, snow and hail. We didn't lose power down at the barn... praise the Lord! The cows are all milked and fed and I've got to get out the "lil Ford and push snow up on hill. Dad will be pushing it around with the International down at the diary barn.

The landscape is as pretty as can be today. Its funny how something that causes so much work and stress can be so pretty, if we only stop long enough to notice. The Hemlocks and Pines are heavy with snow. It takes my mind back to Leah and mines first winter in Alaska. Oh, how I wish there were a hundred or so Marten sets to check today! I can see and smell and taste our little cabin right now. Little voices are calling again......the darn little voices.

I'd like to welcome a new blogger to the family! Heres the description....

Reformed, covenantal, agrarian, homeschooling single parent who grows and concocts herbal products for home use. I am still paying bills from an income from a corporate job but we are shifting to living a simpler, self-sufficient, godly life.

Homestead Herbs is name, stop in and say hello.

I have a prayer request for you all. My younger brother is in the hospital with a very bad infection in his hand. It may be in his blood now, they don't know. The antibiotics are not working and they don't know if he is even going to make it now. It started with a sliver, and now hes in real bad shape. He is not a beleiver, so please pray that for his salvation as well as for his wife and sons.

Report From the Frozen North

2005-12-14T15:44:00.000-08:00

Its cold. This morning I woke to find the mercury had dropped to -10. Its not uncommon for it to get this cold up here, though it is uncommon this early in the season. I knew it was going to be a fine day when I turned on the vacuum pump and had no vacuum. Seems the steam from the hot wash water the night before had found its way into the pump and froze the vanes up. The salamander died the day before, so I had no easy way to get it going. It took an hour to get it running with the help of a syringe, flashlight and a secret mix of diesel fuel and oil. After milking we had several frozen drinking cups in the cow barn to thaw. Water from somewhere had froze solid in the end if the gutter. 45 minutes with a splitting maul (that will never be the same) and a wrecking bar had me ready to clean the barn. Flipping the switch yielded some strange sounds and flying belt. I did eventually get it done. Every job on the farm seemed to take twice as long to do today.....such is my life from now until spring.

I'll just Smile :)

2005-12-08T04:37:00.000-08:00

We are kind of odd balls in the world of modern farming. People don't know what to think of us, really. I suppose you would call us Homesteader/Farmers. Modern agriculture operates under the presupposition that you do only one thing and you do it big. While the majority of our income comes from our little dairy herd, we have always had a multitude of critters on our place. We have always had gardens and raised are own meat. You might think this would be common place in the farming world, but its not. Most dairymen think we are nuts. First, they think any animal besides a cow is worthless. The other thing they have come to embrace is the idea that they are not "farmers" but "producers" or "agribusinessmen". They all, for the most part, think that we are a bunch of backward hicks. I wrote about it this earlier, Here.

I think the one of the greatest gifts my father gave me was an apprecation for all the different kinds of livestock that God gave us to work with. When I was growing up I had the opportunity to raise just about every kind of animal you can think of. We've, at one time or another-sometimes all at once, had hogs, dairy goats, meat goats, chickens, turkeys, dairy cows, beef cows, sheep and others. Dad and the other old timers I grew up learning under had such vast knowlege about things in the natural world. I can rember walking in the woods with dad when I was just a sprout. He could identify every plant and tree and weed in the forest. I've always thought that kids would love learning natural science if it was presented this way. Some things you can't learn well indoors. I have no desire to be a "big shot agribusinessman". I'll tend my little herd of jerseys, grow my gardens, trap my fur and enjoy raising a family in a unique setting that can't be duplicated. While the experts all write their articles and reports about how "you can't make a living that way", and while the rest of the world shakes their collectivist heads in disbelief that anyone would "want to live like that", I just smile a simple country smile and watch the rats race around me.

Soap and Syrup

2005-12-01T05:08:00.000-08:00

Just an update on our soap making venture. We got several batches done and labeled and have already sold some. Many thanks to our freind the TNfarmgirl for all the advice and help. If you would like to see it, click Here

I plan on having some posts up soon on maple syrup production. Now is the time to start thinking about it. As requested, I will get up some pictures of our homeade evaporator and bottler.

The Christian Agrarian Plan to Conquer the World

2005-11-28T04:02:00.000-08:00

There are many myths floating around out there on what we who advocate Christian Agrarianism think and believe. Some are honest misunderstandings, others are straw man type arguments. One myth is that we propose a retreatist agenda. Some think that we plan to drop out of society and live an isolated existence. While we do want to leave the current wicked system and, to some extent build our "own little world", we have great plans for that "little world" growing and replacing the old. Make no mistake, we believe that the whole world should be in subjection to Christ! Biblical Agrarianism is the only alternative we have. How has the Church fared in the industrial system? The worldly political, economic and social system we find ourselves the sorry heirs to, will see God's judgment. A system that is built on wickedness will not endure. What will replace the it? Will God's faithful remnant be willing to try and build a biblical system or simply resurrect the old. Can a handful of Christian Agrarians change the world, you ask. History has shown that the dedicated and faithful minority can do huge things.

Jon put it well when he was explaining why he and his family are moving in a more "agrarian direction".

Another reason has to do with St. Paul's admonition: Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to work with your own hands, to not be dependent on outsiders. It's not to say that much of the work I do is sinful, but when you examine the structures that undergird my work, they definitely are. Whether the socialistic government (I work for a company that derives the majority of its work from socialized government spending), or the unjust weights and measures of a fiat money system, most of my work (and most of everyone else's, too) would not exist. Some of this work might exist had we taken a Biblically permissible path -- but most of it, in its present state, is the result of breaking God's law at a number of steps along the way. So, I want for my sons to be able to work quietly, providing for their families, without depending on a system that is -- at many points -- in rebellion against God. All this to say, I want to give my sons a foundation in this.

So, to all that think we are a bunch of backward hicks that are "heading for the hills", nothing could be farther from the truth. It might take generations to accomplish, but we plan on changing the world. Put down that Wallstreet Journal, pick up a Bible and a pitchfork, and join us in our epic undertaking.

Giving Thanks

2005-11-22T04:16:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year. For farmers, like myself, it still holds much its original spirit and intent. With the coming of fall we head into winter. The harvest done and our projects complete, we now reflect on another year of working God's land for His glory. We look back now with time to reflect, for the we are often (shamefully) to busy at the moment to notice God's provision in our daily struggle to subdue the earth and replenish it.

This time of year I always enjoy getting down my copy of the book by Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation. In many ways we who are advocating Christian Agrarianism are much like Bradfords people. We are trying to build a distinctively Christian culture while fleeing tyranny and wickedness. Consider this quote by Bradford....

"Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise."

We can only pray that our offspring will carry on our dream and not toss it to the ash heap of history like the offspring of these first builders of American Christian Culture did. Lets learn from their mistakes.

What am I thankful for?

I'm thankful for beef in the freezer and mason jars full of my garden harvest. For being able to scratch out a living on this little hill farm and not have to go "off to work" everyday. I'm thankful for a wonderful godly wife and two fine boys. I'm thankful that I can raise my boys here on the farm and watch them grow into men. I'm thankful for wood heat and cold beer. I give thanks for the many likeminded folks I've "met" here on the web. I'm thankful that the Christian Agrarian blogs are doing more than encouraging each other, they are bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to many visitors who have have never heard it. I also thank the Lord that he uses our primitive, unpolished writing to strengthen his people. I received an email one day from a brother who had fallen away from the Lord. He told me that my writings and the other Christian Agrarian bloggers had helped bring him back to Lord. He was so joyful and upbeat, so excited about what God was doing in his family. I cried tears of joy that day. It is so humbling to think God would use our writings to help bring a lost sheep back into his pasture. Lets praise God for all his provisions!

Praying that everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.

Release The Hounds!

2005-11-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

I just got a Nite Lite catolog in the mail yesterday. Flipping through it reminded me of all the fun I had as a younster raising and hunting with..... Coon Hounds. I got to thinking, it just wouldn't be right to raise my boys without coon dogs. There is just something about runnin' throught the woods chasin' after hounds. I have it in my head that we will be saving a little money as we can, to get the boys(and their dad) a hound. If you want to learn about Coon Hounds check out this site CoonDawgs.com. They even have a spot to click that lets you listen to hounds treeing a coon! You can also learn all about Coon Dog breeds HERE. You might also like to check out The Christian Houndsman. When I was growing up we hunted in "Night Hunt" competitions and we had a local "coon hound club" that we belonged to. I can remember siting around listening to old men in overalls spin tales about their hounds. We would spend the whole night out hunting and come home just in time to start the morning milking! Great memories! I've got to go..........I just found 25 cents to put in the "dog jar".

Checkin' In

2005-11-16T05:41:00.000-08:00

Howdy all. Thought I'd check in and let everyone know I'm still alive and kickin'. I have not been on the computer much this week. I've been real busy justt trying to survive lately, not much time for commentary. With the feed shortage, we had to start grazing the 50 acres on the other side of the hill. Spent all morning yesterday in the cold rain stringing wire up. Now after milking the herd travels up the hill and across a road to eat. Its a long haul! We sold a few cows last week and I was busy getting ready for the guy to come and look at them. The wood pile is getting bigger. I have about 1/3 of what I'll need done. This last week I cut and split some red oak, white oak, maple, paper birch, and hickory. Just about every kind of hardwood we have in these parts. I have the new wood stove in the house. Still working on getting it hooked up to the chiminy. As you might guess, it turned out to be more of a challange than I had suspected. I have not had a chance to get any more traps out, not sure when I'll get time to. Last night I met with some neighbors that are putting together an Anti-FTAA speaking event in Binghamton on the 22nd. We had one last year and had about 90 people show up. Leah got the soap labeled and she has taken some to craft show thingy. The cash flow has not been doing much flowing the last month or so and I'm praying we sell some. Got some fresh beef in the freezer now. One of the bright spots about being poor but having land and critters is the meals never suffer. Last week I ate porter house, sirloin, and t-bone steaks for lunch ever day!

John's First Coon

2005-11-04T10:47:00.000-08:00

John and Noah, with some help from dad, set a couple coon sets the other day. This morning when John and I went down to check them, we had a pleasant surprise. Johnny trapped his first coon, and he was a big old boy. It was caught in a little cubby set they built out of shale. They dug out a spot on the bank and made three "walls" and I put a big slab of shale on the top for a roof. We baited with fish and guarded the entry with a 1 3/4 coil spring.

Teaching Children our Way of Life

2005-11-01T05:17:00.000-08:00

One of the best things about farming is being able to work with your children. On the farm, we start 'em young, learning to work along side there parents. I am blessed to be able to teach my vocation to my boys at a very young age. Little John was riding the tractor with me when he was a few months old. I'd wrap him up in a sling, and we would head up the hill to spread manure. The noise of the deisel would lul him to sleep on the way home sometimes. Both boys have the chance to feed hay to the cows when they are in the barn. I few weeks ago John and Noah spent a couple of hours one morning feeding a cow baleage. One little arm full at a time, back and forth, up and down the manger they hauled hay until the job was done. They were proud of job they did. This is so important to little ones. I always try to find real jobs they can do. I very seldom make up "a job" for them. They can smell a fake job a mile away. They want to be like Dad. Yesterday John helped in the barn after breakfast. I found a fork with a broken handle for him to use, just the right size. He worked very hard and deliberately, cleaning the turds off the cow beds. Did a better job than some hiogh school kids I've hired! The most important thing to me was that he stuck out the job until it was finished. The day before I had to work on one of the tractors. A simple job that required nothing more than some wrench turning. Johnny did most of the job himself. I'll never forget the little guy standing there with his 1/4 inch ratchet, "Dad, thanks for sayin' I could help you. I can fix tractors now! I wanna tell Momma that I learned how fix tractors today." This from a 3 year old. Can you see why I don't mind working for peanuts? When I cut fire wood I always make sure to cut the skinny tops up. The boys always remind me to make sure I cut up "Johnny and Noah size peices". Then, when Mom and Dad are stacking wood, the boys can stack as well. It means so much to little ones to feel like they can do something of value. In many ways farming is as much "a way of life" as it is a business. When you grow up doing this kind of stuff, you don't really see at as "a job". What I mean is, I'd live like this no matter what. If I couldn't make a living with the farm, I'd still have cows and chickens. I'd still live like a backwoodsman. So, in alot of ways its like not having a job at all! I get to do what I love, and get "paid/?" for it as well. This is probably why so many farmers keep at it when the money is always short. Sure, the Multi-nationals take full advantage of this and pay us peanuts and keep us poor. You know what......I still come out the winner. I'm doing what I love, what I've always done. What my father and his father and his father before him have done. I don't understand the 9-5ers, and they don't understand me. I don't know if they will ever get it, some will and some won't. I don't wish them ill will. If it really makes them happy, let them have it. I've found that this kind of life is full and rich.

In Sickness and in Health

2005-10-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

I've been a little under the weather this week, which inspired this post.

Those who dream about the agrarian life must keep in mind that the work is there everyday, whether you want to do it or not. Out in the barn are animals that rely on you for their every need. Those with a city job (scotts words for anything other than farming) can call in sick when things get bad. The farmer can't. When you make the choice to own animals, you have made the choice to midwife, waiter, chef, doctor and sole provider of living things that can't take care of themselves. While the animals are our servants, we best exercise our dominion by acting as there servants. My dad would never let anyone eat a meal until every animal on the farm had had theirs. Dad always believed that if you took good care of your animals they would take care of you. Todays cold economic truths make us wonder if its true, but its our rule never the less. If you milk a cow, you will at some time or another milk her with a broken bone, a headache, the flue, frozen fingers or upset belly. Over the years I've suffered through a few milkings that really made me wonder if a bullet in the head would have been a more painless option. I once broke every bone in my right foot. I was milking 50 cows 30 minutes later. As a rule, if something hurts, every cow will do her best to make it hurt worse. The only thing that hurts worse than breaking your foot is an 8 year old cow standing on it after you break it! Our whole family got hit with the worst flue bug I've ever seen, a few years back. It hit the old folks hard. They couldn't move. I could crawl. I crawled to the barn to start what would be a 5 and a half hour milking job. Puking and diarrhea kept me busy, as I tried my hardest to get the girls milked. I passed out and woke up under a 1700 pound cow.....thank God she didn't lay down. I was under there for a while because the cows that had milkers on were done and there was no milk in the hose. When I got the last one milked I passed out on the milkhouse floor. The milk truck driver woke me up, I think. Next task was getting the girls some feed. By the time I got them fed it was time to milk again! I'll never forget those 3 days of hell. Owning critters is a full time job. Keep in mind that those animals don't care if you feel like a million bucks or death warmed over, they just want to fed and milked and scratched behind the ears.

Other Things of Interest......

The KSMILKMAID has a new Blog

The BadgerMum has an interesting post on Alfred the Great

We need to have some dirt in our lives

Hey, let's use a paper towel

Blood, Sweat and Tears

2005-10-24T04:45:00.000-07:00

One of the most common criticisms of the Agrarian Bloggers is that we paint to rosey a picture of the farm life. Although I think we try to paint a balanced picture, I thought I would take a stab at explaining some agrarian realities that some might not think of as "rosey". I would argue however, that these realities are are only "not rosey" to those who live inside the industrial box. Though they may be painful at the moment, they are but a small part of much bigger good. This said, farming is the product of blood, sweat and tears.

Blood

Farming is dangerous. We work long hours, with animals and machinery. That can be hazardous to our health. The battle to subdue the earth and replenish it, is not a fight for those who can not stand to lose a little blood. Before you take up the rockin' chair, you will lose literal gallons of this liquid. Most of your bleeding will be a product of carelessness and stupidity. Its been true with me, anyway. I've always joked that if I came in the barn carrying my left arm, my Dad would say "Darn it Scott......You've got to more careful." In his defense, the second statement would be "are you alright?". Be carefully out there, this is dangerous work.

Sweat

The modern world has shielded most folks from hard work. Some see this as progress. I feel sorry for people who have never felt the satisfaction of working until it hurts. A job well done should be followed by a feeling of tiredness. Its not uncommon for us to work 14- 16 hour days during busy spells. Much of the work on small land holding is very laborious. There will be days that you want to die, days you think that you can't throw another bale of hay but know there are 400 more to go before milking time starts. The farmer earns his living by the literal sweat of his brow. The old pictures of the farmer sleeping under a tree, surrounded by a lovely garden and content cows grazing the hill side is often misinterpreted. He's sleeping under the tree because he couldn't make it to the house! If you want to farm and return to the simple life because you think its a life of ease, you best stay at the office-lest you be disappointed.

Tears

We write often about the emotional highs of farming. They are not embellished or made up, they are real. Just as real though are the lows. The economy the way it is, keeps us cash poor. Many nights are spent going over the books wondering how in the world you are going to make it throught the next month. The animals that you love and care for die. Folks who don't spend vast amounts of time with animals probably think the death of one is "not a big deal". I believe that God gives those who he gives the privilege of husbandry, a special love for the creation that they are caring for. It grieves the cattleman to see a cow suffer. Famers have deep compassion for the animals in their care and I have shed tears over the loss livestock. Farming is full of emotional hardships that test our faith. Watching your crops die, despite all your work and care can be devastating. All this hardship and tears works for good, as all things God sends our way. For the Christian, these hardships are faith builders. There is some truth to the old saying, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". I think C.H. Spurgeon put it best....

Faith which is daily tried, and tried all the day long, has a fair opportunity of becoming unusually strong, and hence our agricultural Christians ought to be the strongest believers in the land. They have not of late been indulged with much temporal prosperity, but our hope is that a succession of adversities may have driven them to set less store by the world, to look more eagerly for the better portion, and to leave all things more believingly in the Lord's hands. This will be good out of evil beyond all question, and such good we ought to look for. Sharp discipline should by this time have made good soldiers of our yeomanry. If it be so, the failing purse is more than recompensed by the enlarged heart: if our farmers are wiser men through their bad seasons, that will be better than being richer men.

Busy Week

2005-10-22T03:55:00.000-07:00

I spent some time yesterday pulling logs up out of the woods for firewood. Its going to start raining again, and I wanted to get some ahead so I wouldn't be fighting the mud. I love the smell of fresh split firewood. Its one of them smells that triggers something in your mind, makes you think "Winters coming---better work faster". Fall is a time to reflect on what you acomplished during the summer. The farmers list of what he got done is always smaller than the list of what needed doing, around here at least. To top off the food cache, we just killed a 980 pound steer for the freezer. We are hankerin' down for the long, cold winter. Thanks to the TNfarmgirl for prodding us back into the soap business. We have been up until 11pm making batches for the last couple of nights. Building up an inventory for what we hope will be a profitable addition to our little farm. We planted our first garlic crop this year. We tried Music and Siberian. If it works out, we will plant a more sizable crop next year. I've also been working on a website for our direct market stuff. Nothing fancy, and I'm doing it myself, so keep your expectations low. When I get it done I'll give a link. So thats what I've been up to.

Here is a Garlic Article from New Farm.

You will never guess who changed his identity and started another blog. Look Who I Found.

Country Goes to Town

2005-10-19T03:46:00.000-07:00

I got up a 3am and got the girls milked and tried to get a jump on the day. I'm off to the county courthouse today. Fear not, I have not been formally charged with any crime! I have jury duty. First time in my life that I've ever been summoned. Now I have to drive into the city. I hate the city. I would rather be beat and poked with sharp sticks, then to have to go to the city. I hate the roads, the sidewalks, and the smell. The modern city is the antithesis to my vision of a decentralized agrarian culture. It is hyperspecialization transformed into its logical conclusion. Make matters even worse, you can't carry a gun in the courthouse. These folks expect me to walk all the way from the parking ramp to the courthouse with my 38 left under the seat of my car. What nerve. Say a prayer for me, my agrarian brothers and sisters, as I enter the belly of the beast(unarmed-no less). I get lost very easy in the city. I'm heading over to mapquest right now, in hopes of fool proof, read hillbilly proof, directions.

I'm Back

2005-10-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

I'm back. I couldn't stay away for long. I did some thinking, planted some garlic, and painted the milkhouse, but I just couldn't stop bloggin'. By the looks of my sitemeter stats, nobody else had much faith in my "blogging vacation" either.

I want to catch up on a couple of things I've been going to mention. First, I've been reading the TNfarmgirl for a while. If you don't read it regular, you should. She has had some really good stuff lately. I'm proud to report that Christian Agrarianism has crossed the sea. America does not export much anymore, but it seems the seeds of Agrarianism have taken root in New Zealand. There is another NY State blogger, The Agrarian Plowshare, that just started up. Pastor McConnell has posted a link to his 11 page essay called The Heart of Biblical Agrarianism. Don't miss it.

Now for todays thoughts.

Arrogance in Agriculture

Farmers used to be the most respected people around. They were known as honest, hard working folks that told the truth and cared for the land. Sometime around the 40's things started to change. Yes, for many more years farmers still were well thought of, but it was at this time Industrialized thought began to replace the old Christian worldview. Covenantal Stewardship gave way to chronological snobbery and an Austrian veiw of the Creation and how it should be used. Farmers are at times their own worst enemy. Most of the worlds population, whether right or wrong, does not want to eat GMO grains. Americas farmers do just what the Land Grants say. They plant it hedgerow to hedrow, and then cry about the fact nobody wants to buy it. They take all sorts of actions to make the countries in question import the grain that they don't want. Cry about the fact that grain prices are low, and keep voting for the people who who have built the socailist system that enslaves them. Instead of thinking, "Lets grow something the consumer wants." American farmers think, "Stupid consumers. Don't know a darn thing. Don't they know we have to feed the world." The land grant colleges, farm magazines, extention agents, and salesmen all sing the same tune. They tell farmers all the time how stupid the consumers are. Farmers eat this up. We already know city folks are simple. Someone in a tie says it, and we say AMEN. Science and ethics aside, it dosen't even make economic sense to do business with this attitude. The American Farmers slogan is "the consumer is always wrong". Ask anyone you meet if they want to drink milk with BST in it and they will say no. Famers responce.......shoot up the cows and complain that nobody understands you and milk price is low. Of course, we can't look at this in pure economic terms. As stewards of God's Creation, we have an obligation above "the market". What are the consequences of GMOs? I am afraid the end of creations wonderfull diversity. As a side note, did you know that they are know putting human liver genes in rice? With all the talk about GM crops that would be "more nutritous" and "resistent to insects" they have yet to introduce one. They have made "Roundup Ready" everything. Once the Land Grant Boys told farmers they could wash their faces with DDT. We now know they were wrong(or liars). Today they say you can "drink a glass or Roundup a day" and be just fine. Now the person that heard that in college class, wrote about it in Farming Magazine this month. Within days of being fed that lie, she found research that it kills frogs and tadpoles and probably causes reproductive problems in people. Well, I didn't get to everything I wanted to cover, but I've got to scoot.

The Best of Homesteader Life

2005-10-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

To tell you the truth, I'm having trouble thinking of anything to write about lately. Its been a while since I have writen anything of substance. I'm pretty busy right now getting ready for winter and have a few things on mind that are taking up what little mind God gave me. With that said, I'm going to take a break from the old blogging thing for a spell. Mabey a week, mabey a month, I'm not sure. As soon as I have something to contribute to the cause, I'll return. If this is your first time here, take a look at the "Best of Homesteader Life". I'll be back.

Richest Man on Earth

Will You Survive?

The Sin of Birth Control and The Death of The Family Farm

Another Kind of Inheritance

No Land...No Problem

Diversity is Not Enough

Just Do It

More on Money

Cream, Mud, And Trusting God

2005-10-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

Howdy All. I just finished, with some help from my boys, a huge mixing bowl filled with peaches and freshly whipped cream. Supper was a creamy, cheesy, soup. I'm washing it all down with a nice cold glass of Cream Ale. Hmm, I've got a cream theme going here.

Its been raining for days. I think it rained 3 times this summer. Now its going to rain all of October! I had been looking at the bright side, like...the dirt hole sets won't freeze on the fox line. Now I'm thinking how about how to make mud hole sets!

Farming can get you down sometimes. Times like these are tough. Going into the winter without much feed, fuel costs are high, milk prices on the down turn, and facing the fact a couple of dumb mistakes can cost you everything you've ever worked for, can turn men into worry worts. I used worry about everything. Its amazing that I didn't drop dead from nervousness. I'd like to say that as soon as I became a Christian is when my constant worrying stopped.....but I'd been a lair. It was several years after the fact, really. After studying the scriptures and finally grasping the concept of God's sovereignty, I quit worrying. Oh sure, I still worry sometimes. It ain't nothing like the old me though. I've come to grips with fact that life is filled with lessons that God has set for me. Most of the time its, "Trust me, you ungrateful fool", followed by me asking forgiveness. I suppose it comes down to believing the promises of scripture.....really believing them. If God says that he will feed his people, why is it so darn hard to believe it. Jesus Christ is bigger than locusts, droughts, coon, windstorms, hail, and early frosts. He made them and sent them our way to glorify Himself through our faithfulness.

I have been working on the "links bar". Added a few new ones. It seems to be growing into a creature of it own! Looking at the template makes my eyes spin around. Its a work in progress.

The Wedding

2005-10-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I have not had a chance to post anything the last few days. I've been getting ready for and catching up from, a good ole fashioned hillbilly wedding. A friend that I grew up with was married on Saturday, and I found my self all dressed up and cleaned up, standing up with him and a motely crew of dirt farmers, mechanics, and livestock. Yup, I said livestock. The men folks were all dressed in late 1800's western clothes. We all looked pretty good, if I do say so myself. I had not heard many of the details untill I got there. I got up at 2:30am and did a days work by 6am. By 6:30 we were on the road. I had a highschool kid and my brother come out and do the afternoon milking and feeding for me. When we got there someone announced that there were to be no side arms or adult beverages during the ceremony. I shook my head and asked the groom if he had gone " high soceity" on me. He said, "listen, I've got a goat, a dog, and Scott Terry in my wedding.......what more do want." Now I was thrilled! Never seen a goat and an Australian Sheperd in wedding before. Make a long story short, A brides maid led the goat down the aisle. It stood there with the girls during the whole thing. Just before the vows and all got under way, the dog came trotting(sort of) down the aisle and stood at the groom's feet. As always, the food was the best part of the whole thing. I think there was lamb, pork, beef, and a turkey! The lamb was killed that morning. I missed that part, I was still on the road. I was able to see a lot of folks I hadn't seen in 8 or 10 years, and that is always nice. Another thing I liked was that becouse it was show nite at the WDE, the DJ had a cell phone connection to Madison and was giving folks the class results. A case where technology was used for good.

Odds and Ends

Reformed Agrarianisms favorite Pastor has a blog. If you haven't seen it, be sure to check out the The Rural Missourian

How Far Do You Walk Every Day?

Johnny's Got a Gun

2005-10-06T05:48:00.000-07:00

I could wait no longer, John is now armed. He is the proud new owner of an air rifle. He takes all the saftey rules very seriously and has been practicing his aim on tin cans. This photo is from yesterday at supper time. He keeps it in the gun cabinet with dads arsenal. He is looking foward to hunting squirrels with it.

Renegade Jerseys, Fur Report, John's Sermon, and the Dry Spell

2005-09-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time to waste on the computer lately. Chores always take a little longer this time of year. For some reason, as soon as fall comes, the cows have no desire to come to the barn. With grass so short this year, they are free to graze most of 100+ acres of pasture. All the little 2 acre lots are opened up and they also have access to what hay grew back in some of the hay fields. When fall comes they break up into little bands of 10 or 15 cows and all head in opposite directions. Some are apple lovers. This group is always finding new ways to get into the orchard areas. If there is not a gate, no problem, they make a new one! At milking time we spend an hour or more rounding up all the renegade bands of jerseys and forcing them down for milking. I have no idea why every fall they act like this, but sure as sun rises and sets, it happens every fall.

As trapping season approaches, I'm always scouting for fur. Saw a nice grey fox the other morning. I've seen some coon sign in the creek bank down by the "big woods". They tell me coon won't be worth much this year. Big carry over from last season. I was hoping for good coon prices, they are plentiful and easy to catch. Oh well. I'm still not seeing much 'rat sign at all. Its dry here, they probably headed for the gulf coast. The coyotes are singing every morning now. I think there are at least two packs running the valley. I'm seeing a few red fox now and then, but this is really grey country. The reds don't do well when the coyotes are here.

Hunting season is also near. There is never a shortage of whitetales around here. I'm watching 2 flocks of turkeys pretty close. A neighbor trapped 2 huge bobcats that were killing stock. They we're big boys! I have not seen much in the line of bear sign this year. Two seasons ago, one stuck his paw in a 220 bucket set I had out for coon. He tore the trap up good! We have a pretty good population of black bears around the farm. We don't have an open season on them yet, but it looks likely in the future.

Little John preached his first sermon the other day. Leah and I were sitting on the couch and the little guy cleared his throat to get our attention. He's standing in the middle of the room with his bible opened up. Looks at the page and then looks at us and says, "God is good, Jesus is good. The bible says so." He then closes the bible and says, "Lets us pray. Heaven in Father, thank you for food. Thank you for rain and animals, and Jesus......Amen" Not to bad for a 3 year old!

This drought has been tough on us. We are heading into winter with all of our feed gone. My pastures dried up in the end of June and the hay didn't yield worth a hoot. Fed all we had between then and now. We just now got some rain and the grass came back a little. The cows are back eating the green stuff till the first frost, which will be this week most likely. We will be buying hay all winter now, and that will take a big chunk of the milk check. We've made it through tough years before and Lord willin' will make it through this one.

Turn Nursing Homes into Feed Stores

2005-09-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

Someday, when Biblical Agrarianism come of age, I hope one of its accomplishments will be turning nursing homes into feed stores. A community that embraces a biblical multi-generational vision will not have a use for the "county death camps".

The fifth commandment demands that we honor our father and mother. Sadly, like the hypocrites of old, God's people are not taking this command to heart. If abortion is our nations greatest sin, the nursing home mentality comes in a close second. Sometimes I wonder home many prolife protesters and anti gay marriage protesters have parents rotting away in a nursing home. While its always easy to attack the sins of others (which we should do) it is always harder to see the one that we are engaged in. We live in a culture that has no respect for anything old or outdated, and we have seemed to lump people into this wicked philosophy.

I remember well the morning my dad came in for breakfast and told us the news. They were going to put the old farmer we knew in a nursing home. He said that old Don was pretty upset and my Dad found him crying in his house. Dad announced that he told Don he could come stay with us if he wanted. Don jumped at the chance and he came to live with us that week. We fixed up a spare room for him and he became a member of the family. That experience stuck in my mind for years. I was just a little kid and even I could see how sad it was that they wanted to lock this man away for no other reason than his age. The old boy died several years after he came to stay with us. Those years were filled with stories of old and advice from someone had done many things. After Don passed on my family would go to the local old folks prison several times a year. We'd take them cookies and pies and sit around visiting with the old timers who all had the same complaint.....no one ever came to see them. We used to take a baby goat and a lamb for them to see. Many of them grew up farming and loved to see the animals. They would spin yarns of working with draft horses and shipping milk in cans. There is a lot of knowledge locked up in those monuments to the stupidity men we call nursing homes. While taking care of the elderly can be taxing, we are commanded to do it. Much like the jews who gave more money to the temple in exchange for not taking care of the old, we are engaged in much the same mentality. At least they tried to justify it by giving more to the temple. I don't think most Christians even think of it as sin, therefore they don't even see a need to justify there actions.

Let us be different. Let us be the ones to end this crime against God and our parents. Someday while picking up feed, maybe your child will ask you what the that building used to be used for. "Gee, Dad. Whats a nursing home?" You can spend the ride home telling him about a wicked generation that would not turn their face to God.

Saturday Evening Post

2005-09-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

Seasons

I hope everyone is doing well. We are getting ready to start canning peaches this week. Got most of the pears picked, not ready to can just yet. We are packing the cupboards full of canned goods like squirrels stuffing their hole full of nuts. Fall is one of my favorite times of year. The cooler weather and shorter days just feel good after a long hot summer. With fall comes new tasks for us out here. Getting the barns battened up for the coming snow and chill, getting ready to start trapping and whitetail season is just around the corner. The wood piles start climbing to the sky, only to be gone before spring. Cycles that never end. Tom (Northern Farmer) once said that 3 of the 4 seasons are spent getting ready to survive one. I agree. Winter is the toughest time for us. More work and the least amount of cash flow of the year. Still there are things about winter that I wouldn't want to give up. Fresh snows, without a single footprint and spruce and hemlocks with their powdery coating. Lets not forget that winter also provides me with my favorite sensation......getting warm after freezing all day. Nothing compares to getting warm next to a wood fire after working out in the cold all day. OK, maybe a cold beer after baling hay, but you understand.

Paleoconservitive politics

In an effort to keep Homesteader Life a blog dedicated to agrarian economics, homesteading and sustainable agriculture, I have set up another spot for my Political-Conspiracy thoughts. I don't know how much I'll do with it, but when the NeoCons get me all worked up--thats where I'll put my thoughts and comments on the news. The Rural Patriot

Christians and WIC

2005-09-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

The WIC program has always rubbed me the wrong way. You know what I'm talking about, were pregnant folks get "free" milk, eggs and other stuff at taxpayers expense. American Christians long ago quit looking to the Lord and His bride to provide them with food and have in large numbers turned, in faith, to America's new god.......the State. I once had grand plans to provide milk and eggs to our poor brothers and sisters, a localized Christian alternative. I still would like provide them free to anyone in my area that NEEDED them. In my research, however, I found that most people on such programs are not needy, just selfish. When you have 2 cars, cable tv, investment accounts, cell phones, eat out weekly, rent videos, and such; I have a hard time believing you can't afford to buy a dozen eggs or a jug of milk. It truly amazes and saddens me to see so many believers latched on to the levithians teat. Part of the blame lies with the churches lack of helping the needy(thus the welfare state) and part goes to the clergy for not teaching that this violates the 8th and 10th comandments(thus the sucking noise from those who are not needy). God save our people.

Feathers, Pears, and Brooms

2005-09-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

As you may have gathered by my lack of blogging, we have been busy as beavers. Saturday we started killing chickens which is a slow and time consuming task because we are hand plucking this year. We don't have to many to do, so we'll live. Many thanks to David Marble who came out and helped. It was Daves first times drawing blood on a living creature and he performed admirably. Dave's wife has a blog, that she never writes on. Perhaps she will grace us with a post someday, a blog that you don't write in is like an unloaded handgun....why have one. We have been canning a few more tomatoes and the pears are ready to pick. We have a nice crop of pears this year. I transplanted a elderberry bush which promptly died. I should be cutting wood or moving hay instead of sitting here, but its a good excuse for a break!

Monday was fine day. The only souls on the farm were John, Noah and myself. What joy it is to work with your family. I put a big pile of hay down the hay hole for the one cow that stayed in the barn that day. While I bedded the stalls, I had the boys drag the hay down to Christy. One little arm load at a time they hauled that hay down and shook it up in front of her. That kept them busy for a long time! They worked hard and never stopped until they done. My favorite part of the day was the three of us, a 3 year old, a 1 year old and a 30 year old all sweeping the barn floor. Noah's broom was 3 times taller than he is, but he didn't let it bother him any. This job may not earn me much gold or prestige, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. What kind of price can you put on working with your little ones.

Homeschooling, Election Injustice, News from the Hill

2005-09-13T06:18:00.000-07:00

Homeschooling

I've been thinking about homeschooling a bit lately. While the "Classical Approach" seems to be popular among reformed folk, I'm not sure its for me and my house. I could see incorparating parts of it, and it is interesting, but I don't think we'll be doing it. If anyone has any opinion one way or the other, I wouldn't mind hearing it.

Run For Office....Lose Your House

Remember Rick Jore? The Constitution Party canditate who ran for the state house in Montana. While after winning the election, even after several recounts, they stole it from him. Now it seems they are going to take his money and his home as well.

The results of last year's House District 12 election are finally complete. Justice lost.Acting on a court order, the Lake County sheriff on Aug. 31 confiscated the $543.60 from Rick Jore's checking accounts at Community Bank in Ronan. The bank took the remaining $25 in his account as its fee for the transaction. The rest goes to the Meloy-Trieweiler law firm in Helena, the firm that represented the Democratic candidate who won the Nov. 2 election with an appeal to the state Supreme Court.The worst of Jore's punishment is yet to come. An Aug. 25 order from state District Court Judge Kim Christopher of Polson directs Sheriff Bill Barron to collect from Jore a total of $15,663.56 - plus 10 percent interest dating to June 16. Finding but a fraction of that amount in Jore's bank accounts, the sheriff now is supposed to seize $15,119.96 worth of Jore's personal property, moving on to his house or land after that if necessary. For his trouble, the sheriff will collect a final $60 as his fee for taking Jore's money and property.

You can read the rest of this story here.

News From The Hilltop

We are having a bit of a heat wave out here. It was almost 90 yesterday and its going that high again today. Apples are getting ripe. The boys and I ate some yesterday. Plan on making cider with them when they are ready. We did get the roof up on our friends house. Went up pretty good. Leah made some peach jam that I can't stop eating. One of these days she'll put the recipe up on her blog. Meeting with some local folks that are against "Free Trade" tonight. We lost the CAFTA fight but we are gearing up for the FTAA battle.

Thoughts on Raw Materials Economics

2005-09-12T05:57:00.000-07:00

I'm not one to quote Ben Franklin very much, but this is worth pondering. I found this in the latest issue of ACRES USA. I think Mr. Walters wrote it.

Ben Franklin pointed out in his Positions to be Examined Concerning National Wealth(1769) that there are three ways a nation might become wealthy.

1. By War, which permits taking by force the wealth of other nations.

2. By Trade, which to be profitable requires cheating. For example if we give and receive an equal amount of goods and services through trade, there is no profit other than that obtained in our own production cycle.

3. By Agriculture, through which we plant the seeds and create new wealth as if by miracle.

In fact, raw materials production times price has a 3 fold effect.

1. The raw materials supply determines the number of jobs available in fabrication, processing and use-- from raw materials production to manufactured products and use.

2. The dollar value put on this new wealth--raw material production--determines the amount of money which can and must be used to produce, buy, and move through the economy raw materials production. As various costs are added, chiefly labor and capital costs, the add on factors pyramid themselves into national income.

3. The value placed on raw materials automatically becomes the initial market for the exchange of manufactured goods. It also defines the level of profit and savings for the economy.....

The anatomy of trade as a social profit maker is just plain wrong.

The Week in Review

2005-09-09T18:21:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not posting much this week. We have been real busy. I'm trying to clean out the hen house on the hill before winter and we are making peach jam this week. Blew out a tire on the skid steer and on the International with the loader. The tire guy didn't show up with new ones for the tractor like he was supposed to today. Now I've got to wait untill Monday. We had a statewide meeting for the NY Constitution Party on Monday. I've been making trips out to Daves house this week as well. Matt and I are helping out with the roof and a few other projects. Its an hour drive one way. Saterday morning I'm going to try to get most of my work done before breakfast and go help them get the roof on. I need to start killing chickens next week and I'm behind on wood, so expect sporatic postings while I catch up. I just remembered that the garlic should be coming soon and I've got to get a spot ready to plant that too.

Coyotes have been very vocal this week. When I get up for morning milking they are howling away. The boys and I went down and scouted some new trapping territory this evening. Took some time to shoot the .22 a little before we came back. Been a while since I shot just for the sake of shooting. Little John is a real woodsman, he loves it. We need to get back to work getting traps ready. Most have new tags this year. Most repairs have been made. Looks like all the muskrats up and left the country. Hope the coons are pretty thick this year. Coon sets take very little time to make and they don't care about human sent. We have to hit 'em hard and early before the freeze. Few things in life more enjoyable then fur trapping. Hard work, but what isn't around here.

Those hens we got the boys to raise started laying yesterday. Had a double yolker already! The kids are happy. Speaking of eggs, I liked this Post from TN farmgirl. I have no idea how anyone who wants enjoy Goodness, Beauty, and Truth could ever swallow the stuff inside a store bought egg.

Chad has a dood post on building The Basic Battery. Good sound advise.

Good farming values good neighbors

Random Thoughts On Socialism

Maintaining a Laying Flock the Sustainable Way

God’s people have been promised that they shall be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath (Dt. 28:13). You cannot be ‘the head’ or ‘above’ without ‘the tail’ or what is ‘below’ being unequal.

Brewing Blog!!!

The High Cost of Cheap Food

"But while I sat and drank beer with Philip and Amsdorf, God dealt the papacy a mighty blow."

- Martin Luther

Will You Survive?

2005-09-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

A lot of peoples minds have been playing around with the question of "what would I do" in the case of a big time disaster. Could you provide food and water for your family? What about defense from mobs or the government? Out here in the country, I have to laugh at how unprepared most urban-suburban-city folks are. I really don't know whether to laugh or cry. This lifestyle we have out here, out of necessity, makes being able to cope and adapt to change an everyday event. Its second nature for us to "get it done" no matter what. If it means milking the cows off the intake manifold on a old gas tractor or the power brakes off an old car, that's what we do, we get it done. We have pulled off some harebrained things around here in emergencies. Survival comes natural to us. Every day seems to be a battle of sorts. So when I see folks who can't get water without a faucet, or can't feed themselves because the store is closed up, I shake my head in disbelief. How could society ever get to the point where men could not provide for themselves the very things that sustain them? Here are some ideas for your family "survival kit".

Water....... See Chads post on water storage.

Food.....You want stuff thats easy to store, keep, and move. Canned goods are important. Home canned garden crops and store bought stuff. Meat? Try canning your favorite meat. No refridgeration needed. We can loan roasts and stew meat right in wide mouth canning jars. MREs take up a small space and keep a long time (taste like crap). If you don't have chickens and a cow, store powdered milk and eggs. We store it anyway, never know what might happen. We keep grain on hand to grind for flour. When we lived in Alaska we always kept 25 and 50 pound bags of flour on hand. Dry beans are a must. Whether you grow it and put it up yourself or buy it, its a good idea to have a years supply of food on hand. If you store bulk dry goods........make sure you know how to cook with them.

Misc.... First aid stuff. Extra batteries. Solar chargers. Inverter with batt. clips. Gas masks. PI pills to flood thyroid in case of radiation. Short Wave- AM-FM radio. Steel ammo cans for storage. Wool blankets....... the list goes on and on.

Firearms. A general purpose hunting rifle and or shotgun. Anti-Assault Rifle with plenty of rounds. I like the AK.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. It will get you started, if you haven't.

News and Views from a Top the Hill

2005-09-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

Its been a little chilly in the mornings lately. The frogs and insects are all making their fall noises now, and it serves to remind this countryboy to get working on winter preperation. Lots to do, thats for sure. If I blog less often than ussual, thats what I'm doing.

This week I've been getting to know a new freind that just moved to the area and our church. David is looking for work now, so pray the Lord would provide him one soon. He and his family are great people. It didn't take long for the two us to hit off. We share almost indenticle veiws on civil government, theology, economics, birth control, modern culture, and so on. We had to laugh at how much we think alike. He said he was scared he'd scare me off with his ideas and told him I had the same fears! I thank God for sending him and his family our way.

We got a brand new refrigerator! You guessed right, we didn't buy it. My inlaws bought it for us. We are sure thankfull. Never owned a new appliance before. Last couple of years we have been having terrible luck with used fridges. Regular visiters ussualy ask we they come in if the reformed beverages in in the fridge or the cooler by the door. Its been the cooler as often as the fridge it seems. So next time you drop in for a visit, it may be the first time we have had running Hot (yes I said hot) and cold water, a toilet that flushes without the use of a 5 gallon pail, and beverages that are machanicly cooled.

Read recently that all the "new jobs" that Bush and Co are talking about are, as I had supposed, in large part not real jobs. Half or more are service jobs or taxfunded jobs that don't create a single tangible good that can be used, consumed, or exported. I could go on about the economics of this and why it stinks, but I think there is another point to made. Think of the toll this has on men and the society they live in. Our culture is suffering from "service economies". Men work 40 hours a week and at the end of the week they can't look a single tangible thing and say, "I made that". Why do you think the "hobby industry" is so profitable? Men must make something with their hands, even if its a model car or something. I realize that some must do service type work and can do so to God's glory, but I think the average Joe needs to make something to feel useful. I also think an economy built on people servicing each other is built on house of cards. Do I feel a breeze?

We should all be praying that our friend Matt Davis and his kin made it out of New Orleans all right and are in good shape. I miss his emails and comments. Matt, we're thinkin' of ya.

One good thing that came out Katrina

Bret McAtee For Senate!

Tom is Back!

Another Kind of Inheritance

2005-08-30T17:11:00.000-07:00

We have spent a bit of time talking about the importance of leaving our children and their children material inheritance. Land, barns, and gold are blessing for sure. Wanting to be able to give our covenant children these things is admirable and faithful. But there is another kind of inheritance that is equally, if not more important. Knowledge and useful skills. These can not be taxed, stolen or lost. An old man I knew as a child used to tell me, "Scott, never quit learnin'. They can't never take it away....that you got up here (while tapping the side of his head)."

The first and most important knowledge we can give to our children is a knowledge and love of the Scriptures. It is here that we learn the most important lessons and skills. This must be the foundation of Covenantal Agrarainism, if it is not, failure and judgment will be the only thing we leave future generations.

We live at a time when hyper specialization is the norm. If you think about it, this is a golden opportunity for the advancement of our cause. The specialist limit the number of children they have, can't provide anything for themselves and have created a system so unnatural that it must, in time, collapse. As the agrarians remain faithful to Gods word and multiply our numbers, we are also teaching our children skills that will help us, by Gods Grace, weather whatever storms the collapse of industrialism brings. If God sees fit to rebuild Christian culture in North America, our children and theirs, may well be those builders. Now is not the time for retreatism or pessismissim. We must not let our goal become one that centers around a "just sit back and survive" mentality. We are separating from pagan culture not to retreat, but to exclaim the Crown Rights of King Jesus.

It might well turn out that what wealth we create may be stolen or lost in the coming storm. This is why I make sure that my house learns the skills that help them survive, things that no one can take from them. I am now teaching my children (John mostly now) how to trap. This little 3 year old just soaks up this knowledge like a sponge. In addition to reading the Bible, we are currently reading a little bit of Trapping North American Fur Bearers after every meal. Just enough for a 3 year old to remember. These things will be with him for ever. Long after his money and even his health are gone, he will retain that knowledge. I pray he passes it on, not only to his seed, but to other youngsters who want to learn. When your children want to "help" you with a job, let them "help". I know to well, what a pain it can be. But do it. This is how children learn, by working along side mom and dad. If I accomplish nothing else in life, I want my children to know Christ and all his blessings and promises. I want them to know how to hunt, trap, fish, grow a garden, move cattle, chase sheep, kill a chicken, dig a ditch, and pray. I want them to do all these things, and I want them to do it for the Glory of Christ our King. The beauty of it is, all this inheritance is tax free, debt free, and can't be taken away.

Appreciating vs. Depreciating Assets

2005-08-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

Amy Scott hit the nail on the head with her comment on my last post regarding used vs new cars.

"The difference is in spending your money on appreciating vs. depreciating assets. "

In fact, that is the very point I was trying to get across. A car is a good example because everyone buys and owns a car, for the most part. This concept can be applied to almost all purchases on the homestead/farm. Single use machinery and buildings are good thing to stay away from whenever possible. Of course there are exceptions to this, but in general ( particularly in the early years) we should spend money on things that can bring in multiple incomes. Most single use machines are very expensive and just like a car only get old and wear out. One of the great ironies of agrarian life is that while we are the people in our culture who probably care about money the least, we have to be constantly watching our pennies and be exceptional business people because of the nature of our businesses ( slim margins-weather-ect). Take for example a house. If you buy raw land you need to build something to live in. The first thought of many will be to build a house. For this example, you are just getting started and have limited capital. How much money do you plan to make with your house? Granted the house won't lose value and is a good way to preserve wealth it does not make you any money. If it costs you $75,000 to build it, that's $75,000 you can't invest in assets that appreciate, like feeder pigs, chickens or a pasture cage. Why not buy a used mobile home for the first few years and free up all that money for things that will make money. This is what I did. We bought our mobile home for $1000. We had been praying that the Lord would provide us with a way to have a home and found out about a guy who had bought a new trailer and needed to get rid of the old one. It was a real nice mobile home and we didn't think we could afford it, but the zoning nazis had started fining him for having it on his land. I offered him $1000 and he said "get it out of here!" It ain't a palace but we are grateful for it. We spend no money on rent or mortgage payments or interest on loans. We own it free and clear and can always build something of our own when we can afford it. That's the key I think. If you can't afford it you don't deserve it. We live in an age where we think just because we are Americans, we deserve a real house and a nice car. Nothing wrong with owning it if you can afford it, but there is something wrong with going into debt just because we covet other peoples possessions. Wait for God to provide and He will. Now I realize these are some crazy ideas. I know some will misunderstand me and think I am saying we should never own anything nice......that ain't what I said. Let the nice things come latter, after we have worked for them. If we have a multigenerational vision, we should care more about building for the kids than our own comfort. We must be willing to live a little bellow our means even, so that the children can have a running start. As always I welcome comments, ideas, rebuke and sharp pointy sticks when needed!

You Should Drive a Clunker, Young Feller

2005-08-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it seems that the younger you catch the "Agrarain Vision" the better. By the time your in your 30's or 40's it seems you have made so many mistakes in life that you'll have to settle for building a farm for the kids and not yourself. Lets face it, debt is the norm in our culture. If your debt free, your the oddball. If you want the kind of farm we talk about here, you better plan on being a real oddball in your youth. Sure some folks will come in later in life and pull it off, but we need to really aim a lot of our teaching to the 20 something crowd. If we can drive home the No Debt message to the kids we'll really start seeing the fruit of this "movement" in a few generations. This leads me to todays thoughts on New Cars.

Don't do it. Don't buy a new car if you want to get started in farming. A used car will do you fine, you don't need to rammin' all over the countryside anyway. Joel Salatin says that in his 17 years of marriage they have spent a total of $6000 on cars. Heres the deal. One of his costomers who is in real estate says that the average couple spends enough money on car payments in the first 10 years of marraige to buy a small home with cash. Buy a $15,000 car and you will make $20,000 in payments. Most regular folks get a new one every five years. Wow, just think of the money that could go toward land or critters, that is instead buying something that loses value every day you own it! If we can teach the younger folks that they don't "need" a new car, we would hear a lot less of the "I want to farm but don't have the money to get started" crying.........crying that most of us have heard out of our own mouths, unfortunately.

Canned Goods, Split Wood, a Wedding and Links for Your Enjoyment

2005-08-24T15:06:00.000-07:00

Well Folks, we've been pretty busy round here lately. We've been working on getting the canning finished up and the pantry filled. Looks like another lean winter for the farm, money wise, so we're trying to get all our ducks in a row before the snows 6 ft deep and its blowing and howling out. We left the farmhouse last winter and moved up here on the hill homestead. We heated with oil last winter and it about broke the bank. We heat the main house, which houses mom, dad, and granny, with wood. I'm putting a wood stove here before winter. Now we need to gather up wood for two places, so I'll need to get crackin soon. Hope to pull out some logs this week and get started. I've had some nice emails regarding my post "No Land... No Problem". I'm real exited about this idea being a way for folks to get their hands into farming while they patiently wait for land. I got a call the other night asking if I wanted to be in a wedding. My answer of "yes" was followed by questions like, "What size Carhart do ya wear? and Got black boots?". Yes folks, this is a real countrified hillbilly affair complete with roasted hog and plenty of brew. I'm looking forward to seeing a bunch of folks I haven't seen in many years.

Now The Globalist Are After Our Vitamins

Our friend "Balestacker" has a Blog now.

In his words.....

A blog for and about, bible thumpin', gun totin', beer drinkin', one woman lovin', benevolent dictator dads. Others are welcome too... just don't expect to jump in and run things, cuz you're in my world now.

Chad Degenhart takes a look at How the Amish View Insurance and asks Does Disobedience To God’s Laws Promote Economic Growth?

Wisdom from the Northern Farmer....
Sometimes I think if brains were leather some of these people wouldn't have enough to saddle a gnat.

From New Farm-- The first and most important step toward effective pricing-- Cost concepts.

The Coincidence Theorist's Guide to 9/11

No Land...No Problem

2005-08-22T05:31:00.000-07:00

This post is for all my readers who live in town and keep having the "if I only had some land" thoughts. The other day Leah and I were riding in the car and couldn't help but notice all the land around here that is just sitting there doing nothing. We passed field after field of headed out orchard grass and weeds. With the demise of the small dairy farms in the north east we have lots of small farms that just sit and I imagine its the same somewhere near you. Leah said something about what a shame it was to see all that potential grass land wasting away. We both remarked how great it would be to see that land covered with pastured broilers or layers. Latter in the week I was reading something by Joel Salatin, and it hit me. The beauty of these pastured poultry models is that they are cheap and portable. Sure everyone wants to own land, and it is a noble and good thing to desire. But.... If you are just starting out and have a lot of learning to do, the time to learn is NOT when you start having mortgage payments due. As I travel around I see lots of land that is just begging to have chickens or something on it. If you stop and ask, chances are pretty good the land owner would love to see it being used. Especially the older folks. You can rent most of this land cheap and if you find the right folks,, you might get it for nothing or for some frozen birds. You could build up your business and get a running start without the worries that come with land payments. You could build a customer base and when you had a good cash flow, then you could start looking at land within a reasonable distance of your buyers. As Chad Degenhart has been writing about, this may not be the best time to go buying land anyway. Prices will come down to more reasonable levels. So, go get in the car and start driving around. Stop and chat with land owners. Build some floorless cages in the garage and start rounding up some feeders and waterers. This next spring you could be farming. Sure it might be a small step, but you need to do SOMETHING. You want raise chickens? No Land- No Problem.

Another Alaska Story.......

2005-08-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

Man, it sure is cold in here. Just stuck my head out from under the wool blankets that are piled 3 deep, and its probably -40 in the cabin this morning. I guess everyone sleep pretty sound last night, cause it don't feel like anybody put any wood on the fire. Yup, its out for sure. Bet last nights coffee is froze stiff in the pot. I ought to go start a fire.......But for now I'm gonna stay right here in my warm cocoon. Figures the fire would go out tonight and not last night. Last night a warm south wind blew for a spell. It was +1 when we got up. Fueled up the snowmachines and loaded our gear in a tee shirt and long underwear. Never thought +1 would be tee shirt weather when I lived back in NY. I've seen that south wind blow in and it go from -40 to +40 in minutes. When the wind stops it drops back down just as fast. Always want extra cloths with you, so you don't get caught on the down slide without a parka. We broke some trail yesterday, tough work. The west fork is froze up good and we are putting some fox and mink sets down there. We can cut off across the old Indian walk trail to the river. Indians took this trail to fish camp for hundreds of years and the path is beat down so well you can see it in the summer from a bush plane. Two days ago we had 5 marten on the first loop. I saw wolverine tracks down on the big lake, walked right pass our wolf sets. Old Sam took me down the west fork a ways the other day and showed me a cabin that two Swedes built in 1900. The roof is starting to cave. Sam says they used to use it for line camp years ago. Our cabin is about 2o miles or so from the nearest road and our line stretches out quite a ways. Sometimes it hits you out here, "I'm standing in the middle of nowhere, on the top of the world." friends back home think we lost our minds. Livin' in the bush with no running water and an outhouse, miles from anything. Of course they've never seen the northern lights or watched a bull moose come up out of the willows. They ain't never heard timber wolves at dusk or picked low bush cranberries or watched your garden grow in 19 hours of sunlight. They don't have a clue about the bush, think its a frozen ice cube. Well I'm gonna be one, if I don't go start the fire soon. I don't like the thought of fumbling around with my frozen fingers trying to arrange the tinder and strike the match. Oh, I hate the thought of crawling out of this warm blanket, but its got to be done. Don't reckon its to healthy, sitting here talking to myself...........now where did I leave them matches?

Build Your Own Blacksmith Forge

2005-08-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

Blacksmithing is a lot fun and a good skill for a homesteader to learn. There have been a few articles in magazines on this subject, of building a forge. Several articles I've seen had some pretty goofy looking forges made of all sorts of things including wheel rims! The last forge I built was made from a used hotwater heater tank. I cut it the long way, so it looks like a feed trough when its done, with a metal cutting blade on a circular saw. There is usually a treaded hole on the side of these tanks. Cut it so the hole is centered on the bottom. Use some angle iron to make some legs, remember to brace them well. I like mine about hip high. Find a piece of fairly think plate steel thats big enough to cover the hole. Drill lots of holes in it for air flow and then weld it over the hole. Thread a straight piece of pipe in the hole and put a tee on the bottom of the pipe so there is a one hole on the bottom and one hole on the side. I just take an old soup can and squash the top on it on the bottom hole. It will catch the ashes for easy removal. The side hole is for your bellows. Don't have one? Use a hair drier with multiple settings. Works great for forced air. Now all you need is some blacksmith coal and a anvil. You can use a pair of visegrips or pliers for tongs until you can make some. Keep your eyes open for big coil springs from trucks. Thats what I used to make knives. There are some good books out there on blacksmithing, read up on it and you will have a ball making all sorts of things for the homestead. The last time I moved, I left all my smithin' tools and forge behind. Sure wish I hadn't, but I did. Sometime soon I'll be making a new setup and will post some pictures of the final product.

A Night I'll Never Forget

2005-08-15T05:31:00.000-07:00

The last few steps were murder on my poor legs and back, we had been plugging along all day. We stopped for water a few hours ago and I knew the next time I stopped walking, I'd be done for the day. We were in the alpine mountains, out in the Wrangle wilderness. We were above the tree line and had just dropped down into willow scrubs that lined the creek. We found a nice gravel bar to spend the night. The tundra carpet on the mountains is a squishy mat of lichens and moss, almost impossible to walk on. We spent a lot of time on the edges of 2 creeks that flowed from the melting ice above us. I let out a groan as I dropped my pack, which weighed almost 60 pounds. We were sitting in the most beautiful spot you could imagine. We set up the tent on a large gravel bar where 2 streams came together. We were back quite a ways from the water. We collected some willow and started a fire to dry out some gear that got wet from the stream crossings we made in the morning. Nate started our little camp stove and cooked up some supper. We found some low bush cranberries and nibbled on them while we waited for our rice and beans to cook. It was 7pm and we were ready for some rest. After supper it started to rain a little and we had some coffee brewed up that we drank out of our little tin cups. I added a dribble of Yukon Jack whiskey to mine. It got dark around 11pm and we were already sleeping. What we didn't know was that it was raining a lot harder up in the mountains. The streams began to swell in the night and there was so much water coming down it was bringing half the mountain down with it. Eric wake up and noticed the sides of the tent were pushed in. He woke us up and we were a little puzzled. We could hear boulders coming down the creek crashing into the willows and the roar of the water sounded more like a major river. Tons of silt was coming down the stream and was settling in around us as we slept. The tent was buried in a foot or more and the zipper was stuck. I stood up to put on my shoes and the ground under me gave out and crumbled into the stream. It seems the stream was a lot wider now! Nate ripped the door open and the water flowed through the tent. They held the corners while I escaped. The water was cold and the silt and gravel took the skin off our legs like liquid sand paper. We saved the tent but lost some of our gear. It was dark and the noise of the water and the landslides was unbelievable. We drug our stuff up a 9ft ledge and escaped the water. We went to sleep wet and cold. Hypothermia was big concern, but there was nothing we could do. We fell a sleep not knowing what would become of us. In the morning we got out of the tent and to our surprise we saw the little valley we camped in was gone. The 7ft tall tree the tent was next to had only the one ft sticking out of the gravel! If we had slept a little longer, no one would have ever found us. We spent the next day drying out and drinking coffee. We lost a bit of gear that night but we managed to save most of the food and our topo maps. After we got the fires going good and all our stuff hanging on a makeshift close line, Nate looks at me and smiles....."Well, it ain't really a vacation unless you almost die at least once." I agreed, as we had another cup coffee

Garden Experiments

2005-08-12T15:55:00.000-07:00

The layered compost experiment has done very well for us in the garden. Plans are to expand it now, for next year. I brought up a round bale tonight and plan on rolling it out and wetting it down. I'm going to mix the layers of hay with chicken manure, composted cow manure, wood ashes and perhaps some peat. This heavy mulch, topsoil building gardening is the answer for our hill country soil. By using round bales and things I have a lot of on the farm, I should be able to make fairly big spot with limited work and expence. One of the best things about it, is the fact that you don't have to till it at all. Makes spring planting go lickity split.

Another thing that worked real well this year was the wide rows of beans. I'll never bother planting single or double rows again. They really did well, in part becouse of the shad canopy that they made for the roots. The ground didn't dry out as quick and there were hardly any weeds at all. I planted them very thick, I was afraid to thick, but they yeilded very well. My widest row was 4 ft. This may be about as wide as I'd make them, for ease of picking.

Long Time....No Posts

2005-08-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy. I have not had much time to spend on blogging. The garden continues to grow and Leah has been doing a lot of canning. The meat chicks are out on grass and enjoying the fresh air. Having raised them indoors, in my younger days, I can't believe how much happier and healthier they are outdoors. We have had a few cows freshen in. The calf barn is full of the nicest group of young stock we have had in a long while.......must be all those minus proof bulls I'm using. We still need rain. Everything is dead. Cows are eating a lot of hay that I had hoped to save for winter. There are even trees on the edge of the woods that are starting to die. Seems like its a drought or flood the last few years, no in between. The milk price is dropping and the heat has really started to decrease our production. We have some steers to kill soon and lots of food from the garden, so at least I won't be hungry, even if I'm broke.

Life Without Usury and Ian Hodge On Usury are well worth reading, over at the House of Degenhart. This subject is one that interests me (pun intended) a great deal and should be on the minds of all agrarians.

R. L. Dabney on Law and Lawyers

CAFTA: The New Race to the Floor .... I know its already a done deal, but this is worth reading.

If you think CAFTA is the "shafta", just wait for the FTAA.

I have said in the past that we should not sell our products for whatever the market will bare. It wouldn't be right to say, sell eggs for $5 a dozen just because we could. On the flip side of the coin, I wish hobby farmers would stop selling at a loss just because they are having fun. We have some yahoos out here that work a full time job and keep hobby farms to entertain themselves. Fine, more power to ya. Just don't drive me out of business selling your free range eggs for 75 cents a dozen. Those of us that have made the sacrifices required to try to scratch out living at this, are sick of being undercut by products subsidized by city jobs. If your goal is to someday be a real farmer, you'll never get there the way your going.

CRP is a fraud. I live in the middle of CRP country. You know, where the government pays you to let land grow up to weeds as long as you mow it by a certain date. My town is full of people who never ever intended to farm the land collecting huge checks to let it look like it would have anyway. First, they ain't conserving anything. All the CRP land I see is sparse, spotty, awful looking stuff that needs manure and compost on it. They are not doing the land any favors, or the wildlife. Number two, it drives up the rental price for land. The government pays people out here as much as $65 an acre for land that would rent for $15 an acre. A chunk of mediocre hill dirt cannot be farmed for $65. But they know they can get it from the FedGov so there is no need to rent it to farmer Brown for $15. Farmer Brown might make something of it...... but we all know MONEY is more important

For The Children

2005-08-08T05:27:00.000-07:00

Those who are striving to build the kind of family businesses and communities that we talk about here, must remember that this is a multigenerational vision. While I believe that most people can make it happen, we must remember that for many this is the first generation to think this way. As I look back, I realize that Leah and I would not be in the place we are now if it were not for the head start that my parents gave us. As I have stated before, my folks lived below their means and put all the money they ever earned into the farm. They did it so I could have the start that they didn't have. Joel Salatin tells a similar story about his start. For some folks, quitting the job in town won't be possible for some time. Some might never be able to. But the 2nd generation will have a head start and might never have to work away from home. This process will take time. All should work toward the goal of doing it one generation, but not feel defeated if it does not happen. When the land is paid for and the barns or shops are built, many of the stumbling blocks you faced are gone. Our children will be in a much better position to take our dreams to the next level. If you taught them well, they will do the same for their children.

Reformed Agrarian Fashion

2005-08-05T05:49:00.000-07:00

Here you go Carmon. Keith just emailed some pictures of Laura in her camo skirt. Someday folks will notice that all the "real women" they know are all dressed like this. Just remember, you saw it first on Homesteader Life.

Some Thoughts on Debt, Insurance and Babies

2005-08-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

There are many Christians today that are seeking a more simple life. They are sick of corporate politics, sick of trying to keep up with the Jones's. Tired of talking about 401ks with the neighbor and are wondering if there is something more to life. This wicked economic system of debt, usury and materialism has taken its toll on Christian families and many are ready to jump ship. The brave pioneers of Covenantal Agrarianism face many hurdles in this age. The system is stacked against them and leaving it behind is no easy task.

The first step for the wannbe agrarian is getting out of and staying out of Debt. For this essay I will assume you already know that debt and usury are wrong. The key to staying away from it is learning to be content with what the Lord has provided us and not lust after the possessions of our neighbors. What makes this even harder for the Homesteader type is the fact that you won't have much money. Just because we are cash poor doesn't mean that God hasn't blessed us abundantly. As I've written before, there are many things in life to enjoy that don't cost a dime. Once you weed out the obvious things you can cut out of the budget, you have to reevaluate some we don't think we can do without. Everyone starts out with this rosey idea......"I'll grow all my own food and sell some and I really won't need money". When they sit down and figure the things that modern industrial society tells us we must have........They become discouraged and give up the dream. One prime example is health insurance. You are used to it, your boss pays for most of it now, and you really don't think you can be without it. For my clan, it would cost us $800 a month! Needless to say we don't have any. The whole idea of limiting liability seems wrong to me anyway and some of my $800 would help kill babies and buy people birth control. We are now part of a Christian cost share system that works well. Every month we give $225 to someone that needs it to pay for a medical bill. It is only used for bills over a certain amount so you can't run to the doctor every time your kid looks crosseyed at you. Having ins has got people in the habit of going to the doctor way to much anyway. If you're like me and believe birth control is a sin, you will have babies coming every so often. If you think it has to cost an arm and a leg, your wrong. Our bill is a couple thousand dollars. We don't do ultra-sounds or anything else that cost a lot. We have the babies born at home like people have since the beginning of time. If your new to the "homebirth" idea I recommend Kelly Degenhart's post. The point is this, we have to look at everything we do and decide if its really necessary. We're building a new world, if you will. We can't let the wicked world dictate what do or don't do.

Transition to Home Economy

2005-08-02T05:40:00.000-07:00

Herrick Kimball had a good post recently on Returning To The Family Economy. I have written on this before. I am a firm believer that this what we should be working toward. I have been thinking about it the last couple of days and think that the transition will be much harder than most people think. I have had some experience with it, as a lifetime "family farmer", and thought I should offer some insight into some of the challenges that the postmodern Christian family might face.

The fact is that most Christian families today operate in the system that keeps dad away from the homeplace most of the day. This is the norm. We can listen to Vision Forum tapes, read books about being families, and think we have the world by the tail. Once we take the first step towards a family business we start to notice a few things. The biggest thing I think will be learning how to get along and love each other all day instead of for a couple of hours before bedtime. It sounds easy, but most American families don't even know what its like to be with their spouse and children all day long. Ever heard the old lady that complains about her retired husband that spends to much time in her house? Sad, but it happens a lot.

Fathers, When we begin the home business we lose something that we have become accustomed to. An escape. I think its a darn good thing to lose for many reasons, but it will be an adjustment nevertheless. When we spend the day at the office, perhaps surrounded by unbelievers, its to easy to get away things that we would never let our kids get away with. Its to easy for example, to break 2 or 3 commandments just so we can close a deal and make the boss a quick buck. Then our homes become the escape we need to forget about the evil thing we did at work. We can go home and read the bible with the family and act as if nothing ever happened. The family economy brings us the accountability we need. We also will be faced with a new challenge. Our partners-employees-workers are now our wives and children and grandchildren. This can be a very sticky thing. I have for many years had trouble not taking the business arguments to the dinner table. No longer can the troubles at work be forgotten on the car ride home. We must turn to God's Word when dealing with this potential problem. These are just a couple things to think about. There are many more things that will be a challenge. I'm not telling you these things to discourage you. I want people to be aware that the transition may be tough so they can better prepare themselves for it. It can be done and should be done. The fruit of the family economy is bountiful and worth being pricked by a couple of thorns along the way. It is an edifying experience. We must remember that edification is not always painless.

We're All to Stupid, Odds and Ends

2005-08-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

We're All To Stupid

I read an interesting article in the CountryFolks newspaper today. The basic theme of the article was that globalism is good and the average farmer is to stupid to understand it. It was a lot of the same old BS about free trade, and even though our businesses seem to be doing poorly we need to remember that we are also consumers......and lets not forget global free trade is goood for consumers. The final paragraph is the one that burned me up. We should be thankful that even though we are a bunch of backward uneducated hicks, we have a network of established land grant univerisities to explain it all to us and show us how to compete with the rest of the world. They even went on to tell us how extra lucky we are that we live in NY, home of Cornell, the sourse of all realivent agricultural knowlege. GIVE ME A BREAK! Never mind its these fools that got us all in the mess we're in now. One word of advice, stay away from the land grant experts.

Odds and Ends

A New And Modified Declaration of Independence has been penned by Bret McAtee. I think its time.

Chad Degenhart has answered the Agrarian critics charge of legalism.

I can’t emphasise enough what an important concept this is, because some Christians have taken the position that the Christian-Agrarian critique of industrialised society is legalistic. They ask, “where in the Bible does God prohibit us from expanding our businesses as much as we possibly can, and where does he place limits on our freedom to industrialise and specialise?” Our answer is simply this - those limits occur naturally, and are as real as the law of gravity. When we obey God’s moral laws, we don’t have to worry about how much is too much. Our current industrialised economy is highly unnatural, and ONLY possible because we have abandoned honest money and adopted a usurious system which breaks down any and all naturally occuring economic boundaries. Even the pagan Greenspan recognised this, and his distaste for those natural boundaries is why he tried to make a logical case for the necessity of the modern banking system, the system he now serves as Chairman and Chief Apologist.

Thus the agrarian ideal is truly an appeal to God’s law above all else. When we abandon our current economic system which is based on false weights and measures, deceptive merchandising, counterfeit (fiat) money, and usury, we’ll find ourselves in the middle of an agrarian economy.

Read it all here..... Greenspan’s Plan

Iowa family farm leaders challenge USDA agenda

One Man's Veiws on Peak Oil

If as a society we have a different goal than "subduing the earth" in this Biblical sense, then we are in outright corporate rebellion against our Maker. If we are employed in work that undermines this Divine plan, or we are in a legitimate field, but using methods which work against the purpose of God, we are also in rebellion against God. We cannot excuse ourselves by saying,"I have to make a living!" God knows how to provide for those who put His purposes ahead of their own earthly interests. Howard King's Foundations

Starting Small and Crawling Out of The Box

2005-07-29T05:37:00.000-07:00

I get a lot of questions on starting a farm these days. One thing I have tryed to stress is starting small. Think small. Modern industrial agriculture requires debt, lots of debt. It promises returns that barely pay down the debt and creates an ugly cycle that ends with tears and bankruptcy. Starting small does not mean a small version of the ugly system but a totaly different system. This is one reason I think Joel Salatin's books and articles are so valuable. He offers a system that requires little capital investment with higher returns than commodity farming. If I was starting out today, I would do things much different than I did when we started out. There are some things about how we started that I wouldn't change though. We started small. Our 50 cow dairy is the result of a couple of heifer calves. My dad worked for years as a farm manager/herdsman and put all his money into calves that we raised. He did this for me, so that I would have a farm of my own. We started in a 9 cow barn and used our milk to feed humanely raised veal calves. We didn't have cows enouph to ship milk but added value to it by turning into veal. Later we had 15 cows or so and moved them to barn owned by a man who only milked half a barn full of cows for fun. He had a full time job and a farm. We traded labor (all the milking and feeding) for boarding. We paid him for the feed and we got the money from our milk. With our profits we bought more cows and eventually rented a 30 cow barn of our own. Latter we rented a 45 cow barn and we now have moved to our present location we a herd of cows we own free and clear. We never spent a lot of money on tractors. We have just recently bought our 2nd tractor after farming here with one for many years. The point I'm trying to get across is this, there are ways to get into farming without a lot of debt. It takes time and creativity but it is possible. That said, if I was starting today I would not be getting into the business of selling a commodity product like milk. Mabey cheese or something but not "just milk" and not through normal marketing channels. We are presently working toward implimenting some of Joel's poultry systems into our dairy farm. The milk sales supplemented with broilers and eggs seems like a workable option for us. There is a great market out there that is growing every day for products that are local, natural, environmentally friendly, and unique. This is the future for small scale farming not the commodity model. Perhaps the first step for you is just growing a garden or raising a small group of broilers, the point is you need start somewhere. Don't put your eggs all in one basket and pay as go, when at all possible. The future is bright once you get the courage to push the lid off of the boxes that have been built around us and let some sunlight and fresh ideas in.

Thursday Thoughts

2005-07-28T05:07:00.000-07:00

We started canning beans yesterday. I love the sight of the jars full of fresh picked and canned beans piling up on the counter. Beans are in my opinoin the most important crop for the homestead. They will grow in any soil and seem to always yeild a good crop. For the space they take up nothing will produce more food for the pantry than beans. Just as everyone else I imagine, we are eating a lot of summer squash fried in butter. Suplemented with meat a couple a squash plants can keep a family filled up for a good part of the summer. The meat chicks are growing up fast. We finaly got some cooler weather, for which I'm thankful. I'll wait for the nights to warm up a little before I turn them out on the grass. We still could use some rain.

Gene Logsdon writes about the joy of eating well....

The question I am most often asked by urbanites goes like this: “But what do you do out there all the time?” And the answer I most often give, sort of facetiously, because that is such a culturally-illiterate question, is: “Eat.” They look puzzled of course. Modern society, irrationally scared to death by fat, calories and cholesterol, doesn’t know how to eat any more, and families rarely sit down together for a meal. It really is a shame. Enjoying a feast of homegrown food is surely my family’s favorite pastime, and Carol’s (my wife’s) family has practically made a sacrament out of it.

Some timeless advice from Andrew Nelson Lytle, from an essay "The Hind Tit"

He must close his ears to these heresies that accumulate about his head, for they roll from the tongues of false prophets. He should know that prophets do not come from cities, promising riches and store clothes. They have always come from the wilderness, stinking of goats and running with lice and telling of a different sort of treasure, one a corporation head would not understand.

If you haven't already stopped by, be sure to check out A Bit of Earth Farm . A journal of the life of a 19 year old girl living and learning on a farm in Ohio.

The traitors in Washington passed CAFTA last night. The nightmare of Globalism marches on. Another example of why the two party system is a fraud. As CAFTA works its magic on our economy, expect the Agrarain Movement to grow by leaps and bounds.

Notes From Polyface

2005-07-27T05:16:00.000-07:00

There are a few things that one notices right off the bat when exploring Polyface Farm. First, the lack of machinery. No plows, disk, drags, planters, silage wagons or any of the other contraptions that make farming so expensive to get into. They do have machinery for haying but not much else. Second, almost every form of animal housing is on wheels or skids. The whole system revolves around mobility. The cornerstone philosophy that guides all facets of the system is a simple one. Animals are healthiest when they are happy. An animal is happiest when they can act in the way that God created them to act. Joels says, "We want a chicken to be able to fully express its chickeness, a cow its cowness and a pig its pigness". Using this basic idea the Salatin's have created farming enterprise that supports 3 generations while not using antibiotics, chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Another thing that makes them unique is the idea of complimentary enterprises. All the different kinds of animals work together instead of competing for resources. The shelters were very simple and not very fancy. The folks who were out with tape measures and note pads tring to make plans for the assorted movable shelters missed the point, I think. I didn't take long to see that these things were made with available resources in an inexpensive manner. What you make your eggmobile or shadmobile out of should depend on your available materials. If you paid attention you also noticed that they were always updating and changing and improving the shelters. The take home message here was simple, use your imagination and build it from the most affordable materials in your area. The part of the day I enjoyed most was Joel's talk on "relationship marketing". He said we don't want just loyal costumers, we want them to be evangelists. According to Joel we want, "Pastured Poultry Carismatics!" He talked about the pros and cons of farmgate, farmers market, restraurnt, and metropolitan buying clubs as ways to sell products. He touched on pricing a little. He said we need to make a profit and not try to compete with Walmarts artificially low prices. But he also said that he doesn't sell things for whatever the market will bare either. Just because you may be able to get $5 a dozen for eggs doesn't make it ethical. He stressed the fact that we should be able to sleep well at night knowing we didn't take advantage of others. The food was great. Its always nice to munch on chicken that didn't soak up a lot "fecal soup". One thing I really liked was the way he makes compost out of the beefers bedded pack before they spread it on the pastures. They use a lot of carbon (bedding) in the pack and also spread shell corn in it. The shell corn ferments in the manure and when the cows go out to grass the pigs come in and dig for corn turning and aerating the pack. The resulting compost is applied to the land instead of raw manure. There were many vendors such as Acres USA and Premier Fence there to visit. The people were all wonderful and we got to chat with a lot of folks from all over the US. I heard there were even some people from across the ocean there as well. It was well worth the trip and we learned some things and were encouraged by the number of people there. Its hard to write down everything we saw and learned, so if anyone has questions feel free to ask.

I Have Returned......even more radical then when I left.

2005-07-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

We made it home today about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. We had a great time, although I'm glad to be home and don't want to sit in a car again for some time. We stopped at "Endless caverns" on the way down. There are a lot of caves in the Shenandoah Valley. It was a cool 55 degrees in that hole, and I think if I ever live in the south I want to live in a cave. The Polyface Field Day was well worth the trip. There were 1300 people there, and thats because they cut off ticket sales when it hit 1300. Alternative Agriculture is coming of age, can you imagine that many people attending something like this 10 or even 5 years ago. It pleased me to no end to see a lot of young families with lots of kids, lots of "conservative christians", and a lot of regular folks who want to learn in attendance. Alternative agriculture is not just for hippies anymore! I don't have time right now to go into detail about polyface, but I will hit the highlights and tell you what I saw and heard in future posts. I did meet up with Keith while I was there. A real nice guy with a beautiful family. We also went down to ST Peter on Sunday. We enjoyed the service and I had a chance to chat with Rick and some other fine folks while we we're there. Tonight I have beans to pick and I'm a little bit tired, so I'll tell you more on Tuesday.

And Keith, tell you daughter I loved her realtree skirt. I wanted to get a picture of you all for the blog, but I didn't catch you in time. She was the best dressed lady there!

Gone to Polyface Field Days

2005-07-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

We are in the process of packing the car. I spent the day tying up loose ends around here, making sure everything is ready for my departure. My cousin got here tonight to help out the folks while I'm gone. My brother has said he'll come out and lend a hand, so I suppose they've got it covered. I still feel a little funny leaving all this work for other people to do. Leah and the boys are extremely exited. We'll be leaving in the morning, after I get one more milking done. I'll probably milk early so we can get a good start on the trip. Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I'll be back Monday with all the news from Polyface and some pictures. Have a good weekend my friends.

A Break From the Heat

2005-07-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

It was a lot cooler this morning than its been in some time. I didn't even start the floor fan up in the cow barn. I am thankful for a break from this heat. I'm going to pick beans today. Last night I skidded out some firewood with my brother-in-law. We used the old Ford 601 Workmaster. They are a handy little tractor to use in the woods. When I was a boy we used to plant corn with an 801 Powermaster and a JD 494a planter. I love those little Fords. Nothing sounds prettier than those little gas engines. To bad gas is so expensive, you can't afford to do much "real" work with them anymore. I was thinking last night that the 601 would be a great tractor for the small time homesteader. They have power to spare and have 3 point hitch. They can have remote hydraulics added on pretty easy. That tractor could do every job on the homestead. Well, I better scoot. I need to go get the girls some hay, pastures about all used up now. Praying for rain.

What We're Doin' on The Hill

2005-07-19T05:08:00.000-07:00

Things are pretty busy around here this week. Leah and her sister have been making a mess of jam. They got the black caps done and yesterday they picked blueberries. While they picked blueberries I dug a grave for Katie. It was hot and the ground is dry and hard. Took forever getting a hole dug. Shes in the ground now, I sure miss our morning time together. Last night we went and bought supplies for our trip to Polyface and delivered some eggs on the way. We will be leaving on Friday. I'm getting exited, I haven't left the farm over night in several years. I'm also felling kind of nervous and jerky about it as well. I'm a creature of habit, always have been. I can't remember the last time I missed a milking around here. Heck, I broke my foot a few years back 2 hours before milking and didn't miss that milking or any after for that matter. I'll be up bright and early looking for something to do. Thankfully Joel has invited everyone over for morning chores! The girls made jam late into the night with their fresh blueberries. This morning I'll have a bowl of them with sugar and heavy cream. Agrarian rocket fuel. Some of our early apples are starting to get ready. Seems early, don't have a clue what they are. We have a few ripe tomatoes already. I grew the tomatoes on the layered compost garden I'm experimenting with. I can't believe the yields! I've never seen so many tomatoes. The first beans were ready yesterday, just a few. In a few days we'll have beans coming out our ears. I hope they aren't waiting for me to leave. We grew the broccoli on the layered compost as well. We have had 5 cuttings worth of side shoots on the oldest ones. I have been surprised by the yields on them as well. We had a calf born this morning. She is sired by This Bull. We have a few and they are all pretty nice.

Sad News

2005-07-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

We have some sad news. Our dog Katie was hit by a truck last nite and was killed. She never has gone in the road before, but it only takes once. It was a pretty sad time for all of us, she was a good dog and my little buddy. I miss you, Kate.

Richest Man on Earth

2005-07-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty productive day. By sunset I had a bulk tank half full of jersey milk, my barn chores done, a big mixing bowl full of snap peas harvested and froze, 8 summer squash and 5 zuccinies picked, a big mess of broccoli put up, some more pasture clipped and I was standing in a patch of blackcaps just picking away. I like to pick berries at dusk. Its a good way to cap off the day. Today the women folk will be making the berries into jam, I'll probably even pick some for wine latter. Anyway, I'm standing there picking berries and watching another beautiful MT Hunger sunset and I'll I could say was "Thank God I'm a Countryboy". I reached in my pocket and pulled out 63 cents, all I've got to my name at the present moment, and thought "Today I'm the richest man on earth". The Lord has provided me with a wonderful family, honest work, and a bountifull harvest that will feed us through the winter. Modern industrialist-capitalist culture trys to put a dollar value on everything. They even have the gull to declare "Time is money". Bull, time is a gift from God best spent glorifying Him and enjoying Him. I always laugh when pencil pushers tell me to be sure I figure in my time when judging somethings profit. Averaged out over the years I reckon my times worth about 5 cents an hour......don't bother me at all. The moderns never get agrarainism because they fail to realize that some things don't have a monetary value. Whats it worth to you, say.... watching a little boy feed a calf or catch a frog. Having a bucket full of blackberries that were free for the picking. The taste of that jam on some homeade bread. If one chooses this kind of lifestyle they must learn to recognize these blessings for there real value. At the end of the day we must to enjoy the smell of fresh cut hay or manure, a true gift of increase, just as much as our neighbor enjoys "new car smell" or french perfume. We must learn to be content with the gifts that God gives us and not lust after mammon.

What I'm Doing

2005-07-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

I got up late this morning. By the time I finished morning milking the post office had called and said that the baby chicks were in. So I skipped breakfast and the whole family went to town to get the chicks. We dipped the beaks and got them settled into their new home. We have some kin folk visiting for a week or so. Leah was with them today, me and little John did chores. It was a hot one today and chores seemed to drag on forever. I just got done with the night milking and stopped in for a cold beer and a snack. Then its off to hook up the brush hog and clip some pasture, there is some golden rod that needs to be wacked off. After I eat supper I hope to get caught up on some emails and see what my other agrarain brothers and sisters have been up to today.

Update

Got the pasture clipped. I took John and Noah out to move the hens ahead and give them a refill of water. Thats when I saw that the first blackberry patch was ripe! There are few things in life better than watching 2 young boys picking and eating blackberries until their little bellies can't hold anymore. Tomorrow we will pick some more for jam. The sour pie cherries are almost ready. We found a one of them golden raspberry bushes in the woods the other day, I figure a bird planted it.

Faith and Farming

2005-07-13T06:05:00.000-07:00

We got quite a bit of rain this morning. We sure do need it. The pastures are short and we had to start feeding the cows hay again. We don't have a lot of hay this year and every bale we feed now will be one we can't feed this winter. Try not to worry though, the Lord has always seen us through. We have been through some pretty lean years and we always seem to find a way to get by. I always take comfort in the fact that if God makes sure the sparrows are fed, He will surely feed his people. I remember years back we had a field that we grew rye straw on with the plan to seed it back to hay in the fall. We ran out of money and couldn't plant it. Now we had 50 acres of good land that we wouldn't get anything off of. Spring came and I didn't even bother to look at it. My dad asked if I'd been up to see the 50 acre lot. I told him I hadn't. He told me to go up and look it over. I pulled in and couldn't believe my eyes. It looked as if we spent a fortune seeding down. No weeds, and the lushest stand of timothy, ellsac and clover you ever saw. We had a hard time getting it all baled up there was so much. I've seen times when we were low on cash and all looked hopeless. Someone would stop in and want to buy a good cow or a bull. All of the sudden we had plenty again. Farming without prayer is like farming without rain or sun, it will never work. When the chips are down, have faith.

I close with the words of C.H. Spurgeon......

Moreover, the farmer is in a very special sense made to see his dependence upon God from season to season. He has never done; his labour is never ending, still beginning; and his hopes are never all fulfilled. From the time he sows the seed to the day when he sees the corn in the ear he is every hour dependent upon the Lord for sunshine and shower; and even when the grain is ready for the garner a stretch of rainy weather will take his harvest from him and leave him mourning at the last. He can never count his profits till he has them in his pocket, and hardly then. This manifest, absolute, and daily dependence should help the good farmer to learn the lesson of faith right thoroughly. He must look up, for where else can he look? He must leave his business in the Lord's hands, for who else can be his helper? Faith which is daily tried, and tried all the day long, has a fair opportunity of becoming unusually strong, and hence our agricultural Christians ought to be the strongest believers in the land. They have not of late been indulged with much temporal prosperity, but our hope is that a succession of adversities may have driven them to set less store by the world, to look more eagerly for the better portion, and to leave all things more believingly in the Lord's hands. This will be good out of evil beyond all question, and such good we ought to look for. Sharp discipline should by this time have made good soldiers of our yeomanry. If it be so, the failing purse is more than recompensed by the enlarged heart: if our farmers are wiser men through their bad seasons, that will be better than being richer men.

Make Your Own Low Cost Evaporator-- part two

2005-07-12T15:35:00.000-07:00

OK, back to the evaporator. You will use the fuel tank to make a firebox. I used one thats vertical. Cut the top half or third off with a torch or a metal cutting blade for your circular saw. Pull it out away from the buildings and burn off any left over fuel oil that's in it. Now that the top of the tank is open you can weld the angle iron around the inside of the tank making a lip for the pan to sit on. Also weld angle iron across the little frame you just made. Put it flat side up and tack it to the bottom of the frame. This will give the pan extra support when full of sap. Cut a door in the front. Weld a frame around the hole with angle iron. You can weld hinges to the door and add a simple latch, if you want. Now flip the tank upside down and cut 3, 3 inch by 3 inch square holes in the bottom. Save the pieces you cut out. Weld a couple of short pipe pieces, an inch long or so, to both ends of the tank. Make sure the pipe is the right size to firmly hold the rebar you found and let it slide back and forth. Heat and bend a 90* angle at the end of the rebar for a handle. Slide it through the pipes. Now weld the pieces you cut out onto the refer. Weld them so that when the rebar is pushed all the way back the holes are covered up and when it is pulled out the holes are open. This will be your draft control. On the end opposite the door cut a hole for 6 inch stove pipe. We found a steel collar with a 6 inch inside diameter and welded it over the hole. Next find a fire grate. You can make one out of the left over angle stock if you have any. Then line the inside with fire bricks. The bottom row can sit on the edge of the grate and just stack them up. Now for the pan. You will need to buy the stainless steel sheet from a machine shop or something. I got mine from a friend who worked a machine shop. I think it cost about $150-200, but it was several years ago. Always make the pan LAST. You will need to make it to fit the frame you made on the top of the tank. Depending what you scrounged up, every one will be different. Measure what the pan needs to be. Take the steel to a metal fabrication shop. They will bend, cut and weld it up for $50 or so. Have them cut a hole in the front right corner towards the bottom and weld in a treaded collar. You will put a gas valve here to draw off the syrup. We also welded to steel handles at the back of the pan so it can be drained better. I think the pan will be 3x5 or so when your done. It should be 3 inches or so high. You want to remeber when making the frame that it sets on, that the pan should sit 3/4 to 1 inch down itnto the firebox. We have a gravity tank feeding our pan. It has a valve that we control the flow to equal the amount boiling off. The first year we let in the pan cold. The back third of the pan would never boil. We realized that we were losing a lot of heat up the stove pipe. We got some 3/4 inch copper tubing and coiled it around the stove pipe all the way down to the pan. We added a brass valve with a compression fitting near the pan and a threaded end at the top. Then we had the sap flowing through the hose into the copper and coming into the pan hot. Now the whole pan boils front to back and it saves a lot of time.

I'm sure I made this sound more confusing than it is. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Make Your Own Low Cost Evaporator-- part one

2005-07-12T05:29:00.000-07:00

I thought this might be a good summer project for folks that want to start making maple syrup. If you have a nice heated shop you could wait until winter, but I figure most folks don't. Making syrup is one of my favorite homestead projects. Its another great way to provide your family with a something good and healthy, plus its a good way to make extra spending money as well. We sell our syrup for $11 a quart. We had enough ahead that we didn't have to make any last season. I wanted to but we were busy and it looked like it would be a short run. We're all out now, so this coming spring we will have to make time for syrup. Syrup making is a family affair, there is a job for everyone. If you are just tapping a couple trees you can use your kitchen stove and a pan. However, if you want to really make enough to sell you will need an evaporator of some kind. As always store bought ones are priced to high for the average penny pinching homesteader. Years back we made one that is strong, cheap, and can make upwards of 25 to 30 gallons (if you don't sleep for a month). I'm running out of time, so for now I'll give you a list of things to start looking for. I'll give some more details and how to put it together in my next post.

375 Gallon fuel oil tank
a bunch of small angle iron
start pricing sheets of stainless steel
3/4 inch rebar
fire bricks
stove pipe
3/4 inch copper tubing
brass gas valve

REMEMBER......this is a list of stuff to scavenge for. Don't buy anything for a while. You will be surprised how much of this stuff you can gather up at no cost.

Happy Birthday Little John

2005-07-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

John got a packbasket and a Victor 1.5 Jump Trap for his birthday. He is reading the latest issue of Fur-Fish-Game. He told me, "I'm a trapper man, but I'm still a cow man too."

Wise Counsel

2005-07-09T04:36:00.000-07:00

In the rare case that you are not a regular reader of Chad Degenhart's Blog, I took the liberty of sniping this comment from this Post.

So where’s the best place to be for an agrarian community?

A place where believers will humble themselves and truly keep covenant together long enough to build it. Though good land is certainly important, it is by no means the first priority. Biblical agrarian community is a long-term project that will take multiple generations of tested, tried, and humbled, but persevering believers, especially in a culture whose chiefest goal is personal autonomy and comfort. Though it’s likely a prudent thing to do given the horrific state of our nation, moving to a small farm with good land in a rural area where a few other believers live does not constitute community. Biblical community occurs when a concentrated number of believers come together and through faithful, covenantal obedience become sufficient salt and light to take biblical dominion in stewarding the Lord’s earth according to His will. History has clearly proven that biblical community is far easier pontificated on then actually done. Even so, may we all, though we may be in fear and trembling, “cross the Atlantic” by faith in boldly taking those first and most difficult steps in building true Christian Community like those who signed the Mayflower Compact and sealed its success with their very lives.

Rev Thomas C. McConnell

Woods

2005-07-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up I loved spending time in the woods. I would often get my morning chores done and grab my pack and head down the trail and not come back till evening. Looking back, the time spent in those woods really helped shape my life in a lot of ways. I was alone, and just a little guy. I remember the first time I got lost. Thought for sure I'd never find my way back. I finally had to stop panicking and sit down. I thought, "Scott-you've got to stop and think a little". That's been my game plan ever since, just stop and think. I learned a lot about wildlife and plants and such by simple observation. Those days of youth, learning and exploring, were days I will always remember. There are few things that stimulate the mind and spirit of a young lad then exploring a new country. Those woods weren't all that big, when I look at them now. To a 10 year old kid they were like a vast wilderness. I've never really outgrown it, as an adult I've made several trips to Alaska. The last time with my wife and we stayed for a year, quite a honeymoon. There is something about the wilderness, the real wilderness that I love. The beauty, the silence, the fact that one mistake could at any time be the death of you. I am happy that my boys love the woods just like their dad. Little John was exploring the woods when he was only 2. He could find and identify coon tracks at that age. Don't think I didn't brag on that just a little. His birthday is coming up. I got him his own 3 year old sized pack basket to use trapping this fall. I can't wait to see his face!

Diversity is Not Enough

2005-07-07T05:18:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I came to the conclusion that our farm needed to become more diversified. In my quest for a diversity I made a few mistakes that I would like to share. The first thing I did was put sheep up on the hill. My parents then added a meat goat herd down on the main farm. Both of these additions produced a marketable product. We sold lamb and wool and kid goats. The main problem was, and I didn't really realize it until I read Family Friendly Farming, was that these enterprises were competing against each other and the dairy. They all needed the same pastures, hay, and grain that the cows needed. When hay got short the sheep and goats were robbing the main income producers of the most important input. The goats were in a barn that could be used for calves and the sheep were testing my ability to do 3 things at once. What was ment to help our farm was really hurting it. The sheep left 2 years ago and the last of the meat goats left this year. When Herrick loaned me Salatins book(which I will be returning shortly) I finally started to realize the fact that they were competing enterprises. As I read Joel's thoughts on complimentary enterprises, I had to shut the book and take a deep breath followed by a hearty "why didn't I think of that". Now I have grand plans for incorporating chickens into our dairy operation. Chickens like the short grass that the cows have grazed down. They eat fly larvae and scratch out the cow pies for better fertilizer. They work with the cows and the cows benefit from them. What a concept! I am presently using chickens to prepare future garden spots for market produce. I was prepared to go full bore with meat birds this year. However, when I got the opportunity to go to Salatin's this year I decided to just raise some for ourselves this year. Part of the money we had to buy chickens will pay for our trip and I also want to see the Joel's system in action before I fly off half cocked into something new. We have raised pastured broilers in "chicken tractors" before but I'm more interested in what he has to say about marketing. I also have decided that I need to expand my egg sales before I start anything new. Right now we have more eggs than we are selling. This next week we will be getting some Cornish rock crosses, a smaller box than we had originally planned.

Simple Yet Complex - The agrarian Life

2005-07-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

It may seem strange, but the simple life is an extremely complex life. The world of a family farmer is one almost unexplainable to the nonfarmer. I will do my best to explain though.

When city folk ask "what do you do for a living?" they usually all have the same look on there faces when I tell them I'm a farmer. They tend to view the world of agriculture as simplistic vocation, one that a person chooses because they are to dumb to do anything else. In my case, I could have done or been anything I wanted. I chose this way of life. If one is getting into agriculture with the idea that they will plant a few seeds, milk a cow and lay under a shade tree sippin' moonshine all day, they have a wake up call comming. Don't get me wrong, I lay under shade trees from time to time and have been known to tip back the jug. What I'm trying to get across here is that living the simple life means doing away with specialization and that makes you a busy man.The wanabe agrarian should consider this quote by Robert Heinlein.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnett, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Here are a few things a family farmer has to be for example. My job description looks like this.......Plumber, welder, diesel mechanic, electrician, large and small animal vet, bookkeeper, horticulturist, tree surgeon, quality control inspector, and the list goes on and on. All the little details of farming are also complex. The way plants grow or the digestive system of a cow for example are very complex. We must understand all the intricate details to make a living with God's raw creation. These are things learned by experience. This is one good reason to start small. Don't overwhelm yourself with half a dozen projects that are new to you. Read, always read but also find people who have experience who can help you learn. This countryside of ours is full of old men and women that our generation ignores. They hold the knowledge of the land and how to work it well. We must unite those with knowledge with those who want so desperately to learn. I am amused ,to some extent, that a lot of what sustainable agriculture is coming up with is stuff my greatgrandfather knew many years ago. The older folks also had some bad practices as well. That is why we need to reclaim the good ideas from the past but never be afraid to adopt new ideas that make sense.

Post Without a Title

2005-07-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

Leah and Noah are off to a wedding shower, so John and I went fishin' after milking. We caught some sunfish out of a pond and are fixin' to eat em. It just started raining. We need rain, so I'm happy. The milk tester is comming in the morning. Thats when the DHIA man comes and weighs all the milk and takes a sample for the fat and protein. These are the numbers that show up on our girls pedigrees. Its a pain in the neck, but something you have to do if you want to market cattle. I was attacked today by a R.I. Red rooster. He better watch his step cause I got a hankering for chicken and dumplings. Not much new or exiting on the old farm today. I finally sent out the soap to our lucky winner. She should get it soon. Tom (Northern Farmer) sent me an email picture of his OP corn. It looks great, mabey he'll put it up on his blog. Last night we watched fireworks from our 50 acre lot on top of the hill. When we pulled in there were already 3 generations of Johnsons, neighbors-inlaws, sitting on round bales enjoying the show. We could see fireworks from 5 different towns, some over 20 miles away. Its a big hill. HA HA, I just looked over at John and the little guys sleeping already, its only 7:30, I suppose a day full of farmin' and fishin' tuckered him out. Oh yeah, we got our invoice thingy today for the Salatin Feild Day. We paid before July first so we got the cheaper rate. I think there is still time to reserve a spot, so if you can go you better Click Here and pay up. Hope to meet some of you all out there.

City Girl Meets Countryboy

Presbyterianism is really at the bottom of this whole conspiracy

Joel Salatin is going to have a Newsletter

Remineralizating Soils for Optimum Elemental Balance

CAFTA Vote and another Blogger

2005-07-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

CAFTA

If you hadn't heard, CAFTA passed the senate. That means it will be voted on in the house very soon. Find and email your representative Here. Let them know you want them to vote NO on this awfull thing. This is a great chance for us to strike a blow against the globalist elite.

Another Blog

Be sure to stop by and see the Kansas Milk Maid. A small scale family dairy that sells raw milk.

Morning on the Hill

2005-07-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

It is a fine morning here in the hill country. The cows are milked and back outside grazing, there is a fresh cow and a little baby on the side hill waiting to be brought down to the barn. The birds are very chirpy today and have almost emptied out the feeders. I will have to harvest some more snap peas out of the garden today. The tomotoes are doing very well and are loaded with green fruit. I may still plant yet another patch of bush beans. We use a lot of beans. We like to spread out the harvest so we don't get overwelmed. My friend John stopped by last night and gave me a copy of Journal of a Trapper by Osborne Russell that he found at a used bookstore. It is the story and observations of a rocky mountian fur trapper from 1834-1843. I read the boys a great story out of it last night before bed. The story of the first grizzly bear that they shot. My boys both aspire to be bear killers, so they enjoyed it very much. We had a treat on the Lord's Day. The Rev Harrington preached. He is an elder in our church, the elderest elder. He is a short man with gray hair, a gray beard and a scottish accent. The first reformed sermon I ever heard was by the Rev Harrington. He is a gifted teacher and speaker and his sermons are always a pleasure to hear. Yesterdays sermon was on Christ's office of King. A much neglected doctrine of the church today, understanding the Kingship of Christ is very important to living the Christian life.

A Lunch Time Post

2005-07-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

Things were going along pretty well today. Milking went off without a hitch. Leah and the boys and I went to check out a new farmers market after breakfast. We are interested in going to sell there next year. I went back to the barn and got chores down, even fixed the manure spreader, all before noon. Then Leah pulled in with the truck and said the cows were all out and headed down the road. We went up and got them back in, after a little detour through the woods. We fixed the fence and came home for lunch. I'm hoping things go smoothly this afternoon becouse we are supposed to go to a cook out tonight.

The apple trees are loaded with fruit. I'm thinking about using most of them for cider this year. May even let some "Harden Up", who knows. Ate the first wild raspberries yaesterday. Thinking about brewin' up a batch of Nettle Wine, if I do I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

Homesteader Life and a few of our close blogger friends were mentioned at the Planet Raw Milk website. I hadn't seen their site before today, check it out and see what you think.

Tom has some chew and a banjo and doesn't plan on leaving the farm for another week and a half. I'm with you brother Tom!

Real Bread and a Solar Project

2005-07-01T04:55:00.000-07:00

Real Bread

You've probably heard the saying "The whiter the bread, the quicker your dead". There are endless health reasons to grind your own flour and make "real bread". Today, I'm not going to go into all the "health reasons" why we do it. Health aside, its just plain better. First of all, there is a great sense of accomplishment in grinding your own flour. It is also far tastier than any mass produced stuff masquerading as bread at the store. Grinding flour is something anyone can do, in fact its a great step toward a more agrarian life. We like to grind it fresh every time we make bread. If we have any left over we put in the freezer and use it up on the next batch. If your thinking about getting a mill, I can endorse This One. This is the one we have and it works great. There may be others out there that work good too, this is the only one we have ever had. If anyone wants to plug their favorite mill, feel free to comment.

Solar Project

This is a neat article in the newest issue of Countryside. Its not going to wean you off the powerlines all together by any means, but it may be a neat way to start messing around with solar and learn the basics.

Little John on Soil Improvement

2005-06-30T16:40:00.000-07:00

This is a conversation I walked in on between Little John and Grandpa.

GP Says something about worms.

LJ We have worms up at our home. Worms help improve the dirt......no....the soil.

GP Thats right John. Where did you learn that?

LJ My daddy taught me. Did you know chickens help the soil too. They scratch it and poop in it. Me and Noah's chickens are helping improve our soil.

I think I may have been the proudest Dad in the world that day. I'm always explaining what ever we're doing or working on to the boys. Some poeple tell me, "They don't understand that". I don't care what "that" is, if they hear it enough; they will learn it. As I've said before, I think little ones understand far more than most adults think they do. Our most important crop out here is not milk, chickens, eggs, or hay. Our most important crop is children. If every generation raises covenant children that love the Lord, learn good work ethic, and the culture in agriculture, I believe the rest of the crops will come naturally.

Links for your consideration

2005-06-30T05:26:00.000-07:00

Tom made some great observations about Homesteading and Farming, 30 years worth.

Rick Saenz advises us to develop a taste for Low Hanging Fruit.

God Said It, That Settles It. Great discussion on the Lord's Supper and more.

New Farm has resources for the New Kind of Farmer.

My hoof trimmer gave me some back issues of Small Farmer's Journal. Its a great read, you'll enjoy it.

Ten Acres Enough: The Small Farm Dream Is Possible is book written in 1865. I have not read it but looks promising.

Bluegills and Cherries

2005-06-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

Every time Johnny and I have planned to go fishing this year something has stopped us. Cows get out, have to hunt down a fresh cow and calf, thunder storm, or something else that has to be done. Last night I had a list of stuff to do after supper. Johnny looked at me and said, "Why don't we just go fishin' , dad". My answer was "why not!". We dug a few worms, grabbed our poles and the boy's little tackle box and went fishing. This was Johns first time fishing so I figured it would be quite an adventure! To make a long story short, John caught his first fish last night. On his own pole, and he realed it in by himself. He will be 3 in a couple weeks, so its really quite an acomplishment. He was so happy and proud of that fish. As soon as he got it out of the water he ran to the tackle box his grandpa gave him to find his fishin' book. He told me he was "Gonna figer out what kind it is". The little buger matched it with a picture and asked me to read the name for him. It was a little bluegill, probably 6 inches or so. I never did catch anything that night. The trip home was a good time. He first wanted to show momma becouse, "She'll be happy, she likes eatin' fishes". Then off to both sets of grandparents for pictures and a chance to tell the story. He told everyone that when we got home, "Daddys gonna pull out his guts, cut off his head and clean 'em so I can eat 'em for my supper!" Both the boys helped clean the fish and today John wants to fry him up with some butter. It don't amount to much meat but Johnny caught it and provided meat for the family and he is very proud of himself.

We started picking cherries yesterday from our trees. We plan on making some jam out of them. The boys eat them as fast as they can! John is so proud of the fruit trees. He is always telling everyone about them. He can't let a day pass without begging me to "Go check the fruit". I told him yesterday that we would make some jam out of the cherries and he came running up with a loaf of bread and says, "Let do it........NOW" It sure is fun raising these boys out here under the conditions we have. A blessing really.