Where Have All The Daughters Gone?

As a follow-up to my earlier posts “Homeschool Smug” and “Death Knell of a Small Town Baptist Church“ I would like to touch on the subject of daughters.

Be it known from the “get go” that I have no daughters, and therefore many would say that I have no qualifications or business giving any kind of advise in raising them. Now I will concede, I have no practical, hands on experience in raising daughters, only with sons. However, as the father of two fine and godly sons, I am keenly interested in how you are raising your daughters as are they. I contend that the godly principals of childrearing found within the pages of scripture apply to daughters as well as sons. I would also contend that there is an abundance of instruction found in God’ Word, for raising daughters, just as there is for sons. And it’s there for all to study whether one has daughters or not. All we need do is read. I also believe that patterns and principals are as relevant as specific wording. God is not the author of confusion.

All that being said, I do not intend to lob a barrage of scriptures your way telling you how to raise your girls. What I am going to do is relate to you as I did in those earlier posts some of what my own eyes have witnessed. Specifically, I am speaking of the very sad and alarming trend we have witnessed at almost all of the homeschool graduations we have attended for the last 10 years or so. The trend I speak of has to do with the plans and ambitions of the overwhelming majority of graduating girls. Time and time again I have watched in horror as one young woman after another stands up to proclaim that their life’s ambitions have little or nothing to do with being a stay at home wife and mother. Very seldom do I hear one of these girls state that she intends to homeschool her children. As a matter of fact, I very seldom hear of a desire to be married or even have children! What I do hear is that they plan to go to college - and usually anywhere but the hometown community college. Their aims are much higher and farther away. Yes, far from the life in which they were raised. They speak of achievement and careers and success. Does this alarm anyone other than myself? It reminds me of a line in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” when George Bailey tells his (at that time unknown) future wife, Mary - “Mary, I’m going to shake off the dust of this crummy little town…and see the world.” And in another line he states “I’m not going to get married…ever!” It is the age old tale of Prodigal Sons and Daughters. When a child can’t wait to get out from under parental authority and skip town in order to experience all the world has to offer - then I say that something is dreadfully wrong. Wrong with the child’s thinking to be sure, but we all know that it goes much deeper than that. Prodigals are usually a product of their environment and may have valid reasons (at least to them) that they flee. I cannot help but believe that the problem doesn’t really lie with the daughters, but with the “proud parents” sitting in the audience who have trained up their daughters in the way they think they should go, so that when they are old, perhaps they will part with it and settle down and get married.- well…perhaps…maybe. (paraphrase mine) Parents who sit there thinking “Doesn’t our girl look pretty? I’m so proud of her, Honey, aren’t you proud of her? I hope her speech goes well (the one where she tells everyone that she has no intention of following in her parent’s footsteps)! That’s our girl - go get um sweetie! You’ll go far!”

What would entice a loving Christian parent to encourage their child to leave hearth and home and enter into an educational system in which statistics tell us 85% of them will loose their faith? A place where 75% of the young women will lose their virginity before getting their degree…. and 25% of those, will enter their adult life with an STD (sexually transmitted disease). According to one study, the statistics for professing Christians as compared to non-Christian girls only differs by 4%. What could possibly cause a parent to consent to those numbers? Success? Money? Security? Acceptance? Credibility? Finding a mate? What? I’m here to tell you that as for my children, those numbers are simply not acceptable and I’m not hesitant to say I don’t believe they should be for yours either! As Christians, we simply must follow another path and quit seeking the peace and prosperity of this pagan culture. We must come out and be separate from them!

I’ll put a little perspective on this for you. Let’s take Virginia Tech. as an example. According to the official school website Virginia Tech. has over 29,000 students. On April 16, 2007 a student named Seung-Hui Cho went on a shooting spree killing 32 and wounding 15. The percentage of students killed was just over 1/1000^th of a percent. Now I ask you as a parent - On that day, if you knew what was happening at Virginia Tech, could you have told your daughter - “Honey, you know, that bad man is only killing 1 in a thousand kids. That’s not very many. I want you to go ahead and go to class and learn and enjoy your friends and have a good time at school. Don’t worry about him, he’ll never get to you. And besides, we really do trust your judgment, Honey! You’ll be just fine!” No, I don’t think you would have said that! If you are like me, you would have wrapped your arms around your daughter and held her close and told her you would never subject her to such danger. I would have physically tied them up if necessary. I think you would prevent your daughter from going at ANY cost! It’s very interesting to me, we will do anything in our power to protect our children from physical harm… why is it that we do not take the same precautions with their eternal souls? To fit in? To be relevant? So they can be salt and light? So that we have a comfortable answer when the inevitable question comes? “Where are you going to school?” What answer can we possibly have that will hold water?

I think that far too many parents come to this juncture in their daughter’s life and they find that they have fallen into a trap that they themselves have set. How many times have we tried to encourage our children by telling them they can do anything they want to, or be anything they desire - because of course we homeschooled them, and by golly, we did a “bang up” job of it! And of course they are so bright and the future holds so much promise for them. We as parents must let go of our pride and stop listening to this wicked culture tell us it’s lies! Success is what God says success is! And if we believe that it is the biblical norm, if not the mandate, for a woman to be a keeper at home, the wife of a godly husband, the mother of many children, etc, etc, etc, then we had better start training them to that end instead of training them for a career. If that is what we feel God would have, then we need to quit preparing them for the “just in case” scenario. If that is the life they should desire, then we as parents had better start painting a picture that shows that particular life as desirable!! That having a godly husband is desirable! That being productive at home is to be desired! That NOT being in the workforce of the culture is to be desired! That children are to be desired! That it is good and right to homeschool your children! That it is good to be agrarian if only to remove ourselves from the culture! And if you desire for them to find a young man who can, and will provide those things, then that is the type of young man you need to encourage them to look up to and for. That is the type of young man you as a parent need to look for! Not one who is frantically trying to climb the cultural ladder of success, striving to attain the golden carrot so that he can spend it upon his own selfish lusts!

It seems to me that since I see so few homeschooled young women desiring these things, I can only assume that homeschooling parents are either not teaching these things outright, or they have been inwardly (or perhaps outwardly in front of their daughters) complaining about their own situations as homeschoolers, agrarians, mothers, fathers, homemakers, etc., crying “Woe is me! Life is so hard!” to the point that their kids couldn’t possibly want that kind of life for themselves. To the point that their kids would never put themselves through all the trouble and pain that their parents had to do. Perhaps it is high time we as parents learned how to TAKE JOY in our own lives so that our children might have hope and an expectation that they can too! It is high time parents learned how to “make a life” instead of just “making a living”!

I ask you, Where do your desires for your daughter lie? What lifestyle do you portray as desirable?

Rant’s over! (or maybe there’s more) Glad that’s off my chest!

Allen

 

Whom indeed?

Here is some food for thought! John, Steward of Jesus has spoken truth in this post. Can we deny it?

Click on this link and ask yourself -Whom do I trust? .

Whom Do We Trust?

Allen

 

Grandpa – My Dad – He’s Amazing!

I would like to introduce you to my dad - Randy Shropshire.

He is the man who raised his 2 sons to be men of common sense like himself who could take care of business. Not necessarily in the “business” sort of way though. Dad is a man who can always get things done and he passed that Yankee ingenuity on to me. He was a man who inspired his sons in such a way that as young boys we would exclaim - “My dad can do anything!” And truly mean it. Funny thing is… I have never outgrown that impression of my father. I am not a young boy any more! I am 50 years old, but I am still and always will be my dad’s boy! And though dad is 73, I can still exclaim to you and the world, “My Dad Can Do Anything!” My fathers ingenuity never ceases to amaze me. I can never remember a time in my life when dad was not able to rectify just about any problem that came along. I am proud of him, he’s my dad, he’s amazing!

I have to give you just one example that came up the other day where dad’s knowledge and ingenuity surpasses my own.

How to Fix Flat Tires

We have a small trailer that we pull behind our 4-wheeler to haul dirt, rocks, manure, compost and a myriad of other things around the place. I doesn’t haul a lot so I added side boards to double it’s capacity. I bought this trailer years ago and it has served us well…that is until last week! It has been getting very rickety. It rattles to high heaven and the tires will not hold air for more than an hour or two. I have been meaning to get some “Tire Slime” to attempt to seal all the leaks but I never quite got around to it. I just put up with airing up the tires every trip we make. I tend to get a little exasperated at it every time I use it anymore. Well the other day I loaded it (actually way overloaded it!) up with compost and headed out across the corrugates of the alfalfa field to our west garden. Half way across the tongue collapsed, causing it to dig into the ground, which collapsed the frame and bent the axle. On the bright side though, the tires were still aired up (it was the 1^st trip). I had had it! We shoveled out the compost and I drug it over to throw on the junk pile to be taken to the dump. I would be rid of that old rattle trap once and for all! Well… it sat there for a week when dad came over and asked if he could take it. I figured he would strip it for parts or scrap metal, so I told him to go ahead, but the tires were no good. I didn’t think there was anything worth saving.

I came home from the fire station the next day to find the trailer by the haystack, and everything was straightened out. As I was looking it over dad came over and showed me where he had beefed up the tongue, straightened the frame, and welded in extra supports. He then poked the tires, which were firmly aired up. I asked if he had bought some Tire Slime to which he harrumphed “No” and just smiled, causing me of course to probe further. He replied simply “Newspaper” I now had to be very direct and ask him to be clear! He told me he had shredded up some newspaper, mixed it with some soap and water and put it inside the tires and aired them up. “Fixes all kinds of leaks.” He said. I was dumbfounded! Not only am I part of a generation who throws things away when they can be fixed, I buy things to fix things with. I spend money to make up for my lack of knowledge and ingenuity. If you asked me, I would have told you those tires were beyond repair, but fortunately dad didn’t ask me!

It seems that when you shred newspaper and mix it with soap and water, it breaks back down into the cellulose fibers in a paste which will be forced into leaks by air pressure, sealing the holes. This stuff works better than Tire Slime! Those tires were so weather checked that they leaked all around the sidewalls, but they haven’t leaked any air with this stuff in them.

I was so impressed that I have to pass this on to you for use on your own homestead! Your wheelbarrows, 4-wheelers, lawn mowers, etc. will thank you. I have included the following pictures of the process as dad described it to me.

Yes, my Dad can do anything - He’s Amazing!

Below you can find instructions and pictures of the process.

Shreading the newspaper

cutting into small pieces

Ingredients: newspaper, soap, water

soap & water

mix it up

let it soak a few hours

Break the bead on the flat tire

Pour paste inside tire

work it in

Air it up to set bead

No more leaks! Costs-zero

Allen

 

Dealing with Death … and Life

A farm can mean many different things to different people. Some might think first of a garden or a field of corn, others might think of a milk cow or a herd of sheep. Still others might think of an old barn or farm house, but whatever it happens to be, the images that come first to peoples mind usually are of an idealic, simple or nostalgic life set in a beautiful rural country-side. What most people fail to realize is that a farm is a lot of hard work. Many people desire the life of a farm because they feel it would be the freest, most rewarding and even the best life God has provided for man … and it is. But the reason this is true goes much, much deeper than the surface aesthetics that first awake the spirit of romance in the heart of the aspiring agrarian. Don’t get me wrong, I am a strong believer in the importance of romance in the life of every farmer. I believe that for us to truly be good farmers we must be enamored with the land, work and animals God has given us to steward. I can say this with greater conviction and surety because I have been intimately involved in small-scale, intensive, diversified agriculture for many years. However, in spite of, or maybe because of all that, the real blessings of the agrarian life come not because of some magic setting or picturesque surrounding, but because it is a life of toil, adversity, beauty, balance, work, birth, and yes, even death. It is a life that teaches that a man’s relationship to the land reflects his relationship to God. It is a life that, as Michael Bunker says, is “process not purpose driven,” a life that focuses on obedience, not rewards.

As much as I enjoy growing plants, caring for animals, tending the soil and raising our own food, nothing drives these truths home with greater clarity than when I have to deal with the stark reality of death. Whether I face that death as I kill a meat goat with my hand on its head, or like tonight have to dispose of a young Boer goat that was born still and lifeless before it had a chance to take its first breath, the finality and struggle is just as real. And for me this experience is even more powerful and emotional because I see in the eyes that look at me, (whom they have learned to trust), with a quickly fading light, or in the feeble struggling of one of tonight’s kids who tries to fight for life while on the brink of death, my own pain, fear and struggle when the Lord brought me to that same point just a few years ago. I find it impossible not to sympathize with their plight. However, as difficult as these times can be, it is through experiences like this that Christ teaches us the deepest and most profound lessons of life; lessons that would never have been learned but by a rare few within the confines of urbanism.

On the diversified small farm, children grow up realizing that death is as much a part of life as is birth. We come to understand the reality of God’s curse on creation as we are forced to deal with disease, sickness and death on a very personal level. Or as we learn to accept that when we steward the creation through the taking of dominion, animals must still be sacrificed, (slaughtered), to provide for the sustenance of ourselves and our families. For those just coming out of a sheltered urban lifestyle this can often be difficult to accept, especially as they learn the importance of personally taking responsibility for the oversight and stewardship of that life and death cycle themselves, rather than avoiding the issue by delegating it to someone else. This whole theme of learning to take personal responsibility for the sustenance and care of our own family and our own land is central to the Christian agrarian vision. It is vital that we reclaim our place as stewards of God’s land through tilling the soil and caring for our flocks and herds. As part of this journey, we will be faced with the cold realities of death, but we will also receive the blessings of the full and abundant life God intended for His children, the blessings of agrarianism. And it is worth every minute, for it is a life I would not trade for all the world.

By the way, as I post this this evening we are experiencing one of those very blessings, as it appears that the young goat kid that was born too weak to nurse will actually live. Diana had her first kid about 10:00 last night with two more coming in the next hour and a half. The second one, as I said, was born too weak to stand or even nurse and only half the size of his healthy sibling. The third was born dead. We spent the better part of last night trying to get the weak kid to start eating, which was a very delicate chore since our stomach tube had been ruined from the year before and our new one had not yet arrived, (it came in the mail this morning!). However, Dad persisted with great diligence and his efforts appear to have paid off. It did make for a very long night as none of us got to bed until around 2:00, (which is when I wrote the above post), and Dad didn’t go to bed at all. Nevertheless, it will all be worth it if the Lord continues to bless us with this kid’s recovery. Indeed, regardless of the outcome, we shall praise the Lord with thanksgiving for His marvelous Providence in bringing us to a life of such reward and abundance!

Tyler

 

Our Trip to Rayville - #2

As you are all probably aware, we have just recently returned from what is now our second visit to Rayville, Missouri and the small, but growing community of Christian-agrarians the Lord has been establishing there. What a blessing it was for both my family and I to have this opportunity to visit our wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ at CRC Rayville, it is not a n experience we will ever forget and we are deeply grateful to the Lord who Sovereignly opened the doors that made this trip possible. Without His aid, it would never have happened, and for that, I shall be forever thankful.

For a little over a year now, my family and I have been seriously considering the possibility that the Lord might be leading us to join this community as we seek to move out of the city onto a larger piece of land in obedience to the multi-generational, agrarian vision He has given us. Because of this, it was our desire to spend most of our available time in fellowship and discussion with the community members themselves, not just looking at land as we did last year. For although we knew the land to be good for farming, this is not the only reason we are interested in that particular area. Rather our motivation to pursue moving to the area around Rayville is because we are seeking a covenantal community such as the one the Lord has been establishing there. Much of this reason has been due to a comment Mr. McConnell made during our previous visit that, upon reflection, reinforced and deepened the convictions the Lord had begun to bring about through our own study and experience. He said, “You can’t just find a piece of land that suits your fancy and expect God to bless your endeavors or bring you the fellowship of true Christian community. You must first find a like-minded community with which you can covenant and there He will bless your obedience by giving you His land.” Since that time, and as the Lord has deepened my understanding of His doctrine and Covenant, it has become vividly clear to me that one of the foremost and primary prerequisites for identifying a future home for our farm is finding an agrarian-minded community with which to covenant in a multi-generational vision of rebuilding a biblically agrarian culture. Thus, we felt it was critical to spend our time checking out the community itself in an attempt to determine if it was the one God is calling us to join.

Our only difficulty was in deciding how best to accomplish this goal without imposing ourselves too drastically upon their time. However, as He so often did during this trip, the Lord intervened on our behalf and saved us the need to worry upon that regard. As we began communicating with Mr. McConnell about the dates and time of our arrival, it became clear that a good portion of our stay had already been planned for us, (they had known that we were likely to be coming for some time already). Contrary to this posing any impediment to our plans, we immediately saw it as a great blessing because it opened wide the door for the personal discussion and inquiry we needed to aid in our decision. Indeed, their hospitality was almost unbounded, and everyone went out of their way to make us feel welcome. We were hosted for dinner almost every night of our stay and the fellowship and discussion we had over the wonderful home-cooked food was delightful. Not to mention the great blessing it was to have so many meals provided for us.

As I had the chance to sit down and talk with everybody back there, I found it so refreshing to see and hear the Lord brought into every area of their lives. This is something that, outside our own family, we have found to be far and few between. As the Lord has given us light and ability to come out and separate ourselves from the pagan, Babylonian culture of captivity in which we were born, we have found some of the greatest resistance and opposition to come from those who professed to be our friends and fellow Christians. We find that as soon as we begin to share the truth and relevance of God’s Word, we are shunned and called legalists. We are told that doctrine divides and thus we should avoid it at all costs. The same seems to apply to such words and topics as separatism, covenant, or law. Thus, to share communion with brothers and sisters who love the law of the Lord and seek to live it out in their daily lives, was both encouraging and inspiring. Along these same lines, it was a great privilege to be able to attend the Lord’s Day meeting, hear Mr. McConnell preach, and share in their fellowship meal. Another part of meeting that was of particular enjoyment to me was the time spent singing hymns and listening to John Caudle play the piano. I learned a couple of fantastic hymns that I had not heard before and John’s playing style was a real treat compared to the strait-jacketed stuff usually heard at church gatherings. I guess there is also the modern rock-band garbage that can be heard at those Babylonian facades (mega-churches) that call themselves the church of God, (although I can no longer bring myself to address them as such). But that doesn’t even broach being compared to such heavenly music!

As if all this were not enough, we were given a huge treat by Mr. McConnell who gave us a personal introduction to his amazing, four-footed partners: Sam and Sadie. Our first time behind the team was for a family tour of Rayville and the surrounding area. During this time, all four of us took turns driving the mules, while those who weren’t currently handling the lines got introduced to the country and some of its history by Mr. McConnell, or enjoyed the conversation with Jeff Klute and Joyce Morrell and her children who had also come along for the wagon ride. Exciting that was, I was even more thrilled when Mr. McConnell invited me to spend Monday morning with him taking Sam and Sadie on a longer exercise run through the Crooked River Valley. He started by giving me hands on instruction on how to curry comb and harness them. At first all that harness seemed like a lot to keep track of but once he had walked me through the process on Sam I found I was able to harness Sadie pretty much all by myself, with Mr. McConnell only giving a few reminders here and there. Over the past few years, I have read thousands of pages on draft horses and related issues, covering everything from the names and functions of the harness, to driving techniques, to care, stabling and breeding, but actually working with these magnificent animals “hands on” far surpasses anything that can be gained through reading a book. After they were all harnessed and ready to go, we spent the next hour or two driving through the beautiful land in the Crooked River Valley, during which Mr. McConnell let me do almost all the driving. Once we got back, I even had the chance to work them all by myself, while Tom, Art and Jeff filled the wagon with a load of firewood from the back paddock. Sam and Sadie weren’t sure what they thought about that situation. They could see everybody whom they were accustomed to have handling the lines working on the ground, and they weren’t sure who that left in control. I had to learn to be a little more aggressive and let them know I was still in authority.

Wow! All those words just to try and explain how much I enjoyed working with the mules, and yet I don’t feel it gives even the foggiest impression of how much fun it really was. I guess the same would apply for this entire trip, for this post has only scratched the surface. As is usually the case I have found my ability with words to be woefully inadequate to describe how thrilling the experience really was, but I guess it will have to do for now!

To close, I want to say a big Thank You to those in the Rayville community for their generous hospitality and to let them know that whether the Lord leads us to join them or not I wish them all the best as they seek to follow Christ and build His Kingdom!

Tyler

Here I am getting the run through on how to harness a Mule, quite a lot to pay attention to and remember but fun nonetheless!

Mom taking a turn on the lines! This was during the first day’s wagon ride and tour of the area.

This is in the back paddock where I got to drive them all by myself … and in a real work situation to boot!

Perhaps this photo will give you an idea of just how much fun I am really having! Notice the smile that spans from ear to ear.

 

Brave Fools

Because I am a firefighter, September 11^th 2001 and the months that followed were a very emotional time for me. All the media coverage of the disaster, the American public’s passion about those who died and the sudden renewed awareness about firefighters and their jobs kept things at the forefront of my mind and would not allow me to get on with other things for a time. Being a member of the fire service and responding to emergency scenes bring about a whole range of emotions that not everyone experiences, nor can they understand. I tend to ask “What if….. ?” a lot. As we race toward uncertainty, sometimes things get very “still” for me, which is strange because we have radios hollering, sirens blaring, air horns sounding and a confusing haze of red, flashing light on all the buildings and landscape that we pass. I find myself praying a lot on the way to fires. I pray for my family…I pray for the people we are rushing to help… but mostly I pray for my men. As I look into their faces with all this excitement in the background, I see their minds racing as they try to prepare themselves for what they might be facing. I see exhilaration, excitement, uncertainty. When we see a column of smoke or an orange glow in the sky from many blocks away, I see awe in their eyes, and anticipation of using skills they have trained hard for, though they all know they may be called upon to do something for which they are woefully unprepared for. I see questions, like “Am I up to this?” “Do I really know what I’m doing?” I see frustration and sometimes anger in their eyes as traffic will not yield and we all know, that for a victim, every second counts. I realize as I look into their eyes, these are the same men with whom I may have been angry and frustrated at just ten minutes before, for not doing their job as I would like or not following directions or some such thing. I realize that these are the same men with whom I have spent 1/3 of my life for the past twenty five years…….. and I love them. The brotherhood runs strong in our veins at times like these. Sometimes I look into their eyes and I see unbridled fear! And I pray. I pray because I realize that these men, whom I love, do not know the Lord Jesus. I know the reason this fear is in their eyes! The bible speaks of it!

FOR WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN, IF HE GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD, AND LOSE HIS OWN SOUL? Mark 8:36

What I am about to say is in no way meant to offend anyone, least of all a fellow firefighter. I speak as only a brother firefighter can, who still gets chills when I remember 911.

As the events of Sept.11^th unfolded, we all heard a lot of talk about heroes. 344 firefighters raced up those stairs and all but one lost their lives in the process! Does what happened to those men, make them heroes? I say ….NO! And I believe that if you were to ask each of them, they would concur. If I were betting, I’m sure, if you looked in their eyes as they climbed those stairs, you would see that same excitement, uncertainty, awe, frustration, anger and probably that same unbridled fear I spoke about too. Those men were no different than you or I. Most of those men who died had no inkling they were to meet God that day. The really sad fact is that most of them will only see Jesus’ face as he proclaims.

AND THEN I WILL PROFESS UNTO THEM, I NEVER KNEW YOU: DEPART FROM ME, YE THAT WORK INIQUITY. Matthew 7:23

No, most were not heroes…… only brave fools. Fools who did not understand what the scripture above had to say to them. And so, I pray! I pray for my men! However, some of those men in New York were in fact Heroes! Why? How do I know? Because being a Hero has more to do with how we deal with the mundane, everyday events, than it does with how we deal with the big, dramatic moments! Because true heroism is having the courage to do your duty, no matter what the cost. Duty calls every day, in countless ways, and when a man chooses to do “the right” and is willing to pay the price no matter the cost… he is then playing the part of a Hero. He does his duty even when no one is there to see. He does his duty even when it hurts. He does his duty even when he doesn’t want to! Yes, some were heroes that day, but those men were heroes before they ever went to the fire station, before anything happened on Sept.11 2001!

There have been many men throughout the ages who can wear the title … “Hero”. I have heard stories of “Bible Heroes” all my life. But, I have to tell you, I know some real heroes right here at home. Men who do their duty, even when it hurts. Men who have never been praised by the media. Their wives look up to them and their children respect them. They handle the mundane moments with as much a sense of duty as they do the dramatic moments. These men search the scriptures to find God’s will for their families. These men know they are far from perfect but desire for God to reprove them, not for their own benefit, but that they might be an example to their children. Their names are known to few, but I know them, and many of you do too! These men are those who are obedient to God’s Word… willing to sacrifice themselves for their families and their God…men who are willing to answer the call to raise up godly children so that the Word of God might be passed on to the next generation, and the next, and the next… Yes, I know who you are! You are the men who desire to turn from this wicked culture, forsaking the peace and prosperity of the wicked in order to follow God. You have decided to do your duty…to your God…to your wife…to your children…no matter what the cost! Are you, brother, among these men?

FOR I HAVE KNOWN HIM, IN ORDER THAT HE MAY COMMAND HIS CHILDREN AND HIS HOUSEHOLD AFTER HIM, THAT THEY KEEP THE WAY OF THE LORD. Genesis 18:19a

God knows you too! He has known you in order that you might command your children and your household after God, that you keep the way of the Lord! God is not through with you!

BEING CONFIDENT OF THIS VERY THING, THAT HE WHICH HATH BEGUN A GOOD WORK IN YOU WILL PERFORM IT UNTIL THE DAY OF JESUS CHRIST. Philippians 1:6

Being a firefighter is not easy at times, but usually it’s a whole lot easier than being a good husband and father. I’m learning new things all the time about God and his will for my family and I. Pray for me as I pray for you. And hang in there…..HERO!

Allen

 

Southern Idaho Draft Horse and Mule Field Day

Yesterday I spent the morning and early afternoon attending the Southern Idaho Draft Horse and Mule Spring Field-day. It is just recently established and is only in its 3^rd year, but it is already one of the largest and best-attended events in our immediate area. This year there were probably close to two dozen teams present and as it was a beautiful, sunny day with a temperature around 60, there was no shortage of action. The event centered on preparing and planting a small field in a mixture of ryegrass and sweet yellow clover. The teamsters began the day’s work by discing and harrowing, after which they used an old grain drill to begin planting the pasture seed. Unfortunately, I was unable to stay for the entire event, but what I did witness was quite a treat for a young man who dreams of using draft mules (horses) on his own farm someday, (Yes Mr. McConnell, I think you may have converted me). I even got to ride along with some of the teamsters as they worked the field.

As one would expect with such a number there was quite a variety in the horses and mules present. Overall, Mr. Lee’s team of matched Belgians made the most impressive show, but there was also a beautiful team of black Percherons, a team of Spotted Drafts and an assortment of other horses and mules. However, none of them compared to advantage with Sam and Sadie, especially the mules, which appear as but play things next to their massive, but gentle strength. Nothing against smaller draft horses and mules by the way, I just happen to be partial to the larger animals. And yes my report on our trip to Rayville is still coming, (soon I hope), I have just been trying to juggle too many balls at once.

I have included some photos, (I took 115), for those of you who, like me, are captivated with the world of the workhorse and I hope to post more periodically as I have opportunities to work with and learn from these people. Enjoy!

Look at those beautiful long ears! These mules were some of the largest at the event and yet they can’t even be three quarters the size of Sam and Sadie.

These are the team of black Percherons - Four in Hand hitch. Notice the rope going from the lead horse all the way to the rear evener. It is set with a pulley system so that the forward team must due there share of pulling. Compare this with Mr. Lee’s Belgians below which are hitched using standard trace and chains.

Here I am on the forecart with Mr. Lee while pulling the disc. These are enormous animals, according to Mr. Lee they range from 2200 to 2400 pounds.

This gentleman bought his mules several years ago from an Amish farmer. They had been trained to respond to German commands so he was forced to learn a limited German vocabulary to work with them. I heard that they did eventually learn English.

It is said that variety is the spice of life - a proverb well proved by this lady and her team of perfectly matched Shetlands. They were tough little horses as they worked fairly steady from around 10:00 am until I left at about 1:00.

This team is owned by a gentleman named Calvin if I remember correctly. He is just preparing to hook up to this 8` disc. While I was in Missouri Tom used a strap to connect the rear of the harness together on both Sam and Sadie so they would remain parallel while backing up. No one here uses such a device and almost all of them had some difficulty backing up to their eveners. I must also point out however that most of these horses are only used as a hobby and so are not nearly as well trained or well conditioned as the mules of Missouri Woods.

These mules were the first team to start seeding the pasture mix. This is the absolute largest mule team at the event and yet they are still much smaller then my friends in Missouri. There were several dogs enjoying a run with the mules, (notice the German Shepherd with those beautiful blacks above), but none with the horses, coincidence I wonder?

Here they are beginning to harrow over the seeded areas, (you can still see the team pictured just previously in the background). I thought this was a interesting implement set-up. The gentleman is sitting on a two wheeled “cart” behind a harrow to which it is connected by two bars which extend to the front corners of the harrow. The double tree or evener is hooked directly to the harrow itself thus pulling the teamster along behind. I had never seen this type of implement before. I wonder if it is meant to be capable of converting for other uses such as a row cultivator, (they have a similar frame and seating arrangement).

This friendly gentleman and his team of five year-old Belgians were giving wagon rides to the visitors. As you can see I got the best seat right up front next to the driver, or should I say teamster, himself. It was from this lofty vantage point that I took the picture at the start of this post. Its location was down this road and off to the right, just outside the edge of this photo.

So here is one last photo of Mr. Lee’s Belgians. He uses these horses in the show ring and for parades and the like, and it tells - they even have matched stride, stepping with the same foot forward each time. The amount of muscle on these animals is absolutely astounding and yet even with all that strength they are still so gentle, a great lesson that would be well learned by many of us men!

Tyler

 

Visiting the Rural Missourian

We have just returned home from a weeklong trip to visit with thatgrizzle bearded, mule skinner, logger and pastor, the Rural Missourian, Thomas McConnell and his flock at Covenant Reformed Church (CRC) Rayville Missouri. This is the second springtime trip to this part of the country with a view toward finding land in the countryside on which our family can lay down roots and raise future generations. We were welcomed with open arms and warm hospitality by all the members of CRC Rayville and enjoyed lots of good fellowship, food and teaching.

Our family has been enjoying pastor McConnell’s sermons in mp3 format for over a year and we would all attest to the fact that his teaching is very riveting and quite unapologetically biblical. (Thanks Tom for standing firm on God’s Word!) We were excitedly looking forward to attending Sunday services in person.

As you have probably read on Tom’s blog The Rural Missourian, Sunday was lent an extra air of excitement when the second of two buildings to burn to the ground temporarily interrupted the services. Of course my being a professional firefighter ensure a heightened interest on my part as I observed the volunteer fire department from the neighboring town (8 miles and 13 minutes away) show up after the fact for the second time in less than 12 hours. However, even with all this excitement happening, the high point was still fellowshipping with God’s people and hearing His Word preached with holy fervor from a man who obviously loves his Lord and King!

We were blessed as a family to be invited into the homes and lives of most members of the church and enjoyed good food prepared by hands that were serving their Lord and by hearts that had anticipated our coming and had planned accordingly, making us feel very much wanted and at home. Getting to know each one was a great blessing!

Another highlight of the trip was of course getting to know those long eared ballerinas, Sam and Sadie. In fact each one of us were given the reins and allowed to drive the wagon through the beautiful Missouri countryside, while listening to a man who obviously loves his mules and knows them intimately. We were also astutely versed in the colorful and exciting history of the Rayville area during the Civil War, or “War of Northern Aggression” as it is locally known! Mr. McConnell even spent an afternoon giving Tyler hands on experience in caring for, harnessing and driving a mule team through the beautiful Crooked River Valley - an immense treat for my eldest son who greatly desires to use horse power on his own farm some day!

On our return trip we drove through 100 miles of blizzard and extremely slick roads in Wyoming. At 2:00 AM there was a serious accident which happened just in front of us involving two semi trucks which destroyed one tractor though no one was seriously hurt. There were other minor accidents as trucks attempted to stop on the ice. We had to drive into the dirt on the edge of the freeway in order to get traction to stop ourselves. The ambulance, one fire department engine company and a haz-mat team were called to the scene delaying us for three hours with over a hundred other semis and other vehicles while debris was cleared from the roadway. We are very thankful to our Lord for his mercies to us! Although we spent 25 hours strait traveling home, with all the excitement during the middle of the night, I had no trouble staying awake! We arrived home at 10:00 in the morning andspent the remainder of the day unpacking, cleaning up and spending time with the animals. After staying awake for the better part of 40 hours, it was very good to fall into our own bed!

As Dorothy said in The Wizzard of OZ - “There’s no place like home!” click, click “There’s no place like home!” click, click

Allen

 

Flicker

I have been looking out of our living room window and watching a Northern Gilded Flicker (colaptes-auratus) feeding under our Burning Bush. The flicker is a beautiful bird with extraordinary colors highlighting it’s buff colored body. However as beautiful as the flicker is, it is not a bird I particularly like. It is a member of the woodpecker family and as such it has the nasty habit of pecking holes into the eaves of houses and barns, etc. and is quite destructive. I often chase them away when I see them around the homestead.

The burning bush (eunymus-alata) is a succulent green in spring and summer, turning a vibrant “fiery” red in fall and is covered with tiny red seeds that sustain a variety of birds during the long winter season. It is during this transitional time between winter and spring when the ground is still bare but warming that this gilded flicker came to visit us. It has been sprinkling a little rain this morning and there are a few small puddles remaining. This stunning bird has spent the better part of an hour under this bush, beside a puddle, feeding on it’s favorite food source (small sugar ants) as they emerge from the warming earth. It would eat the ants for several minutes and then just turn it’s body to the left and take a long draught of water from the puddle. This action was repeated over and over as I watched. After slaking it’s hunger and thirst in this way, it has moved to a different puddle and has been exuberantly bathing itself for the last 20 minutes. I have very much been enjoying the show this morning!

Now all the delight I have experienced in watching this show is not just in admiration of the bird - but also a profound awe of our God as He supplies for the needs of this flicker and the seeming satisfaction and contentment of the created for the provision of it’s Creator. God is the Lord of all creation and He is as aware of this bird’s needs as He is my own. How can man properly regard a God so big? Our minds cannot conceive His greatness!

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain (snow) is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing of the birds is come. Song of Songs 2:11,12a

Behold the fouls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into arns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Matthew 6:26a

Allen

 

Joyful Simplicities

Year by year the complexities of this spinning world grow more bewildering and so each year we need all the more to seek peace and comfort in the joyful simplicities.

Woman’s Home Companion

Dec. 1935

 

I thought I would share a few of the Joyful Simplicities from my own life today. These are some of the daily, weekly, even seasonal delights that have kept me going through the many difficult trials that have come our way over the last several years. I hope they will encourage your hearts and cause you to pause in remembrance of how truly good is our God and how glorious are His gifts if we just take the time to notice them~

Some Joyful Simplicities I enjoy are~

• Kisses from Allen.
• Hearing my son Matthew laugh out loud.
• Crocus popping through the earth, lifting their curious heads to the sun and adding color to the brown/gray landscape of late winter and early spring.
• The purr of our barn cat Hunter as I scratch his jet black ears.
• Having deep, passionate discussions with my son Tyler about the things that matter most to us in life.
• Playing volleyball in our back yard on a hot summer evening.
• Milking our does; Belle, Emma, Kate and Holly.
• The smell of the barn during the changing seasons.
• Hearing Matthew’s violin “sing” to me as he plays magical, beautiful music.
• Reading my Bible in the dark, quiet, early morning hours by the warm glow of an oil lamp, while sipping a steaming cup of fresh brewed coffee.
• The smell and feel of soft, fertile dirt.
• Snapping fresh picked green beans with my family under the shade of our huge peachcot tree.
• Chatting and giggling about the non-essentials of life with my mother-in-law who lives next door.
• Reading “Pooh” stories out loud. Especially the chapter entitled “Pooh Invents a New Game” from “The House at Pooh Corner”. I laugh and laugh and laugh.
• Walking to the library on a cool, crisp, moonlit evening.
• Freshly fallen snow.
• Snuggling on the couch with Allen and watching a sweet, sentimental love story together.
• Listening to the tune of “Amazing Grace” resonating across our property at sunset, while Tyler plays his bagpipes.
• Assisting in the birth of a baby goat - watching a miracle happen before my very eyes.
• Weeding herbs and enjoying their pungent fragrance as I do.
• Hanging fresh washed laundry on the clothesline.
• Sunlight streaming through the windows.
• Sitting on the back step with Maggie Mae (my canine counterpart) and watching the stars come out as the crickets serenade us.
• Bouquets of daisies.

I could go on and on, but I thought I’d leave some space for some of you to share your own Joyful Simplicities. Hope to hear from you soon!

Janis

Recommended Reading ~ Winnie the Pooh and the House at Pooh Corner

By A.A. Milne