The Midland Agrarian

Kerry Cattle

2012-01-19T22:16:00.000-05:00

We are starting the new year with a new project. We recently brought home a small herd of Kerry Cattle (as well as six Dexter heifers). We are doing this as a partnership with our friends, the Dean Family. The partnership enables them to keep the Kerries as commercial milk cows, while providing a source of beef feeders and replacement heifers for us to raise and sell.

The Kerry is a frightfully rare breed, and we are honored to be apart in preserving the breeds unique genetics. However, conservation was only a part of our interest. Rare Breeds are important and there is no better explanation of why than this essay from Auburn Meadow Farm.

Our long term interest is developing the Kerry as a minor breed of commercial value. I would like to see increased interest among dairy farmers looking for a long lived, moderate size cow who can provide both beef and dairy production with less feed costs. While we are committed to breeding with only Kerry semen or bulls on the rare cows, our Kerry bull is enjoying his work crossbreeding on cows of other dairy breeds.

Why the Kerry?
We spent a lot of time discussing this project before taking the plunge into the Kerry. Here are some reasons:

I like the fact Kerry Cattle are black. Whether feeders or fat cattle, black hair is worth extra money at the sale barn: (sometimes even if their carcass is inferior to a Hereford). For a dairy farmer, a pure black bull calf should bring a premium over a Holstein bull calf as well. A Kerry Bull on a Holstein cow should always give us a black calf. Kerry cows are also small, and I think there will be a growing market for smaller sides of beef for the freezer trade.Many people no longer have freezer space for a 400 pound side (half) of beef. Small calf birth weight mean less work and worry as well.

Finally, I am impressed by the breed's intelligence. I have wrestled dumb dehorned cattle who stuck their heads in feeders. Even with impressive horns, the Kerries seem to know where their heads are in space and don't seem to get stuck. In spite of the regal horns they have thus far proved to be docile.

http://kerrycattlesociety.org/

SOPA Strike

2012-01-18T09:45:00.001-05:00

If you are in the US and reading this, please take five minutes and contact your senators to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
I am not tech savvy enough to blackout this site for the day, but in the time you could read anything I have to say, you can call your senators and make a difference.

Thanks,

Richard Grossman, the midland agrarian

Only a couple days of Christmas left!

2012-01-04T20:52:00.003-05:00

As my friend over at Free Range Anglican reminds us, It is still Christmas for we Christmas keeping Anglicans.
Our church refrains from Carols until Dec 24, but we are still singing them,. If you can avoid the malls and radio, its fun because the carols are not worn out.

I was recently thinking about the loss of sociability in our culture. I have a poorer social life than my fore bearers here. Our house was once home to midwinter country dances where the homemade cider and hard perry flowed, but everyone from kids to old folks gathered in one place. The fiddlers (Two great uncles) and caller (my grandpa) squeezed in a threshold between two rooms to allow for a set of dancers in each of two adjoining rooms. Over the years, they beat the floors down, but they had fun. I was reminded of this lost tradition by a fine recent essay from the David Walbert AKA the new agrarian.

The late agrarian writer John Seymour often lamented that loss of sociability was one of the greatest losses caused by industrialism and consumerism. We simply no longer no how to party. Our family gatherings are limited to eating and gathering around some kind of electronic entertainment.

Wishing all readers a happy and blessed Christmas! Only a couple days left so party on-- as best you can in our sad culture!

Katie Luther: Agrarian Saint

2011-12-20T13:20:00.001-05:00

Next to God's Word, The world has no more precious treasure than Holy Matrimony. God's best gift is a pious, cheerful, God fearing, home-keeping wife, to whom you can trust your goods, your body, your life. There are couples who neither care for their families nor love each other. People like these are not human beings, They make their homes a hell.
-Martin Luther

Today is the 459th anniversary of the death of Katherine von Bora Luther, wife of Martin Luther. I am a very great admirer of the woman whom Luther referred to as "my lord Katie". Readers of Luther will note that the reformer was strong willed and often given to biting satire and hyperbole in making his points. He often met his match in Katie. She was intelligent and seems to have been his intellectual equal. She was also a very capable household manager. Her management began soon after their marriage.

Prior to his marriage, the reformer lived like a bachelor farmer. The bachelor Luther never kept regular meal times unless invited elsewhere. Katie found his quarters strewn with books and papers. Luther never made his bed or changed his sheets. She said he claimed the unmade bed was easier to get into at night. His pet dog used to make a bed in papers on the floor. The dog often shewed papers, shoes, and belts, without much notice by his master.

With Germanic thoroughness, Katie kicked the dog out into the yard, changed the sheets, and started ensuring regular mealtimes. She seemed to lose some fights over the messy papers. Reading some of the Table Talks indicates that the dog made it back in sometimes--- at least to beg at the table.

As the family grew to include not only children but many seminarians and visitors, Katie turned the crusty bachelor pad into a home.She brewed beer so good it made her husband homesick when he traveled and had to drink inferior brews.

While Luther wrote his tomes and worked at reforming the church, she managed gardens, poultry, fields and livestock to ensure the family would eat. Luther tended to be generous to a fault, and it fell upon Katie to prevent want. She did this through shrewd and thrifty domestic economy. As part of Luther's pay came as hay or grain, she fed cattle and pigs. When money was available she bought or leased fields. In one case she bought a property with a stream and dammed it as a fishpond for food.Her gardens and beasts inspired her husband to often meditate upon God's creative work in nature.

After Luther's death, the political instability of events left her impoverished. She had had to leave the family home and returned later to find her gardens laid waste. She had to leave again due to want. She died in a cart accident on the way to a farm field and small house near that Luther had previously bought for her. That field had been one of her favorites as it was more fertile than much of the land around their Wittenburg homes.

The saints who have gone before offer us models of a Christian life. Katie reminds us that a clean bed, good beer, and wholesome food enjoyed at family meals are a part of the sanctity of every day life.

Her final words are reputed to be, "I will stick to Christ as a burr to cloth" which is a fitting analogy for an agrarian saint.

Maybe Occupy Wall Street is not just smelly clueless Hippies?

2011-12-16T10:47:00.002-05:00

I talked to another local farmer last night. His wife just returned from a holiday shopping trip in New York City. She made point to go see some of the Occupy Wall Street protestors. From her first hand account, most of them have jobs, are not smelly hippies, and are doing this in their spare time. It may very well be that the media is not telling us the truth about these people.

The farm economy today is not about capitalism. It is about a few large corporations using the power of government to control the markets. My friend's visit reminded me of this excellent interview from Common Sense Coalition Radio. You can hear it here.

Our vocation and the image of God in us

2011-12-12T14:54:00.005-05:00

I am privileged to know and worship with the Reverend Dr. T David Gordon, who also attends my church in Slippery Rock.

T David recently gave a fine interview on Lutheran Public Radio, where he spoke about the theology of work, with much to ponder for agrarians who are also Christians. You can hear it here.

The Agrarian Art of Lisa Grossman

2011-12-06T13:58:00.001-05:00

Green Prairie-Passing Storms by Lisa Grossman

With no TV and the long dark nights of December, I recently finished Gene Logsdons' Agrarianism and the Mother of All Arts. This inspired me to start re-reading an old favorite, The Trees By Conrad Richter.

The Trees is set in eastern Ohio after the revolution, and tells the story of a pioneer family moving into a world of endless forests and trees so large that the sun cannot reach the forest floor. The trees almost take the role of a character in the novel. A small child lost in the forest is regarded as having been taken by the trees.
The story of that family is somewhat the story of my family (and many others). In 1797, Benedict Grossman and his wife crossed from what is now Adams County to pioneer near the headwaters of Slippery Rock Creek. 210+ years later, there are lots of Grossmans still in these parts. In fact so many we no longer all can figure out our relationships without a genealogy book. Pioneers like Benedict Grossman cleared a lot of trees, but they came back, especially as marginal farmland was abandoned. Trees define the landscape of rural Western Pennsylvania. Home to me is gray skies and rolling hills covered in trees.

Sometimes between the gray weather and the trees it can seem confining. In the Summer, vision in the woods is obstructed by tangles of underbrush, and in Winter the bare gray trees match the sky. Hills can also obstruct vision to make the world seem smaller. Many people escape this region to sunny Florida or sunny Arizona. I expect to die here, and I would rather die than live in a sunbelt suburb. Sometimes I do want to escape our weather, but my dream would be sunny Kansas. Some people like seashore and mountain. I love the broad flat grassy expanses of the Plains. I love the ability to see so far without obstruction by tree or hill.

Much to my delight, I recently discovered a distant cousin that not only moved to Kansas, but has become a part of Kansas.Lisa Grossman grew up not far from where old Benedict settled. She grew up in our world of gray skies and trees. I am delighted she can show us how beautiful a place can be that many would dismiss as "flyover country". I think her art also gives us a measure for good agrarian stewardship. At our worst, we farmers try to square off corners and make the land fit the boxes in our heads. Even "flat" land contains subtle (and very feminine) curves. Those curves are dangerous, and plowing them under can be just as dumb as plowing the Appalachian hillsides where I live

The neoagrarian philosopher-king Wes Jackson talks about "becoming native to this place". Many Americans today are not native to anywhere. For the cause of community or conservation, no attitude can be more dangerous than the one that all places are alike. Lisa's art also shows us that becoming native has nothing to do with where one was born. Becoming native is like marrying-it is an adult choice to stick with a place, and love it on its own terms. Her prairie art inspires me to stick with the grey skies and trees of my birthplace.

The Prairies that Lisa paints are more endangered than most people realize. Because they are so overlooked they do not bring visitors like the more striking vistas of mountain and seashore. By showing us their beauty, she might help inspire people to steward them better.
Links to Lisa Grossman's Art:
Lisa Grossman Art
Land Institute Prairie Festival
Lawrence Kansas Arts Center

I'm a Farmer for Ron Paul

2011-12-05T16:24:00.001-05:00

Regardless of political persuasion, the political media loves to say that votes make a difference. How many times Have you heard that THIS is the most important election of our lifetime? In a country with as many deep rooted cultural problems as ours, I rather think that our broken political system is only a reflection of our broken culture. Many other actions can make a bigger difference than politics. At this time of year, this one might be a good start.That said, I remain a stalwart Ron Paul supporter, as do many other farmers. Most notably, Joel Salatin of Polyface farms is now helping lead a committee of Farmers for Ron Paul. While I am not a complete advocate of Mr. Salatin's approaches for every farm, I think he is a decent Christian gentleman. He is also exactly right about the greatest problem facing most farmers today. Norman Rockwell once painted the old face of government on the family farm: A county agent bringing friendly advice.

The friendly County Agents are now mostly laid off. The face of government on the family farm now is more likely to look like this:

Ron Paul is the only candidate that has expressed any real concerns about our increasingly militarized federal agencies, warrant less searches and seizures, and issues like national animal ID. Family farmers have no better friend.If you Facebook, there is a page for Farmers for Ron Paul

Pepper Spray

2011-11-29T12:09:00.007-05:00

The Agrarian tradition in America is basically conservative (not the fake conservatism of the likes of Hannity or Fox news), but it simultaneously harbors a broad populist streak that dislikes concentrations of power and wealth. I think many of the OWS crowd is clueless about solutions, but they are right that something is wrong. The banks own the government. Supporting the big business/big government alliance is neither conservative or agrarian. I have never known a farmer that did not regard bankers as somewhat akin to groundhogs-- basically a costly nuisance but in really hard times you might be able to eat a young fat one. I don't care much for public protests but I like injustice a whole lot less. Pepper spraying peaceful hippies at the behest of big banks is just plain wrong. I am glad I am not the only one who feels that way....Great New Song by Rick Saenz in the rural populist tradition. Give a listen!

Black Friday Shopping

2011-11-25T20:45:00.008-05:00

No Crowds Here

An email from a friend and reader reminded me I have been neglecting agrarian blogging, while living the agrarian life. I have never mastered the art of writing without excessive verbosity. I am going to try both shorter posts and more frequent posts...

Like most Americans did, I went shopping today. Bought a bag of dog treats and hot coffee at the local general store/diner (Pictured above in warmer weather).

We also drove to New Wilmington to pick up our big purchase. We ordered a Hickory chest as a combination sitting bench and firewood storage for our Hitzer parlor stove. An Amish acquaintance did the work. I made a kitchen firewood box from 1X6's but my wife wanted something pretty for the parlor. I felt good about spending the money, which was much better work than my DIY. The purchase helps sustain a family we like and I expect the bench to last the rest of my life.

It shocks me how people will camp out, endure crushing crowds, and even get peppered sprayed for some electronic gadget that might be out of fashion or break next year. I can attest that it is entirely possible to live a reasonable happy life without an IPAD, IPOD, a microwave, or a television. Though we do love our automatic dishwasher, and of course the laptop I typed this on..... So much for my Luddite purity.

Stacking the Deck Against Small Farms

2011-09-30T10:34:00.008-04:00

Imagine owning a Mom and Pop Hardware Store. Imagine that every time you sell a power tool, a dollar is taken from you by the "Hardware Retail Alliance". This money goes to advertise your big box competitors like Lowes or Home Depot.

That is exactly what happens every time our small farm sends a steer or heifer to a livestock auction.Big Companies like Monsanto and Con Agra are using my beef checkoff money to sponsor something called the "Food Dialogues" a faux town hall meeting to try to undo the damage from Movies like Food Inc. and Farmageddon. You can read about is here in at the American Conservative Magazine's website (AmCon is one of the only truly conservative political magazines left in America).

To make things even better, a judge in Wisconsin has ruled that Americans have no right to produce and consume their own food.

I am no libertarian or anarchist. I do not believe rights are absolute; they end where your neighbors' rights begin. If you see my other blog, you may know that a large part of my off-farm professional work deal with balancing property rights against those of a neighbor or a community at large. Local law properly executed can protect private property while minimizing restrictions. What this judge has done is the equivalent of changing a zoning ordinance from regulating the size of a building to mandating the color of the kitchen walls. It may be a reasonable exercise of law to ban selling tainted milk to school children. What is on my dinner plate from my goat or my garden is my own business.

As Walter Jeffries said, we need to start raising a stink. A good start is buying local and ending EVERY FARM SUBSIDY.

New rant at the new blog

2011-09-26T21:56:00.002-04:00

I try to write with charity, but I drove by something today worth a rant.

Endings and Beginnings (what happened to granny miller blog)

2011-09-23T12:07:00.003-04:00

I received a comment today asking about the new site. It is not complete, but it can be found here After years of blogging, I never wrote about how I make my off-farm living. Inspired by my friend Herrick Kimball's wonderful blog about our agrarian past, I will be looking at the prospects for an agrarian future in the midst of urban America.

I also owe many of the readers of my wife's now defunct website a more complete obituary. Early this year, my wife made the conscious decision to spend a lot less time on the web, and more time living her life. As Granny Miller became more popular, it was taking 3+ hours of each day. She really did want to keep the site and videos up until December, but in the midst of this, we had to care for a very sick family member. With my very time consuming business, our farm, and the need to care for a loved one, the accidental loss of the website seemed of little consequence. Since the You tube videos were only an introduction that linked to necessary and more in depth information on the website, she removed them out of a sense of responsibility that someone not misuse something incomplete.

I know there is strong interest out there for homesteading skills. The best advice I can give someone who wants to learn canning and small farming is to find a real world Granny or Grandpa. They are out there, even in cities. Last year I had a fascinating conservation with an older Bulgarian man about food preservation and scything fodder for livestock. We had this conversation on the stoop of a Manhattan apartment. There are people with skills worth learning wherever you live. Go meet them.

When my wife started Granny Miller, there were not as many homesteading sites on the web. It seems there is a new one every day. As someone who was raised on a farm and has consciously practiced homesteading skills for decades, I am not sure this is completely a good thing. The information I see on the web ranges from worthwhile to dangerously idiotic. Bad canning practices will kill you as quick as tainted industrial food.

If you are interested in seriously building agrarian skills, the best information is still in print media. Countryside and Small Stock and its family of magazines is a treasure of good information. I have copies back to the 70's. A small magazine out of Ohio called Farming is also worth its weight in Gold. One of the lessons I have learned from Media Ecology is that we also retain information better from the printed word than electronic media, so the small cost of these magazines is a great investment for any aspiring agrarian.

I also want to let Granny Miller readers know that she is doing well. She is training a rat terrier puppy, learning to upholster furniture, painting our new chicken coop, and cleaning up the last of this year's garden. She is also stumping locally for Ron Paul. Her Internet use these days is limited to Netflix and following celebrity gossip (we all have our vices!). I would be shocked it she ever returns to blogging.

I will continue to write as time permits as my professional obligations keep me at a computer for several hours each day. If you are interested, I look forward to seeing you over at the the Agrarian Urbanist.

John Seymour Classics Back In Print

2011-09-14T15:42:00.001-04:00

My family imparted to me, and later my wife, a great number of practical agrarian skills. However, growing up in an age where the myths of unending progress prevailed, I had to get much of my agrarian philosophy elsewhere. It all started with an Eric Sloane book I found in a used bookstore when I was 16. When I was 18, I found a copy of John Seymour's memoir "Fat of the Land" in the local library. I was hooked. Over the years I have collected many of his 41 books, which was fairly difficult before the Internet. If you are interested in any aspect of self sufficiency, you really need to read John Seymour. He is the father of the modern self sufficiency movement, and his works range from purely practical to some hard hitting social criticism. However, unlike many social critics, his books impart genuine affection for people. He understood that economies, farms, communities, are for PEOPLE, and we should not be mere cogs in service of the great god economy. Along with Gene Logsdon and Eric Sloane, John Seymour's ideas made me (for better or worse) the person I am today. If you are a fan, you may not know that his family has continued homesteading in Wales, and are bringing back some of his earlier works. I just received the news that his memoir of moving to Wales from England (I'm A Stranger Here Myself) has been brought back into print, and promptly ordered a copy. You can visit the family site at carninglipress. They also started a John Seymour quote Twitter Feed

some good reading here

2011-08-26T10:52:00.003-04:00

I just discovered this agrarian weblog a couple of days ago:

The New Agrarian

Very thoughtful and articulate essays and shorter posts. I particularly commend his reading list and eightfold Agrarian Way.

Beaver Wars

2011-08-24T14:16:00.003-04:00

Dear Friends and Readers,
I am still playing with some details about a new blog, and will be posting here until I get unstuck.

I happened to hear a bit on the radio last night about recent events in Libya. I know about as much about middle eastern affairs as my dogs do, but a couple of things struck me.

1.I heard Libya is comprised of about 140 tribes.

2. Libya is a major oil producer, and we all know Oil is a scarce and desirable resource.

3. Media folks seem to assume that this is a western style enlightened "revolution", when maybe it is just one set of tribes taking advantage of a change in balances of power?

Tribalism has been the normal means of organization for most of human society and most of history. It is deeply antithetical to the way most western human people think, as we choose nation state or individualism as an identifier. Tribalism is a very different mindset. Think of it as football rivalry on steroids. The norm in tribal societies is perpetual warfare, and ideas about rule of law are diminished as the individual only has meaning in relationship to the group.

I am fascinated what happens when modern western empires interact with tribes. An interesting example is how the emerging Scottish state suppressed its tribes, beginning on the borders in the 16th Century and culminating with the breakup of the highland clans in the 18th. The Clans get romanticized a lot but an honest reading of history illustrates some incredible cruelties of one clan to another, or occasionally a chief to his subjects.

One facet of inter-tribal warfare seems to be that one group is always looking for an edge. When a technologically superior outsider (European Empire) comes in with that edge, they will use it. For example, the Aztecs beat up and enslaved their neighbors. When Hernan Cortes came, they were happy to ally with him to beat up and enslave the Aztecs.

In my part of the World, European Empires once wanted Beaver skins. The tribes were happy to provide them, and started hunting and trapping harder than ever before. In trade for Beavers, the tribes got stuff they could not make, like muskets. As Beaver depleted, warfare intensified over the now scarce resource. The Iroquois confederacy began flexing their muscle to control more of the trade, resulting in Beaver Wars that included full scale genocide. It is also interesting to note that the Beaver Wars were primarily proxy wars. Dutch, English and French supplied the arsenals, but did little fighting. However, as Beavers vanished more and the tribes became more dependent on trade goods, the Seven Years War erupted across the world.

I think it is worthwhile to study the Beaver wars for parallels to today.

1. Tribal societies want military technology they cannot make. Whether a .62 caliber musket in 1700, or a 7.62X39 mm carbine today, most of the warfighting technology was/is supplied in exchange for Oil/Beaver .

2. Warfare intensifies as resources deplete.

3. If more than one Empire wants that scarce resource, a distant proxy war can come home.

4. It is likely that the now out-group set of tribes become the victims of atrocities, many of which we will not ever know about.

5. I think this knowledge of history was once a source for the non interventionism that once characterized our Republic.

Toy Guns Scaring the Nanny

2011-08-18T11:21:00.005-04:00

Image courtesy of Heroiclife on Flckr

Mike Vanderboegh on the continuing disappearance of common sense.
Two kids playing army sends a town into the vapors.

Growing up in a region that mined coal and limestone, I played with carbide and blackpowder. I still have all my fingers. When I was not trying to break into Dad's carbide cans, I played army. We once "raided" the school on a holiday. We crawled over a mile of strip mines and "sprayed" the building with with toy machine gun fire. With zero tolerance kids who did that today would probably be in a long term psychiatric gulag.

Turning Up The Heat: The Government's War on Small Farmers

2011-08-12T16:16:00.005-04:00

I received this letter in the mail today, and wanted to share it with the World. Apparently, in spite of a budget crisis, trillions in debt, two or three foreign wars, flash mobs, massive unemployment, a complete meltdown on the Mexican Border and the threat of a rising Chinese Navy, the Federal Government has time to send me a friendly warning that a pickup truck load of market lambs were not properly ear tagged in conformity with my state department of agriculture rules. For a Federale to do this is the equivalent to the FBI warning me about a speeding violation.

I had a mildly interesting conversation with Dr Smiley about this matter. Apparently Pennsylvania changed its rules that previously only required tags for older sheep.
Why does a Federal official feel a need to implement a state rule? When I asked for a copy of the state rule, He stated he would need to find it and send me a copy. I am sure he and I will be talking again.

You may of heard today that we Farmers are also going to have to get Commercial Driver's Licenses to keep the nation safe from our tractors, haybines and manure spreaders. As my lovely wife has a CDL and I don't, she is poised to be the only tractor driver in the family.

This also comes on the heels of a Freedom of Information Act request I had to file with the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security. You see, my wife and I hosted RWVA Appleseed shoots on our farm until they were taken over by a nearby Sportsman's Club. Under the previous governor, PA Homeland Security hired an Israeli intelligence gathering firm to monitor RWVA (and many other groups)as a potential for attracting "anti government extremists".

In comments under the previous post, I mentioned I was contemplating another blogging project since the death of the Granny Miller site. As freedom may be breathing its last in America and multiple financial crises usher in a police state, independent farms and businesses are going to be increasingly targeted. In these days, anyone with an opinion that differs from the mainstream will be labeled an extremist. In the face of such threats, "political" blogging is an act of self defense and I hope to have a new site up and running soon under my own name. If you don't hear from me, I may be in some USDA Gulag for not properly tagging a sheep.

Best Regards,

Richard Grossman

Technorati Tags: Small Farmer,Ranch,Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture,USDA,NAIS,Big Brother,New World Order,Patriot,Freedom Wars,Scrapie,Sheep,Goats,Tyranny

Granny Miller RIP

2011-07-11T23:16:00.003-04:00

I am posting here to report the death of my wife's website www.homesteadgardenandpantry.com.

While Granny Miller the person is alive and well, "Granny Miller" the small farm blog has bit the dust. We were going to run it out to the end of 2011 then archive it, but Mrs. accidentally killed the site trying to delete some spam. In doing so, she hacked her own site. The files are literally deleted and the folks at Go Daddy cannot revive her. Their advice was hire a web consultant, which is a lot of trouble for a two-bit blog. As this is our busy time of year, a full obituary will follow.

putting her up on blocks

2010-08-02T19:53:00.010-04:00

I am going to be parking this weblog for a while, removing the battery, draining the oil, taking off the tires and putting her up on blocks.

As time permits, I will be writing on my Anglican Christian faith over at the River Thames Beach Party. For agrarian interests, I have been invited by my talented wife to join her website, Granny Miller's Homestead Garden and Pantry. I am looking forward to this because I originally started this journal back in 2008 because she did not like me hacking into the old Granny Miller blog. I guess if we live together and farm together, we can maybe manage to share cyberspace. I am also excited about this because non topical agrarian information that I write about(Such as building a sheep feeder or moving a pole building) is better presented in a website than a blog format. Any information here will remain.

Thanks for reading and God Bless you!

Another great Sermon from Father Robert Hart.

2010-07-12T10:13:00.003-04:00

Along with my own pastor, the sermons of Father Robert Hart over at the Continuum are becoming a regular favorite. Father Hart leans "high church" in certain respects and my parish leans "low church", but the Gospel is being proclaimed with all its startling implications in both places. I believe this proclamation remains so consistent because of commitment to the traditional Books of Common Prayer. The prayer book is not just something we use to be "traditional" or "English"; we use it because by ordering Scripture readings around thoughtful prayers it lets us better understand truths about man and God that are consistent from Genesis to Revelation.

"Our Book of Common Prayer does not flatter us, and does not lie to us. Some people have decided that religion is a self-help program. Be warned; if your idea of the Christian life is some sort of self-improvement program, you are in grave danger of missing the whole point". Read it all here.

Asking The Right Questions

2010-06-25T13:35:00.002-04:00

From the blog of Dr Uwe Simon Netto. He is one of the few theologians that is asking such questions. For the church to prepare for unpleasant reality is not a violation of the two Kingdoms. In times of disaster, act of mercy are more necessary, but can only be enacted by those who prepared.

"But then how is the Church to react in the event of terrorist attacks with nuclear or biological devices; how will it function when the supplies of food and energy are disrupted, and when communications have broken down? How will it respond to severe persecution perhaps even in America and Western Europe? How will it minister to its faithful when they are cut off from their sanctuaries, and when pastors have lost contact to their scattered flocks?

Are these unthinkable scenarios? It would be foolish to assume that they were – even in the United States. Take the word of a septuagenarian for this, a man who has spent his childhood in a country that used to be the most civilized in the world and was reduced to an antechamber of hell almost overnight".read the rest............

Wisdom from Father Robert Hart

2010-06-10T09:01:00.004-04:00

This gem of a sermon ties together the tables of the law,our inability to save ourselves, and the importance of real charity as an act towards neighbor as a person, not abstract humanity. Here is an excerpt:

"The Law is weak, because of the sinful condition into which each of us was born, and so the Law cannot provide the grace to love God. We have no power to love God, which love is manifested if we obey His commandments. Without the grace of God made known by Jesus Christ in all his saving acts, and without the grace given to us by the Holy Spirit within us, we have no power to love God".

As a student of history, I like this part too:

"The righteous man considers the life of his beast. But, the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel" says the Book of Proverbs (12:10). Utopian ideologues since the French Revolution, such as Marx and his followers, spoke lofty words about what was best for mankind. It reminds me of one of Charles Schultz’s Peanuts cartoons. Linus tells his sister Lucy that he wants to be a doctor, a great doctor. She tells him 'you cannot be a great doctor. You know why? Because a doctor must love mankind. You don’t love mankind.' Linus, stunned, retorts 'I do love mankind…It’s people I can’t stand!' The ideologues have always loved mankind; and they have made many people suffer for it. They have offered millions of innocent victims to some idea of 'the greatest good for the greatest number,' and all of that Satanic propaganda about what is best for humanity. Crowds enjoying the spectacle of heads being cut off in Paris, Communists dictating who should live, who should die, and who must go to the camps, and, indeed, the Nazis destroying millions in order to advance human evolution to the state of perfection, believed they were lovers of mankind, saviors of that abstract and impersonal thing called 'humanity.'"...................Read the rest here

Look around you, who is your neighbor?

Appleseed Rifle Clinics 2010

2010-05-20T18:08:00.003-04:00

I shamefully am only now posting the schedule of Appleseed events to be held here at our farm. You can see the schedule at my other weblog:Timothy Murphy Memorial Designated Appleseed Range. I hope all readers consider availing themselves of this opportunity to both learn to shoot and learn more about our Nation's origins.
There are many more shoots across the nation as well. See our main website at www.rwva.org

Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund Endorses Sam Rohrer

2010-05-13T13:03:00.003-04:00

This blog is not normally a "political" blog. However, Sam Rohrer has been a leader in the freedom and liberty movement. What follows is full text of the endorsement from the Best Second Amendment Organization there is: Gun Owners of America If you live in Pennsylvania, please consider supporting this fine man to be our next governor.

Dear Friend of the Second Amendment:

Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund is proud to endorse Sam Rohrer for Governor of Pennsylvania.

In a time when politicians in Washington have abused and grossly exceeded their constitutional limits, people at the state level are looking for fighters who are not afraid to rein in the federal government and place it back under the constraints of the U.S. Constitution.

State Representative Sam Rohrer is a long-time leader in the battle against federal intrusion, especially when it concerns the right to keep and bear arms.

Representative Rohrer stood up for gun owners and states' rights with legislation to repeal the 2005 Real ID Act, a law that would have compromised the privacy of gun owners.

"I am deeply concerned about how the rights of law-abiding gun owners will be impacted by the implementation of the REAL ID Act," said Rohrer. "The Second Amendment clearly states that our right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed upon. Thus, it is safe to say that Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the rest of our nation's Founding Fathers would not even consider carrying around a biometric, REAL ID card that would allow the federal government to instantly track their activities and whereabouts.

"Make no mistake about it, REAL ID holds the unmatched potential to violate our Second Amendment liberty as we know it," Rohrer continued. "Whether you're actually buying a firearm or purchasing shells or bullets for hunting, recreational target shooting or self-defense makes no difference. The store will scan your REAL ID card, and your purchase could be permanently registered in the federal government's national driver's license registry. In essence, the federal government could also have the ability to limit the amount of guns and ammunition you're allowed to purchase or own."

Rep. Rohrer also authored and introduced the Tenth Amendment Resolution, which calls for aggressive opposition to the size and growth of federal programs, regulations and mandates from Washington D.C.

"Before there was ever a federal government, there were sovereign individual states. The Constitution very, very clearly recognizes that we are a Republic," said Rohrer.

In Harrisburg, Representative Rohrer has stood up and supported every pro-Second Amendment bill that came up in the State House, including:

* Castle Doctrine legislation, which strengthens existing laws dealing with the use of lethal force for the purpose of self-defense;

* Legislation to allow individuals with a valid Pennsylvania license to carry a firearm to purchase additional guns without the cumbersome, expensive and redundant requirements of subsequent background checks through the Pennsylvania Instant Check System (PICS).

* Legislation that enables law-abiding individuals who can demonstrate evidence of imminent danger to themselves or a member of their family to receive a 90-day temporary emergency license to carry a firearm, allowing sufficient time to apply for a regular license to carry a firearm and undergo the potential 45-day waiting period for a license to carry under current state law; and,

* Legislation calling for Pennsylvania law enforcement agencies, specifically the state police, to discontinue its database of legal handgun purchases. Those records include personal information about gun owners, such as mailing addresses and Social Security numbers. The bill also sets a third-degree felony penalty and a fine up to $5 million for maintaining an illegal gun registry or database.

"Gun owners across this Commonwealth are justifiably outraged any time they are mandated by government to endure a loss of Constitutional freedom and personal security," said Rohrer at a 2007 rally.

"When government is not properly enforcing the laws that already exist to curtail violent crime, it is nothing short of tyranny in the first degree to place additional restrictions on law-abiding citizens whose only desire is to defend their lives, their loved ones and their property."

As a legislator, Rep. Rohrer has stayed true to his personal commitment to the Second Amendment. "My goal as governor," said Rohrer at a recent town hall meeting, "would not be to get guns off the streets, but to get criminals off the streets."

Gun Owners of America is a proud supporter of Sam Rohrer for Governor, and encourages all Pennsylvania gun owners and sportsmen to vote for Sam Rohrer in the May 18 Republican primary.

Please visit http://www.samrohrer.org to learn more about this race.

Sincerely,

Tim Macy
Vice-Chairman

Paid for by Larry Pratt. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Wisdom from Gillis Harp

2010-04-29T14:31:00.003-04:00

Great book review discussing the problems of Randian Objectivism, from the Senior Warden of my church, and my friend, Gillis Harp:

"Dispensing with God can leave one with either an all-powerful state, or the all-powerful self". You can read the rest here

Wisdom From Canon Tallis

2010-04-28T14:16:00.001-04:00

"Those who strike out at the faith and practice of the prayer book are also striking out at the very dignity and freedom of every man. One of the doctrines of the framers of the American Constitution and government was that we receive our rights, not from government but from God. And that is a doctrine which they learned both from the Bible, the Authorized Version, and from the Book of Common Prayer".

Read it all Here.

What is wrong with America in One minute or Less

2010-04-22T14:55:00.004-04:00

On occasion, I see an observation that succinctly states everything that is wrong with American Society and Culture today.

Here it is in less than 25 words, from Protestant Pontifications.

Is the party over?

2010-03-11T17:54:00.001-05:00

Interesting thoughts from Caleb Steagall, the Kansas farmer-lawyer.
The Tea Parties seem to have become the focal point for a three way battle of ideas between forces epitomized by Glenn Beck, Newt Gingreich, and Alex Jones, none of whom I find particularly appealing. I have heard precious little from any of them that could be regarded as conservative in either ideas or demeanor.

Now, only someone from the DC ruling class or a fool would not think there was not something radically wrong with our country. However, if we are to restore "conservative values" should we not at least act like conservatives? Should we not also identify something worth conserving as a starting point?

I recently wrote to my English friend that I think the most radically conservative act we could do was go home to tend our gardens and homes and visit our neighbors. He thought that statement would meet with Jane Austin's approval, which pleased me to no end.

Fear and Media

2010-03-09T22:59:00.000-05:00

I recently finished reading Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, based upon a recommendation by my friend T. David Gordon. Though the examples are dated, the thesis stands the test of time well. The book can be purchased new from Cumberland Books.

Among the observations are that mass television media trivializes the significant, and by its nature as a medium, cannot do otherwise. I love the Internet as a way allow more ideas to be heard. However, most Internet news is just as trivial, but just in greater quantity.

Perhaps more important, I also believe that 24 hour assaults of online news are probably as harmful as some of the more widely acknowledged harmful things to be found on the seedier side of the web. The web provides an endless supply of disturbing news and adds ways to share one's sense of terror or disgust through email and forums. The daily commute reinforces this with talk radio, which is fed in part by the web. TV news is now 24/7, and contains so much data that scroll bars are necessary to augment the talking head.

I have been a member of a couple of political activist type forums. On these, I notice a cycle of fear and outrage, neither of which are healthy and neither of which will necessarily solve anything. (Ultimately, our political problems our cultural and spiritual, which is the subject for another post)

To offer some solace, I highly commend this essay by the Reverend Franklin Sanders. It is so good, I keep a printed copy in my office as an antidote to what might show up in my email box.

Food Inc, An Agrarian Movie Review Part Two

2010-02-20T22:52:00.001-05:00

Much of Food, inc, created a climate of fear about the nations' food safety, and I do not dispute many of these facts. However, not adequately addressed by the film was how fragile the food system really is. Last week, my 77 year old mother made her weekly trip from our farm to her favorite discount grocery store. She was mildly surprised to find them closed. On the door, a sign was posted that they would reopen after they could re-stock. As she peered in the windows, she confirmed that the shelves were indeed bare. Apparently, the Winter storms had prevented the supply trucks from making it.

I am struck that if a relatively minor stress such as a snowstorm in the northwest Pa. snow belt can close a national chain store, the American food system failed. My grandfather was a country store keeper. His store was only 1 miles from where I am writing this, and was one of two stores once within easy walking distance of our farm. My mother reminisced to me about the many times our road used to be closed from heavy snow. Her father or one of her brothers would actually live at the store in times of bad weather, in case a customer needed something. She summed up the situation pretty adeptly, “You know, I did not really need anything because I always stock up, but I think we were a lot better off when we had all them country stores around”. The scariest thing about the centralization depicted in Food, inc, is not necessarily the dangers of the food, it lies in whether the system can reliably supply any food at all.

I am profoundly grateful that at least one of those small country stores remains in our community. In fact, it was the source of those naughty GMO corn chips I recently enjoyed. I do a lot of business there because I like the owner and want to keep such a store handy. The store tends to specialize in tasty, rather than healthy. I find it no sacrifice at all to patronize it for those things we do not grow or make ourselves.

In doing so, there is a certain risk, GMO's being among them. I recognize this, having lived my life in a community that produces more food than it consumes. In general, I believe that when the consumer becomes an abstraction to the farmer or the manufacturer, danger is more likely to lurk in dinner. The area behind the store is a dairy cow pasture.
When those girls get too old to produce much milk, they get sold at the stockyards as “breakers, boners, shells, or thins”. They become meat for burgers, canned meats, and I suspect some become the pepperoni on one of the store's homemade pizzas. I am not sure what happens in between the stage of cow and pizza, but I take the risk, thanking God for the life of the animal, and my neighbor who made the food. I also cannot help but wonders why the old girls' travels are so necessary. There were old Italian people in the mining communities and bigger towns near here who used to make their own pepperoni. Could somebody take a local cow, butcher in here, spice it up and sell it back to the store? At some point, the so-called economy of scale must begin to dissipate;especially if the law did not prevent this activity.

Perhaps the most grievous shortcoming of Food, inc. was in its portrait of the American farmer. He is shown as another victim, like the consumers. The real story is far different. In spite of small numbers, the American corn belt farmer exerts enormous control on public policy related to food. This control began in the Twentieth Century era of mechanization. The corn belt supplied the feed for the nations' horses. In addition to supplying farm power, horses were common in American cities for milk delivery, rag pickers, and beer wagons. These nags were fueled on Iowa corn. By the end of the Second World War, there was a sort of mini crisis in the corn belt. The market was disappearing, Farm organizations went to the land grant colleges and set the researchers to work finding new uses for their main crop. The initial results were re-grading of beef carcasses to favor corn fattening. Sheep Breeding was changed as well, increasing size to create an animal that thrives on a high grain diet. Here is an English Suffolk Sheep, which is pretty much what a Suffolk looked like in America around 1950.

Here is an American Suffolk sheep of today.

After livestock, the land grant colleges began fiddling with new uses for Corn. Corn became used for starch, sweeteners, latex paint, and disposable diapers. We are now a culture as dependent upon corn as the Plains Indians were upon the Buffalo.

The Corn Belt also is responsible for the truly bizarre system of farm subsidies. The subsidies were a work of a very strange and powerful coalition of urban Democrats and farm state Republicans. The former supported farm subsidies for the latter in exchange for such programs as food stamps in the inner cities. Thus, we have now reached the very strange circumstance where we are paying an Iowa farmer handsomely to grow a product that is made into unhealthy food we then buy for poor single moms in big cities.

The changes in farm culture wrought by this are as disastrous as the decline in the American City. The idea of the farm as the center of family food production has disappeared. While most farmers around here are excellent mechanics and equipment operators, they have forgotten as many basic households skills as the rest of us. I actually know of several dairy farmers that buy their milk in the store. Agrarian writer and historian Alan Carlson once wrote that a successful local farmer brought his son to see Carlsons large garden so the boy could learn where food came from!

The American food system has become a kind of bizarro world. Food, Inc. raised the right questions, but offered only conventional answers, many of which created the system. A food system so truly counterproductive is doomed. One real answer to replace the system may lie in backyards and kitchens across America. I myself am looking forward to the day when I can enjoy local pepperoni at my favorite store.

Food, Inc.: An Agrarian Movie Review (Part One)

2010-02-09T21:36:00.000-05:00

Because I have been involved in the raising and selling of food,a couple of people have asked me my opinion about the movie Food,inc, which is now available from Netflix as a streaming video. I watched the movie recently, or most of it. I got bored once and left it stream for a few minutes and got annoyed once and left again. At the same time, I have been reading some excellent posts by Pastor Douglas Wilson on food, which can be accessed at his site.

I do not dispute many of the facts in the Movie. A few big multinational corporations have a stranglehold on large parts of the food system. I enjoy the fact that the film scared those large companies enough that they feel the need to spend money responding. I believe that genetic modification of food is genuinely dangerous to human and animal health.

My dislike of the film is a profound disagreement with every one of the "solutions" offered, which included (1)more regulations and inspections,(2)Joel Salatin, and(3) consumers demanding more organic food choices.

There was a very telling statistic at one point in the film that alluded to the decline in USDA inspections. I have a suspicion that this decline is due in part to a decline in facilities to inspect. Twenty years ago, there was a small slaughterhouse and meat cutter 4 miles from here. Thirty years ago, there were 3 slaughterhouses in the same radius. At least one went out of business rather than spend the money and annoyance in keeping up with ever changing regulations. These regulations were not a necessary guarantee for the safety and health of meat. The only guarantee of that is the honor of the butcher.

I once sold a lamb to a man from Lebanon. He arrived on a July day to kill and cut it up on the farm. July is not normal Pennsylvania butchering season, due to the warm weather. He used a sharp knife and cut the lamb's throat. After it bled out, I hoisted with a crane from the tractor. He cut it up in about 40 minutes. Some parts would be eaten raw as "kibbi nayeef", definately not USDA approved cooking. He worked carefully and quickly without any of the stainless steel surfaces, cooling or other paraphernalia required for USDA slaughter. The meat was safe and clean. It had to be, as his family depended on it.

The local meat cutters once knew their customers nearly as intimately as that man. If they made anyone sick, they actually had to face his family. Most were also craftsmen, and took pride in what they did. Many of the increased regulations were developed by the revolving door corporate agribusiness/government officials. Whther by purpose or design, the effect of the regulations was to drive out the local option.

I have never met Joel Salatin. I did read several of his books. The first ones I read were borrowed from a farmer who adopted many of his approaches and lost his farm. Mr. Salatin is a bright guy and has developed some interesting innovations.I find most compelling his book and earlier essay "Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal" which touches on the point above and was NOT adequately addressed in the movie. As compelling a character as he is, his particular location and circumstances are not automatically transferable to every region of the country. They work great for farmers within a couple hours of drive a very large and wealthy metro area. Mr. Salatin is also an entrepreneurial huckster (I use this term with genuine affection), and I suspect his promotion of books, videos, paid farm tours, and speaking engagement fees helps make the mortgage. My wife once correctly remarked that he is a modern version of Frank Perdue (another likeable huckster).

Finally, consumers making demands to Walmart or Whole Foods is not a long term solution to the nation's food safety problems. The revolving door corporate government bureaucrats of the emerging servile state have the ability to control the definitions and parameters of "safe". For example,the definition of "organic", is now a legal term, and changes with the needs of business. Advertising can also create powerful subliminal messages, which the movie began with. Beyond this legal/regulatory/sales talk jungle, it is also no real assurance of safety or "cruelty free food". Some large feed lots have adopted the revolutionary humane handling systems of Dr. Temple Grandin (as a means of economic self interest). Some of the cruelest, most genuinely wicked livestock handlers I have ever seen are family scale Amish farmers.

The idea of "consumer action" strikes at the heart of the flaw in Food, Inc. The consumer is by necessity a victim. He must buy what he wants to eat. He has chosen freedom from toil in exchange for control of his own food safety. The lower the consumer's skill level; the greater the victimhood. Increasingly in American society dinner means food that has already been cooked, or made as ready to cook as possible. Every step in the chain from the cow to the hamburger, or the grain of wheat to the noodle in the Hamburger Helper package increase the danger through complexity of development. The consumer can only avoid this by becoming a producer. This does not mean that everyone need raise all their own food. Production can start in the kitchen (learning to actually cook, rather than "heat and eat"), move to the pantry (learning to can,freeze,dry and otherwise preserve), then the garden. For some, it might then move to the barnyard, even if the barnyard is only three chickens and a meat rabbit pen in a suburban backyard. While this takes skills and represents hard work, it is also satisfying. Were this to happen, it would also solve many dangers to the food system by reducing the systems current complexity.

Part Two will follow soon, unless I have a heart attack from the GMO corn chips and cheese whiz I ate tonight.

Catching Up

2009-11-27T13:21:00.001-05:00

It has been longer than normal since I updated this journal. A lot of things have happened that I have meant to write about, but events have conspired to keep me from doing so.

We had another successful Appleseed shoot on the farm here in October.

Right after the shoot, my long time Cattle dog companion, Nipper, died.

The small company I have worked for off-farm for decades is closing its doors. I opted to leave early, take a great deal and become totally self-employed.

I renewed the Oath I took in 1986 to uphold and defend the United States Constistution and became an Oathkeeper.

I have been invited to become a member of a new Anglican group blog...The River Thames Beach Party. The party has started and I recomend the site, which you can find here.
I have enjoyed a correspondance with somebody I greatly admire, the Reverend Franklin Sanders, who is another Anglican AND Agrarian.

Most recently, I have been suffering a large and painful Chalazion. My family Doctor, pronounced it the largest he has ever seen. I suspect I have gotten it from an excess of dust, from both poultry and mowing the orchard. I am posting the picture so anyone else who encounters this occupational hazard can see one. I also thought that those seeing it might feel sorry enough for me to remember me in your prayers.

WARNING: Medically GRAPHIC PICTURE FOLLOWS Scroll down if you wish....

Moving a Pole Building

2009-09-23T17:51:00.001-04:00

This last weekend I moved a small pole building. It was built for pigs by my Dad and I about 18 years ago. It was no longer in a convenient place for pig raising. This was the second building we have successfully moved, and I thought the operation was interesting enough to give some pointers. My lovely and talented wife made the slide show. The basic technique is to raise the poles with a jack, cut the poles, then nail treated boards on all sides to connect them. The boards act as skids, and remain in place. The building survived a 100 foot trip, and is now completely portable. It is however, now about 3 more inches out of square, but the pigs do not seem particularly upset by this.

Dig generously around the poles, especially if the building is not on level ground.

When raising the building with the jack, be patient, listen for creaks.

I insert bricks to slowly raise the building on each side, then use the jack to go higher. Insert the bricks where they will not interfere with positioning the planks to connect the poles.

Be generous with nails, braces and anything to stabilize the building. It is especially important when bracing shed roof buildings to tie into the roof.

2009-09-23T17:50:00.001-04:00

Bantam nation

2009-09-19T22:40:00.000-04:00

two years ago, I traded a gallon of cider and two Buff Orpington Pullets to a homesteading neighbor for six bantams, (five Japanese and one White Cochin).
There are now somewhere around 45-55 of them running around. I sold two boxes at Rogers Ohio in last year and in June this year. I sold four from an ad at the local mill, The day after I sold them, another four chicks hatched. They are breeding faster than I can get to market. If any readers are in the area and want a FREE starter flock, please email the midlandagrarian at gmail dot com.

A good Essay from Home on the Range

2009-09-02T22:11:00.000-04:00

I have been meaning to post this in between garden cleanup sheep work and life.
Big Texas sized Hat Tip to the New Anglican Firearms Enthusiast for spotting this one and to Brigid over at Home on the Range for writing it. This article is important for those who want to maintain self reliance in an evil World and those who love their families enough to protect them, rather than denying the possibility of evil

Click Here to Read it All

I have been busier than normal

2009-08-20T21:51:00.000-04:00

We just finished the first Appleseed event at our farm, It was a great success. You can read about it here.

The Rutherford Institute: Speaking Truth to Power

2009-07-31T13:05:00.000-04:00

I became a member of the Rutherford Institute today. As I watch where our society and nation is going, I am becoming increasingly concerned about the loss of traditional civil Liberties in which both of the prominent political parties have been complicent. While our government is not explicitly Christian, our society and culture traditionally were Christian and this influenced politics in many good ways. I thought about this because of our church calendars recent commemorations of William Wilberforce, JS Bach, and Jane Austen. With the efforts to remove all religious references from public education, how can one really understand Wilberforce's tireless effort to end slavery, or Bach's music? What would a Muslim Jane Austen write? A true and lively faith informs all we do and touch.

Conversely, I am not comfortable with a church that associates too closely with the political power structure. The result of such alliances tend to corrupt the church, and the historical evidence for this can be seen from Tsarist Russia to the current timidity among some British Anglican leadership. The late historian Page Smith believed that it was a duty of the church to be the critic of society, especially a free capitalist one. That duty becomes difficult when the church is in the inner circle.

The Rutherford Institute is names after Rev. Samuel Rutherford, author of Lex Rex, one of the great landmark treatises in favor of human equality before the law. Rutherford was not a modern advocate of religious liberty (The concept of the freedom to be wrong had not been born yet). However, he realized the threat of tyranny in a government with unlimited powers, because he understood human nature.

"all kings, since the fall of the father, king Adam, are inclined to sin and
injustice, and so had need to be guided by a law, even because they are
kings, so they remain men. Omnipotency in one that can sin is a cursed
power".

I spent a little time checking out the Rutherford Institute. While it is a specifically Christian organization, it has fought for the right of Muslim prisoners in the US to have access to religious material. Unlike the militantly secularist ACLU (Which seems to want freedom from religion) Rutherford has protected individual religious expression in public settings. The organization seem to have a consistent approach to Civil Liberties, including the lives of the unborn, concerns about the Patriot act,and Real ID. While not specifically a second amendment organization, I read enough of their material to believe they understand its proper role.

Supporting Membership starts with a modest $22. I would encourage others to learn about Rutherford and their work.

The "Offensive" Name of Our Lord and Saviour

2009-07-21T12:05:00.000-04:00

The name of Jesus, offends the Pa General Assembly (Hat tip to the Beautiful and talented Mrs Powel).

This is more historic amnesia, as we see from this prayer to open the Continental Congress in 1774, taken from one of many sites from New York Patriot Hercules Mulligan. This is a beautful prayer in the Anglican tradition which Quakers, Deists, Presbyterians, and Independents were willing to join in:

King of Kings and Lord of lords: who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers upon earth and reignest with power supreme & uncontrouled over all kingdoms, empires and governments, look down in mercy,we beseech thee, upon these our American states who have fled to thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves upon thy gracious protection, desiring henceforth to be dependent only on thee. To thee they have appealed for the righteousness of their Cause; to Thee do they look up, for that countenance & support which Thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under thy nurturing care: give them wisdom in council, valour in the field. Defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries. Convince them of the unrighteousness of their cause. And if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, O! let the voice of thy unerring justice sounding in their hearts constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their enerved hands in the day of battle. Be thou present, O God of Wisdom and direct the counsels of this honourable Assembly. Enable them to settle things upon the best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that harmony and peace may effectually be restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety prevail and flourish amongst thy people. Preserve the health of their bodies and the vigour of their minds; shower down upon them and the millions they represent(13) such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ thy son, Our Saviour, Amen.

Miss Jane Austen

2009-07-20T22:21:00.000-04:00

For someone of my background and sensibilities, it is very easy to become depressed with the state of religion, politics, and culture in our country. I tend to hang onto any hope I encounter. A large source of such hope is provided by the young people I am privileged to worship with every Sunday. When I find out that these young adults are reading Jane Austen, I have a renewed hope for our nation and Christian civilization. I often feel like my generation messed up in so many ways; theological liberalism that destroys the chance to know both ourselves and God, unrestrained greed masquerading as economic liberty, and the sexual "revolution". In short, my generation of both extended adolescence and adolescents (60+ years for some of us) broke the chains of restraint that bound us to both our ancestors and our progeny. We partied on 401ks, easy credit, easy divorce, and rootlessness. The rebuilding is now up to the young. Reading Jane Austen is as good a start to reconstruction as I can think of. For those young men who might eschew Ms. Austen as "girlie lit", I would offer Peter Leithart's, advice that "Real Men Read Jane Austen". If Rev. Leithart is not "manly" enough, how about a half-educated redneck gun nut, sheepherder, and woodcutter who reads and profits from her?

My wife shares a birthday with the anniversary of the death of Miss Austen. While she is not considered a saint officially on any church calendar, many revere her memory as a woman who lived a Christian life and left an exemplary body of writing behind her. At least one Roman Catholic layman, prolific historian Paul Johnson, directly invokes her in his prayers. Anglicans are divided on this devotional practice, but we agree on revering the memory of the faithful departed by thanking God for their lives and contributions. In that spirit, Nicholas from the Comfortable Words recently composed and published this collect.

O ALMIGHTY God, who granted unto Jane Austen varied charms of character, and ennobled her by Christian faith and piety; to whom thou didst give grace to open her mouth in wisdom, and upon whose tongue thou didst set the law of kindness; Grant also unto us both to perceive and know what things we ought to do, and also grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same. For the sake of Thine only Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

I offer it here in the hopes that it may be of use to others, and trust that Nicholas will not mind it becoming a well worn prayer of thanksgiving for this remarkable young woman. I also commend his recent essay on her, found here, as well as prayers she composed, found here.

Summer Season/July 4th Tea Party

2009-07-05T22:00:00.000-04:00

This is a very busy time of year. It is haymaking time, garden work is at its peak.
The bantams are hatching chicks,and best of all the wild black raspberries are here. I am getting about 2-3 quarts per hour when I pick. It looks like the blackberries will come on strong this year as well. I love picking wild berries because it was my first agrarian employment. From the time I was about 5, I loved going off to the woods, eating my fill, and bringing berries back for my mom or Granny to make pies and jelly. I still eat at least a pint every time I pick.

It has been a funny spring. We had a very late frost and the past few nights have been very cool (down to about 50 degrees at night. Some of the warm season vegetables are not doing well, not sick-just lacking "bloom". The cabbage and onions are excellent, the broccoli is fair, and the green beans have been ravaged by deer. We will still get some, but myself or someone else will have to get those beans back in the fall-- after they are converted to protein.

There is not a lot of volume in anyone's first cut hay in this area. Many blame the late frost.

I have also been training Bob, a new farm dog we got from the Venango County Humane Society. He is about 2, and I think he is either part English Shepherd or Australian Shepherd. He has been here for three weeks and is still learning basic commands and just being with us. He is just starting to work ducks a bit, helping me pen them each evening. While I would not necessarily start a cowdog on ducks, They are a much quieter way to start a sheepdog.

I did get away from the farm to attend the July 4th Tea party in Mercer Pa. I could not think of a better way to honor our founders than to take advantage of our First Amendment Rights in this manner. There were perhaps 600 people there. I got there a bit late, so I did not get the main speakers name. His main topic was the Constitution and how both parties have been ignoring it for too long on so many basic matters. It was very heartening to see 600+everyday Americans listen attentively to a one hour lecture on our Constitution. They also gave anyone in the audience three minutes to speak so I got to plug the RWVA and Appleseed. The great thing about this event was that the career politicians did not steal the limelight or co opt the agenda. This was pure everyday Americans who know that the Republic is in trouble. By just being there, they were beginning to educate themselves so that once again we might become a people fit for self-government.

As we pass another independence day, I am reminded that our liberties are a gift from God. This does NOT mean that we as Christians seek temporal power as a means in itself. I was privileged to hear Rev. Dr. T David Gordon preach at Grace today, and when I think about Christians and government I always remember this excellent essay of his on the subject. However, we do have some very specific things to say to this culture and place, as Fr. Robert Hart reminds us in this very good sermon.

Persecution in Connecticut

2009-06-15T23:21:00.000-04:00

This from Chris Rosebrough, the admiral over at Pirate Christian Radio, all Christians need to follow what is happening in Connecticut (as well as growing persecution in the UK) I was actually shocked by the constitutional implications of this state interference in church affairs, and I am pretty hard to shock these days.

You can listen here.

New Site for Appleseed Range

2009-06-12T13:43:00.000-04:00

I have a new weblog for the Appleseed Range. I will continue to post here about the farm and whatever else crosses my mind. I will occasionally cross post in both weblogs. However, I wanted to have a site for anyone planning to attend an Appleseed here and needing practical information without sifting through posts about how to build a sheep feeder, or various events in the life of a small Anglican church.

The new site is here.

Appleseed Update

2009-06-10T22:11:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post: Readers of this journal may know about our offer to use a part of our farm for the Appleseed program, as well as my own experience in this program, this past Patriot's Day.

It is now official. I am the host of the Timothy Murphy Memorial DAR (Designated Appleseed Range). After a poll of RWVA members, it was decided to name the range after a Pennsylvania born Hero of the Revolution, Timothy Murphy.The story of Timothy Murphy is proof how one common man can make a difference in history. His shot at Saratoga, helped win that battle, and Saratoga was the victory that allowed American diplomats to gain French and other European help.

The first Appleseed clinic will be here on August 15-16. Anyone can register at
the RWVA site. There is free primitive camping here, or nearby motels and full service campgrounds.

RWVA is a nonprofit group, Kids shoot free, Active duty military shoot free, ladies shoot free. Revolutionary War reenactors may also attend and shoot free if they wear their uniform (at least the first day and hopefully explain some of the history of their uniform). For the rest of us, the Clinic is $45 per day or $70 for both days. Register for both days and get a cool free T-Shirt. If the T-shirt is not enough, The combination of safety instruction, marksmanship training and American history is well worth a weekend.

I will be posting much more on this later.

A Northern Agrarian Tours the South.

2009-05-16T22:08:00.000-04:00

The Month of May is always a busy time, and this May was busier than most, as we traveled a couple of weeks ago. I actually wrote this two weeks ago, but have just had a chance to post it now.

My lovely wife and I are homebodies, but as her family is scattered from Massachusetts to South Carolina, we periodically need to meet various family obligations. So for the first time in two years, we spent a night away from home---actually four nights. Our destination was The South Carolina Low Country between Charleston and Myrtle Beach.

One of the reasons we don't travel much is that we have many responsibilities here. Leaving overnight forces us to call upon friends and family to watch over our livestock. They don't seem to mind, and are competent at the task, but every time I leave I feel like a new mother leaving her baby for the first time. I fret and worry the whole time.

Another reason is that I believe that my home country is superior to all others and I see no reason to leave it. However, I do understand that many other people feel this way. The peculiar love of ones home countryside was understood so well by Kipling:

God gave all men all earth to love,
But, since our hearts are small
Ordained for each one spot should prove
Beloved over all;
That, as He watched Creation's birth,
So we, in godlike mood,
May of our love create our earth
And see that it is good.

So one shall Baltic pines content,
As one some Surrey glade,
Or one the palm-grove's droned lament
Before Levuka's Trade.
Each to his choice, and I rejoice
The lot has fallen to me
In a fair ground-in a fair ground --
Yea, Sussex by the sea!

I rejoice that my own lot has fallen in the middle ground between the Ohio River and Lake Erie.

The final reason I dislike travel is I don't ever feel like I have anything to get away from. When I get tired of my off farm job, I work at home in the garden or cutting wood. By the time I am sick of that, its time to go back to my off-farm job.
We don't need to go to the park, because we have our own park at the back of the farm. My wife and I both enjoy being together for simple things: going to town to buy groceries and beer, or going to buy bedding plants. For a big treat we take a day trip.

When we travel, we try to avoid large Cities. We took The Interstate through West Virginia and western Virginia (near Galax. Then we cut through the heart of North Carolina, through towns such as Yadkinville, Salsbury and Rockwell. The area is interesting to me because there was once a fairly prominent Pennsylvania German presence there.

Here is a great country store we stopped at south of Mount Airy; friendly proproetor and a great selection of Case knives.

The South is not ideal sheep country, and we saw more meat goats than sheep in the Carolinas. However, we did see this nice flock that had some Tunis among them. This was interesting to me, as Tunis were the breed of choice in the South before the Civil War.

I find the Low Country interesting, because it is the natural world there is so foreign to me. None of the tree of plant species are familiar.

The soil is very sandy, and I am somewhat amazed that anything grows.

I appreciate the low country, but would have a hard time adjusting my agrarian skills to survive there. However, I do like the local people. On Sunday morning, I attended early Service at All Saints Anglican on Pawley's Island.

The Parish was extremely warm and hospitable. Like many of the parishes in western Pennsylvania, the folks at All Saints are involved in court cases with the liberal Episcopal Church which is more interested in their real estate than their souls. As this parish was deeded by The King for an Anglican church in 1736, I would like to see it stay in faithful hands. However, like many orthodox in the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, they will continue to meet wherever they can, if they lose.

The church had a fine bookstore, and I spent part of the afternoon reading JC Ryle and John Rocyhana, while perched somewhat unsteadily in a Pawley's Island Hammock.

We also spent about 20 minutes at the beach, and both of us had had enough. While the inland low country is foreign to me, it is a place where real people have lived for generations and built lives. I appreciate that it has its own cuisine, crafts, and local culture. By contrast, the beachfront resort areas are what James Kunstler would call capitals of unreality. People are drawn to live there under an illusion that they can escape from labor and live a carefree lifestyle of golf and parties. Even the old people in the beachfront communities dress (and often act) like graying adolescents. There is too much traffic, too much noise, it looks like one restaurant for every 3 people. I cant help but think that if someone believes that Myrtle Beach is getting away from it all, their life is WAY too hectic. Give me my northern agrarian rat race any day.

Small Scale Grain Raising is Back in Print !

2009-05-05T22:40:00.000-04:00

There are many helpful gardening and beginning homesteading books. I collect books from library sales and flea markets, and many cover the same ground in different ways. There are many good books to tell someone how to start vegetable seeds, plant a garden. preserve the harvest, and save heirloom seeds, as well as milk a goat, raise chickens or cut firewood. However, if you want to move beyond these common basics into how to raise a patch of wheat and make your own bread, or plant an acre of corn to feed your own chickens, the list grows MUCH shorter.

I commend to anyone interested, Small Scale Grain Raising. Gene Logsdon wrote this classic years ago. There is material in there that can be found nowhere else. Unfortunately, the book is an agrarian cult classic and used copies were trading on Amazon for up to $100. I paid $3.00 for mine, was very stingy about loaning it out, and kept it in a mylar book cover.
It is very exciting to see this come back in print in an affordable edition.

Many of the skills in this book are not hard. Growing grain is very easy. Spill some oats or wheat on the ground at the right time of year and they will grow. The key is processing that grain. Logsdon makes processing small grains like wheat, oats, and buckwheat possible for someone growing on a quarter acre "pancake patch".

The best place to buy the book is from another agrarian-the good folks at Cumberland books. You can find it here

I only have one issue with the 1977 edition that I hope was corrected in the new one. Logsdon uses and discusses the classic American Scythe. I inherited one and used it until I found out about the vastly superior Austrian Scythe. The American scythe is clunky and awkward. The Austrian scythe is a joy to use. I bought mine about 8 years ago from the Marugg Company. I also recommend them.

The Agrarian Rat Race

2009-05-01T22:51:00.000-04:00

Spring is a busy time on most small farms. We are done with lambing, but with grass now coming on, my inevitably saggy old fences need repaired. They are holding the sheep in more through the custom and good manners of the flock than by design. I need to change the oil in both tractors, do some clean up in the orchard and grape arbor, and I should be cutting next year's wood. We do have sweet and yellow Onions, Broccoli, early cabbage and cauliflower set in. The next month will bring serious gardening, buying feeder pigs, and more tasks than I care to list. I always chuckle inside about those who talk about the quiet lazy life of the countryside.

My Spring rat race is as old as farming, but there is today a more disturbing kind of agrarian rat race. I have seen many small farmers desperately try to break into commercial production to "make the farm pay". They channel enormous amount of energy into livestock or produce that they can sell, and forget to provide well for themselves and their household.

This trend is visible in both traditional commercial agriculture and the newer "sustainable models". On the traditional commercial side, I have neighbors whom I dearly love that are milking hundred of cows but buying their milk, eggs and most vegetables from the store. I have also known farmers who tried various sustainable or organic approaches and literally burned out financially or emotionally. One good man I know went broke following a "sustainable" grass based beef production model as he was trying to get the right cattle genetics and buying expensive New Zealand and Dutch grass seed.

I tried going down this road in my youth. My ambition was to clear most of the woods of the back of the farm and develop a big dairy beef grazing and feeding operation.
We also tried direct marketing vegetables and raspberries. On the former, I lost a pile of money when beef prices collapsed. On the latter my wife and I just burned out, especially her, as she was also baking to add to the lure of our produce. My big goal was to break free from off-farm work and make a full time living on the farm.

I was saved from this treadmill by a bit of luck, as I watched a much better capitalized farm go under. I was also greatly influenced by the writing of Gene Logsdon, who advocates the "garden farm" or "cottage farm approach much more akin to my grandparents farming style. You can read Gene's Blog here. I also recommend all of his books. He tends to have more practical how-to advice than his more famous friend Wendell Berry, and he is more irreverent, earning him the epithet of "the contrary farmer".

The basics of the cottage farm approach are built around the needs of the household. We need vegetables, fruit, meat, and heat in the winter. Meeting these needs diversifies the farm. I find that working at a wide variety of activities takes some skill and planning, but also prevents burnout. We don't make much money but we save money. By way of example, I only drink about a case of good beer a month, but some months the beer bill is as high as the grocery bill.

Cottage Farming is NOT "hobby farming". Our approach to farming allows my wife to stay home full-time. It pays our land and property taxes. Sometimes it allows for a few extras, like a new gun or a check to Ron Paul. It also allows us to eat healthy food, and get beneficial exercise form a variety of work. To trivialize this as a hobby is offensive. I do know real hobby farmers, but that is another story.

The other great thing about the cottage farming model is that it can work on a wider variety of properties and settings than modern commercial farming of either the conventional or sustainable kind. We could do much of what we do on less land than we have and the model would still work. For those with only a couple of acres, there is no better model than Harvey Ussery, a homesteading genius from Virginia.

Any aspiring agrarian should beware of any sustainable farming advice that makes lucrative financial claims. "Make $3,000,000 raising groundhogs on 20 acres" might work in very narrow circumstances, but the promoter has probably made more selling the groundhog raising book and getting speaker fees at organic agriculture conferences. It may very well be possible to make that three million on groundhogs, but the lifestyle it creates may not be a whole lot different from owning a real estate brokerage.

Earth is not G Rated

2009-04-30T12:38:00.001-04:00

I have not seen this movie, but just read Russell Moore's excellent comments upon it. You can read it here.
My favorite line:

Being reminded of the wildness of the wild kingdom can be a helpful reminder to followers of Jesus. This universe is not the way its intended to be. It is bloody, violent, and often chaotic. We do not, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, yet see all things under the feet of humanity. But, "we see him who was for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death" (Heb. 2:9).

Being a keeper of livestock and plants is a continual reminder of the cruelty and harshness of the natural World. If it is bad, sad, or horrfying, I have seen it without ever leaving the farm. The most recent example: This winter, I lost my old chief Rouen Drake (Captain Jack) to old age (The exception in nature). Subsequently, two of his sons fought for control of the flock until one was so bloody and picked over I had to destroy him last week. This among ducks, which are among the gentlest and most helpless of creatures.

A Portrait by My Wife

2009-04-25T22:58:00.000-04:00

"Any dumb SOB with a Dog and a Winchester can be a Sheepherder"
---old west cowboy proverb

Shepherd's Night Out

2009-04-25T21:38:00.000-04:00

Tonight I attended the Annual Mercer County Sheep and Club Lamb Sale. Traditionally, the sale served two purposes, for shepherds to buy breeding stock, and a place for the 4H youngsters to buy club lambs to show for the summer fair season. Over the years, the breeding stock sale has diminished to a shadow of its former self. I believe there were only 68 head this year. I remember over 250 head for sale in the past. The breeding stock sale was over by 8:00, but in years past could go past 10:00 pm.

Some of this is reflective of declining sheep populations. Lamb consumption has declined significantly and a larger share of the lamb eaten by Americans is meat imported from Australian and New Zealand. Ironically, the number of US sheep are in decline, but sale barn prices remain pretty good. At least in my part of the World, sheep are about the last livestock that can reliable make a little profit for a small farmer in a conventional manner. If the lamb crop is OK and the shepherd watches the markets before sale day, he can make a bit of money. By comparison, cattle are like a wildly fluctuating stock market, sheep are like a low interest savings account. A flock of sheep was once common to every farm, but few farmers today seem to want the considerably greater trouble in raising them today. This can create some opportunities for the small farmer; though shepherding has its own set of troubles.

another reason for the shrinking sale is that show breeders do not get prices that meet their expectations. I am sympathetic to this,especially when I see a nice yearling ewe bring less than a market lamb. This means the breeder fed the animal for a year and got less than a 6 month old lamb. Show breeders from western Pennsylvania typically do better taking their stock to big national shows and sales in other states. I also sympathize with the attitude of the local buyer at this sale. A Ewe that might fetch $400-$500 at a big Midwest sale will still only make so many market lambs in her life, and he has to watch the dollars and cents of how much he can afford and still profit. At its worst, the show sale circuit is like the two peddlers in prison selling the same hat back and forth to each other, and inflating the price each time.

I did not go to buy anything, just to eat lamb sandwiches and visit. We live in the northern end of the Pennsylvania sheep belt, but its still a pretty small world. I saw most of the other sheep raisers I know from within a 50 mile radius. The lamb sandwiches are excellent-- $3.00 buys a big roll slathered with tender meat stewed in juice. Some people drive 80 miles just to eat there. After that I like to see what everyone is breeding, especially Cheviots, which we raise. Excuse the Cheviotcentric bias that follows on the breed commentaries.

These are some nice Cheviots from the Misty Acres flock. If I was there to buy, I would have bid on these.

A yearling Cheviot ram from the Diamond C flock. Diamond C used to be our nearest sheep raising neighbors and their adult son now carries on the tradition about a half hour north of us. Another animal worth owning.

This Diamond C Ewe wonders why I am bothering her with a camera

I am personally not a big Hampshire fan, but these are nice ones from the Clark Family's Sonshine acres near Meadville Pa

These Dorset lambs will grow to be good milkers and good mothers. We have had trouble with the breed in the past having bad feet. In my opinion, Dorsets also tend to be a little dumber than other breeds.

This skilled shepherdess shows a club type lamb, that might be bought for breeding stock or a 4H project. Note her control of the animal in the sale ring. These Suffolk type lambs are the most common breed in the US by far. They grow big but require mountains of feed. I like to cross them with Cheviots to produce bigger Cheviot type Ewe that eats less than a pure Suffolk.

This is the head of a Merino buck. The Merino was once the king of sheep in these parts, but that was when wool was worth considerably more. This guy's lambs will make wool soft enough for baby blankets.

Appleseed Project in the News

2009-04-24T20:49:00.000-04:00

Here is a news story on last Patriot's Day from the new Appleseed you tube channel.

St George's Day and the Christian Patriot

2009-04-23T12:45:00.000-04:00

Today the church commemorates Saint George. Patron Saint of England. There is a good brief account of his life in the always great Ohio Anglican blog here

I always try to keep this day as best I can for two reasons. First, I am of partially English descent. Second, in certain Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox reckonings, St George is considered the patron of Agriculture. As he was a soldier martyr, I have no idea why this is the case. I do know that in Russia, this is considered the day to turn the cattle out to graze. This makes agrarian sense to me, as our grass starts to grow about this time of year.

I thought about Saint George's cross as well this year because our New England ancestors used it on some of their flags in the fight against the crown.
On one level it seemed a little incongruous that I spent the weekend remembering Lexington and Concord right down to shooting at "redcoat" targets. then four days later remember that nation's patron saint. But this brings home the fact that the Revolution was a cousins' war. I discovered this gem of an essay on Christian Patriotism today from one of those now very distant cousins. It can be found here at the comfortable words blog.

Patriot's Day Appleseed Shoot

2009-04-22T22:35:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I attended the Patriot’s Day Appleseed shoot in Vienna Ohio. A few weeks ago I wrote about how I got involved in the program and had offered land for a DAR, Ohio, but this was my first shoot.

I am not an intuitive person. In fact, I am excessively analytical. I try not to jump into something with both feet, without thinking it out. With Appleseed I took an unusual risk. I was so moved by what I heard about the program, that I risked committing my farm, peace and privacy to make a part of it available. I made an emotional decision, rather than an analytical one.

My emotions were based upon the tender love I have for my Country, and love can be blinding. This realization makes me second-guess any emotional or intuitive decisions, especially when dealing with relative strangers. By attending the Vienna shoot, I would be able to see for real what kind of mess I might have gotten myself into.

Few things in my life exceed my expectations. This past weekend actually did. The history was presented with passion that made it relevant to today. The instructors were fantastic. The participants were from all walks of life. They ranged in age from 8 to 65. There were experienced shooters and those who never shot a rifle before. From the shoot boss to the most inexperienced shooter, they all shared a certain quality that I cannot describe except to say that these were people I tremendously enjoyed being around.

I was particularly impressed by the the safety system, which was set up to have several redundancies. Rifles remained in cars until the safety briefing. Everyone was given to understand that they were a range safety officer. Between shooting sessions, rifles remained unloaded, with safeties on, and grounded with a chamber flag inserted. Preparation for shooting was divided into a magazine loading period and a preparation period, where the unloaded rifle could be handled but not the magazine. Prior to firing, instructors walked the line and looked for any potential safety problem. I have never seen a mass shooting event where I would feel more confident in allowing an inexperienced shooter to handle a rifle.

Unlike competitive shooting, Appleseed can be shot with any safe rifle from .22 to .30 caliber. I strongly recommend a 22. About half the line was using the Ruger 10-22. I used a Marlin Model 80 bolt action 22. The variety was interesting. I saw a Ruger 77 Varmint rifle in .223, A marlin .22 lever. an FN/FAL in 308, a couple of Ar-15's and even one session shot with a Mosin Nagant 91/30. The program sort of recommends a semi auto .22 but the emphasis is on shooting skills, not choice of firearm.

The history included Lexington and Concord, a great presentation on flags of the Revolution, and I was honored to do a short demonstration with my flintlock long rifle.

All of the history was presented as it should be-the story of those who gave us this country and our obligation to keep and cherish that heritage by becoming active informed citizens.

I learned a lot in those two days. I learned about the "Massachusetts Revolution of 1774" and what it means to the concept of self government. I learned that I am not alone in getting choked up and a little teary eyed over our country's heritage. I learned a lot about speeding up target acquisition and recovering with a bolt action rifle (I need to learn more about this). I learned my decision to jump into this program with both feet was a good one.

How Did I shoot? Well, the Appleseed gold standard is 210 or better on a modified army qualification target (Expert Rifleman). Prior to going, I shot one at home and scored 185 (sharpshooter). Under the constraints of timing I had more trouble. My first target was 155 (marksman). After a cadence drill, I got up to 194. My final two targets were 203 and 205. This improvement was due to the fact that every instructor had something to offer. The instructors (orange hats) also worked with every other shooter to get their skills and scores up. A cousin who attended with me suffers from very bad knees. They worked with him to alter shooting positions to something he might be able to live with.

Riflecraft is an essential part of the agrarian life. Without my rifle, I would not have a garden or any livestock left from the numerous varmints around here. There is no better way to improve riflecraft (and just maybe save a country that is dying from lack of love) than to attend an Appleseed event.

Good Friday 2009: Locked in the Grain Shed

2009-04-11T23:26:00.000-04:00

In my off farm job, I get a half day off for Good Friday, so I went home to do farm chores before church. Sometimes in the course of getting work done, I make more work for myself. I have a small 12X12 building to store feed grain and a few hand tools. The door was scrounged from somewhere, and sometimes blows open in high winds, so last Fall I nailed a short board beside it to keep it. About 2:00 on Good Friday, I needed a shovel. Because my cowdog was with me, and there was a litter of kittens inside, I did something I almost never do-closed the door from the inside. The minute I did, the homemade keeper on the outside swiveled into locked position.

I was stuck inside. While my dog Nipper is very bright, she is too short to reach the lock. I am not claustrophobic, but I did have things to do. My wife could not hear if I yelled. I had enough tools in the shed to break out, but anything I break, I have to fix.

In the end, I decided that the door was the most expendable part of the building. On the fourth hard kick, it broke enough for me to reach the swivel with a piece of stick. I spent part of the rest of the day fixing my own mess.

Some messes I can fix myself. My legs are strong enough to kick though a decrepit door. One mess I can't fix is the one inside me. As Mike Horton puts it, "We are all trapped in a burning elevator comprised of of our own narcissistic existence and need a rescuer". The message of good Friday and Easter is that someone comes to open a door I can't kick through. He takes the mess of my life upon himself, and ultimately kicks down the door of sin, hell, and death. This lets me out of the burning elevator.

Our Good Friday Service was an occasion of particular solemn joy because our Anglican church was joined by two Presbyterian pastors and their flocks. The church we rent from (Highland Presbyterian) joined us, as did Gateway Evangelical Presbyterian Church . The homily was delivered by Rev. Dr. T David Gordon, who is a PCA minister, also licensed to preach in our diocese.

So our 1928 Anglican prayer book service was conducted by three Presbyterians and one Anglican clergyman. I thought a lot about standing in this little church in my western Pennsylvania hometown, but also at a crossroads of Geneva and Canterbury. Presbyterians and Anglicans, like all parts of the church, have a checkered history. I remembered that Calvinists in 17th Century England used to steal the surplices from Anglican churches and throw them in outhouses. In an attempt to bring episcopal church government to Scotland, many Anglicans persecuted the Presbyterians, including drowning by chaining women out a low tide. Presbyterians hacked apart an Anglican Bishop in front of his daughter.

I know way too much shameful history to romanticize the past of any confession.From the outrageous savagery of the Byzantine empire to the brutality of the English Civil War, The church has proven it is comprised of sinners. I also know there is no better place for sinners to stand together than at the foot of the cross on Good Friday.

Words I never tire of saying or hearing

2009-04-08T22:30:00.000-04:00

At every Communion Service of my Church we confess our sins together. The pastor then reads the words which I never get tired of hearing, known as the"comfortable words" :

ALMIGHTY God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men; We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter Serve and please thee In newness of life, To the honor and glory of thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then shall the Priest stand up, and turning to the People, say,

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all those who with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him; Have mercy upon you; pardon and deliver you from all your sins; confirm and strengthen you in all goodness; and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then shall the Priest say,

Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all who truly turn to him.

COME unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. St. Matt. xi. 28.
So God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. St. John iii. 16.

Hear also what Saint Paul saith.
This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1 Tim. i. 15.

Hear also what Saint John saith.
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the Propitiation for our sins. 1 St. John ii. 1, 2.

I like this so well that I sometimes look the comfortable words up on google, and read them in different versions of the Bible or book of Common Prayer. I am grateful to God to have lived long enough to see this Internet thing. Otherwise I would never find treasures like this One Recommended reading for Holy Week.

The Appleseed Project

2009-03-24T12:13:00.000-04:00

More days than not, when I come home from work, my lovely wife has some snippet of Internet news for me. A few weeks ago I came home, and she said, "I heard this on Genesis Communications Radio, you HAVE TO listen to it. You SHOULD get involved in this group". I sat down to listen more as a dutiful husband than with genuine Interest. The Radio host (Alex Jones) was obnoxious, but the guest was awesome. For two hours, I listened to Sam Damewood tell about the build up to Lexington and Concord, and how the men and women of Massachusetts finally took up arms against the British incursion. I knew the story. I have a shelf of books about the American Revolution. I have been to Lexington Green and Concord Bridge (It was very moving experience). However, when I heard Mr. Damewood tell that story, I realized I was listening to someone who believed in our founding values and really gets what America is about. I started to choke up out of gratitude for those who risked their lives to found our country.

Sam Damewood is a member of the American Revolutionary War Veterans Association, a non-profit group that has two functions.

1. Teach Americans the real story of how we became a country, starting on April 19 1775 when a bunch of every day New England farmers and businessmen took on a professional army,nearly destroyed that army, and sent it scurrying back to Boston.

2. Revive the tradition of rifle marksmanship that is an essential part of our American heritage as free citizens.

RWVA does this through Appleseed shoots, two day clinics around the nation. At each event, participants will learn basic gun safety, how to hit a target, and hear the story of what happened on April 19th 1775 at Lexington and Concord.

You can listen to the interview here.

I am not a big fan of the Alex Jones Show, but I am grateful for him having Appleseed on his show. However, one does not need to be a conspiracy theorist to see that something is drastically wrong with our nation. Appleseed is not another political group or party. Appleseed is about the fact that we as lazy 21st Century Americans have allowed ourselves to get in this mess. The solution is to stop,step back and see where we have been. By going back to April 19, 1775, we can take a hard look at how far we have degenerated from our collective ancestors. We can also learn one skill (Riflecraft) that they had, making us more self-reliant. If we can recover something of the spirit of those people, we might again become more like them (I am not a romantic, but they were objectively better people than we are in many ways).

I am at a stage in my life where I am not a great joiner. I vote, and participate in political activities as a citizen, but I don't usually do it in an organized effort. I am a confirmed communicant/voting member of my church. I am a dues paying member of the Brothers of John the Steadfast. I pay my dues to a couple of second amendment organization when I get around to it. That's about it. After I heard Sam Damewood, I joined the American Revolutionary War Veterans Association, and signed up for a shoot.

I am also a private person. My social life is pretty limited to church, family and neighbors. Because I work and farm, we don't travel much. We are of modest financial means. We are however, relatively land rich. My wife and I decided to make 50 isolated acres on our farm available to the Appleseed program, through its Designated Appleseed Range. This gives the instructors a home base for clinics as well as training instructors.

Neither of us relish the idea of strangers on our farm, but we really believe in the mission of RWVA. Here is the part of our farm that will become a Designated Appleseed Range.

The area has a natural backstop for safety.

I am also as busy as anyone I know. Many weeks I work 55 hours off farm and do any garden, livestock, and firewood cutting chores in my "spare" time. The last thing I need is another "project", but when I ponder our collective ancestors that got up to face royal tyranny, I remember they were busier than I. I don't believe for a minute that any of the men of Massachusetts wanted to go stand up to the Redcoats. They had families, businesses, and farms. They had firewood to cut, fences to mend gardens to tend, and obligations to their families, church, and neighbors. To be shot by a .75 caliber musket ball is a serious matter today, in the 18th Century it would mean, likely amputation or death. If unsuccessful, they would likely face treason charges. It would have been easier to "Go along to get along."

The Massachusetts training bands that faced the British were not like other revolutionary movements. They were not led to desperate acts by extreme poverty like the French and Russian Revolutions. They were not wild ideologues that believed that they could make utopia here on earth, like the Nazis or communists. They were middle class people with arguably the World's highest standard of living (Though the closing of Boston's Port by the Crown had badly harmed the local economy). These were men with something to lose. They owned homes, and farms. These men were also grounded in traditional pessimistic Christian anthropology, as taught in the Bible and Saint Augustine. They understood Man's capacity for radical evil, and that concentrations of power equal concentrated evil. They were standing out there staring down professional soldiers because they knew that the royal attempt to exercise power without constitutional restraints was something that had no end.

Here's the deal. Without self government, there is no liberty. Without liberty, nothing you cherish is safe. Your livelihood, your family, every possession, is up for grabs to any "official" strongman. This self government and the liberty that comes with it are intertwined. It cannot be sustained without an active, informed citizenry. Appleseed does not tell you what to do or involve any political platform. Its only agenda is to inspire you to become that active informed citizen, through having some fun, learning, and meeting other everyday Americans.

Read about men like this man, or this one. Then look in the mirror and make a comparison. If you don't like what you see
Get over to RWVA and get signed up.
Perhaps you will sign up and come shoot here. I have a very nice place for a range.

Affordable Homestead Rifle

2009-02-15T21:14:00.001-05:00

When I was younger, I bought and sold a lot of guns. As an older guy, I am hesitant to own any one possession that is very expensive. My guns are tools. I cannot bear to strap a $1000 rifle to a tractor fender or throw it in the back of a truck. I don't abuse my guns, but they get used. This means little scratches on the stocks or blueing. For that reason, I mostly own and carry bargain basement guns. One of of my favorites is the Mosin-Nagant M44. It is an accurate rifle that can be bought for $100 or less and the money saved can buy a lot of ammunition to practice rifle craft with. I am posting about it today because it accompanied me on a winter picnic two weeks ago.

I killed my first groundhog of the year with is this weekend.

The M44 was made for the Russian military beginning in 1944. It can be bought in arsenal refinished condition for about $70 (I payed $65 for my handpicked one at a gun show a couple of years ago). It fires a 7.62X54 rimmed cartridge that is basically equal to the 30-06 US round. For around $75 a sealed can of 300 rounds can be bought at a gun show or stocking dealer. I pay about $11 for a box of Russian hunting ammunition at a dealer. The hunting ammunition is a big 202 grain bullet made for hunting Finnish and Russian moose.

The advantages of the M44 are many. It is physically strong and well made. As it was made for military service, it can be dropped without worrying that a fragile part will break. For target shooting, it quickly reloads from 5 round stripper clips.

It is short and handy; about the length of a saddle carbine. In spite of its short length, it weighs about as much as an M-1 Garand. I like this as I do a lot of shooting from a rest. The 7.62X54r cartridge will take any North American game. In military full metal jacket loads it will take out the engine block of most cars. after a century of use, the cartridge remains the standard Eastern European sniper round. The M44 also field strips as easy as any rifle ever made. The bolt can be disassembled for cleaning without tools. You tube has an extensive selection of dis-assembly information. It will kill groundhogs at 100+ yards from prone, and today an easy 45 yard offhand shot. Its accuracy is more than sufficient for practical use with the stock military open sights.

This is not a perfect rifle. The safety is not particularly positive. The safety spring is hard and must be twisted just right or it will click off. I would not trust a youngster with it. Due to the short barrel, the rifle is loud and recoil is sort of stout. The inexpensive ammunition is all from foreign sources. Much of it is corrosive primers, which means the rifle MUST be cleaned within 24 hours of shooting or the agents in the primers will deteriorate the bolt and barrel. The m44 was also sighted to be fired with the side attached bayonet extended. Many shoot slightly to the left (Mine was zeroed at about 6" left at 100 meters unless the bayonet was extended.) unless the shooter either extends the bayonet, learns to compensate, or manually adjust the sights. I have never used the bayonet for anything but a kickstand to keep the rifle out of the dirt. The final disadvantage is again from the foreign ammunition. It is cheap, but not available at Walmart or most sporting goods shops. It may not always be cheap so stock up. Years ago I bought a lot of .303 British surplus ammunition at about $5.00 for 60 round bandoleers. As the surplus stocks dried up, the prices rose. Also, foreign ammunition could be subject to an import ban or our continued good relations with the countries that sell it, such as Bulgaria. If you buy this rifle; use the money saved to buy enough ammunition to last a while. Happy shooting.

Sheep Feeder Project

2009-01-25T10:49:00.001-05:00

"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly"

-GK Chesterton

When not plowing snow, chopping ice, and cutting firewood, Winter can be a good time to work on homestead carpentry projects. Since we reconfigured the barn, we needed new sheep feeders. When we had a big commercial sheep flock, the feeders were permanently installed They were solid, but the inflexibility of the system made it hard to adjust pen size for lambing, catch pens, moving manure and hay storage. The barn now has only two small permanent pens in the back corner. The rest of the barn has pens made of livestock panels that can be easily adjusted. The new feeders need to be portable too.

We gave serious consideration to buying new metal bunk feeders. However, for our small flock this would have cost us about $900. The metal feeders are really nice, but just not economically feasible. I researched a number of different designs for portable homemade wooden feeders and settled on this one from Canada.
I ended up building it for about $18-$20.

I cannot give you a step by step guide to how I built it, because most of the materials were scrounged. With any project I do, I seldom am able to follow plans to the letter because that would require new materials. I worked with a bunch of free waste lumber I got from a local doctor who was remodeling his office. The boards still had drywall screws in them and some had wiring holes. The other lumber was mostly odd pieces left from other projects.

It takes me much longer to do things this way. I root through piles of wood and try fitting them like a puzzle. I use screws first, before I nail anything, because I may need to take it apart and re-adapt. One adaption with this project was changing some of the width of the lumber to fit the length of a large box of screws I got at a yard sale for $3.00.

The screws only work with one inch stock, so I had to use more one inch stock and consequently more braces to make it sturdy. Here is a castoff clamp that can no longer be used for fine woodworking because the end broke and it mars the wood. I wonder if the sheep will notice?

I thought at this point it looked like weird church pew. The 2x10 on the bottom of the feed trough part and the 2x6 in front are the only pieces of new wood in the picture. I have no idea where the plywood back came from.

Here is a view of the complete feeder. I installed it by skidding it from the workshop to the barn across the ice.

I don't think I will ever be nominated for the fine woodworking hall of fame. However, I was able to save a considerable amount of money and end up with a serviceable feeder that should last for years, even if it was done badly. There is some pride in using castoffs to build something nice. It is also essential to a true agrarian economy.

Misery

2009-01-12T21:33:00.000-05:00

I was recently reading on another weblog about someone who suffers Winter Depression. I have struggled periodically with this and other kinds of depression as well.

Winter makes the daily routine harder around here. We carry endless loads of firewood. I carry a hatchet each morning and evening to break the ice on the rubber poultry waterers. Plowing snow on an open tractor is cold and accomplishes nothing lasting, but just gets snow out of the way so I can function. The frost heave freezes barn doors shut,and our "frost free" water hydrant in the barn has been known to freeze shut. The man who put it in no longer sells that brand. The diesel tractors can freeze up without kerosene or expensive on road fuel.

When I get frustrated in this way, a few thoughts help. One is not very nice, but I remember that there is some poor fellow in Alberta or North Dakota who has it worse than me.

I also spend evenings reading some of the old Ben East stories published in Outdoor Life in the 1930's and 1950's. East chronicled all kinds of adventures from arctic misery,wilderness plane crashes, and bear attacks. Great reading near a warm fire. I try to soak in all the sunshine I can, on the few sunny days we get in this area in Winter. I try to keep busy, but if a nonessential task gets frustrating I leave it for later.

When I can, I try to have more fun in the Winter. Between the bad storms and cold spells, there are times to indulge hobbies like shooting.

Ultimately, My beef with hard Winter is really a beef against nature. A complaint with the realities of nature is and old agrarian complaint. Generations of Farmers have shaken their hands at the sky in frustration with cold, flood, drought, or heat. If not that, there is some vagary of merciless nature. It can be found in the earliest agrarian literature. Here is some from Virgil's Georgics, though Hesiod would do as well.

Ceres first taught men to plow the land
But soon enough the Wheat fields came to grief
A mildew blight fell on the golden stems
The lazy thistle flourished in the fields,
the crops went under, and a wood of brambles,
Goose grass and star thistle took their place.......

I believe that romantic nature writing was first produced by ancient city dwellers on vacation. Real nature is tooth and claw. It will freeze you, drown you, bite you,starve you, cook you and leave your corpse to rot. The more brittle or extreme the environment, the less room to make a mistake.

A beef with Nature is also a complaint with the Creator of nature. This is my other consolation. I finally figured out after years of anger that the Creator did not intend for this freezing, drowning, biting, or starving. My own nature is no better than the mess around me. However, the Creator took every bit of this painful natural existence upon himself in a great cosmic rescue plan. He even rescued a grumpy middle age Pennsylvania farmer who has been known to shake his fist at the sky in utter frustration.

Orthodox Anglicans and Confessional Lutherans together

2009-01-07T12:15:00.000-05:00

A great thought today from the Ohio Anglican Blog for all Orthodox Anglicans and Confessional Lutherans.

Hunting Bold Reynard

2009-01-01T11:53:00.000-05:00

So far, this is shaping up to be a bad Winter for predator attacks on our poultry. Tuesday evening, my wife and I returned from the weekly milk run to encounter a large beautiful Red Fox killing one of our Buff Orpington Hens. I chased him off and he dropped her, but it was too late for the poor girl. I went into the house and grabbed a rifle and began following the feathers. There was not enough snow and I lost the track after about 400 yards. I made a diagonal track in the hope he would circle, as foxes often do. He did indeed circle, in the other direction and right back to the chickens. when I came in view of the farmyard again he was chasing a bantam hen who had the sense to fly away. He saw my distant figure and took off in flight himself.

Since then, I have been spending a bit of each morning and evening casting for tracks and watching the fields. Each night, I shine a portable spotlight. So far, I have not seen him again. My gun in the picture is an older Savage Model 24. The top barrel is a .22 magnum rifle and the bottom barrel is a 20 gauge shotgun in 3" chambering. There is no better homestead varmint gun. It negates the need to decide whether to reach for a shotgun or rifle. If I could only have one homestead gun, this one would be the top of the list.

Part of the reason for the attack was that the chickens have been free ranging in th milder weather. Since the attack, they are a bit nervous, and I am only letting them out for a little bit, while I am nearby. Pumpkinseed, a pet hen, is still insisting to range. but she is acting less bold.

Foxes are easy to kill, but hard to hunt. Their slyness is long a part of legend and his name in folklore is Reynard or Reinhard. The last one I had to kill was a poor thing, and killing him was mercy. This one is big, bold, and in every way a beautiful animal. If he would leave my birds alone, I would be happy to let him live too. If he continues coming and I do not get him, I will be asking one of my friends to come decoy him with an electronic caller.

Nipper catches Christmas Dinner

2008-12-26T06:52:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, I lost one of my Rouen ducks to the bane of poultry keepers-predators. By the leavings of the kill, I surmised it was most likely raccoon, but possibly opossum. I set traps,but nothing returned, most likely due to an ice storm. The next evening , I went into the barn and ran into a large male opossum on the top of a twenty foot stack of first cut hay. He was an easy shot with the gun I was wearing, but the idea of a 9mm sized hole in the roof of my barn was not very appealing. I went to the house for a .22 rifle but could not find an angle to make a safe shot. I let our old blue heeler, Nipper, through the sheep pens and she climbed the stack and caught the intruder in short order.

Nipper is an excellent huntress of groundhogs and other small mammals, but a bit feral. She rightly assumes anything she catches belongs to her. She also hunts for both sport and food. While she will share her kills with me, if I set it back down she regards it as dinner. Normally, I take her kills back when I find them, because her culinary habits are disgusting. However, this one she got to keep. After all, it is Christmas.

Dorothy Sayers

2008-12-17T23:38:00.001-05:00

Yesterday my church calendar commemorated the life of Dorothy Sayers. If you have heard of her, it was probably as a mystery writer. However, she was as clear an apologist of basic Christianity in the Twentieth Century as CS Lewis.

Dorothy is also a model for us because she did not lead a "perfect" Christian life here on earth, as none of us will. However, through these failures and struggles she grew in faith. As a young single woman, she had an affair that ended in a child out of wedlock---a greater scandal in her day than today. Like CS Lewis, she married a divorcee, and was unable to have a regular marriage in the Church of England.

Her theological writing is centered around the heart of the orthodox Christian faith,the Nicene and Athanasian creeds. She had little time for either the liberal approach of negating the reality of sin, or the pietistic approach of reducing Christian life to middle class morality. She coined the phrase "seven deadly virtues" to address the latter. These deadly virtues are Respectability, Childishness, Mental Timidity, Dullness, Sentimentality, Censoriousness, and depression of the Spirits. I think also because of her own struggles, she wrote an essay called "The six other Deadly Sins", as in her lifetime, morality had been reduced to a single thing.

For an agrarian, she also has much to say in her essay "Why Work?"

"A society in Which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded upon waste and trash, and such a society is a house built on sand".

She railed against the waste she saw in England before the second World War, in light of the privations felt by the English People during the war. "Can you remember....the stockings we bought cheap and threw away to save the trouble of mending?...the fresh peas we could not bother to shell and threw aside for something out of a tin?....we have had to learn the bitter lesson that in all the World there are only two sources of wealth, the fruit of the earth and the labor of men, and to estimate work not by the money it brings the producer, but by the worth of the thing that is made". The entire essay is as applicable for 21st Century Americans as her wartime British audience.

Like Martin Luther she also emphasized the value of all good work as Christian work, and refused to allow the church to usurp the inherent value of all honest toil.

"Let the church remember this: that every maker and every worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade-not outside it........ the Official Church wastes time and energy, and moreover, commits sacrilege, in demanding that secular workers should neglect their proper vocation in order to do Christian work-by which she means ecclesiastical work".

Sayers is also responsible for much of the modern revival of classical approaches to learning, particularly education based upon the Trivium of Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic. She is strong minded, and often satirical essayist, but like a true prophet, her criticism are tempered by love of a wayward people. She is among my favorite writers, and I will close with the collect of thanksgiving for her life.

O Almighty God, who didst give to thy servant Dorothy L Sayers special gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth as it is in Christ Jesus: Grant, we beseech thee, that by this teaching we may know thee, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Big Vegetables

2008-12-14T21:46:00.000-05:00

I took these pictures at the end of the garden season, but never had time to post them until now. I am only posting these to show off--forgive my vanity. The pepper weighed in at 14 ounces. I did not weigh the sweet onion but is was tasty. The onion was raised where the 2007 meat chicken pen was, and the pepper was raised where the ducks wintered.

Pig Sticker

2008-12-09T21:50:00.000-05:00

I have been reflecting recently on how many of the tools I use on our homestead have been around this farm my entire life. The peavey I roll logs with belonged to my grandfather. The hatchet I cut ice from the animal's water tanks with was my Dad's trapping ax. When I was about five, I stole it out of the back of his 1952 Chevy and tried to cut down one of the yard maples. I got in some trouble for that.

One of the tools I used recently was my Dad's Kabar knife. It has been used by three generations for certain butchering tasks and it has a story. At the end of World War Two, a retuning sailor who was a friend or relative gave it to my then teenage dad. I am sorry I cannot remember who. I am also sorry I never asked my Dad if he chose to take it with him when he was drafted in 1951.

While the Kabar was designed as a fighting knife, Dad used it as a boy kill chickens for the table, and his dad used it to stick pigs to bleed them out. Dad had to butcher one chicken every Sunday for Sunday supper. Sunday supper was always chicken and jello, both regarded as treats by his mother. My dad hated both as an adult.

During my childhood, the Kabar lived most of the year in a drawer in the basement. When I was old enough, my dad showed me how to use it in lieu of a cleaver to butcher deer. He never carried it hunting, as a pocketknife is adequate to gut, and he had another knife to skin.

As an adult who returned to the family farm, dad showed me how to flick the Kabar to cleanly decapitate a chicken. He also showed me how to quickly stick a hog after shooting it to bleed out the animal properly.

The sailor also brought my dad another gift; a portable airfield light that ran on 12 volt car batteries. While heavy, the light was portable and very powerful. Dad put it to less mundane use than the Kabar. His sister Irene had a boyfriend and Dad had my family's perverse sense of humor. One night he hid in one of the outbuildings with the light and a shotgun while Irene was out with her beau. He waited until the beau walked Irene to the porch for a goodnight kiss. At that moment, a very bright light struck the lovers and a shotgun blast exploded in the air. The beau took off and Irene eventually married another.

The Landlord comes to Grace Church

2008-12-07T23:02:00.001-05:00

My parish only has a church home due to the graciousness of the Highland Presbyterian Church. Tonight the landlord showed up, and was the guest preacher, though "guest" may not be the best phrase for someone preaching from their own pulpit. I was a little nervous about what we might hear. There are some big differences between a conservative Anglican and a conservative Presbyterian, but by sticking to the Gospel, he delivered a sermon that would have been well received in any church that believes we are sinners in need of a Savior. He stuck to the material in proclaiming the Word to those of us who need to hear it.

However, I am saddened to learn that the National Presbyterian Church is seeking to follow the Episcopal Church down the road to theological liberalism. The national church body has approved changes to the basic confessional documents that would remove references to certain politically incorrect sins. The local Beaver-Butler Presbytery is much more conservative than the national church. The Landlord is trying to return his church to repentance and its basic confessional roots. He has a blog about it here. I wonder whether more congregations or the entire presbytery will not depart PCUSA and reform or realign with a more conservative Presbyterian body.

This part of Pennsylvania is known as the Presbyterian Valley. As the landlord says, you can throw a dead cat in these parts and be pretty sure it will land on a Presbyterian. We live in a rural township, but are an easy walk to two Presbyterian churches, and a bit longer walk to a third. I am not a Presbyterian because of differences of belief, but I honor the heritage of that church body. We would not have a country were it not for Presbyterians and other Calvinists. Any honest reading of American History will acknowledge this. The Presbyterian emphasis on education is one of the bright spots about this area, with institutions like Geneva and Grove City Colleges. It would be a sad thing to see this heritage lost in the mire of the postmodern incoherence of theological liberalism. The landlord is in my prayers.

Agrarians, Biblical Agrarians , Farming, and Homesteading

2008-12-02T21:40:00.001-05:00

Reader Linda recently asked these questions, There are some things that confuse me. What is an "agrarian"? Why do some call themselves "biblical agarians"? What constitutes a "homestead" and why is that different than a farm?

She also has a fine blog and lives in my neck of the woods. I have answered below, but I would love some input from others on these questions.

Here are some attempts at an answer to these very good questions.

What is an agrarian? I pulled my copy of American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia, off the shelf. Here is the start of the entry for agrarianism. "Agrarianism, posits that the practices associated with the agricultural life are particularly, and on some cases uniquely-well suited to yield important personal, social, and political goods".
The article then goes on to explain various schools of agrarian thought and their differences. Kind of an egghead philosophical definition that runs over three pages.

I like Herrick Kimball's definitions better, from the forward of his book, Writings of a Deliberate Agrarian. I bought the book at Lehman Hardware a couple of years ago, but I did not see it last time I was there. Here are a couple of excerpts.....

"Agriculture-the cultivation of the earth and animals to produce food is fundamental to what is means to be an agrarian...closely related to the act of producing food is the agrarians' reverence for creation in its many forms". Herrick also makes a simple but profound statement that "The interconnected relationships and dependencies between land, family, local community, and the local church which were once so strong and central to the everyday existence of godly people, have virtually disappeared in the modern age".

Here is my poorer definition.

An agrarian is someone that ascribes to a belief that the family household is the basic unit of society (not the state or the government), and that the household should produce as much of its own food, fuel, and other necessities as possible. After the household, needs should be met from within the local community. Farming is prominent in agrarianism because we all need to eat, and most of us like to eat several times a day. This makes food production the most basic of those material needs. This does not mean everyone needs to be a farmer. Those that cannot farm can still garden. Those that cannot garden can still cook (And buy food from real farmers)

Why bother with all that work?

1. Industrial prepackaged food is unhealthy and often inferior in taste.
2. Self dependency will see a family through hard times
3. Frugality is still a virtue, in spite of what advertisers say.
4. It is satisfying to provide much of our own heat and food
5. Strong families will build strong communities, which results in a strong nation

What is a Biblical Agrarian?
A Christian Agrarian or Biblical Agrarian ascribes to these same things based upon their understanding of the Bible and Christian theology. A key verse would be 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12. Some Biblical Agrarians believe in varying degrees of separation from society at large. In our area, the Amish would meet this definition pretty well.

I have to confess here that I am not a "Christian Agrarian" or "Biblical Agrarian". I am an Agrarian, and I am a believing Christian. I am very hesitant to mix my belief in Christ crucified for my sins with ANY other philosophy or political economy. My calling is to stay in this place and garden, tend flocks, and cut wood. I would never presume to believe that my calling is necessary for anyone to be a Christian.
What is the difference between Farming and Homesteading?

Farming is part of what we do for money. We sell cows, timber, cider, hay or market lambs and get paid in the Federal Reserve notes that pass for money these days.

Homesteading is what we do for ourselves. We raise a lot of stuff we never sell, such as blueberries, tomatoes, sweet corn, cabbage, etc. I think the term "homesteading" as used today comes from the excellent Countryside Magazine, billed as the journal of modern homesteading. Homesteading includes not only raising, but preserving and cooking the food. I think "homesteading" by the Countryside definition is the essence of agrarianism:

It's not a single idea, but many ideas and attitudes, including a reverence for nature and a preference for country life; a desire for maximum personal self-reliance and creative leisure; a concern for family nurture and community cohesion; a belief that the primary reward of work should be well-being rather than money; a certain nostalgia for the supposed simplicities of the past and an anxiety about the technological and bureaucratic complexities of the present and the future; and a taste for the plain and functional.Countryside reflects and supports the simple life, and calls its practitioners "homesteaders."

Years ago, I tried more farming than homesteading. Government policies deflate the value of farm commodities. We refuse to accept subsidies. Money is worth less each day. I learned we are economically better off growing more for ourselves and less to sell. This is a story unto itself that I will tell sometime.

An Agrarian Dog

2008-11-15T21:08:00.001-05:00

Last night my wife an I drove 20 miles north to an Amish Dairy farm, and brought home a Rat Terrier puppy. My wife and I considered the matter carefully following the death of our beloved German Shepherd. We both like having a watchdog-not an attack dog; just a dog that lets us know that someone is in the driveway. A watchdog gives us time to see whether putting on an extra supper plate, or grabbing a shotgun is in order. My cowdog is too old and set in her routine to live indoors. We decided a smaller dog would be a nice change for our small house. We were looking for a Feist or rat terrier, which are really two strains of the same dog.

I believe the pup is the 23rd dog I have owned in my life. When I was a little agrarian kid, we always had at least a couple of rat terriers around, often with a touch of beagle blood. Unlike Jack Russell Terriers, the Rat Terriers always seem to be more calm and biddable. Yet they still have courage to spare. My childhood dogs would flush the pheasants that were plentiful then and push rabbits from the brush piles. Unlike a beagle,they would come home when I was ready to quit hunting for the day. We seldom had cats, but the dogs would chase mice and rats with glee. Nobody pulled in the driveway without their yapping, and they were clean house dogs. These dogs were a multi generational part of life here. The oldest picture I have of my father shows him at about age five with a litter of terrier pups. I have an older picture of my grandfather and my oldest uncle, probably about 1915, with a little feist type dog in the picture.

In reading the history of these little dogs, I learned that my family was not exceptional in keeping them. They were an integral part of traditional American small farms across the country. Their heyday lasted until the 1940's and 1950's when chemical rat poisons began to replace terriers on farms.

So what to name an agrarian dog? there seemed to be one obvious choice---Wendell.

Tractor trouble

2008-11-13T22:29:00.001-05:00

Recently the larger of our two tractors failed to start after loading wood. It is a JD 990 that has performed flawlessly for the past 6 years or so. My first guess was the 15 amp fuse, but it seemed to be more of a battery problem. I took the battery to a local chain store, and they tested it and said a cell was dead. I bought a new battery, went home and installed it and the tractor still would not turn over. I then became worried. When I was a little agrarian kid, we always had old tractors and lots of mechanical problems. Some of my earliest memories are serving as a human work light for my Dad, holding the flashlight while he cursed at a stubborn part or broken bolt. Repairs cost money; even if you or a friend to provide the labor, tractor parts are frightfully expensive.

I called a more knowledgeable friend, and we proceeded to analyze the alternator, wiring and fuses. Two hours later, he came to the last possibility; the new battery was not working. After two more trips to the battery store, I finally ended up with a battery that would start my tractor.

While this time and trouble was upsetting, it was less so because we have two tractors. Our second machine is a little New Holland TZ18 we bought earlier this year. While messing around with the battery store, I could still haul wood and do basic chores. My lovely wife and I both agree we would give up the second car before the second tractor. With a wife like that, I am a lucky man.

The TZ18 mows the lawn, and the loader moves manure and other loose materials.

The 990 plows, disks, brush hogs, does hay work,spreads manure, and moves most of the firewood. Here are some "plow cam" views I took back in September.

Here is the 990 plowing the garden last spring.

Many small farmers like animal power. I have a cousin that prefers draft horses and mules to tractors. Others like the older gas tractors, such as the Farmall, Allis Chalmers, and Ford models from the 1940's and 1950's. I am not a generally a believer in progress, but I like modern diesel tractors.compared to a horse, my tractors have never kicked me, bit me, jumped a fence and tramped through the neighbors yard, or taken off in terror upon seeing a bird. My nostalgia for the old gasoline tractors of my youth vanished after the third time we replaced the same parts on our old Ford NAA.

Cowshiners

2008-11-11T21:56:00.000-05:00

Saturday, my wife and I ran over to the local dairy where we buy our raw milk. We drink about two gallons of milk a week, unless we are making cheese or cooking a lot. The dairy is a nice 15 minute country drive, and the milk is $4.00 per gallon. Over the past few weeks, I have been noticing more cars with Ohio plates, and more people buying LOTS of milk. Last Saturday, this culminated in a woman buying somewhere around 40 gallons of raw milk to take back home to Cleveland. We, and two other local people waited patiently while this lady filled her 40+ jugs one at a time from the bulk tank. She will drive the 90 miles home and fill her freezer, then thaw the milk as she needs it.

The State of Ohio, in its infinite wisdom has deemed raw milk too dangerous a substance to be sold to the general public. Our local licensed raw milk dairy is the nearest place these poor people can come to legally get milk that has not been pasturized and homogenized so it can taste like swill and probably lose its nutrients. I keep telling the dairy to send a Christmas card to the Ohio Department of Agriculture. ODA might miss the card, because they seem to be busy conducting undercover stings against anyone who would sell raw milk.

I have a strong taste preference for raw milk. I also like that I can look inside the dairy and see how the cattle who are giving me their milk are treated. I like seeing that the milking parlor and milk house are clean. I like not having to milk a goat twice a day (Which we used to do) and still having decent milk. However, I can only enjoy this because of my good fortune at being born a few miles east of the Pennsylvania-Ohio line.

I have been to Youngstown, Ohio. It is a heartbreaking place. The main businesses seem to be selling illegal drugs, drug addict women selling their bodies,auto lots with cheap cars to leave town. and bars to drown out the reality of living in Youngstown. I would think that the law enforcement resources of the state of Ohio might be better put to a place like that than undercover sting operations against dairy farmers. However, I suspect ODA's undercover goons are too cowardly to go up against real criminals.

As the lady pulled away, I remembered the old time moonshiners, running cars full of whiskey. I like to think of her as a "Cowshiner" a kind of 21st Century suburban moonshiner. I hope the ODA doesn't pull her over, dump the milk and Taser her. I hope that mini van can go fast enough to outrun them. Good luck cowshiner lady.

Some of the girls who keep us in milk.

Anglican Awakening

2008-10-25T22:46:00.000-04:00

A week and a half ago I attended the Anglican Awakening in Akron Ohio. This event was meant to bring together the various groups of Anglican jurisdictions who have been scattered recently by the liberalism of the Episcopal Church USA. For about ten years now, bishops from Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, South America, and Southeast Asia have been consecrating missionary bishops for the US. In essence, the USA is now a mission field, because the oldest protestant denomination in the country is now so morally and theologically bankrupt. Partnerships have also been formed with other groups who left the Episcopal Church with their orders intact earlier. The purpose of the gathering was to pray together, learn together, and join together for Holy Communion. The gathering was held at Saint Luke's Church, a large vibrant suburban parish. Here is an Icon of Saint Luke in the church

While this had celebratory aspects, The themes of the conference that meant the most to me were about suffering and repentance. Bishop Alexis Biladabago was the first teacher I heard. As a Rwandan, he knows about both the reality of suffering and the transformative power of Jesus Christ. Bishop Alexis has spoken on suffering from the US to Australia. He was once confronted by a high ranking Australian Government official who had many accusatory questions about how anyone could believe in a benevolent God in a world full of pain and suffering. This Bishop who personally suffered the horrors of the genocide said that he did not have all the answers, but he wanted his questioner to be able to know Jesus Christ so that they could stand together in heaven and ask about these things.

Since meeting him, I have been reading about the Rwandan Genocide. Rwanda was a Country where 90 percent of the people were Christian, yet unspeakable horrors happened. As "enlightened westerners" we can write of the genocide as an act of primitive African tribalism, but that answer is not good enough. It will not explain the horrors perpetuated by "advanced" peoples. How did sophisticated Weimar Germans degenerate within a few years into industrial scale butchers? How can 21st Century Americans leave the babies from botched abortions to die in hospital closets? The answers to Rwanda, the Nazis, and ourselves lie in the human heart.

One aspect of Rwanda is that the churches became institutionalized. Membership had certain social advantages. A comfortable Church will not rock the boat or threaten the status quo.

Here is Bishop Alexis

Here are Bishops John Guernsey (Uganda) Bishop Martyn Minns (Nigeria/CANA) and
Bishop Robert Duncan (Pittsburgh/Southern Cone) checking the news.

I am not a very good photographer. most of my pictures from the liturgy got the back of folks' heads. There are many better pictures at Father Richard Dalton's site, which is worth checking out anyway.

Milk drenched food--does anyone else do this?

2008-10-17T19:25:00.001-04:00

My Lovely wife recently made two wonderful apple pies with traditional lard crust. They are delicious. However, she finds it curious and somewhat distasteful that I can only eat pie when drenched in milk. I do this to all pies except mincemeat and pumpkin. I drench other desserts, such as strawberry shortcake and chocolate cake in milk. All the men on my Dad's side of the family did this. Some of the real country diners around here make provisions for this, by offering milk with such desserts as apple dumplings. My wife never saw this foodway before she moved to Western Pa.

I have tried researching this custom on the web. I did not find a lot of information. Some people said it is an English custom. However, my mother was from a family of fairly recent English immigrants, and she found it as unusual when she married my Dad as my own wife found it strange. My mom thought it was simply a disgusting way to use up the surplus of skimmed milk that old-time farmers had from the days when cream was sold.

Is this just a western Pennsylvania thing?
Is it a country custom?
Is it just a dairy farmer thing?
Is it just a bad habit?
I would appreciate any other knowledge or experience with milk drenched food.

Bishop Henry Scriven Visits Grace Church

2008-10-13T05:17:00.000-04:00

This Sunday, was the final visit of the Rt. Reverend Henry Scriven to Grace Anglican Church. Bishop Henry will be returning to his native England to continue missionary work. Because our church is now a parish of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, we technically have no Diocesan Bishop right now. Thus Bishop Henry came to preach, teach, confirm, and celebrate Holy Communion, but he came without his normal episcopal regalia. Our beloved priest was not there for the best reason in the World to miss Church-He and his wife just had a baby girl!

Father Paul Cooper from Saint Christopher's Church came to assist.

Bishop Henry proclaims Grace Church as a parish of the Diocese, assisted by a deaconess from Saint Christopher's.

I still find it nothing short of miraculous that our Anglican parish in this small town can can fill the pews of a rented Presbyterian church, worshiping with the 1928 prayer book. God's Grace for repentant sinners through Word and Sacrament is powerful indeed.

Dogs in Heaven

2008-10-09T21:40:00.000-04:00

This was a very sad day here, as we buried our faithful German Shepherd, Riko. For me, grief is always a cause for reflection. There is an emptiness in our house, as Riko was a particularly fine companion. For quite a while I will expect his bark when I come home, and look for him out of the corner of my eye to be laying on one of the rugs. I never wanted him; but my wife did. I thought German Shepherds were "Robot Dogs". Riko taught me different. He was very playful and affectionate. He was honest and good natured.In many respects, his character reflected the monks from whom we got him.

I have had dogs my entire life. Growing up, my family always had a small pack of Feist dogs around, as well as the occasional spaniel and farm collie. Later I kept my own packs of hunting dogs and started a number of Border Collies for sheep herding, some for a Border Collie Rescue Organization. Every one of them (save one) has broken my heart to one degree or another by dying. For a Christian Believer in this time and place, this always raises the question of whether our animals will join us in heaven.

I don't worry a lot about heaven. I am holding out for the general resurrection that many Christian confess in the creeds but few spend much time talking about. God enables us though breeding animals and plants to be a kind of co-creator with him. While everything dies as a consequence of the corruption of the fall, this creation is no more in vain than our death is the end of our creation (which was also a co-creation between God and our parents). I think God allows us this tremendous privilege because in spite of our sinful fallen natures, he really loves us. I believe that every flower we plant, every dog we breed, every picture we make, and every other work we do in truth and beauty will somehow be a part of that new creation when Heaven and Earth meet. Spirits floating around are not good enough for me. I want a body to see, hear, and touch the bodies of those people and things I love. I plan on hugging Riko again, and my Dad, and my wife. We have a prayer in my church's services of evening prayer thanking God for our creation and preservation in this life, but also "for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. . I take this pray at its word, that our Lord will redeem everything, and I place a great hope in that glory. I hope that this might sooth some who worry about the question of "animals in heaven". If you do not want to believe a poorly educated Pennsylvania farmer in this matter, I might recommend the online lectures and books by Bishop NT "Tom" Wright, in particular Surprised By Hope. Many of the early church fathers also had similar insights.

At the same time, our time and culture sometimes places too much affection into pets. I have seen dogs made to suffer because their owners cannot cope with their death. I believe that sometimes veterinarians are willing to encourage people into extraordinary measures for their pets that sometimes prolong the animal's suffering for this same reason. I think some wisdom from Riko's previous owners are in order. New Skete is a remarkable community, working for the reform of monastic life, much like the original monasticism was a reform movement for a church that was growing corrupted by its recent alliance with Roman authority. They love their dogs,but suggest a balance wherein the dog knows its proper place in the family. They also have have little use for paid pet cemeteries and some other modern affectations. While Riko is gone, and we will miss him, we also live in a world of great pain and tragedy. For right now, our job is to dry off our tears, get up and go on creating in goodness, truth, and beauty, and to do what we can to alleviate some of the misery and pain around us.

Realignment Saturday

2008-10-06T22:45:00.000-04:00

Saturday was a beautiful Fall Day. I did my normal chores, went to the feed mill for 100 pounds of chicken feed and 100 pounds of sheep feed, then went to breakfast at our township's little general store/diner.

My day's chores were to pick apples, but my heart and prayers were in Monroeville where our regions' churches was voting whether to leave the Episcopal Church to realign with a more orthodox Anglican Church. Before we left for the Cider press, I checked the Web and found the vote had been successful, thanks be to God. Later that night, I received our Parish notices via email, with the following:

Today, the Diocese of Pittsburgh voted by a large majority to 'realign' itself out of the Episcopal Church and into the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone (an orthodox province of the Communion which includes Argentina, Honduras, Chile, Paraguay, etc.). This is a temporary measure until a new, orthodox Anglican Province can be created in the United States. This realignment was in response to the Episcopal Church's unorthodox views regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ, the authority of the Bible, human sexuality, and their unethical use of litigation toward and suppression of orthodox believers in the US. In many ways, this is a joy-filled day--we are freed from the ties to a denomination that has in large measure abandoned 'the faith once delivered to the saints.' In other ways, this is a sad day--sad that it had to come to this, and sad that some relationships will be strained. So how will realignment affect GAC? It won't really; at least not on a daily basis. But realignment will help prevent the meddling and negative affects of the National Church. We at GAC will keep doing what we've been doing, and will expand our ministry to Slippery Rock and beyond. Let us pray that realignment will open up new doors for the Gospel!

While I spent my first Sunday as a member of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone puking and shivering with the flu, I am excited. I am looking forward to getting on with the mission, and joining over a thousand of my brothers and sisters at the Great Lakes Anglican awakening in Akron. Our own Bishop Duncan will be the keynote speaker.

Update on Bishop Duncan

2008-09-18T22:27:00.000-04:00

In Richard Baxter's words, a "hereticating majority of Bishops" has acted. I found the best analysis here.

There is a bright spot..............

As was resolved by resolution made at the Provincial Synod in Valparaiso last November 2007, we are happy to welcome Bishop Duncan into the Province of the Southern Cone as a member of our House of Bishops, effective immediately. Neither the Presiding Bishop nor the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church has any further jurisdiction over his ministry. We pray for all Anglicans in Pittsburgh as they consider their own relationship with The Episcopal Church in the coming weeks.

Archbishop Gregory Venables.

Lord willing, our Diocese will vote to follow him October 4.

Ember Day Prayers for my Bishop

2008-09-18T00:23:00.001-04:00

This is one of the seasonal times of Ember Days, meant for prayer, fasting, and ordination. The ember days are a part of each of the four seasons, and seem to be a uniquely Celtic/British contribution to the western calendar of the Christian Year. Later today, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church is also meeting in Utah to consider the removal of Bishop Robert Duncan as Bishop of Pittsburgh for "Abandonment of the Communion"

Such a charge is laughable, and underlies Bishop Bob's real crime, of leading the Diocese of Pittsburgh out of the the Episcopal Church into a closer relationship with our sister Anglican churches in other countries that still believe strange things (In the eyes of the revisionist liberals who are in charge of the national Episcopal Church)What are some of the strange things that Bishop Bob teaches?

That all men are sinners.

That Jesus Christ died for sinners, rose from the dead and through this offers forgiveness of sins.

That the Bible is the inspired word of God for his people.

That God intends marriage as a sacramental relationship between one man and one woman, rather than two men or two women.

That though we are all sinners, unrepentant active homosexuals should not be ordained as clergy.

That the Church is a community of shared faith, and it is his obligation to work to unite orthodox believers.

I must confess a low opinion of Bishops in General, whether Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran or Anglicans. Many are arrogant, concerned about their own power, and many are unfortunately corrupt. If I did not believe in the reality of the sacraments and apostolic succession, I would be another kind of Christian. Bishops like Robert Duncan are men worthy of the pastorate, risking all in order to lead their flock to safe grounds. He has already faced ridicule, hatred, and lawsuits. There will be more in the months to come, as the diocese of Pittsburgh votes in early October to re affiliate with the Anglican Diocese of the Southern Cone, and part of the larger worldwide fellowship of confessing Anglicans. Please pray for him, and his flock.

The psalter reading for this Ember Day in the Prayer book is Psalm One Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Bishop Duncan has declined to attend the House of Bishops meeting for his own deposing without trial.

Reflections on Septermber 11th

2008-09-11T22:02:00.000-04:00

September 11, 2008 passed here in Western Pennsylvania as a beautiful day, though the skies were not as bright blue as that day in 2001. Like many Americans, that day still effects me profoundly.

When I am upset, I pray. I started the morning with the prayers posted on the Ohio Anglican Site (Thanks Again Brother!) and went to work. My off farm work sent me on a journey though the countryside about 80 miles away. Being Restless all day, I stopped on my return journey in the town of Kitanning in the hope that The town's conservative Episcopal church would be open. Nobody was there, but the door was thankfully open. Reading the psalter out of my prayer book and saying some of the funeral prayers in such a beautiful Anglican church was a great blessing to me. I left feeling not exactly refreshed, but comforted.

Some years ago, I heard a talk on 9/11 by my favorite Eastern Orthodox Theologian, Father Thomas Hopko. Father Thomas is very Cross-focused. I still remember a few things from this talk:

1. We cannot allow terrorists to fly airplanes into buildings and hurt innocent people. We must fight to stop this in any way we can.

2. At that same time, we must recognize the evil in ourselves--including that of our nation. A country that aborts so many of its own babies cannot simply call itself good, and the terrorists as evil. (while not part of the talk, I was reminded of a quote by Peter Kreeft from long before 9/11, "If God spares New York City, he owes an apology to Sodom and Gomorrah")

3. Everything comes from God. God calls some of the wicked kings in the Bible "his servants"

4. EVERY DEATH is a tragedy, but for Christians, the ultimate manifestation of God's Love is a dead Jew on a cross.

As a Christian, I still grieve for every one of those innocent people, young and old, rich and poor, men and women, who were killed going about their daily business. As an American, I want the terrorists and those who supported them brought to justice for their murder. However, I also want us to become a better people. My grief is reserved for the lives lost. As an agrarian, I think the Towers as buildings were vanity and monuments to Mammon. I think we were a better Country when the tallest buildings in every town were church steeples.

Porches are useful for more than sitting

2008-09-10T22:29:00.000-04:00

Our house was built by my Great-Great Uncle in 1892. Over the years, a large family, some poverty and time took her toll. The House is built like a bank barn, in that the front grade is 6 feet lower than the rear. This design allowed a nice big front porch to be about 7 feet above grade. The porch was pretty deteriorated when we decided to remodel the house, so we replaced it, and actually made it a bit larger. It now measures about 10X28 feet.The height lets us store unsightly stuff below it, like coal, firewood, and ladders. The railing is made from rough cut local hemlock, and are large enough to store tomatoes, winter squash, or other vegetables for curing. My Lovely and Economical wife has a clothesline on for drying on days when it just might rain a little. We use it to process things like tomato juice that would mess up the kitchen. She often stores big pots of soup to cool there in the colder months, as the dogs cannot reach it. The decking is local rough cut White Oak. Because it is elevated and does not touch the soil, the decking does not need to be treated. Over the years it has gotten hard as stone. There is a trapdoor to get to the storage area below, or throw firewood up for our parlor stove. The porch is actually an invaluable working part of our homestead, though we do have a wooden bench large enough for the occasional nap as well. I hope to die here, but; should I ever design a house, I think it would include some kind of covered workspace like this.

Spurious Jefferson Quote?

2008-09-09T23:39:00.001-04:00

My wife and I discussed the Jefferson quote in yesterday's post, and she was the first to point out that it may be one of those falsely attributed ones.It is widely quoted on many Black and Tan hound sites.

After a little research tonight, would state that it probably is falsely attributed to Jefferson. I read a couple of entries in the Thomas Jeferson wiki site run by Monitcello, as well as our copy of Mark Derr's Dogs History of America. Neither mentions Jefferson as a houndsman, though George Washington was a lover of hounds. More about this if I hear back from the Monticello folks.

Coonhunter's Festival

2008-09-08T21:52:00.000-04:00

"How one deals with their Coonhound's slobber is the most telling way of how one deals with everyday problems"

Thomas Jefferson, Third US President and Coonhunter

As a young person, I loved coonhunting. The woods at night are a very different place. Even with a light, familiar places become very different in the dark. Because the hunter follows the voice of the hound, the hunter finds himself in thickets and brambles where no sane person would willingly go. I have been lost, scratched, fell in a creek in cold weather, missed being sprayed by a skunk (My three dogs got it), and nearly bit by coons several times.

These days my coonhunting is the armchair variety, due to other commitments of life and the death of my father, but I still enjoy seeing and hearing hounds. So I was happy when a friend asked if I would take one of his boys to the Mahoning County Coonhunters festival last weekend. I had not been to this annual event in about 12 years. It is a combination flea market (mostly hunting,trapping, and dog supplies)hunters' reunion, and a water race. There were about 4000 people there by my estimate; about 10-15 percent were Amish, so I tried to be careful with the camera.

Here is a part of the flea market

There was everything for sale from Indian Artifacts

to poultry

There were also many dogs for sale,beagles of every age, squirrel dogs, Treeing Walkers and Blueticks. Whet I was surprised not to see were the older breeds of medium nosed hound (like the Redbone) or the older type Black and Tans. Even the Blueticks look leggier and more like Walkers. It seems the sport has really split between hide and meat hunters, who now use Cur Dogs, and competition hunters, who are using mostly Walkers. The Water Race dogs have always been a breed apart, having a little greyhound in them. The water race works like this:

A cable contains a float cage with a Coon. This cable is drawn across a pond with the dogs in pursuit. The lead dog wins and I believe first tree bark wins.

The winners enjoy a cash purse and races are accompanied by Calcutta style wagering.

Here is a closeup of a water race dog

My delight in this festival is seeing the young people interested in the outdoor sports,including a few young trappers and fur hunters. My young friend's older brother was there stocking up on supplies for fall trapping. In my own youth, trapping and fur hunting made money. AS a 12 year old kid, I made $15-20 a day with a small trapline during school holidays and weekends. The furbearing predators were kept in check, and the ones we caught were beautiful and healthy, unlike the diseased one I often have to kill out of pity today. The countryside needs more trappers and fur hunters and less citified Cabela-clad trophy deer hunters.

Poultry Market

2008-09-01T21:44:00.000-04:00

Last Fall I traded a gallon of cider and two Buff Orpington pullets to a neighbor for six bantam chickens. We have had chickens for years but never bantams. I have fallen in love with the cute little birds (One Cochin and the rest Japanese Bantams). They seem to be smarter than full size chickens, and are especially prolific. While I lost one to a fox, the remaining two roosters and three hens have given me 18 new chicks this year. I kept back two pullets and gave two roosters and two hens to a neighboring youngster to start his flock. We also had some excess cockerels from the Orpington Hatch, and already have a freezer full of chicken. I decided to take some of our excess to the market in nearby Rogers Ohio.

Rogers is hard to describe; part carnival, part farmers market, part auction, and part flea market. Every Friday this sleepy little Ohio town attracts a thousands of buyers and sellers in a day of pure capitalism. There are city folks from Youngstown and Pittsburgh; recent immigrants from Latin America, Asia and the middle East; many Amish and Mennonites, and my own people (upper Ohio Valley Rednecks). There are usually dozens of produce dealers; three or four Amish bakers; large buildings with used books, car parts, hardware, and knick-knack dealers. There are food trailers with the usually carnival food. People often sit near the main restroom area and offer free puppies. Others sell purebred puppies. There are pony rides for the kids. The flea market outside has hundreds of dealers on a good day.

I went with a shopping list:

A wooden sheep crook to replace one I broke
Peaches
Smoked cheese
Chocolate walnut fudge for my lovely bride
zinc jar lids for our old time canning jars

I found everything but the jar lids, and also got a good deal on some Roma tomatoes, (which we did not grow this year) a few pounds of green beans (ours are played out),
a military first aid kit (Useful for chainsaw accidents), An Amish shoofly pie and some scented soap for my wife. Prices are usually well below stores. If we did not garden but wanted to preserve food, I would make the trip to Rogers several times a season for this purpose. A young family could save considerable money on their groceries if they lived nearby.

What I find most remarkable about Rogers is how Americans of very different backgrounds meet in the market place on equal terms. There are buyers and sellers of every race. I overheard an older Italian man ask a Latin American produce vendor his nationality. The vendor replied "Italian" The older man began joshing him , and accusing him of "swimming the River" This was in jest on both of their parts, and in the equality of buying and selling, differences are set aside. I talked with a Coptic couple from Egypt who sell copies of Egyptian antiquities. Urban black families meet Amish ones. I am sure you can find trouble at this large market, but I am often amazed how so many different people actually get along so well. I have never seen any security or police there.

The poultry Auction starts at 6:00 pm. I would guess they sold about 300-400 head of poultry, 75 rabbits and maybe 40 goats. The birds range from poor old worn out leghorn laying hens to well started and well bred young stock. Many people buy chickens there for butchering. The average seemed to be $2,00 to $4,00 per head, dependent upon quality. Rabbits bring about the same. Young turkey were brining about $10.00 each. A few of the bantam pens were bringing $35.00+;especially young chicks and a mother with chicks. I need to exercise restraint around poultry sales. I was tempted by a pair of American buff geese (Winning bid $36), a pair of tufted Roman geese and the bantam call ducks. I confined my bidding to a trio of Red Cochin bantams which I did not win. However, since I was actually going to SELL chickens, I am not too sorry I did not BUY any more. However, Seeing all the different Bantams for sale did feed my interest in breeding and expanding my flock of these miniature chickens.

news to cheer the heart

2008-08-22T23:45:00.000-04:00

I do not spend much time with the news. I get most of it filtered through
issues etc or from my lovely wife. However, once in a while I run into something that cheers my heart.
congratulations to David Hayes and granddaughter Alyssa!

sweet corn snobbery

2008-08-19T00:05:00.001-04:00

I have been eating sweet corn since I had teeth, but this weekend I bought my first sweet corn. I was raised to pick the corn right before supper; preferably after the water was already on the stove.

The reason I bought the corn was that two sons of a good friend decided to sell some of their excess sweet corn. It was three dollars a dozen. We have had our own corn for two weeks, but I wanted to support the boys entrepreneurial effort. They picked ten dozen and had their dad drive them to their grandma's house on a busier road than their small farm. Turns out I was their only customer. I paid them the three dollars and put the corn in the fridge. My lovely wife cooked six ears tonight. One ear was OK. the others were too starchy and went to the chickens.

If you do not raise your own corn, make a friend who does. If the corn is more than one hour from the stalk, its hog feed. I am glad I helped the boys, but I am going back to picking my own. I know that snobbery of any sort is unappealing, but I will remain a sweet corn snob.

beans, lambs, and hot weather

2008-07-20T21:38:00.001-04:00

Last week the heifers were loaded and went down the road to the neighbors. I was our intention to start a small beef herd, but between our inadequate facilities and rising feed costs, I know it was the right decision.

The heifers are having a good time at their new home, as you can see in the photos on my lovely wife's blog. I am proud of how well they grew, but just as happy to concentrate on sheep, our myriad of poultry, and the gardens.

About a month ago, the ram lambs that were getting too precocious were separated from the ewes. Yesterday, they got turned onto the now empty cow pasture and seemed to really appreciate some new grass. They also met electric fence for the first time. As they grazed up close, they hit the wire with their noses and learned the boundaries. Three hot wires is really minimal for sheep, but they are trained to follow us in at night to a more secure paddock. The most important part of sheep fencing is not keeping the sheep in-it is keeping predators out. the worst predator in this area is the domestic dog allowed to run free. Coyotes will also take sheep, especially small lambs. The best defenses are fences, a good farm dog, and a handy firearm.

The meat chickens were running loose, enjoying the grass and bugs until it got hot, then they started looking for any shade. A couple of them found shade under the bucket of the front end loader while I was taking a break.

We also got the lambs vaccinated, and I also got a first nice picking of green beans. God willing, we will have a freezer full of lamb and green beans on the menu for Winter.

death of a dream

2008-07-02T22:38:00.000-04:00

I realized that again, I have not posted in a month. Life is busy.....
In the average week I work 45-60 hours at my off farm job. sometimes it requires evening travel. This crimps my agrarian ventures, as well as attempts at frequent blogging. However,in the past couple of weeks:

The sheep were all sheared
Gardens were weeded
late oats were seeded
Barn was cleaned for hay storage
last years ram was sold
I attacked the mess in the machine shed, watched the rain and waited to make hay.

Sometimes in the midst of this, there was real excitement. Monday night a week ago, I got home from work after dark. The Cows were still out on a pasture fenced with temporary electric fence. When I tried to bring them across the lane they missed the gate to the barn and headed down the lane towards the road. One got to the edge of the busy road we live on. The road used to be a country lane. About 12 years ago the Township repaved it and ever since is became a busy shortcut. drivers fly up that road talking on their cell phones. I have a mortal fear of one of these drivers hitting a cow. I got them herded away from the road and back to a hayfield behind my mother's house. 3 hours later, I got the last one in. Herding black cows in the dark is tough.

Monday night this week, I ran into a poor mangy fox in the back pen of the barn. He had killed Spotty, one of my pet bantams. My Lovely wife tells the story better than I can.

The Fox problem is a typical challenge of stock raising. A keeper of flocks has an obligation to protect his charges. The Cow escape issue is my lack of ability to manage them. We have had three escapes in 6 months. Right now we lack the money or time to fence the front line. I have a choice of either worrying about the next time this happens or selling the cows. I mad ea deal to sell the cows to a breeder at the other end of the Township. Selling the cows is a kind of setback to me, but I can't do everything. Selling the cows is the temporary death of a dream to breed and build up a little, but high quality beef herd. I try to avoid allowing the death of the dream to be too overtaking by cultivating gratitude for what we have, including:

40+ fruit trees
A large grape arbor that had been feeding my family for decades
2 productive vegetable gardens
Blueberries, black and red raspberries
80+head of various sort of poultry for meat, eggs, and beauty
12 sheep
Enough woodland for a lifetime supply of firewood.
Good hay ground and a good solid barn to store the hay for sale or feeding

Last but not least, a long marriage with someone who largely shares my dreams and the way I prefer to live out my earthly time.

I have also had dreams die before. We used to have a very large flock of sheep, around 70 brood ewes, and a 150%+ lambs crop. Five years ago, I had a virus settle into my heart, and ended up in the emergency room. Due to my health, we had to sell every animal on the place except for a few chickens and ducks. I simply could not care for them.
Two years ago, I was diagnosed with nearly complete recovery, so I started looking fo livestock, but on a smaller scale. In some respects, we are now stuck between a very large self sufficient homestead and a very small commercial farm.

After some discussion we have decided to again focus wholly on sheep for our livestock. We are going to look to pick up a few more head and expand from there. There are some good reasons for this. I have greater confidence about realizing profit from sheep than cows. In an expensive grain market,we can feed sheep cheaper, especially Cheviots. Our main barn was built for sheep, as were most of the fences.

We are people of modest means. While I love my heifers, I cant afford the time or cash to ensure they have the facilities they need. Because I did not plant any corn feed costs may become a problem. Sheep and Goats are often better livestock for poor country people.

While I am an unapologetic carnivore, I am delighted that the heifers are going to be brood cows--not steaks. I hope they know they are going to a good home so they go on the trailer easy.

Spring Flush

2008-06-02T06:23:00.000-04:00

I realized I had not posted a blog entry in over 30 days. This is really a busy time of year around here. My list is long:

Clean out barn
Fix manure spreader
Shear Ewes
Plant oats for summer grazing
Repairing and expanding fences
Build new chicken tractors
Set up new breeding stanchion/Cow pen in barn
Clean down trees from edge of hayfield

In addition to the normal stuff of mowing, basic spring clean up and the vegetable garden, and a busy off-farm job. When I get overwhelmed, I remember what is done.

The orchard is pruned and was sprayed with dormant oil the apples look good.
We transplanted black raspberries, red raspberries and strawberries
most of the garden is set out
Spring clean up is proceeding well
There is more than a cord of firewood for next year

The grass always grows faster than the animals can graze this time of year. With fewer animals than we used to have, I try to hand cut some of the odd corners and small areas that the haybine won't reach with a scythe and feed it as green chop. Our cows love it. I bought the scythe from Marugg Company about 5 years ago, and really prefer it to a weed eater. It cuts best in the early morning when the grass is wet. It is silent. It is graceful to use. I can cut a wheelbarrow load in about 15 minutes.

Rogation Day Prayer

2008-04-29T21:35:00.001-04:00

These are the rogation days, and the prayer book collect is thus:

ALMIGHTY God, Lord of heaven and earth; We beseech thee to pour forth thy blessing upon this land, and to give us a fruitful season; that we, constantly receiving thy bounty, may evermore give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Right now this is a most personal prayer for me. Our orchard has partly come into bloom due to last weeks warm weather and there is danger of frost tonight. A bad frost will mean few or no apples this year.

However, we do not live on apples alone. The cool weather and rain has helped the strawberries and raspberries we transplanted. Until the rain the other day things were a little dry. The cooler weather is easier on the Cows (No flies and no need bother the girls with fly spray). The grass is growing well for hay and pasture. The Lord will provide.

Guns and Bibles

2008-04-29T21:29:00.001-04:00

Maybe our guns and religion in small town Pennsylvania is not such a bad thing.............in spite of the recent Obama comments. Thanks to the folks at Stand Firm in Faith for publishing the story.

Sort of Purebred Sheep

2008-04-25T20:52:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, we turned the sheep our for the first time this Spring. This was a little later than usual, but they stayed on the pasture until December last Year. When My lovely wife returned from her travels, she remarked what a unremarkable bunch of lambs we had this year. Unfortunately, I had to agree. They are not really crummy, but they are just not nice examples of the breed.

We used to have a much bigger flock of sheep-about 60-70 ewes. Some were registered, some were grades of definitive type, and some were crossbreds. Over the years we had Shropshires, Finnsheep, A Border Leicester, a couple of Highland Blackface crosses, Grade Suffolks, Lincolns and grade Cotswolds, and many Cheviots. Over the last few years, nearly every Ewe was exposed to a Cheviot Buck, and the flock evolved from mostly black face or broken faced ewes to grade cheviots.

Five years ago, We sold all our sheep after I had a viral infection of the heart. The Winter before last, I returned to full health and we decided to get a few real nice purebred sheep. We decided again on Cheviots, which are very pretty, and normally pretty maintenance free. The downside of the breed is slow growth on the lambs to reach market size. We decided if we were only going to keep a few to keep them registered and breed for good type. I have one non-Cheviot Pet Ewe, a Suffolk named Big Girl.

We went to an honest local breeder, and bought registered ewe lambs. We went to a well established local breeding stock sale and bought a good registered young ram.
Hence the problem. We are seeing black spots, pink noses, and wool on the head between the ears. All of these are major faults in the Cheviot Breed-in some cases actually rendering them disqualified to be registered. I spoke to the breeder of the ewes about this. They had the same problem this year.

Because the show ring emphasizes height and size, some Cheviot breeders are slipping a little Montadale into their programs. The Montadale is a breed created though a cross of Cheviot and Columbia. WE are seeing the Colombia breeding in the pink noses, and wooly head. I have nothing against either Columbias or Montadales, but I would rather not see them in our little Cheviot breeding program.

There is a lot of dishonesty in the big time sheep show circuit, but eventually, the genes will tell the truth about an animal's origin. This is a bit of a disappointment, but not a disaster for us. We have three choices:

1. Try a different registered ram in the hope the genes "nick" better with our ewes.
2. Try the same cross again and hope for the best.
3. Take the best of our "MontaCheviot" ram lambs and use him on some ewes, and breed for performance, thereby saving money on registration.

I think we will probably end up choosing number three. Sometimes you just need to ride the horse the direction he wants to go.

Spring

2008-04-17T22:18:00.001-04:00

When the seasons change, I often re-read parts of an Elizabethan Agrarian Poem by Thomas Tusser- 100 Points of Husbandry. You can find the whole poem on several websites, but the Book Lost Country Life by Dorothy Hartley includes many amplifications for the modern reader. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how our European ancestors maintained their household economies. Here is some Tusser:

A hundreth good pointes, of good husbandry,
maintaineth good household, with huswifry.
Housekeeping and husbandry, if it be good:
must love one another, as cousins in blood.
The wife too, must husband as well as the man:
or farewell thy husbandry, doe what thou can.

Each month is a chapter on the farming year. This is from March

In Marche and in Aprill, from morning to night:
in sowing and setting, good huswiues delight.
To hoe in their garden or some other plot:
to trim up their house, and to furnish their pot

Right now my good huswife is still away, so I am preparing for the sowing and setting. This time of year a 24 hour workday would be a good start From "morning to night" does not seem like enough. There are fences to fix, gardens to till, sheep to shear, manure to haul, and a small patch of corn ground to plow up. There is still time for pleasure though, and seeing the heifers on grass is a real pleasure to me. My wife always delight in the flowers. I am not much for flowers, but I like daffodils, due to their association with Celtic Saint David. I built the stone wall about ten years ago. It is 35 feet of wall and needed a tremendous amount of stone. I enjoyed it, but don't know if I have another wall in me or not.

Anglican Friends of Issues Etc

2008-04-07T22:51:00.000-04:00

A big thank you to the folks at Radio Free Wittenberg and Wittenberg Media for beginning the work of uploading issues etc archives. I am listening and grateful.

There are obviously conflicts within LCMS that I will not weigh in on. Everyone knows my own faith tradition is pretty much a mess right now. There is an interesting and insightful comparison of the respective "issues" on this site.

For right now, I have added a link list I call "Anglican Friends of Issues Etc"-sites of orthodox/reformed Anglicans who are blogging about the demise of this great show. If there are others, please let me know. I would also encourage other Non-Lutherans to do the same, so we can have "Presbyterian Friends of Issues etc", and more. If the old show could morph into something new, this could help those of us who are not part of the Wittenberg trail keep up with changes, as well as support Pastor Wilken and Mr. Schwarz.

Please also consider donating to meet the material needs of these good men as well.

St. Paul Lutheran Church
Box 247,
Hamel IL 62046
Mark it Wilken/Schwarz Fund

Technorati tags: todd wilken, issues etc, lutheran church missouri synod

Batching It

2008-04-07T22:00:00.000-04:00

My lovely wife has gone to help take care of our new grandchild, so for the next 21 days I am batching it. I miss her. I like being married. We have our differences, but we have been married a long time, and I truly believe we each make more of the other. I believe she was a gift from God to me and I treasure her for love, counsel, and friendship.

On the farm, I am a good lifter of heavy objects. I do most of the routine livestock chores, especially in bad weather. I cut the firewood. I am good at cobbling together the numerous homestead projects. I do the taxes. She is the better gardener by far. She is a much better nurse of small sick living things. She also makes the house a place of beauty and warmth.
One of our differences is that she is really neat and tidy, a classic hausfrau. While my last name is German, my ancesters have been interbreeding with the English, Scots Irish and probably a few Indians for at least nine generations. The orderly Teutonic genes are pretty well gone, replaced mostly by what my wife calls "dirty English".
The neat housekeepers in my family are somewhat exceptional.

Towards self improvement,and a better marriage, I am fighting these genes. The two photos are days one and two from "the kitchen sink cam". Let's see if I can make the next days better. In my defense, it was a lovely day to spray dormant oil in our orchard.

A non-Lutheran Perspective on the Issues Etc cancellation

2008-03-28T12:34:00.001-04:00

I am not a big media user. We do not have a TV. I used to listen to a bit of talk radio and NPR, but find myself more and more in silence, listening to various kinds of traditional music, or lectures from ISI or sometimes Ancient Faith Radio. One of the few shows I really enjoyed was Issues, etc. It was relevant, intelligent, and through it was squarely in the heart of the Lutheran Tradition,it was a show that any thinking Christan could profit from. On Holy Tuesday last week, the show was abruptly canceled.

I hesitated to Blog about this, because I am not a member of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). Most of what I know about LCMS comes from blogs like Pastors Alms and Weedon, and a decent and remarkable LCMS pastor I met a few years ago. However, I decided to write about this after reading the explanation of the cancellation from the authorities thanks to this site.

What I am most struck by, is that after the salutation ("Dear Christian Friend") the complete text of the letter could be taken straight from the corporate boardroom. The letter talks about ratings, profitability and market share. This is not the language of the Church. Because of this, it lacks credibility.

Regardless of denomination, most churches are now being run by "organization men". They might wear a collar or mitre, but their main paradigm is the same as corporate America. Like Corporate America, their concerns are perpetuating the organization for its own sake. They hire "directors of development". They embark on "programs" and new strategies. They are easy to pick out by their language- whatever management buzzwords are popular in the business world, will peeper their speech. "New Paradigm" "Tipping Point" "Managing Change" "Emergent Markets". These kind of leaders love "branding" as well- from "America's Best Kept Secret" (to market Eastern Orthodoxy) To the current LCMS "Its not your Grandfather's Church". Unfortunately, reliance on the norms of corporate America will also lead to a perception of credibility likened to corporate America. Those who live and act like a CEO should expect to be trusted like a CEO. CEOS may have sycophants, they may be feared, but they are not trusted.

The main leadership paradigm from Christian History is the Shepherd ("Pastore"). As I recall, Our Lord and Savior used this as a model repeatedly. I am a keeper of flocks, and perhaps sometime I will blog about that for non-agrarian readers. There are plenty of good examples of shepherds of souls. Even the concept of a "CEO of souls" really creeps me out.

The "Pastore" is supposed to feed the sheep. Issues, ETC fed me well, and I miss it. Thank you Pastor Wilken and Mr. Schwartz for such a good show. I am sorry the organization men got you. I hope and pray you gain all things good.

Technorati tags: todd wilken, issues etc, lutheran church missouri synod

Bishop Wright slams Genetic Engineering

2008-03-25T12:35:00.000-04:00

My lovely wife has informed me that GMO sugar beets are being commercially planted in the US for the first time in human history. The UK is attempting to change legislation relative to embyo cloning. Fortunately, some Christian leaders, like Good Pope Benedict and the Anglican Bishop of Durham, NT "Tom" Wright, see through it. Here is an excerpt from Bishop Wright's Easter message:

"First, the current controversy about embryo cloning. Our present government has been pushing through, hard and fast, legislation that comes from a militantly atheist and secularist lobby. The euthanasia bill was another example; defeated for the moment, but it’ll be back. The media sometimes imply that it’s only Roman Catholics who care about such things, but that is of course wrong. All Christians are now facing, and must resist, the long outworking of various secularist philosophies, which imagine that we can attain the Christian vision of future hope without the Christian God. In this 1984-style world, we create our own utopia by our own efforts, particularly our science and technology. We create our Brave New World here and now; so don’t tell us that God’s new world was born on Easter Sunday. Reduce such dangerous beliefs to abstract, timeless platitudes. The irony is that this secular utopianism is based on a belief in an unstoppable human ability to make a better world, while at the same time it believes that we (it’s interesting to ask who ‘we’ might be at this point) have the right to kill unborn children and surplus old people, and to play games with the humanity of those in between. Gender-bending was so last century; we now do species-bending. Look how clever we are! Utopia must be just round the corner.

Have we learnt nothing from the dark tyrannies of the last century? It shouldn’t just be Roman Catholics who are objecting. It ought to be Anglicans and Presbyterians and Baptists and Russian Orthodox and Pentecostals and all other Christians, and Jews and Muslims as well. This isn’t a peripheral or denominational concern. It grows directly out of the central facts of our faith, because on Easter day God reaffirmed the goodness and image-bearingness of the human race in the man Jesus Christ, giving the lie simultaneously to the idea that utopia could be had by our own efforts and to the idea that humans are just miscellaneous evolutionary by-products, to be managed and manipulated at will. The Christian vision of what it means to be human is gloriously underscored by the resurrection of Jesus, and we as Easter people should make common cause with all those who are concerned about the direction our society is going in medical technology as in so much besides".

As Wendell Berry reminds us, Life is still a Miracle

Good Friday

2008-03-22T09:14:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Good Friday for all of those Christians who follow the Western Pascal Calender. My off farm work closed for a half day in honor of this. The mission church I attend does not have services until 7:00 pm, so I went home to face one of the tasks I hate during the farm year-cleaning up orchard trimmings. I rate job this below cleaning manure from pens or weeding onions. I only do it because:

1. The orchard has been my wife's labor of love, and speaks of the permanence of our marriage and life together here.
2. I have an inordinate love of apple cider
3. Washington State apples in local grocery stores are $1.79 per pound

A retired orchardman from across the border in Ohio comes to prune our orchard. He is an interesting and saintly man, and reminds me of the "dressers of vines" from the Old Testament.The first year, I thought I would haul the trimmings away as he cut. I soon found it was impossible to keep up with a man who arrives at the job with three chainsaws ready to go. As soon as one saw ran out of fuel, he picked up the next.

In the wake of his creative destruction, I must deal with the trimmings. Some of it makes good firewood. I get a few walking sticks and tool handles. However, most of it heads for a burn pile. To prevent disease, it must be hauled some distance away. First I go through and trim the firewood. I tend to dull more chainsaw blades than working in the woodlot. Apple wood grows at right angles, and many odd shapes. As I load the brush on a cart, the whip ends slash my ears and poke my eyes. The cart holds too little, because the apple wood will not stack like other brush. I could cut it smaller, and dull more chains, or haul bigger pieces and get whipped in the ear more. I once tried loading a hay wagon instead of the cart, but the wagon would not fit in the orchard rows.

There is no way around this job. While I do it, I try to focus on a future beatific vision of a Fall day, when we take a load of apples to the commercial press down the road. I look forward to pressing a small load at home with my friend and neighbor, a local dairyman. We do this the old fashioned way for the pleasure of catching up with each other in our busy lives, and enjoying good food. I remember with gratitude that we actually own these trees and the land underneath. And finally, being Good Friday, I recall that a poke in the eye and a stinging ear are only dust in the face of betrayal,scourging, mockery,and crucifixion for the sins of the whole world. I have no case.

Stockdogs

2008-03-18T22:07:00.001-04:00

This is Nipper, our Amish-bred Blue Heeler (Australian Cattle Dog). She is the most recent of a long line of stockdogs here. We took Nipper in when a young girl could no longer keep her. I have had numerous Border Collies, an Australian Shepherd, and two Blue Heelers. I also had some Blackmouth Curs that would head and heel cattle a little.

Years ago, I used to enjoy going to sheepdog trials and herding events in Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. We had a big commercial flock then, and it was kind of a bus man's holiday. I lost interest after a local tragedy that happened to some very nice people I knew from the sheepdog events. The short version is they adopted a very troubled boy, and he murdered his adoptive mother. Years later, I still tend to remember this event when I think about Border Collies My pain has been minuscule compared to that of the family, but evil has a way of reaching out.

A good dog is a nice asset on the homestead. We had some pigs that would probably have had to been shot rather than loaded for sale if it were not for Pete the Heeler. Dan the Border Collie was probably my best sheepdog. He made up for our saggy fences numerous times.

For what it is worth, here is my opinion about various breed for farm work.

Border Collies are loopy workaholics. When Dan had nothing else to do, he would circle the chicken pen, making the hens move from one side to another. He never hurt a chicken, in fact he could sneak up and gently catch loose birds. Jake the Border Collie was a sex maniac. Do not get a Border Collie unless you have a job for it. It is also sometimes difficult to get them to stay with you if you are doing any task they perceive as boring, such as stacking wood. Border Collies tend to be a little soft as well. Dan got kicked by a calf and gave up on working cattle. I understand there are western strains of Border Collies that are tougher.

Blue Heelers are tough. A kick from a calf is not going to stop them. They also tend to stick around their master better. They lack all sense of delicacy though. It is difficult to use a heeler to herd ducks or lambs. Some folks in the next County used heelers for Buffalo. The big drawback can be temperament. I have been bit twice by heelers while visiting other farms. Nipper's hobby is trying to trick visitors into coming close enough to bite their heels.

Australian Shepherds, and their cousins, the English Shepherd, are my ideal of a good all around farm dog. They do not retrieve sheep from a mile away, but our Aussie Roy was invaluable at shearing and foot trimming time. He also worked well in smaller pastures. The big problem with these breeds is finding a good strain. Australian Shepherds were ruined by show breeding. The show bred dog is too heavy boned, and cannot move well enough to work hard. Fifteen years ago, there were five good Australian shepherd working dogs within a mile of here (including Roy). They are now all gone. We tried to breed Roy to one of the older local females before he died. Unfortunately, it did not take, and the strain is gone. One of my Border Collie friends believes that the demise of the small farm has led to the demise of the working strain of the Australian Shepherd as well.

The Armed Agrarian: Taurus Versus Kel-Tec

2008-03-10T23:03:00.000-04:00

Like most Western Pennsylvania Country People, I like guns. Aesthetically, my favorite guns are muzzle loaders, but if it shoots, I am interested.

I know there are many people who do not like guns in the hands of everyday folks. To me, The reality of sin and evil are the only provable points in Christian theology. Creation is fallen.I will not debate the morality of self defense, but would refer the reader to the learned Father Frog on the matter.

Because of our beliefs, both my wife and I keep ready arms in our house, and carry concealed handguns everywhere we legally can. Fortunately, in Pennsylvania, open carry is legal without a permit (except in vehicles), concealed carry permits are available to any adult who can pass a simple background test, and thanks to the Pa. Attorney General, a Pa. Concealed Carry hermit is recognized in many other states (Always check the law for yourself-I am not a lawyer)

Being old fashioned, for years I carried revolvers of various sorts. My only auto was a 1911 I traded to a coworker years ago. I bought another 45--a Ruger Blackhawk with an extra cylinder in 45 ACP. I like revolvers.

However, I kept passing the relatively cheap 9mm ammo at gun shows, and decided to get a small auto pistol. I wanted a pistol that could unobtrusively go anywhere. I settled on a Taurus PT 111 Millennium Pro, based upon a very positive experience with one of their Model 94 22 revolvers.

From purchase, the Taurus did not function well. I attributed some of the jamming to break in , but the trouble got worse as I shot more. One spent case actually cracked and scratched the stainless steel coating on the slide. The local dealer sent it back.

While the Taurus was gone, I found a deal on a used Kel-Tec at another shop. I had given Kel Tec consideration based upon a favorable review by this guy in Backwoodsman magazine. The Taurus came back last week, so I have had an opportunity to shoot and carry both guns and offer a comparison. Here's my review:

Overall: Both guns are 9mm, which is considered a minimal caliber for self defense. I am careful to carry only premium ammunition that has a good performance record. However, a 9mm in my pocket beats the 12 gauge at home. Both guns are highly concealable.
However, the Kel-Tec is really concealable. The Taurus conceals well in a shoulder rig or inside the waist band holster. The Kel-Tec conceals anywhere. It is truly pocket size.

Comfort: The Taurus is more ergonomically comfortable. In your hand it feels like a standard pistol. It is very controllable with recoil. The Kel-Tec had a tendency to bite my hand a little in prolonged shooting until I bought a magazine grip extension.

Trigger Pull: The Kel-Tec has a trigger much like a double action revolver. The Taurus has a long mushy feel, unlike any other pistol I have shot. The Kel Tec has no safety (Again like a double action revolver), the Taurus has a left side safety.
I got used to the Kel-Tec Trigger quicker.

Sights: The Taurus has Heinie sights that require holder over the target: not a standards six o'clock sight picture. A coworker thinks they are the best combat sights he ever saw, even better than his Glock. They took me about 300 rounds to get used to, but I know like them OK. The Kel-Tec had the non snag standard three dots.

Reliability: After a return to the factory, the Taurus now functions. The dealer is madder than I am about the way Taurus dealt with the whole affair.They fixed the slide internally, but not the chip in the finish. After 450 rounds, the Kel Tec had one failure to feed that I quickly cleared. Kel Tecs are not pretty, but mine is very reliable.

Overall, I am won over by the Kel Tec. I will keep the Taurus, but will not buy another. The small dealer will no longer sell them, based upon their service. The Kel Tec also accounted for one marauding possum, who was eating the barn cats food. I pray each day, I never need any of my guns for more than that, but knowing the reality of the world, I must remain an armed agrarian.

A simple sheep shelter

2008-03-02T22:17:00.001-05:00

A very nice lady who reads my wife's blog recently asked about simple, inexpensive, sheep facilities. Most of our facilities are for our comfort, not the sheep. Sheep do not need indoor barns with electric and running water. They need:

Water
Grass (Hay in Winter)
Protection from predators (including the neighbor's dogs, coyotes, and bears)
A place to get out of the wind, and rain

The building here is not really a sheep shelter. My father and I built it years ago for pigs. My wife and I later learned about using pigs to compost sheep manure, so the building has been underutilized since. It was built on a weekend without working too hard. It is really just five poles in the ground and boards nailed for siding. This design needs no framing lumber, as the siding serves as the framing too. When we first built it, we used cheap rolled roofing. Later, I had enough metal roofing from the new roofing for our house to cover all the small outbuildings, so it got a metal roof. The use of rough cut lumber from a local sawmill also saves a lot of money. sometimes, you can buy up odd lots very cheap.

This building measures eight by eight and would hold 4-5 sheep.

I plan on cutting the poles off, putting it on skids, and moving it this summer. It might become a house for my Rouen ducks, another chicken coop, bachelor quarters for our ram, or even colony housing for our rabbits.

Technorati tags: sheep, shepherding, homestead building