Catching Up

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

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.

Bantam nation

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

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

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

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.