My Rights Your Rights

A lot is going on in the U.S. today. I'm speaking at the moment of the Presidential Election run up.  I follow politics pretty close and to be honest I am not a fan of any of the candidates.  None of them seem to have the competence that is required to lead and run the country in a manner that maintains and enhances the liberty of the citizens of this great nation. In fact they all are either opportunists or they are criminals and should be tried for their crimes of treason... I won't name names, but that persons initials are Hillary Clinton. (I guess I should have proof read before posting.)

Thanks to the lack of leadership in our country we as a country are more divided than ever. We all vote and we all want to think our votes are important then you have this:

Anti-Trump Protesters

These protesters in multiple cities have succeeded in disrupting and stopping people from either learning about or supporting a candidate.  I am floored at their audacity, it just blows my mind that they want to ensure they have rights, while at the same time preventing other law abiding citizens from exercising their rights. 

I have one thing to say to the thugs that exhibit this behavior:

You get in my way of exercising my right and I will violently protect my right to travel  and my right to free speech!

From the Garden This Morning

I don't have a lot to write about today, but pictures say a lot...

First Work in the Garden 2016

In Southern Arizona it's the time of year to start working on the garden. This garden season we are starting with a real mess full of weeds.  The mess was so complete as Trudy, my wife, put it, "It was so shameful we didn't take before pictures."  Today the sky was blue, the wind averaged about 12 miles an hour and the high temperature was 70 degrees.

We moved all the DIY earth boxes into the corner after we cleaned out the weeds.

Those are all blackberry plants that rooted themselves since last summer.  They will come out and be potted to give to friends and family.

The mint started in one container... they have taken over 2 other containers and are working on a 3rd.

Broccoli, it may already be to hot for them.. hopefully the don't bolt.

A rosemary bush... we keep cutting on it to add to dishes, and it just keeps growing.

Tomorrow we tackle this mess.

.. and this.

and this... somewhere in there are elderberry plants.

More blackberries and a spoiled dog.

That's the garden update.  Have a good night

Advice Revisited

Hello All,

Here is another look at an old post that was posted in 2011.  It's one of my personal favorites, the truths and advice in it are timeless.

Advice From an Old Homesteader


A wisdom from this blog post:

The best sermons are lived not preached!

Reviewing Old Posts

Over the next few days I will be posting some older posts that still hold true today.  The following post is about Americans view of the future, since writing this blog originally you can look at the statistical data and say, "See the economy is better."  I say from the working mans view it doesn't ant this post continues to be valid.

Americans View of the Future

Your not in control, God is, all you have to do is trust Him.

A New Project in the Garden

The first post after being back is one that I have been talking with many people lately and they have asked for a better description then I have provided verbally.  The project I'm referring to is growing vegetables in Earth Boxes.

An Earth Box is a growing system that has a water reservoir in the where the water is drawn up to the plant via capillary action of the grow media.  The Earth Box product is a very good product and they seem to hold up well, the down side is they are expensive, so being the cheapskates, errr I mean resourceful individuals we are, Trudy and I decided to build our own.

We took a normal storage tote, in this case a Rubber Maid tote.

We drew a grid on the box I also drew places for 3 separate holes which will become evident as you scroll down.

In the grid that I drew on the lid Trudy or Jake drilled holes whereever the lines intersected.

I threw this in for no particular reason.

Part of the lid, you see that the grid that was drilled has been cut out of the middle of the lip of the lid.

Another component of the DIY earthbox is 1/14" PVC pipe, these are cut down to 4 in legnths, but all the other boxes are cut to 6 inches.

Here is the drilled and cut grid of the earth box, the small holes allow rain water to pass down to the reservoir.

The two bigger holes are what will help draw the water up to the plants, the little hole allows us to fill the water reservoir.

So here is the grid, the Solo cups have holes in them, and will be filled with planting mix, then sit down in the reservoir and wick water into the soil.

The grid will sit on the PVC, which will act as support.

We ended up assembling 13 of these boxes.  Here you see the fill tube which allows us to fill the reservoir.

We also filled the boxes with planting mix.

The covers for these are white garbage bags, we covered the boxes to help reduce evaporation.  We'll cut holes where we plant seeds or seedlings.

 That's it for now.  If you have questions let me know.

Thanks all!

The Blog is Back

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on the blog.  Life got in the way and I just had zero inspiration to writ. However we're back and you can expect regular posts to the blog and maybe I'll throw updates about what you missed.

Commissioned

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. 

Whole books have been written about this passage, songs have been sung, preachers have spent hours teaching their congregations about this verse.  Most Christian people call it the Great Commission.  What I have to say about it won't be much, however I've been observing churches friends and family have been attending and I've witnessed a disturbing trend.

The above verses command Christians to go and make disciples.  One observation I have is churches today aren't doing that.  They set their program and present it as a takei it or leave it proposition.  To me this is not how churches should operate, they should look and see what their community needs and offer that.  In some communities this outreach might be a food bank. In others it might be a community center with projects or games for children, youth and families alike.  In a more rural setting an outreach might be a roping, or a ranch fun day.  Here's the kicker in all these settings the message is the same.  "Your past doesn't matter, God loves you, He's provided for your future, your eternity, in the form of Jesus Christ. Trust In Jesus for your salvation."  John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

The next observation is that the above message is getting lost in the shuffle. Church leaders today are so worried about attendance, tithes and offerings, the congregant who is the squeakiest wheel, and so many other details that pale in comparison to The Commission.

The Garden on Memorial Day Weekend

I noticed I posted some pics from May 4th, so I thought I would post pictures of the garden at the end of the month too.

The approach to the garden.  The hoses on the ground are soaker hoses I haven't gotten around to stowing away.

The squash and zucchini are looking pretty good.

The strawberry a are blooming and setting fruit.

The blackberries are ripening.

The tomatoes are looking good and we're picking fruit everyday.

The container garden is green and growing.

The dog

The posts below will eventually be a part of pergola for the grape vines over our patio.

The grapes.