This is our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life (Hebrews 11:8-10) along the narrow way (Matthew 7:14), even the old paths (Jeremiah 6:16), submitting to the Bible as a light unto both (Psalms 119:105). It is our prayer that these documented moments in our earthly time benefit whom God might choose to edify, but ultimately that God glorifies Himself through them.

Month: July 2010

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf “Nohemi”

Our last cattle update mentioned our new heifer calf Celestina. Well, we recently saw all of the herd together, except for her; and we’ve come to realize that she is probably gone. We don’t know what happened to her, but the Lord in His wisdom and of course since they’re His anyway (Ps 50:10) determined He would have this one removed. But we praise the Lord for His infinite goodness!

And He continues to be gracious and merciful, and has granted us another calf, a heifer to our cow Catalina. We don’t have a story for the name on this one — we just liked the name itself: we decided to call her Nohemi, which in Spanish means “my pleasantness, my delight.”

Here are a couple of pictures:

New Longhorn Heifer Calf Nohemi
New Longhorn Heifer Calf Nohemi

And here’s her moving picture:


Here is a little something we thought you might like on what is apparently herd culture:


We thank the Lord again for His perfect wisdom in all things, and for granting the provisions of this new heifer calf.

— David

Community Singing – July 2010

In a past blog post about fellowship activities around here, I mentioned the singing we do together on the Lord’s Day. We had recently gone through our “hymnal” (which is just a collections of hymns we had put together) and removed probably 2/3 of the hymns as they were either doctrinally incorrect or just fluff pieces with no real spiritual meat; and now, it seems over time we’re leaning more toward the singing of the Psalms from our psalter as our preferred song choices, given that they are based on God’s Word, where we believe God has dictated how He should be worshiped (see the regulative principle of worship).

In our singing of the Psalms, we’re also trying to learn them by heart so that when the Psalter is not around, either at times during the day now, or perhaps if we’re ever prohibited from having it, we will be able to continue to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

We’ve recorded our Psalm singing a couple of times now (which we hope to continue to do), and since some of you might be learning from the same Psalter we are, or even if you’re not, I wanted to share them with you. I look forward to listening to them myself as hearing songs repeatedly helps me memorize them:

Psalms 1A-12B (minus 4B)

Psalms 4B & 13-18L

(This is not the performance-oriented “worship” that occurs in most “churches” today; it is just simple a capella Psalm singing.)

It is our prayer that God glorifies Himself through us, at times of singing His praises, and throughout our lives in any way He might.

— David

William of Orange

Recently, the our neighbors captured a garbage bandit in a live trap they had set. The culprit was an orange tabby cat, a male. He ended up being quite friendly, and some of their children wanted to keep him, but the decision was made against that, and he was offered to us actually.

Sue had been wanting a cat for some time, but we really need things to have utility value around here. We have had some mice problems in our barn; and so, I decided that he could be beneficial to have for our barn; and I could do a little something for Sue as well, especially given how friendly he seemed.

So, we decided to take him; and here is how we decided on a name:

On March 17 of each year, we have a tradition around here of having an orange party, with orange being the somewhat official color of Protestants, in protest of the Roman Catholic St. Patrick’s Day and their green color. Some time ago, Protestants in Northern Ireland and Scotland took the color orange in honor of William the III, also known as William of Orange, and for his stands against the Roman Catholics, especially on this day, July 12, where he defeated the antichrist Roman Catholic forces at the Battle of the Boyne (see the “Antichrist” section on our “Soul Info” page regarding our belief that the Pope and Roman Catholic Church are the Antichrist and religious system of Antichrist).

And so, since orange, being the color of Protestants, was derived from William of Orange; and since our cat is also “of orange” — of orange color, that is — we decided to call him William.

Here are some pictures:

Cats apparently like to lay around a lot it seems, especially during the day — at least, this one does:

William the Tabby Cat Sleeping
William the Tabby Cat Sleeping in the Cupboard

Also, I must say that he is the friendliest animal I think I’ve ever been around. We keep him inside with us during the day, unless he wants to cruise around outside; and he really likes to just hang around people:

William the Tabby Cat Laying Next to the Computer While I'm Working On It
William the Tabby Cat Resting His Head on the Computer While I'm Working On It

But, here he is earning his keep:

William’s fun to have around; and he seems to be doing his job, at least to some degree; and he doesn’t cost too much to maintain.

We’re thankful to the Lord for granting us this living mouse catcher, and we pray God grant that William fulfill his duties. We’re thankful for this friendly gift of creation, but we pray the Lord grant us a continued proper perspective on animals without sinning by having inordinate affections. Also, we stand with our Protestant brethren throughout time who have been faithful to Christ against Antichrist, even to death: see Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Piglets

Well, it’s been a while since we’ve had some piglets born; but the Lord has graciously granted a litter to our gilt Missy. She was one of two that survived her litter, and was the smaller of the two, but was a fighter. She had a fairly large gash on her leg when she was young, but God granted her healing. Also, she got caught in a hail storm some time ago, which we believe was the cause of her ears swelling up like pillows. In researching the condition, there was basically one remedy suggested: lancing the ears.

That was fun. I took a folding disinfected razor blade knife out there with some hydrogen peroxide; and being this was the first time I had ever done something like that, I basically just poked it in. It burst, shooting out blood and fluid, which surprised me probably more than her. Sadly, that didn’t do the trick; so over time I had to go at it again a couple of times; but I modified my technique by poking it in and slicing down. That sure got it bleeding all right. Also, each time, I chased her around until I could pour that hydrogen peroxide on her ear. In the end, that worked much better; and her ears haven’t been swollen since; but they are somewhat deformed now.

Missy also took a long time to get pregnant. I believe we had her with two different boars, and several months with this last one; but after many estrus cycles, which we were able to track, they finally stopped.

Here is Missy (left) with the second boar Wilbur (right), borrowed from the Bunkers:

Duroc Gilt Missy and Boar Wilbur

And here they are again, opposite sides:

Duroc Boar Wilbur and Gilt Missy

And sure enough, almost to the day (which is 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days for gestation), 11 piglets were born, all alive. This is the largest litter we’ve had; and at this point, only two have died:

Newly Born Duroc Piglets

Here is their introduction video, taken around the time they were born:


And here they are two and a half weeks later:


We thank God again for His gracious granting of these piglets, a healthy delivery for their mother, and for granting her a good motherly instinct.

— David