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.
It’s been over a year since we did our last animal update on our pig Pebbles. As you can imagine, she has grown up quite a bit; and so, it was time to continue our normal cycle and get her a mate. We bought a medium-sized male from Mr. Bunker, and of course, had to call him Bamm-Bamm.
Here are Pebbles (left) and Bamm-Bamm (right) back in May:
And again, Bamm-Bamm (left) and Pebbles (right):
We thought, based on “action” we saw from the two that she was about ready to give birth late-April or so, but it ended up two estrus cycles past that.
And by God’s graces and mercies, she successfully gave birth! — a litter of nine, with two dead, and one little guy that just could never get walking properly, and he died as well.
After last year’s difficulties with Pebble’s mother’s delivery, we were really praying this one would go more smoothly; and the Lord was gracious in granting that to be so; and we are very thankful!
Here they are not too long after being born:
And here is a video of the journey of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, from meeting last December to piglets in June (it’s a little long, but to me, kind of fun to see the progression). Bamm-Bamm has since been “processed” as our food provisions:
We are very grateful to God for granting these new piggies to be born, for the safe delivery for Pebbles, and for the meat from Bamm-Bamm we have been able to store away.
Every year during the past few years or so, along with March 17 (Saint Patrick’s Day) in honor of our Protestant heritage against the antichrist Roman Catholic Church, we celebrate “The 12th,” an Orange Day celebration commemorating William of Orange’s stand against the Roman Catholics on July 12, 1690, 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).
It’s a time a fellowship and fun for the group here, and we enjoy gathering in all of our orange regalia….
This year, we started by singing several of the Psalms we are learning from our psalter:
And then it was time to eat!
Here’s the main dish table (you’ll notice the color scheme 🙂 ):
And then desserts and drinks (and the color scheme here too!):
Here are the men and some young ones enjoying the meal with good conversation:
And the women and the other young ones too:
And then children had some play time outside:
We are thankful to the Lord for all of His provisions; for granting His word to be available to us in our native tongue; for this time of peace where we are not killed by antichrist for having a Bible in our own language; for all of the Protestants of the past and their stands — including to death — against antichrist — the Pope and the Roman Church — may we stand against antichrist equally as faithful; and for the opportunity to gather in Christ’s name as brethren.
Here is the beginning of one side, with the #30 tar paper (asphalt felt) in place:
And a completed side:
Here are the beginnings of the hip corner. The person helping us just used a metal blade on a circular saw to make the cuts (with face protection in place!):
And then the hip corner complete:
This is the upper flashing on the right porch side, the top part of the flashing to go underneath the siding, and includes fitted foam underneath. The bottom drip edge we did like we did for the main roof:
Here is the hip ridge cap installed. It too has special angle-cut fitted foam under it:
And here is what it looks like against the corner of the house:
And here it all is with the metal, flashing and hip ridge caps in place, and with the fascia plates painted:
We are very thankful to the Lord for Him granting continued progress on the house.
Since our last update on our turnips and wheat, the turnips basically dried out; but we are grateful to the Lord for what He granted in them in being able to feed our pigs with them.
But the wheat continued on its process. Here is what the wheat field looked like back in April. You can see how high it had grown in the second picture:
Fast forward a little over a month, and here is what it looked like. A beautiful gift from God!
And then it was time! The harvest! This is something we had been looking forward to basically since we moved here — being able to harvest a crop. There is also much to learn spiritually from the wheat harvest, the wheat being the saints of God.
First was to cut it and tie it into sheaves. I tried using a scythe for reaping (God harvesting the souls of His people); but it ended up leaving the wheat on the ground in somewhat of a chaotic fashion (which could just have been a lack of technique); and we found that having all of the heads together in one place is better for the threshing process; and so Sue used a sickle, which worked well. We tied them using weeds or twine. The whole time out there are got “Bringing in the Sheaves” stuck in my head:
And then stacked them into stooks to dry (God gathering His saints together):
Once ready, it was time to begin the threshing process (God breaking down the carnal, selfish man of His chosen with trials and chastisements). We laid out a tarp, and borrowed some flails from one of the folks here. He attached some chains on the end of closet dowels — we thought the loose, heavier chains might do well with the flailing:
And here is Sue and myself flailing away. It’s something of a violent process (sometimes God needs to be a little “violent” in the breaking down of our pride):
And then it was time to winnow the wheat, separating the chaff from the wheat berries (God further refining the souls of His children). We used a garbage can lid, which didn’t work too badly:
After several hours of work, here is the finished product — the mostly cleaned wheat berries (God’s gathered in, sanctified people):
We were thankful to be able to go through the process of hand-harvesting and processing the wheat.
It happened though that a fellow from town we know had an old grain combine that he wanted us to have to use, if we wanted, and he had a backup one for spare parts. After the Bunkers got done using it, and graciously going through all of the headaches and replacing of parts needed to finish their fields, it was our turn to use.
The “combine” is a machine that does all of the processing we described above all at one time. Of course, it’s much faster, but you also have to maintain it (which causes dependence on the world), you don’t get the experience needed to learn how to harvest wheat by hand should the mechanized methods be no longer available one day, you don’t think about the spiritual aspects of the harvesting process because you’re not intimately involved, and you don’t get the benefits (spiritual and temporal) of performing work in God’s way, all of which are why we wanted to process at least some of the wheat by hand.
Still, I wanted to be able to make sure to get all of the wheat harvested and stored before we lost the crop from being in the field too long; and so I decided we would use the combine on the rest of the field. And here it is a-harvesting:
And a completed row:
You can see the difference in amounts between the picture above of the hand-harvested in the bucket vs. what the combine collected after just a couple of hours. I can understand the temptation of the carnal man that caused him to desire and then over time find and eventually implement, through industrialism, what appeared to be easier ways to do things, and how easily it can be to get sucked into the industrial trap, which actually leads to slavery — you become dependent on the industrial machine (as a system), and then MUST do things the worldly way to survive). This is something we try to remember and keep in perspective, even if we use something like a combine for now:
With the combine’s grain bin full, with the help of some of the men, we unloaded it into sacks for storage:
And used rebar ties to tie them off:
Here is the first haul from that first bin:
And here is the final stack of wheat sacks:
If you’ve never seen a combine in action, it is pretty amazing the amount of “work” it does, when it’s working and not broken down:
We are so very thankful to the Lord for His granting of a wheat harvest — our first real crop, besides the turnips this year as well. We thank Him for the lessons He teaches us in His word and through work, and we pray He leads us into work that is worship unto him. We pray He thresh and winnow us in purity, and that He help us through that when He does; and we pray we will be presented to His Son one day, a “cleaned” and holy bride.
— David
Heb. 11:8-10 - "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
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