Fight FOCA

This is a multi-purpose post. My first point is to point out that the Freedom Of Choice Act is coming. With a Liberal Congress and a Liberal Presidency, this is the first opportunity it has had to become law. I would encourage you to watch for this bill to be introduced and fight for it's death.

The second point is to keep FightFOCA ranked highest when searching for FOCA. Join with me in adding links to you blog or personal webpage.

Oh, and sign the petition. For more info visit the FAQ.

On another note...

My Love is a godly woman. I have known this for many years, but there have been several events lately that have made this more pronounced.

I hope and pray that some of this is the result of me being a godly husband and leading Joi. I know a majority of it is her growing in grace.

Recently Joi went to coffee with a friend of ours and a friend of this young lady. Kelly has been trying to get Joi and her friend together for sometime. When Joi returned, she had many stories that made her laugh in humility while I was encouraged for her.

Joi said they kept saying things such as, "she is always giving little bits of wisdom" and "whew, I'm glad I'm not the only one". She was an encouragement to these young ladies, and a gift of wisdom for their endeavors in raising godly children in a godly way.

Today, Joi received a book in the mail. Our postman delivers mail in the morning. Joi has done an outstanding job of reaching out to him. He gets cookies every Christmas. Joi makes the best Chocolate Chip cookies in the world. She has a secret recipe, and I am the only one that knows it... I will never tell Jess... back to the story. At around four o'clock he rang the doorbell and said he forgot to deliver our package this morning. He asked if she had gotten the mail, as he was going to retrieve it and bring it to the door for her. His route brings him back down our street on his way back to the post office. That being the case, I wonder how many other people he would have given that type of service. We appreciate him, and it shows he appreciates us. Well, Joi that is.

That's my love... My Joi... My Prarie Muffin...

not all they're cracked up to be...

Well, this is the first time I've gotten to cook my eggs. Joi has used several eggs for this and that, but tonight we had breakfast for supper.

Here is my account. I cracked nine eggs that I received by the grace of God from my chickens. I then cracked six eggs that I received by the grace of God from the store. The end result is the picture on the left. I should note that we receive eggs regularly from some friends who have a lot more laying hens, so this was not my first experience with non-commercial eggs.

The first thing I noticed was that the egg shells were very, and I mean very, hard. I have a pretty good single strike and crack in half reputation when it comes to egg cracking. I struck the egg on the metal bowl several times. I noticed that the outer/inner membrane did not break. I literally had to tear this bag like membrane. I know what you are thinking... Is that good? I was talking to Joi, and it dawned on me... It is virtually impossible for me to get part of an egg shell in my cracked eggs... so I believe it to be not just good, but very good.

Joi asked me about the color, and I did notice the color to be very vivid. You can see a distinct difference in color in the picture. Can you tell which side came from the store and which came from the backyard? I'll let you know in the comments which is which.

The last thing that I noticed while cooking the eggs was that when I removed the eggs from the iron skillet there was very little remnant of egg in the pan. When I placed the store bought eggs in the skillet, the remains were absorbed into the uncooked eggs. When I was done, I'd bet there was half an egg stuck to the skillet. To their credit, I was cooking them very hard for my dear wife.

The last step was the taste test. I placed some on the right and the other on the left of my plate. I ate from my eggs, and then from the store bought. I then reversed the order. There was a distinct taste as well. I am grateful that we have made this venture. It has been good... by the grace of God.

Bob Wahr'

I am beginning to get some opportunities to take on the agrarian life. It's been my hearts desire for some time now. Unfortunately, I haven't always been focused on it. Lately, I have been really working towards that goal. I helped some friends slaughter and process their chickens. I have been raising chickens for eggs, and two of the three are laying now. Today I was blessed with being able to stretch out a part of a barbed wire fence.

In preparing for the day, I decided I should read something on the subject. I've strung fences before, but I've never been any good at it. I just haven't had the experiences necessary to understand the delicacies of the subject.

I read the article on Mother Earth News. I felt it was a good article. There are a lot of little tips that really set it apart.

So armed with my new information, I went to put up a fence. Russ had done this for himself before, but was not real experienced either. The big difference between our fence and the one in the article was the use of T posts. These were used for the run, and wooden posts for the gate and corner posts. The corner was done with a horizontal brace and two other posts.

So we started at the bottom from the wrong direction. We pulled from the corner post to the gate post. We pulled from the opposite side of the gate. Russ remembered that as being the best way to go. It turns out it was not the best, but it was an Edison moment. We discovered another way not to stretch the fence. We would correct it later.

I suggested we pull from the corner post. Russ agreed. This worked out great. We put some tension on the line. It was very tight. We were proud. So we did another line in the middle. When we got finished with that line, we realized the top strand was sagging. We loosened up the staples and stretched it again. We managed to get it a good inch and a half tighter. We moved to the lower middle line. Once I got the stretcher nice and taught, Russ noticed the top was sagging. I loosened the stretcher to discover it was sagging. Then I thought about it. When to applied tension to the top wire, it only tightened up to the first barb that was on a post. Ah ha. Another moment of learning. We decided to go ahead with the middle lines. We decided tension should be judged based on the higher middle strand. This worked out great. We knocked out the lower middle and the middle wires. We then reworked the top and lower wires. In the end, I think we will do better when we do the rest. We know have a system.

It must be the bread...

I could only pick one title. Other thoughts included, "A train a train, could you would you on a train?", "The incredible edible", "Sunny side up", "Chicken or the Egg", etc...

To the left is our first egg. She's on the small side, but that's ok. We've had our chickens for several months now. A friend got them past the baby stage for us. We got them at 5 weeks. I get to go out every morning to feed and water them. When it's really cold, I get to de-ice the water before changing it out. I've been feeding the pup we got around the same time.

My father-in-law started getting eggs last week. Joi suggested we might not be getting any because Lassie (the pup) is terrorizing our chickens. That may be true. Joi mentioned that her dad was giving his chickens day old bread and talking to them.

Since that time, I have been out talking to my chickens. I'd say things like, "If you don't give me some eggs soon, then I'll get me some legs soon". You know coersing them into laying.

Last night we had some rolls. Joi wanted me to give them to the chickens. It was raining horribly, and cold. The chickens were running around in mud puddles. I moved the tractor to a spot that looked better. Once I got it there and looked in, there were more mud puddles. I moved them to a grassy spot under the tree and there was less mud there. Joi reminded me with a knock on the window that we had bread to give them. I retrieved the bread. It had a tin which I was glad to see, because the chickens haven't been eating out of their tray lately. I was able to put the scratch feed in the tin rather than on the wet ground.

So when I went to check on our chickens this evening, to my surprise I found this very special blessing. We took several pictures. Most were blurry. I was getting ready to put it in the refrigerator and wanted to mark it so it wouldn't be confused with the eggs we get from friends. I picked out the crayon, and was just going to put a dot on it. I got inspired.

In the end, we figured it must be the bread... I am sure it will be eggcellent.