Friends Are Friends Forever

I've been thinking of this post all day. Unfortunately, it will most likely be broken down into several posts.

Facebook is a good thing. I've recently heard from folks that were integral in my life. I am now in touch with the man that I often refer to as my spiritual father. He is the one that took me under his wing, and encouraged me in the Lord. It wasn't anything very deep, but he taught me how to develop my relationship with our Lord.

Facebook is a bad thing. I've recently heard from folks that were very integral in my life. I have been in touch with who was once a great friend, someone who inspired me to grow in the Lord , someone who I remember supporting as he preached at a revival and many other places and someone who now professes a different religion. He is now a self consumed atheist and humanist.

I have learned that I am a talker. I love conversation. I usually have trouble striking it up, but once it gets going, it's hard to stop (just ask Joi). I tried to engage conversation with this individual. I've since learned that what was once bridled has now been loosed. Now that there is no reason to hold back, it is not done. In my attempts to understand how he got to his state, I had insults thrown at me. You could tell he was not having a conversation, but was waging war. I approached him for understanding how he go to this state, and hopefully make him realize those moments that changed him. I knew there is nothing I can do for the situation, but I wanted to know what happened to my friend.

Out of that, I eventually heard from someone else, and then got in touch with Brother Kevin (the one referred to as my spiritual father). I have enjoyed catching up with him. I was very glad to finally be able to express what he meant to me. With that, the later situation resurfaced. He is now going down a similar road. He has a different tactic (his sole purpose is to point out that he is wrong). He is in a different position (being someone that molded and guided him as a teenager). So we will see how he responds. I hope and pray for a better outcome.

Now, what is the point of this post? The title is part of the chorus for a Michael W. Smith song. Friends are friends forever… if the Lord's the Lord of them.

Eleven

Eleven years is the span of time for the suns polarity to switch. In that time the sun is mostly very calm and peaceful. There are times when sunspots occur that cause issues in the earths atmosphere. The sun is continuously changing.

The same is true for Joi and me. This day eleven years ago, we got married. That has been one of the happiest days in my life. Sure, we have had our sunspots. We've been ever changing. We've grown and continue to grow. The love I have for Joi is still a consuming fire unlike anything you've ever experienced. I plan to keep doing everything it takes to make that the case. When the poles begin to change and the spots begin flaring and turbulent, we resolve. We both forgive. We both embrace, and we both give everything we have to work out the clash of polarity.

The Lord gave me an analogy a long time ago that makes a lot of sense to me. When we start in marriage, we are the two lower corners of a triangle. Christ is the top corner of the triangle. As we both come to Christ, we grow closer together, and the line between us gets shorter and shorter.

I have no doubt that Joi and I are closer today then we were eleven years ago. I also know that we will be closer eleven years further down the corridor of life.

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.