The Hill at Oso Lago.

We’ve got higher speed internet access through my Cell phone so I hope to begin updates soon.

…fart is still one of the most popular words in the household.

… Wii is well received by everyone in the family.

… We have a ton of snow (a lot more added today), just like last year.

… I am going to hire a personal trainer to get over the hump on my weight loss.

Actually I could go on with a lot of stuff here but I won’t bore you.

I hope everyone has a happy new year. I am hoping I can get a high speed solution and a new computer to solve my dilemma of not being able to write like I want to on my blog.

Hiking the Tidioute Overlook with my beautiful wife!

I started a lifestyle change in February of this year. I know God has given me a certain number of days on this earth and I didn’t want to shorten them up by foolishly wasting my health away.  He gave me children to be a father to and a wife to be a husband to. I changed my eating habits. I started working out. So far, I’ve lost over 100lbs and still have about 90 to go to my goal weight.
In the pictures above there is a smiling guy who isn’t very happy and a happy guy who is smiling. Can you tell which is which?

Ethan and the Turkeys in September. They are larger now.

Well, the weather is changing and some things are settling down. I’ve got a lot to update so much to follow up on and I just feel like writing for a bit. So I’ll start with some basics.

We bought 10 turkeys. We had my parents pick them up for us in Ohio and when we went to visit we grabbed the first 10 we could get our hands on.

They are getting big and I am getting ready to take them to slaughter. If I have the time, I may do a slaughter or two myself, but I have a fairly local place that just charges a couple bucks each to do the deed and package them. They even get stamped (if I want) and can be resold.

So right now we’re trying to work down our freezer a bit because we are going to have over 100 lbs of turkey going into it soon.

Yes, I AM looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. MMMMM… Fresh turkey.

Well, we’ve got about 9 inches of snow. Erie only had 2.9 inches, and they are still a couple inches shy of the snowiest winter on record (a record set in 2001).

In other news, I start a new job on Monday of next week.   It’s a temp-to-hire position, which seem to be all the rage in the current economic environment.

So I’ll just jump in with some things:

Picked up 5 hens and 1 rooster from a local lady for $15.00  got our first 3 eggs today.  There is joy at Oso Lago for fresh farm eggs.

Converted the back shed, which used to be a chicken coop back into a coop.  Like all good coops it’s decrepit and aged and rotted.  No chicken palace here… no $$$ for that right now.

The Lord blessed us with a 92 Ford f-150 4×4 extended cab for $1000.00  The whole family can fit into it.  The bad thing is that it’s a 5 speed and Amy can’t drive a stick.  The Aerostar is back in Ohio and needs to sell so we can pay our land taxes! Yay taxes.

I have a TON of things to write about… my computer is dying though… I’ll try to get an update on here soon.  Thanks for understanding.

A Truly Rootless Society

Grandpa, saving money in the milk jar, was laughed at, actually mocked by all the modern investors.  But whose laughing when there is a bank holiday or your ATM doesn’t work, or there is a computer glitch?  It’s not Grandpa.  Grandpa lived through some rough times and he knew we weren’t immune to it.  But we don’t value Grandpa’s much these days.  They get thrown into “assisted care facilities” because we “love them and couldn’t provide that kind of care”.  Well, sir and madame, let me tell you, as someone who has been in the ministry for over 10 years, that I think that most everyone of those folks living in the “assisted care facilities” would rather live fewer years and be surrounded in their home, or their children’s home by people who love and value them that the sterile confines of “pretended autonomy”.   When we develop some roots again, we’ll value our aged.  If you can’t love your own father or mother, how do you expect someone else to?  I know… you’re busy.  That’s my point… maybe you’re too busy.

I am always amazed though how often those grandma’s and grandpa’s that are out there raising their grandchildren.  Our own President was raised by his Grandmother.  What a testament to taking care of your own family.  Why has this generation forgotten that?  Who will raise our grand-kids and who will care for us?  The confusion of a rootless society is prevalent today.  We’ve become more like the spore of mushroom.  We find things that had roots and are now dead or dying, attach to them, suck them dry of life and then move on, as the wind blows.  Feeding on decay.

Perhaps the most important root we’ve forsaken is the tap root of our need for God.  The further away we’ve gotten from the land, the more deluded we’ve become that actually control everything.  We’ve got this idea that we’ve got solutions for everything, and yet a simple hurricane, ice-storm, tornado, tidal-wave, or drought has us on knees when they strike. We’ve failed because we’ve forgotten that the God who created nature, controls nature.  He sustains us.  Sunlight doesn’t fall that wasn’t provided by God, water doesn’t give life, that wasn’t provided by God and harvests and seasons happen not, but by God.  But we’ve rejected that root, because it “holds us back”.  God is sovereign and demands that we meet him on His terms… not our own.  And instead of seeing the power of that in our lives and communities to build, excel and to thrive in a sustainable manner… we see it as a hindrance. It’s rather ironic that the best that “evolution” has brought us is atheism. The pinnacle of man’s development is a man that has no purpose and is just a bunch of chemicals and organs that have combined for survival.  No purpose, no direction and no truth… just quantitative, ever changing data whose sole purpose is to survive.  A truly rootless society.

The fourth installment in this multi-part post is due out on March 9, 2009. ~ Bob

We Didn’t Know Their Value

I mean this in more than just the traditional meaning of roaming to and fro, for our ancestors certainly came to this nation and settled it by roaming to and fro.  The difference is that they brought their roots with them, and they planted those roots in the new rich, virgin soil of the American dream.  They did it the same as their fathers and mothers had since the days when God opened the door on the Ark to Noah.  They took seeds, hope and actual roots to plant with them.  The settled into a new world, knowing things would change.  And they sought change for the better.  Better soil, more freedom, open land… these were things where their seeds and roots could flourish.  And as much as things would change, they knew that their fruits, seeds, vines and trees would stay strong because they were of good stock and had been handed down from their previous generations with care for the future.

And that’s were we differ today.  We are rootless. We have no good fruit, seed, vines and roots to pass on to our next generation.  We’ve traded them for the here and the now.  We’ve given them up for shiny baubles, i-pods and satellite TV.  The best thing that we believe we can give our children is a good inheritance and a shiny credit-report but those are shallow, empty things. Somewhere, I feel like we’ve been taken like the Indians who traded away Manhattan for a bag full of glass beads.

The thing is the Indians didn’t know they were getting taken because they had a concept of the land that was different than the Dutch traders that were intent on taking it from them.  There was plenty of land and they didn’t see how anyone could possess and own any land that they didn’t stand upon.  Ownership in that manner, was completely foreign to them. In the same way, things that were once abundant in our little corner of the world, things like community, a man’s word, honesty, integrity, friendliness, a helping-hand… those things were slowly given up for something else because we didn’t know their value.

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Welcome March! March is always an interesting month here in the North.  This is our first March at Oso Lago and winter has been an impressive one, so we don’t know what to expect. So far, it’s going to be a cold one to start, but looks pretty mellow in a few days.  It’s getting nigh on Maple Sugaring time… now if only I could find my taps and my bit.   Grrrr…

Any way, I don’t really know WHAT this qualifies as.  Lion Lamb, I dunno…

I know that the forecast a couple of days ago was for snow most of the week, but that changed.  Going without snow is a pretty big deal around here.  The hill across the valley is almost clear of snow and if the week progresses like it’s showing on this forecast, my hill just may be free of snow soon.

We’ll break out the leis and roast a pig if so.  Can you hula?

Well, even if you can’t hula, come on over, maybe will just walk around in the mud and try to remember we are thankful for it. I do know it’s time to get some seeds going in the greenhouse.

Here’s to spring being around the corner.  (I am sure I will have to look back at this post for proof before it’s all said and done.