The Hill at Oso Lago.

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.

A Nation of Transients

Roots are good.

In the 70’s there was a movie of the week called Roots.  It was based on a novel by Alex Haley.  I must admit, I have NOT read Mr. Haley’s book, nor do I remember many of the details of the made-for-tv movie from my youth, but I DO remember the impact of the movie and how large it was on the impressionable mind of  a six year old boy in 1977.  The impression of the character Kunta Kinte was memorable enough to have grabbed a hold of our culture. Even the slave name “Toby” has gained hold as a somewhat racist stereotype from the book.

Now I bring up “Roots” because I have been thinking a lot about the problems we face today as a nation.  So many of our problems are a result of either a clear rejection of our roots or the simple forgetting of them.  Now don’t misunderstand this.  This isn’t about racism, although the long effects of it are probably relevant to a rootless people. This is about a nation of people who’ve traded prosperity and stuff and cheap credit for the important stuff in life.  This is about living in a “place” and not a community. This is about just surviving and not putting down roots.

So many of our problems today come from being rootless.  A rootless people have nowhere to gain strength from except the here and now. Let me explain this. If you think of a plant and how it works, it turns sunlight into food and it sits in the rain, and would appear to live through those things only.  But the life of the plant is in the roots.  The deep roots stabilize it in the wind.  They draw nutrients from the ground in their rawest form.  They pull moisture during the drought and they allow the plant to live in conditions where other life dies.  Take for example, the Shepherd Tree, which has a root that can travel over 200 feet into the desert floor to find moisture.

The amazing things about roots are that they aren’t just user of the soil around them.  No, they also preserve it.  The Dust Bowl was an American tragedy of historic proportions. It was a combination of drought and the sheer force of modern machinery to be able to strip the west of it’s long prarie grasses.  It was more “productive” to use that soil for other things was the thought of the day.  The only thing is they forgot that roots didn’t just “use” but they preserved and held soil into place. There are historic references to dust storms blowing top soil all the way to Boston, New York and Washington D.C.

So as we look to a plants roots and see their importance, we can get an idea why these deep down relationships, memories, heritages, and communities were assigned the word “roots”.  In many ways we are a rootless society today. We are a Nation of Transients.

The second installment in this multi-part post is due out on March 3, 2009. ~ Bob

I got a chuckle when Amy shared this essay that my daughter wrote.  Just for a little background, Hosanna is in 4th grade and attends a public school.  She has been homeschooled for 2 out of her 5 years in school. She was homeschooled in Kindergarden, went to a public for first and second grade and was homeschooled in third grade.  Upon moving here, we checked out the schools and decided that the best option for them (our kids) and us was to get involved in the community… the good, the bad and the ugly.  We’ve experienced the “ugly” on the bus ride. All students of all grade-levels ride the bus at the same time.  We’re in a rural area and it’s most efficient… not the most beneficial, because my kids hear things I wish they wouldn’t, but we teach them what’s right and what’s not. Hosanna’s lowest grade on her last report card was 94%. Noah, our second grader, had a 91% as his lowest grade, and of course, Chloe, who is a Kindergardener doesn’t get “grades” but gets “S’s” for satisfactories.

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The past two nights, I have had the pleasure of being visited by a potentially important visitor. While retrieving firewood from the garage, I was startled by a movement that I caught out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t see anything at first, but then, all of a sudden I saw a little furry face staring back at me from the sill plate of the garage above my head.

My first thought was, “That’s much to large to be a mouse… oh no, it’s a rat. Whatever you do, DON’T tell Amy you saw a rat out here or she will never come to the garage again.” If Amy saw a rat, she would panic… this caused me to panic.

I panicked not out of fear of the rodent, but because… I mean, there are repercussions to Amy never going to the garage. It’s where our freezer is located. It’s where our dryer is located. If I told her there was a rat out there, there was a real possibility that I would inherit cooking and laundry duties. As the panic began to sink in and settle, my next thought was to go get the BB gun, but I knew if I broke eye contact with him that he would disappear.

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Here it is, a little past what I would call mid-winter. I know, I know, spring is only a month away by calendar, but for us it a bit further away by way of the weather. So as the days are getting notably longer and the visions of seedlings are dancing in my head, I didn’t want to get so caught up in those thoughts that I forget a few things about our first winter here on the hill.  So the winter-me is going to send a note to the summer-me.

Dear Summer-Bob,

I just wanted to say hello from the depths of the snow and the winter. It was a nice winter day today, with some snow and then later in the day a treat. Sunshine.  I know it’s easy to get discouraged there in the heat with all the humidity, high temperatures and sweat (and I know how you sweat).  I know it’s also easy to so caught up with what you’re working on right now to put aside some of the other things that you know, back in the recesses of you head, need done.

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