(Insert half scream of terror and half amusement here)

God definitely has a sense of humor.

Those who know me know that I have always loved animals, especially farm animals. My two favorites are horses and cows. One reason we bought as big a piece of land as we did was in hopes of raising our own beef. I also wanted rabbits again and, well, just a whole farm. You wouldn’t believe the trouble we have had in the last eight years trying to find farm animals in this ranching community!

My mom offered to help us get our oldest some chickens for a school project this spring. They arrive in a month.


My hubby came home about a month ago and told me to go to craigslist and email the lady about the rabbitry for sale. Long story short- Our three Red Satin rabbits were due to arrive tomorrow. She called this morning and has moved the day to…..TODAY!!!

A few days later he has me email another craigslist ad for cows. We went and looked at them (this is only the third or fourth time we have found cows in lots less than 25 for sale here!). Very nice animals, but the cost of feeding a Holstein (big black and white cows at the dairies) scares us a bit. She does have some steers available in two weeks for a ridiculously small amount of money, so I am preparing for that.

My friend who is also interested in getting a cow (she has a large family too), found an ad for Jerseys (look like a mix between a deer and a cow and give much less milk, thus need less feed). Sum total:

I pick our rabbits up at 1:30 then go to a dairy and get two cows (one for my friend whose fences aren’t quite ready yet). We begin our new jobs as milk maids tonight!

The steers will be here in two weeks and the chickens in a month.

I am going from no farm animals to a full fledge farm practically overnight!

God is so good.

(Ummm, God? You know that promise that You won’t let anything come on us we can’t handle with Your help?......)

Sore throats

Due to a recent illness in the children, I got to thinking it might be fun to post my favorite sore throat remedies. (Except where noted, these remedies are good for anyone and are actually classified as “food.” Thus, you can’t take too much anymore than you could eat too much spinach.

1) Get a drink of water. When you are dehydrated your throat will sometimes hurt. Try it, anyway.
2) Massage the throat- Begin at the bottom of the ears and slowly and gently rub your own neck at the base of the jaw line towards the middle. It really helps! Lasts twenty minutes or so. (Be VERY gentle doing this to someone else, especially a child. You can do damage)
3) Sore Throat Tea- (Use flavors to taste)
a. 1 cup warm water
b. 1 (+ or -) Tablespoon lemon juice (vitamin C will fight the infection and the acid will kill germs)
c. 1 (+ or -) honey (honey is anti-bacterial as well as a soother)
4) Herbal “up the anti”- Replace the water with an infusion (tea) made of:
a. Echinacea (immune booster. Take a break from it every 6 weeks or so)
b. Yarrow (all around invader fighter. Use only for short term.)
c. Lemon grass (immune booster)
d. Rose petals (and/or hips) (high vit C plus astringent to kill bacteria)
e. Wild cherry bark (tastes good and soothes)
5) “Taste? Who cares about taste? I’m sick!” (I very seldom have to go this far Add one or more to the above infusion)
a. Elderberry (fruity tasting immune booster. I sometimes use it at the above level.
b. Licorice (good bug fighter, but my kids hate the taste. Don’t use if you have a heart problem)
c. Cinnamon (all around bug fighter as well as blood sugar balancer)
d. Cayenne pepper (makes all other herbs work better, bug fighter, metabolism speeder, and high in C)
e. Cloves (bug fighter)
f. Thyme (bug fighter)
g. Garlic (the pre-antibiotic antibiotic. It was used on wounds from the battlefield in World War I. It will kill all but the worst germs, sometimes better than modern antibiotics)

How to make an infusion:
Pour one cup of boiling water onto your herbs (one teaspoon each. Add more water if you are doing a lot of herbs). Let steep for ten minutes to an hour (the longer it steeps the more powerful the medicine but the more bitter the taste). Strain out the herbs, sweeten (preferably with honey. Alternately, put a teaspoon or so of Stevia in the herbs before steeping) to taste. Drink.

EVERYONE who is overweight….

Should read this blog!

Today!


Now!


:-)


http://terrysoapbox.blogspot.com/2009/02/fitness-friday-wisdom-from-titus-2.html

Who was Jesus?

Let us look at Jesus. It is a historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth existed, preached, and was executed by the Romans at the insistence of the Jewish leaders. Secular history says this much. All Jesus would have had to do to avoid being executed in the most torturous way humans have ever come up with was to say He was not God. That is all. Yet He went to the cross with the words "I am (God)" on His lips.


Mark 14:61 “Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, "I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."


Why would He do this? There are only two possibilities. He either was God or He was not. There is no in between. I am either God or I am not (I will tell you right now that I am not!). You are either God or you are not. The chair I am sitting in is either God or it is not. There is no in between.


If Jesus was not God, He either knew He was not or He did not know He was not. Again, there is no in-between. He was either a liar, a lunatic or really Lord.


Liars- con-artists- are capable of convincing large numbers of people that they are divine. But they all have one thing in common: a strong sense of Self Preservation. A liar of the magnitude Christ would have had to be to pull off the things He did, would have been able to work out a deal with the Jews to avoid being crucified. The fact that He didn't even try shows that the man actually believed what He was saying. Anyone who honestly believes He is God (enough to go to the Cross for that belief) is either coo-coo or God. No alternatives.


The level of insanity that convinces a man He is God (strongly enough to override the self preservation instinct) is called Complex, Paranoid Schizophrenia. We have many examples of this disease available for study. Charles Manson is the most famous modern case, probably. I once saw a filmed interview of the man. No doubt about it. He is NUTS. He couldn't carry one thought to completion. He changed subjects in the middle of every sentence. All victims of Complex, Paranoid Schizophrenia have one thing in common; they are very violent. Charles Manson committed his crimes (slaughtering a houseful of people) trying to start a race war that would allow him to take over the world.


He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Do good to them that wrongfully use you.
Turn the other cheek.


I could go on and on with quotes from Christ. Do these sound like the rantings of a lunatic? What about the results of His teaching? "You shall know a tree by the fruit it bears." Christianity has been the greatest force for peace and brotherly love all over the world (despite a few very unchristian people who called themselves Christians). Christianity is responsible for the elimination of cannibalism. It has stopped countless feuds and wars. It stopped human sacrifice. Is this the fruit of a Complex, Paranoid Schizophrenia? I don't think so.

"Once you have eliminated all the possibilities, what ever remains, no matter how implausible, must be the truth."(Sherlock Holmes)

If Christ was not a liar; if He was not a lunatic; He must be Lord.

"There is a God, and you are not Him." Andrew Tracy

A letter recently appeared

in our newspaper calling conservatism a failed ideology. I responded with this letter, though they asked I shorten it to meet their guidelines. Here is the unabridged version.

Regarding: Conservatism called bankrupt ideology:

Most historians are wise enough to know you can’t rank a president during his life time, much less a week after he has left office. Only the future will tell us if Bush is remembered kindly or not.

The statement “Conservatives fought ending slavery” shows a decided lack of knowledge of history. It was Lincoln- a Republican- who freed the slaves. It was Republicans who fought for and signed every major piece of civil-rights legislation on our books and Democrats who fought to KEEP the Jim Crow laws and segregation (the KKK is made up of Democrats).

The fact is that Bush is not a Conservative. He is a Moderate. That he proved Moderate-ism is a bad idea, I won’t argue. Even if he was a Conservative, blaming his failures on Conservative ideologies and not on his in-ability to fulfill them is a logic fallacy of the highest degree. It does not prove an idea is bad just because one person fails to live by them.

The ideologies we have labeled “liberal” in this country are called socialism and communism in other countries. It has been proven over and over again, throughout history that these ideas don’t work. They always result in oppression and a bunch of dead human beings.

“Liberals are willing to share.” Yep. They are willing to “share” my hard earned money with those who don’t earn it . This makes me not want to work and earn more money. Very soon, everyone is on the dole and no one is earning the money to pay for it. Then the country collapses. See the history of Russia and our current mortgage failures (programs started by Democrats, and managed by Democrats. I have seen a tape of a hearing in 04 with Republicans begging for some regulation to stop the Fanny Freddie nonsense before it collapsed and the Democrats refusing!) .

What history also tells us is that true “conservatism,” (the ideas of our Founding Fathers that everyone should be responsible for themselves, as far as the government is concerned, and that the government’s job is army and police and “stay out of our way”) will work if they are actually tried. Even the “down and out” are better off under such a system as they have more opportunities to pull themselves up and successful, conservative people give more to private charities than those taxed into poverty. The problem is that there are very few true Conservatives in government. True conservatives are too busy feeding their families to bother. It is only the power hungry that run for office and they are NOT going to be the ones to give people control of their own lives. They are the ones who pass laws to punish everyone because a tiny percentage of people are stupid.

We need to start studying history again and bring this country back to the ideas that made it great.

Before it’s too late.