Rehoboth Farm

The Era of Film

2012-01-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

I was one of the last people to give up on film, I think.

Today's best digital camera takes about a 15 megapixel picture as far as resolution goes.

Someone once tested Kodachrome slide film and found the grain to be around 24 megapixel.

But technology always wins, it seems, Kodachrome is gone and Kodak is bankrupt.

These are some of my grandfather's old Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides from the 1950's.

The picture above is from a county fair, probably Coshocton County Ohio, sometime in the mid-50's.

Here is a Farmall exhibit.

You can't find these old drag-type implements any more, in fact Farmall was the last tractor to go to 3-point hitches and hydraulics which made these old pull-behinds obselete.

An Ohio State Trooper directs traffic while a 1951 Studebaker Champion leaves the fair.

The guy with the cane seems very interested in what brand of tires he uses.

Hay wagons take visitors from the parking lot to the fairgrounds.

This fair looks like it took place on someone's farm.

Cows graze on an Ohio farm.

When Gabriel was little he saw this slide and noticed there was no fence in the picture.

He thus labeled these 'wild cows'.

A very snowy day in Coshocton.

A surveyor works along railroad tracks next to what looks like an asphalt plant.

Racetrack regulars check the morning workouts at Keeneland Horsetrack in Lexington Kentucky.

My Grandfather's best friend owned a racehorse and kept him here.

My Dad was also attending graduate school here at the time at the University of Kentucky.

Shoeshine boys at Keeneland.

One has his foot resting on the shoeshine board, with a handwritten sign that reads 'Shine 80 cents'.

Nuns on the beach. Atlantic City, 1957.

My grandfather was a Shriner and attended the national convention here that year.

Chrysanthemum salesman on the Boardwalk at Atlantic City.

I wish mens hats would come back into style. I think they are very practical; at least they look practical.

There's 20 men in this picture and 18 of them are wearing hats, mostly Fedoras.

A few years after this, JFK was elected and just because he didn't wear a hat, they went out of style. Leave it to a Democrat to spoil the fun for everybody.

This is Ektachrome. It was a cheaper version of Kodachrome that really looked great when you first had your slides developed. The colors were even more vibrant than Kodachrome. Ektachrome had three layers of color; Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. However, as time went by, the cyan (blue) and yellow layers of the film would fade, leaving just the red or magenta.

After over 55 years, these look like they are unrecoverable, but thanks to modern technology, you can restore the cyan and yellow in Adobe Photoshop and end up with the picture below.

A canal in Castalia Ohio where one of my great uncles lived.

A Day At The Museum

2012-01-21T08:23:00.000-08:00

Some pictures from a recent trip to the National Infantry Museum at Ft Benning.

Here Levi poses in his soldier getup. They have a room where children can dress up in Army gear. Recruiting early? Yeah, probably so, but later on they can learn about the constitutionality of fighting foreign wars.

Two other families from our church were there as well.

Gabe with his getup.

The museum is free and is a great history of the American military, beginning with the Revolutionary War. The whole complex cost over 100 million dollars and was completed in 2009.

Pre-WWII era tank at the Company Street exhibit. Company Street is a restored WWII era Army Base.

A very cute church friend in his army attire.

WWII Company Street showing the chapel at one end. There are buildings for Supply, HQ, Bunkhouse and just about every building that was used on a small base. All of them are authentic WWII era barracks that came from Ft Benning.

All of the buildings are restored to there original status, including fixtures.

This was a perfect day for an outside tour.

Inside one of the barracks, where it always looks like the soldiers have just stepped out for a moment.

Inside the latrine of the main barracks. Not much privacy here, and this is the picture worth showing.

The office in the main barracks.

A desk in the HQ building. You really get a sense of life in the early 1940's when you're in these buildings.

Inside the chapel. This building was made almost completely out of pine, including the ceiling and beams, and had been completely restored.

Clover growing in the middle of winter is a source of fascination for some of the children.

Guns at the ready stand in cases in the middle of the sleeping barracks.

Who was Melchizedek

2011-12-28T21:35:00.000-08:00

.
.

Melchizedek and Abraham

^{Genesis 14:17} (Where Abraham has just defeated Chedorlaomer, and rescued Lot from captivity)
.

"And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley), after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him.

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said:

“ Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;

And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”

And he (Abraham) gave him (Melchizedek) a tithe of all.

Melchizedek appears out of nowhere,

fourteen chapters into the first book of the Bible.

Before there were Levites or any official priesthood,

a priest appears, apparently appointed by God himself.

Melchizedek was important enough that even Abraham

tithed to him from the spoils of battle.

And yet, very little mention is made of him for the next 1000 years.

And then in Psalms, David relates a conversation between God and the future Messiah

(who would be a descendant of David).

Psalm 110 –A Psalm of David.

¹ The LORD said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
² The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!

³ Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power;
In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning,
You have the dew of Your youth.
⁴ The LORD has sworn and will not relent,
“You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

So the Messiah would be a priest, but not a Levite,
(since he would be descended from David, of the tribe of Judah).
He would be a priest from a higher order,
one appointed directly by God, just as Melchizedek had been.

Another 1000 years passes and Christ now has been crucified and resurrected.

In Hebrews, the writer says:

Hebrews 5:1

So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:
“ You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”
As He also says in another place:
“ You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek”

Hebrews 7:1

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, ² to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” ³ without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.

Melchizedek's name means "King of Righteousness, King of Peace".

He had no genealogy, no beginning or end and he was made "like the Son of God".

His role as high priest allowed the Messiah to assume

that role as well and absolved him from having to be a Levite.

For these reasons, many people believe that Melchizedek

was actually Christ in the book of Genesis.

As a result, there is a wide array of opinon on who

Melchizedek really was and what he stood for.

Charles Spurgeon:
"Consider how great this man was" as to the singularity of his person, "without father, without mother, without descent": that is to say, we know nothing as to his birth, his origin, or his history. Even this explanation hardly answers to the words, especially when it is added, "Having neither beginning of days, nor end of life." So mysterious is Melchizedek that many deeply-taught expositors think that he was veritably an appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. They are inclined to believe that he was not a king of some city in Canaan, as the most of us suppose, but that he was a manifestation of the Son of God, such as were the angels that appeared to Abraham on the plains of Mamre, and that divine being who appeared to Joshua by Jericho, and to the three holy ones in the furnace. At any rate, you may well consider how great this man was when you observe how veiled in cloud is everything about his coming and going—veiled because intended to impress us with the depth of the sacred meanings which were shadowed forth in him.

John Macarthur:

"And so he introduces Melchizedek, and he says, "Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek." Now, there's all kinds of conjecture about who Melchizedek is. Some insist that he is an angel, and this is a common thought. However, in chapter 5 verse 1, I think that is done away with, because it says, "Every high priest is taken from among men." Therefore, he couldn't be an angel. Others suggest that he is Jesus Christ, and the reason they say that is because there is so much mystery around him. However, it says in verse 3, "He was made like unto the Son of God." It does not say, "He was the Son of God." A rose is not like a rose. A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose, you know. There's a difference between being like something and being that thing, and I think, clearly, that, in my own heart and mind, Melchizedek is neither angel or Christ, but he is a type of Christ, a man...whom God designs to use as a picture of Jesus Christ. But it's not for us to play with that anyway. The secret things belong to the Lord, so we don't wanna spend a lot of time on that.

A.W. Tozer

"The Genesis appearance of Melchizedek is brief and without explanation in Old Testament history. More information is offered by the writer to the Hebrews. When he notes that Melchizedek was "without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life" (Hebrews 7:3), the writer simply was saying that Melchizedek had no "family tree," no genealogical records through which his origins could be traced. In short, we do not know where he came from".

John Calvin:

"For this Melchizedek, etc. He (the writer of Hebrews) has hitherto been stimulating the Jews by exhortations, that they might attentively consider the comparison between Christ and Melchizedek. At the end of the last chapter, that he might return from his digression to his subject, he quoted again the passage from the Psalms; and now he enters fully into what he had before slightly referred to; for he enumerates particularly the things connected with Melchizedek, in which he resembled Christ.

It is indeed no wonder that he dwells so minutely on this subject. It was doubtless no common thing that in a country abounding in the corruptions of so many superstitions, a man was found who preserved the pure worship of God; for on one side he was nigh to Sodom and Gomorrah, and on the other to the Canaanites, so that he was on every side encompassed by ungodly men. Besides, the whole world was so fallen into impiety, that it is very probable that God was nowhere faithfully worshipped except in the family of Abraham; for his father and his grandfather, who ought to have retained true religion, had long before degenerated into idolatry.

It was therefore a memorable fact, that there was still a king who not only retained true religion, but also performed himself the office of a priest. And it was doubtless necessary that in him who was to be a type of the Son of God all things excellent should be found: and that Christ was shadowed forth by this type is evident from the Psalm referred to; for David did not say without reason, "Thou art a priest forever after the order Melchizedek;" no, but on the contrary, by these words a sublime mystery was recommended to the Church".

135 Years Ago

2011-12-06T18:24:00.000-08:00

In 1933 my Grandfather collected a series of photographs depicting life in Norwalk Ohio as far back as he could find. He was an amatuer historian, antique collector and retail manager.

This photo is from that collection. It shows a corner of Main Street in Norwalk in 1876.

In the foreground is a horse team and wagon. To the left is the business of Benedict and Burton. Behind the wagon is a stagecoach, just arriving in town.

Platt Benedict moved from Norwalk Connecticut to the Indian country of Ohio on a trip that took seven weeks. He founded the town of Norwalk Ohio.

The sign here sports a large morter and pestle, assuming that the store was also a pharmacy.

All life came to a stop for the cameraman. Everyone in the stagecoach is sitting still and looking at the camera across the street. The horses didn't cooperate.

The man in front bears a strong resemblence to Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had died just 11 years before.

Two children stand out front, a boy and a girl. The girl seems to have a long licorice stick in her teeth and pulled down by each hand.

The signs read: Yellowware and Nails; Bankbooks and Paper; Stationery and Music.

An advertisement on the wall of a buiding announces a concert by the "Continental Singers", in honor of America's 100 year centennial. 1776-1876.

Homestead Improvement

2011-11-17T08:57:00.000-08:00

Fencing is painful, especially barbed-wire fencing. On the left is our old cow fence that Mike and I threw up in an afternoon several years ago. It was made of Sweetgum posts and wire and it did it's job; at least until the posts rotted in the ground and the cows figured that out.

On the right is a new replacement fence that we have been working on for several weeks now.

Our last milk cow decided to escape a couple of months ago and walked a full mile to the 4-lane where she created something of a county event. After about 20 people stopped their vehicles to corral her, she was ultimatley struck by a slow moving car. A neighbor took her in and we gladly sold her to him on the spot. The new fence (on the left here) started soon after. We then purchased another milk cow.

For the corners, I used 6x6 treated posts, supported by angled base supports (also 6x6) set in concrete, (a lot of concrete). I stretched the wire between them using the tractor and then Mike set the T-posts. Lord willing, it will provide an escape-proof barrier.

Ivey wanting to drive the tractor. The man that restored this Ford 3000 also puts diesel tractor motors in cars and trucks. They get up to 50mpg. His website is shadetreeconversions.com.

Levi 'helping' his Mom attach the T-post connectors.

Retrieving a connector without getting scratched by barbed-wire. Toes for fingers.

Adalia loves the outdoors. She sat for hours while we worked and hardly ever made a peep.

Movies Worth Watching

2011-11-11T18:31:00.000-08:00

A great new film by Colin Gunn.

http://indoctrinationmovie.com/

IndoctriNation Trailer from IndoctriNation on Vimeo.

Life in the South

2011-11-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

Fields that grow cotton in the summer and fall grow this purple flower in the spring. Not sure what it is.

This irrigation unit seems to go on forever.

A roadside market near Dawson Georgia, even selling cotton.

And tiny pumpkins.

And boiled peanuts.

A roadside yard on our ride to church each Sunday.

A recent trip to Burt's Pumpkin Farm in Amicalola Falls Georgia. Levi gets to ride, at least until the wheelbarrow is full.

Burt's grows their own pumpkins and popcorn. And they have lots of both.

Pumpkins lead a violent life.

The (still growing) pumpkin patch.

Ella on the hay ride at Burt's.

The popcorn field, looking back toward Amicalola Mountain.

Adalia's first hay ride.

These are Olivia's pictures, (as you can see).

Levi was not up to posing. The day was cold but sunny.

Burt's is an unashamedly Christian business.

Gabe in the creek that flows from Amicalola Falls.

We just got back from a conference in Asheville, North Carolina. We had to rent a cabin in the mountains, since the hotel was full. The colors were at their peak. This was the driveway to the cabin.

The first day was cold, rainy and misty.

A distant cousin plays with Gabriel from a few rows up.

Kevin Swanson. Great as always.

The last day, the clouds lifted and left snow on the peaks of the Appalachian Mountains. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs right along the tops of these ridges.

Town and Country II

2011-10-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Another batch of pictures from our recent trip. These were all taken by Olivia.

Adalia was a happy traveler for the most part.

For some reason this was Levi's favorite place, the lawn at the Museum of Appalachia.

Tadpole trough and barrel.

A very old piece of timed equipment at the museum.

Examples of mid-century Appalachian pantry wares..

Appalachian turkey.

Emily and if look closely, Ivey's fingers.

The former home of the squirrel exhibit.

The mountains of Northeastern Tennessee.

To the traffic of Cincinnati.

This is "the hill", which is infamous here. It's actually I-75 on the Kentucky side of the river. It used to be even worse before they took the sidewinding curves out and straightened the descent out some. They used to call it the bobsled. But you hardly ever get that fast anymore.

An old German church in Covington Kentucky.

Mike and his baby brother.

Morning at the diner.

Ella discovers the frothiness of chocolate milk.

And Gabriel discovers the fun of revolving doors.

Cincinnati City Hall.

Levi wanting to see the turtles at the Creation Museum very badly.

Gabe in his element.

Levi giving his mother fits.

Adalia in her element.

There had been torrential rains the day before we got to Northern Ohio. All of the creeks and ponds were overflowing.

The Inland Seas Museum at the Great Lakes Historical Society in Vermilion Ohio. They have the most extensive collection of Great Lakes history in the country. This was my Dad's favorite museum and he never missed an opportunity to go there.

Unfortunatley, they will be moving the entire museum to Toledo in 2012.

This is in the wheelhouse exhibit, which is an entire wheelhouse taken directly from a great lakes ore freighter.

Town and Country

2011-09-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

Just got back from vacation. An assortment of back-roads, interstates, big cities and small towns.

We stopped at many roadside attractions, just as our traveling fore-fathers(and mothers) did.

The entrance tunnel to the Lost Sea cave in Sweetwater, Tennessee. This is 3/4 mile long cave tour, highlighted by a 4-acre underground lake. The lake was discovered in 1904 by an 11-year-old boy who lived nearby and played in the cave. No-one believed him for 50 years, until 1954, when someone finally discovered the lake that he had found. He was now 61 and helped guide the explorers to where it was based on his memory from 50 years prior.

In 1960 it was setup as a bomb shelter and could house 20,000 people for two weeks.

This was our fourth cave tour in the last three years.

In the 1930's the cave was home to the "Cavern Tavern", a speakeasy with no less than three moonshine stills producing the whiskey. The problem was that no-one could get drunk because of the air pressure inside of the cave preventing the alcohol from being absorbed into the blood stream...

That is, until you started ascending the 300+ steps out of the cave. The higher you walked, the more alcohol would be released into the bloodstream. Many people never made it to the top before passing out. The long bumpy roll back down the stairs injured many a par-taker...

The Cavern Tavern closed after six months.

They release Rainbow Trout into the underground lake, let them grow for a year and then harvest them. They are huge.

The Lost Sea. They need more lights down here, as it is actually quite dark. This picture is pretty accurate.

Tennessee cows.

The Tennessee River.

On the way back there was construction here and it took an hour to cross the river.

Just another little sheep at the Museum of Appalachia.

1870's jail cells, used in Madisonville, TN.

Enormous Appalachian tad-poles.

The lawn at the Museum of Appalachia.

A big exhibit of Harrison Mayes signs.

He was nearly killed in a coal-mining accident and spent the rest of his life making concrete signs and placing them throughout the region.

Mark Twain cabin.

Three happy ones.

Ivey eyeing some sheep. Some of these looked like Tunis Sheep, which were once the most common breed in the South. Thomas Jefferson owned a flock of them. Union troops literally destroyed and ate them out of existence in America during the end of the Civil War.

Gabe would be perfectly happy in a home like this. As long as he has his Lego's.

Southern Kentucky.

Where tobacco still grows under old water towers.

Cincinnati and the Netherland Plaza Hotel.

This hotel has a great street level parking lot right across the street. Which is good when your big homeschool van won't fit in the parking garage.

The Ohio River which is the Mason-Dixon line in this part of the country.

The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati.

After this bridge was completed in 1866, Roebling began the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.

The weather clears after a rainy and stormy night.

We spotted these two interesting items on the roof of part of the Netherland Plaza...

And found they they are actually bee-hives.

Breakfast at Hathaway's diner has become a family favorite.

Gabe is describing the scary dinosaurs at the Creation Museum to Ella.

Leaving the hotel and heading to the Creation Museum.

Levi examines the awesome size of Noah's Ark.

The gardens of the Creation Museum.

A miniature Jersey at the petting zoo.

Gabe riding the camel. Another yearly event.

Ohio farm.

The two-lane road to Oak Harbor in northen Ohio.

Oak Harbor is the closest little town to where we stay. It still has a 1950's feel to it.

Notice that their last day for the year is 10/2. After that it will be too cold for ice cream.

No Home Depot here.

This store has probably looked this way for 70 years and always does a good business.

Finally arriving at the lake house after 800 miles.

Back in Tennessee on the trip home.

We took a side road to avoid traffic and find Loudon, TN. This was a great little place and will make a good stop for the next trip.

Outdoor Life

2011-08-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

Bass Pro Shops will take your vintage family photos,

if they show your ancestors living the outdoor life. They then display them throughout their new stores.

I sent them several recently, but just in case they are never seen again, I thought I would post them here.

My Grandpa Richard, great Uncle Ray and great Uncle Clarence, around 1925.
Matching pipes, boots and Model T's.
They must have been proud of their new outboard motor, it's a first generation Johnson and had about 3 horsepower.
My great Aunt Irene labled them "Bums" for the way they're dressed.

Don't know the woman on the left but the other two are my great Aunt Irene and Uncle Clarence. He was on leave from the Army in 1918, doing some target practice in preperation for going to France.

Camp can be boring.

No idea who this guy is.

Uncle Ray, Uncle Clarence and Aunt Irene, fishing from a home-made bridge. I believe this may be on a canal that leads into Sandusky Bay near Crystal Rock, OH.

On the left is my Grandpa Richard, don't know the other two.

Uncle Ray and Uncle Clarence. The clothes are almost two much to take in at once. Uncle Ray's knickers and socks are fit for the golf course. As long as I knew him, he dressed this same way, although he was in his 80's by then.

Big fish, but no idea what kind it is.

Mike thinks this is a carp of some kind, It's too ugly to be anything else.

Fish caught in Canada, 1927.

Another mystery family. But lots of fish.

My Aunt Irene and a friend after bagging some varmit. This would have been about 1914.

Aunt Irene and her mother, my great-grandmother Ella. Our Ella is named after her. This would have been about 1904.

Aunt Irene and Uncle Clarence.
He passed away in 1980, she in 1995.

I believe these are the brothers of my great-grandma Ella Studer. Her maiden name was Hankhammer and her parents came from Germany. This picture is from around 1885-1890.

More chipmunks had to die to prepare Uncle Clarence for fighting the dreaded Hun. 1918.

State of the Nation

2011-08-12T21:56:00.000-07:00

Two sets of lyrics that match my current mood about the world...
.
;
Heard this song the other day and the theme struck me as being very appropriate for the times. I don't recognize this country much anymore and I'm beginning to feel like an outsider, in a nation where people seem to yearn to be oppressed and controlled.
I don't endorse everything Chris Knight sings, but he is a simple man with a talent for songwriting:

.
.

I used to run from the past, but the world got to spinning so fast,
I run from the future now.

I run as fast as I can, trying to be a simple man,
I just want to slow down.

Well laugh if you want to, call me a backward fool,
but I ain't takin this ride.

Ya'll just go on ahead and go, let me out by the side of the road,
all I wanna do is go on home.

I don't go online, I dont watch tv, cause I know all I'm gonna see
is something stupid goin on.

Stupid's in the water these days, they're gonna drink it any way,
'til they don't know right from wrong.

Yeah, laugh if you want to, call me a backward fool,
but I aint takin this ride.

Ya'll just go on ahead and go, let me out by the side of the road,
all I wanna do is go on home.

Yeah all I wanna do is go on home.

A song by Tim O'Brien describing the rugged individualists who took dominion over this land and made it their own. He's a native West Virginian and so he uses the state motto to describe the long and treacherous journey that many made to come to a land of freedom. How long ago this now seems:

I'm one of the few, I'm proud to be standing,

I walked up the pier from the coffin ships' landing.

My clothes were just rags, no use in this weather;

but my back was strong, my hands tough as leather.

I climbed up these hills till I came to the spot where I stand;

I cleared these fields and I pulled up the stumps with my hands.

No more a wanderer, no more a refugee; a mountaineer is always free.

Took a Cherokee bride, she gave me five babies,

and I sang at the wakes, I cried at the weddings.

I taught all my children the songs of my youth,

to dance to the fiddle and practice the truth.

I carried them up on my shoulders to where they could see,

the whole world before them, just so they would know what it means.

No more a wanderer, no more a refugee, a mountaineer is always free.

No kings and no landlords to treat us like beggars and thieves.

There's no one but God here to fear or to look down on me.

No more a wanderer, no more a refugee. A mountaineer is always free.

.© Tim O'Brien/Universal Music Publishing Group

Reality Sets In

2011-07-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I quit my regular job and went to work for Obama.

No, not really Obama, but someone with his exact personality; his lack of leadership, his narcissism, his love for symbolism over substance and his complete lack of business skills (unless it enriched him personally). Needless to say we parted ways.

When Obama was elected, I told my wife, "I know that guy... well". I predicted what he might do as president and unfortunately most of those things have come to be.

And so now he has driven the car into a ditch and even his cheering section is tired of hearing him say that a tow truck is on the way. Meanwhile he has his foot on the gas and we go deeper and deeper into the abyss.

I don't see too many Obama t-shirts anymore.

Here's a great article by Peggy Noonan that expands upon this welcome change of events.

"So he is losing a battle in which he had superior forces—the presidency, the U.S. senate. In the process he revealed that his foes have given him too much mystique. He is not a devil, an alien, a socialist. He is a loser. And this is America, where nobody loves a loser."

They've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

A Little Girl

2011-07-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Our newest addition. Adalia Nona Rose Powers

Adalia, a-da-LEAH-a, "God is my refuge".

Born at home, 7:15am, July 14th, 2011. 5lbs, 4oz.

To God be the glory.

Marxism at work in America

2011-06-30T10:04:00.000-07:00

Unbelieveable.

Pictures of Home

2011-06-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures of home.
All pictures are by Olivia.

An Americauna hen. They lay greenish-blue eggs. Levi could eat a dozen boiled eggs a day.

Smokey is Patience's calf. He's half Black Baldy, which is an Angus-Hereford cross. He has no Jersey characteristics at all, which will be great when he's in the freezer.

Broody hen.

Levi is our egg-catcher and we've been wondering why he's not afraid of them. The other day, one of the girls watched him go in the chicken coop to collect eggs. He bops the chickens on the nose and then grabs the eggs.

Ingenuity of a three-year-old.

Cows with guilty looks are always bad news.

This is half of Levi's personality to a tee.

The other half is dirt, noise and laughter.

We had nine piglets earlier this year. We raise purebred Landrace hogs.

One man drove four hours from Savannah to buy five of them. I believe this one is now in the freezer.

We used to have an old 1941 Farmall H tractor with a pull-behind 1959 John Deere bush hog, but it was cheating death each time I took it out, soooo I sold it several years ago.

The other day we stopped at a Ford tractor restoration shop that we have been passing for 20 years and took a look at what they had.

We picked up a very nice 1973 Ford 3000 diesel from the owner, who is essentially a modern day Thomas Edison.

The Green Thing

2011-06-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

In line at a grocery store, a cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have 'the green thing' back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation didn't care enough to save our environment."

He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, they returned their milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks.

Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because they didn't have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts; wind and solar power really did dry the clothes.

Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house; not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a screen the size of Montana.

In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't have electric machines to do everything for you.

When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power.

They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water.

They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor, instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.

They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn't have the "green thing" back then?

- Author Unknown

Farming as an Act of Faith

2011-06-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

"When the air still has a frosty breath, and, although cleared of winter snow, the earth is cold and looks dead as a corpse disrobed of its shroud; it shows neither flower nor leaf, nor sign of life.

The farmer, notwithstanding, yokes his team and drives the plow through its breast.

With confidence in his step, liberality in his hand, and hope in his eye, he scatters the seed far and wide on the bosom of the ground.

He is a believer; a believer in Providence; in the laws and procession of the seasons.

He has faith; not saving faith indeed, but still true faith.

He believes that out of these frosty skies, gentle zephyers shall blow, and soft showers shall fall, and summer beams shall shine; and, looking along the vista of time, he sees golden corn waiving thick upon these empty fields, and hears in this silent scene the joy of light hearts ringing in the laugh and song of the reapers.

His plowing and his sowing are acts of genuine faith; and, as he strides across the field with his sowing sheet around him, he is an example of one, who, with his eye, as well as his foot on earth:

'Walks by faith, not by sight'."

- Rev. Thomas Guthrie, 1856.

Heston on the Culture War

2011-05-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

"...the God fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle-class Protestant,

or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern,

or even worse, rural, apparently straight,

or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owning,

or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff,

or even worse, male working stiff,

because, not only don’t you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress.

Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant, and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new-America and until you do, would you mind shutting up?"

- Charlton Heston, in a 1997 speech entitled Fighting the Culture War in America.

Movies Worth Watching

2011-04-21T20:04:00.000-07:00

Storytelling has become a lost art. Movies today are about visual effects and

and cheesy dialog. Good camera work has been replaced with “Reality TV” shaky-camera action, even when the actors are standing still. Constant motion to keep the video-game crowd from getting bored.

Movies used to tell stories and audiences stayed engaged for that reason alone. One great example is “Stalag 17”.

This is a WWII movie about American POW’s in

Germany

. The sergeants who are housed in one barracks figure out that there is a spy, planted by the Nazis, living among them. They initially blame Sefton, an unlikeable opportunist that shares their quarters. After he is beaten by his peers, Sefton sets out to find out who the real spy is.

The following clip is the climactic scene. As they are planning for how they will sneak a hiding Lieutenant out of the camp, Sefton interrupts their plans with his own revelation.

Muggeridge on History

2011-04-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

"We look back on history and what do we see? Empires rising and falling, revolutions and counter-revolutions, wealth accumulating and wealth dispersed, one nation dominant and then another. Shakespeare speaks of ‘the rise and fall of great ones that ebb and flow with the moon.’

In one lifetime I have seen my own fellow countrymen ruling over a quarter of the world, the great majority of them convinced, in the words of what is still a favorite song, that, ‘God who’s made the mighty would make them mightier yet.’

I’ve heard a crazed, cracked Austrian proclaim to the world the establishment of a German Reich that would last a thousand years;

an Italian clown announce that he would restart the calendar to begin his own assumption of power.

I’ve heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as a wiser than Solomon, more enlightened than Ashoka, more humane than Marcus Aurelius.

I’ve seen America wealthier and in terms of weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together, so that Americans, had they so wished, could have outdone an Alexander or a Julius Caesar in the range and scale of their conquests.

All in one little lifetime. All gone with the wind.

England part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy.

Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy.

Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades.

America haunted by fears of running out of those precious fluids that keep her motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixotes of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate.

All in one lifetime, all gone. Gone with the wind.

Behind the debris of these self-styled, sullen supermen and imperial diplomatists, there stands the gigantic figure of one person, because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone mankind might still have hope.

The person of Jesus Christ".

- Malcolm Muggeridge

True Horsepower

2011-03-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

A Pennsylvania Amish farmer proves that technology is only a man-made device that merely sits on top of the God made realities of this world.

Roadside History

2011-02-22T18:58:00.000-08:00

Everywhere you go, you pass historical evidence of past generations. Sometimes it's the gravestones of individual people, sometimes entire communities that no longer exist.

Here is just one example. An old grist mill that Mike and I passed the other day. A place that we have driven by a hundred times, but never stopped to investigate.

For some reason, abandoned places and buildings seem to be much more prevalent in the South than in the North. I suppose it's because the North burned and plundered the South at the end of the Civil War and in doing so disrupted the economic centers that had been in place for more than a hundred years. When industry replaced the destroyed agricultural base, it further consolidated the population. People abandoned the countryside and moved to town.

Today you can find thousands of villages named on old topographical maps of the South. But if you travel the back roads through those remote areas, all you will find is thick timberland where houses, farms and buildings once stood.

This continued up through the 1970's as the death of the small farm slowly emptied what remained of the rural South. The un-holy alliance between government and big agri-business ensured that most people could not afford to operate a small farm as a sole source of income for one family.

This grist mill is interesting because it ran completely on electric power from the grid. Most mills were located next to moving sources of water to provide a cheap source of power for the big wheels that turned the grindstones. No doubt the increase in energy costs put this mill out of business long ago.

The power ran down the inside wall to ground level under the first floor, where it hooked to a huge electric motor. The belt then attached to the left side and ran up to the first floor mill room above.

This was a big complex with many large grain-storage buildings on the property. Most have been overtaken by trees and underbrush.

The main mill room still looks as it did when operations ceased. If you look closely at the window you can see my son, who climbed a tree to get into the picture.

This piece of roadside Southern history is located in Marion County Georgia.

Robert E. Lee

2011-01-19T09:08:00.000-08:00

Robert E. Lee was born 204 years ago today on January 19, 1807. Probably one of the most mis-represented leaders in American history (for obvious reasons).

“I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.”

“At present, I am not concerned with results. God’s will ought to be our aim, and I am quite contented that His designs should be accomplished and not mine.”

“Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.”

“I think it better to do right, even if we suffer in so doing, than to incur the reproach of our consciences and posterity.”

“We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters.”

California vs. Montana

2011-01-18T15:48:00.000-08:00

.
,

The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail.

A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor's dog, then bites the Governor.

1. The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie "Bambi" and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural.

2. He calls animal control . Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.

3. He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.

4. The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.

5. The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals.

6. The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a "coyote awareness program" for residents of the area.

7. The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.

8. The Governor's security agent is fired for not stopping the attack. The State spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training re: the nature of coyotes.

9. PETA protests the coyote's relocation and files a $5 million suit against the State.

Montana:

The Governor of Montana is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A Coyote jumps out and attacks his dog.

1. The Governor shoots the coyote with his State-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.

2. The Buzzards eat the dead coyote.

And that is why California is broke and Montana is not.

.
.
.
.
.

Marshmallow World

2011-01-10T11:17:00.000-08:00

One day a year of ice and snow is plenty. Missing work is the best thing about it now.

This isn't snow, it's all sleet and ice.

Bobcat wanna-be.

Smokey has the thickest fur coat of any animal we own.

He poses. No, really; he poses.

Fritz has no genetic memory of Germany. He hates the cold.

Bandit at the mercy of two very silly girls.

American History

2010-12-22T18:30:00.000-08:00

What Christmas is.

2010-11-27T08:02:00.000-08:00

"Flash mob". Shopping mall in Welland, Ontario. 12/13/10.

Many thanks to the Boyd Family for posting this on Facebook.

Life in the South

2010-11-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

You know the Baptists just shake their heads at this one.

Back to the Future

2010-10-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

The parallels between this 1950 short film and what is happening today in America are unbelieveable. A must watch.

Eight Days on the Road

2010-10-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the longest vacation we've taken to date, eight days and 2500 miles.

Olivia took most of these pictures.

A lonely railroad crossing in rural farm country near Oak Harbor, Ohio.

Two coal barges pass each other on the Ohio River near Vevay, Indiana. We skipped the Interstate and took a two-lane road from Louisville, Kentucky to Cincinnati, Ohio via Indiana. The route followed right along the Ohio River and had many old homesteads from the early 1800's.

One of many coal-fired power plants along the Ohio.

A windy day on Lake Erie. Here the ferry to Put-In-Bay plows through waves on the trip over. This ferry recently rescued passengers from an aircraft that crashed into the lake directly in front it.

Mike holds his little sister's hand through the outdoor gardens of the Creation Museum in Covington, Kentucky. We can't recommend this place enough, this was our second time going and we still haven't seen everything.

Gabe and Ella ride a camel at the Creation Museum.

Our first day on Lake Erie was a cold and windy one. When we left Georgia it was nearly 100 degrees.

Levi on the best part of the trip for him, the playground.

Ella too.

Cheese glorious cheese.

The next morning at dawn the lake was much more calm.

The weather got consistently better and the last night there we could even see lights from Canada across the lake.

The house next door is also a rental cottage, although much larger than ours.

Bergman's Orchards Market in Marblehead. Ohio. We bought three gallons of Apple Cider here and apparently they don't pasteurize it, because by the time we got to Tennessee, one of them had blown its top inside of the van.

Gabe and Ella discovered that they love basketball.

This is Over-The-Rhine, a neighborhood just north of downtown Cincinnati. This was once a bustling German community and basically an entire German city within the city of Cincinnati. At one time 40% of Cincinnatians spoke German. The Temperance Movement, led by women in positions of power, led to Prohibition, which destroyed the beer-based economy of Over-the-Rhine. I'll do an entire post on this in the near future.

The perfect destination for a boy.

What a Totalitarian Society Looks Like

2010-09-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

When government controls property, this is what happens. Imagine what they would be capable of if they controlled, say, our health care too.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutley. Nationalized property is an extremely bad idea, and blame Teddy Roosevelt for its inception. His cousin Franklin evicted thousands of people from the property that they had owned for 100 years to create the Smoky Mountains National Park.
No-one ever talks about that though.

A Day At The Beach

2010-09-10T22:04:00.000-07:00

We live just a few hours from the Gulf of Mexico, but rarely get a chance to go there. It's also difficult to find a time and a place when it's not full of people.

Here Mike and I buy some very fresh shrimp directly off of the boat on Choctawhatchee Bay.

Years ago we discovered a nearly perfect place for families to go that don't want to be around the normal crowds of "L.A.", (Lower Alabama), otherwise known as the Florida Panhandle.

Grayton Beach State Park is located about two miles West of Seaside Florida and about ten miles East of Destin Florida. They have a full mile of private beach and during the week you can just about have it all to yourself. They also have cabins that are very comfortable and only run about $125 a night for a two bedroom.

On this day the waves were unusually high for North Florida, but nobody seemed to mind. The water at Grayton Beach is very shallow for the first 200 feet or more out into the Gulf.

The weather was perfect.

This was Levi's first trip to the beach and he was hooked after the first few minutes. He and Ella spent a lot of time together playing in the sand.

This picture and all of the rest were taken by Olivia.

Gabe quickly remembered why he loves the beach. We manily came as part of his tenth birthday and he rarely left the water.

Ella very much wanted to get into the water, but the waves were a little too strong for her. I took her out on several occasions, but she was just as happy under an umbrella with her sunglasses and a bucket of sand,

We chose to go the day after Labor Day and it was a good idea according to the locals that we talked to. They said that the weekend had been a madhouse, but the crowds were all gone by the time that we arrived.

As the day went by a few fishing charters and some shrimp boats would pass by close to shore.

The very hot summer here in the south had turned the usually blue-green crystal clear water into a slightly greener shade due to the water having more algae than normal. Plus, a tropical storm several hundred miles away, south of Texas, brought out the Yellow Flag at the beaches indicating rough surf.

The beach offers great lessons for homeschoolers. We had flocks of pelicans, sandpipers, seagulls and two kinds of crabs to study. And in the case of crabs, to try and catch one.

Here Emily was successful at catching an elusive Ghost Crab. If you sit still long enough, these little guys will come out of their burrows and roll sand away from their hole. As soon as they detect movement, however, they pop back down into the sand quickly.

Here one decides the coast is clear.

We kept seeing large Blue Crabs in the surf, but they were nearly as fast as the Ghost Crabs. They can bury themselves in the underwater sand in about two seconds flat. We bought a Florida saltwater fishing license in the hope of catching a few. Here Mike is tracking one.

Well it actually caught Mike first and then left him holding the claw so to speak. I think Mike and the crab were mutually angry about their encounter. Here Ivey holds the prize of the day.

Night-time at Grayton Beach is nearly complete darkness. This is really a unique place considering that the infamous Panama City Beach is only about 25 miles to the East. Here the lights of Destin are far to the West.

When America had a Real President

2010-08-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

That was then.

This is now.

Heaven help us.

Life in the South

2010-08-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Saw this the other day in a small Georgia town.

Four wheel drive even.

TV Worth Watching

2010-08-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

Life without television is quite liberating. The last time we were plugged into a cable was around 1998 and as soon as it was gone we noticed how much time we had to do other things; like reading. Our book collection began to expand quickly and is still growing today.

That's not to say that we don't have a DVD player, after all some movies are worth watching as we have stated here before. The great thing is that we get to choose what comes into our house instead of CBS, NBC, etc. etc.

One of our favorite "shows" is actually a miniseries that was done movie-style by the BBC. Hornblower has its "skip-past" moments, but on the whole it's a great series.

The following clip is from the episode "The Wrong War" (called The Frogs and Lobsters in the UK).
,

The British Navy is assisting exiled French loyalists in invading France to try and re-take the country for King Louis. Hornblower's ship is among several that is taking the Frogs to the coast of France, with the aid of a regiment of British soldiers. In the beginning of the clip, Horatio's captain assigns him to the job of leading the landing and getting the loyalists (technically Britain's enemies) established on their own soil.
.

The second in command of the French troops is Colonel Moncoutant, a somewhat disturbed former aristocrat who is anxious to return to France so that he can start beheading the Republicans who drove him out of his town and his country. He is bringing along his own guillotine.

A Day in the Country

2010-08-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

Levi at the Flint River.

Just some recent photos in no particular order, since Blogger is a pain at arranging pictures and I finally gave up trying.

Little hands in the dirt.

Close to home is the Flint River, the only river in Georgia that has no significant dams. We went over recently to have a respite from the extreme heat and lack of rain. Also to do some fishing. Kim caught the only fish of the day.

Dickey Farms near Musella, Georgia is a century-old peach packing house that is still in business. Now adays they open up their huge porch to the public and sell peach ice cream and drinks as well as peaches. On this day there was a big crowd.

A more modern version of the photo. I like the black and white better.

Proof that pigs can fly.

Here one of our Landrace porkers takes off after they discover a hole in the fence. Patience the milk cow looks on in disgust. Once they enter her pasture she will lower her horns and charge them.

Pigs are a pain, but they sure taste good.

A little country store across from Dickey Farms. I don't think this place has changed for a very long time.

This gentleman was picking up discarded peaches from Dickey's; a whole truck load. He must be feeding them to hogs or making peach cider. Whatever the case, his truck was very loud, but it smelled great.

Inside the peach packing area of Dickey Farms.

Empty soda bottles at the country store.

I just found out that Double Cola is still being made. The only plant is in Chattanooga and they don't use high fructose corn syrup, they still use sugar.

The owner of the country store is obviously a Vietnam veteran. I love the one that says "We were winning when I left".

Only on a Southern upholstery ad.

"God is blessing, right now."

The old Musella Cotton Gin is next door to Dickey's.

Dickey's porch.

Pennsylvania was the Quaker State. Then many of the Quakers (who were pacifists) left and went to Canada during the Revolutionary War.

Logs on the Flint.

Vegetables at the Macon Farmers Market.

Let Them Eat Cake

2010-08-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

I did a post on this a year ago and, of course, it has only gotten worse.
Bad enough, in fact, that the super-liberal New York Daily News is even disgusted by it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/08/04/2010-08-04_material_girl_michelle_obama_is_a_modernday_marie_antoinette_on_a_glitzy_spanish.html

What a Corrupt Government Looks Like

2010-08-03T15:45:00.000-07:00

Providence and Freedom

2010-07-26T19:57:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from a recent sermon by Ravi Zacharias entitled “God and Remembrance”. In it he describes the providential founding of this country and the sanctity of freedom. Things that our own President is trodding upon more and more as each week goes by.

“…and they affixed their signature with the words ‘with Our Sacred Honor’. This was the world view. America would have never been birthed by a pantheistic worldview. No Muslim will challenge what I am going to say to you now. The Islamic faith would never have been the progenitor of a nation like America. The Constitution is not in keeping with the fundamental principles of the Sharia Law and the precepts within the Koran, it is just a statement of fact.

It is only the Judeo-Christian worldview that could have permitted the emergence of such a nation.

And so the second verse of the Star Spangled Banner reads:

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Listen to the words of “America”:

Long may our land be bright

With freedom's holy light.”

Do you notice those two words? Freedom is a sacred thing.”

Here Ravi answers a fundamental question. "Why should we believe that Christ is real?"

Ingenuity

2010-07-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

This "model" rocket was built by hand by everyday people. NASA consumes billions of dollars of taxpayer money and employs "rocket scientists" to accomplish basically the same thing.

I come from a family of model rocketeers, but we never had anything like this.

Commercials Worth Watching

2010-07-13T20:46:00.000-07:00

...And that's why yellow makes me sad...
/

Patience and Provision

2010-07-09T18:07:00.000-07:00

This is our new milk cow, Patience. We haven't had a milk cow since 1999, but we've been trying to get one ever since. Our last cow was hand-milked and my knuckles still pop from the experience. This time we opted for a machine milker, and what a difference.

We actually bought her back in February, but had to wait a few months while we built some fencing for her. I still only have about half of it finished.

For now there is an electric fence that acts as a temporary side while I get the rest of the wood fence completed.

The gentleman that we got Patience from is a one-stop-shop so to speak. He got us the cow, the miker, the strainer, and everything that we would need to start milking her day one. Patience is even bred and should have her calf in November.

She is a very spoiled cow now with two adults and seven children to keep her company and her own pastures to graze in all day.

We're spoiled as well, because she's an extremely well behaved cow. She goes into her shed at milking time on a lead and then eats her grain without having to be in a stanchion. She doesn't mind the noise of the vacuum pump, or the strap that holds the milker or anything. She just stands and eats while we do everything else.

Only once (when she ran out of food) did she ever get impatient while milking. And then she just turned around and started eating directly out of the feed bag.

We've gone from wishing we had fresh milk, to having an over-abundance of it. Here the strainer is atop a three-gallon jar just after milking.

We use a 5.5 gallon Surge milker. These were invented back in the 1920's and are still the best method of machine milking a family cow. Parts are still abundant as well.

After straining.

Milk production varies based on a number of factors. On this evening she gave about 1-1/2 gallons. Two to three gallons of milk per day adds up very quickly.

The strainer is a great piece of low-tech equipment as well. The stainless steel cylinder in the middle presses down into the well at the bottom of the strainer with the filter going in between. It can strain two gallons of milk in less than ten seconds.

The finished product. A gallon, a quart and a pint (plus some for the cats). The small bottle on the right reads Dixie Dairies of Macon, Georgia from the 1950's.

We found eight of these bottles on eBay. They were from an old dairy farm in Rhode Island and had never been used. The Jersey on the front looks just like Patience.

Hope for Britain

2010-07-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

This is Nigel Farage, a British envoy to the European Union.

Farage has figured out that the EU is a Socialist sham and is intent on promoting world government. Here he blasts the head of the EU, a Belgian.

He almost sounds like a British Patrick Henry.

Movies Worth Watching

2010-06-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

A key scene from one of our favorite movies; Henry V.

Cars and Freedom

2010-06-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

Under the category of, "I wish I had done this..."

A Day in the Mountains

2010-06-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

A few days ago we visited an icon of Southern culture; Ruby Falls. We don't do tourist attractions that often, because most have become bastions of political correctness, or evolution, or both. When we arrived at the cave, I fully expected to be inundated with tales of the plight of Indians, millions of years of evolution and an array of political slants that would essentially apologize for the attraction's mere existence.

What we got was surprisingly different. Even though the website has some references to evolution, the tour was completely absent of them. In fact, the whole experience was like stepping back into the 1950's, or earlier, to a time when people just wanted to experience the unusual and magnificent spots of creation that we don't get to see everyday. No apologies, no politics, no revisionist history.

The lobby of Ruby Falls.

As you enter the building, there is a large bronze plaque commemorating the man who discovered and developed Ruby Falls; Leo Lambert. Lambert attributed all of the glory of the cave, as well as his experience in finding it, to God.

"Discovering Ruby Falls was like discovering God. ...As you add light to what you discovered you find that the things that caused you suffering were wonderful God-made things, put there for you to witness and give you joy. It is more than you ever imagined you could witness. It is God, and Ruby Falls and Lookout Mountain Cave are God's creations, made for man to enjoy. I am just a little proud that he used me."

The first person that Lambert brought back into the cave to show the waterfall to was his wife, Ruby. He named the falls at that time for her.

Chattanooga from Lookout Mountain.

The cave tour is about an hour and fifteen minutes long and travels about 1/3 of a mile deep into the mountain, ending at the 145-foot waterfall over 1000 feet underground. You get the impression that the tour is basically the same as it has been for the last 40, 50 or 60 years. Colored lights guide the way through the sometimes narrow passageways and illuminate fantastic rock formations below, above and beside you. Water drips from the ceiling in places and an underground stream flows along the path.

It's a very laid-back Southern attraction, and I wish there were more like it.

A potential terrorist threat in the parking lot.

On the way home we stopped at Ted's Montana Grill in Kennesaw. There's not many restaurants that take eating healthy seriously (unless it's some vegan hippie joint). No matter what you think of Ted Turner, he's created a very unique restaurant that features Bison as it's specialty.

Everything in Ted's reflects a circa-1900 Western hotel, down to the vintage tile floor.

Ted Turner owns 1.9 million acres of land across the West and he raises his own buffalo on much of it. That's nearly three times the size of Rhode Island. No freezers or microwaves are allowed in the restaurants and plastic is almost non-existent. In fact, Ted's commissioned the manufacture of paper straws, the first to be made in this country since 1970.

Gabe getting tired after a long day.

Based on 100-grams of meat:

Fat: Beef=12 grams Pork=18 grams Bison=2.5 grams

Calories: Beef=217 cal Pork=265 cal Bison=143 cal

Protein: Beef=26 grams Pork=24 grams Bison=29 grams

Another cog in the Marxist wheel.

2010-06-05T06:16:00.000-07:00

"She was working within the scope of her employment".

...That says it all about public education, even down to the bus drivers. Perhaps the janitors carry copies of The Communist Manifesto to hand out when a student shows any sign of independent thought.

92 Years Ago

2010-05-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

92 Years ago, my great-Uncle Clarence Powers was an army recruit from Ohio, getting basic training at Camp Sheridan in Montgomery Alabama. He and thousands of other new soldiers were preparing to travel overseas to France as the 'American Expeditionary Forces' in WWI.

After the Wright Brothers made their first successful flights at Kitty Hawk, they built a Flying School in Montgomery next door to what would become Camp Sheridan. They later began to repair aircraft and soon had a shop to build them as well. All of these planes were very similar to the Wright Flyer that flew at Kitty Hawk in 1910, with the pilot sitting out on the leading edge of the wing with the control stick in his hand.

On September 20th, 1918 the Flying School rolled out the first plane to be built in Montgomery. It flew over Camp Sheridan to the amazement of all of the Ohio boys who were there.

The photo below was snapped by Uncle Clarence as it did.

The pilot then landed (below) and let the young soldiers take a look at something that most of them had probably never seen in their life; an airplane. The pilot seems very at ease, with a cigarette dangling from his lips as he shows the MP his "flight suit".

Uncle Clarence went on to manage five and dime stores when he returned from France in 1919, until he retired in 1965. WWI seemed to have an impact on him, because he gave up his love for photography and developed a love for gardening upon his return. In the 1930's he developed a business case for creating a "Horticulture" section of the Woolworth store. At first Woolworths said that people would not come to a five and dime to buy live plants, but after they relented the Horticulture "department" became one of the most successful areas of the Woolworth stores.

Life in the South

2010-05-18T15:12:00.000-07:00

Further proof that there is hope for the South, at least, in this current climate of Socialism. I like this ad as much as Ray McBerry's. Maybe more.

New Orleans was news; but Nashville is not.

2010-05-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

The news media is now an official branch of the U.S. Government. Except for FOX News, the media doesn't even pretend to be un-biased anymore.

"Nashville had all of the elements of Katrina, except for the “narrative” bits: no helpless population, no incompetent governor, no hopeless mayor, no looting, no screeching about FEMA, and most important, no Republican in the White House. Instead, it offered a community that banded together, took on the task, saved its neighbors, fought back the floods and is now getting on with its life.
In other words, it offered an old fashioned America: folks doing what Americans do best, including that most important thing: not whining. Maybe that’s why they call it the Volunteer State."

The full story here:

Not-Dead-Yet Newsweek Asks a Good Question: Where’s the Coverage Of the Nashville Flood?

Movies Worth Watching

2010-05-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

There are very few movies worth watching as a family these days. We have a select few, most of which were made in the 1930's and 40's. Boys Town is one of them.

The scene between Flanagan and Whitey (at 1:09 minutes of this trailer) is a great scene.

The Other Baldwin Brother

2010-03-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

Health Care - Control The People

2010-03-24T19:38:00.001-07:00

Wickedness and Tyranny

2010-03-22T21:32:00.001-07:00

Life in the South

2010-02-28T18:49:00.000-08:00

Some pictures from a recent trip to Tennessee.

After a few very cold days, the Monteagle Grade north of Chattanooga was covered in huge icicles.

These icicles look small until you get a point of reference.

Ivey with one of the larger ones. After I looked at this picture it does look kind of dangerous doesn't it. She was actually standing back away from them.

Levi deciding he can drive from here.

These pictures were taken in a rural area south of Nashville.

The creeks and rivers in this area are known for their purity and clarity. Here you can see down to the bottom of this deep creek.

There are many farms in this part of Tennessee that have been in the same family for 100 years or more.

Levi wanting to get closer to the cows across the street.

With a combination of steep hills and limestone bedrock, there is an abundance of water everywhere. This waterfall lies on empty land off of a dirt road.

Again, this gives some reference to the size of the rocks that make up the waterfall.

We finished the week with a lecture from Bill Potter at this small, ornate church in a rural valley.

One of the light fixtures in the old church.

The Tenth Amendment

2010-02-27T09:38:00.000-08:00

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Still Made In The USA

2010-02-15T20:19:00.000-08:00

I found a website today that is a great resource. It lists a plethora of American made factories and products that are broken down by category. So if you are looking to buy just about anything, take a look here first, before you head out to Wal-Mart and send more American dollars to the Chinese communists.

http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/

I found it interesting how many of these places were located in the South and yet I had never heard of any of them. Some examples (of just clothing) are:

Boots from Allegiance Footwear of Mountain City Tennessee.

Pointer Brand Denim Clothes of Bristol Tennessee.

Crescent Hosiery of Niota Tennessee (home of the World's Softest Socks)

Campbellsville Apparel Co. of Campbellsville Kentucky. They sell to the public the same clothes that they manufacture for the U.S. military.

SOS From Texas. They manufacture organic cotton t-shirts and night shirts, made in North Carolina from organic cotton grown on a family farm in Texas.

Please make a point to peruse this great site before you buy foreign.

http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/

Marshmallow World

2010-02-12T15:24:00.000-08:00

Some pictures of a rare snowy day in south Georgia.

Movies worth watching

2010-01-24T12:11:00.000-08:00

We don't have TV,but we do watch a few movies that are worth watching. Here is one that is a little hard to find, but good for the whole family.

Sargent York is, of course, the true story of Alvin York from Pall Mall, Tennessee during the WWI era. York was an unbeliever and a rowdy young man, until one night when he and his mule were struck by lightning while York was on his way to exact revenge on a neighbor. The mule died and his gun barrel was twisted from the strike. In this scene he then hears music coming from the local church where his mother and brother are attending services.

York went on to be drafted into the Army, but became a conscientious objector due to his interpretation of "Thou Shalt Not Kill". After debating the scriptural justification for going to war with his preacher and others, he finally decided that "Render Unto Caesar" meant that he had to fulfill his obligation to serve, and he did. His bravery on the battlefield earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Incompetance and Propaganda

2010-01-23T16:36:00.000-08:00

A very interesting story is surfacing.

Here's an administration that finds itself way in over its head and obviously getting desperate. Their inexperience combined with their Marxist/academic worldview actually turned Ted Kennedy's seat into a Republican win. Obama has only been successful at one thing: running for office. This is why he remains in perpetual campaign mode. But campaigns are only successful when you can draw a crowd, and his groupies are evaporating quickly.

The story HERE is one sign that this administration is out of ideas, unwilling to accept responsibility for their own failures and beginning to unwind.

Life in the South

2010-01-11T17:53:00.001-08:00

Some recent pictures taken with Olivia's new camera.
.

The above photo is from the tiny town of Charing Georgia. Like most other small southern towns it had a local grocery store with screen doors on the front and lots of Colonial Bread and Coca-Cola inside.

When I was growing up, my barber was located out in the country in a small two-room building; each side had it's own door. On one side was the barber shop and on the other was the grocery store. After my brother and I would get a haircut, we would all go 'next door' and get a Coke and some Tom's peanuts.

I can remember passing by the store on some mornings and seeing the Colonial Bakery truck parked out front and the driver unloading racks of new bread.

If you look close, on the front of the screen door above, you'll see the old sign (or what's left of it) that read "Colonial is Good Bread".
.

What's left of the sidewalk of Charing that led from one store to another. These buildings have long since been abandoned.

The front of the combination grocery and gas station. The old gas pump platform is still in place, as is the ornate sign post that was once illuminated from each side.

An old abandoned farm near Tazewell Georgia had this great windmill, (even if it was made in Chicago).

Western farms used these windmills to fill remote watering troughs for ranch cows. Southern farms used them to fill large water barrels that sat on platforms above ground, like the one above. This provided water pressure for the entire house.

A crystal clear creek near Tazewell. We have had nothing but freezing weather lately and you can see a chunk of ice buildup on the cattle fence that crosses the creek here.

Columbus is the home of Tom's Peanuts (recently bought by Lance Inc.) I work near the plant and on most days the air is filled with the smell of roasting peanuts.

These are giant silos that hold peanuts year round; most of which are grown just south of Columbus in southwest Georgia.

One sign that has not been changed to "Lance" yet.

Stacks of peanut vats awaiting use.

Here a truck hauls away shelled peanuts. I hear that if you go to the right people you can get a truckload of these for yourself, and if you raise hogs like we do, the pigs will find a lot of peanuts that Lance missed. Then the hogs will turn the shells into the ground for compost.
.
Much of the Tom's plant looks just as it has for the last 85 years.

An old Pure gas sign. You know something is old when the manufacturer went to the trouble of making even the sign frame and the pole ornate. This is a forgotten artform.

Running through the center of Columbus is a Norfolk Southern railyard, which was once an important link on the Southern Railroad. Today the city is contemplating condemning the yard, to force NS to move it somewhere else, so that the land can be developed.

On one side of the railyard is Goldens Foundry and it has been there since 1882. Goldens used to make most of the manhole covers that you saw in the southeast, but now they make a host of different cast iron and steel items.

Another little grocery, this one located in downtown Columbus. Built in the 1840's, it was abandoned long ago, but was restored by a local business that bought the entire lot that it sat on. Because it was a local gathering place it was always known as "Kinfolks Corner". Today a historical marker tells the story on one side of the building.

You can still make out the Nehi Cola sign on the West side of the building. This type of old painted wall advertising that is still visible is known as "ghost signs".

The tile and brick front of the Tarver Building in Columbus. I'm not even sure what the original purpose of the building was, but it's a relic of a different age when architecture was still a Winslow Homer painting and not a Picasso (like today).

An old plantation style home in Columbus.

Once upon a time

2009-12-16T15:32:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, defining the roles of men and women were nothing special. But we live in a country dominated by San Francisco 'values'. This ad says it all, that's why it is being slammed by everything from the Boston Globe to the NOW gang.

Irreconcilable Differences

2009-12-05T11:05:00.000-08:00

Most ancient cultures have some form of mythology. Greek, Roman, even Welsh and English cultures have their own forms. America is no different, in fact much of our mythology is taught in schools; as fact.

One of the biggest American myths is that Abraham Lincoln was a "uniter" who saved the Union and freed the slaves. Another related myth is that the Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery. This idea would have seemed folly until 1863.

The Civil War is still being fought today and for the very reasons that it began 150 years ago, that is, who has more power and control, the Federal Government or the States? Today we call it Red-State/Blue-State, but in 1861 it was North and South. Lincoln was a Federalist to the core and he was no friend of the slave; that is, until he began to lose the war that he started. The South saw secession and the war as one thing; the right to self-determination, something that the Declaration of Independence had declared was the right of all men.

Confederate memorial in the South.

Why would the founding fathers establish the following rights?:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Does it sound like the founding fathers declared that once the "Union" was formed, that it could never be broken?; that no state or group of people could ever declare that they wanted to leave the United States? Ridiculous. They based their knowledge on thousands of years of human history, knowing that the common state of man is oppression, not freedom. They knew that eventually Americans would face oppression and they built everything they could into the Constitution to thwart it at all costs.

The founding document of America is not the Constitution, it's the Declaration of Independence. It says, "All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". It doesn't say, "All Americans are created equal once we've become a country". No, the statement is a universal one that transcends any and all geo-political boundaries; it says that every man born has the God-given right to freedom and that any people, any group of people, has the right to self-determination.

Lincoln wanted an American Industrial Revolution the same as was taking place in Europe. He wanted railroads and canals and heavy industry. But he needed the high tariffs that the South was generating (there was no income tax at the time) which was literally fueling his industrial expansion in the North. When the South seceded, they cut off his money supply and his base of power.

Union memorial in the North

"Died in the Rebellion"

Lincoln went to war to subdue and conquer the South, not to "save" the Union.

As far as the war goes, the South was doing very well by 1863 and the end looked near. Many foreign countries were already recognizing the Confederate States of America as a legitimate country (and trading partner).

Lincoln played his last major card in desperation; he "freed" the slaves (but only in states that had seceded) and made the issue suddenly about slavery. Foreign governments withdrew their support for the South and new recruitment drives were launched in the North to join the Union army and "free the slaves". Lincoln had no desire to see the slaves go free (especially if they decided to come North) but he had no option, or so he thought.

Confederate Memorial in the South.

Deo Vindice: "God Will Vindicate Us"

Once the North won, the Lincoln mythology was formed and has now become a part of our history. But the underlying causes are still there and are deepening as each year and each election cycle passes. Federal power vs. States Rights is an argument that will not go away. It is being fought every day in Washington D.C. and across this country as we have become more polarized as a people than ever before, (or maybe just since 1860).

It is no longer an issue of compromises, we are beyond compromise as a nation. If you don't believe me, just look at how a President and a Congress are shoving legislation down the throats of Americans even though they admit it is not the will of the majority of the people. They are in power and they are going to do as much as they can to ensure their re-election before the next election cycle, no matter how much damage it does to the people and to the country. They are draining the monetary resources of this nation and destroying it's currency to feed their own insatiable desire for power and the determination to hold onto it; forever.

When will one state Governor stand up and say that it is time to leave the sinking ship full of in-fighting pirates? The Declaration of Independence has already given them the right and the responsibility to do just that.

Abraham Lincoln Quotes:

"The whole nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these new (Western) territories. We want them for the homes of free white people".

- 10/16/1854

"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and have no inclination to do so"

Inaugural address, 1860.

"Slave states are the places for poor white people to move from... New states are the places for poor white people to go and better their condition."

- 10/16/1854

"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do that".

- 1862

(When asked what to do with the slaves if they were ever to be freed):

"Send them to Liberia, to their own native land".

- 1857

"There is a moral fitness in the idea of returning to Africa her children... they will carry back to their native soil the rich fruits of religion, civilization, law and liberty".

- 1852

("Colonization" was a term for sending the slaves back to Africa.)

"I cannot make it better known than it already is, that I strongly favor colonization".

- 1862 (during the war).

Lincoln developed a plan to send all of the freed slaves to the Mexican island of Cozumel.

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave. It stated:

"all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free".

The Proclamation itself defines where and only where it applies:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued."

The areas in yellow were under Federal control. So Lincoln admitted that some slavery was good and some was bad. Good was defined as those areas that he controlled; NO slaves were to be freed there. The other areas weren't about to free their slaves just because Lincoln read a proclamation, so in fact the whole thing was just a stunt, with the intended affect being to turn public opinion against the South.

Lincoln ignored freedom of the press. He would not tolerate newspapers that spoke out against his policies, even shutting them down and arresting the editors. Very Chavez-like.

(To General John Dix, 1864)

"You will take possession by military force, of the printing establishments of the New York World and the Journal of Commerce... and prohibit any further publication thereof... you are therefore commanded forthwith to arrest an imprison... the editors, proprietors and publishers of the aforesaid newspapers."

.
Slavery was wrong and my continued opinion is that had Jefferson Davis done the right thing and freed the slaves early in the war there is no doubt that the South would have won and we would be a much different and better America today.

Autumn on the Road

2009-11-14T14:56:00.001-08:00

We recently took our first family vacation in over two years. We tried to take side roads whenever possible. The above picture is of Norris Dam in Tennessee, just a few miles off of I-75.

Just a few weeks before we had a day-trip to Burt's Pumpkin Farm in Amicalola, Georgia.

We visited the Creation Museum in Florence, Kentucky. If you have not been to here, you really need to go and see what Answers In Genesis has accomplished with this great museum.

Here, Levi is a little scared of what he sees above him...

...a very life-like dinosaur munching on the plant life in the museum.

Everything in the Creation Museum is very professionally done and very realistic.

Ella isn't sure if this is safe or not.

Even though it was still very green when we left Georgia, in northern Ohio it was Fall at it's peak. Everywhere we went was extremely colorful. This is the town square in Milan, Ohio; the birthplace of Thomas Edison.

A monument to homeschooling.

This is called "Young Thomas Edison being taught by his mother".

Thomas Edison figured out early that structured schooling served only to hold young minds back. He became bored with the slow pace of public school and ended up being branded as "addled" because he wouldn't sit still and conform. As a result, his mother pulled him out of school and taught him herself; the rest is history.

The Edison home is now a museum.

Kim and Olivia spent a lot of time here in Milan...

A street in the very small town of Milan.

.The copious amount of leaves falling from this Maple are blotting out the sidewalk and the curb.

A huge Victorian house in Milan.

We traveled to South Bass Island on Lake Erie, which happens to be one of our ancestral homes.

Here Emily shows Levi the lake and the ferry. The very small island in the background is Mouse Island, which was once owned by President Rutherford B. Hayes, who erected a small house for a retreat on it.

A tri-colored Sugar Maple, dockside.

This was the last tourist weekend for the island and we were the only 'tourists'. The only other folks going over were island residents. This made it nice since we basically had the island to ourselves.

Of course there are the few reminders that you are in Yankee territory.

This ain't Texas by any stretch.

Levi watching his sister Ella watching the ferry approaching.

Emmy on the chilly ride over.

Too chilly for Ella.

Golf carts are necessary for the one-mile trip to the little town of Put-In-Bay on the island. This one seated eight. .

Levi admiring the view at 13mph. His great-great-great Grandfather was a fisherman, slave-runner and Indian interpreter on this island.
.

Main Street in Put-In-Bay is pretty much a ghost-town this time of year; ...but the playground in the park is always open.
.

The vineyard of the Heineman Winery on the island. These are Catawba grapes and South Bass Island is famous for them.
.

The island cemetery. Our great-great-grandmother is buried here.
.

Three sisters.

Each time we travel to Ohio we make a trip to Lehman's. Our first time was in 1999 and the store has tripled in size since then.
.

Lehman's still caters to the Amish and they still have their own 'parking lot' complete with stables and hay.

The Edmund Fitzgerald

2009-11-09T20:32:00.000-08:00

Thirty-four years ago on November 10th, 1975 an event took place on Lake Superior that is still being talked about and debated today. A violent storm, of hurricane proportions, moved across the lake and trapped two ships in it's path.

The Arthur M. Anderson and the Edmund Fitzgerald were both ore freighters on the Great Lakes. Iron ore is mined in the Mesaba Range in northern Minnesota and then shipped to Duluth where it is turned into Taconite Pellets, (basically marble-sized pieces of iron ore). The Taconite is loaded onto ore freighters in Duluth and shipped to steel mills throughout the lakes, but especially to mills in Michigan, Ohio and Ontario. The Edmund Fitzgerald was loaded with 26,000 tons of Taconite, (about 900 tractor-trailer loads).

.
The weather on Lake Superior can equal any of that at sea, and the waves that evening were 30 feet (high as a three story building) and the winds had gusts over 90mph. The Arthur M Anderson was trailing the Fitzgerald by a few miles and was tracking it on surface radar when the Fitzgerald notified them that they had begun to take on water and were listing. A white patch appeared on the Anderson's radar which they knew to be a white-out, a severe area of weather within the storm. The white-out moved over the Fitzgerald and when it passed, the radar was blank.

The Arthur M. Anderson at Huron, Ohio in 2008.

It's estimated that the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in as few as 15 seconds. None of the 29 crew members were ever recovered. For years the entire loss was a mystery, as know one could believe that something of that size could disappear that quickly and with no trace to be found.
The answer lies in a number of factors.
The main reason is that the ore freighters were expensive and time consuming to build and so throughout the 1960's the steel companies requested re-vised permits from the Coast Guard that allowed the existing ships to carry more and more iron-ore, which led to the ships riding lower in the water than they were designed for.

The second is that there was a design flaw in this particular style of ship. Metal fatigue would begin to show around the center of the ship, especially after having been through a major storm. This metal fatigue had already split one ship in two and crippled another several years before.

.
The third was a discrepancy between the Canadian version of the official Lake Superior chart and the American version. This discrepancy was in relation to where Six Fathom Shoal was actually located and how shallow it actually was. Over the years, ships captains had their choice as to which chart they believed to be correct. The night of December 10th, 1975 the captain of the Fitzgerald simply picked the wrong one. As they traveled through the area of Six Fathom Shoal, a massive wave apparently brought the bottom of the ship into contact with the shoal, cutting a gash in the hull. This accounted for the list and the taking on of water.

.
Already riding low in the water, in the middle of a massive storm and experiencing metal fatigue, all that was needed was one last blast of wind and waves to break the 729 foot ship in two and send it to the bottom in over 500 feet of water.

We live in a world that is fearfully and wonderfully made. Nothing that man can devise will ever equal or control the awesome nature of our created universe. This type of event drives that point home and reminds us of the short time span that we actually spend here on Earth. These 29 men had probably less than 15 seconds to either tremble in fear; call upon the name of Christ; or be glad that they already had.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee.

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,

that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed when the gales of November came early.

The ship was the pride of the American side, coming back from some mill in Wisconson.

As the big freighters go it was bigger than most with a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms when they left fully loaded for Cleveland,

and later that night when the ships bell rang, could it be the North wind they'd been feeling?

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound and a wave broke over the railing,

and every man knew, as the Captain did too, t'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait when the gales of November came slashing.

When afternoon came it was freezing rain, in the face of a hurricane West wind.

When supper time came the old cook came on deck saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya,

at 7pm a main hatchway caved in, he said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in and the good ship and crew was in peril,

and later that night when his lights went out of sight, came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay if they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsized, they may have broke deep and took water. And all that remains are the faces and the names of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings, in the rooms of her ice water mansions.

Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams, the islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below, Lake Ontario takes in what Lake Erie can send her. And the iron boats go, as the mariners all know, with the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed in the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral.

The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee.

Superior, they said, never gives up her dead when the gales of November come early.

Lyrics by Gordon Lightfoot

When Beauty Still Mattered

2009-11-03T18:43:00.001-08:00

We have just come back from our annual trip to the North country (Ohio). My ancestors and family all came from the area around Lake Erie.
On the way home, just outside of Savannah, Ohio we spotted a large old victorian house on a hillside about a mile away. We took a side road to investigate and this is what we found.
A sign on the barn said "Castle Hill Farms". When we returned home I did some research and found out that this house was built in 1878 by a farmer named Charles Crittenden on 660 acres.

This house was built when architecture was still taken seriously as a form of art and beauty.
The man who built this house knew that it would be used by multiple generations of his family, and it still stands over 130 years later.
.

Inside the home there is a 3-story spiral staircase made of walnut that goes from the ground floor to the top of the tower. You can read more about Castle Hill Farm here.

As we were getting back on the main road, Kim spotted this Amish gentleman putting out his hand-made baskets. We stopped and talked with him for a while and of course, came away with a couple of very nice baskets (and an apple pie).

October 31st, 1917

2009-10-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

At first glance these two photos look very odd, (well actually they are very odd), but 92 years ago today this apparently was normal attire for a halloween party in rural Ohio. Even for good Methodists.

The caption on one states that this was held at "Gregory's barn", while on the other photo it says "October, 1917".

My grandmother and her two sisters are all present, but I will leave that be for now at the request of my spouse.

Halloween has become a bigger and darker event each year as our culture slides ever away from the light of His word. Now people celebrate it as much or even more than they do Christmas, which itself is returning to its roots as just another pagan celebration of humanism and materialism.

The Return of Patriots

2009-10-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a campaign video for Ray McBerry, a candidate for Governor or Georgia. This is just the kind of response that is needed for what is happening to this country at a Federal level.

Find more videos like this on GeorgiaFirst.Org