Cleaning houses for fun

Am hoping this title, “Cleaning houses for fun”, has you a bit intrigued. Some of you cannot envision me cleaning much of anything besides fish and firearms. Well, today I will add a third object—deer hunting shooting houses. To be accurate(pun alert), they should be called ”sitting houses” because a lot more sitting gets done than shooting.

Generally shooting houses are small sheds 4-6 feet wide and 6-8 feet long with a ceiling height of about 7 feet. They have a metal roof and lots of small windows either always open or able to be opened. They provide a dry place to sit and watch for deer to appear. Sometimes they are on the ground, but more commonly they are elevated 8-12 feet, though we have one on our farm that is probably over 20 feet above the ground. I have acrophobia, so I have never even climbed to that one.

Shooting houses provide good, comfortable places to sit and wait on deer. I write this sitting in a shooting house where I have completely revised a textbook before, and worked on Fit Over 50, plus done lots of other computer tasks and read many a book. As I get older I hunt a higher percentage of time in these abodes.

Shooting houses also provide a good, comfortable place for various species of wasp to build their nests and raise the next generation of stingers. So, each fall, owners or leasers of said houses must go around and spray the wasps and sweep out the deer wasps and other debris that accumulated since last season. Failure to do so may result in a painful surprise for an unsuspecting deer hunter once the day warms and the wasps begin flying. In the house I sit today I had to kill over 2 dozen wasps yesterday while I was trying to hunt.

As a service to a friend, yesterday Andrew and I killed hundreds of wasps and swept and roughly cleaned 2+4+2+2+4 +3= 17 shooting houses. This took us from just before 1100 to about 2:30, with both of us working as fast as we could. It is hard, dusty work and there is a realistic danger of getting stung by irate wasps who object to tearing down their nests. We also found 3 bird nests inside the houses, one that still had eggs in it from a failed attempt last spring.

Everything, even hunting, has at least a small element of effort required, EXCEPT ONE THING. Accepting Christ as Savior requires no effort on our part, only acceptance.

Growing as a Follower of the Christ, obeying his general and particular will for us. Now that takes some work.  But it is a LOT more worthwhile than deer hunting.

 

First Fire of Fall 2020

 On Sunday 31 Oct we lit our first fire of fall 2020, and  didn’t let it go out until 5 Nov, when we had an unusually warm stretch of Nov. weather.

I am not sure of why warming by the fire gives such comfort, but I truly savor it, as I am guessing I have relayed here before. Last year we burned a fire in our fireplace insert all winter long. We were gifted with a good supply of very dry firewood which burned well.

This year we are burning wood that I cut the spring and summer of 2019. It typically takes wood over a year to season totally to make a good-burning, hot fire. Wood containing moisture uses heat to evaporate the moisture which leaves as steam. And, green wood causes a fast build-up of creosote in the chimney.

The chief thing I have noticed already is the increased weight of this newer wood. More weight in dry wood means more heat available and slower burning rates. The other night, I put one heavy chunk of wood in the fire and went to sleep. Six hours later it showed hot coals still which started the following day's fire. I was impressed.

I think part of the joy of a wood fire, besides the smell, is the work required to have one. First you have to find wood to cut. Then you cut it, then you haul it, then you split it, then you stack it to dry, then you move it from the stack to the wood box, and finally you move it from the box to the fire.  Whew! That’s the first time I think I have ever written this all down in one spot.

I have never considered this, but fire, in some form, is essential to life as we know it. Perhaps there are a few, very few, tropical places that never need warmth from fire, but even those folks want/need to cook food and sometimes to boil drinking water. For those of us a bit farther from the equator, we make fire to warm, to cook, to boil, to drive our internal-combustion engines, and to do a great many things in industry to give us useful metals, liquids, and other products.

So the next time you see a fire, unless it is raging out of control, thank the L^rd G^d for fire.

Thank you L^rd!

 

Sacrificial Listening

I recently ran across that term, "Sacrificial Listening", and thought, what a great concept. There are so very many people today who have NO one to listen to them. A few people, hermit types, can handle that happily, but G^d made us social creatures, and having someone listen to our theories, our hopes, even our complaints is a true Blessing.

Well, how about the “sacrificial” part. Well, as a talker, most of my listening is sacrificial, from my perspective. But, many people in this world are boring—including me. Listening is so very important, but quite often requires sacrifice, even as people patiently listen to my stories.

Sacrificial listening requires that we invite people to speak about whatever, and we actively listen, asking clarifying questions, nodding, smiling when appropriate and silently communicating that we are truly attending to their words.

We speak with much more impact, if we sacrificially listen first. We serve others by listening. We help them process their own thoughts, when we actively listen and ask good questions that help them reflect on what they are saying.

But, it does take some sacrifice on our part. And, we grow in Christ-likeness as we listen and express love to those to whom we listen sacrificially.

After all, G^d Himself sacrificially listens to us!!

"Day of Infamy"

Today, 7 Dec. is a "Day of Infamy" because this was the date of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Now, if you have ever had the pleasure of visiting Japan you know that it is among the MOST civil countries of the world. IF I had to walk down the streets of a big city at 2 AM, I would feel safest in a Japanese city. Our son David who has lived in Japan for over 10 years now, says that police officers in Japan have boring jobs, seldom even giving out speeding tickets.

Sadly,  Japan is the least religious country I have visited to date. They have many religious shrines, but these are almost entirely relics of the past. When some dignitary in Japan visits one of these spots, they are doing it for historical and publicity purposes, with no serious consideration of spiritual principles.

How do I know this? Well I can't give you a lot of specific arguments, but I can tell you that religion of all types is very low profile in Japan. And, this is not because of civil or criminal law, it is simply their preference. It really struck me to go from the SE coast of Japan to the SW coast (down near Osaka) and only see ONE cross on one building the whole way.

Now I do KNOW that there are Christians there, including some Christian professors. Several years back we spoke to an assembled group of Christian profs at a University in Osaka. I know a Cru missionary now in Japan, and know a couple who were missionaries there.

Let's take this day to PRAY for the people of Japan. Everyone is an eternal being. Everyone needs to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let it be so. Pray.

Fall Gardening

 Gardening is, more or less, a year-round hobby. Fall is the time for transplanting. Fortunately, I have had good success in transplanting even in spring, and planting day lilies in early August. But, the best time for moving trees, shrubs and flowers is fall when they are going dormant.

This last few days (early Nov.) we have transplanted some of my favorite bush--the crepe myrtle. I salvaged some gerbera daisies from the trash in mid summer, and am in the process of getting them in the ground. Our next door neighbor, Ms. Connie, gave me 7 cuttings from her beloved "mother" gardenia. I got them rooted and set them out last week. All 7 survived the summer and appear to survive the transplanting.

I also moved a Leland Cypress from the east side of the front yard to the west side. For some reason, the east side of our front yard does not foster rose, cypress, or anything. A few lantana seem to do OK, but nothing else.

Here's the new crepe myrtles.

As you might suspect, this whole row is composed of volunteer shoots from mature crepe myrtles. If some of these die, no worries, as there are plenty of other volunteer sprouts. I also have 5 loropetalum that I harvested from a couple of huge bushes back at Allums. It has taken a year and a half, but they are big enough to safely move, if I discover a spot for them. They are so very hardy, that I might even try one over on the "No-grow" east side.

To see the wonderful beauty that G^d has given us in plants is to increase our worship of Him. That he made such variety and such beauty tells us that heaven must be a lovely place indeed.

A Surprising Love for Canada Geese

 As most of you know, we live on a small lake. We derive surprising joy from the lake. We love kingfishers, the hawk, the domestic geese, the great blue heron, the little green heron, and we really enjoy the Canada (not Canadian) geese who pass through here headed south now, or north in the spring. A few seem to over-winter on our lake, and I guess we are pretty far south.

We love to hear them honking as they circle and maneuver to land into the wind. We love to see them paddle leisurely across the lake. Our neighbor east of us has a couple of Geese decoys, and the geese will come to her back yard and dock. There were 4 there yesterday.

Yesterday (Nov 2) we saw a NEW record ~80 Canada geese all together.

Aren't they impressive? It was not possible to get them all in the frame, but we counted them, not estimated them.

That these beautiful big birds can fly south each fall, and then back home again each spring is a marvel. We are so grateful to G^d that we get to enjoy his creation.

"18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things."  Rom 1

Blessings,

Wonderful Fall

 Fall is in the air. On 1 Nov we lit the first fire of fall in the woodstove.

There is a LOT of enjoyment in Fall. The weather has cooled, making running more enjoyable. Deer season is in, and the leaves are turning (today is 3 Nov). The lake this morning was covered with fog, as the warm moist air near the lake surface rises and cools causing fog to form. Yesterday was sunny with a high of 57-58 F. I could work outside without sweating.

Every season has it's differences and its pleasures. G^d brings the seasons. Time flies and G^d reminds us that life is short...but eternity is long.