The WILD life

Well, technically that should be "wildlife". Brenda and I were just sitting on the back porch at a pleasant 75F enjoying the morning. Brenda started listing the wildlife in out backyard, and seen from our backyard. These include:
Deer
Raccoons
Squirrels
Chipmunks (though I can recall seeing only one)
Domestic geese
Canada geese
Wild ducks-species unidentified
Belted kingfishers
Great Blue Heron
Little green heron
Ruby-throated humming birds
Several species of "yard birds" like robins, cardinals, house wrens, sparrows, etc.
Snakes of several species (black racer, brown water snake, Chicken snake, copperhead)
Lizards of several species
Toads galore
Bull frogs
Tree frogs
Crows
Fish- large-mouth bass, long-ear sunfish, bluegill, red-ear sunfish
Red shouldered Hawks
Black vultures

G^d has made an interesting world with plenty of variety. We get to enjoy it and be reminded of Him.
Thanks be to G^D for your manifold blessings!

Quiet time at the Beach

Once again it was time for the beach. We had tried to go before Memorial Day, but we didn't get a reservation--likely because of COVID caution. We did get 5 days at the end of June, so after thinking a bit and praying a bit, we headed south.

The beach was surprisingly normal. We don't usually go in June, so it was more crowded than May, but it still wasn't really crowded. I think our part of Panama City Beach is never overly crowded--no wait, stay away, it's terrible.

Our days were pretty hum-drum. Wake up, take some coffee, head for the beach. Take a walk to the east. Come back. Read. Take a walk to the west. Come back, read, chat a bit. Go back to the room for a refill on drinks and sometimes a bit of lunch. Then back to the beach and repeat the morning rituals.

I read 2 very good books. Tim Keller, currently suffering from severe cancer, wrote a short book called, On Death. It was excellent. It was apparently a small expansion of the funeral he preached for his wife's sister.

The second book was Andreas Kostenberger's The Final Days of Jesus. Dr. Kostenberger is a prof at midwestern seminary, but he managed to write a very good book without trying to sound "academic" using words uncommon to the vocabulary. He took each of the gospels and showed the parallel passages side by side. He then offered commentary and even his footnotes were interesting.

After a Wed 1400 arrival, by Sunday I had finsihed my books. I had brought two more books, but I forgot I had them, so from Sunday onwards I only had Deer and Deer Hunting magazines to read.

One of our habits is to visit the thrift stores around Panama City Beach. This time we visited fewer than usual, but we bought NOTHING. Yep, that's a first.

We had nice conversations with Jeff and Kay from Alphareta, Emily from Auburn and unknown folks from Cincinnati, East Cobb county GA, and Abilene.

We managed to extend our stay to a full week. We got lots of sun, lots of relaxation, A change of pace, a place with no chores, thanks be to G^d. G^d is good.  Thank you L^rd.

A Wolf in Day Lily Clothing

In a recent prayer letter, in these days of sequestration, we included some photos of flowers in our garden, since we can’t take pictures of cancelled ministry events.

My gardener-expert brother noted that the last day-lilly in our photos was a Kwanzo. This species is Kwanzo, and is invasive. He advises that it sends “stolons” underground and will take over a flower bed. Who knew?

But there is a lesson here of course. Some things which initially appear very attractive may really be harmful. Take a look:

Doesn't it look pretty? Wouldn't these make a beautiful bed? Wouldn't these crowd out the other hyridized day lilies and gladiolas? Well yes, these will apparently crowd out most everything.

What a great sermon illustration. In modern USA, many lovely things crowd out Christ. We have beautiful friends, beautiful hobbies, beautiful possessions, all of which may crowd out Jesus the Christ from our lives.

"A crazy exaggeration!" you say.

That could be true, sure, but first take a look at your own life. And look carefully and critically.

See what I mean?

Something from the Trash

I just this last week constructed 2 4x4x4 wood sheds almost ENTIRELY from materials I picked up on the side of the street—mostly in my neighborhood. I get incredible joy from finding practical uses for the things which others discard. Technically, in the world of Ecological Preservation it is called “re-purposing”. Re-purposing combines my thrift (stinginess) with my love for creativity.

The base of the wood bins are pallets which are discarded in large numbers daily. On top, and unattached, sits a framework typically of discarded 2x4s. One of my neighbors down the street apparently was remodeling and removed a sheet-rock wall that had been framed in 2x4s, as most framed houses are. The lumber had sheet-rock screws and nails, and I was even able to salvage and reuse many of the screws, plus two plastic outlet boxes.

The three sides of the box (the front is left open for loading/unloading) need to allow air circulation for drying, but need to hold the wood in stacks.

Another neighbor was redoing his back deck which was enclosed with those 1.5x1.5 slats that are so very popular. I salvaged enough of those to enclose the 6 sides, and since these are topped and bottomed with 2x4s it added rigidity to my sheds.

Finally, the roof for each shed was made of an under-layer of blue nylon tarp stapled onto the slanted roof. Since the blue stood out so much, I covered it with brown tarp discarded by yet another neighbor.

My chief cost for the construction was the construction screws I used to tie the pieces together. I also used a few staples, but I am guessing this wasn’t much cost.

My what fun to be creative with mostly free stuff. Makes my day!

Wood

As I have previously mentioned I love wood—all kinds of it. I love the look and feel of a neat 2x4, or a 2x10, and I love the look, feel of a freshly-cut white oak log. As I have written, we really, really enjoyed our wood stove all last winter. We went through a LOT of firewood. I have begun cutting for the 20202 winter back in 2019. By my best estimation we have almost 9 cords of wood ready for this winter. Since you may NOT use this term routinely, a cord of wood is a stack that is 4x4x8 feet long.

In preparation for 2021, Andrew and I had cut two big truck loads of hardwood at Moody swamp. I also had 3 truckloads from the side of the street in Northwood Lake, plus 3 more loads in our neighborhood, plus one light load of cured wood from the neighborhood. Finally my neighbor had a bunch of cut wood that he was throwing away, so I got a truck load of that.

You may have noticed that I talk about "cured" wood, and the opposite is "green" wood which isn't cured--obviously. Living trees are full of water. In fact one of the miracles of nature is that trees pump water-which is quite heavy, up 50, 100, even 150 feet vertically without gasoline or electricity! That takes a LOT of energy. But I digress. Because wet wood doesn't burn well, and uses a lot of heat to evaporate the moisture (when then condenses on the inner wall of your chimney), we want to burn dry wood which has cured around 18 months (some a bit quicker, and other even longer). So you must plan ahead to heat with wood. And that requires a lot of wood storage.

So I have 10 storage places for cured wood, and 5 for green wood plus a couple of racks and a pallet and a pile. Most of my storage bins, except for the two big ones, are based on large pallets. Pallets are waste material for many stores, so they are free. most measure close to 4 feet x 4 feet, so if you up 4 feet, you have half a cord. Most of mine have been made of salvaged materials, including even two metal roofs. My latest two bins have double-tarp roofs, fabricated again from discarded nylon tarps.

I know I am not alone in my love for firewood. Just this week I was reading someone else's confession of their love for cutting, and later burning firewood.

Naked and Afraid

No, this is NOT a personal blog bout being naked or afraid...instead:

At the suggestion of our son, Andrew, we have been watching the tv multi-serial, “Naked and Afraid”. And before you respond with rage, let me assure you, the naked part is NOTHING. You see more on the beach than in the show.

We started watching because we were interested in the survival aspect—seriously. They have two types of survival, 21-day and 40-day. It turns out that for 21-day survival, once you find a water source, you can sit around until the time is up. Nothing to see here.

The 40-day survivals are more interesting because you really can’t go 40 days with NO food. Except of course, Elijah did it in 1 Kings 19, and Jesus did it in the wilderness. The 40-day trips then mean that the survivors generally must harvest something big enough to feed them a little while.

Mostly, and this is not pure hubris, they are NOT very good at harvesting much of anything. Now there are a few folks who can harvest meat: Matt W, Jeff, Matt G, and a few others, but this is not the norm. In fact, and it is unknown how much the show producers control this, mostly the survivalists lay around and criticize each other. Inf act, and this may be realistic, getting along with others seems the key quality to enjoy/survive the situation.

So far the settings have included Republic of South Africa 3x, Columbia, and the Philippines. They are constantly talking about the dangers to the contestants, but this seems over-stated.

So clearly, viewers MUST keep in mind that, whatever is dramatic, whatever makes for “good tv” is what “survival” is really about. But the most important point is that “getting along” is a KEY survival ability.

Snakes Alive III !

You consistent readers know that I really enjoy snakes. You may recall the highlight of Christmas day fro the grandkids was catching a little brown water snake and playing with him for most of the day.

Well, last Monday (May 17th) in the afternoon, as we were driving a dirt road, Andrew spotted what he thought were two black racer snakes right on the edge of the road.

Of course I stopped immediately and we both jumped out of the truck. I grabbed the smaller one and Andrew claimed to two big ones--yes it was 3 snakes, not 2. I do NOT recall ever catching, or even finding 3 snakes together. We successfully caught them, zipped them inside a heavy cloth bag--the ideal transport container, as I learned as a kid.

We got them home and temporarily stored them in a clear plastic bin. Of course we wanted to keep them until the grandkids had a good look at them.

  I also wanted some decent pictures of them to commemorate the moment.

And, as you might guess, in all the hubbub of photographing, Andrew got bit on the hand as well as his face. Fortunately, these bites aren't very painful and totally NOT dangerous. Notice his smile!

Well, after the photos, we released the 3 new snakes into our backyard. Some recent accounting tells us that we have caught 4 other snakes (including another black racer) in our back yard since the first one Christmas day. So we added 3 more with these.

So, our environment is richer than ever!

Come on over and wander around in our backyard. No telling what you might stumble across.

Maybe just a little Obsessive...

My family thinks I have a problem--a wood problem. Back when the weather was nice, Andrew and I went to Moody Swamp, to Mr. Fred J's land and cut a couple of loads of wood to "top-off" our supply. Recall that you have to cure green wood for about 12-16 months to dry it sufficiently to burn well. I was thinking I had plenty.

But then...my wood-cutting friend down the street texted me to say there was a pile of wood in our neighborhood. On our next jog to that area, I swung by and took a look. Some Oak, some hackberry, some unknown, some too big, but some just right. Now I ask you, how can you pass up cut wood within a mile of your house? Well, I got three loads.

And then, in a different spot, still in the neighborhood I found almost a truck load of dried wood. How can you pass up already-dried wood, within 0.7 miles of your house?  I could not.

So, I had to build two more 4x4x4 sheds to hold the new wood. I was thinking about going to buy a couple of 2x4's to build with, when on a jog...Andrew and I spotted a PILE of 2x4's being discarded within 0.5 miles of our house, plus a pile of old porch railing being discarded which would make excellent walls. And, all of this was FREE!!  My favorite deal.

So, now we have another cord of wood, some green and some dry. Plus we have 2 new sheds built from mostly free materials. Hopefully I'll remember to get some photos of our wood supply before winter of 2020.

Thank you L^rd for your manifold blessings.

Shouting a looong distance

I have had some neat opps lately, courtesy of COVID and zoom. A couple weeks back I got to speak to students in Florence, IT about "How to have more fun and get better Grades!" and then the next day to a group in Turin, IT about "Why Smart People Say they Don't Believe in G^d." This second talk is one of my favorites with unBelievers. It provoked some excellent questions from the audience and people stayed around a good while afterwards asking questions.

Last week, on Monday I spoke to a group of International students in San Antonio, courtesy of the International Navigator ministry there. Then Tues, I got to speak to a small group of Christian Profs at U Mass, Lowell. It was a blast speaking to both groups, and NONE of these latter opps would have happened without COVID. Of course, the flip side is that I would have been able to give the two talks in IT live, without COVID messing up travel plans of many.



If you can read Italian then you know they changed the title from that listed above. In many countries "smart" has NOTHING to do with intelligence, so this is more meaningful to Italians. In the corner, you can see what I saw.  I was showing the slides which meant I could only see my friend Gino, my translator and a couple more attendees.

So, the lesson is, some opps get lost, and others get found. More importantly, G^d is the Sovereign of the universe and everything happens by His permission.

Matt 11 says, "25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.[a] 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.