Gone to the Dogs

People who dump dogs and then leave them in a remote rural wilderness to starve to death, be ripped apart by coyotes, run over, or (at best) to survive long enough to go feral ... these people should be dragged out of their homes and horsewhipped out of town.

This evening late I found a half-starved young pup of maybe 2 months old. Hard to tell how old he is exactly but he's in that gangly puppy stage. You know, just when they stop being such a cute puppy and start looking like a goofy dog. Giant paws, long legs and big ears. For many people that's prime dumping age.

He has been living in a culvert up the road from our house. He looks like he's been out there for maybe a week or so but that's hard to tell. For all I know he was starved before he was dumped. I don't know where he's been getting water. The creek that culvert serves has been dry for a month and the nearest pond is about a half-mile away from where I found him. Might be some stagnant pools up under the road or something. I'm not sure.

He came right to me when I called to him, dragging himself along and wagging his little tail. In the truck he promptly fell asleep in the lap. No growling or biting at all. He ate a little bit of dog food with a fresh egg cracked over it and drank a lot of water, then went to sleep again. He perked up a little bit when the kids came out to meet him. He's known kids before. He went nuts when he saw them. The good kind of nuts where the dog rolls over and over on your feet wanting to be pet. The cats then came out and one by one they introduced him to the Claw of Discipline. Just a few boundary-setting nose swats to let the puppy know where he stands in the household.

He doesn't like Sam the Farm Dog though. He growled and snarled and freaked out in terror at poor Sam's approach. Sam's quite happy to have a new friend but the puppy may have been ran off from one of the nearby ranches where they keep big dogs. That may have been what forced him to retreat into that culvert.

So we have a new dog now. Sam has a friend (once they get used to it) and we'll see how this works. We haven't had a lot of luck with dogs in the past two years. Still, this little guy's luck improved about 300% when he stuck his head up out of the culvert as I drove by. I may try to find him another farm home here in the community or we may end up keeping him.

My Thoughts on Obamacare

A lot of hubbub about this latest Supreme Court ruling. I'm trying to comprehend how this is going to impact me in my new life but I'll post my initial thoughts on this.

I'm reminded directly of the part in Exodus where the pharoah tells the Israelites that henceforth they must make bricks without straw. They would have to gather their own straw to make the bricks, therefore working much harder and having no time for the worship of their God, or so the pharaoah thought.

The Israelites complained that every time Moses and Aaron went before the pharoah to petition on their behalf that things got worse.

Moses spoke of this to God and God answered that the pharoah himself would soon drive the Israelites out of Egypt in order to save himself from what God was going to visit upon him.

Being denied straw to make bricks will only impact you if you're planning on continuing to make bricks. If your plan is to follow God's call into the wilderness then what do you care what pharoah says?

There may very well be religious exemptions in Obamacare for the Amish or people who live in similar fashion. The only thing I've seen on that so far is if you're a member of a "recognized religious sect". Well, that's not constitutional either as it sets up specific religious movements as "state sponsored".

I do not believe in insurance. It is demonstrating a lack of faith in God's providence and specifically denying Him the ability to work in your life. I do not carry property insurance and only vehicle liability as required by the law. At worst I could cease to drive and therefore not have to carry the vehicle liability.

But how do I cease to live? Can I surrender my American citizenship and therefore be exempt from this without being evicted from our borders?

So I will have to pay the fine or go to jail. Either way the government has placed a lien on my labors. I must now raise an animal to pay the fine for each of us in my household, or set aside a special week to make knives specifically to pay these fines (and even then I still have to manage to SELL them). Will the government accept payment in vegetables, fruits, meat, or knives? I don't think so.

I have been enslaved to a small degree and I do not believe there is any small degree of slavery that can be withstood. We now all chop cotton for at least a limited amount of time on Uncle Sam's plantation.

I think before too long we will discover that the $300 (or whatever it costs) we will be fined will go to provide healthcare for others, primarily abortions. Will they set aside a special abortion-free fund to deal with those of us who have religious objections to abortion (just call it a conscience against murdering babies for the sake of truth)? In no way could I stand for my labors, however small, going to murder babies.

So am I in fact just waiting to go to jail? How long am I going to be required to stay in jail each year in exchange for not paying the fine? Two days? A week? Or will I be put there indefinitely until I cough up the cash?

These questions are all on my mind, but only to a small degree. God is still sovereign and I pray that He rains down such mnisfortune and woe upon these people that they will BEG me and others like me to take whatever exemptions they offer on whatever terms I see fit.

Babies!

Out of a thorny patch of agarita bushes a hen came, trailing a small brood of four chicks. She's been missing since the night of the big windstorm and we thought she was lost forever, a victim of hungry coyotes or something.

Nope. She's been sitting on a nest somewhere, probably in that same patch of bushes. It's a dense pile of scrub not 20 yards from the house where she's undoubtedly been all this time. When she's in there you can't hardly see her, even though she is light cream-colored. It's very dense and thorny.

Our other broody hen is about a week late from hatching and is probably sitting on a clutch of bad eggs. I'm not sure what that deal was but we're on about day 27 and still no sign of chicks from her. This other batch is just a bonus brood.

In all of our years of raising chickens we've never had a successful brood. Something bad always happened to them. They've never gotten to this state. This is a first and a blessing from God.

I have decided not to intervene in this. I could not build her a shelter as safe and secure as the thorny patch she's found for herself and strangely enough, here in the wilderness hinterland we do not have the predator problems with chickens that we did up in Illinois in what was little more than a countrified suburb. We've put down some water and food for her and her brood and she's directing her little babies to eat. My biggest concern is that they might not find water that's easy for them to drink out of so we took the waterer from our old brooder box and put that out for them. It's small and other chickens will drink out of it so we'll have to refill it a half-dozen times per day. A pain.

Anyway, I'm thrilled beyond belief at this development. What a blessing from God!

New Boots Acquired, Old Boots Retired

For 8 years now I've worn the same pair of boots every day. They've been splashed by the Pacific and the Atlantic. They've been in Canadian snow and Texas desert. They are very good boots.

But at this point you can see how clean my socks are while I'm wearing them and the leather has worn through in several places. There's no fixing that. They are done.

So I went and bought a new pair of boots today. I almost fell over at the price. A good pair of Redwing work boots is insane. And will they last 8 years like my other pair did? I doubt it.

My feet hurt from breaking in new boots. Bleh. I hate new boots.

Even the Technology People

I was speaking via email with a cellphone carrier rep regarding an issue I am having with a 3G modem and the lack of a signal for his service in my area.

He advised that I could get a network extender if I had cable broadband.

I patiently explained that we are "off grid", have no cable broadband (nor can we get it), and only have limited power generation capabilities and so my best option is to get this 3G hotspot thing working if I wish to continue to have internet.

His response to the off-grid statement ... "I envy you."

I get this a lot, and I don't understand it.

It would be like me eating a ham and cheese sandwich and someone approaching me and saying that they envy me. "Oh?" I would reply. "Go make you a ham and cheese sandwich. Want me to tell you how?"

In Galatians 5:25 we are told, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

If you SEE the benefits of an off-grid lifestyle (and they are many) and can acknowledge the better living of such then why would you not proceed with all haste to obtain it for yourself and your family?

I can understand why someone who doesn't understand it would hesitate. If I wasn't sure I liked ham and cheese sandwiches I might not rush to make myself one. That only makes sense. I might try a bite of someone else's ham and cheese sandwich first to see if I liked it before going headlong into the big commitment of making myself one.

What I can't understand is the many people who would acknowledge it as the superior way would then still refuse to obtain it for themselves. I've heard a host of excuses in the past six months:

"I'm too old."

"I don't have the money."

"I'd lose my job" (Always amusing to see this breakdown in logic ... you're too afraid to free yourself from the tyranny of wage slavery because you might not have the wage slavery to fall back on.)

Or my alltime personal favorite, "My wife would never go for it."

That one tends to provoke deep belly laughs until the tears roll from my eyes. Fellas, let me explain something ... your wife is probably tougher than you are and in order to have a healthier, happier, more centered family life which she has always dreamed about would endure cold, heat, and handwashing your dirty, skidmarked drawers if only you could pry yourself away from the televised football game long enough to discuss it with her.

Going off-grid is as easy as falling off a log. I have made it a complicated process, but it doesn't have to be. I know people who just did it, living in a tent or a van until they acquired what they needed. I know and deeply admire a family that lives in an old shipping crate through the hot Texas summers in order to live the lifestyle they know to be superior. There are many points along the sliding scale at which you can embark on this lifestyle, if you should only decide to actually do so.

Lost in Time

As you've probably noticed lately, there's been a shortage of posts.

I haven't had much to talk about. Work is progressing along, albeit slowly, on the workshop. We're enjoying daily swims in the pond to cool off and I'm worrying about a hen who is sitting broody on a nest for what seems to be about a week longer than she should have been.

Other than that, this is normal living.

Theologically speaking I've reached a point where I don't have much to say. My understanding of things, as it deepens, just seems to lend itself more to quietness than speaking. There can be no good outcome of my attempting to educate the masses on religious matters. Either I'm wrong and when I realize it will feel like a fool, or I'll be right and draw the ire and rage of others and convince nobody. You could take one copy of every theological book written by the giants (Spurgeon, Bunyan, Owens, etc.) and I could build a fine workshop out of the all of the bound copies. Yet people still insist on bad theology, bad beliefs, bad actions, and bad thought. If they didn't listen to those theologians who knew more, could write better, and seem ordained by God to do so ... why would I be so vain as to think any of them will listen to me?

So I keep on keeping on. We're doing well where we're at. I have neighbors of all stripes and I seem to be getting on well with them. We've found our place in the world and a lot of the infrastructure we need for future years is being solidified and shored up this year. Not bad for the first 6 months, I say.

Praise God!