Too big to be a comment

 That is an excellent simile, Mike, and a beautiful idea with the rainbows. That has always been one of my favorite songs, too, and the most pleasurable rendition of it ever, I have thought.  We know you hurt terribly, and though we also hurt for you and with you, we cannot, I am sure, comprehend how great and deep the wound is to your heart.  I do understand, with my frequent joints and back pain, the idea of living with the pain and suffering, and trying not to complain about it.  And I understand the small reminders, sharp nearly debilitating stabs of pain from time to time, and other periods of hours and sometimes days of constant aches that no matter what I do, persisting like they will never end. Then, suddenly they are gone, and I am fine, but I know they will return again.  And sometimes I worry that I act too well, and I want to know that others (mostly your mother) know that I do hurt in spite of my good acting.  I share your loss as well as I can, one long step removed from your closeness to beautiful Laila, having missed meeting her in person by less than a full day because I returned home from visiting you the morning of the day she was born.  Shortly after we returned from our last visit with you, I picked up the book A Disciple’s Life, about Neal A. Maxwell (a book I had purchased for $3.00 or so some time ago, at Ollie’s, our local reject store) and began reading it.  It is Elder Maxwell’s biography, written by a good friend, at his request, started after he had developed leukemia. He had always talked to the members of the church, followers of Christ, about suffering and how we should bare it well, from the time he was ordained an apostle in 1981.  He mused that he should have seen his suffering test coming because he always preached about how true disciples could and should accept trials, tribulations, and sorrows – and felt that perhaps he had brought his suffering in himself to see if the preacher could follow his own counsel. In the first few pages I was impressed with something he wrote that I told you I would send you and, until now, have not, but I think now is a good time.  Quoting now from the book,

“Neal titled the last book before his illness, If Thou Endure It Well, which, he said later, was almost an invitation to his own experience with adversity.  That theme had even earlier roots. Nearly twenty years before his book, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, described three sources of suffering: Our own mistakes, life’s adversities, and afflictions that ‘come to us because an omniscient Lord deliberately chooses to school us.’  Of the third category, he wrote:

“ The very act of choosing to be a disciple…can bring us to a certain special suffering…[such] suffering and chastening…is the…dimension that comes with deep discipleship…

 “It appears to be important that all who will, can come to know ‘the fellowship of His sufferings.’ (Philipians 3:10.) At times we are taken to the very edge of our faith; we teeter at the edge of our trust…[in] a form of learning as it is administered at the hands of a loving Father (Helaman12:3).

… “He was realizing that his ordeal could admit him into ‘the fellowship of [the Savior’s] sufferings. He’d found that if a person’s heart is receptive enough, those who taste this peculiar fellowship begin to appreciate not only Christ’s suffering but also His ‘character’ – which helps them not only adore but emulate him…Jesus knows how to succor us in the midst of our griefs and sicknesses precisely because Jesus has already borne our griefs and sicknesses. He knows them firsthand; thus His empathy is earned.”

At Laila’s service, Uncle David said that you and Adrianne had somehow “qualified” to share the brief and beautiful moments of her life, and upon reading this I felt impressed that you also must have qualified for this special, unique, difficult, yet ultimately exalting learning experience.  I know it is difficult, but I think you are enduring it well, and as the Lord told Joseph Smith, “…thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;  And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high.”   You remember that mom and I visited all of our children and grandchildren in the weeks before Laila died, and we presented them all a family home evening in which we made chains out of the family members’ names, signifying that we are all bound together for time and all eternity.  I believe your mother was inspired that we needed to reinforce to our kids and to tell our grandchildren that we know that it is true, and I believe that her anxiousness to deliver the message was inspiration to get it done because Laila needed all of us to know and remember that.

I don’t know how it all works, but you might consider too, that Laila may see all the beautiful rainbows too, and share the happy times you have as well.  I have no doubt that she is aware of your love, and if she is aware of your circumstances,  your comings and goings, your feelings, then she wants you to be happy all the time, looking towards the joyous reunion that you know will happen.  If she senses your thoughts and feelings, you know she does not want you to be sad because that makes her sad, too.  So if you are happy she is happy.

Please accept these words as they are; with the hope that they help, yet just the ramblings of a now old and getting older father who loves you and your family more than you can know, and who prays for your happiness and that you will be comforted even as often as his joints, back, and heart ache, and, understanding only a little of what you are going through, wishes he could lift the daunting burden of your beautiful daughter’s absence.  I know the Lord loves you and that you are a unique son with a special family, and that when you are reunited all together you will wonder why it was so difficult to be separated for such a short time.  Such are our lives as we continue from day to day seeing through a glass, darkly…

Damaged

I hurt my back while I was on my mission. We had been helping a family move for three days (they were not very well prepared for the move). I put a washer in the trailer with a dolly and then, after my companion had taken the dolly to get some other things, I realized that the washer needed to be a few inches further in. I bent over and tried to pick it up, but couldn't. I also couldn't stand up. I spent the next few days laying on the couch or my bed or hobbling between the two. I went to a doctor, but he was Arabic and the only language that he spoke that I could kind of understand was Swedish. I think he said I had inflamed something in my back and he gave me a prescription for some kind of arthritis medicine.

I took the medicine like he said, and eventually the pain in my back went away. Even after the pain was gone, though, I could still tell I was damaged. I have felt that way ever since. Even when I have been in very good health (I did well on my PT test on Thursday, for example), I have always known that my back could just decide to give out at any time. Occasionally I'll get small reminders--minor spasm when I take a funny step or sit down the wrong way. Other times I get major reminders, and I'm not able to stand up straight for days at a time. I've learned to live with it and I try not to complain much about it. It's part of my life.

Losing Laila has felt very similar, except that, instead of my body being damaged, it's my heart. Even after the pain had largely gone, I still knew I was damaged. When I feel happy, there's always a little darkness overshadowing. Sometimes I get minor reminders that I'm damaged--little jolts of sadness that momentarily shoot through me--other times, I get major reminders--when I feel like I won't ever be happy again.

Tonight brought one of those major reminders. Since Laila died, we've notice a lot of rainbows. They seem to be all over the place. We point them out to the boys and suggest that perhaps they're from Laila--that she's saying, "hi," through the colors. Tonight Adrianne and I watched a movie, and at the end of the movie a song (click here to hear it) started playing that was familiar, but I didn't quite recognize it. I knew it was song that Adrianne liked, and I said, "Hey, it's your song." To which she replied, "I haven't heard this song since we had our Luau." Her response brought to my mind memories of dancing around to the song with Laila in my arms, as the boys tried to go under a limbo stick. Then the words of the song came, "Some where, over the rainbow..."

I'm learning to live with this damage just as I did with my back. I try not to complain about it, and I don't want to talk about it, but sometimes I just want everyone to know that I still hurt.

Buckshot's Modern Trapper's Guide

I just finished this book. It was interesting. I don't think it was as good as it could have been, but I enjoyed it. The biggest problem was that it lacked picture or illustrations. I had to go on line to figure out what he was talking about with each of the different kinds of traps, and most of the "sets" he described are still not clear to me.

Basically, the book discusses the different kinds of traps, how to trap (and snare) different animals, how to skin and eat the various animals you trap.

I did learn a lot. I think it would be valuable to have a set of traps and snaring equipment. I also think it would be good to practice trapping before the skill is needed for survival. There are laws that regulate trapping animals and seasons for each kind. Here in Colorado, for example, it appears to be illegal to use snares that strangle animals. A "survival" set of traps and snares starts around $200. I won't buy one until I have a good place to trap animals and someone who's actually done it before to show me how. In the mean time, I'll add it to my list of skills to develop.

Get together...

Are you people thinking of getting together next summer for reunion time? Mike mentioned the idea of Colorado Springs, but I'm not sure we have agreed on anything? Anyone have suggestions, ideas, or confirmations?

For my family: We would like to get together!!! We have no preference on place, June, July or early August would work best for us.

Anyone, Anyone, Bueler, Bueler...

Time Management

I was talking with Adrianne this evening and expressed some frustration that I feel about myself--that I don't feel like I excel at anything. As we talked about it, I discovered that my frustration is not so much that I'm not super good at anything (I'm not, but that doesn't really bother me), but rather I'm frustrated that I don't get the things done that I think I should. I feel like I finally encapsulated the idea with this analogy:

I feel like each day can be represented as a jar full of sand. I take that sand and dump it into a machine that produces widgets. Every morning I dump my sand into the machine, and every evening I'm disappointed with the number and kind of widgets produced. I think my machine must has too many leaks in it and I'm losing a lot of the sand to small wastes throughout the day. At work, for example, I get everything done that I need to. I'm a good employee, but I don't excel at work. If I know I can get everything done that I need to get done that day, I'll read a new article, or go shoot the breeze with someone else. I know these aren't bad things necessarily, but if I cut the amount of time I spent doing these things in half, and instead spent that time improving my lessons or doing my professional development stuff or even doing my own research, I think I'd feel much more productive and valuable at the end of my day.

I've known this for a long time, and I've wanted to change, but even with the knowledge and desire, I continue to do the same things. Why do you suppose that is? Have any of you been able to change something similar about yourself? I feel the same way about my time at home. Why am I writing the post, for example?

More frequent, not so long reviews...

Since my last post was so long, I think I'll post every week about what I read during the past week (presuming, of course, that I read enough in a week to justify posting about it).

I continued reading Back to Basics this week. I covered about 75 pages (I skipped a number of those pages because they were recipes that I didn't feel like reading). The first section was about "preserving the harvest". It discussed different methods that can be used to preserve produce, including live storage, canning, freezing, drying, jamming (can you say that?--making jams and jellies), pickling, and salt curing. She also has a good little chart that lists the different kinds of produce you're likely to have and recommendations on how to preserve it.

Using covered basement window wells as a root cellar was a recommendation that caught my attention. Burying your vegetables seems like a funny way to preserve things, though in Norway, the worst dish I ever had was traditionally prepared by burying the fish you caught in the spring and summer along with some ashes from the stove/fireplace and digging back up in the winter. You boiled the fish to get out as much of the lye produced by the ashes and moisture in the ground, and then put some bacon grease on it to make it tolerable. Perhaps that's why the thought of burying vegetables is not a preservation method that appeals to me.

I'm still very interested in pickling (if I didn't mention that with my mini-farming review, I've been interested in it since I read about it there). Joining my interest in pickling is making jams and jellies. I think preserving fruits and vegetables in glass jars is more appealing to me than actually eating them--especially if they're buried. Outdoor dehydrating seems like a good skill to have if you've got no power for a real dehydrator. Did you know they used to "sulfur" food to dry? They'd burn sulfur while dehydrating their food. Imagine food that tastes like gunpowder--gross.

The next section really surprised me. Preserving meat has to be at least as interesting, if not more interesting, than preserving produce. I was most surprised to read this, "Smithfields [a smoked ham] have reputedly been stored for as long as 25 years--from a girl's christening until her wedding."

How many of you knew that goat's milk is naturally homogenized and if you want the cream, you need a centrifuge? I didn't. However, I think I would have known this without reading it: "Even a minute quantity of dry goat manure ... will damage the milk's flavor if it should fall into the milk bucket." Uh...yeah. Imagine that--poop doesn't taste good.

I learned that you can get 15-20 gallons of sap from a mature maple tree and that that sap will boil down to 2 quarts of maple syrup. So, with just a few trees, you'll have all your pancake and waffle needs satisfied. Of course, you have to boil the crud out of it, and, apparently, if smoke gets in the syrup, it tastes nasty. Also you don't boil the stuff indoors because it will leave your home coated with a light layer of maple syrup...

Apple cider is made by smashing apples and then squeezing the juice out of them. If you let the juice sit around too long, it will become alcoholic, and if you let it sit even longer after that, apparently, it will become apple cider vinegar. This process doesn't fit with what I understood about vinegar production, but I'm certainly not an expert. I thought vinegar and alcohol production were competing processes and you favored one over the other by controlling certain variables--do any of you know any more about this? I'll add it to my list of stuff to figure out someday.

I also read about fireplace cooking, including the use of spits and dutch ovens. A dutch oven might be something worth owning, though I'm really interested in owning a wood burning kitchen stove. I haven't looked yet, but I'll bet they cost a lot--I just looked, they seem to start around $2k and go up from there. Anyway, they are supposed to be difficult to become accustomed to, but they're not bad once you know what you're doing.

I just started a new section on home crafts and have read about dyeing fabrics (yarn mostly) using natural materials for the dyes. It was interesting to consider that if you didn't dye your clothes that you made for yourself, you'd just be colored like a sheep all the time...

Again, if this stuff is interesting, you should get this book and read it.

Back to Basic, Part 1

I am about half way through Back to Basics, by Abigial R Gehring,

.

I've enjoyed what I've read so far. Like Mini-Farming, this book provides an introduction to a number of skills, but does not cover everything you need to know to practice the skill. Back to Basics provides a whole lot more information on each topic than mini-farming did. It also has a good resources list at the end of most of the skills where you can get the detailed information you'd want to actually practice the skill. I've been surprised every few pages to discover that I am still interested--though I anticipate this will not continue when I get to the section on outdoor recreation (camping...).

For this review, I'll list the topics that are discussed and my reactions to them.

- Buying country property: Gehring points out many characteristics to look for when purchasing land that I hadn't previously thought of. The first that surprised me was the importance of having a wood lot on your land. Other things that I had previously considered including, soil quality and access to water, are also discussed, and techniques are provided for determining these things. For example, there are plants that, if present, indicate the relative location of a source of water. She also discusses surveying the land.

- Living there: The sections encompassed in my description of "living there" include preparing the site, designing a home, converting wood into lumber, and three different home construction techniques--log homes, adobe homes, and stone homes. I was fascinated with the different construction techniques (less so with adobe than the other two). I was surprised by the thought that people would actually convert their own trees into lumber. I discovered that someone I work with actually does this--he has a portable lumber mill that he takes to the trees he cuts down and saws them into boards so he can easily take them to his wood shed to dry. I investigated the mills and found that they start around $7,000 and go up. I also was surprised to learn that you can buy log home kits. Companies will deliver all the logs, precut, for you to assemble a home. These are not just little log cabins, but can be as large as 6,000 sq ft homes. I was concerned about insulating a log home and learned that the thermal mass the logs provide actually works pretty well at keeping good indoor temperatures---though they don't seem to be as good as if you had a passive house. I also enjoyed reading about the different methods used in log home construction. For stone homes, I was surprised to learn that the basic idea of the slipform method is to take a couple of frames, fill them with rocks and then pour concrete over the rocks. Once the concrete has setup within the first frame, but not fully cured, you pull the frame off, move it up higher on the wall (above the second frame) and repeat. By doing this, you can build a solid "rock" wall by leap froging frames every day or say until your wall is as tall as you need it to be.

- Other living stuff: She then goes on to talk about raising a barn (using old techniques), developing a water supply, hot tubs and saunas (I thought this was a little odd), and waste disposal (like toilets and outhouses). These were interesting, but didn't stimulate a whole lot of thought for me. The water supply had a few "drilling" techniques that I had not heard of, and the idea of creating a pond is pretty neat to me.

- Heating your home: I was very interested in fireplace construction and wood burning stoves. The two sections are separate in the book and I've been pretty well convinced that I'd rather use wood burning stoves and a fireplace. I researched them, and it looks you can expect to spend $1000 for a stove and maybe a little more depending on what you'd need to do to get the exhaust pipe through the roof. One of the points they make is that the radiant heat from a stove and fireplace is more pleasant than forced air furnaces. I had never thought of that before, but it seems like I agree with it. I like to stand in front of a fireplace to get warm much more than I like to stand in front of an air vent.

- Fences: I didn't know there was such a variety of fences, and that there is such a variety because they all are used for different types of things.

The whole next section was on Energy from wood, water, wind, and sun.

- She discusses a few techniques for better insulating a home as well as some information in home planning for lower energy usage. She also discusses underground homes.

- Waterpower: I didn't know that you could build single family hydroelectric power "plants". With as small as a few feet of vertical drop across your land, and a small stream, you can produce a lot of the power needs of your home. There are lots of options, but, it appears, the hardest part of the process is dealing with the local government who might prohibit you from using the water--because of how it affects people downstream or the environment. She talks about the different options, the basics of how you would damn up your water, and how a small plant would be layed out.

- Windpower: This section surprised me at how little power it seems you can really get from wind. A chart that she provides shows that with an average wind speed of 8 mph, a 10,000 W generator, using 12 foot blades (24 feet in diameter for the turbine), you would only get 370 kilowatt-hours per month. Not only is the output small, but to get a good windspeed, you need to have a high tower.

- Solarpower: I was reminded that there are a lot of ways to make use of solar power--water heaters, green houses, photovoltaic (electrical production), solar ovens, and passive home heating. She provides a fairly detailed description of the construction of a solar water heating system.

- Other energy sources: Finally, she talks a little about people power--using pedals to power things, methane producing bacteria, and alcohol production (she doesn't go into detail on this, apparently because it's extremely regulated by the federal government and because it takes a lot of effort to do well).

Her next section is on gardening. I don't remember anything really jumping out at me in this section. A lot of what she discusses is stuff I've read elsewhere. She includes a discussion on soil quality and improvement, composting, seed starting, seed sprouting for food, green houses, and a brief description of both common and uncommon vegetables that people in the US grow. She also discusses watering, growing gardens in containers, herb gardens, and fruit and nut trees. She has a few descriptions of non-chemical methods for combating pests including some traps that look interesting. I haven't read much about raising grain, straw and hay, so her sections on that were valuable for me.

Perhaps my favorite portion of this section was the few pages on bee keeping. For some reason, raising bees is very appealing to me. I will add some of the books in her resources list my list of books to read. Did you know a single hive can produce 30-60lbs of honey per year? That's so cool! And, they don't require a lot of care--simply ensure they don't get to hot or too cold and that they have enough food during the winter and enough space all the time. At least, that's what I remember. I'll learn more later.

The funnies thing to me was the idea of raising your own fish--in a tank or pond in the back yard. She went so far as to say that you could raise fish for food in your children's wading pool. Does that seem funny to anyone else? Apparently, fish produce the best protein for the amount of food they consume of any animal. Too bad they are gross.

I also enjoyed the section on raising livestock. She covered chickens, geese, ducks, rabbits, pigs, sheep, goats, cows, and horses. I keep wondering how people could really slaughter a 1,000 lb pig. I mean, how do you move it once it's dead? I'm sure you have some sort of system with chains, hooks, and pulleys to get it off the ground. One of my books lists the tools you need for slaughtering, so perhaps it will go into more detail.

And, that's where I stopped. I'll discuss the rest of the book once I've finished it. My overall recommendation is that if this stuff is interesting to you, this is a good book to read. After I'm done the with books I have now, I'll use this book to generate a list of other topics I'd like to research. If you've read this whole post, you might as well read the book...

Jason passed his boards. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! We know that Heavenly Father answered our prayers in helping him pass this test!

Review of 2 books

I recently finished two short books. Here's what I thought of them:

How to grow orchards fruits was less than what I had hoped it would be. I can't remember why I chose it over other books about fruit trees--it had something to do with the pictures, and it might have been because it was less expensive than the other books I looked at. While the book wasn't a complete waste, I wonder if I would have been better off getting one of the others. At only 63 pages, I should have recognized that it wouldn't have had the details that I was looking for. Having said that, I will also say that I learned a few things from the book.

First, I had no idea that you could train fruit trees to be "flat". There are 2 types of training that the authors discuss in most detail: espalier and fan. Espalier is training the branches of the tree to all grow to the left or the right of the trunk--not in front or back. This appears to have the effect of making your tree flat. Fan training is just what it sounds like--think of a folding fan. The tree flat, and the branches fan out. They also mention a training method called cordon, which is training your trees to grow at an angle--often 45 degrees from the vertical--without any real branches to speak of. All three of these seem odd to me, but they make sense as a method for reducing the amount of space a tree takes up. Specifically, all of these training methods can be used to grow a fruit tree against a wall or a fence, substantially reducing the space they take from a yard. The author also point out the benefit of growing a tree against a wall: that the wall retains heat from the day and keeps the tree warmer into the night. This helps the tree to grow more.

I also learned that the later an apple ripens, generally, the longer it can be stored. Apples should be stored in a cool environment wrapped in news paper...I guess they like to read. I had never heard of a damson before--it's like a plum, but I guess they are often more sour and better suited for cooking. I was surprised to find that citrus fruits can be grown anywhere because they are productive even at small sizes. The book has pictures of oranges on a tree no more than 1 1/2 feet tall and growing in a pot. The authors point out that citrus fruits actually like the cool weather, they just don't like to freeze, so as long as you bring them indoors before it freezes, they should be fine. Adrianne and I actually had a lime "tree" for a few years while in Oklahoma. We killed it somehow--I think by just putting it outside all day without gradually introducing it back outdoors. We had thought that it did well there because Oklahoma was fairly warm. We'll have to try some other citrus sometime.

Over all, the book was fine, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone who wanted to actually grow their own fruit trees.

The second book I finished was, Let it Rot.

I enjoyed this book, though as I look at the cover, I realize I somehow was sold the 2nd edition even though I bought the 3rd edition...I wonder if I should be upset about it. It looks, from the pages I can see on the preview that the book is mostly the same. And, from what I read, it doesn't seem like there would be a whole lot of new information to share on this subject.

I enjoyed this book. It was entertaining and informative. It didn't feel too long or too short. I think the most valuable point he makes in the book is that stuff is going to rot whether you help it along or not. So, don't think that you can mess up composting. You can certainly slow it down or speed it up by your decisions, though. He talks about the bugs that make composting work and what they need to work quickly. He also discusses a number of methods to use. The one I found most interesting that Adrianne has vetoed is worm composting. You can have a box full of worms that you feed your table/cooking scraps. They eat the stuff and then poop out "castings" that are really good for your garden. You need about twice the weight in worms that you will feed them every day--if you generate 1/2 pound of food waste per day, you need 1 pound of worms. I heard about a family that did this for a while until the wife said no more. Her problem? The worms kept escaping.... I shared this with Adrianne. I think that's why she vetoed it. Oh well. I currently have a compost tumbler--a barrel that I put all my stuff in. It is working well, though it's not getting as hot as I'd like it to get. It needs to get up to 130 -140 F for a few hours to kill off all the seeds and the bad germs. Tonight it was 110 F, so I'm hoping that tomorrow in the sunlight it will get to 140 F. We'll see.

I would recommend this book if you are interested in composting. It's a quick read, entertaining, and informative. However, I don't think he says anything that you couldn't just as easily find on the internet. I just like to have books.

Mike

I am trying to find a background that fits our blog.... if anyone can find one, please fix it. Thanks! I need the background to fit the words and the whole screen. That will make it easier to read, but still nice to look at.

Mini Farming

First, I'm not trying to step on Jessica's post about Jason--if you haven't seen it, you should skip my post and go read the one right below first.

Now that you're back...I just finished reading the book Mini Farming, Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre by Brett L. Markham. I've enjoyed the book. It's an introduction to a lot of the things involved in growing your own food. It's pretty light on the details needed to actually do a lot of the stuff he discusses, but I think he's done a sufficient job of helping me know whether or not I'll pursue certain activities, and he's provided a (limited) bibliography at the end of his book for further reading. I've already read one of the books in his bibliography and I own another (it's next on my list after the one I'm reading right now).

For those of you who haven't heard, I've been living my life for the past few years with two fairly opposed views of the future. The first is the one that most of you know--I'll save and invest for retirement so that I will be wealthy by the time I'm done working. Because of that view, I've maximized my Roth IRA contributions every year since I've had a job until this past year when we stopped to save money for the house. The other view is that I don't really believe the country will survive the next twenty years without some major (and likely painful) changes--probably including some sort of restructuring of our economy and government. I've envisioned things ranging from a minor change to catastrophic upheavals possibly including the entire collapse of the government. Something recently brought these two contradictory views of the future into my mind at the same time and I wondered why I was investing so much of my resources into a system that I have little confidence will exist when I need it.

That question worked on me for a while and I decided that I ought to put a portion of that money into something that would actually be valuable to me if the country fell into anarchy. Just to help you think about what that means, imagine that the population ceased conforming to the law (for whatever reason). There would quickly be no food or fuel and money would be worthless and traveling would be dangerous. So, what would be of value at that point?

As I've thought about it, the first and obvious thing is food. I have been feeling for a couple of years now that my family needs to get at least a year's worth of food storage. We've been working on it an we will continue. But, I'm not convinced that everything will be resolved and back to normal within a year. It seemed like the next most important thing to own would be productive land that would enable me to produce my own food. Unfortunately, with my current employment, this is not a realistic option for me. Sure, I could buy some land, but I couldn't improve it and make it productive because I won't be near it for more than 3 years.

Mom and Dad suggested that I ought to buy tools that I'd need in the situation I'm envisioning. I think that's a great idea, and I have begun a list of tools that I will acquire over the next while. However, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the first thing I need is the skills that would be required to live on our own.

So, with that in mind, I have purchased a number of books (from which I am generating my list of tools), and I will read them and put into practice what I can of what they describe. This book on mini farming was a good introduction. I also have books on composting, trapping, butchering live stock and game, preserving meats, and a couple other generic books on homesteading/traditional skills. I'm currently reading a book on fruit trees to help me out with the one's I showed you previously.

I hope I'm just being crazy and that this will all be a waste of my time (at least I think it's fun and interesting for now), but it certainly seems like something worth doing to prepare. If nothing else, some of these skills will reduce our expenses. The gardening skills will certainly help with the grocery budget.

Once I get done with these books, I'll look into skills and equipment needed for "going off the grid". While I'm preparing to (temporarily) live a life without electricity, I'd like to be able to provide my own and not depend on a power company. Right now my plan is that when we retire from the air force, I will buy some land and have a passive house built on it. A passive house is one that is very well insulated and energy efficient in general. It requires little to no heating or cooling to stay at reasonable temperatures all year round. I'll install some power producing equipment (wind turbine and solar panels), a well, and a septic tank. I'll have a big garden, some fruit and nut trees, and some animals, and I'll hope I've wasted my time and money doing all of this.

Now, as most of you know, I like to get obsessed with things, so it could just be that I'm suddenly obsessed with this idea. What worries me a little is that other people whom I respect have told me they've been feeling the same things for a while. For example, I mentioned this to my former bishop and he said his brother-in-law, a real-estate agent, has been watching for land for them.

Any way, that's what I've been thinking about recently. I'll report on the other books I read and I'll share my list of tools if any of you are interested, once I get it done...or at least further along.

It's okay if you think I'm nuts.

THE TEST

Jason takes his NCLEX-RN (National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurse) (aka his boards) on Thursday morning. It is a computer multiple choice exam. It has a minimum of 75 questions and a maximum of 265. It just shuts off when it has enough information about whether or not you can pass or fail.

Having taken it, it is extremely stressful. I seem to be more stressed than he is though! Which is probably good. We would appreciate any prayers said on his behalf this week.

Thanks! We will let you know how it goes!

Tree Training Pictures for Dad

I've told Dad for the past while that I would take some pictures of my trees. I'm using rope to try to train the branches. In the winter I'll prune the apple trees and then prune the plum and cherry next spring. The goal is to get the apple and cherry trees to look kind of like a christmas tree and the plum to look like a vase. We'll see how they turn out in the end.

This is a stella cherry.

This is a stanely plum.

This is a braeburn.

This one is a golden delicious.

We survived

This week the state of Maryland has experienced an earthquake, a tornado, and a hurricane!

And we survived them all. We were shaken up after the earthquake, literally and figuratively. The tornado happened one night while we were sleeping and we were oblivious to it. And after much fanfare, the hurricane blew by talking only our electricity with it.

Our power was out for about ten hours. Many others, including dad and Laura and boys, were without power for much longer. (In fact, last I talked to dad, he was still powerless.)

But we are all safe, thank heavens!

Family Re(n)union Option

I looked into some housing possibilities here in the springs. This link takes you to Farish, the campgrounds owned by the Academy. It is more expensive than what we were planning on in Washington. Click on the links on the bottom left hand side to see prices and maps of the area. I'll look and see if there are other lodges available...and I'll update this post if I find anything worth reporting on.

Here are the lodging arrangements we propose

Click Here

Jess' Travel Plans

I am flying out to Colorado Thursday morning, arrive there right about noon. I have a rental car. I leave there Monday just before noon.

Mandy and Nathan are flying in Thursday night and out Sunday afternoon. She and I will probably share a hotel room so she can have privacy with Nathan.

I can help with rides if needed and we would be happy to have company in our hotel room if anyone wants to stay with us.

Jason's Final

Jason has his last test for nursing school tomorrow!! Please keep him in your prayers.

Then he spends the next three weeks working one on one with a nurse in the ER for his practicum. He will be done with school August 8, but doesn't graduate officially until August 23. Then he will take his state boards the first week of September. We will ask for more prayers then!!

Mom,

My bathrooms need cleaning again... when are you coming back!?!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Yeah, I know it's a little late now, but we did celebrate Mom's birthday while she was here.

Happy Birthday Mom!!