A Brief Break From Winter

We've had two very nice days weather-wise, yesterday and today. Yesterday was sunny and 45 degrees and today was cloudy but 48 degrees! Most all of the snow that was still lingering around on the ground has gone and left a muddy mess instead, but we have still enjoyed the warm temperatures.

Yesterday we cleaned out the chicken coop and nest boxes and began a renovation on their lot. Christina did the shoveling out of the straw and manure from the coop, Matthew cut the trees for new posts, Simon detached the fence from the old rotten posts, and I did the digging for the new posts and the scraping off of the roosts. Matthew and Timothy got a bale of straw from the barn for the coop and Simon and Christina spread it around in the coop and fixed up the nests boxes. The chickens then came on in to inspect the work, and I think they approved!

Today the children cleaned up the yard a bit. It's amazing how much junk can accumulate outside over a couple months of winter!

This brief break from the cold and snowy weather is just about over as we are ready for the next blast of winter. We are expecting it to begin tomorrow after midnight as our area has been issued a winter storm warning (again) from 7:00am until 10:00pm. They are not calling for as much snow as the pre-snow hype had been indicating several days ago, but we will still get something, I'm sure.

Here is the current snow forecast:



It is expected to be a very wet and heavy snow, so once again we will be wondering if the power will go out. Will we ever be able to go off the grid? All in God's timing and will, I suppose!

Erica's Thoughts On Holiness

Erica is currently in her second semester at Kentucky Mountain Bible College. She has not been home since January 3rd, so we are all missing her. Last Monday evening, Matthew and I stopped in to say "hello" after we sold Boris at Lee City. (KMBC is only about 20 minutes further down the road from the stock sale, so it was a good oppourtunity to drop by, even though we were wearing work clothes and pulling a hog trailer!). We only talked with her for about a half hour, but it was nice seeing her again. She is doing very well, and I am proud of her.

One of the slogans of the college is "Holiness unto the Lord". I have always emphasized holy living in my preaching, and I hope in my life. I am thankful that Erica is studying at a college that places a high premium on holiness. It is the major thing that attracted me to KMBC from the beginning. Erica wrote about Holiness for her Theology class this week and shared it with me. It was a blessing to read! I would like to share the first paragraph, here on the blog. It goes along nicely with my post from yesterday. No matter what kind of homestead projects we may get into here at Pure Water Hollow Homestead, we always desire to put the Lord first!

Now for Erica's words:

"I think that Holiness is reached when a person has fully surrendered their life to bringing glory to God. Holiness has to start with loving God completely, to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. When we love God in such a way, we will want to follow Him and keep His commandments. A life of holiness will not be hindered by habitual sin, or a constant lack of trust in God. Holiness has to be a desire and a commitment that begins in the heart at the point of Salvation and works its way out to be seen in the daily life. Salvation comes from the realization and rejection of sin and the desire for holiness. Holiness is the result of persistently seeking after God and constantly asking Him and allowing Him to cleanse you from sin. "

I don't need to add anything to the words Erica has written, but I would like to mention the verses God put on my mind while reading this:

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:" Hebrews 12:14

"Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16

May the Lord's blessings be on each of you as you seek after His holiness and righteousness!

Snow, Significance, Salvation

The snow is pretty this morning! We almost got 2 inches yesterday evening, but it was very wet and clung to everything it touched, making some beautiful scenes. I haven't taken any pictures, I guess because it isn't that rare of an occurrence any more!

When we began our Bible study at the community center at 6:30 yesterday evening, rain had begun and it was 40 degrees. By 8:00 everything outside was completely white! I really didn't think we were going to get any snow this go around because it had been so warm. I didn't even post the snowfall graphic that was out!

I have been trying lately to not allow the weather talk on the internet to consume so much of my time. Right now there is buzz about another potential big winter storm for early next week, but it is no fun to follow all of that pre-game excitement and then have the game itself be canceled! We have had snow this January, but basically it feels like much of the pre-snow chatter has been over-rated this month. I think that December surprised a lot of weather watchers with all the snow, and they have been over-emphasizing the snow possibilities this month so they won't be taken off-guard! I have found it is more fun to be taken a bit off guard, though.

Our weather-men have not really missed any snow forecasts yet, but they have changed things as they got more data, which gets on my nerves. For instance, the data for the snow last night was showing more snow for us a few days ago. Had I posted some of those "first call" graphics you would have seen our location on a line between 3-5" and 4-6". A later graphic showed 2-4" and the final data was showing 1-3" several hours before the snow got to us! I was beginning to think that all we would get would be rain!

I've been trying to analyze why I have been so excited about all the snow talk this year. (It's a good exercise to occasionally get into your own head and reflect.) I've come to the conclusion that is more than just the fact that schools are called off for snow days and I get to stay home. No, it is more of a longing of mine to be in the midst of history in the making! I like the idea of witnessing something that will be long remembered; something important; of being a part of history!

The winter of 95-96 was such a winter with 62 inches of snow for us and folks talk about January of 94 as the worst January ever. We experienced those winters here at Pure Water Hollow, and now I wish I had better records and memories of such historic times! If this winter is one of those history-makers I don't want to be on the sidelines and just watch it go by.

I guess it is part of the basic human longing to find some significance to our existence here on planet Earth! The desire for life to be more than the routine, boring, day-in-day-out grind that can feel so dismal and meaningless!

Living through a historic winter is significant, albeit rather shallow compared to the truths God has been reminding me of lately! The real news is something we touched on in our Bible study last night. We are significant because we are created in the image of the almighty God!

"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Genesis 1:26-27

My life ultimately draws meaning and significance not because I may become part of something great or historic, but because I have a living, eternal soul! My life was created by God and for God! My name will most likely never be famous or show up in a history book. But if it did, that would not make my life significant. My life is already significant because the Great I Am knows my name and it shows up in His book! Finding meaning to my life is easy when I remember that I am a child of the King and He has work for me to do! Our daily lives may become routine, but they never have to be boring if we remember Who we are living for!

My life may mean little in history, but praise God, I am important in His-story!

In addition to the natural beauty of snow, there is a spiritual emphasis that God places on the whiteness snow brings to our lives. Thanks to my Savior Jesus Christ, I have experienced this spiritual allusion to snow personally, and it is His will that all should experience it!

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."Isaiah1:18

"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."Psalm 51:7

Nothing else is as beautiful as that!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

Hog Wild to Sausage Mild

It has been a bitter-sweet MLK weekend for our hog raising operation at Pure Water Hollow. Tonight is the first night in the past 4 years and 3 months that there are no pigs residing on our property!

After raising or selling some 120 plus pigs during these past 4 years, we have decided to take a break from the hog business for a little while!

It is somewhat bitter for us because we really have enjoyed these magnificent animals! We have had many exciting adventures from home birthing baby piglets to home butchering big hogs and all the joys and trials in between! It has been an almost daily chore and sometimes twice a day or more for someone to take care of the pigs. (Mostly Matthew.) After some 1,550 days in a row, we had built up a sort of bond with our pigs! It is a strange feeling realizing that there are no longer any piggies up at the barn or pig lot.

The sweetness comes in when thinking about no more $13.60 bags of 100 pound sacks of corn to lug home and up to the barn; no more carrying water or breaking ice in their water troughs in 15 degree temperatures with 6 inches of snow on the ground; no more worrying if they are warm enough and hauling straw up for their beds; no more chasing the pigs back up the hill when they break out of their lots; no more bloody knuckles repairing said lots; and no more damage done to our poor old barn that has served as our hog headquarters over the years!

Two days ago we were still caring for 8 full grown hogs. After 3 separate journeys today and yesterday in our old hog trailer, we now have none! This was the final leg of our getting out of the hog business, as we sold 13 feeder pigs a couple weeks ago, a market hog the week before that, and butchered that sow a couple days before that! So, really we have gone from the hog wild existence of 23 pigs that we have had since the beginning of October to zero in less than a month. That is a drastic change!

Here are the 5 hogs we were raising for Glen going off to the butcher. Matthew had to leave church early (12:30) to get them loaded up and Glen was here to get them a little after 1:00. The meat market he was taking them to only accepts hogs on Sundays (or Monday mornings before 8:00am), which is one of the reasons we stopped using them. These slow growing hogs finally turned out to be very nice market hogs!

Monday morning, we got up and loaded our last sow, Crimson and our last gilt into the trailer. We successfully butchered our other sow a few weeks ago, and we could have done these too. However, I've been hearing about a new meat market about an hour away from us that we've wanted to try. It is run by a Mennonite family and they are building a reputation of doing excellent and honest work. It will be nice to have all the processing work done for us on these two hogs and it will be interesting to see what kind of work they do. It may be a challenge to find enough room in the freezers, though! Our meat supply is still in good shape from all the venison Matthew brought in last fall as well as the pork from the sow we butchered last month. After we get these two hogs back, we will really be set up for awhile! Here they are, saying goodbye to our homestead:



The name of the meat market we are using this time is called Appalachian Meats, near West Liberty Kentucky. I had a good first impression there, this morning. When we arrived there were two big black steers in the holding area that the owner had to move in order for us to unload our hogs. Apparently they had just been unloaded a bit before us. The neat thing about this, was that the owner told us that these steers were raised at a little college near Jackson called Kentucky Mt. Bible College! I told him that I knew right where that is because my daughter is currently a student there! Small world!

(Gun buying interlude: After taking those two hogs to Appalachian Meats, we swung by a fellow's house that was selling a rifle. It was a Russian carbine from WWII; an M38 that looked and fired good! Matthew decided to get it to hunt with, but I would have bought it if he hadn't! I think the historical aspects of it is pretty neat and I like that it is such a powerful weapon, too. It is from 1943 and after researching it a bit on the internet, it seems that everything is original, matching, and not imported or refurbished, all of which makes it a more desirable gun to collectors! )

We got back to Pure Water Hollow just in time to try to get our boar, Boris, loaded into the trailer and take him off to the stock sale at Lee City that night. He was going to be the biggest challenge (both in size and cunning) because we had been trying to get him to voluntarily go into the trailer for weeks to no avail. He had been a smart one, and would not get into the trailer whenever we were watching. We knew that he did go up into the trailer to eat, but he did not like to while we were up there! It seemed that he knew what it was all about!


At 5:00 I decided that tonight was another flop because we would need to leave soon after 5:00 to get to the market before the 6:30 sale time. Boris was showing no sign of going near the trailer, even though we knew he was hungry. I decided to stay around quietly to watch Boris as Matthew drove the truck down the hill. Boris watched the truck go down the road and then trotted toward the barn where the trailer was! I stealthily hid behind a big tree and watched as Boris neared the trailer, looked around, and then went up the ramp to get the food! I did my best ninja impersonation as I crept up behind him and soon closed him in the trailer! It wasn't much after 5:00 so I yelled on the radio for Matthew to get the truck back up to the barn so we could go the stock market with Boris! Here he is in the trailer:




He put up a bit of a fight, and tried to bust out:



Thankfully, we got to the sale safely and Boris did not bust out of the trailer while going down the road at 60 miles per hour. (I had been envisioning having to use Matthew's new gun to put him out of his misery after he busted out of the trailer and broke himself up all over the Mt Parkway!) We were not too late for the sale, and I was happy with the $95 that he sold for! I was also glad that we would not have to deal with him anymore. They weighed him at 540 pounds, which was less than we thought, but I guess it didn't matter much. Actually, it was probably good that he weighed less because the more those boars weigh, the less desirable they seem to be to buyers. Rufus had weighed 925 pounds last year at this same market and he only sold for $70!

So, here we are. Pure Water Hollow Homestead had been going hog wild since October of 2006, but now, all our hogs have either become money in my wallet or meat in my freezer in the form of ham, bacon, chops, roasts, and sausage!

This vacation from pig farming will free up so much chore time as well as much needed finances that have been getting bogged down with the high price of corn. We should be able to better focus on some other projects around the homestead that have needed attention for some time now. I could post several more pages on the things I would like to see done around here, and perhaps I will during the months to come!

Will we get back into raising hogs? I can almost say with 100% confidence that we will raise more pork in the future! I'm just not sure how much and to what scale. There is a good chance we will buy a couple feeder pigs every summer to raise and then butcher that winter. We may wait a while longer before we get back into keeping a boar, 2 sows, and raising pigs for sale, however. We will just have to wait and see what the future holds. I do know, however, that God is with us and will continue to allow us to learn a variety of lessons as we strive to serve Him in everything we do, and live our lives as closely to Him as possible!

Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is a three-day weekend for many in America, because of the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.

Among all the good he did for civil rights, I always thought it was wonderful that he was portrayed as a Christian and a Baptist preacher. I always suspected that our secular society downplayed his other Christian teachings in favor of his speeches and sermons concerning civil rights. I mean, our politically correct culture does not want to hear much about Jesus Christ being Lord and Savior and faith in Him being the only way to eternal life with God!

With today's technology of the internet, I figured I would be able to find many of Dr. King's sermons online. I thought it would be cool to go back and find some excerpts from sermons he preached about accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, or of repenting of sins and asking forgiveness, or a "Ye Must Be Born Again" type of sermon. You know, typical "Baptist" types of messages. I thought surely I would be able to find many such references from a high-profile person who had a pulpit ministry for many years.

Alas, after researching and reading for the past hour plus, I have not found one "Jesus" quote from King to use for this blog post!

I'm not sure what to make of it, yet, but on the surface it does not seem that Dr. King was overly concerned about preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was more interested in a social gospel of equality for all.

But, I was not alive during those days when Martin Luther King, Jr. was doing so much for mankind, and my purpose here is not to put him down. I was just surprised that I couldn't find any "Hell-fire and brimstone" Baptist messages from him! I've not done enough research to really decide what his theology was all about, but I must admit that I am discouraged about what I have discovered.

Anyway, I did find a pretty neat message that Dr. King preached. He was pretending that he had a letter written from Apostle Paul to the modern church in America. I thought it was very creative and had some great insights. I decided to omit some of the "social gospel" references in this message and just quote some of the paragraphs that spoke to me. At least it is a way for me to honor Dr. King on his day.

It is entitled "Paul's Letter to American Christians" and the date they gave for it was November 4, 1956. For it to make sense you have to remember that the parts I've quoted are the words that King is imagining that Paul would be writing to America:

"....But America, as I look at you from afar, I wonder whether your moral and spiritual progress has been commensurate with your scientific progress. It seems to me that your moral progress lags behind your scientific progress. Your poet Thoreau used to talk about "improved means to an unimproved end." How often this is true. You have allowed the material means by which you live to outdistance the spiritual ends for which you live. You have allowed your mentality to outrun your morality. You have allowed your civilization to outdistance your culture. Through your scientific genius you have made of the world a neighborhood, but through your moral and spiritual genius you have failed to make of it a brotherhood. So America, I would urge you to keep your moral advances abreast with your scientific advances.

I am impelled to write you concerning the responsibilities laid upon you to live as Christians in the midst of an unChristian world. That is what I had to do. That is what every Christian has to do. But I understand that there are many Christians in America who give their ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs. They are afraid to be different. Their great concern is to be accepted socially. They live by some such principle as this: "everybody is doing it, so it must be alright." For so many of you Morality is merely group consensus. In your modern sociological lingo, the mores are accepted as the right ways. You have unconsciously come to believe that right is discovered by taking a sort of Gallup poll of the majority opinion. How many are giving their ultimate allegiance to this way.

But American Christians, I must say to you as I said to the Roman Christians years ago, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Or, as I said to the Phillipian Christians, "Ye are a colony of heaven." This means that although you live in the colony of time, your ultimate allegiance is to the empire of eternity. You have a dual citizenry. You live both in time and eternity; both in heaven and earth. Therefore, your ultimate allegiance is not to the government, not to the state, not to nation, not to any man-made institution. The Christian owes his ultimate allegiance to God, and if any earthly institution conflicts with God's will it is your Christian duty to take a stand against it. You must never allow the transitory evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.

I understand that you have an economic system in America known as Capitalism. Through this economic system you have been able to do wonders. You have become the richest nation in the world, and you have built up the greatest system of production that history has ever known. All of this is marvelous. But Americans, there is the danger that you will misuse your Capitalism. I still contend that money can be the root of all evil. It can cause one to live a life of gross materialism. I am afraid that many among you are more concerned about making a living than making a life. You are prone to judge the success of your profession by the index of your salary and the size of the wheel base on your automobile, rather than the quality of your service to humanity.....

...Let me rush on to say something about the church. Americans, I must remind you, as I have said to so many others, that the church is the Body of Christ. So when the church is true to its nature it knows neither division nor disunity. But I am disturbed about what you are doing to the Body of Christ. They tell me that in America you have within Protestantism more than two hundred and fifty six denominations. The tragedy is not so much that you have such a multiplicity of denominations, but that most of them are warring against each other with a claim to absolute truth. This narrow sectarianism is destroying the unity of the Body of Christ. You must come to see that God is neither a Baptist nor a Methodist; He is neither a Presbyterian nor a Episcopalian. God is bigger than all of our denominations. If you are to be true witnesses for Christ, you must come to see that America.

But I must not stop with a criticism of Protestantism. I am disturbed about Roman Catholicism. This church stands before the world with its pomp and power, insisting that it possesses the only truth. It incorporates an arrogance that becomes a dangerous spiritual arrogance. It stands with its noble Pope who somehow rises to the miraculous heights of infallibility when he speaks ex cathedra. But I am disturbed about a person or an institution that claims infallibility in this world. I am disturbed about any church that refuses to cooperate with other churches under the pretense that it is the only true church. I must emphasize the fact that God is not a Roman Catholic, and that the boundless sweep of his revelation cannot be limited to the Vatican. Roman Catholicism must do a great deal to mend its ways...."

If you wish to read sermon in it's entirety, here is the site it came from:
http://www.mlkonline.net/christians.html

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

Another Redundant Forecast Post (plus some egg news)

OK, this is getting a bit monotonous, I know. I need to get blogging about our homestead, but lately all it seems we have been doing is watching the snow!

Here is the latest snow graphic for today and Thursday:

This has been an interesting snow event. The graphic I posted on Sunday had our area getting 4 to 6 inches of snow by today. Well, the snow has been such that an inch or two of snow would fall in just 20 minutes of time, but then might mostly disappear an hour later in the sun! We've had several squalls like that over the past couple of days. I'd say that over 6 inches of snow has fallen, but a lot has gone away and not piled up! Here at Pure Water Hollow, there are only a few inches of snow currently on the ground, so it hasn't been as big of a deal as it seems.

On a homestead note, our chickens have really been upping their egg production lately. We've been getting 7-8 a day for the past week! I guess the cold and snow is not stopping them from getting into their egg-laying mode now that the days are beginning to get a bit longer. We have been happy this year that we have had an egg or two nearly every day of this winter, even last month! I think it is the light brahmas that have laid right on through. Now that more of them are laying, we have begun selling some again. Christina's piano teacher always wants some eggs each Wednesday. I wonder if the piano lessons will be snowed out today?

Right now, the snow is pouring outside!

The Next Snow Forecast

We had 9 degree temperature this morning and got about 4 inches of snow on Friday and Saturday from our last little snow. Now we are ready for more over the next few days!

The Return of Winter?

After December broke the records around here for snow and cold, Old Man Winter decided he needed a rest! Our January here at Pure Water Hollow has been very mild and nice... so far. We've been sunny and above freezing each day with high 20s at night. I was even beginning to wonder if the sugar flow could have been getting ready to run in our sugar maples!

But it looks as though Mr. Winter is ready to make his presence known once again. Here we have the forecast for our next snow to end out this first week of January:



Personally, I wonder if we could be gearing up for making another run at the January record snow fall! Last year was pretty good, but didn't make it to number 1. According to Jim Caldwell, the snow from last January made it to 3rd place for the all time snowiest January on record with 17.1 inches! Second place belongs to 23.3 inches which fell in 1996, and the record snowfall for January that he knows about was 26.3 inches in 1994. After December being so snowy, it is easy to imagine that January 2011 could surpass that 1994 January!

We will see!

December 2010: Record Snowfall!

I had posted quite a bit about our snow and the weather forecasts throughout December. Well, now I know that I was capturing a record-breaking December for the blog, so I'm glad I that I was carrying on so much! I like the way meteorologist Jim Caldwell reported it:

"Following a series of winter storms throughout the month, and culminating with relatively modest event beginning on Christmas Eve and continuing through the 27th, December of 2010 now ranks as the snowiest on record at the National Weather Service office near Jackson with a total of 18.5 inches, surpassing the previous record of 17.6 inches set just one year ago."

My own unofficial measurements at Pure Water Hollow would add up to more like 20 inches, but we'll go with the official numbers from Jackson.

Something that made December unique also, is that we saw some snow, somewhere, every single day of the month! Many days, the ground everywhere was covered by several inches of snow. Some days the snow was just in the air as flurries and other days it could only be found under trees or cliffs in the shade after everything else had melted. But, there was snow somewhere at Pure Water Hollow for 31 of 31 days in December! Wow!

Selling Pigs

The air was smoke-filled as we walked across the cement floor toward the ring. I was surprised how crowded it was as all three bleachers were full and most of the standing room only spots taken. I was glad I wore my work clothes and old John Deere cap; I fit right in with this mangy group, in appearance anyway! There must have been several hundred people to watch the stock sales there at Lee City! It was a festive, carnival-like atmosphere and many folks in the stands were eating cheese burgers or nachos and cheese from the restaurant the facility offers.

Simon and I had gotten our 13 piglets unloaded a bit earlier. Simon had been a big help, as he ran down and caught a couple that had gotten away while the rest were being tagged. After saying goodbye to the piglets and filling out the paperwork, all there was to do was take in the scene and wait for my check!

There were a couple dozen full grown hogs that went through the sale and there were 3 other feeder pigs that went along with our 13. We didn't stay for the other sales but there were a great number of cattle, goats, and some sheep to be sold.

This was our second experience selling at a stock sale, but the first at Lee City. It was much more professionally run here, and the crowd was incredible! We definitely get more money for each pig, however, when folks come to our homestead and buy directly from us.

The stock sale owners got their cut, and the sale price was pretty puny, but I got rid of all those piglets at once without having to jeopardize our reputation. You see, these piglets were small and slow-growing, as were the previous litters from the same sows. (We are not keeping those sows.)Instead of finishing out at 6 months of age, some of those pigs were taking 10 months, or longer! They can eat a lot of expensive feed in four more months time, and I didn't like the idea of attaching our name to such potentially problematic pigs! I want folks to remember all the superior animals they had bought from us in the past, but purchasing one lemon could cancel out that good reputation we had built up. At the stock sale, we were more anonymous.

Even knowing that that they were not superior animals, I still thought the average price of $22.12 per pig was a bit low. I was hoping for $30 a piece, but like I said, I am happy to be rid of them, and I definitely can use this money.

No one really seems to be interested in buying feeder pigs this time of year, and I can understand why. It is more difficult keeping them through the winter, and this winter is looking to be a harsh one! Also, the price of corn is so much more in the winter. The price of 100 pounds at our local feed store is now $13.60 for plain shelled corn! That can add up quickly over a winter! Also, these animals would be butchering size in the spring or summer, which isn't the best time to butcher. So when I rationalize all of that, I really am pleased with my $249.75 check!

Last week (Wednesday) I also sold one of those 10 month old hogs, that only weighed about 150-175 pounds, for $65. I don't think I would have gotten that much for her at the stock sale, but the man who bought her was quite pleased with the price. I probably could have gotten more, if I had priced her higher.

Still, making $314.75 in pig sales over a few days is pretty good for us right now! Thank you, Lord, for providing this extra income for us at this time!