Truth Tickle

 When we read scripture, our tendency is to interpret it in a way that is consistent with our current understanding or interpretation because this is the least effort and the most comfortable. We prefer to stay in our comfort zone. But there is still part of us, buried deep within, that yearns for a seeks objective truth. That part of us sometimes give us the slightest tickle when we bend the interpretation of the scripture to our current understanding. If instead, we learn to be sensitive to that tickle and meditate through it, considering the scripture from other (sometimes uncomfortable) perspectives, asking the Holy Spirit to open our minds and hearts to the truth or to a deeper truth, then we will grow.  St. Paul teaches us in 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 to "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil." This is not easy to do at first, but if we persist, like a child learning to ride a bicycle, we will get better at it and it will become more normal. This is the same pattern that we see in the path towards contemplative prayer, as described by many saints, such as St. Teresa of Avila in The Interior Castle.  This is the path to enlightenment by the Holy Spirit.

Imagine a Country...

Imagine a country where there are no borders or walls, and foreigners, minorities and the poor are cared for and treated with dignity. The citizens, though diverse, are all aligned on a common goal, and every single citizen wants to be there; the desire to be there is a requirement of citizenship that is tested daily. Surrounding countries are at war with this country, but there are no borders at all, so the main mission of the ministry of defense is to broadcast an invitation of immigration and citizenship to the non-citizens. In this country, taxes are voluntary because every citizen is also at least a part-time member of the government, carrying out the various works of what is required to build the country and keep it working, and there are very few full-time government workers, the knights and handmaids. In this country, the leader is not elected, but is a king, but not the evil, tyrannical kind of king that is corrupted by power like you read about in stories. He is a good king who truly cares for each of the citizens. He is such an amazing king that the citizens meet with him daily to stay aligned with his vision for the country and to deepen their friendship with him. It is a country powered by love and in thousands of years, no enemy has ever overthrown it.

The enemy countries spend their time trying to convince the citizens that the country doesn't exist, and that the enemy is really in control, and that they should spend their time on transient, petty worries. The citizens hear what the enemy is saying, but it mostly is a muted, dull background noise since they are so focused on their own country and their own king. Occasionally, a citizen will be lulled into the lies of the enemy and shift their focus things of little worth, but they come back around and are reunited with the king and the vision soon enough through a process of healing that is available regularly.

Would you like to be a citizen of this country?

You Will Be Saved

If I told my kids "if you invest $1000 per month in a fund that returns 10% annually, then you will be a millionaire", does that mean they will be millionaires the first month they invest $1000? Of course not.  If I told my kids "if you invest $1000 per month in a fund that returns 10% annually, then you will be an investor", does that mean they will be investors the first month they invest $1000? Yes! Does it mean they will be investors if they only invest once? No! Both statements use the future verb tense "you will be", but one implies that they will eventually reach the end state, and the other implies they will immediately be in the end state for as long as they continue to meet the condition.  I have to pay attention to the future verb tense and discern what the verb tense and condition implies.

Romans 10:9-10
For if you  confess on your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your hearts that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Faith in the heart leads to justification, confession on the lips to salvation.

I might think that I will be saved immediately if I confess on my lips and believe in my heart; this is the doctrine found in some protestant denominations. I might also believe that when the condition is met once, it lasts forever, which is the once-saved, always-saved doctrine, also found in some protestant denominations. I could even think that eventually, enough belief and confession will earn me salvation, this is a merit-based salvation doctrine that many Christians fall into but that no denominations officially teach to my knowledge. But in order to understand the intended meaning of this particular verse, we should look deeper at what the term "be saved" means, and look to other verses to help us discern. The second sentence gives us a little clue, in that it separates being saved into multiple aspects.  To understand the different aspects of salvation, we must ask the question "what are we being saved from?"  The simplest result of salvation is that we're saved from the consequences of sin, the eternal separation from God; this is justification.  But another result of salvation is that we are also being saved from sin itself, through a gradual process, being healed to the point where we eventually commit no sins and fully love God. This is the part of salvation called sanctification.

Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling

2 Thessalonians 2:13
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

2 Timothy 1:9
He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time 

Titus 3:5-7
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 

John 15:2-7
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

These imply that salvation needs to be worked out, that it is an on-going process, that it isn't an instantaneous result of a single prayer, that it isn't guaranteed, that the condition "if you remain in me" is an on-going condition.

Looking at it this way, salvation is a three-part entity, a state of being (justification), a process (sanctification), and an end goal (eternity with God, free from sin),

Cold Shower, No Shower

Last year, I fasted for most of the year from hot showers for an Exodus 90 fast. Let me tell you about the benefits of avoiding hot showers!

• I used a lot less water during my showers, and the water wasn’t heated, so I saved money on water and electricity. For comparison sake, let’s assume you normally take a 15 minute hot shower with a 1.5GPM showerhead, and the water costs $5.00 per 1000 gallons.  Let’s assume that it takes 0.13kwh per gallon to heat the water, and that electricity costs $0.08/kwh.  This 15-minute hot shower costs 11.25 cents in water, and 23.4 cents to heat that water, for a total cost of 34.65 cents. That’s $10.39 per month.  Switching to a cold shower, I have the water running 1 minute (15 seconds to get wet, then I soap up without water running, and 45 seconds to rinse).  This reduces the cost of each shower to less than a penny, for a monthly cost of $0.23, a savings of $10.16. This money can be better spent on charity!
• I spent a lot less time in the shower. This freed me up to spend more time in prayer. 12-13 minutes more!
• It toughened me up. Dealing with suffering is part of the Christian life.  Taking a cold shower is minor suffering compared to what many Christians are dealing with, and my cringing at the cold shower early on showed me how soft I had become.
• This one didn’t apply to me since we have a tankless water heater, but if you have a tank, you won’t as easily run out of hot water for dishes, laundry or other family members’ showers.
• Cold showers are healthier for you.  Some websites cite improvements to metabolism, testosterone, blood circulation, mood, breathing, and your immune system. (http://www.thehackedmind.com/7-reasons-to-take-cold-showers-and-1-that-really-matters/   http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/07/21/the-health-benefits-of-cold-showers-video/)
• Occasionally on Saturdays, I wouldn’t feel the need to shower at all since I was just doing projects around the house.  This is less severe than taking a cold shower, and is in fact more in alignment with the rest of the world than taking cold showers every day.

Franciscans Unplugged

Franciscan Challenge for the Week: Live without electricity for 24 hours.  Why would we want to live without electricity for a day, you ask? There are a few things to consider, here.  

1. Living without electricity is a way to live in solidarity with those in poverty around the world. According to the U.N., 1.4 billion to 1.6 billion people around the world live without electricity.
2. Living without electricity may give you some peace and quiet that you didn’t even realize you were missing. When we eliminate some of the noise, we're left with ourselves and God. "We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature -- trees, flowers, grass -- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls."-Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta.  "Be still and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10
3. Living without electricity may show you how dependent you are on “the system” and help you depend more on God. "What consolation! The Book of Exodus is our story as we will see! This ancient text is a metaphor for modern men; whether we are enslaved by lust, or technology, or food or drink, or to any other thing, we find ourselves helplessly enslaved all the same." - Fr Brian Doerr
4. Living without electricity can help you care for creation a bit more by not consuming energy created by fossil fuels. In fact, many aspects of simple living are aligned with care for creation.

So how would you go about living without electricity for 24 hours? You can accomplish this simply by turning off the circuit breakers in your house, all except for the one or two controlling your refrigerator and freezer; I don’t recommend turning them off since wasting food is not part of this exercise! You may also want to only do this during warm weather so you don’t risk freezing water pipes in your home.  To prepare a bit for this exercise, make sure you have a way to cook food that doesn’t require electricity (wood stove or campfire), have a few gallons of clean water handy if you are on an electric well, and a few candles or oil lamps with matches to see with in the early morning or late night.

An Inconvenient Life

As Franciscans, we are called to live a simple life.  And by choosing to live a simpler life, we are caring for creation whether we realize it or not.  We end up using less electricity, gas, and oil.  Fewer disposable containers go into landfills.  Fewer agricultural chemicals are washed into rivers and aquifers.  Don't confuse a simple life with a convenient life, though; in fact, it often is often a very inconvenient life. But it is a life that is more intentional, often less costly, slower, healthier, and better for creation, all at the same time.  Simple living is getting rid of the television and the microwave.  Raising our own vegetables, eggs, and meat.  Building a “green” home with cash.  Limiting trips to the store, and rarely if ever eating at restaurants.  Freedom from attachments, owning one car for a family of eight.  Eliminating debt in our lives so we feel the freedom to follow the next step of God's calling.

There is also a sense of slowness that is involved in simple living; the long processes.  The slowness of waiting six months for each coat of plaster to cure on the straw-bale walls.  The slowness of waiting three months for a tomato to grow and ripen. The slowness of soaking shell beans overnight then simmering them two hours instead of getting them from a can.  The slowness of cooking a meal instead of eating fast food.  The slowness of walking a couple miles to work instead of driving. I don't always find myself meditating during these long processes, but they do offer a sense of the sacred – the respect for creation that comes from being less wasteful with toxic building materials, disposable packaging, refrigeration and transportation fuels.  At first, these long processes might test our patience, but if you choose to embrace it and meditate on it, you might also discover the presence of God.

What is particularly interesting to me is that choosing a simple lifestyle is also a form of solidarity with the poor; it ties the “J” and the “IC” from JPIC together.  I have a friend who is on welfare due to a medical condition, and over the years he has complained less and less about how bad he's got it because he knows that I live a simpler life than he does; that I raise a garden and livestock, that we cook most of our meals, and that we built our house ourselves.  He's comfortable around me because of my lifestyle.  When I visited Haiti a few years ago, I felt right at home, and felt like I shared so much in common with our brothers and sisters there.  I didn't fear them or pity them – I just loved them and worked alongside them because my lifestyle was already so close to theirs. 

What are some simple lifestyles that you admire, either from history or from modern times?  What aspects of these simple lifestyles can you adopt this week and continue throughout your life?

The Second Coming of Christ

What would you do if the second coming of Christ happened today? If you heard that Jesus was back and on his throne in Jerusalem, would you clear your calendar and make preparations to see him, talk to him, and be in his presence?  When you got there and saw him, would you recognize him, even if he came in humble form, with humble attire with humble surroundings?  Would you fall to your knees before him in worship? Would you join with the heavenly host of angels and archangels surrounding him, proclaiming "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts"?  If He offered you his body and blood in communion, would you first repent of your sins and beg him for healing?  After visiting with Jesus, worshiping Him, and feasting with Him, would you rush out to go back home, or would you linger a while?  If he asked you to go and tell others that He had returned, that he was really here, would you do it?

Friends, Jesus is back.  He is here on earth, physically. I went to visit Him, worship Him, and feast with Him yesterday.  Just like 2000 years ago, most people don't recognize Him, even when they see him.  They expect Him to come with military might and overthrow governments.  Most people that see him treat Him casually when they see him, and only go through the motions of worshiping Him. Most visit out of a sense of obligation rather than joy, awe, or love.  Most who do visit Him leave in a rush so they can see the ball game on the networks.  Many heartfelt Christians refuse to believe that He has come back, so never even go to visit Him.

The Kingdom of God is at hand and Jesus has returned, just like the Book of Revelation describes, in the Mass.  Come and worship our King!

Experimenting with a Free Fodder System

Sprouting grain is a great way to stretch your feed costs and improve nutrition for your farm animals.  We recently started sprouting grain for our laying hens and meat rabbits and have had some great results.  I've also learned a lot, and thankfully I didn't invest any money in the equipment setup while I was learning.  If you're considering starting a fodder system like this, I recommend the same approach: spend as little as possible and experience the daily rhythm for a month before buying a nice setup.  I started with 21 extra "1020" seed starting trays that I had, an adjustable shelf, 2 extra 5 gallon buckets, and an extra 20 gallon tub.  If you had to buy all of this brand new, it's still relatively inexpensive compared to fodder system kits.

I watched several videos on YouTube and found these two to be the most helpful:
Sarah Cuthill's DIY Fodder System
Paca Pride's Fodder System

I'm currently growing in 3 new trays every day, letting them grow to 7 days before feeding the sprouts to the animals.  At night before bed, I measure out 4 cups of wheat for each tray that I'm planning to sprout (12 cups total) and put that in a 5 gallon bucket, then soak that with water, bringing the water line to twice the height of the grain since the grain will absorb so much of the water.  I let it soak overnight, 8-9 hours. At the same time before bed, I water the rest of the trays that are already sprouting.  In the morning, I take the oldest/tallest 3 trays of sprouts and pull the sprouts (called a mat) out of the tray, upside down on a large cutting board.  I use a large serrated kitchen knife to cut two of the mats into 8 equal size pieces for the rabbits.  I also cut one tray in half for the laying hens.  After a couple of weeks, I had extra buckets that used to hold wheat so I put the cut pieces in those buckets to take out to the animals.  We currently have 8 rabbit does, 2 rabbit bucks, and 20 rabbit kits eating fodder, plus about 40 laying hens.  The adults each get 1 square of fodder, and the kits get 1 square for every 3-4 kits.

Early on, I always had a portion of the finished trays not sprout, and the mats fell apart.  This tended to occur in the end of the tray that was downhill, near the drain holes, and more in the trays that had the worst access to light. The water runoff also had a strong odor to it, and the portions of the trays that were downhill had a white slimy film in them after I emptied the tray and fed to the animals.  I was using unfiltered well water, which we knew had high levels of iron. I also noticed that one of the trays always produced superior fodder mats, it had drain slots all along the tray rather than just in one end.  I also had tried sprouting barley that never sprouted - it just fermented. To remediate these issues, we did the following:
- added an iron filter from cleanwater.com
- spread the trays out a bit more so they could get better light access
- put the oldest 4 days of trays on top with more vertical space between shelves
- added more drain holes in all the trays
- stopped using the "flood and drain" method, started watering all trays evenly with a gentle shower setting on the garden hose nozzle, using far less water with each watering.
- ceased using the barley and stuck with wheat.  Found out that "pearled" barley (which I was using) has the germ removed, so it won't sprout.  Whole grain barley should work just fine, just don't use pearled barley.

Also, many of the videos and blogs out there make some stellar claims about reducing your feed bill.  I've validated that, but in a slightly different way.  We switched from commercial non-organic rabbit feed to organic fodder and cut our costs in half.  Our meat rabbits would eat 1 cup (4oz) of commercial pellets per day when not nursing, 3 cups per day when nursing.  The bags were 50# and cost $20.  This meant we spent $0.10 per day per non-nursing adult rabbit, and $0.30 per day per nursing doe.  When we moved to fodder, we started using organic wheat that costs $18 for a 50# bag.  Each non-nursing rabbit's fodder started with 1/2 cup (2oz) wheat, which costs 4.5 cents per day.  Each nursing doe gets 3 times this, or 13.5 cents per day.  So, we cut our feed costs on rabbits by 55% while switching to organic.  Of course, this is not an apples-to-apples comparison.  I'm guessing that if we had switched to conventional wheat or barley instead of organic, we would have seen a reduction of 75% or more in out feed bill.  What is especially important about this, as I explained in a previous blog post, is that I can now produce rabbit meat raised on organic feed for $0.53 per pound.  With these kinds of costs, organic rabbit could easily compete on price with conventional chicken.

Another thing that I learned from my free fodder system is that my laying hens still prefer the un-sprouted seeds instead of the sprouted grass.  They still eat the grass, which is great for their health and for the eggs, but because of this preference for the seeds, I haven't taken them all the way to a fodder-only diet.  They still get organic layer mash, but half the portion they had been getting.  So I've only seen a reduction of 20% or so in my chicken feed bill.

Chickenomics vs Frugalibbits

We raise laying hens and meat rabbits and I've been doing some projections for starting meat chickens next year.  After a lot of analysis and thought, I've decided that I still want to raise meat chickens, but a lot fewer than I originally thought.

The typical meat chicken is a hybrid (32 levels deep in hybridization) between Cornish and Rock, also called a Cornish Rock, or a Cornish Cross.  Chicks by mail from Murray McMurray hatchery cost $2.25 each when you buy 25-49 chicks in a straight run, which is a mixture of males and females.  These birds gain weight fast!  In 6-8 weeks, you can butcher them as fryers and get 3-4# dressed weight from them.  That means they gained about 6-8# live weight in 6 weeks.  Amazing!  We're shooting for 600# of meat for the year (we have a big family!) so we'll need 150 chickens to do this; again this is assuming a full 4# dressed weight and no mortality.  In those 6-8 weeks, they will also eat an amazing amount of food.  One fellow blogger estimates 3# chick starter plus 21# chick grower.  We don't want *icides in our feed, so we buy organic feed at $0.60/lb so this adds up to $14.40.  We plan to put our chickens on pasture, which will replace 25% of their feed, so our feed cost is down to $10.80.  If we're optimistic and have no mortality (ha!), our cost of feed plus chicks is $13.05 per bird, or a total of $1957 per year; if we are optimistic and get the full 4# dressed weight from these birds, our cost is $3.26/lb.  Wait, we haven't included the cost of the equipment yet.  We can do this is three batches of 50 birds each or 6 batches of 25 birds each.  For economy of labor, the 3 batches of 50 birds sounds better.  We can get all 50 birds in a 10x10 pasture pen, so we only need one of those, and we estimate it will cost $300 between caging material, watering system, and feeder.  To process this many birds at once, there is no way I or my family will pluck by hand or manually keep scalding water to the right temperature, so a plucker and scalder are needed.  We already have the freezer.  The plucker from Premier 1 costs $1060 and the scalder costs $1390.  2 kill cones should be sufficient, at $30 each. We have knives and a processing table already.  Total one-time equipment cost comes to $2780.  If we split this cost between all the birds for the year, we're looking at an additional $18.53 per bird.  Total cost for our family (equipment, chicks, and organic feed) would be $4737.50.  Again, if we're optimistic and have no mortality and a full 4# dress weight per bird, this will cost us $7.89 per pound plus labor. The second year, we pay only $1957 for the chicks and feed, or $3.26/lb.

Switch gears with me.  Let's take a look at rabbits instead.  Instead of buying baby animals every year, we keep the moms and dads around and breed them ourselves.  This costs us extra money to feed the parents, but then there we get baby bunnies out of the deal, so they pay for themselves.  The kits (baby bunnies) are weaned at 6 weeks, and grow out to 12-14 weeks on grass alone, which means no feed costs.  We feed the rabbits organic feed, as well, in the form of sprouted organic wheat (grown 7 days into a nice green grass).  Bucks eat 2# fodder per day, or 730# per year.  Does eat 2# fodder daily while they are not nursing, and up to 6# fodder daily during the 6 weeks when nursing.  We breed three times per year and give them a break in the winter, so the does require 18*6 + 36*2 = 1260# fodder per year. The kits dress out at 2.5# each in 12-14 weeks, and we aren't concerned about how it takes to get to slaughter weight since the feed is free.  To get the same 600# of meat, we need to produce 240 kits.  Each doe can produce 8 kits per litter on average, so we need 10 does to produce this much meat. So we need 2*730 + 10*1260 = 14060# fodder per year.  To produce 1# fodder, it takes 1oz organic wheat, which costs $0.36/#.  So to produce all our fodder for a year takes 14060/16 = 879# organic wheat, which costs $317.  The equipment to house 2 bucks and 10 does year round, plus 10 litters in separate pasture pens is estimated at $2,500.  Processing equipment is a little more reasonable since a plucker and scalder are not needed.  I use a processing station that I describe in another blog post, which cost me $10.  So our total cost the first year is 2500+10+317 = $2,827, or $4.71/lb.  The second year, we only pay $317 for feed, or $0.53/lb.  Note that the second year, I'm my feed cost is a sixth the cost of chicken feed.

Here's a summary:

	150 Chicken	240 Rabbit
Capital - caging, brooder, watering	$300.00	$2500.00
Capital - processing	$2450.00	$10.00
TOTAL Capital	$2750.00	$2510.00
Operating - chicks	$337.50	$0.00
Operating - organic feed	$1620.00	$317.00
TOTAL Operating	$1957.50	$317.00
TOTAL First Year	$4737.50	$2827.00
TOTAL Second Year	$1957.50	$317.00
First year cost per pound	$7.89/lb	$4.71/lb
Second year cost per pound	$3.26/lb	$0.53/lb

So regardless of whether you look at this from a start-up cost perspective or a operating cost perspective, rabbit meat appears to be significantly lower cost.  We also have been optimistic in both of our analysis.  In reality, it is highly unlikely that there will be no mortality with chickens or rabbits.  However, in our experience with rabbits and seeing friends raise Cornish Cross meat chickens, the mortality rates in the chickens seem to be much higher.  It is equally unlikely that all the chickens will reach slaughter weight in 6 weeks, while rabbits can always reach slaughter weight since we aren't concerned if it takes them an extra 2 or more weeks to do so on free grass.

Now, back to my conclusion that we're still planning to produce meat chickens next year.  The fact is, we like the taste of chicken just as much as rabbit, and we like variety.  If we do smaller batches of birds, and possibly limit it to one batch per year, we could probably eliminate the cost of the scalder and plucker, or find some DIY projects like the Whizbang Chicken Plucker.  We're also going to experiment with feeding the chickens some sprouted grain fodder to replace some (if not all) of the organic chick starter and grower feed.  We are skeptical that we can replace all of it; our laying hens currently like the fodder, but really prefer the grains to the sprouts and they mostly ignore the root mat.  I'll try to post again in a year with the actual results and I'll include actual mortality rates and recorded dressed weights of both types of animals.

Transition Towns

I’m brainstorming what would be needed to make my town a Transition Town.  Food production is a big part of it.  Construction, mechanical, automotive skills are already here.  More bicycles are needed.  What about tires, clothes, shoes, electronics, silicon chips, communications systems?  We can learn poultry and sheep processing, natural bakery, and candle making.  But the amount of effort to convince an industrial town to switch to solar or wind energy seems almost impossible.

Instead, maybe it would be fun to start a sustainable skills group that gathers regularly to exchange skills, train each other, and build human networks. 

 

Here are some ideas for meeting topics:

• Rocket Stoves
• Rocket Mass Heaters
• Chicken breeding
• Chicken processing
• Build a chicken next box
• Make your own chicken feed
• Timber-framing
• Rabbit breeding
• Rabbit processing
• Build Rabbit nest boxes
• Build Rabbit cages
• Build Rabbit underground shelters
• Build Rabbit tray cleaner funnel
• Build a Rabbit butcher station
• Permaculture Design Course
• Herb Gardens
• Raising Sheep
• Candle making
• Soap Making
• Hugelkultur
• Milking cows
• Guns
• Build a top-bar bee hive
• Home brewing beer
• Home brewing cider
• Straw bale housing
• Bee keeping
• Honey processing
• Goats
• Energy conservation

Other Events that we could host

• Documentaries
• Book discussions

House Progress

The house is progressing well, though not as fast as we had hoped.  Our next child is due in 7 days, and the electrical work still has to be re-done.  Yep, re-done.  I put romex directly inside the strawbales, which is common practice, but my building inspector won't pass it unless a licensed electrician puts it in conduit or replaces it with armored (MC) cable.  Not too big of a deal, just a few thousand dollars more than we had planned on and it has set us behind by about two months.

When that is finished, we can finish stapling the 2"x2" welded wire mesh to the top and bottom nailers, then plaster the straw.  We're using natural hydraulic lime (NHL) from http://www.limeworks.us/ in three coats and it takes a while to apply, especially the first coat. 

The interior walls are standard 2x4 construction with sheetrock, and they are up with sheetrock on one side (until the electrical inspection passes). 

So, the hopes are to be finished with the first floor enough to move in by the end of September.  I'll post some pictures sometime soon.

Wear Red in Support for Ending Heart Disease?

I just got an email from my employer: "Wear Red in Support for Ending Heart Disease".  Wearing red doesn't end heart disease.  What if we stopped eating grains instead?  Jerry Brunetti did a lot of research when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer over 15 years ago, and he found that the consumption of grains causes all kinds of problems in our bodies and leads to many imflammatory diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and arthritis.  I stopped eating grains last November, replacing the grains with nuts and potatoes, and I found that I've lost a lot of weight, as well.  I haven't measured it, but I suspect that my intake of carbs, calories, and fats has actually *increased* but I've lost 18 pounds so far.

Mark Shepard's Perrenial Agriculture

I had a great time last week at the Acres USA conference in Louisville, KY. One of my favorite speakers was Mark Shepard (http://www.forestag.com/) and his new book "Restoration Agriculture" was made available during the conference. His basic idea is to use perrenial agriculture (nuts) for our staple foods and oils to replace grains, growing them using Yeoman's keyline design methods with swales to distribute and hold rainwater in the soil. Since it takes 10-15 years to get good crops from some of these nut trees, he also has a transition plan to raise annual crops and animals in the alleys between rows of trees. It was very enlightening.

GM Foods

I watched an interesting and scary film online this last weekend, Genetic Roulette (http://geneticroulettemovie.com) and I'm even more convinced that there is hope!  Well worth watching.

Back to Eden Orchard

We got our first delivery of wood chips today for our orchard, for free from a local tree trimming company that contracts with our electric company to keep elecrical lines clear of branches.  The basic idea is to mulch 4 inches deep with wood chips to keep in moisture and promote healthy soil.  Very exciting stuff.  Check out http://www.backtoedenfilm.com for details.  I'm not sure which part I love more: promoting better, healthier fruit in the orchard, or the idea of not having to mow :)  A year from now, I'll post again about whether or not the mulching we do this year makes a difference in yield and health of the trees.

They Huffed and They Puffed

We finished stacking the straw bales for the exterior walls of our house today.  The straw bales raising was one of the easiest parts of the house - we finished in just two Saturdays, with help from 3 friends at a time. The roofers also finished installing the roof last week, a standing seam metal roof.

DIY Rabbit Butchering Station

We started our own rabbitry this year, trying to find a more sustainable way of providing meat for our family and keep it legal, since we live in the city and by law aren't allowed to have livestock or poultry.

There are some really cool tools out there for butchering rabbits. I was on the lookout for some because the first two rabbits that I dressed took over an hour each, and I was hoping it would take far less time. The tools that I've found are:

• The Rabbit Wringer (http://www.therabbitwringer.com/)
• The Rabbit Wringer Butchering/Processing Station (http://www.therabbitwringer.com/)
• Never Without 1 dressing knife (http://www.neverwithout1.com/home/knife_msrp)

Unfortunately, we're trying to finish building our house and money is tight, so I built one myself. I got the idea for using a 55 gallon plastic drum cut in two by reading an article somewhere (Mother Earth News?) and I added the wringer after watching a You Tube video by prepper "Survival Doc" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXAhzfqhMNE&feature=plcp). I built this into the same unit with the parachute cords to hang the rabbit while I'm dressing it.

I used scrap 2x4 that was too warped to use on my house, some scrap cut-offs of 1x6 that I ripped down the center for the wringer, and some parachute cord. This project took me about an hour to build, including the design time. In case you aren't the design-type, here are the parts I used:

• (2) 2x4s cut at 62" for uprights
• (1) 2x4 cut at 26" for the vertical piece at the top
• (2) 2x4s cut at 11" to hold the 1x3s
• (2) 1x3s (or a 1x6 ripped through the center) 22.5" long
• (1) 55 gallon plastic barrel, cut half way through at 12" from the bottom, then cut vertically on both sides, then cut the rest of the way through horizontally at 12" down from the top (this will make two butchering stations if you want them, as long as you have the bungs for the top). I found mine used on craigslist for $7.
• (4) bolts with nuts, 3" long to bolt the uprights to the barrel.
• (4) wood screws, 3" long to fasten the top 2x4 to the uprights
• (2) wood screws, 1.5" long to hang the parachute cord from
• (2) pieces parachute cord 16" long (I found mine for $2.99 at a local camping store)

With the scraps that I had lying around, I spent about $10 on this butchering station.

To replace the "Never Without 1" knife, I just used a curved hook blade in my utility knife. These blades cost me $0.50 each at Harbor Freight.

In addition to all of these tools, I also splurged and bought a nice bypass pruner for $25 to cut off the head, feet, and tail.

I used it the first day, and it worked great. Slaughtering and dressing took me around 30 minutes this time, but much of that increased speed is probably due to having more experience.

Heaven on Earth

Take a minute and think about what heaven on earth would be like. Consider what Eden might have been like before the fall of humanity. Can you imagine litter or pollution there? Can you imagine using chemicals to kill bugs and weeds? Can you imagine someone losing their temper and yelling at someone else? Can you imagine low quality, disposable products? Can you imagine landfills? Can you imagine democracies? War? Denominations? Cancer? Genetic modification? I cannot imagine these things existing or occurring in heaven on earth. Instead, the first image that comes to mind is a quiet, gentle approach to living, to humanity, and to all of creation. This posture of heart and mind is exemplified for me in the characters of a few movies and television programs: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Into Great Silence, Star Trek Insurrection, Star Trek The Inner Light, The Mission, and A River Runs Through It. It is this posture of heart and mind that caused St. Francis to gently move the earthworm off the walking path so as to not be crushed, to preach the gospel to the birds, and to tame the wolf of Gubio.

Are you even trying to live in heaven on earth? How difficult it can be to foster or maintain this posture of heart and mind in such a hectic, fast-paced, demanding, hostile, western world! How especially difficult when we don't make the effort to quiet ourselves daily!

Sustainability and Charitable Donations

Is was re-reading some of my journals from 10 years ago when I visited some refugee centers in Johannesburg, and they reminded me of some thoughts that I've had recently about some charitable donations, as well. We are often given a barrage of pleas for financial help for the poor, whether it is local or in another country, financial help that will be spent on food, clothing, medical supplies, and schooling. Often times, over 95% of the donations actually make it to the recipients. What has happened, through, in many cases is that the recipients have come to think of themselves as poor and perpetually in need of donations in order to survive. The problem with this is that it is not a sustainable plan. With some creativity, leadership, and education, I believe that most if not all of these situations can be turned around into short term projects that kick start systems and programs that enable the recipients to provide for themselves. Many of these kick starter projects can be completed in less than 1 year, some might take as long as 5 years. Once these kick starter projects are completed, the recipients have the potential to contribute significantly to the the world and to the kingdom of heaven on earth.

The alternative to this that I propose is to have a set of criteria for these programs and have them audited for following the criteria. The criteria could be something like this:

• limited time (max 5 years) and a dollar cap on donations and NGO presence in the program
• approved plan for how the program will build to self-sufficiency after the donations stop
• production of goods as a community
• education of recipients
• production of communities own food and water filtration strongly encouraged
• environmental friendliness encouraged
• sanitation and housing can expand and be provided by recipients
• follow appropriate technology guidelines, e.g. E.F. Schumacher
• feedback mechanism in place for soliciting and implementing improvements

As an example, let's take a look at the refugee situation in South Africa 10 years ago. Refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and from southern Sudan were streaming into South Africa, and the South African government allowed them to enter and stay. However, the government did not provide any funding to pay for food or shelter for these refugees, which was also appropriate. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) took on the responsibility and many of these NGOs tried to incorporate education into their programs. The programs were not coordinated between NGOs, and each NGO was had staff attempting to raise funds (compete for funds in some cases) from the United States, the United Nations, and from Europe.

Using the alternative methodology proposed above, an NGO could draft plans for new villages of refugees in South Africa, built by the refugees who are fed for the first year with moneys from donations, and who in turn create an extensive organic farm that provides all of the food that the community needs. Each village would take care of its own recycling and composting, creating no landfills. Each village could focus on a particular craft, such as leather work, wood carving, hand-made clothing, or the like, and setup the [low tech] equipment for producing these crafts. The NGO could setup the initial agreements for foreign trade of these crafts to be sold in the host country and in other countries. The NGO could then pull out of the villages within 2 years, after ensuring that leadership is developed from among the refugees and that everything is working well.

Pay It Forward, Part 3

The non-profit company mentioned in the previous post, Pay It Forward Part 2, could focus on sustainable low-cost housing. The houses could be improved houses that are pre-existing, or they could be new houses built with sustainable materials and processes. A good goal to strive for would be a sustainable home for under $40,000. They would be sold on a rent-to-buy basis, with no interest and no profit.

Some of the improvements that could be targeted:

• Remove metal plumbing, recycle it, replace with PEX for supply lines and PVC for drains
• Replace old wiring with new
• Low-E windows
• Radiant floor heat
• Additional thermal capacity in increase passive solar gain in winter
• Southern glazing for additional solar gain in winter
• Tankless water heater
• Energy star appliances
• Zero VOC pain
• Organic vegetable gardens and orchard
• Chicken coop
• Rabbit run
• Non-asphault roof
• Rain water catchment system
• Gray water system
• Compost bins, vermiculture bins
• Masonry Heaters / Rocket Stoves
• Set of books and videos on how to manage it all

Some possible construction methods if building a new house:

• Cob
• Timber Frame
• Straw Bale
• Geodesic Dome
• Earthship
• Bermed or Underground
• Slipform Masonry
• Rubble Trench Foundation
• Earthen Floors