Update and SUPER Ranchfest

8/12/08 - 3rd Day - Midday. Ok, so I know that many of you have had massive problems with the slowness and other access problems over at BiblicalAgrarianism.com. I am glad to announce that we believe that those problems are over. Our webmaster David Sifford has been able to hassle our hosting service into moving BA over to a new server. I don't know if it was our traffic, or the combination of all the other sites hosted on the old server, but BA had pretty much skidded to a stop. You will notice I haven't been updating the site with new articles for some time, and that was because I could hardly get access to the site myself, and when I did it was so slow that I couldn't take the time to read and post articles. So.... I welcome you all back to BiblicalAgrarianism.com and I invite you to participate as much as you can by submitting articles (via the article submission process you can read about on the front page) and by participating on the forum. Our apologies to all of you who were having such troubles with the site, and we hope you enjoy the new faster server.

Well, we've gotten great feedback from folks about our Texas Mesquite Coffee, and we are continuing to process mesquite pods and roast them up. We've now some more to send out, so if you would like some sent to you, we are sending it out "as available" and on a donation basis. Email me with your order, and you may send any donations to: M. Bunker 1251 CR 132 Santa Anna, Texas 76878.

Today we are working on Prickly Pear Cactus preserves. Our land has quite a bit of prickly pear, so we are harvesting a bunch of it to make into some food products here at the ranch. Since our gardens have done so poorly this year in the drought, we are taking advantage of the things the land naturally produces (mesquite and cactus). Normally at this time of year we would be canning and preserving garden vegetables, but instead we have been canning and preserving peaches and prickly pear cactus fruit, and we have been processing mesquite pods. We also have been processing mesquite pods for use in our breads and tortillas. I can tell you that the mesquite tortillas are the best I have ever had. They taste like a desert cinnamon tortilla. Anyway, If the prickly pear cactus preserves works out for us, I will post the recipe and process we used to make it. I also plan on starting on some prickly pear wine sometime this week.

Up until yesterday, the temperatures here were as hot as they have ever been since I have lived here. On the Lord's Day the temperature was 106 and it was a difficult day I will tell you. The night before, we went to bed at 11 p.m. and it was 96 degrees inside the cabin. On Sunday, for the first time, it hit 100 inside the cabin. But yesterday was quite cool, and today is pretty nice... at 2:42 PM it was 91 degrees. The prognosticators are calling for nighttime temps to get down in the 60's starting next sabbath. Praise God! We still need rain though.

SUPER RANCHFEST

Ok, so Super Ranchfest is coming quickly (October 10th - 17th) and it is looking like we will have a good showing. Here is a link telling you new folks about Ranchfest and its history: Click Here. Here is some more ranchfest info:

You may camp or tent here at the ranch for free. We have a tent area, and there are a lot of areas to pull a camper if you want to do that. If you tent or camp here, you will NOT have any amenities (water, septic, etc.) and you will be expected to bring your own water. If you plan on staying or camping here at the ranch, please contact me immediately to make arrangements, there is plenty of room, and like I said, it is free.

You may stay in a nearby motel.

Motels: The closest is the Texas Ranger Motel in Santa Anna Reply to: texasrangermotel@yahoo.com Texas OWNED and OPERATED For Reservations call 325-348-3150, or email texasrangermotel@yahoo.com

The Budget Inn in nearby Coleman is also a great value. As of last year, they charged approx. $35 per night and the rooms have recently been renovated. Contact info. is (325) 625-4194.

We should have good weather, but you never know. When you check weather, use 76878 as the area code. The problem with the weather prognostications here is this... most of the weather guesses are based on Brownwood, and we are about 500-800 feet higher than Brownwood. So sometimes they miss it by 8-10 degrees in any direction. And.... this is Texas, so when it comes to weather, all bets are off. We easily see extreme changes of 40-50 degrees in a single day. So expect some heat and some cold. Ok, dress code... We believe in modest apparel. We do not wear shorts. You will not want to wear open toed shoes or sandals for a lot of reasons. In our community, the men wear pants and the women wear long skirts or dresses. The women in our community wear headcoverings, and if you come to Ranchfest, and you are a woman (or a girl), you must also wear one. You may contact Danielle (mdbunk at yahoo.com) if you have questions about this. Women must wear a headcovering whenever they are on the property, or in any corporate or group prayer and during any time of teaching, Bible study, or corporate worship.

If you haven't been to Texas before, you should know that virtually everything here can scratch, poke, bite or sting. Some good walking shoes or boots would be a definite plus. We have first aid stuff, but you should bring whatever you use for bug repellent, etc. Camping here is awesome and you should enjoy it, but you must also be aware and look at where you are and where you are going. Not to scare anyone, but we have fire ants, scorpions, spiders, skunks, rattlesnakes, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, etc. We will brief you all when you get here. Bring any weapons you might need. Those coming from Canada or any US socialist state will not be able to do this, so we will provide you with a weapon if you feel comfortable with one and know how to use it. If you play an instrument you might want to bring it. YOU MUST BRING CHAIRS IF YOU CAN. You will absolutely need it. You will also want to bring study materials, pen, paper, etc. to take notes during lessons. If you are staying here at the land, then you will not have access to running water. We have an outhouse. If you can bring some water containers we can let you know how/where to fill them, or people staying in hotels can fill them up for you. This will be your week "off grid" if you are staying on the land, so you will have no electricity. Flashlights, lanterns, etc. are really nice to have. There is plenty of wood, deadfall, etc. for firewood so don't be concerned with bringing your own. We plan on providing lunch on most days, and we hope to plan for at least one and possibly more group meals - but all other meals will be on your own. We usually eat breakfast on the Sabbath in Santa Anna, but we will discuss if we will be doing that this year. Just so you know, there will be alcoholic beverages available and consumed in moderation and many of the men do smoke cigars and pipes on occasion. Please contact me with questions, or post them on the BA.com forum thread for Fall uper Ranchfest 2008.

Remember that there is no charge at all for Ranchfest. This Ranchfest is being called "Super Ranchfest" because we are making every effort to get as many of our friends as possible to be here this fall. Usually, a lot of people plan on coming, but many end up not being able to make it. We are trying to emphasize the importance of Ranchfest (for the attendant) and we really want to see all of our friends here. Our main project for this Ranchfest is going to be to finish the office, and I have a few other projects in mind as well. I also will be delivering a sermon series in the evenings, so you will want to be here for that. Anyway, I will be starting a SUPER RANCHFEST forum thread on BA today, so you can check in there and ask questions.

I am going to be sending out a private email on my friendslist email list today, so if you do not receive it, then you were purged during the last email purge. You'll have to email me to get added to the list: editor ( at ) lazarusunbound.com.

Thanks y'all,

Michael Bunker