Gas

7/31/06 - 2nd Day - When they write the epitaph for a lot of people some day, it will say "they ran out of gas". Our society has become so dependent on gasoline, that it doesn't take much imagination to figure that a lack of gasoline will one day bring a lot of lives to a screeching halt. Although we certainly aren't as dependent as most people are on the energy "system", we certainly have not weaned ourselves from it yet. Yesterday we ran out of gas coming back from the park to get water. Our hero David came with a 5 gallon gas can and helped us out, but it has become obvious that the amount of money we are having to spend to run for water is, in the long run, a losing proposition.

Today Danielle went to get water before noon, and we are about to have to go back to the park again. That's two trips at 40 miles round trip for water for the ranch. We need a well. I sent out an email to my private friends list with the details of our well project, if you would like to help, drop me a line and I will send you the email.

Today I posted pictures of our new ranch calves HERE.

I have been trying to work on Galatians, part 6, but it has been difficult. Some time after 9 a.m. our friend Jay from Austin showed up to visit. He took me to go check the mail, since we were out of gas at the time. I got some money in the mail, so I went to get some gas. I filled the truck and 1.5 gas cans for $90! I can't wait to be free of that stupid system. I will ride horses or cows and, Lord willing, our usage of gasoline will be minimal. I look forward to that day.

It is over 100 again today. The cows came up to the corral, and for the first time Ami brought her calf up. Well, the calf just stepped through the rails of the corral, so now we are having to put a strand of barbed wire there to keep the calves in. Between that and running to the lake for water, not much real work has gotten done today. The guys have been doing a good job in the root cellar, but these other tasks keep jumping up at us. Having a well will not only save us the gas money for the vehicles, but will save us the hours it takes in travel as well.

Michael

Hot Air

7/30/06 - 1st Day - Evening. I usually don't post this late, but we just got home. It was HOT today. Well, as hot as most days during this drought and heat wave. I believe it got well over 100 today. We had a great fellowship and we got our first sermon recorded in some time:

Blessed in the City?

I hope you get something out of it. It is part of our sort of "impromptu" sermon series on the Lord's Day. I usually don't get time to pick the scripture verses or study long for the sermon. Maybe 20-30 minutes.

We had brisket, fresh green beans, rice cassarole, cornbread, and some type of desert I didn't get any of. Some friends drove down from Lubbock and joined us for the sermon, and we had some fellowship for awhile. When the temps hit their peak, we decided to head out to the lake for a swim. Sometimes it is the only way to cool down properly. If we had anywhere near normal rain we could swim in our own ponds or in nearby creeks, but the drought has put an end to that. Well, we arrived at the park and found out we had a flat on the van. Same tire has been fixed 5 times in the past month. A week or so ago our mini-spare blew up, so we have no spare. We were blessed in that we had a small compressor and the tire held air enough to get us back home, but we had to stop every 10 minutes or so on the way home and hook up the compressor. But we made it home, and we are all pretty tired from our swim.

Tomorrow is back to regular work day. Back in the root cellar. Back to work on Galatians for me too... Hope to finish part 5 tomorrow, and I might preach it tomorrow night if the Lord wills. If I do, we will have it posted as soon as possible.

We need a well... and a break in the heat... and some rain, but in all these we have learned to rejoice because God is good and merciful to us, and we pray his grace continues with us, for without it we would perish.

Michael

Sabbath and the Lord's Day

7/30/06 - 1st Day - Morning. We had a good, restful Sabbath. It has been HOT. We knew we were almost out of gas for the generator, so we left it off until into the afternoon. If you stay in the shade, and if there is a breeze, then you will do fine.. We went out into the paddock a few times to check on the new calves. It seems that they are doing great.

We had a good Sabbath. I am reading in Volume #2 of the Sermons and Tracts of John Gill. Gill had an excellent understanding of the law and grace, and I spent some time studying his sermon about "The Law established by the Gospel". We blew out the candle at 8:36 p.m. and then did a family reading in "Short Discourses to be Read in Families" by William Jay. Our reading was on The Christian Indeed, which is about the necessity of right religion, and how we find out if we have an interest in salvation and in Christ. Very good reading, and it seems like the children listened and considered it.

This Lord's Day I was up at 6:30. Of course Danielle had been up for some time and almost had breakfast ready. The fellas were up early too, and were already digging in the root cellar. Our Lord's Day generally goes like this:

10 a.m. - Singing (We sing hymns together as a fellowship)
Noon - Fellowship Meal.
1:30 or so - Impromptu Sermon - (Usually on a topic or verses chosen by the men)

We have been going through the parables of the New Testament, but today I will take a break from that and preach on Dueteronomy 28:3. Today will be the first sermon with the Microtrack recorder, so if all goes well, we will be able to post the sermon soon.

Y'all have a great Lord's Day.

Michael Bunker

What a Day!

7/28/06 - 6th Day - Evening. Well, I was right about it being an interesting day. My morning post was sent out just before 8 a.m. Not too long after that we got a shout from Mark that there was a small animal in the paddock. Turns out that the Siffords cow "Ami" had just calved. You can read that story HERE.

So, Danielle and I left to go check the mail sometime before noon and we stopped to check out the cow and new calf. Maria was acting funny and wouldn't come to me, so Danielle said, "I'm pretty sure that she is in labor, she is going to drop soon".

On the way back to the ranch we received a call from Tracy, Maria had calved as well! So we had two calves in one day. Our herd went from 4 to 6!

My mother and sister and a young nephew of mine came out to visit the children. I tried to continue my online work, but that became more and more difficult, so I joined the fellas in the root cellar at about 2:30. We dug for about two hours in the searing heat, then we quit and went and sat in the shade. Brother David came back from his trip to the park to talk to the Park Rangers. It turns out we were right, Barney Fife the goofy cop wannabe Park Host had overstepped his authority. We are allowed to go to the park for showers and water and we can even dump trash so long as it is "reasonable". They talked to the Park Manager and said they would go handle Barney so that he doesn't keep harassing honest paying customers.

I had a good talk with the fellas about work and the doing of it.

Tonight we had a special treat. Spaghetti made with our own homemade garden-grown sauce, with fresh garden green beans and fresh garden grown cantaloupe. The sauce was a huge hit, and the cantaloupe was so sweet it was like candy. A nice end to a nice day when you can have a great meal that you grew yourself.

So, all-in-all it was a good day, except we ran out of gas for the generators, and money to fill them. But, then, it is a process driven life.

Michael

Barney Fife the Park Host

7/28/06 - 6th Day - Morning. This will have to be a two-part journal entry since today promises to be an interesting day here at the ranch. Danielle was up at 5a.m. to start preparing for breakfast. I was awake, but didn't get to work until 6. I talked to Mihai yesterday about the fellas getting up earlier and getting to work before breakfast. That way they could quit when the heat of the day starts really baring down. Yesterday they got to work late, and quit really early in order to go do laundry. This morning, by 6:30 when they are supposed to have already let the chickens out for the day, Danielle finally went up to the coops and let them out. No sign of the guys yet. Around 6:45 I see them stirring. 7:20 they are loitering around the root cellar, but no one is digging. 7:30 they get called in for breakfast. 7:47 I finally see some dirt moving.

Breakfast this morning was barley/oat pancakes (delicious) made by Tracy, fresh eggs, hash browns, and bacon. I missed the cantaloupe from the garden, but maybe it will show up for dinner or supper.

The reason today promises to be an interesting day: For 7 months we have been going to the State Park for water, to dump trash, and for showers. We paid for a year membership to have access to the facilities. Well, yesterday David was accosted at the Park by a Barney Fife ex-cop wannabe Park Host, who claimed that we can't use the water (or remove it from the park), David can't dump his septic tank, and we probably aren't even supposed to use the showers! Yep! We are season pass holders, but apparently according to this Park Host we are only allowed to bring our "pickanick basket" and don't even THINK about using any of the amenities. Well, David is going down there today to try to get some information from the Park Ranger and whoever else might be in charge of Barney Fife and his Nazi ideas for the Texas State Parks. I cannot tell you how serious it will be if we are disallowed from getting water at the park. So I am anxious to find out how this turns out.

It was cloudy this morning, and we got a few sprinkles, but still no rain.... stay tuned.

A Beginning

7/27/06 - 5th Day - I guess I should have started this journal a year ago. So much has happened since we put in the first post-hole last June. Most of you know me and you've been along for the ride. A year later we have a small cabin (384 square feet!), a corral, a paddock, an incompleted root cellar and there are currently 10 of us living on the land. The work continues each day, and we are never surprised by it, or that the process driven life is the life God would have us to live.

Yesterday the fellas (Mark, Mihai and I) worked on the root cellar some more. It got up to over 100 agrees again, and it was hot in that hole. They called yesterday and told me my mower was ready to be picked up. The mower has been in the shop over two months. Then the mechanic called today and said my pickup was fixed and ready to be picked up. The pickup was in the shop since March. So, within two days two of our major pieces of equipment were fixed and ready to be picked up. The bad news is that that added up to $550 that I really didn't have. But, the good news is that we now have our work pickup and our riding mower available. For dinner last night we had fresh green beans from our garden, with some homemade fried chicken. It was really, really good.

Today I was up and answering email at 6:15 a.m. I noticed the guys were not up and working. Danielle gets up at before 5 a.m. sometimes to make breakfast, but it seems these guys have trouble getting to work before 8. Breakfast was at 7 a.m. - farm fresh eggs from our chickens, bacon, cantaloupe from our garden, blueberry muffins and cereal. I got back to work on my Galatians commentary and answering emails while the guys got down in the root cellar. In early afternoon, David, Mihai and I went to town to pickup the pickup truck and the mower and part with the $550. The pickup repair was $385 of it, and the miracle of it was that a friend had sent me a message early this morning (before we heard from the mechanic) and told me that he and his wife wanted to donate $400 to the family and ministry. I wanted to put it towards my debt that I owed on the Longhorn cow ($800). Well, then we heard from the mechanic and I had to decide that, no, we would need the $400 to pick up the truck. Miracle. So we had just enough to pick up the pickup.

Tonight my mother showed up for a visit. Her, my sister and a nephew will be in town for the next couple of days. We'll likely see them all tomorrow. Tonight we had hamburger helper and green beans from the garden. Excellent as always. The fellas are in Coleman doing their laundry. Tonight I will give the children a ride in the little trailer pulled by the newly fixed mower. They'll like that.

Michael