Bad Food

3/28/07 - 4th Day - After Breakfast. We're drying up from the recent rains, but more is expected starting tomorrow and for the next few days. The Ante's had a pretty catastrophic flooding of their root cellar (since it had not been sealed and the roof was not on yet, which caused quite a bit of damage. The rain has been great for the land and for the crops, and the ponds are either full or holding some water, but there can be damage when you are first building on fresh land and you get so much water.

I have been interested lately in the huge lies that we have been told our whole lives about food. The average "amerikan" has one of the poorest and most poisonous diets in the world. Did you know that white flour and white sugar are poisonous to your system, and that a single soda has almost 16 teaspoons of sugar in it? The food people are trained to eat is killing them, robbing them of their strength and vitality - and giving them a far lower standard of living than they would otherwise have; this not even considering the cancers, heart disease, etc. that is caused by the western diet.

Strangely appropriate considering that the Bible considers proper doctrine and teaching to be "food" (See John 21, and where Christ calls the Gospel "bread"). The true teachers, prophets, etc. are commanded to feed the sheep, but what are the people being fed? Mostly lies, bad doctrine and poisonous myths. I am reading a "Bible-based" health book now that has some pretty good conclusions, though they are based on horrible reasoning, logical fallacies, bad presuppositions, and scriptural gymnastics. I don't know how many times I get emailed valid questions from people who are confused because they have been reading crap from false teachers with horrible doctrine...

Garbage in, Garbage out.

The parallels between real and spiritual food are very interesting and enlightening. Spend some time praying about it - and as you clean up your spiritual diet, you might want to focus on the junk you are eating in the temporal world as well.

Michael

Rain

3/26/07 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. The rain has finally come here and we are very happy about it. We are probably sitting at about 2 inches so far, but the prognosticators are calling for continued rain most of the day and into tonight. Our creek and our ponds are pretty full, and should be really good for my garden and oat crop and for the Ante's corn they planted last week. We've been bailing water from the catchwater system most of this morning, and likely will be doing that all day. Mihai reported an hour ago that we had 900 gallons so far in our catchwater tank, which is an excellent start. I think we started out with about half that, but I'm not sure. We just took a tour of my land and it is getting a good drenching, with water running all over the place.

I am still trying to get some audio sermons uploaded, but as of yet I have been unsuccessful - but I will keep trying. Check the front page of biblicalagrarianism.com for more details.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

John

3/21/07 - 4th Day - After Lunch. The prognosticators are still calling for rain later in the week and over the weekend. Logan, Robert and I went fishing this morning. Still haven't caught anything yet. The lake is down about 8 feet or so, which is sad. We do need the rain.

Brother David has put my video commentary on the Gospel of John on DVD which is an exciting development. I will be sending out an email to my friends list today letting you know how to get a copy of this 20 hour DVD set, which has only ever been available on VHS - and not at all for about 5 years or so. I appreciate the work Elder David and his wife Susan did on making this series available so more people can see it. Thanks Siffords!

More planting, gardening and root cellaring this week.

Peace,

Michael Bunker

Bunker Exposed!

3/18/07- Lord's Day - After Breakfast. This week most of the men in the community continued the demolition or "deconstruction" work - taking down the house on our neighbors property for the salvage wood. We have totally removed the huge roof and attack, and we have removed close to 1/2 of the house structure. We probably still have a couple of days of work left over there to level the house and get all the wood we can get from it. Hopefully this blessing will help the new folks with their house and cabin building projects.

We also went to an auction in Bangs, Tx. and I got a load of used tools for real cheap.

Also, yesterday - I was taking a walk with little Sarah (3). We went down by the pond and she unwisely decided to run downhill towards the water. She couldn't stop her momentum and ran right into the pond. She cried at first, but by the time I got her back to the cabin she was able to laugh about it. We teased her the rest of the day.

The prognosticators are calling for rain and possibly severe weather to be here on Wednesday and Thursday. We are into severe weather season here in Central Texas. We are hoping to get a bit of our garden in before the rains come - and I am sure we could use some more rain in general.

Hey - some of the joys of being me. I have been called a "Jesuit" at least three times in the last couple of weeks. A group of folks who were booted off the BA.com forum called me a Jesuit for informing them that I wrote one of the most damning exposes of the Jesuits and their influence on modern "christianity". Their position? That is EXACTLY what a Jesuit would do! This is what passes as intelligent thought and incisive argument today. A family that was planning on visiting for Ranchfest suddenly canceled when they determined that I had "attended a Jazz festival" (I had not, though I would love to). Their reason? Jazz is of the devil. When I explained that trying to keep the commandments of God, and to obey Him in His written Word is enough for me without heaping onto it the opinions of men - they informed me that that is exactly what a Jesuit would say... It is "Jesuit casuistry", they claimed, for me to point out that the Bible doesn't say anything about Jazz at all. There are so many different types of Jazz (including Gospel Jazz) that the word doesn't really explain what type of music is being heard at all, but I suppose that traditional Jazz must have been some type of Jesuit plot?

Then yesterday I received an email from a dope-smoking antinomian who once promised me (3 years ago) that I would be "publicly pantsed" (I suppose this means EXPOSED) very, very soon. When I asked him when this public pantsing was going to happen (because I am ever hopeful that someone will come up with something interesting and true with which to accuse me), he explained that it had already happened, and that it had not had the hoped for effect because I had "spun" my "pantsing" with such Jesuitical expertise, that everyone had seen my pantsing as a victory on my part! Apparently my "public pantsing" was when Danielle and I decided to move down here to Central Texas from West Texas. Yep. Apparently the story is (among Antinomian circles) that my father wanted to boot us off our own land, and was successful - except that I "jesuitically" spun the story to make it LOOK LIKE Danielle and I were the ones who decided to move. Yes, it seems that my public pantsing was the decision to trade in a mobile home on 5 acres, for 32 acres in a Christian community with like-minded friends and brethren. The shame. Maybe for my next public pantsing, a couple of hundred more acres will become available nearby, and I will miraculously come up with the money to buy them.

How can I keep it straight?

And you thought the life of an Agrarian farmer was boring...

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Fog and Fishin'

3/15/07 - 5th Day - After Breakfast. Woke up to a heavy, heavy fog this morning, and as of 9:30 it is still sitting on us. Robert and I went fishing this morning, but we didn't get any bites. It's that time of year again, so we should be reporting to you regularly on our successes and failures in bringing in fish provisions.

Tracy trapped a coon last night. She finally figured out what baits them in the best... cat food. We usually bait the traps with sweet grains, but have very limited success. This is the second one she has trapped with cat food, so we're pretty sure that cat food is the ticket. Some big coon tipped over our feed cans the other day and terrorized David's chickens as well. Maybe the one we got today is the culprit?

I have some writing to do today, and then it is back up to the neighbors house that we are tearing down for lumber.

Here is a sermon from a couple of weeks ago defending Agrarianism and Separatism as the real Great Commission of God:

The REAL Great Commission

God Bless,

Michael Bunker

Spring Update

3/14/07 - 4th Day - After Breakfast. Spring is definitely here. We received a little more rain after the 1/2 inch we received on Monday. It was sprinkling a bit more this morning. I hope this is good news for my oats. The grass is greening up everywhere and it seems everything and everyone is picking up a little speed for planting and gardening season.

We are also making our plans for Ranchfest which begins in just a few weeks. We will be beginning a large catchwater project, as well as doing a few fencing projects for some of the other brethren here. I am looking forward to the fellowship.

Most of the men in the community have been working on tearing down a house near here for the salvage wood. A neighbor who wanted the house torn down gave us permission to strip it first, which is a great blessing for all the different families in the community. This is a great way to get good building materials, and although it costs labor - labor is something we have, while money is often something we do not have. We only have a week to get everything we can get off of the house before the owner sends in the wrecking ball to destroy and remove the house so he can build a hay barn where the house now stands.

I think we have a broody chicken, which is great since we have not bought new chicks for a couple of years. I do plan on building a brooder area soon, but thus far we have not gotten to it. I got a magazine from Tractor Supply that has some really great information on pastured poultry, and I am hoping to move full speed into that this summer.

As I mentioned before, we will be starting a large catchwater project, so I am also studying underground cisterns and other methods of water storage so that we can store what we will catch.

The children are planning a play once again for Passover during Ranchfest, which will be fun, and also read Tracy's poem she wrote on the children's blog.

I am hoping to get a new sermon/Q&A audio posted today, but we will see how it goes.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Spring Ranchfest 2007 Info

3/13/07 - 3rd Day - After Breakfast. Ranchfest Info:

Greetings Brethren,

I will post most of this letter in my blog and on BA.com because I am receiving notes from many of you that you are not receiving my friendslist emails. If you are on the list and are not receiving the emails, it is likely because your Internet provider or mail system is rejecting the emails. You should check to make sure that "friendslist@michaelbunker.com" is added as a contact in your email, and you should check your junk or spam mail folder to see if your system is putting the emails in the junk pile. Let me know if you are on the list but are not receiving the emails. If you are reading this on the blog or website and you have never requested to be on the friendslist - you can email me to request to be put on that list, though I cannot promise that I will put you on it. The friendslist is very particularly for friends and supporters of the ministry - not just the curious. However, it doesn't hurt to ask.

Ok, so we are quickly coming up to Ranchfest March 30th (Friday) through April 6th (Friday). I need to know in the next 2 days if you are coming or not, and where you intend on staying. The options are these:

You may camp or tent here at the ranch for free.
You may stay in a nearby motel

If you plan on staying or camping here at the ranch, please contact me immediately to make arrangements.

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 us at texasrangermotel@yahoo.com

The Budget Inn in nearby Coleman is also a great value. They charge approx. $35 per night and the rooms have recently been renovated. Contact info. is (325) 625-4194.

Ok, here is some more Ranchfest info and some answers to your questions. It is looking like we should have good weather (temperature wise) but I can't promise you anything about rain or not. Right now, it looks like we should have temps in the 80's with nights in the high 40's or 50's. 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 generally 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 generally wear pants and the women generally wear long skirts or dresses. The women in our community wear headcoverings - you may contact Danielle (mdbunk at yahoo.com) if you have questions about this. If you do not wear a headcovering, or if you choose not to wear one - you will have to have your head covered during corporate or group prayer and preferably 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. The recent rain will likely bring out the fire ants and mosquitos. 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 fill them up with rainwater, 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 (but not all) of the men do smoke cigars on occasion.

Please contact me with questions, or post them on the BA.com forum thread for Spring Ranchfest 2007.

Looking forward to it here at the ranch,

Michael Bunker

Welcome Rain

3/12/07 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. We had a great weekend, a good Sabbath and a very nice Lord's Day. We had our first severe weather warnings coming out yesterday, so we spent a good part of the day preparing for a bumpy ride at night. I went to town to get some final items to finish up the root cellar door and to make it waterproof and able to be sealed shut if we happened to get a tornado in the area. We finished the new pig pen and got the pigs moved by mid-afternoon, and I finished the root cellar door not long after that. As soon as I finished the door, we got our first sprinkles. The situation was perfect for the development of our first serious weather of the season, and we wanted to make sure all of the new folks were prepared.

By 5:30 p.m. or so we were getting warnings via internet and NOAA weather radio that some severe stuff was moving our way, and we were put under tornado watch not long after that. We got all the community on hand-held radios and made sure everyone knew what to do if the weather got really bad. Sometime around 7pm the more serious stuff was moving into the area, so the Ante's and the Sustaires came over and we played Scrabble until the storms moved through. Most of the bad stuff missed us and we did get some good rainfall - which is a blessing since I was thinking I was going to lose the oats I planted. Thank you all for your prayers!

I figure (I haven't checked yet) that we received about 1/2 an inch, and the prognosticators are calling for more between now and Wednesday evening. If we can get another inch or so, we should have a good start on a nice green spring - at least we pray that God will bless us with such.

Anyway, we had the root cellar ready and outfitted for severe weather, and it is good we didn't have to go down there. It is a good feeling knowing that God has provided us with a suitable storm shelter should we need it here in the community.

Hope all is well with y'all,

Michael Bunker

Fruit Trees, Garden Stuff, and Spring

3/09/07 - 6th Day - After Breakfast. Preparation of the Sabbath. We're in full Spring swing here after about 5 days in the mid to high 70's. The weather has been gorgeous and we have been trying to take advantage of it by getting a lot of things done. We still need your prayers for rain, since we put oats in the ground a couple of weeks ago and the birds are eating our seed since it hasn't rained. We are mostly finished with the new pig pen and should have the two males moved into it early next week. We also are continuing work on the shelving in the root cellar so we can get stuff moved into it and out of the mini-storage. We will be putting tomatoes in the ground on Sunday (Lord willing) as well, and we are preparing some projects for Ranchfest which comes at the end of the month. We also have helped brother Logan to raise his house walls this week - and we are looking forward to seeing his house come together over the next few weeks.

So far I have 7 new fruit trees this year and we have already planted 3 of them. We added 4 peaches, 1 pear, 1 fig and 1 persimmon; this is added to the 3 peaches and 3 apricots we planted last year. I also hope to procure and plant several apple trees this year.

Hope all is well with y'all,

Michael Bunker

Spring Fever

3/06/07 - 3rd Day - After Breakfast. Well, we are pretty much done with the new pig pen and pig house. We still have a strand of barbed wire to run on top of the fence, but we should be moving pigs into that pen soon. We also started preparing to put the staircase down into the root cellar so I can start building shelves down there soon.

The weather has been gorgeous. Yesterday was 70 degrees and very nice. Today the prognosticators are calling for 73. Accuweather is calling for 40's and 50's every morning for the next 15 days, which would extend past our usual "final freeze" date - so I am going to move forward on getting the garden ready. I am anxious to get an earlier start this year.

We put oats in our pasture but haven't had any rain on them yet, so if y'all feel like praying for something - you could pray that we would get some rain.

Hope all is well with you all,

Michael

Update

3/02/07 - 6th Day - After Breakfast. Preparation of the Sabbath. The fellas finished the new pig fence yesterday so today we will begin building a new pig pen to house our two meat hogs. I spent most of the day yesterday in bed with a severe migraine headache brought about because of the constant coughing. By evening I felt quite a bit better.

My Dad has been working on our old house back in Smyer to get it ready to sell so maybe we all can get some money out of it. I haven't been able to get there to check the progress, but Danielle says they are doing some radical remodeling to the house. We still have quite a bit of "stuff" at that house, so I am going to have to make plans to get up there some time with a trailer to haul some of it down here, which means I am going to have to make arrangements to have storage space enough to store that "stuff" down here.

It seems like we will be in "fast-forward" here for awhile with Ranchfest coming up in 4 weeks and gardening season almost upon us. I was wrong when I said we might have our last freeze last night. Woke up this morning and it was 40, but they are calling for 24 degrees tomorrow night.

I'm done with winter, but we take it as it comes.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

March (of) Time

3/01/07 - 5th Day - After Breakfast. 1st of March. Green grass is sprouting up here and there. Temps have been in the 80's for the last few days, but they are predicting a windy day today and just a bit cooler. Tonight might be our last night of the winter where the temp goes under 32 - the prognosticators are calling for 31 tonight. We've been working the garden and getting ready for planting.

Elsewhere on the ranch, some of the other families are preparing for their first spring here. Gardens are being marked off and fences prepared. The Antes are continuing work on their cabin, and some of the other folks are beginning work on their root cellars. This morning I went on a walk to visit the Sustaires and the Antes and to check on their progress. Things are moving along.

We're also continuing work on a new pig pen area for a couple of our meat hogs. The progress is slow because we work on it based on when we have supplies.

I hadn't been sick since I had a kidney infection in '05, but now I have been sick twice in the first few months of '07. My allergies (cedar allergies!) had not been really bad this year due to the drought last year, but all of a sudden this past week or so they have hit with a vengeance. Cedar season ends this month I think - and I can't wait. Anyway, I got hit by some bug in January, then we had a brutal stomach flu hit the ranch the week before my anniversary, and I got it for 24 hours. Immediately upon recovering from that affliction, the cedar allergies went bezerk, just as the "junk" from the FIRST sickness in January sunk into my chest - giving me a continuous cough now for several weeks; add to that the constant drainage from the allergies, and you have a very fun time.

Anyway, I'm working through it all and doing our herbal remedies and counting it all joy.

I was asked to put together a sermon and record it for the funeral of a friend of BA who died on Monday. The sermon is to be played either at the grave site or at the memorial - I can't remember. Anyway, here is the sermon:

Memorial Sermon: notes on dying

Keep the faith!

Michael Bunker