Ranchfest... Some History

8/31/07 - 6th Day - After Breakfast. Greetings. It is looking like we should have a great showing for Ranchfest. Right now we are looking at upwards of 24 people coming out, although we are used to massive cancellations at the last minute. This year, however, even if the folks who have committed all show up (Lord Willing), we should have a good showing and a great time. Mini Q&A:

What is the deal with Ranchfest?

Hmmm.... Well, it started back in 2003 when Danielle was pregnant with Sarah. 5 of us were living in a 80 x 16 mobile home (palatial compared to our current cabin), and I was "officing" in our 8x8 kitchen. We put out the word that we absolutely had to have an addition put on the house for an office and living area. Now, things were different back then. We had a much larger audience. Actually it was half of what it was back in 2001 when I started preaching on the Doctrines of Grace, but I had yet to start teaching against worldliness and for separatism and agrarianism. So, in short, although there were some brethren on our list (some who are still around!), we had a good number of religious worldlings hanging around back then. But those religious worldlings were maybe a bit more open to being moved by the Holy Spirit, I don't know. Anyway, back then if I sent out an email saying "Hey, we've had an emergency, we need XXX", we usually had what we need in less than a week. So we sent out an email saying we had to have this addition to the house, and that we were going to start building it that spring. Some ladies on the list had an idea for some kind of "Bunkapalooza" or "Habitat for Bunkmanity" where folks could come out and meet one another and help with the building. I assumed we would do well to get the money to pour the slab ($1800), and if we got enough to start framing, then all the better. The online folks put together the dates and times for what they called "Bunkfest" and we started making plans. Some folks from Colorado decided to come down early and help us pour and float the slab. I had never done this before and doubted we would have the money ready to pay the concrete man, but they came down anyway. We leveled out the ground, dug out the footers, etc. and talked about whether we should call the concrete man. I didn't have the money yet, but the fella from Colorado said we should just go ahead and call the concrete guy, and if the money was not in in time he would cover it temporarily with a credit card. I didn't like that idea, but he prevailed on me to do it. So the concrete guys came out and started the pour. Halfway through the pour I went inside to check email and saw that we had received enough to pay for the slab! So I was able to write a check to the concrete guys. Money was trickling in, so we went in and bought all the framing materials, and as Bunkfest went on, the money kept coming in. We ended up building the whole addition (including carpeting and shelves) in 8 days. We raised $18,000 in all for the project. Now, a lot of that was in two large donations of $4000 and $5000, but still it was very gratifying to see folks step up to the needs.

The next spring we decided to do an old-fashioned barn-raising. Again, we put together a plan and quite a few folks came out. We ended up raising $15,000 to build a pretty nice barn. In 2005 the sky fell in because the Lord prevailed on me to start really pushing separatism and Agrarianism, and at the same time we found out we were going to need to leave our home in West Texas if we were at all to be consistent with what I was preaching. We hated to move, but it was inevitable and we had no other choice. All this time I was campaigning to change the name of "Bunkfest" to something better and we ended up settling on "Ranchfest". The overall principle was to give folks out there who were affiliated with and who benefited from the Ministry a way to "communicate" or come alongside the ministry in a big way and help. We wanted to show that the ministry was not about money, but about living the live we say others should live, and we wanted to focus on friendship, fellowship, Agrarianism, and obedience to the commandments of God. 2005 Ranchfests didn't amount to much because of the aforementioned factors. The preaching was alienating even our friends, and we knew we were moving down here to Central Texas.

In spring 2006 we had "Ranchfest" down here on the land, and though we didn't have any money to speak of, we had some good attendance and, frankly, with the people that were here, it was one of the best and most rewarding fellowship times I have ever had. We did put a porch on the front of the cabin, and we might have done another project but I can't remember.

Fall Ranchfest in 2006 was lightly attended. Again we didn't have any money and most of the folks who planned on being here could not make it. It started out great, but a few days into it our good friend Doug Howey was killed in a car wreck (and his wife was injured) down in Fredericksburg. The rest of Ranchfest was really dealing with that tragedy. We were able to raise quite a bit of money (still only 1/3 of what we raised for the first Ranchfest) to help pay some of Doug's burial expenses and to give a gift to his wife.

Spring 2007 almost no one could make it. By this time quite a few folks had moved down to the land, so attendance was good, but it was mainly folks who already lived here now.

So, you can see the pattern. As we've grown closer to the Lord and have been more direct in our preaching and teaching, as expected, things have become more and more tight monetarily. This is the way things go. One wacknut charismatic Northern agrarian blogger has taken some swipes at us for daring to raise money. This is the kind of pompous blowhard who writes a sometime check to his apostate arminian false-church and feels like he is doing God service. It is no coincidence that this is the most pompous and arrogant "agrarian" voice online. Dumb people really like him because he pontificates on things in an "old-timey" good-ol-boy way - but they rarely read between the lines that every blog he posts actually says "I am better than you". This guy doesn't give a flip about you. He just wants you to shut up and buy his beef and admit that you aren't half the man he is. Enough of that.

Anyway, the point of Ranchfest was to give people the opportunity to help the mission and the ministry in a big way. What we are doing out here is not so we can pontificate online about how nobody knows anything but ol' yankee farmers. We are trying to teach people what we believe the Bible teaches, and why, and HOW to do the things (with little or no money) that we should be doing to be obedient to God's way of life and living. It's that simple. We actually help people, and if you've been around long enough you know that.

So far the attendance for Ranchfest looks good. (GREAT)
So far the donations for Ranchfest... not so good.

That's all about that.

Michael

Cowboy Stories

8/29/07 - 4th Day - After Breakfast. Another beautiful day here at the ranch. We're sliding into the end of August and you can get just a slight hint of fall in the air early in the morning. The prognosticators are calling for a slight probability of rain over the next five days, so we are praying to receive some moisture for the land and for our catchwaters.

Yesterday evening some of the guys from the community came over to help me attempt to move Holga and her new calf down to our close pasture so we can start milking her soon. Holga is the cow we traded to the Ante's for the RV that is going to be used as an office. Since our new bull calf (Chico) is going to be on her for 6 months or so, we are going to start milking her here pretty soon. Holga is one of the two pure Longhorn cows we milked last year.

So our design was to somehow go to the top pasture (on David Sifford's land) and drive Holga and her calf down to my pasture. Moving cows is a very inexact science for we new cattlemen, because we don't have any horses, and our riding cow (Pita) is not big enough for me to ride yet, nor do I know if rounding up cows with another cow will ever work. So anyway, what we have done in the past (since none of us are good ropers) is we have chased the cows with the truck and cut the one we want out of the herd. Then we tire her out or get out and jump on her and tackle her. This probably will not work with a full grown 700 lb. Longhorn cow like Holga. So I tried the next best thing... the food lure. I lured her away with range cubes (cows LOVE range cubes... they are like cow candy) while Danielle and Tracy tried to capture the calf. I succeeded in getting her out of David's pasture, and about 100 feet from the fence to my pasture where I wanted her to go when she changed her mind and bolted. Now she was in the "no man's land" between the two pastures. We put her on hold for awhile and went to go try to help Danielle and Tracy capture Chico. Well, Chico was under the protection of Maria. Maria is a HUGE 1/2 Longhorn, 1/2 Watusi cow with a horn spread of probably close to 5 or 6 feet. For those of you who have seen her, you know that you do not want to mess with Maria. Well, when I get up to the pasture, Danielle has cornered Maria (who is protecting Chico) and is actually bluffing a charge at Maria in order to get her to back off. Maria calls Danielle's bluff and charges Danielle with a LONG and pointy horn coming right at her. I'm screaming my head off to get Danielle to stop what she is doing, but I don't think she can hear me. At the last second, Danielle realizes that Maria is not playing around and she pulls up short of getting gored and thrown into the next county. I rounded up all the people into the truck and we went to plan "B" (or is it plan "C"?). We used the truck to cut Chico from the herd and then we all jumped out and cornered him next to a barbed wire fence. Chris Woods grabbed him as he made an attempt to go through the fence, and we loaded him into the back of the truck. Our plan now (which is called the Lindbergh plan) was to hold the calf hostage and entice Holga down to the other pasture with the threat of dire danger to the calf. So we went and found Holga and taunted her with the fact that we were holding her calf. She really didn't seem to care much, since she had found some large stands of Johnson grass and she was busy eating greedily. So I got out with a bucket of sweet grains and lured her to the middle of the dirt road. Then, sneakily, while she was devouring the sweet grains, I put a lariat around her horns and tightened it. I had already tied the other end to the ball hitch on the truck, so now my intent was to pull her to where I wanted her to go. So far so good. I got in the truck and started driving slowly and pulling Holga like a reluctant water skier down the road. All went well until we got to the gate to my pasture when Holga went wide and took out a portion of my fence. That was easy enough to fix, the problem now was getting the rope off the horns of a big Longhorn cow who is really, really, really upset. So I walked up to her with a calm and soothing voice and gave her some range cubes, and while she (in a very confused way) ate the range cubes, I reached between the horns and pulled off the lariat. Ta DA! We released the calf and gloried in our old-timey cowboy victory.

So this morning I went and lured Holga down to the corral to get her used to the process of preparing to milk again. I got her into the corral, and into the right position and gave her a bucket of sweet grains. I'll do this for a day or two before I actually hitch her up and start putting my hands on her. Hopefully, a week from now we will be milking her. Stay tuned for that.

Enough for now cowpokes (happy trails playing softly in the background). See y'all next time.

Michael

Baptisms and New Calves

8/27/07 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. We had a pretty good weekend here at the ranch. The temps have been warm but seasonal (low to mid 90's) and dry. We had a great and relaxing sabbath, then a good Q&A session that night. On the Lord's Day the singing was fun (and refreshing after I missed last week) and we had some great food for our fellowship that afternoon. Last night the whole community drove out to Lake Sealy nearby and we had 3 baptisms - which was great. I baptized Chris Woods and Kelly Sustaire, then Kelly baptized his wife. Then we let the children swim for a bit before we cruised by Dairy Queen in Santa Anna for an ice cream cone. Overall, a great weekend.

I have neglected to mention that I have had 2 more calves born in the last couple of weeks, bringing to 3 my current number of calves on the ground. Holga had her calf (looks like a young bull calf) and then a day or so later Maria had her calf (probably a heifer). A month or so ago Lucia had a young heifer, so, counting the fact that we bartered Holga away, I think I have 8 cattle on the ground right now. I should have 4 females ready to be put with a bull this fall (maybe next month). I tell Danielle all the time... we are cattle rich. Some day, if the Lord wills, we might be able to support ourselves with our Longhorn cattle operation.

This evening the men of the community are coming over and we are going to try to move Holga and her new calf down to our closer pasture so we can start to milk Holga. That should be an interesting operation and I'll report to you if it gets interesting.

Sermon tonight, so I have to get to work.

May the Lord bless you.

Michael Bunker

Chapter Changes

8/24/07 - 4th Day - After Breakfast. A chapter of our lives here on the land has come to an end as David and Susan Sifford, whose barn was completed last week, moved their camper and their stuff up to their land on Wednesday. David and Susan were down here almost from the very beginning, and it is kind of bittersweet to watch them moving to their own homestead. They were here when there was nothing on the land, and when we had just started the cabin. This was long before outhouses and field showers and other niceties. No matter how hard some of the new folks have had it, nobody out here has had any hardships or difficulties like those we had that first year as we carved this place out of the wilderness, and it was the hard work and diligence of everyone here from the very beginning that paved a smoother road for everyone who would follow. I remember when we first found the local creeks and ponds to bathe in after a hot day of work on the land - and I remember hauling water sometimes twice a day in 104 degree heat for ourselves and our animals. Dave and Sue came from the city, and you really could not have designed a more challenging and drastic change in lifestyle than that they experienced that first year; it would have made a great reality show. Still would. I also have fond memories of sitting out at night (this was long before a screened porch) and talking in the cool of the evening until the bugs ate us up enough to send us to bed. Anyway, I congratulate them on their accomplishment and on getting their homestead up and livable. While we now enjoy the unimpeded view out of the front of the cabin, we already miss the camaraderie we've had over the last two years. We look forward to the next chapter of our friendship.

My recovery is going well, and I've gotten stronger and I am now able to eat three meals in a day - which is good. I still get tired easy and am a bit weak.

We're looking forward to fall Ranchfest and, right now, it looks like we could have a great showing. As of yesterday there were about 18 people who had either confirmed, or who were still planning on coming. We know that there are usually a lot of cancellations between now and then, but we hope that these numbers hold up. If you are still considering a trip down for Ranchfest and you haven't let us know yet, please do so ASAP.

The weather is warm, but seasonal. The slight hint of fall is in the air early in the mornings, and we look forward to another change of seasons.

I hope all is well with you all. Thanks for stopping by. I hope to send out a Q&A Friday issue sometime today (DV).

Michael Bunker

Scatter-ranting

8/21/07 - 3rd Day - After Breakfast. Well, I opened up the day with a rant against Fred Phelps on BA, and I don't see it getting any better. So this blog post may or may not include random rantings - also, my mind is a bit partly cloudy, so bear with me.

Comments on recovering from a Black Widow Spider bite:

One of the interesting "effects" on me of the bite is that I have shown some Alzheimers like symptoms over the last few days. This morning was the worse. I don't know what it feels like to have Alzheimers, but this morning I was unable to clear my thoughts for an hour or so. I was in this cloud and I knew I was in it, and I could not remember things that I had just thought only moments ago, and I was perfectly conscious of the fact that I could not remember them. Very frustrating. I was planning on giving Danielle the last of our money to make a supply trip to Santa Anna, and I was going through it in my mind laying out the money on the bed to make sure there was enough. She was eating cereal on the porch. I laid down a twenty for two bags of pig feed. Then I laid down $35 for two 5 gallon cans of gas. That left $30 for whatever things were on our list, and the rest for the gas tank in the truck. Easy. Then I looked down at the piles I had made, and I could not remember what they were for. I knew they were for Danielle going to town, and I knew what I was doing - but I could not remember what the individual stacks were for. Then, I had to sit there and laugh because I knew that I was forgetting and that my mind was cloudy. I had to work back through it. "What could I want Danielle to pick up that costs $20?". "What do we need that adds up to $35?". So I finally got that figured out and I walked out to our solar trailer to check the reading - and then I forgot why I was out there. I knew that I was forgetting things, and that my mind was obscured, so it is not like I was an old man standing on a street corner not knowing where I live. I just stood there and could not clear the fog enough to remember why I was there. It has gotten better as the morning has gone on.

What was I saying?

One of the other effects of the bite is that I can now climb walls and spin webs - which is nice.

Oh yeah, so again we are dead broke. My vehicles are all in need of repair. My computers are all down, with the exception of this one, which fails repeatedly because of a bad power connector. I still owe on those tickets and they'll probably send me to jail... but, look on the bright side...

"Joel Osteen discontinued receiving his $200,000 salary from Lakewood Church in Houston after his first book, Your Best Life Now, sold more than 4 million copies. Some sources have reported he could earn up to $13 million on the contract for his second book. (RNS photo/courtesy of Lakewood Church)"

I, personally, have also discontinued receiving my salary from (mind goes blank. cannot remember last salary. spider bite symptom) now that my book has sold more than (cannot remember how many hundreds) copies. My next book is expected to sell 10's of copies.

The name of my favorite jazz artist in history (Bix Beiderbecke) sounds like BIG SPIDER BITE if you say it real slow.

Right now we are looking at mild temps (low 90's) for the next several days, followed by a general cooling trend into early Sept. Wow. I hope that holds up. Y'all still need to pray for rain for us. I couldn't afford to buy water.

Enough.

Michael

Dean No-Show, And The Last Few Days

8/20/07 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. It looks like Dean has determined to stay south and punish Mexico instead of Texas. We probably deserve it more than Mexico does, but I'm glad Dean won't be washing any of the South Texas (and Louisiana reject) riff-raff up this way. As of this morning, only a few of the models had Dean lightly brushing South Padre Island, but most of the models have it going straight into Mexico, then turning up this way as a Tropical Depression some day. Another Invest has developed in the Atlantic with its eyes on Florida. We'll keep our eyes on it.

There has been an incredible increase in Black Widow spiders here on the land after our spring rains. Danielle killed about 4 in the root cellar the other day, and we have been seeing them all over. More on that later...

Ok, the last 5-6 days for me have been... interesting... so I'll share with you. On Wednesday morning of last week (the date of my last blog entry), I woke up and sat down for breakfast. I ate two bites and I was completely full. Couldn't eat another bite. I went through my day and I was quite tired all day, and sometimes short of breath. I wasn't hungry again until about 4 p.m. and at that time I had Tracy make me a sandwich. Once again, after about two bites I was stuffed full. ??? Ok, so at this point I start getting other gastro-intestinal symptoms that I won't share with you, but no matter how much I DIDN'T eat, I felt full and swollen, gassy, and tired. This lasted for about two days. On Friday I got up (situation remained the same), couldn't hardly eat and I felt pretty bad. I walked quite a bit that day, and then, late in the day we saddled up Pita and the children and I took her for a walk. We walked back to my new RV/Office area and I sat down for awhile while the children explored. I was very short of breath, tired, and I felt very tight in the chest.

Just after we put up Pita a guest (a new friend from Austin) arrived for a couple days visit. He is interested in learning about Agrarianism and wanted to hang out and ask questions. So I gave the guest a quick tour of the land, and then we stayed up a bit late in the dark of the porch talking about Agrarianism and, well, everything else. I went to bed late, and then couldn't sleep. When I laid down I began having chest pains, and a very tight chest, and shortness of breath (Heart Attack? I was thinking?). I even had pain radiating out to my left arm. But most of my symptoms were gastro-intestinal, and I felt sure there was another explanation. The next morning (Sabbath morning) we all got up and had a community breakfast at Double H Dining in Santa Anna. My appetite was a bit better, but I was numb and glossy over the lack of sleep and overall illness. At this point my temperature was up over 100 degrees and I was sweating profusely (which isn't strange in Texas summer heat). I was tired all the time, and as long as I was sitting down I was mostly alright. I gave our guest a more in-depth tour of the land when we returned, and we walked quite a bit. At this point my "other" intestinal symptoms increased exponentially, and I still was pretty unable to eat much. I kept our guest company all day, then that night we had Q&A so the whole community was over. After Q&A we sat on the porch again until late talking - asking and answering questions. When everyone left, I went to bed and just totally collapsed. I was asleep in probably 10 seconds. The Lord's Day morning I could not get out of bed. I was full-on sick at this point, and I was having muscle spasms in diverse places around my body. I couldn't eat until about 2 p.m., and then I had just a few bites. Danielle got me some stomach meds and I took those and they helped a little, so I got online and started surfing around to try to find out what had been wrong with me. Danielle came in at this time and told me that Chris Woods had said to the children that my symptoms sounded like I had been bit by a Black Widow Spider, and I laughed and said... "Well, I don't have any spider bites that I know of". I found a few Health sites where you can put in your symptoms and they give you an array of conditions you may or may not have (perfect for hypochondriacs, which I am not). On the first site, I put in all my symptoms and it came back with three likely suspects:

Black Widow Spider Bite
Heart Attack
Poisoning

Hmmm.... Although I suspected it at first, I'm pretty sure I didn't have a heart attack, and I am fairly certain that no one poisoned me.

So I went to another site, and basically the same thing came up (with Irritable Bowel Syndrom in there too).

I went to WebMD which is supposed to be the biggest site that does this sort of thing, and I noticed that they didn't include spider bites or any other likely Agrarian maladies in their "possibles". They just told me that I had clearly had a heart attack and I should immediately go spend millions of dollars at a hospital. I figured the pharmaceutical companies and health care criminals have already co-opted WebMD.

So then I looked up Black Widow Spider bites. Well, I found out that, although most people have pain and swelling near the bite, many people do not even know they were bitten until they have symptoms. Most of us who live out here have a plethora of bite areas from fire ants, chiggers, etc., so there is no way I could possibly account for every bite on me. But the symptoms sounded eerily like what I had suffered for 5 days - and, BWS bites often mimic heart attack symptoms. Add to this the fact that we have Black Widows everywhere and have been killing them almost daily... well, I am now settled that this was probably the culprit.

After my self-analysis, I felt well enough to sit up and watch a movie with Danielle (Fracture w/Anthony Hopkins) - and I have been slowly improving since then. Got up this morning and had a full bowl of cereal and walked down to the Office RV and back. My head has cleared up some, and the muscle spasms have almost completely stopped.

Oh... "Fracture" was alright. I like Anthony Hopkins, and there are some great performances in it. Nowhere near as good As Bourne Ultimatum though, and I hope to do my review on that movie soon.

I hope to get back to work soon.

Y'all be cool.

Michael Bunker

Hurricane Logic

8/17/0 - 4th Day - Mid-Day. Tropical Depression Erin caused some havoc down south where the flooding has been bad all year, but we got barely a 1/2 or so from her. We're still getting the occasional small squall run through, and we are grateful for all we have received, but we certainly didn't get the 2-3 inches the prognosticators were calling for. So here is the real deal for those who are flooded down south...

Hurricane Dean

Ol' Dean is on a path that could lead him at Category 4 or 5 strength right into Galveston and Houston. I hope most of y'all remember what happened when they ordered a mandatory evacuation for Hurricane Rita. It was a textbook show of urban efficiency and the depravity of man. With predictions of a 23 foot swell and winds over 150 mph, folks down south would be well advised to be planning right now. The ground is well saturated after Erin, and if so many died from flooding over that little sprinkling, can you imagine what Dean will bring if it comes this way.

On a weather blog I read, there was a debate on which is most dangerous and deadly - the storm surge or the winds. Statistically the storm surge does far more damage and killing than the winds do, but I disagree with the premise. The most dangerous thing when a hurricane hits a populated urban area is...

PEOPLE

God did not intend folks to live so close together and so dependent on corporate "services" for survival. The people that live in these places are, by nature, the most dependent and mentally colonized class of people - so when you add up all the factors you can see how storms like Katrina turn into disasters and how humans (the lowest kind) in a time of stress and emergency revert to their true character.

It is interesting sitting here writing this 4 or 5 days before whatever will (or will not) happen. Before Katrina hit I made the same observations. When Rita was on her way, I pointed out that it is interesting to see the true "calm before the storm" when people could be doing something to help themselves but they will not. The majority of Galvestonians and Houstonians will sit on their arses until a evacuation order is given, then they will clog I-45 and scream and wail about why there aren't government fuel trucks filling up their SUV's on the way to Dallas. Frankly, I'd be out of there sometime this weekend, and I wouldn't plan on returning for some time if the hurricane actually hits Houston. But that's just me. I wouldn't live in that hellhole with the scalawags and scumbags who live their anyway - so this is all an exercise in social commentary for me... that is all.

So, Dean could be nothing, which would be great - or it could be something, which would be bad. But I can't help but think if I will be blogging about this a week from now and saying (like a say so often I make even myself sick)... I TOLD YOU SO.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Rain, Rain, Come Today

8/16/07 - 5th Day - After Breakfast. Hopeful...


Despite the prognostications of the prognosticators, it looks like Erin is coming right at us. This pic is from a couple of hours ago. The latest run has her one county away, so maybe we will be getting rain by later this afternoon. We are looking forward to the rain, and hopefully getting our catchwater filled up again. It looks like Austin is catching the brunt of this right now, and that we are right in the middle of the alley to get some pretty good rain. We pray this continues.

Oh, I made watermelon wine the other day - and I will report on how it tastes in a few months or so.

Michael

C'mon Erin

8/15/07 - 4th Day - After Breakfast. The prognosticators are calling for a high probability of rain starting tomorrow evening and going through Saturday. Rain would be a very welcome sight here. At last check, our catchwater was down to about 1,000 gallons (down from full at 2,500) and a good part of the garden is dead from no water. We learned alot about rain this year, but when the heat finally comes in July and August - and you don't get any rain, you are going to dry up pretty fast. Our animals use between 40-70 gallons a day, sometimes more - which means we are sitting right now on about a 10 day supply of water. So y'all pray that we get the rain they are calling for. Some of it could come from what MAY become Tropical Storm Erin (currently TD5) in the middle of the Carribean:


This critter is predicted to turn more northward, and if it does, it could T-Bone us sometime on Friday evening or Saturday morning. Sweet. By then it will be a Tropical Depression which would mean a lot of water. For those of you who do not know where I live. If you put your pen right smack dab in the geographical center of Texas.... you will be really close. We're within 50 miles or so of that point.

Another Tropical Storm is heading towards the Carribean - Tropical Storm Dean, which is predicted to be a hurricane sometime early Saturday morning. If this thing turns north, it will likely stay fairly weak and rake Florida and maybe the east coast. If it stays straight, it will likely strengthen into a category 3-5 in which case it could landfall anywhere from New Orleans to Galveston. My very, very, very early prediction is that it could follow the path of Andrew in '92 and rake Florida before landing somewhere between Pensacola and the Texas/Louisiana line. But, then again, I have no idea what I am talking about, and God is in charge of Hurricanes. Anyway, it will be early next week before we know anything and before this thing gets close to landing in the US.

So we here are praying for rain, and are hopeful that God will bless us with some soon. The temps are supposed to drop quite a bit after today, which will be nice too.

Oh, the stock market continues to slide - even after all of the billions of band-aids were applied by the world banks. And here I am with no portfolio! It seems my green beans, tomatoes, longhorns, pigs, goats, chickens, and rabbits have no clue that the stock market is tanking... they really don't care. I tried to talk to them about it, and they showed no interest at all. I don't think they care anything at all about the monetary system. So unenlightened.

I mentioned that I had two sermons (a mini-commentary) on the first 5 Proverbs and I would really like you all to listen to them. They address whether or not Agrarianism and Separatism is just a lifestyle choice preferable to industrialism, or whether Agrarian Separatism is a command of God concerning His people. Anyway, I would like for you to listen to both sermons and comment - either here or on BiblicalAgrarianism.com. Honestly, if we cannot stoke a conversation on something as important and basic as what God commands of us - then things are much worse than I supposed. I know that if I comment on some school shooting, or government intrusion, or conspiracy, or something like that - I get all types of folks coming out of the woodwork to comment, debate, etc. But if I write or deliver a sermon on something critical and vital to the people who call themselves "Christians" today, it passes by like a lead baloon, with little or no comment. An interesting commentary on YOU - the professing Christian today. Anyway, here are the links to the two sermons:

Wisdom in the Proverbs, Part I
Wisdom in the Proverbs, Part II

I do hope all is well with you all and may God continue to bless you.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Of Cold and Heat

8/14/07 - 3rd Day - After Breakfast. I finished writing a little mini-commentary set of sermons on the first five Proverbs that I think you all should either read or listen to. I wanted to post the sermon links this morning, but the internet has been working remarkably slowly and I have been unable to get them uploaded. I will try again later in the day.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. It was very hot, but we had a solid breeze and some cloud cover for most of the day. As Danielle said, "Part of the day it was partly cloudy".

Yesterday, I spent some time on the back of the land working on the RV we procured (which is going to be my office for awhile) trying to get the propane refrigerator working. I had trouble keeping the pilot light lit, but finally got it running and it seems to be working great. Next I will be removing the refrigerator and mounting it in a cabinet I am going to build here in the cabin. The area where the refrigerator was will become a bookshelf in the Office RV. We will also be removing the propane stove at some time in the future. The stove will be installed in an outdoor "summer kitchen" when we get one built. Most of the cabinets and storage in the RV will become bookshelves. Then I will build a work area and desk. During Fall Ranchfest, we will (Lord Willing) be building a shed roof and screened porch over/around the RV so I can start using it.

Anyway, I am very happy to get the fridge going - since a propane fridge of this size would cost us about $1200 + shipping if we were going to buy one.

I hope all is well with you all,

Michael Bunker

Pure Water

8/13/07 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. Last week we heard on local radio that the city of Coleman, Texas (about 15 minutes to our west) was having water problems, and that the citizens were being asked to boil their water. Apparently an inspector who was checking the water mains discovered high levels of pathogens in the water. So the entire city was put on a "must boil" plan for several days. This serves to highlight the dangers of urban (and suburban) living. Some new friends we have met who live in Coleman who do not listen to the radio or watch TV went over a day without even knowing about the boil order. Most urbanites do not even realize that (as bad as their water is usually) that at any moment their taps can be conduits of toxic waste, fecal matter, etc. Some folks said, "well, we don't drink the water anyway - we buy ours from a store"... the problems of store bought water aside, that doesn't mean that there aren't dozens of other dangers, including the toxic water used to make ice, cook, clean, etc. Nobody seemed to ask how long the water was toxic and not potable before some technician noticed it.

Of course this is all representative of the folly and danger of living in urban areas. Jesus Christ is the water of life, and it is perfectly harmonious that city dwellers would be partaking of toxic water when the Bible teaches us to live separate, rural, Agrarian lives. The Bible defines freedom and safety as to "drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well" (Prov. 5:15). Drinking out of ones own cistern was both very good advice, and a spiritual type of how, if we are loyal and true, we will not suffer the toxins (both spiritual and carnal) of infidelity. The Romans were the first to capitalize on large water projects in order to aid in urban living, and to keep people from spreading out across the land and subduing it as God commands. Mankind desires to overthrow the sovereignty of God, therefore he gathers in league together to try to thwart the consequences of sinful ideas and behaviors. It doesn't matter how long people have "successfully" participated in urban water projects - because God's promise is to those who will be free and not to those who will be slaves (while thinking they are free). Only the fool believes he can continue to overthrow the commands and threatenings of God forever without consequence, merely because he has convinced himself that other generations have done so. Each generation in kind has suffered (both here and eternally) for their urban rebellion, and this generation will as well.

I can already see the modern religious pimps out there oiling up their rhetorical swords, prepared to defend themselves against the charge of foolishness and of rejecting the wisdom of God. God says that if we would be free, we should drink from our own cistern or our own well - they will say that God intends no such thing, which is why they drink feces and toxins and call themselves pure.

Otherwise....

Sorry to rant there for a minute. The weather is warm and dry, and we are once again praying for rain. Our worldview and philosophy requires that we seek our pure water at the hand of a sovereign God, and not at the end of a corporate tap.

We were blessed with another new calf on the Lord's Day! Holga gave birth to a healthy calf (no word on the sex yet, but I'll let you know). Word is it is a beautiful healthy calf, and we praise God for it. We continue to work on riding and training Pita (who was born here almost exactly a year ago), and our other cattle are doing well. Hopefully we will start milking Holga here in the next week or so.

Robert is back (I might have mentioned that) and is getting back into the farm routine. He and the girls have been out in the garden all morning, watering and picking. We harvested our 5 watermelons and I will probably be making some watermelon wine in the next few days.

We had a wonderful fellowship on the Lord's Day. Supper was jalapeno/cheese bratwursts, a pasta casserole dish, tomatoes and corn, garlic bread, a nice salad, and some deserts.

Now for a cool glass of water... from my own cistern.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Work, Work, and Off-Site Work

8/10/07 - 6th Day - After Breakfast. We've been pretty busy around here. It seems the days go by so fast. Danielle and the girls have been sewing and doing a lot of crafts. We have been working with Pita, saddling her when we can and leading her with one of the girls on her back. She is doing really well and seems born to it. Holga and Maria should be dropping their calves any day now, but no news yet. Neither has Luella the pig showed any signs of dropping piglets. She is just fat.

Yesterday, for the first time in 8 years I left the land to go work a "day job". It was only day labor with a local "vacation" rancher, but it qualifies as a "day job". I call him a vacation rancher because he is one of the many ranchers around here who do not live here. They live in a city somewhere, and they have made lots of money and they have "some land" out in this beautiful country. Some of them have a hundred or so acres - some have well over a thousand. Most of them either have full time ranch hands who work the land, or they hire workers to come run fences, clear brush, etc. The fella we worked for lives in the city and calls his 300 acre ranch his "play place". HIs wife has a "play place" up in the mountains of New Mexico. It was good, hard work, and we were paid well - which is nice. Brother's David and Kelly worked with me. The guy really liked us and said that we worked hard, so he paid us an extra dollar an hour. I have been thinking about working some day work for some time, but for years I either did not have the time - or I was afraid my work and writing would suffer too much. But it has become clear that most (of course not all) of the folks who partake of the ministry have no intention of supporting it. That's all up to God of course, and we are pleased in whatever direction He would move us. I was always afraid that abandoning the ministry (even part time) would be a curse on those who partake in it freely - but that too, is up to God.

Robert returns home this morning! We are pleased that our son Robert is going to be returning home from his Yankee wanderings. I look forward to debriefing him and starting his deprogramming.

The crew building Brother David's barn has almost completed it. Don't know how much longer, but it should go fairly quickly.

The gardens are hurting from a lack of rain, but we are praying and continue to hope for the best. We have been watering some using David's well - but you really can't water enough when it is close to 100 degrees and dry.

Hope all is well with you all,

Michael Bunker

Update and a Homesteading Idea

8/06/07 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. The summer heat has finally set in down here in Texas. Basically, although we have had a few hot days, it has been like an extended spring down here until this first week of August. Temps close to 100 are expected over the next week or so, with no rain in the forecast. The good news is that seasonally we are on the downhill trend, and we only have about 6 weeks left in summer. All-in-all it has been a dynamite year weather-wise, and we are not complaining at all.

More tomatoes and green beans. Tracy is canning about 10 quarts of tomatoes this morning, which is nice. I'm starting to make plans for planting some fall garden crops. Our pig is huge, and we still are not certain if she is pregnant, though we suspect she is not. So it looks like we will be putting up a lot of pork here in a few weeks, which will help us this winter as well. I also have a goat to butcher as soon as the temps cool a bit, which will be some more meat and sausage we can utilize throughout the coming fall and winter.

Mr. Sifford reports that our cows are ready to drop any day now. He said Maria and Holga should be dropping their calves any time. This will be our last calf from Holga since we traded her to the Ante's for their motorhome (for me to use for an office). So, if the Lord wills it, my heard should be increasing by two in the next week or so, which, minus Holga, will bring my personal heard to 8. We are continuing the training of Pita, and she is doing really well. Sometime this afternoon we should be saddling her up for another ride.

Lord willing, Robert will be back with us on Friday morning some time. We continue to pray for his safe return.

Here is a response to another question which came about because of my answer to an earlier question about Homesteading which was posted on this blog:

Michael,

I read your recent treatise on off-grid living (from the last Q&A) and I am interested in hearing more about it. This is the type of thing I would like to read more of on BA. You state that most Christians right now are able to afford to move off-grid. Can you give examples? How would this be done?

Thank you.

We discussed this at great length at one time on another forum we had about homesteading. On that forum I laid out a proposed bottom-dollar homesteading plan which involved building a cabin on 5 acres of land. In this response, I will discuss another option that I think virtually any Christian in any situation can afford (with few exceptions). This plan is not in any way complete, but will have to suffice for this Q&A arena, but is based on two more years of experience in homesteading and off-grid living.

In this plan, the procurement of land will not be discussed (that is the topic for another question in another Q&A perhaps). For our purposes, we will assume that between 2-5 acres have been procured at a cost of $1500 an acre, which is entirely possible in some areas, and is more per acre than we paid for the land we currently occupy. Some might think that 2-5 acres is preposterously small for a homestead, and in some ways that might be true – but there are many, many people homesteading this amount of acreage, and several of their accounts on the Internet show them profitably marketing crops and other items from this amount of acreage. It is unarguable that a family of virtually any size can produce more than enough food and sustenance for themselves to prosper on 2-5 acres of farm land if it is wisely used. According to this plan, then, somewhere between $3000 - $7000 has been spent on land. Once again, for the naysayer who immediately responds (HA! I don't have $3000 - $7000 for land; first... YES YOU DO, and second... I said that issue is for another Q&A).

This plan is one I have recommended for several different people in several different situations, but, as of yet, not one person has taken my advice. Too bad. I am currently taking my own medicine, as I propose to use this plan in building my “office” on the back of the land. This plan also takes heed of the wisdom found in Proverbs:

Pro 24:27 Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.

Which is not to say that it is not permitted to prepare a place to live first, only that it is wise that we create a temporary dwelling place (a tent, small cabin, camper, etc.) while we prepare our fields and farm, and THEN we should build our permanent home. This is so that if a disaster were to come, or if some social or political unrest should make life difficult, our farm will already be in food production which will sustain us if the Lord wills.

Ok, in this plan we are going to acquire a camper (trailer, RV, etc.) of some sort and size, according to our needs. One of the men that lived here at one time purchased an old Winnebago RV for 800 dollars. It still ran well enough to get it here. It would sleep two very comfortably, and possibly a married couple with a child. Another family here purchased a large used RV for $3000 that easily housed their family of 5. I have seen campers and trailers for $1500 that would do well for my family of 6, though we would certainly live in tight quarters for some time. That “closeness” is good for a family at some level, and the bad elements of it can be alleviated by further parts of the plan.

Also, please note that this plan is conceived from Central Texas, where we have our own unique challenges to overcome (heat, drought, bugs, etc.). Your own area will have its own concerns that you will want to identify before you begin.

We are using a camper or RV because it is already a self-contained homestead. Most campers (even old ones) already have most of the things you might want as “amenities”, such as a multi-source refrigerator (propane, 12V, and 110), propane stove, hot water heater, sink, shower or tub, etc. In most of these used campers, these items are more valuable than the cost of the entire camper. In fact, I recommend homesteaders look into RV or camper bargains merely for salvage value. One of the campers we have found has a working 4,000 watt Diesel generator. The RV I bartered for my office has a generator, a large propane refrigerator, and a propane stove.

The camper is pulled onto an ideal area of the land (ideal for its purpose, but preferably NOT where you are ideally going to build your permanent house or other structures. This camper can be used (in the future, after a house is built) as a guest house or office. An outhouse can be dug in most regions in a day. In our case, due to the abundance of rock about 4 feet down, a backhoe was used to dig the outhouse hole. You do not want to build your outhouse too close to your future garden, or within 100 feet of any source of water. We built our outhouse of used and spare lumber, but a very nice outhouse can be built for only a few hundred dollars. Do not neglect to use the outhouse roof as a catchwater by installing guttering and having it flow into some type of barrel or other catchwater system. One of the single men in our community has survived very well on catchwater coming from his camper and his outhouse for several months.

Next you will want to build a “shed roof” over the camper. A shed roof is simply a single sloping roof line that slopes from the front to the back. Basically you are going to build a roof over the camper which slopes to the rear (not as if you were driving or pulling the camper, but the rear being the side opposite the front door). This shed roof will cover the entire camper, extending 8-10 feet to the front, and a foot or more to the rear. The roof should also extend several feet (or more if desired) to either side of the camper. Think of it as building a carport under which you will park your camper. You will want the carport roof to be big enough to keep the summer sun off of the camper for most of the day. You will also want it to be high enough to allow the heat to blow away that permeates the roof line... so maybe 10 inches to a foot of space minimum above the camper. I would use steel roofing on the shed roof (or corrugated steel) because you are going to be utilizing the catchwater as a primary source of water.

Next you will screen in the area of the shed roof, effectively screening in the camper. If you ever plan on moving the camper again, one wall of the screened porch can be made into a hinged, screened door that can be opened and the camper pulled out. We screened in our front porch using a large roll of screening and 2x4 boards. We split the 2x4's (making 2x2's), which worked great. The screening is rolled out and stapled to the boards, and then the stapled areas are covered with trim material (we used old salvaged wood fencing slats). Now you have a screened room (hopefully quite a bit larger, maybe twice as large, as the camper) that can be used to spread out a bit, and to stay cooler in the summertime. Bring in a picnic table for outdoor food preparation and for eating and now you have a summer kitchen. Skirt in the area under the camper (this keeps out cold winter winds, and gives you an area for storage), and, if needed, build a small storage shed in one corner of the screened in area. Attach guttering and build a catchwater system. If you are thinking ahead, you can run your catchwater into a small elevated tank with a pipe or hose running into your camper water system (an external water filter system can be used before the water enters the camper). The elevated tank can be rigged with an overflow which sends excess water into a larger, ground level tank (or a cistern) where large amounts of water can be stored for future use. The small elevated tank will give you water pressure enough to have the water flow into the camper. Most campers have a 12 volt water pump that is operated off of the battery.

As I said, most RV's and campers have a built in 12V power system. This system is ideal for homesteading use. The batteries can be charged using a solar panel, or a small generator. A single 110 watt solar panel can be purchased for less than $600, and a generator can be purchased for anywhere from $250 - $700. The solar panel does not require gasoline though. If the camper came with a generator, you might use that until you can purchase a solar panel to charge batteries. The 12V system in most campers can be used to power the lights, the refrigerator, and the outlets for short periods of time. If you want more power, a battery bank system can be put together using several batteries with far greater storage capacity. It is preferable to use propane to run the refrigerator and the stove. Better yet, don't use these things at all. Get to work on a root cellar, and procure a wood burning stove which can be installed outside in the screened area for cooking.

Get your garden prepared for planting, and begin to procure animals as well. You are officially an Agrarian homesteader.

Here you have land, shelter, water, heat, etc. and you are ready to begin to produce food. All of this can be done for as little as $6500 (not counting the land), and if you want to do the solar panel system with a battery bank – closer to $9000. There will be incidental expenses, most of which are included in that amount, but all of this does not have to be done at once. It can be done incrementally over a (hopefully short) period of time. If barter and trade are used, and used and salvaged materials can be gotten, then this can be done for far, far less than the amount I have mentioned.

What are you waiting for?

Michael

Of Children, Gardens, and Riding Heifers

8/03/07 - 6th Day - Preparation of the Sabbath. We received 1/4 of an inch of rain over the last couple of days - which was nice. Yesterday was like a nice, cool, fall day. My youngest daughter turned 4 years old yesterday. We do not celebrate birthdays, but I had fun teasing her all day about getting old. I asked her how old she would be next August 2nd and she said, "16". Then she asked me when she would be able to have a baby "like Mrs. Sustaire" (our friend here in the community who had a beautiful baby girl this past Sabbath). Little Sarah never ceases to amaze me with the things she will say. Yesterday, Danielle found a small box turtle and brought it home to the girls. We were sitting on the porch enjoying the cool of the day when we heard Sarah squeal "It's a box turtle so put it in a box!".

Today we will be picking green beans and tomatoes again - and probably canning some more. I was organizing the root cellar the other day and so far we have had a fairly good year in food preparation.

Pita update

Ok, so on tuesday we put the saddle on Pita again. She was so calm and submissive with it that I had Chris Woods put Jennifer up in the saddle. Pita didn't seem to care one bit, so I led her around for 10 minutes or so before bringing her back to the corral. Pita was so calm and pleasant about it that we decided to start doing a little more and more each day. On Wednesday we walked her around a bit longer, then on Thursday I put Tracy (who is 14 and weighs quite a bit more than Jennifer) on Pita. Pita handled it fine, so we went on a long walk, then I put Tracy AND Jennifer on her, and she handled that like a champ too. Yesterday the girls were busy cleaning up so Danielle volunteered to ride Pita, so we saddled Pita up and Danielle got on board and we went for a long walk up to the Sifford's land to see the progress on their new barn. When we got up there Danielle dismounted, we tied off Pita to graze some and did a tour of the barn construction. Pita did all of this remarkably well. When we got back to her for the return trip, she stood dutifully as Danielle remounted and I went to go untie her from the tree. Well, when Pita saw me turn my back for a second, and she thought I was not holding on to the rope, she bolted (or something scared her). Danielle did good to stay on, but then the saddle started to twist and she decided it would be better to bail off than to maybe get trampled. I had the rope at this time and quickly Pita settled down. Danielle hit pretty hard, but she popped up and said everything was alright. She dusted herself off and climbed back on and we took the walk home. It wasn't until later that she started to bruise a bit on her leg and she was stiffening up. Anyway, both PIta and Danielle handled the whole deal well, and we will be much more careful during this training process. Pita will probably have to be several months older and bigger before I can get on her, but we will keep her training going in the meantime. One day, Lord willing, it will be a remarkable sight as we ride Pita around the land and in the area. We are already planning on buying her a saddle with saddle bags - and I am planning on either building or buying a wagon for her soon as well. She is so calm and compliant that I am sure she will continue to do well.

I hope all is well with you all, we are looking forward to a quiet, peaceful, restful sabbath here on the ranch.

Michael Bunker

I cannot believe it is August

8/01/07 - 4th Day - After Breakfast. This summer is streaming by. It seems like it was July just yesterday. Our son Robert is still on his month-long trip up north, but we hope to have him home by mid-August. We are still in need of rain here, so your prayers about that would be appreciated.

If you like reading Agrarian blogs, here are my two favorites:

Tabletop Homestead

and

The Deliberate Agrarian

Both of them are excellent, interesting, and you can learn something - although both bloggers should be encouraged to blog more often, since I feel let down when I check them out and there is no new posts.

Anyway, I was laughing to myself about recommending these two blogs - because they are so much better than this blog, which 90% of the time consists of "There was weather... not much going on here... my pig is fat... I like brisket... "whew... it is (hot, cold, rainy, dry, windy, still... etc., whichever fits)".

So, did I tell you my pig is fat but I still don't know if she is pregnant? 95% probability she is not, but I won't be certain until later this month, when she will either drop piglets or go straight to the butcher.

Oh, and we need rain.

Thank you,

Michael Bunker