Off-Grid Living for Agrarians, Part 3

To Read Part 1, CIick Here

To Read Part 2, Click Here

It is time to discuss a very important point. In the previous part, I mentioned (and approved of) using "intermediate steps" in our process of going off-grid or separating from the wicked world system. An intermediate step could be anything from, say, selling your house and furniture and moving into an inexpensive apartment or camper, to getting a part time job that allows you more time to work on developing your homestead. Intermediate steps can be a propane freezer on your way to an icehouse, a refrigerator on your way to a root cellar, or a propane heater on your way to a woodburner. It is often both inevitable and necessary that we make use of intermediate means towards our ultimate goal. This is why this blog is entitled The PROCESS Driven Life, since we confess that obedience to God and our work here on earth is a process. We, as Christians, are to be PROCESS driven and not PURPOSE driven. Ultimate purposes and results belong to God, but obedience is ours. In our move of obedience, often we will make use of intermediate means - which I described in the previous part. Ok, so for example, I mentioned that moving from grid electricity to intermediate means (like propane, kerosene lamps, generators, solar power, etc.) is not only acceptable, but pretty necessary. So long as we recognize the inherent weaknesses in dependence on these things, and so long as we take steps to mitigate the dependence and the ultimate damage when (and if) our ability to use these things is lost, then we may use them to help us separate from the world system. Another example... there is nothing inherently wrong with my using a battery operated drill - so long as I recognize the inherent weaknesses in the dependence on battery power; so long as I recognize that this battery powered drill may not always be available to me; so long as I make plans for being able to continue my work if battery powered drills become useless to me, etc., then I am in a good position. Then I am not operating from a position of weakness. This same philosophy, then, should be applied to everything we do.

So now to the "very important point" I mentioned. Pay close attention. There is no greater danger to our well-being and our eventual freedom from the grid system than to rely inordinately on, or to trust in, intermediate means. Let me explain...

A truism you must face - PEOPLE ARE LIARS. Even you. And if you do not recognize that, then you are lying to yourself and doing terrible damage to yourself. Most of the dead bodies on the wayside of the pilgrimage out of the world grid system were killed by a lie they told themselves, and the cause of death was "reliance on intermediate means". Does this mean you are going to fail because you rely on battery powered drills? NO. Probably not, anyway; but, like I said, the philosophy applies to every area of your life. Remember that you are a liar, and most of the things you tell yourself about yourself are not true. As a professing Christian you have enemies (The World, The Flesh, and The Devil), and those enemies never cease to make war against you - and their most valuable weapon is YOU. Here is how this thing works. Many people deify the devil and blame him for everything bad that happens to them. Well, I can assure you that the devil need not have anything to do with most professing Christians... they are doing fine damaging or even damning themselves. The World (over which the devil reigns as the Prince of this World) and its deceptions, dainties, comforts, business, concerns, etc., is plenty enough to damn the souls of almost every man who will ever live. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The carnal man automatically loves the world, and defends it, and will not let go of it - and almost no one sees it for what it is. So the love of this world is the reason that most people who tell themselves they want to separate from the world will not succeed. They cannot leave what they say they hate, because they really love what they say they hate. They will merely redefine what they mean when they say "world". The modern religousite has redefined the word "world" to mean - anything that has a sticker on it with a satanic symbol, or that blatantly is involved in the worship of Satan. But to them, the world economic system, the world political system, the world social system, the world education system, the world religious system - none of these things are part of the "world". Why? Because they love those things... or at least enough of those things that their use of them makes them inseparable or indiscernible from the world. This is not a rant, this is a fact. I am trying to tell you what the Bible means when it says "the world, the flesh, and the devil". The devil uses the world to appeal to your flesh. You, then, as fallen man, do what is natural to you - which is to love yourself and satiate your flesh. This does not mean that you have binges and orgies. This means that you always seek the comfortable and easy way, the way that is more pampering to your flesh. Since you are in love with the world, when you do become convinced in your mind that something is evil, if you are deceived by the devil, you will find some middle-ground that allows you to stay in the world but still say you are not "of it". You will find a way to take a half-step away from the world, but still stay in it as a part of it. This, then, is the danger of intermediate means. If you are not careful, you will park out (or camp) in "intermediate means" and you will make them your home and you will never separate from the world. You will convince yourself that since you are more separated then just about anyone else, that you are alright or acceptable - even if you are not. I've seen this more times than I can relate, and it is very, very dangerous.

It may be hard to get your mind around what I am saying, because I am NOT condemning intermediate means. I am not even saying that you MUST move past them to some perfect, idyllic, pre-industrial/agrarian life, and that the use of any of them after that is heresy. Some of us will likely always be using some intermediate means. I am saying that you must be able to see things rightly, and to recognize your natural proclivity to not do things all the way, and to rely inordinately on intermediate means. If you do this, then you are in just the same precarious position as the world, you are just one step removed from it. So, say you procure yourself 5 acres of land, build a cabin that is powered on solar power or generators, put up a store of food and batteries, and then rest as if you have it made. If a collapse happens, you are just one step away from being in the same situation as the world. Your lights won't go out as fast, but they will go out eventually, and if you have not made plans to operate without the assistance of the industrial world, then you will go down with it.

REASON

The basic point is that we must employ our REASON during the process of going off-grid. Let's don't get too focused on not paying an electric bill, then forget the real reasons we want to be independent from the system.

Time for some examples. All of these are real world examples of folks who suffer from the lies they tell themselves...

The man that I mentioned before goes out and gets him some land out in the country. He builds himself a cabin (or moves in a camper) and begins to sock away food and supplies. He may even get himself a few animals. He never gets around to planting a garden (or even planning to plant one) and he soon finds out that living off-grid, if it is not done properly, is just as expensive as living on the grid. He doesn't have an electric bill to be paid to the electric company - he pays it to the gas station instead in the form of gas for his generator. He still has a food bill, still has a phone bill, still has a clothing bill because he still does all of his shopping in town. What has changed? Well, he has to drive farther to get to all the stuff he still loves.

Another man decides to move off grid and does many of the same things. He decides, though, that rather than move to his off-grid life before he is ready, he will work his way out of the system. He minimizes his life and moves into a camper or a small rent room. He spends all of his money on getting prepared to go off-grid... The problem? He never does. He never pulls the trigger. His incremental nature causes him to slide unknowingly right back into everything he was doing before. He slowly begins to reacquire all of his "stuff" and the expenses related to that stuff. Pretty soon he is just as far away from going off-grid as he ever was, only now he doesn't have a nice house to do it all in, because he got rid of that.

There will always be a reason to NOT do what you know you should do. There will never be enough money, no matter how much you save, to go off-grid if your heart is still on-grid. However much you con yourself into thinking that you will one day miraculously have enough money to splash it all down on a pre-fab farm with everything off-grid and ready to go, that will never happen.

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

The problem is that people have things out of order. They want to build their house first (and by this I mean that they want to keep the fleshly man comfortable and protected above all things). They want all the comforts of the old worldly/industrial life before they are willing to pull the trigger on separating from that old industrial world. They want to bring Egypt with them. The Bible says that we should prepare for our future provision (food and water) BEFORE we worry about the comfort of our flesh (shelter). Don't go taking this too literally. I am not condemning anyone who throws up a quick shelter, so long as they are preparing for their future provisions too. I am pushing the more spiritual aspect of the verse - that we should think about what it will take to not be reliant on the world for our food and raiment, and then we should be concerned with creature comforts. For those just now planning to go off-grid, this means that if you sit there and plan out all of the alternative ways to keep your current standard of living (but do it off-grid) the sheer cost of that plan will keep you from ever implementing it. It will be overwhelming, and you never will have separated from the world, which was the whole point in the first place.

Going off-grid is often a slow and arduous project, and often it is incremental, and often the process relies completely on intermediate means. Those are facts. The problem is that, if we are truly serious about going off-grid, there must be progress. We must be constantly moving, and we will need to be constantly checking ourselves and our heart to make sure we aren't just whistling in the dark. We need to be on the pilgrim's path and not hanging around in Vanity Fair.

Are you moving out?

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

To go to part 4, Click Here

A Day at The Ranch

9/27/07 - 5th Day - After Supper. Wakened at 1 a.m. to what sounds like a storm blowing in. The wind is howling outside and Danielle is rushing around securing things. "There's lightning off to the north" she says as I try to shake the cobwebs from my head. In my sleep-addled state I think it is 5 a.m. and time to milk, so I lay there for a few seconds deciding how much I am going to hate milking in a thunderstorm. Danielle rushes around some more and I can hear things blowing around outside. When she comes back in I ask her the time and if it is time to milk. She tells me it is 1:08 and I relax back into my pillow. Usually I would fire up the laptop and be on storm duty, but my computer is out of commission. I get the two-way radio and turn it on, hoping that Elder David is watching the storm. I want rain, but not enough that I will be milking in the mud. I fall back into a deep sleep.

At 5 a.m. I hear Danielle and Tracy preparing the milking "stuff". At 5:30 Tracy comes to the door and says "I'm ready". I struggle to get out of bed, pull on my jeans and shirt... belt, boots, etc. Grab a flashlight and head out. Tracy, Danielle and I have it down to a routine, which is the way I like it. I am a man of habit, and I like no deviations from what works. No changes. No innovations. Same movements every day. I fill the bucket with grain and put it down for Holga. While I go through the fence, Danielle clips her lead to her halter. I grab the leg tie and secure her leg to the back post. I grab my sitting bucket and Tracy hands me the udder wash rag. I wash down the udder and hand it back and she hands me the milk bucket. Holga is a bit restless and is moving around a little, but I start on the milking. When my hands begin to cramp (which is pretty soon, I am a writer not a ham-fisted fence pounder) Tracy comes into the corral and takes over. She is really good at it. I always wondered why the women did all the milking. I keep Holga from moving around too much with steady pressure on her haunches. Holga is not really into it today. She is moving around, coughing, pulling on the lead. We get about half as much milk as usual, and it is obvious she has had enough. We give her some range cubes and that calms her for about 2 minutes, then she is back to pulling away. I decide to cut her loose and we let her go. Her calf (Chico) is not waiting for her at the gate like usual. Wonder where he is? We head back to the cabin to filter and process the milk. The dishes weren't put up from last night - which perturbs me not a little. The ice cooler was left open too. All of this on top of a reticent milk cow. Coffee is ready ahead of schedule though, which is nice. Danielle is making breakfast and I sit on the porch with my flashlight and my coffee to read in the John le Carré book that Kelly let me borrow. My computer is out of commission so I can't get online, so reading is a great fallback. When the first rays of daylight begin to show through the clouds I walk up to the front to see if Chico has been found. I find Holga, Pita, and Chico all along the north fence. Chico is suckling - probably enjoying the surplus that we didn't take from Holga.

Back to the book for a few minutes, then I go and rotate the solar trailer to prepare it for the morning sun. We make our solar trailer into a solar tracker by moving it every hour or so as the sun tracks across the sky. It is light enough now, so I walk down and check on the piglets. Luella is a little perturbed that we grabbed one of her piglets the other day to mark its ear. She remembers. She comes to the fence snorting at me, but calms down and lets me scratch her back. The piglets run around play-fighting one another. That seems to be all they do... fight, eat, run, play, fight, eat, sleep...

Another cup of coffee and breakfast is served. "Breakfast chili" which today is a delicious mixture of eggs, hamburger, sausage, cheese, beans, and maybe more. We add sour cream and eat it with tortilla chips. Always a treat.

Everyone is off to their chores now. Breakfast dishes, cleaning the porches. I'm back to my book for a short while.

Picking up acorns. Picking up acorns is now going to be a regular September/October chore. Hopefully followed by picking up mesquite beans in October/November. My studies into acorns have convinced me the labor is well worth it, and I have procured three thirty-two gallon trash cans for storing the harvest. The children hate picking up acorns, but they will do it anyway. If I had told them that IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM ARE THEY PERMITTED TO TOUCH, PICK-UP, or OTHERWISE STORE, ANY ACORNS - we would be spanking them all day for surreptitiously picking up acorns. But since they are commanded to pick up acorns, they hate it. Like pigs playing, they naturally must chafe against authority, order, necessity, or mandate.

8 a.m. - I call Elder David and inform him that Kelly Sustaire told me at 10 p.m. last night that we need to go pick up a donated yearling steer this morning. A friend is donating the steer for hamburger, hopefully for a Ranchfest hamburger cook-out. We are supposed to pick up the steer and keep him until Tuesday, when he has an appointment at the butcher's. David is duly informed, and I try to get hold of Kelly so he can arrange the pickup with the donor.

10:20 David calls - Our donor friend (Frank) is willing for us to pick up the steer this morning, so David says he will be by within the hour to pick me up. We head to Brownwood with the cattle trailer, hoping to be back at a decent time to get some more work done today. I had told Brother Logan that I would help him move some book boxes today, but I'm not sure I will be able to get over there.

Well, I hadn't been to Brownwood since around May 7 that I can remember. Which is fine by me. Brownwood is the closest "large" town, and I don't like to go there unless I have to. Today, I have to. We run a few errands in town, then stop at Cafe Millonario (a local Mexican Food joint) for lunch. The food is good and cheap - and the bonus is that they now have a buffet. I have two tacos, beef enchiladas, one chicken enchilada, and two tortillas. $5.99. We finish lunch and call Frank who is with Brother Kelly (who is working with him today), and they are going to meet us at the ranch that has some of his cattle. Frank has a lot of cattle, spread out over 3 or 4 ranches - so you have to travel a bit to see all of his animals. The place with the yearling steer we are going to pick up has about 30 cattle (that I saw). There is one big 15 year old steer who has horns that are at least 7 feet across. WOW. I cannot impress upon you how big that is. 7 feet across! This is an impressive animal. Mabye 1500-1800 lbs. Anyway, we run about 10 of the cows into a pen, then separate out about 5 of them. Then we separate out our target steer and easily get him loaded into the trailer. This is a sweet and easy job when the pens and corrals are set up properly. So now we stand around and talk to Frank. Frank is one of the foremost experts on pure Longhorn cattle in the whole world, and he LOVES to talk about Longhorns. So we talk Longhorns for 30 minutes or so, then we hop in the truck to leave. Well Frank, who LOVES to talk Longhorns (did I tell you that?), comes by and says, "Hey guys, I don't know if you guys have 5 minutes, but if you do, I just received 4 mounted Longhorn heads from Fayette Yates widow (Yates is THE name in Longhorn cattle, just do a search on him), and you would probably really enjoy seeing them. And if you have another 5 minutes, we can run by another ranch and see some more of my cattle, where, by the way, there is a bull which is one that we could end up putting out at your place in the next year or so." So, twenty-five minutes later we are on another ranch, looking at another 40 or so beautiful Longhorn cattle and discussing the finer points of Longhorn breeding and history. Now, don't get me wrong, there is no man who you would want to talk Longhorns with more than Frank, and, since I am underemployed I have no problem spending all day talking Longhorns with Frank, but it is now well over 90 degrees with no wind and we are all starting to feel the heat... even the steer in the trailer. Another 30 minutes and we are off to Frank's house (for just 5 minutes!) to see the Longhorn heads he has on his wall. We see the beautiful mounts, and some other very interesting horns and after another 30 minutes of cattle talk, we are on our way home. I am personally soaked through with sweat and the steer in the trailer is doing no better. At least I have some water. It takes us about 45 minutes to get home and just as we pull in to the front of the property, it starts to rain. Well, we need the rain, so I'm not complaining, but the temporary UPS guy has left a box of cigars right by the mail box and didn't even wrap the box in plastic. The cigars are late anyway and now I am a little upset that the UPS guy didn't even think to wrap the box, or just bring it down to the cabin like our regular UPS guy does. Ok, it is raining pretty good by now, so when we get to the corral Tracy meets me with my raincoat and my hat - which is nice. Sometimes she is very thoughtful that way. Well... usually she is, which is very nice for a father. David and I get the steer into the corral, and we retire to the front porch to inspect my cigars (which were in fine shape, by the way) and have a nice beer. We hang out until the rain stops, then David heads up to his land - having blown most of the day hanging out with me, for which he receives no remuneration - just my thanks.

I run down and check the pigs and make sure the new steer has plenty of water, and then I sit down to regale the family with tales of Longhorns with 7 feet of horns (which I suppose is better than some beast with 7 horns of feet).

Ok, so the best story we heard from Frank today: He shows us these two sets of mounted horns which were really kind of old, mangled, and gnarly looking. They looked like an off-white version of those snake fireworks you would light on the 4th of July, that curl around and just look nasty. They look like they might have come off of some African mythical beast, or off of a ROUS, or maybe a huge demented jackalope. Well, the story is that these two sets of horns came off of a set of cows owned by Fayette Yates way back in the day. One of the cows was 28 years old, and the other was 23. You should know that most commercial/industrial cattle only live about 10 years tops, and they only produce for about half of that time, so these are the cow equivalent of Sarah in the Bible (maybe 90 in human years). Well, these two old cows had calves on them at the ripe old age of their mid to late 20's. Well, when Fayette goes to wean their calves (the story goes) the very day that he takes the calves off of them, they turn around and walk off and go under some huge beautiful oak tree and die. They had done their duty, raised scores of calves, had grown old - and went and died together. Great story. The horns were really old and gnarly though. Frank says that when a cow gets that old, that their horns really get ugly. Interesting. I would like to have those horns, just so I could tell that story a dozen times or more a year.

Ok, so the family sits on the porch until suppertime. At about 7 p.m. we sit down to supper of Brisket, green beans, okra, and cornbread. Very delicious. The sun starts setting as the wife and children begin to clear the table and do the dishes, and I retire to the now darkened screened porch to finish this tale. I light a cigar, have a scotch, and listen to the cicadas and crickets as darkness sweeps over the land. Right now, as I finish this line, a cool breeze has begun to blow... the perfect period at the end of a great day here on the ranch.

I am your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Laptop Down and Out

9/26/09 - 4th Day - After Breakfast. Make sure to read the Off-Grid Living, part 2 which is posted right under this one. Everything is going well enough here. One of those spates of "everything breaks" going on with us. We got the generator back from the shop $150 later. It has a new carburetor and is running fine but it is still burning oil quite a bit. We sent in our other fall back generator which broke down last year with hopes that it can be revived as well. we are still waiting to get our tiller back from the shop, and we have another generator to send in as well (one that we salvaged from an older RV). Well, we have been having laptop troubles for some time. Danielle's laptop tanked on us so we were using mine. Then mine tanked and I as able to rig hers to work occasionally enough to get my work, sermons, etc. done until it tanked again. Then I cut up and rewired my plug in cable and got mine to work for a week or so again until it stopped working again. So yesterday I asked Elder David to take my laptop to the shop to see if there is anything they can do. It seems that the power card which is on the motherboard is shot and it will cost over $350 to get a new one put in. This is more than 1/2 the cost of the laptop. Right now I am writing on a borrowed laptop so I can update everyone on the situation. I can't write sermons or upload anything until I get the situation fixed somehow.

Here is what I think has happened. First, laptops are very sensitive electronic equipment. We were told by the guy who manufactured our solar trailers that the inverters he used are not ideal for running computers, etc - they are not "pure sine wave" inverters. I figured this has something to do with it, but I was curious way David Siffords laptops haven't fried as well. Then I thought about it some more and I figured there are some differences. I haven't asked him, but if David plugs his laptop into his RV then the power is running off of his onboard 12V system which might funnel the power through a more appropriate inverter. Also, we switch our power back and forth between the generator and the solar trailer, so quite often we cut power without going in and shutting everything down. More damaging than a "blackout" or immediate loss of power is a "brownout" where power is lost slowly. This happens quite often the way we do things, since sometimes our generator runs out of gas, and sometimes we cut power to switch power sources. Ideally we would have our computer power running through a back-up power system which allows a bit of power storage to shut off the computer properly when power is lost. These also protect against "brownout" or dips in power. They also provide a more pure electric signature which sensitive electronics need. You can buy these locally for a hundred to two hundred dollars.

Anyway, I figure it will cost us between $500 (if we repair my computer) and $1000 (if we buy a new one and dump all the data onto it) which includes the price of the backup power system. I hesitate letting folks know about this need right now with 9 days left until Ranchfest because we are still way behind in raising funds for Ranchfest, and isolating a specific need sometimes means folks will send money specifically for that and forget about Ranchfest, which is more pressing.

Anywho... if anyone wants to help out specifically with the computer situation - please let me know via email. Please make sure that it is not moneys you were already earmarking for Ranchfest, because Ranchfest needs to be taken care of first. Email me at: editor(at)lazarusunbound.com or send help to:

M. Bunker
1251 CR 132
Santa Anna, Tx 76878

I will try my best to keep you all updated, depending on the availability of borrowed equipment.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

P.S. Don't forget that Off-Grid Living, Part 2 is posted right before this post.

Off-Grid Living for Agrarians, Part 2

To Read Part 1, Click Here

I apologize that this series is not better organized. It is more "train of thought" since I am typing stuff as it comes to me. Maybe it will work out anyway.

Many people truly believe (either consciously or subconsciously) that it is enough to know the truth, even if you never act on it or obey it. The Bible teaches that to know the truth and not to act on it and obey it is a curse and is the sign of the damned. In every movement of God where he brings His people into greater holiness and separation, there will always be those who try to ride the fence or tread the middle ground. Jesus rebuked this notion that you could follow Him out of the camp while still remaining in it.

Ok, in our first part we discussed the grid system, its purpose (both spiritual and physical) and the results of being enslaved to the world system. We recognized the need to get out of it, and discussed some ways to begin training ourselves to leave that system for good. It is necessary that we know that not only CAN we make it off the grid, but that most of humanity for 6000 year has lived without any electric grid at all. My grandparents lived a good portion of their lives with no electrical power. Electrical dependency is a new phenomena and it is only the historical ignorance, covetousness, and slavish colonized mind of the worldling that convinces him that it will be difficult or impossible to leave the system.

George Clooney's character in the movie Oh, Brother Where art Thou? said this about the soon to come electrical grid:

"Everything's gonna be put on electricity and run on a paying basis. Out with the old spiritual mumbo jumbo, the superstitions, and the backward ways (editors note: this means Christianity and Agrarianism). We're gonna see a brave new world where they run everybody a wire and hook us all up to a grid. Yes, sir, a veritable age of reason. Like the one they had in France. Not a moment too soon."

Of course we know what the age of reason in France eventually produced... a little thing called The Reign of Terror, which claimed 40,000 victims (almost half by guillotine) in about a year. You see, it was a slippery slide... Prior to the Age of Reason, it was believed that all knowledge could only be gained via the Pope and the "church" alone. Next came the Age of Reason which held that all knowledge could be gained via reason alone. Next came the Age of Enlightenment, which held that all knowledge could be gained by the use of reason AND the five senses. Next came the Age of Revolution, that held that reason and the senses were useless unless they existed at the right end of a gun. Next came the Age of Industry, which said that reason and knowledge were only useful in the pursuit of gain... the gain of money, property, riches, "leisure time", etc. Next came the Age of Information, which holds that all of the benefits of all the brilliant and successful previous ages can be had at 1/2 price if everyone will just log on, sign in, and submit; shop at the same stores, wear the same clothers, watch the same shows, bow to the same false "gods". Coming next, of course, is the Age of Judgment, where all of these ideas and all those who succumbed to them will stand before a righteous God.

I digress again...

Ok, so we want to get off-grid, but how? We have to know what we do want, how we want to live, and that it is certainly possible for us to live that way. We have to look past the giants in the land and trust in God and His promises. Sell everything, eradicate debt, try to use every dollar eliminating the future need of more dollars. Study alternate methods of doing everyday tasks. Realize that you are on a journey, and that "off-grid" is not a destination, but a continuous battle. Your battle can start like ours did. We decided to turn off the lights and use them as little as possible. We bought oil lanterns and began to use them when the sun goes down. Since I am recommending oil lamps, there is a point I need to make here... and it will be helpful to consider in your progress and plans. Hopefully this is a helpful digression:

Any solution that requires that you continue indefinitely to buy something that you cannot make or produce on your own, is only a temporary or stop-gap solution. Ask yourself what would happen if some type of "eschaton" or world changing event happened. How long would you be able to keep doing something you are now doing if the world was never again going to revert back to normal? I was talking about lighting, so let me illustrate...

It is not a permanent or final solution to replace grid electricity with kerosene lanterns - unless you can make, or have an endless supply of, kerosene. Unless you can produce kerosene or some other type of burnable, safe, oil... like Olive Oil maybe, then lanterns may not be your solution. Sure you can store kerosene, but you can't store enough and eventually you will run out. This is doubly important to realize when you know what is going on with our petroleum supplies in this world. You cannot count on having ANY petroleum product in the future. Period. So kerosene lanterns are not a permanent solution. Next, ask yourself what your forefathers did.

First, we should point out how our ancestors handled the lighting issue. When it got dark, most of our forefathers went to bed. Although there were folks in previous generations who wrote, sung, laughed, loved, and lived by candlelight - most folks just went to bed. Candles are an option, if you can make them and you can continue to produce the "stuff" from which they are made. We raise pigs, so we can make tallow and fat candles, but they will be precious and we will not want to burn them all up every night. When it is dark, go to bed.

Second, like I said, candles will work, and are a good permanent solution if you can make them. Solar is a good solution, but not a permanent one. In order for solar power to be good for powering lights at night you must have battery storage, and batteries will not last forever. They will have to be replaced. If you have solar power, think of it as a 1-5 year headstart on making yourself candle rich.

Every aspect of your life has to be looked at from this point of view. It is good to be off-grid and able to live separate from the system - with, say, propane, diesel, kerosene, solar power, etc. That is good and it is miles and miles better than being tied to the world system. But it is the difference between "tied" and "loosely tied". In the long run we can become enslaved to those things just as easily, and if our lifestyle doesn't change, if we don't become more obedient and different from the world, then we will have merely delayed the inevitable. Start thinking about water, food, heat, light, cooling, food production, preservation, and storage. Think of all of these things and come up with a system (a road map) that will get you there. Ask for help. Ask questions. Listen. Learn. Realize that most of the questions we ask ourselves are based and informed by false presuppositions. I had a lady once who asked me how she would curl her hair if she didn't have grid power or if the power ever went out for good. I couldn't even begin to address all of the false presuppositions behind the question. So I didn't answer it. We have to realize that it is not some of the things that we think that are wrong. Virtually everything that we think is wrong.

Ok, back to power and lighting. I use a lot of rechargeable batteries, and I use a lot of solar products to recharge the batteries. This allows me to do most of my work without having to go back and forth to town. In a crisis, most of the things I use batteries for are NOT critical, so I will not be at a loss to live without them. So batteries are a good intermediate solution, and they help us do a lot of things we need to do right now as we move out of the system. I have several very low power LED lamps, reading lights, and flashlights. I try to buy everything to take AA batteries, but some of them take AAA. I buy NiMH (Nickel Metal-Hydride) rechargeable batteries in bulk, and I recharge them several ways. I have several solar rechargers that recharge the batteries directly from the sun. I also have some regular AC plug in rechargers that I can plug into my power system that is run and maintained by solar power. This way I always have batteries that are ready to go. We use AA batteries to power our radios and communication devices too. There are literally dozens of new lighting ideas and sources out there that use low wattage to power them. Check things out and begin to store up and use these things. Remember, especially in the fall, winter, and spring - kerosene lighting is a good intermediate solution as well. As long as this type of energy source is available and affordable we can use them as we come out of the industrial system.

Many years ago we bought some battery-powered 18V power tools when we were building our barn back in Smyer. I had a choice between buying some really nice and expensive ones, or some really cheap ones. I decided to buy the cheap ones (Ryobi) and figured if they got me through that one project, they would have been worth the price. 4 years later we are still using them. The original set came with a drill, flashlight, a hand vacuum, and a circular saw. We bought a second set of batteries a year and a half ago. A year ago while doing the root cellar project I was irritated that the batteries weren't lasting very well and we had so many things going on that I needed to have a set on hand charging so I went to town to buy another set of batteries and a second charger. It was going to cost $59.99 for the batteries and charger, or I could get a whole second set of tools with batteries and charger for $99.00. So I bought the second set. This allowed us to have a second set of tools so we could have more people working at once. This gave us a second flashlight too. I tell you all of this to say that the flashlights in these sets are awesome and work very well. Later I bought a car charger so I can charge the batteries in my truck whenever I go to town. Now they have created dozens of other tools and accessories that will run off of these 18V batteries. We use our Ryobi flashlights every night and every morning since we are up before the sun. We milk the cow by these lights as well.

You also want to buy several (many) of these flashlights they have which don't take batteries. We call them "shake lights" since you have to shake them to charge them up. They are an irritant if you need immediate (and/or silent) light, but they work great after about 30-60 seconds of shaking them. We had some of these for the children, but they inevitably lose them or break them so they end up borrowing the Ryobi lights and I just as inevitably end up using a shake light to go to the outhouse. You can also buy wind up flashlights which are good to keep in store. By the way, in the outhouse we have a light that is powered by rechargeable AA batteries. Harbor Freight and Home Depot sell solar powered night lights that charge during the day and stay on all night. We use these in the root cellar, you could use these just about anywhere you need some light at night.

Lehman's sells parts for olive oil lamps. These are "do it yourself" lamps and candles you can make that run off of olive oil. Basically they are pieces of twisted wire and wicks that you can drop down into any jar or large mouth bottle. We use canning jars and some other glass jars we buy for real cheap at garage sales. Anyway, they burn olive oil or any other type of bulk cooking oil. Olive oil works great, but you may not have an endless supply of it. You can also use these for making fat lamps and using cooking grease or other type of oil. Be careful and don't start a fire. Olive oil will not start a fire and usually other oils and greases will not because the temperature does not get hot enough. It would be good to have a very large supply of these inexpensive parts (wicks and wick holders) for emergencies. Check out Lehman's for a bunch of other lighting ideas from yesteryear.

Also, look into "fat lamps". Fat lamps were what was used before coal oil and other fuel lamps. The old "genie" lamps that people rubbed to get a genie to come out were fat lamps. They run off of rendered tallow from pigs. Perfect for us pig raisers.

I may have mentioned it, but I have a couple of reading lights I bought at a Harbor Freight store in Abilene. I have one mounted over my bed for night reading and one mounted on the front porch over a chair so I can read at night and early in the mornings after milking. Harbor Freight sells dozens of different low/no power lighting items including handcrank spotlights, solar powered lights, floodlights, flashlights, lanterns, etc., LED lights, etc.

We try not to use kerosene lanterns too much except when it is cold outside because they provide a lot of heat, which is great when it is cold, but not so great when it is not. 1 or 2 kerosene lanterns burning all night will keep the edge off in a small cabin or camper. Always, always, always make sure your sleeping quarters are vented if you have any type of flame burning overnight. You will die if you do not.

Well, that is it for lighting. I probably forgot something, so feel free to ask questions on this post if you have any.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

To Read Part 3, Click Here

Acorns

9/21/07 - 6th Day - Preparation of the Sabbath. After Breakfast. There are acorns everywhere. I was always told that acorns are poisonous (not true), and that squirrels plant oak trees by burying acorns and forgetting where they buried them (kind of true). In fact, squirrels keep a very detailed mental map of where they have buried acorns, but on occasion they do forget one or two. And sometimes they are eaten by bobcats before they go back to dig up their acorns, which really isn't "forgetting" where you buried them. Anyway, we have acorns everywhere which has led me this morning to studying about them. They were a food staple for the Indians and for many other cultures around the world. The main reason they are not a food staple now is because it is somewhat troublesome to take the time and effort to leech out all the tannins in them. I might try it. I can imagine an acorn/mesquite coffee this year... maybe. I mean, it seems a shame to have literally hundreds of pounds of acorns and only use them for pig food. By the way, we have been having the children pick up acorns for pig food. The pigs love them.

I'll be working on part two of the Off-Grid Living series, so expect it later today. Lots of thoughts on that. If you haven't read part one, CLICK HERE. If you have read part 1, please take the time to comment, ask questions, or discuss it using the comment link.

Hope all is well with you all.

Michael

Off-Grid Living for Agrarians, Part 1

9/20/07 - 5th Day - After Dinner (Dinner is Lunch for you Yanks). Special and Rare 2nd Edition. This is the 2nd post for today, so for you drive-by readers, that means you have to scroll down to read the first and normal posting for today.

I've had some questions about Agrarianism and off-grid power, so I thought I'd address them in a special edition of the blog. Basically this will just be a discussion of the whole concept of alternative power, and how it fits into the Agrarian "off-grid" ideal. It will likely be a many part series, and we will conglomerate all the parts into a single tract sometime later. So consider this OFF-GRID LIVING, PART 1.

First, the concept. Why is living "off-grid" so central to the idea of Biblical Agrarianism?

It is our opinion that industrialism and the inter-connected/inter-dependent world it requires to support it, is responsible for most of what is wrong with the world. Ok, sin is what is wrong with the world, but industrialism is the coalescence of all that sin does and can do in the world. It is distilled sin, in that it perpetuates and allows all that man imagines, and therefore, in industrialism nothing is restrained from man that he might imagine to do:

And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. (Gen 11:6)

Now this, then, makes industrialism the modern tower of Babel. It is the one language of the world, and it is the result of the carnal man saying "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven". Of course the city is urbanism and the tower is industrialism.

Ok, so if you disagree with that, then you have no reason to read further or to investigate Agrarianism. Your system (urban industrialism) is already here and is already out there on the plain of Shinar and you may go get your fill of it. If, however, you agree with what I have said, then Agrarianism is God's alternative. And, we should note, disconnecting from the current system is necessary for our spiritual safety, our physical well-being, and for our good. The "connection" that ties people into this system is the system we call "the grid". That grid consists of physical and spiritual connections and services that intertwine us with the world, and cause us to rely on the world system instead of on God. There is a huge difference between utilizing some aspect of the world system, as necessary, for the purpose of further separating from it (much as you would, if you were in a small boat, push off from a dock in order to gain speed to separate from it), and loving the world by being tied to it - so do not let naysayers and illogical barkers convince you that if you believe in separation, that this separation must be complete, total, and immediate - or else you are a hypocrite. Let dogs bark. You just go on about the business of being obedient. Dogs defend what they love - never forget that. A barking dog is just defending its first love.

Ok, so this world "grid" system is most perfectly represented by the electrical grid. In the electrical grid, everyone is tied together and reliant on some mega-corporate (or fascist state/corporate conglomerate) system to provide them with power. Now, the trick is to provide sooooo much power, and at such a seemingly low cost, that people will go out into the corporate industrial stores and buy tons of "stuff" that can be plugged eternally into wall sockets. Each one of these things in and of itself uses only a nominal amount of power, but each is designed to accomplish several things:

1. To cumulatively provide huge amounts of money to the power company.
2. To make us daily MORE dependent on the power company for the maintenance of a certain "standard of living".
3. To make us daily LESS viable as creatures dependent on God alone for our provision, safety, happiness, and well-being. In other words, each generation is less and less able to survive without the comforts and conveniences provided by grid power.
4. To enslave us to our baser lusts. The system itself is designed to provide proxies for all that God would have for His children. The grid-system provides a perpetual 72 degree womb where every carnal need is met instantly by the world system.

So, after fallen man discovered the ability to create electrical power and to channel it down long power lines to each individual dwelling, the marketing arm of Satan clicked into business. Daily, more and more power gulping systems and gadgets are provided which take mankind farther and farther away from the way that God has ordained that His people live. The Bible says this was the job of man before the fall:

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (Gen 2:15)

And this was the job of man after the fall:

Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. (Gen 3:23)

We are to work with our hands (1 Thess. 4:11), in the ground/soil (Gen. 3:23), and to be content with food and raiment (1 Tim. 6:8). The lie of the industrial grid system is that if you will enslave yourself to your baser lusts (for comfort, leisure, entertainment, sin) then you will not have to labor in the soil. That is basically the gist of it. That is why your parents always told you to go to a worldly college to get a degree... so you won't have to dig ditches. The world hates the idea of working in the soil, because that is what God has decreed for man. Anyway, I digress...

So this grid system is a tool of the world for the enslavement of the minds and hearts of the people. Once again, if you do not agree, you may go your way... your system is out there and you may go have your fill of it. If, however, you still agree - we can move on to the next step.

GETTING OUT

Getting "off-grid" looks like a monstrous and overwhelming task. It is the giant in the land that keeps us from going in and taking the good land that God has promised us. The grid system is easy and relatively cheap (when you consider that you are already in it, and enslaved to it) in that it will cost you more to get out than to stay in. To be honest, our flesh LOVES air conditioning and microwaves and hair dryers and such things. All the junk we plug in to outlets is designed to please our flesh. That is why they are so hard to get rid of. The first task in getting off-grid is to fall out of love with these things. To realize that they enslave us and they are poisonous to our souls and to our hope of eternal life. Not that going off-grid will save us - but be assured of this one thing, living for our flesh will certainly damn us. Think of going off-grid as going into a lifeboat from a sinking ship. You may not be saved if you go off the ship, but you will surely die if you stay on it. Anyway, we have to fall out of love with these things that pamper and cater to the flesh. We have to look at them with a true and pure eye and convince ourselves that these things are poisonous to our well-being. Then we can more easily toss them. Those things that are conducive to off-grid living, or that can be used to our benefit, or that can be used to help us on our pilgrimage OUT of the system - we can retain. The next step is to train ourselves to go without these things, and train ourselves on older and better ways of doing things:

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein (Jer. 6:16).

Don't be one of those people who says "we will not walk therein. God has said that the old paths are better than the new ones. That is a fact declared from heaven. Learn it and love it.

The next step is to practice and begin to live the things we say we believe. This is the first real step on the pilgrim's progress. Step out and start to practice and live it. I mentioned in the last email that you can start by cutting your power off at the box. First for a few hours maybe. Then for a day. Then for a couple of days. Then for a week. Then for a month. Do this and learn how to get along fine without it. It doesn't count if you do it while you are on vacation, or when the weather is 72 degrees outside for a week. Do it and practice living off-grid. Encourage yourself to keep pushing it farther until you learn the skills you need to have to get along without grid power. Sell all of the junk you don't need and begin to procure those things that will help you to live off-grid... which means you need to sell almost everything you own. Best get used to it, since you won't take any of that stuff to wherever you go after you die. Get rid of it and start to make it without it.

That's all for today. More in the next episode.

Michael Bunker

GO TO PART 2

Powering Up

9/20/07 - 5th Day - After Breakfast. Good morning. I cannot believe that September is almost over (I guess I say that every month) and that Ranchfest is only 15 days away. Wow. We're still in preparation mode, and that has been made more difficult with our power problems. The generator repairman called yesterday afternoon and told us that the carburetor would have to be replaced - so we are looking at at least $125 to get the generator back. In the mean time that and the cloudy weather has conspired to really tax our solar trailer. Today we drove over to Elder David's land to borrow his generator and battery charger so that we could get a good charge on our solar trailer and make sure our freezer stays frozen. The sun has peeked out here for a bit, so we are getting some good charging going on right this minute.

The 6 new piggies seem to be doing great. I talked to the butcher and we have to get the momma sow in to be processed by October 23rd, which works out great since the piglets will be old enough to be weaned by that time. We live in the hunting capital of the known world and all of the meat processors shut totally down for anything but deer starting in the last week of October. Last year we were trying to get a hog in around the first of November and we were informed that no one would receive a hog for butchering until mid-January. So right now we have scheduled to take the Ante's pig in this coming third day, and we will be taking our sow in sometime during the week after Ranchfest.

We received about 1 1/4 inches of rain on the third day, and a trace yesterday. We really needed the water. It was good to see the catchwaters fill up, and to hear water from the creeks flowing into the pond.

I intend to post a second posting today - mainly talking about electrical power, power production, storage, etc., so those of you who are used to tuning in just once, might want to check back this evening for a rare second edition.

Hope all is well with you all,

Michael Bunker

Scattershooting

7/19/07 - 4th Day - Way Before Breakfast. We were up at 2:30 a.m. as a storm has been blowing through. Right now (3:41) I would guess we have received somewhere near a half an inch. We are very glad to have it, though it will mean milking in the mud this morning.

Here is a pic I snapped of the milk we got from Holga yesterday morning. I meant to post it with yesterdays blog, but didn't... why anyone else would care to see a snapshot of some fresh milk I do not know, but to me it is very satisfying...

Tracy is over at the Ante's babysitting while they are on their honeymoon trip. I don't know which is more confounding... a) that I am old enough to have a daughter old enough to babysit, or b) that I am old enough to have a daughter who is babysitting for a couple on their 6th wedding anniversary, for whom I performed the wedding service. Anyway, our best to the Ante's!

I am reading Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim. Some great quotes from Conrad:

"Which of us here has not observed this, or maybe experienced something of that feeling in his own person- this extreme weariness of emotions, the vanity of effort, the yearning for rest? Those striving with unreasonable forces know it well- the shipwrecked castaways in boats, wanderers lost in a desert, men battling against the unthinking might of nature, or the stupid brutality of crowds."

"...it is my belief no man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self-knowledge."

I finished reading Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy last Sabbath. There were way too many good quotes in that one to put them here. I recommend the book, though it is basically a silly romantic tale. It's portrayal of English Agrarianism in the 19th century is very educational. I am also still reading the sermons and tracts of John Gill. I am on volume 3.

Ok, ten things you may or may not know about me (from an email):

10. I received 7 medals in the 2nd ever Academic Decathlon in my senior year in high school.
9. I changed my major three times in college... and never graduated.
8. I was caught up in a riot one time.
7. I wrote two secular novels that will never be published, and I used to write poetry.
6. I hate clowns... all clowns are liars.
5. Not one member of my family (outside of my wife and children) supports or agrees with what I believe. Not one has ever heard me preach. And they don't read this blog either.
4. I've been interviewed and misquoted by the LA Times. I no longer do interviews.
3. I've only been involved in 1 at fault automobile accident, back when I was 18.
2. I once met and hung out with Pat Buchanan - a Jesuit.
1. I smoked my first cigar when I was 25.

Bonus - I predicted the World Trade Center attacks back in 1999-2000... ON TAPE. I named one of two cities in which the attack would take place, and said that Osama Bin Laden would be blamed for the attacks, and that the attacks would be used to bring about draconian laws and controls that would eradicate privacy and freedom. I also predicted back in 1993 that no one would ever make any money selling stuff over the internet.

Ok, enough of that. Go check out Herrick Kimball's new blog which illustrates How to Butcher a Chicken.

This guy almost died sticking a rattlesnake in his mouth.... there are so many spiritual analogies that I will just let you all come up with your own.

I have had several suggestions that I comment further on my earlier blog where I stated that both sides of the debate on the extent of Romans 13 were wrong. I might do that soon.

I am your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Morning Thoughts

7/18/07 - 2nd Day - Before Breakfast. Up at 5 to greet the second day of milking. Holga did great today, and we probably doubled the amount of milk we took from her. She really does well. She has been patiently waiting at her milk stall in the morning, and what is even nicer, her calf isn't even worked up about the nightly separation. Danielle, Tracy, and I have been getting up to do the milking. The younger children, who were so fired up a year ago to get up at 4:30 and milk, haven't even asked if they can partake in the pleasure this year. That's strange.

Ok, so we've been having additional fun because our generator is currently dead, and we haven't been able to get it into the shop. So even for an “off-grid” family, we have been particularly off-grid and agrarian, and it has actually been quite interesting and enlightening. By the way, I recommend that every family planning to someday live a more off-grid agrarian life, should schedule “off-grid” test times. You should start with a 24 hr. day, and you should increase that test time as you move forward in your plans. Shut off the power completely to your house for 24 hours. This will begin to teach you what you need to do to succeed and thrive without grid power. Eventually, work up to a week or even a month without power. We derive all of our power from two sources. We have a solar powered trailer, and from a generator. The solar trailer (3 110-watt solar panels with 20 6-volt batteries and 2 3000-watt inverters) provides almost all of our “daily use” power – such as lights, fans, battery charging, etc. The generator provides all of the “special use” power, including running the small refrigerator and the freezer for 3-5 hours a day and adding additional power into the solar trailer. With the generator gone and only partly sunny days, we have had to cut way back in our power use. The last two nights we have unplugged the cabin from the solar trailer (basically cutting all power), which means that we haven't used lights, fans, etc. overnight. This means we use flashlights and lanterns in the morning, and we don't use any other electric power until the sun comes up and starts charging the solar system. So our milking has been done by flashlight and lantern – which has been very interesting and even educational. I can always find Danielle in the morning because she has one of those flashlight systems that fit on your head. So you can find her anywhere on the land, walking about in the dark at 5 a.m. Anyway, this has given me an opportunity to rethink our needs yet again – and to consider how much power the world uses for really mundane things. Now, our power usage during regular times is shockingly low. We have two 13 watt compact fluorescents in our cabin and one compact fluorescent on the porch. We run two ceiling fans almost all day and night in the cabin, and we also power the wireless radio Internet system which gets a signal from about 8 miles away on the Santa Anna mountains. During the day, if we have good sun, I can run the freezer for several hours. Then, usually at close to sundown, we fire up the generator for 3-5 hours every night to give the solar trailer a good charge and to run the freezer for that amount of time as well. So the last few days I have had to improvise. Yesterday, I ran the freezers off of the pickup truck. Several years ago I bought a portable 1500 watt inverter at Sam's Club that I have only used once. It came in a hard carrying case with cabling to hook it up to the truck battery. I hooked this unit up, started up the truck, then plugged in the cord which runs the freezer and refrigerator. I ran this for an hour or so until we had a time of really strong sunlight. I then plugged the freezers into the solar trailer for a couple of hours – so we were able to keep the freezers frozen with not much problem. These are all problems that should go away as we continue our trek towards Agrarian independence. We hope to do eventually do away with freezers entirely, or at least mostly, with the only freezer power running entirely off of solar. For this to happen, we have to increase our storage and root cellar capacity, and we have to can and preserve a larger portion of the meat we produce on the land. Eventually, if the Lord wills, we will build an icehouse which will allow us to store some meat frozen or really, really, refrigerated. For all practical purposes, we do not NEED a freezer. We could can, smoke, dry, etc. all of our meat. But my flesh really, really, really likes things like pork chops, a steak once in awhile, hamburger, etc., so we freeze a large portion of our everyday use meat. Anyway it is an interesting exercise in Agrarian thinking, to consider that we are “off-grid” compared to most of the world, but we are still somewhat dependent on electricity. Lord willing, we should have a huge sow to take to the butcher in about 4 weeks, and once again we will be making decisions on how to preserve the meat increase. Our intention is to continue to learn, study, and practice, the old-time preservation methods, and to learn and practice our own butchering so that we can better utilize the product we produce without using so much electricity.

By the way, the 6 piglets are doing great. Luella (the momma sow) had them out and about yesterday, and they are really growing fast.

Right now I am typing this blog entry while sitting on the front porch in the dark. The internet is off as well, so I will not upload this until after the sun comes up. I charged the laptop last time we had the cabin plugged into the power. Danielle made some wonderful coffee on the propane stove (by flashlight), and I am sipping coffee and blogging in the cool morning air on the front porch.

Today we will continue working on fences, and hanging new gates. Danielle is going to town to get me a new pair of boots. The steel toe boots I buy only last me about a year, and the year is up and the ones I have on are shot. So hopefully she will successfully procure me a pair for another year. I think if I bought better boots, they might last longer, but I don't know that for sure.

I don't know if I told you that Tracy, Robert, Jennifer, and Sarah completely tilled the garden by hand and planted the fall garden all by themselves. They are excited and are praying that we get a good fall harvest.

I preached a sermon on Contentment last night. I hope to have the written text available to you at BiblicalAgrarianism.com and Lazarusunbound.com sometime today. Since I didn't have much power, I didn't charge the digital mp3 recorder to record the sermon, so we will not have an audio version of it available. I also hope to get the written text of the Meekness series posted today or tomorrow.

Well, the light is beginning to break off to the east, and the last of the stars are just beginning to fade. The rooster is crowing and I can hear the cattle heading out to pasture. It has been a glorious morning, and I thank you all for sharing it with me.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Milk At Last

9/17/07 - 1st Day - After Breakfast. Up at 5 a.m. to do our first morning milking in a long time. We brought Holga into the corral last night and fed her some grain and locked her in for the night away from the calf. We expected she would moo and moan all night, but she uttered nary a peep and was waiting patiently at the milking stall this morning. She did really well, and we were well pleased with her. We didn't take anywhere near what we could have, since we want to gradually build her up so that she provides enough for us and her calf - but she did really well. It was a great blessing to have fresh milk in my coffee this morning, and it was satisfying to drink the coffee and watch the sun come up to start a beautiful day.

For those of you who have not heard or read about us milking Pure Texas Longhorns, read about it here: http://purelonghorns.com/2006/08/longhorn-cow-milk.html.

As I drank my coffee, I was a bit shocked to see that the sun has moved so far south. It seems only a week ago or so that the sun came up straight over our beautiful valley, but this morning it was due west, rising up through the trees. I wonder what it is like for y'all Yankees up in the frozen north to see the sun disappear so far south as winter approaches. We're still warm here, and it was in the high 60's this morning. The temps will be cooling very gradually over the next few weeks.

Our generator cratered on us, so Brother Logan will be hauling it to the shop this morning some time. I have been charging batteries with the truck as a generator this morning, and we are currently running everything and the freezers off of the truck. Hopefully we'll get enough sun today to put a good charge on the solar trailer to get us through the night.

We're still needing donations for Ranchfest. Let's keep it coming until October 5th so we can have a productive week with so many folks coming down.

I'll keep you up to date on how the milking is progressing.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Cows and Pigs and Fences

9/14/07 - 6th Day - Afternoon. Preparation of the Sabbath. The weather here has been remarkable and beautiful and we are thankful for it. We are working on fences, and many other projects here around the land. The children and I have been getting Holga re-trained and ready to start milking here on Monday morning. We bring her down to the corral twice a day and give her a bucket of sweet grains, tie off her feet and basically go through the motions of milking her. We won't milk her until Monday because we don't want to separate her from her calf for a night until then. We also have been saddling up Holga and letting the children ride her while I lead her around. Chris Woods has been working on my front (North) pasture fence, while I have been working on the fence around the new pig farrowing area.

I guess I should tell you that Jethro, our injured little piglet, died on Wednesday. He did the best he could and put up a good fight, but I figured the odds were about 20% of him making it through the first week. The other six piggies are doing great, and I am very pleased with how the 'ol sow is handling motherhood. On the Lord's Day the piggies will be a week old, which means in another month we can start weaning them from momma.

The cows and calves are all doing fine. Once we are done fixing the north fence and putting up a new gate, the cows will have several more acres of fine grass to munch on going in to winter.

I hope you all have listened to the Meekness, Part 2 sermon and I hope you find it valuable.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Humberto

9/12/07 - 4th Day - After Dinner. A big storm in the Gulf became a named Tropical Storm just awhile ago. Meet Humberto:


I don't know who names these things, but Humberto is likely to cause some major flooding damage along the coast and in Houston - all areas already saturated from a year of heavy rains. I pray no one is hurt or killed, but maybe Humberto will wash some of the riff-raff from New Orleans back into Louisiana where they belong. Another potentially more dangerous tropical situation is developing in the Carribean, and it is expected to develop into a major hurricane by Saturday or so, with the potential of impacting the continental u.s., probably in Florida sometime next week.

We are actively working in preparing the ranch for Ranchfest. I hope everyone who is planning to make it is still... well... planning to make it. I have been chasing cows around the last couple of days, and Mr. Woods is helping me repair and build some better fences to keep them in and give them access to more pasture.

Part 2 of the Meekness teaching should be ready to be preached tonight here at the ranch. I hope you all have listened to PART 1.

Some funds started coming in this week, and we are praising God for that. At last we have gotten past being deep in the hole, and we are hoping the provision will continue until Ranchfest so we will have the funding to do some major projects while everyone is here. Make sure you send in your Ranchfest donations a.s.a.p. to:

M. Bunker
1251 CR 132
Santa Anna, Texas 76878

The weather is beautiful here today. We woke up to a quite brisk and seasonally unexpected 55 degrees. Right now it is a gorgeous 81 degrees with a nice breeze and amazingly blue skies. The mud from the recent rains is drying up, which is nice too.

Hope all is well out there,

Michael Bunker

Sweet, Summer Rain

9/10/07 - 2nd Day - After Dinner. Much needed rain came today, and boy are we glad to have it. Always are. It started raining - jungle, monsoon rain, like they have in Central America. Our front catchwaters filled so fast that I recruited the whole family and we began the bucket brigade to the big catchwater tank in the back. We had been down below 500 gallons back there, so we kept at it and couldn't even keep up with how much water was overflowing the front catchwaters. It was fun, and very rewarding to see the whole family pulling together and having fun while we were getting drenched. As of 2pm here we were up over 1200 gallons in the back catchwater, along with another 200-300 gallons in other assorted containers. It is still raining (albeit slowly) right now, and more is expected. Oh, and the pond is full again, which is great, and so are most of the creeks for now. Which means we have another many thousands of gallons for animal watering. The garden is also very drenched, which is great for the prospects of a fall garden. As of right now we are nearing about 2 inches of rainfall today. Praise God!

The piglets are doing very well. Tracy and the family are still doctoring our little runt, and he is doing quite well considering. We went today and bought some colostrum and Tracy has been feeding him every hour or so. The children have named him Jethro - so y'all pray that ol' Jethro pulls through. We now have 8 cattle, 8 pigs, 2 goats, untold chickens, 3 rabbits, and I don't know what else - by way of animals on the farm. As always, we praise God for the increase and ask Him to protect and keep what He has entrusted to us.

Hope all is well out there,

Michael Bunker

More on the Piggies

9/09/07 - The Lord's Day - After Dinner. Back with a special "2-fer", your second post of the day. Well, the 7 piggies that were born are all still alive, but when we went down to check on one of them, it was in distress. It had two pretty severe wounds on it and its tail was gone. I don't know if momma rejected it and attacked it, or if it got caught between momma and the part of the wall she tore off, but the piglet was pushed out of the "nest" and momma was ignoring it. So I went in there and got it, and now Danielle and the children are taking care of it. We cleaned the wounds and put antiseptic on it and then painted them with pine tar. We are keeping the pig clean and Tracy is feeding it with an eye dropper every 20 minutes or so. We can't get any colostrum until tomorrow, so for now that will have to do. I put the probability of survival at about 20%, but we'll see how it goes. The other six are doing really well, and when I went down to check them awhile ago they were all out and about and quite lively. I pray they all do well.

Hope all is well with you all,

Michael Bunker

Piggies

9/09/07 - The Lord's Day - After Breakfast. I've been a bit busy lately and have not been able to post. On the 5th and 6th day I went to work off the ranch for that out-of-town part-time rancher. We had a great and peaceful Sabbath yesterday, and last night most of the folks in the community came over to the cabin to fellowship and we had some really good conversations.

PIGGIES BORN!

Our piglets were finally born this morning. So far we have counted 7 alive and haven't seen any dead. We got a good look because a) she was up and around a bit, and b) apparently in labor she knocked down the front wall of her pen. So we got a really good look at the piglets. They are very cute. So we are praying that all 7 make it, and we would appreciate your prayers too. I'll keep you updated.

More later, so y'all be cool.

Michael

Some Stuff to Think About

9/05/07 - 4th Day - After Breakfast. I usually don't do my random scattershooting here, but here goes...

I don't like untrained dogs or untrained people. Untrained people I can deal with if they are at all meek and willing to learn - this includes teachers.

A man crawls on his belly for those who are not even willing to walk on their knees. Christ was willing to die for people who aren't willing to walk.

A stiff neck makes it almost impossible to see the hole into which you are heading.

Dogs will return to their own vomit, but at least it was their vomit. For some people, almost any vomit will do.

It is shocking how inadequate human intelligence is in understanding the things of God. The only thing worse than having some of it, is having none of it.

I was watching my children and I was shocked, appalled and amazed at how remarkably ignorant and hard-headed they can be - and as I was doing this, I could almost hear the voice of God (who was looking at me) say, "yep".

There is a lot of discussion, debate, etc., going on right now about Romans 13. Apparently some news organization exposed what we have known for years - that the government is recruiting pimp preachers to pacify the people into giving up their guns if martial law is declared. I've read all the emails and the warnings. I've read the junk put out by the pimp preachers, and I've read the articles written by those who oppose the fallacious teaching on Romans 13. There are one of two pretty good preachers who have written some articles on the subject. However, I cannot tell you how so many people (on every side) can get so many things so wrong. False presuppositions lead to so many errors. I preached on this stuff all over the country, very publicly, for many years. But I was wrong on some stuff too. I think I am too tired, too jaded, too cynical, or too fed up to enter the fray. Clearly, if someone is telling you you must submit to government no matter what, they are not a messenger of God, and what they teach is error. Still, if someone is telling you that you should resist government no matter what... same thing applies. I hope, when I suffer, to suffer for Christ's sake. The u.s. constitution is NOT Christ. Neither is the right to bear arms. The government is not God, but neither is freedom. There is a time to fight, but you better know what you are fighting for, and it better be a Biblical cause. There are some good preachers out there making some glaring errors... so maybe you should pray about that. Make sure in your zeal not to worship at the altar to Caesar, that you do not bow your knee to Patria or Libertas - also false gods.

Michael

Update and Stupid Hunters

9/03/07 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. Well, by my gorilla math I had figured that our pigs should have dropped piglets by now - but upon a more careful use of pen and scratch paper, it is possible that they could drop any time between now and September 16th through 18th. That latter date is arrived at by figuring 112 - 115 days (gestation period for pigs) from the date of The Battle of Butcher Holler which is when we took the male pigs from the females and readied the boars for the butcher. So, now I am quite certain that the sows are pregnant, but not at all certain when they got that way or when they will drop piglets. I hope it is soon. We have been checking several times a day. It is kind of a nerve-wracking thing for us. We have owned a lot of pigs, and we have raised a lot of pigs, and we have eaten a lot of pigs - but we have never had piglets born at the ranch before. We don't know what to expect.

It looks like more rain is coming, or, we are praying that more rain is coming. The prognosticators are calling for rain in Central Texas. We have been getting a ton of tropical moisture pumping into the area, and there are two Tropical Cyclones (Felix down in the Carribean) and Henriette in the Pacific, both are supposed to kind of curl up in our direction. Not that the storms themselves will effect us, though they might, but they push a lot of moisture up here, and both should be doing so from different directions over the next week to ten days. It looks like Felix, which became a category 5 awhile ago, will be doing some havoc and killing down in Central America. Our prayers are with the folks down there.

We had our first Lord's Day fellowship over at the Sifford's since they moved up to their land. We saddled up Pita and let Tracy hold Sarah to ride on her as I led her up there, so Sarah wouldn't have to walk the whole way. It was kind of a neat thing, walking to fellowship with two girls riding on a cow. When we got up there we unsaddled Pita and tied her out to eat Johnson Grass during the fellowship. She liked that a lot. When fellowship was over, we saddled her up again and Danielle rode her back to the pasture. I look forward to the time (Lord Willing) when Pita is full grown and I can ride her; and when we can put saddlebags on her so we can carry the hymnals up there. Or we can put a trailer on her for her to pull and we can all ride to fellowship.

Today is "Labor Day" so the mail doesn't run and most things are closed. I hate worldly holidays. I really do. And all the out-of-town hunters are in town because the dove season started on Sabbath. So there are tons of $50,000 pickup trucks driving around with worldly jerks in them who don't wave at you when they pass you. I can't stand that. I also laugh at stupid hunters because they spend an absolute fortune to spend a long weekend shooting tiny birds so they can get enough meat for maybe a meal or two. You see them in town too, with their $50,000 pickup truck with a $5,000 four-wheeler in the back; and they are all decked out in a couple of hundred dollars worth of camo and they have a $1500 shotgun that will shoot 4 or 5 fifty cent shells in just a few seconds. They pay $3000 to lease a ranch that they will only use for a couple of weekends and they spend another couple grand for driving and expenses, and they sit out for a couple of hours and spend about $50 on ammo to bring home maybe 5 or 6 dollars worth of dove meat (which, by the way, is the same bird that city folks call a "pigeon"). Where do I sign up for that? Corporate/Industrial hunting! But, it does make all the ranchers around here and the local shops and stores a goodly amount of money each year, so who are we to complain? If it keeps my prices down and they are only here for a couple of months a year, I guess I shouldn't. But the lesson of such stupidity and wastefulness ought not to be lost on Agrarians. The same philosophy prevails in all modern thinking and across the board in the modern concepts of "vacation" and "leisure time". Oh, and dove hunting is the cheap hunting. Don't get me started on deer and "big game" hunting. There are hundreds of folks who come down to our neck of the woods every winter to shoot them some bighorn sheep or elk or reindeer or some other beast that isn't even indigenous to these parts. Big game ranchers around here buy tame animals that are raised on game farms, just like cows. The big horn sheep these hunters pay over $10,000 to shoot was likely raised on a local farm a couple of miles away - in a small field with fences and with farmers who come by and pour corporate food and water into troughs. When the "rack" on the sheep gets large enough, they are purchased and dumped on a huge ranch to fend for themselves. Then a highly trained "tracker" is employed by the hunter to track these elusive beasts. This ain't shooting Bambi, this is shooting Elsie the cow. But, the big farm raised rack goes on some guy's wall somewhere to be admired by his stupid family.

STOP (I say to myself). Take a breath. Let it go.

Hope all is well with you all,

Michael