Ready for Rain

8/05/08 - 3rd Day - Mid-Afternoon. Tropical Storm Edouard is still (according to the prognosticators) headed right at us, and is predicted to go right over us tomorrow:





We are praying for the 1-3 inches that the prognosticators are calling for. Just really praying that this thing doesn't take a right turn and miss us on the way.

This is kind of all we are thinking about right now. I have more to say and to write, and probably will tomorrow if the Lord wills and we are sitting inside.

Michael

Edouard and Alexander

8/04/08 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. First today I would like to express my sorrow at the death of the great writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

If you have never read Solzhenitsyn, then you are poorer for the neglect and I would recommend that you take this opportunity to read some of his works. You will be tremendously benefited by the effort, and I can tell you that you will be glad for it. Solzhenitsyn's writings influenced me greatly as a younger man, and he was one of the few authors that I have recommended continuously and sincerely throughout my life and ministry. Too many people think they are informed and well-read, and yet they have never read probably one of the greatest historians and writers of the 20th Century.

I began reading Solzhenitsyn in my mid-20's, and my mind was greatly benefited by what I learned about Russian history, and the psychology of statism and of the slave/peasant/colonialized mind. I have, since then, constantly returned to and consulted with Mr. Solzhenitsyn as I have tried to better understand the slavish minds of modern man, and he has consistently brought back to my mind a more complete knowledge of the depravity of statist systems, and taught me to watch and better understand the world (Solzhenitsyn was both a historian and a prophet) as our own people head down the road to statism. If you have ever been benefited by anything I have ever written about the state and condition of modern man, then you also have Alexander Solzhenitsyn to thank, and what better way to thank him than to introduce yourself to the man?

I always recommend that you read A Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovitch first. It is a short, interesting, and easy read, and it is a great introduction to Solzhenitsyn. Do not just find some place to read the book for free online. You will be hurting yourself by doing so. I don't mind if you read it online, but BUY THE BOOK and keep it as a resource, or give it to your children (I highly recommend this), or others who can be benefited by it. This book (and Gulag) ought to be on every bookshelf and in every personal library.

Next I would go straight to The Gulag Archipelago. Read it, heed it, and learn. As I mentioned, I have been recommending these books for over 15 years and I highly recommend them now. Gulag is one of the greatest books ever printed in our language, and you cannot help but be benefited by reading it. Let me tell you that I have very little respect for people who read nothing but junk fiction books, and even less for someone who CAN read, and who has the means and opportunity to read a book of this importance and caliber, but who refuses to out of ignorance. Reading Gulag is WORK, but it is worth it. You really wouldn't want to know what goes through my mind when I recommend this book to (seemingly) intelligent people and they say "just tell me what it is about", or "that's interesting, but I really don't like to read books that thick", or "I read the first chapter or so and kind of got the gist of it".

Anyway, start there and you will be glad you did. Tonight I will drink a toast to Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, and maybe you will too.

Ok, so Tropical Storm Edouard is heading our way, and we are "in the cone" for it to come through here (or just south of here) come Wednesday. Y'all be praying that we get some heavy rain from it.

Lord willing, we will be receiving rains from Edouard come Wednesday afternoon. As of now, the prognosticators are predicting a high of 92 degrees on Wednesday... maybe I'll have to dig out a seater or a coat?

Y'all be cool,

Michael Bunker

Scattershooting

7/31/08- 5th Day - Mid-Morning. The heat and no rain continues here. The last day of July. The last three days we have seen rain from the front porch, but none of it is for us. Temps near or over 100 every day. The prognosticators are calling for it to cool a bit starting towards the end of next week. We look forward to that.

Hey, my last two audio sermons are up on BiblicalAgrarianism.com and you ought to take the time to give them a listen:

Alive to the Law

Dead to the Law

I think you will be benefited spiritually by them.

There is no easy way to do what we are doing here. Going out of "the system" and living off-grid for going on three years now has proved that to us. This is our second drought year of the three, and our second full year without air-conditioning at all. We continue to learn, and it is emphasized to us how much more we need to do to recapture the old ways and to decolonize our minds. Too many people, it seems, are wanting to live the picture-book version of this life, while insulating themselves from the reality of the work it takes to truly be free. You see, we true Christians have enemies...

You hear talk of "the world, the flesh, and the devil", and some comfortable "christians" might think that they are in some way opposed to those things, but in reality they are not. If these things are contrary to Godliness, and are the unholy trinity that comes against God's elect, then some time ought to be spent pondering them.

Anyone who dares to embrace true Christian Agrarianism will find himself contra all three of these. No professing Christian who lives in the world, in concord with the world, and in the same manner as the world, can call himself "contra-mundum" (against the world). The world has no controversy with you unless you are against the world. Likewise the flesh has no controversy with you, so long as it is being served (no matter what lies you have told yourself). A worldly Christian (and by that I do not mean a paganistic or outlandishly wicked professor - I mean a professing Christian who lives in concord with the world, according to worldly precepts, and according to the ways and philosophies of the world) will go to great lengths to convince himself that he is dying to his carnal man, but this cannot be the truth. Likewise the devil has not controversy with the worldly Christian. So long as the agents of evil have already convinced you that the world is your home and your country, and that you are to "change the world" and live in it and live by it's precepts, then the devil has no need to contend with you.

But if you once determine to live contrary to these things (the world, the flesh, and the devil), then you will find that this unholy trinity has a controversy with you, and will come against you, and will do everything to deceive you and keep your mind colonized and keep you in ignorance.

Now, there is a lot I can say about this (and a lot I have said about it), but suffice it to say that without separatism, simple living, and a completely new and more Biblical worldview, the professing Christian is heading for failure, and is likely decieved, not just about his carnal condition, but about his spiritual condition as well.

So, here is a thought you might begin to consider. Since we do have an enemy, and that enemy does desire to entrap us with the deceitfulness of the world and of the flesh, then we ought to be on guard against any agent who encourages us in that direction.

Think of prophecy. In the valleys of the Alps and in the hiding places of Europe true Christianity thrived, even during the darkest days of the height of Romanism. The move of God that included the Reformation brought to light the necessity for separation, and for Christians to eschew and reject syncretism, worldliness, riches, and earthly honor. Very soon though, the counter-reformation from the Roman Church swung into gear. I talk about this in my book Swarms of Locusts. The universal view of all the Protestants, Anabaptists, Waldensians, etc. that the Papacy was Antichrist encouraged more and more Christians to separate and to try to live simple, separate, and deliberate lives. However, too many Christians today are ignorant of the counter-reformation and what tools the devil used to bring Protestantism back into the fold of worldliness and syncretism. The greatest tool of the counter-reformation was PROPHECY. Two Jesuit priests, Ribera and Alcazar came up with two contrary prophetic worldviews (the first was Futurism, and the second was Preterism) to confound the proper identification of the Papacy as Antichrist. Futurists taught that all prophecy was to be fulfilled some time in the distant future, so why not just live your life and get along with the world, because some future rapture would protect you from Antichrist. The Preterist taught that all prophecy was fulfilled in the distant past (including the return of Christ and Judgement) and so why not just live your life and get along with the world, and take over the world for Jesus. Jesuitical Preterism particularly was used to push Christians into politics, syncretism and worldliness. Theocracy was seen as the solution for taking over the world and presenting a "christian" world to Christ. Entire nations (including this one) slipped from its separatist moorings and drifted into the wide channel of worldliness, wealth-seeking, and domination. All because the people of Christ were too ignorant, lazy, and worldly to see the dangers and to heed Christ's warnings. Antichrist was ignored by both Futurists and Preterists and what you see around you is the product of their folly.

The true Christian prophetic view of HISTORICISM was abandoned, and so was separatism, simplicity and deliberate agrarian living. Think about it. It is very likely that most bad ideas and resistence to true Christian Agrarian living is founded in a really bad idea of what the world is, who is the prince of it, and what type of lives we ought to be living as Christians.

Enough of that for now.

So I have more mesquite coffee now available. A few of you who ordered coffee from me will be receiving it this week (Lord Willing). If you would like to order some, send me an email to editor ( at ) lazarusunbound.com. I am sending it out on a donation basis right now.

I hope you are taking the time to make use of the means of grace, and are listening to the audio sermons made available on Lazarusunbound.com when you have the opportunity.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

It's So Hot...

7/29/08 - 3rd Day - After Breakfast. 105 degrees yesterday. Some folks said 106, but who am I to quibble? Now remember, I would take 105 here over 90 in DC, Boston, or Chicago any day. At least here, if you get under a tree and catch a breeze, you can cool off quite nicely. Well, at about 9 last night it was 100 degrees INSIDE our cabin. So Danielle and I went down to the root cellar to watch a movie. When we came back up at 11 p.m. - 98 degrees in the cabin! Ouch. So you don't sleep much when it is that hot. The new folks down here living in tents had it nice. The children slept outside on the deck, and told us it was quite nice and cool out there. Not so in the cabin. This cabin was designed poorly and doesn't shed the heat well. So I have had a plan to cool it off by making some changes, but I haven't had the time or material to do it yet. I'll think about it again today when it should be well into the hundreds again. Ok, so here are my "it's so hot" jokes for the day...

It's so hot...

Arizona called and asked if they could borrow some heat.

Death Valley called and asked if we were trying to start trouble.

we are feeding the chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs.

the cows tiptoe to the water trough yelling "Ah!, eeh! aaahhh! eeeh!", then complain about the boiling water.

if you were to spit in the dirt, it would sizzle, if you had any spit.

you can leave the oven on as an air conditioner.

the trees are whistling for the dogs.

the temperature drops below 95, and you put on a sweater.

Each day is labeled as - tolerable, hot, really hot, and ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!

I saw a funeral procession pull into a Dairy Queen.

we have to use potholders to pick up our tools.

...no seriously... I told Danielle that I really can't get to sleep unless it is 91 or below, and she said, "so you don't plan on sleeping until September?".

Ahhh... you get the point.

Peace and coolness,

Michael Bunker

Hot!

105 degrees here at the ranch today.

Anybody up for a hotblog?

M

Howdy, and Some Cattle For Sale

7/25/08 - 6th Day - Mid-Morning. Preparation of the Sabbath. Nice and cool this morning, but it is supposed to be blistering hot for the next 5 days or so. Oh well, July is almost over, and then we are on the downslope heading to October and Super-Ranchfest.

Ok, so I have to sell some of my cattle. The herd is about to multiply, and I have to thin it out. The other day, we had to move Chico, our yearling full-blooded pure longhorn bull, to our lower pasture because he was starting to "come of age" around some of our longhorn heifers (his half-sisters). So I will be trying to sell or trade Chico, or Chico may be one of two or three that go to the butcher come late fall. Here is the latest picture of Chico:

Chico is a great looking bull, and he has the classic pure longhorn look. He is out of Holga and the great young bull Quitachon. Both his sire and his dam are very gentle, and so is Chico. He will be one year old in August. If you are interested in Chico, I will post or email you a better and more close up picture. I would be willing to take $500 for Chico.

Most of my regular readers are familiar with Maria. She was the first cow we purchased here at the ranch, and she is the mother of Pita, who we are currently training to ride and pull. Maria is a Longhorn/Watusi cross (1/2 of each) and has some fabulous horns:

Maria is beautiful, and would make an awesome front pasture showpiece. She is only about 5 years old, so she has a lot of horn growing to do. I will be selling her along with her second calf Mariana, who is coming up on a year old in August. Maria is also very pregnant, and is due to drop another calf sometime in the end of August. So I am selling Maria as a "3-fer". I would be willing to take $1200 for pregnant Maria and Mariana. Remember, Mariana is 3/4 Longhorn, as will be Maria's newest calf.

I will be trying to sell these cattle for the next month or so, but if they do not sell, then it is likely that Maria, Mariana, and Chico will go to the butcher sometime in the fall. If you are interested in buying any of them, let me know. I am also willing to make a deal if someone wants to purchase any or all of them for the superior grass-fed organic beef. Delivery is available, but will be expensive.

Peace y'all,

Michael Bunker

Dolly and a Cup of Coffee

12/06/06 - 4th Day - After Breakfast. Hurricane Dolly is now a Category two this morning and is coming ashore down in South Texas. The experts say it is moving west, and I suppose they know more than me, but it looks like it is moving north to me. But that is probably just hopeful thinking for me. We really, really, need the rain... If you want to know where we are located on the map, it is pretty easy. If you were to throw a dart at Texas and hit it dead in the center... FIRST: DO NOT THROW DARTS AT TEXAS! Second: our ranch is within 50 miles of where the dart you shouldn't have thrown would be.

Here is some information I put together for the people who ordered Mesquite Bean Coffee from me. If you still want some sent to you, let me know. You'll have to email me your address at editor ( at) lazarusunbound.com. The first folks who ordered coffee should be receiving theirs sometime early next week. Make sure you post your comments after you have tried the coffee.

Central Texas Mesquite Coffee (and Tea)

Welcome to the wonderful and unique taste of Texas Mesquite Coffee and Tea. Since there is now no information (that I could find) on Mesquite Coffee online, I have put together this information for those who might be interested. Some of you have asked how I first came up with the idea to make coffee from the Mesquite pod. In 2006 I found The Texas Almanac at an Abilene wholesale club. I was reading the information on the Mesquite tree, and it said that, during the Civil War, when coffee was not available, the Texas army made coffee out of the mesquite pod. Since we had mesquite pods everywhere, and I like coffee, I decided to roast some pods up and try it out. I was pleasantly shocked and surprised. It tasted like gourmet coffee. So here are some things you might want to know about Texas Mesquite Cofee. First, here is some information on the Mesquite pod that I found online:

Mesquite, the most common shrub or small tree in the Desert Southwest, forms fruit of bean-like pods in the fall that have long been a nutritious food source to humans, wildlife and livestock.

For Native Americans of the desert regions, mesquite was not only relied on as a dietary staple, but as the most important economic plant of their culture. The Papago, Pima, Yuman, Cocopa, Mohave and Cahuilla peoples of Arizona and California utilized all parts of the mesquite:

• Bark - basketry, pottery, fabrics and medicine
• Trunk & Branches - firewood, in the manufacture of bows, arrows, mortars and furniture
• Thorns - awls and for tattooing
• Leaves - making tea, used medicinally as an eyewash and for head and stomach aches
• Sap - as a snack, glue and dye.

But it was the mesquite pod, with its nutritious, bittersweet pulp, that provided the greatest benefit to indigenous desert peoples. They collected pods each fall, often eating many of them green from the trees. The rest they dried in the sun and stored in large baskets for future use.

Usually, the beans (pods and seeds) were ground into a coarse meal, then by adding water, were transformed into a gruel or a cake without cooking. Some cultures are said to have taken the seeds from the pods and ground them into a flour called pinole, from which a bread was actually baked.

But we're talking about coffee. Mesquite Coffee is quite a bit stronger than traditional imported Central American coffee. If one were to use an equal amount of Mesquite coffee (as compared to traditional coffee) Mesquite Coffee is said to have four times the amount of caffeine as regular industrial/commercial coffee. However, even for those of us who enjoy really strong coffee, only 1/3 as much Mesquite Coffee is necessary to create a superior strong coffee.

Mesquite Coffee and Tea is made from the roasted and ground seed pod of the Honey Mesquite tree. The entire pod, seed and all, is roasted and ground to make coffee or tea. Mesquite pods are a perennial food source and been used in Texas, the Southwest, and Mexico as food for hundreds of years. The mesquite pod has been ground for flour and meal by the American Indians and other indigenous peoples for centuries, and it has long been hailed for its nutritional and medicinal value. During the Civil War the mesquite pod was roasted and brewed into a delicious coffee substitute. The mesquite pod is high in natural and healthy sugars, and is often used to make jellies, jams, and even beer and alcohol.

Mesquite Coffee is not like regular/industrial/imported coffee and tea product, which are mass-produced using industrial methods for wide consumption around the world. Though fair-trade and organic coffees are now being made available, for the most part coffee is still grown by huge, industrial corporations on coffee plantations in Central America. Mesquite Coffee, as of this writing, is not available really anywhere. A quick perusal online this morning found no Mesquite Coffee available through online source. Our mesquite pods are gathered by hand and, since we live off-of-the-grid, our pods are roasted either in a solar oven, or in a propane oven.

Your coffee/tea will not be the uniformly ground crystals found in imported/industrial teas and coffees. Since the whole pod is used, the coffee/tea consists of numerous different consistencies. You will find from fine to course ground material, as well as seed hulls and un-ground pod portions. All of these parts go together to create a wonderful coffee tasting experience. Prepare your Mesquite Coffee just as you would prepare your normal coffee in the morning. You will find that the Mesquite Coffee will have a delightful cinnamon aroma, and will smell as if you had already added some sweet, flavored coffee creamer. It is also common and expected for the finer grounds material to make their way through whatever filter system you use and into the coffee. This is not only not a bad thing, but it is preferable. Remember, this is not your normal coffee. While industrial/commercial coffee is bitter and granular, and you really never want the grounds in your coffee, Mesquite Coffee is sweet and flavorful. The fine grounds that do make it into your coffee are quite tasty and consists primarily of roasted sugars. The sugars in Mesquite Coffee are extremely healthy and in some documents are recommended for diabetics who use the sugars to control their glucose levels. So do not worry about any fine "grounds" in your coffee - they are just a delicious additive to your Mesquite Coffee experience. Serve your Mesquite Coffee just as you would any industrial/commercial coffee. Try it black first, then, try it with your favorite creamers, honey, etc. One of my favorite ways to prepare coffee is with fresh cream and honey.

Iced Mesquite Tea

Iced Mesquite Tea is made in the exact same way as the Mesquite Coffee. In fact, you could (if you like) call it "iced coffee", except it really tastes like a premium iced tea. Here at the ranch, we brew a regular pot of Mesquite Coffee and then we "water it down" with water and lots of ice until it attains the coloring you would expect of iced tea. Remember that there is a natural sweetness to Mesquite tea, so you don't have to add much in the way of sweeteners to make sweet tea. We generally add just a teaspoon or two of honey, and a few drops of Stevia sweetener to make a delicious southern-style sweet tea. Mesquite Coffee/Tea is so efficient that we normally make a pot or two of coffee in the morning (we often have 6-8 people drinking coffee), and then we make Tea from whatever coffee is left in the pot! Often a large carafe of Iced Tea can be made from the few ounces of coffee left in the pot. This after using only 1/3 of the amount of ground coffee, compared to what we used to use when we drank industrial/commercial Central American coffee.

Enjoy!

Michael Bunker

Games, Raising the Roof, Hello Dolly

7/21/08 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. We had a great weekend here, though it was brutally hot most every day. The Sabbath was nice and peaceful (but, did I say, HOT?), and the Lord's Day was more of the same, though, as usual, it was nice and breezy down by the office where we had our fellowship. The office work has screeched to a stop due to lack of funds, but more on that later. So, the Lord's Day was close to 100 degrees, and we passed the time by hanging out on the porch, playing 42 (which was fun), and last night (when it finally cooled down a bit) we played Spongebob Monopoly. Now, I don't even know who or what a Spongebob is or what that is all about (or what pineapples have to do with sea creatures), but for some reason we have a Spongebob Monopoly game, so I played it with Dusty, Danielle, and Tracy. I ended up being some character named Mr. Crab or something of that nature. I probably don't need to tell you who won, but suffice it so say that my gregarious, sharing, caring, and non-aggressive playing style reaped great benefits.

The donations are coming in to help replace our brother Jim's roof. For those of you who are interested, we are raising money to replace the roof on a good brother's house. Jim was one of the first brother's who was with me when we moved down here to this land. He helped us build this cabin, and helped on a lot of the projects that got us started here. He left to get married, and soon after discovered that he had cancer (Jim is in his mid 30's). Jim is not doing very well, and though we have the highest hopes and are in continual prayer for him, he would like to (if he must) leave his house in a good condition for his wife in case she desires to either live in it or sell it if something were to happen to him. Currently, due to the construction needs, they are living in a very small portion of the house. If you would like to donate to the cause, please send your donation to:

M. Bunker
1251 CR 132
Santa Anna, Texas 76878

Well, Tropical Storm "Dolly" is churning off of the Yucatan Peninsula. We are just slightly "outside of the cone" for this coming Thursday, so if Dolly takes even the slightest turn to the north, then we should get some good rains come later in the week:



My wife is still threatening to post a picture of my "double-ringer dance" from horseshoes a week or so ago. Y'all need to go to her blog and vote NO. No one wants to see a serious (and almost universally loathed) preacher celebrating like an idiot.

Thanks y'all!

Michael Bunker

Scattershooting on Prep Day

7/18/08 - 6th Day - After Breakfast. Preparation of the Sabbath. Good Morning, Y'all. Well, I have talked to Jim (Jim is my friend who has cancer) in Pennsylvania and he agrees that, though he would love for me to be able to go up there and help/visit again, it would be best if we did things another way. As I mentioned in a previous post, it would cost between $2000-$3000 for us to travel up there again to help on his roof, and almost all of this money would go to hotels and gasoline. So here is what we are going to try to do (if the Lord wills). Those who have offered (or who might be able) to go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for a few days and help with the tear-off of the roof, I will be providing you the dates and information very soon on all of that. Hopefully we will still be able to provide 9 or more people on site for the tear-off. Meanwhile, I will be bulldogging and pressuring my private email list to just go ahead and send money via donations so that we can give the money that would have been spent on travel, etc., directly to Jim to pay for the new roof. This is a special ministry outreach to a brother who did everything in his power (during his health) to assist us in getting started down here and on our Agrarian walk. If you, your group, or anyone you know can help with the tear off (sometime in the first week of August), then let me know asap, and I will get all the details and information to you in order for you to help in that way. I am convinced that we will be able to send brother Jim well over the $2000 we spent in gas and expenses for the last trip up there, and I know how much that amount of money will help Jim during this time of need. IF you can, please email me privately and let me know the amount you will be sending, so I can get an idea of how much we (as a family of Christian Agrarians) will be sending to Jim. That way Jim and his friends can make plans for purchasing the materials for the new roof.

I hope you have had the time to listen to the Gelassenheit series of sermons. Gelassenheit is a term used among the Amish and Mennonites and it loosely means "Submission" or "Yielding". Here are the links to the first two parts:

Gelassenheit (Submission and Yielding), Part 1 (audio) (Sermon Notes)
Gelassenheit (Submission and Yielding), Part 2 (audio) (Sermon Notes)

The third part should be available later today linked on the front page of BiblicalAgrarianism.com

Here are some morning pictures. These pictures are so bad because my camera stopped working some time ago (it was no good anyway), and I am taking these with my camera phone. This first picture is of the cabin. I call it "Morning Cabin":


Here is Danielle browning up some potatoes and onions. I call this, "Morning Breakfast":



This next picture is of our back road that leads back to the creek and my office. I call this "Morning Back Road":


This one I call "Morning 2nd Root Cellar that we are digging next to the cabin hoping the cabin doesn't fall into it before we can get it finished":


Of course, this one is called "Morning Pig":


Ok, enough of that. If you want to send anything (except hate mail, I prefer it digitally), here is my snail mail address:

M. Bunker
PO Box 58
Bangs, Texas 76878

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Scattershooting: Coffee and Some Pics

7/16/08 - 4th Day - Midday. Well, we are in midsummer stride here, though we're getting almost nothing from the garden. We did get the peaches I showed you, and Tracy made some wonderful peach preserves from them. We also canned pork and ham all of last week from the last of our male hogs from last years litter. Now we just hope our last two females are pregnant. I read last years blog from about this time, and at this time in July I was hoping my pigs were pregnant... it turned out that they were. Tracy has also been butchering our meat chickens, and today she was culling out some of our old hens, which we gave to the Sustaires to use for soup or stew. We're also working almost full time on processing mesquite pods, which is going to be a full time job for awhile.

We have two processes going. We are roasting mesquite pods for coffee and tea, and we are boiling some down to sugar for other projects. I wanted to mention to those of you who were interested in the mesquite coffee. We have found that the mesquite coffee goes WAY further per ounce than regular coffee. I saw that the premium coffee in Coleman was about $10 for a 12 ounce bag... well, for us that wouldn't go very far, because we make coffee for a whole bunch of people, and usually make 2-3 pots a day. We usually use 6 full scoops per pot because I like it strong. When we use the mesquite coffee, Danielle barely covers the bottom of the percolator chamber with the coffee, and it comes out very strong. What coffee we don't drink (if there is any less) is watered WAY down to make tea. It works perfectly. The point is that this stuff is very, very strong. Some of the ladies said that they only use 5-10 pods for a full pot of coffee, depending on how strong they want it. I would say on average you would use 1/3 as much if you like your coffee very strong and dark. Also, I noticed that some of the folks don't roast their pods as dark as I do, since I like the roasted taste in the coffee and maybe they don't.

I would say we have processed about 20-25 lbs. of beans so far, which is a long way from where we need to be. I want to put up at least a two years supply of coffee. As some of you may remember, last year we didn't get any pods at all. It was strange, and we don't know why that happened, except that maybe the drought from 2006 affected the 2007 crop. Or the trees just lay off a year every once in awhile. Anyway, that is why I am going to be putting up 2 years supply (if the Lord wills). This means we should have some tasty mesquite coffee for Super Ranchfest in October, and we ought to have some mesquite beer as well. So Herrick Kimball and a few other folks contacted me about packaging up some mesquite coffee to send them. I am certainly willing to do it, though I can tell you our supply will be very limited, and I don't have a clue how much to charge for it. So, to start, you'll need to email me at editor(at)lazarusunbound.com with your mailing address, and I will do my best to send out what I can. To start with, we'll work on a donation basis, and - like I said - we won't have that big of a supply. Then, after I do some computational analysis (or counting on my fingers) I'll try to decide if next year we can offer this on a wider basis. I will tell you this (and I'm not trying to drum up business...) it is the bests coffee and tea I've ever had. We'll include some type of instruction sheet with the coffee we send out.

Ok, so here are some pics I took with my camera phone. This first one is Kelly Sustaire teaching my daughter Sarah how to count. Or he is telling her that he is not a crook. Not really, he is holding up fingers and quizzing her on her numbers:

Here is a picture of Danielle, Tracy, and Sarah hamming it up...


I think in that last picture, we had just finished snapping mesquite pods and then having supper. For those of you who don't know... Danielle (my wife) is the one waving. I included this picture because she has threatened to post a video of me on her "Process Driven Wife" blog where I am dancing after a "double ringer" in horseshoes. She is blackmailing me. So I am firing a warning shot with this goofy wave of hers. Sarah (4) is the little girl with the big smile, and Tracy (15) is the one who seems a bit troubled by the other two.

Ok, so we have also been digging on our second root cellar, which I hope to have done before rainy season next spring (if the Lord wills).

Alright, I have to run. I have to have a sermon finished for tonight's meeting.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker