Mark Your Calendars

In our back yard we have a couple of palm trees that we planted back in 2007.  They were in small nursery pots and weren't 2 1/2 feet tall.  I don't even know how to estimate how tall these trees are.  They've weathered a number of hurricanes, straight-line winds, and snow and ice and sub 20 degree weather.  When the palm fronds die, they droop over and I've found that wasps love to make their nests underneath them.  I guess it provides for the wasps great protection from the weather.  On any given day you can see dozens of them flying around up there.  But I can't really do anything about it anymore.

Back when the trees were younger, I'd prop up a ladder and cut the dead fronds down, but that's out of the question now.  I mean, I can't even get the whole tree in the frame of the photo they have grown so tall!

I want to show you something on the bark of the palm tree in the center of the photo below.  If it looks like something is skinning it, that's because it is, and that something is a squirrel.  A cat squirrel.  We have more cat squirrels around here than you can shake a stick at.  The cat squirrels (officially called a gray squirrel) are numerous.  They've run off all the larger fox squirrels.  They eat all the acorns off of the live oak trees, they get into the pecan trees and eat a bunch of pecans, they get into the garden and dig things up and eat stuff. Every once in a while, Ginger, our cat, will catch one and eat it and leave its guts on the welcome mat outside the back door.  It's her trophy - her "look at me" moment. 

The damage that you're seeing on the palm tree's 'bark' is caused by squirrels.  I'm not just casting blame. I witnessed them doing it first hand.  They jump from the live oak tree to the house and run along the roof.  Then they jump into the crepe myrtle tree and shake the wind chime, alerting us to their presence.  Then they leap onto the palm tree and go to work.

What they're doing is balling up the fibrous material in the bark of the palm tree and carrying it off in their mouths.  They use this as building materials for their nests, to grow their young.  I scared one off the other day while she was gathering the palm bark material and she dropped her load.   You can see the stuff she dropped below and can see how its soft and probably makes excellent nest material. 

There's too many of the tree rats, and I plan to do something about in on October 4th.  October 4 marks the opening of squirrel season in South Louisiana.  I intend on thinning out the exploding population of cat squirrels, skinning them and then making a dark brown gravy with them in a cast iron skillet then serving the squirrels and gravy over a bed of white rice.  Comfort food at its finest.  I hope to put a good mess of them in our freezer.

October 4th is a date we'll want to mark on our calendar for sure! 

Friday Flying Feathers

Teal season usually opens in late September.  It's always a tough hunt.  Most times it's hot.  Nine times out of ten you donate about a pint of blood to mosquitoes in the blind.  But all the time, it is a memorable experience whether you bring back ducks for the first gumbo of the season or not.  Dad called me up and asked me to meet him at the shop at 5 AM sharp.  I'll never turn down an opportunity for a teal hunt on the farm.  So I set my alarm for 4:25 AM and boogied to Oberlin.

As the sun slowly made its way up peeking over the eastern horizon, it painted a glorious canvas.  Herons and grosbecks flew overhead announcing a new day.  We sat in the blind and talked in hushed tones as we anticipated the first flyover.  Teal don't play around.  They fly fast and furious.  When they see the decoys and cup their wings, it's time to shoot.

Shortly after sunrise we heard shooting coming from blinds far away.  We kept our eyes peeled and soon, teal became visible heading our way.  It was our turn to open up on them.

Dad in the foreground

Flooded rice fields are crawfish ponds make the perfect environment for ducks.  It's a short season this year, one that ended this weekend.  Normally, any ducks we shoot have to be found by walking out, but this time, we had an assistant who ran out and brought them back to us.  Raven did an excellent job!

We killed six and found five.  I hate it when you lose a bird, but sometimes a wounded one is able to crawl off on a levee and hide in the weeds.  Sometimes, they'll regain their wits and fly off, getting a second chance.  Blue winged teal are named for the distinctive markings on their wings.  Pretty birds, for sure.

I set the water in the pot to scalding so that I could get them plucked and cleaned.

In anticipation of the kill, I had harvested some okra the day before, cut it up, and cooked it down with onions to be used in the gumbo.  Teal are pretty small, so once you get them plucked they're easy to clean.  Doesn't take long at all.  I put 5 cleaned teal in a gallon ziploc.

As much as we'll enjoy that gumbo, the memories of teal hunting with Dad is where the real enjoyment lies.  What a great morning!

If There Is A God, Why Is There Evil?

It's been 15 days now since Charlie Kirk was murdered.  I'm still having trouble coming to terms with it.  My oldest son listened to him everyday and was greatly moved by his death.  He called me and said, "Dad, when the attempted assassination of President Trump occurred, God caused him to move his head a few centimeters, thus saving his life.  Why didn't God do the same for Charlie?"

Good question.  I simply answered, "Romans 8:28 tells us 'And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.'  That means ALL things - good and bad.  It was with Russ' question still reverberating in my brain that I got an email that Dr. Frank Turek would be appearing at McNeese State University to give a talk entitled "If God, Why Evil?"  This was providential because he was going to address Russ' question.  The talk was scheduled prior to Charlie Kirk's assassination and Russ and I were going to be there. 

Dr. Frank Turek is a Christian apologist and author and was Charlie's friend, assisting him with "hard" questions that people ask about Christianity.  Dr. Turek was mere feet away from Charlie when he died and spoke at Charlie Kirk's memorial service in Arizona which was viewed by millions.  It was amazing that only two days later, he was in Lake Charles, Louisiana speaking to us.

We arrived 30 minutes early, and it is a good thing we did.  There was a line stretching outside the ballroom with people wanting to get in.  In fact with 15 minutes left to go, the Fire Marshal ruled that the room was filled to capacity and only 49 more people would be allowed in.  Russ was #47, I was #48, and the guy behind me was #49!  We made it in and actually sat in the front row.  I strongly feel God wanted Russ up front and center to hear the talk.  Here is a photo showing the ballroom filled to capacity.  We learned that as many people that made it in, that many were turned away.  Fortunately, they had another building in which those folks that didn't make it in, could watch the talk being livestreamed.

The evening started with a 1 hour talk immediately followed by a Q&A session that had to be stopped an hour later due to time limitations.  I'm going to try to do my best to repeat some of what was said, as I think it was important.  Below you'll see on the screen one of the last photos of Charlie.  Dr. Turek is in the white shirt behind him.

Dr. Turek started off talking about Good versus Evil.  How does God fit in with that?  It was explained that since the fall of Man in Genesis Chapter 3 evil has been with us.  Evil actually is evidence of God in much the same way that you cannot have a shadow without the sun.  Evil is interesting in that when we think about it, we always think of the evil that OTHER people do.  We don't like to think about our own shortcomings, sin, and iniquity.  What if you woke up and went to the bathroom in the morning and there was an LED sign on your forehead that broadcast in flashing lights, your every thought for everyone to see?  Well, I know I'd never leave the bathroom.  We've all fallen short, right?

So why did God allow this to happen?  He quoted Romans 8:28 and expounded upon it.  He explained that God most certainly, since He is all powerful, could have stopped the bullet.  But He didn't.  Why?  Because God causes ALL things to work for good.  We are limited by time and space.  God is not.  God sees the end result.  God can take bad things and turn them around for good.  There are ripple effects from every circumstance that we cannot see, but God does.  One thing happens that leads to other circumstances, and others and others, like the ripple across a pond when a pebble is tossed into it.  To illustrate, we all know the story of Joseph, sold by his brothers into slavery.  He has the favor of God and rises to the rank of the second most powerful man in Egypt.  In the middle of a famine, he has the wisdom from God to stockpile grain in advance of the famine. 

People from other lands come to purchase grain to avoid starvation.  His brothers were some of those people!  When they saw him, they were afraid.  In Genesis 50:17 his brothers ask for forgiveness.  It's the first time in the Bible the word forgiveness is mentioned.  Joseph answers in verse 20, "And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive."

Dr. Turek told a moving story about a campus event at Michigan State University where an atheist student stood up and said, "There is no God.  If there's a God, why does He allow bad things to happen to good people?  Why didn't He stop Hitler?  Why does He allow innocent babies to die?"  Dr. Turek answered his questions and then a man in the audience not far from the atheist student stood up and said:

"Several decades ago there was a woman who was brutally raped.  The event was devastating to the young woman.  She was crushed.  To make matters worse, she was pregnant from the rape.  She refused to allow the baby to be punished for the man's sin, so she carried the baby to term.  The baby boy grew up, heard the Gospel message and was saved.  He went on to become a pastor and led many people to Christ!  The man turned to the atheist and said, 'That baby was ME!"  Good things can come about from even the most terrible of circumstances.  The ripple effect.

Dr. Turek posted a profound quote on the screen that I captured and have been thinking about quite a lot lately:

So this fallen world and all the events we experience are shaping us, molding us, refining us, preparing us.  But God didn't create us as robots.  He gave us free will.  He is omniscient.  He knows what will happen, but Him knowing what will happen doesn't equal causation.  We have free will.  We can accept Him or reject Him.  We can make wise decisions or foolish ones or even evil ones.  We are not exempt from the consequences of our decisions.  

The Q&A session was uplifting with students asking hard questions and even students asking what can they do to be a better evangelist or witness for Christ to unbelieving friends.  Young people are energized.  There is a revival taking place.  Russ and I left uplifted, inspired and motivated.  Russ got his questions answered.  Charlie Kirk was murdered, but his life wasn't lived in vain.  People all across the world have had an opportunity to hear the Gospel, to see Christianity lived out, to see Erika Kirk forgive the murderer of her husband!  We left there with a renewed commitment to live our lives for Christ and to shine His Light, giving Him all the glory.

I'm Seeing Red

My blood is boiling.  I walked out to the barn yesterday afternoon to gather eggs in the hen house. It's a normal undertaking each afternoon after 5 pm.  I get the egg basket that hangs on a nail on the rafters of the barn and enter the hen house.  I always look carefully before grabbing eggs.  The other day there was a large chicken snake that had devoured an egg.  If he would have just stuck to eating rats, I would simply leave him alone.  But when they eat eggs, they've crossed the line.  A quick strike with a shovel liberated his head and erased an egg-eater.

This particular afternoon there was no snake, but there was a dead chicken.  This happens from time to time.  As the Good Book says, "It is appointed for men to die once..."  Apparently, it is appointed for chickens to die once, too.

I rounded the barn and walked in the shady area near the goat barn and there was a big fat hen.  She was dead, too!  No marks that I could see, but this is more than a coincidence.  Near the head gate, I found yet another!

And in the bull pen near the gate there was yet another deceased hen.  In fact, one of her friends was paying her last respects.

Last year we lost 39 hens to minks.  That was devastating.  The minks did their damage at night.  That's why I worked so hard to "mink-proof" the hen house.  And it worked!  Except now the killer has changed tactics and is killing in broad daylight.  I'm trying to formulate a plan.  We've got to nip this in the bud.  Last night, I put Belle in the barn.  No deaths overnight.  I left her in the barn during the day, and there were no more killed today.

The mink is a low-down, dirty scoundrel.  Once they get the taste of blood in their mouths, they continue to kill their prey.  They don't eat it.  They just enjoy the sport of killing.  It reminded me of something in the Bible that tells us what God hates:

 Proverbs 6:16-19 King James Version

16 These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

This is true!  I've highlighted 3 of the 7 items that our mink is guilty of.  I hate minks!

Weekend Getaway

My sister's son, Hayes, got married in Natchitoches, Louisiana, this past Saturday night.  Natchitoches is about two hours away from us.  Our families got an airbnb lake house for the weekend.  We dried off Callie, the Nubian goat we've been milking so that we could get away.  It took a little 'doing,' but we put out enough food to last the chickens for 2 days and made sure there was plenty of water available for the cows and goats.

Belle, our dog, usually stays in her kennel... for one day.  Then she finds a way to escape by scaling the walls and in Houdini-like fashion, squirms through the tarp that is stretched tightly across the roof.  Prior to the trip, I armed myself with welded wire fencing, wire cutting pliers, and some tie wire and was able to construct an escape-proof barrier.  Now that everyone was good to go, we pulled out of the driveway for the drive up Hwy 165, I-49 and into Natchitoches.  It's the oldest city in Louisiana as it was established in 1714.  This fact surprises many people who thought that New Orleans bears that distinction.  

We got unpacked at the lake house and then met my cousin, Patrick, and his wife Alison down on Front Street.  It faces the Cane River and as we strolled down the street, we were happy to find that there was a meat pie festival going on.  Natchitoches is famous for their meat pies.  We, of course, indulged.  There was also a Corvette show on Front Street with many booths set up selling homemade jellies, pickled vegetables, and woodworking crafts.

It was time to get ready for the wedding festivities, so we got dressed.

(L-R Russ, me, Tricia)

Benjamin was a groomsman, so as we were about to drive to the reception after the wedding, my guys took a photo with their mama!

(L-R Benjamin, Tricia, and Russ)

The wedding reception was held under a big white tent in the middle of a cow pasture amidst rolling hills about 10 miles out in the country.  Catfish, Chicken, Macaroni and cheese, and Green beans were served and we took advantage of the time to visit with family and friends.  My sister, Jenny, bakes cakes as a side-hustle and in addition to being the mother of the groom, she somehow found time to bake the Bride's Wedding Cake AND the Groom's cake.  They were delicious and beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, here's a photo of my Mom and Dad at the reception.  I think it is a great photo of them!

The next morning we woke up early and enjoyed a cup of coffee and the sunrise coming up over Sibley Lake.  It was very peaceful and quiet.

In the stillness, we talked and read our daily reading as we read through the Bible.  We're currently about to finish up with 1 Kings.

It was so still.  The water on the lake was smooth as glass.  We watched an egret as he stood on a stump as the sun rose over the eastern horizon.

At around 11 AM we began our drive home.  As we pulled onto the homestead, we eagerly looked to Belle's kennel and found that...  Belle was in the doghouse still secure!  All is well.  What a nice weekend!  And Best wishes to the Groom (Hayes) and the Bride (Hannah)!

Checking In On the Recently Planted Fall Garden

This past week I put a lot of work in so that we could get the fall garden in.  Starting from the front, I cleared out some sweet potato vines and got a full row of broccoli and a row beside it of cauliflower. Just to the south of that, we planted Russian Red Kale, Siberian Kale, Dinosaur Kale and Rainbow Swiss Chard.  A little to the west of those rows, we put in a row of Detroit Dark Red Beets, Chioggia Beets and Bull's Blood Beets.

It is Very Dry for September in our area, so I was careful to get everything watered in and then kept the soil moist to aid in germination.

I almost forgot to tell you that in pulling up the youngest sweet potato vines in order to make room for the broccoli and cauliflower, I unearthed some Golden Wonder Sweet Potatoes.  I'll let these cure and we'll eat these first while waiting on the main sweet potato harvest coming up in about a month.

I made some room on the 16 foot trellis by removing the cucumber vines which had been decimated by army worms.  This enabled me to get the sugar snap peas planted.  They responded with a germination rate that approaches 99%.

We always like to have fresh green beans for Thanksgiving.  To achieve that, we got a row of snap beans that are up and thriving.  About 1/3 of the row is a variety called Calima.  The remaining 2/3 of the row is planted with Blue Lake Bush Green Beans.

Further to the south, we planted a row of kohlrabi and cabbage.  In the upcoming weeks, we'll get garlic in and then lettuce, mustard greens, turnips and radishes, amount other items.  The fall garden is about all planted.  Good weather's on the way.

A Crafty Beast in the Garden

It's that time of year where we're picking muscadines off our vine in the side yard garden.  Muscadines are a type of grapevine that grow in these parts.  They have thick skin and a lot of seeds, but the grape itself is very tasty.  I like to eat them sun-warmed right off the vine and spit the seeds on the ground.  We have many young muscadine vines coming up all over the place now.  Russ took one with him to his home and is adding to his vineyard.  He has his vines growing on a hurricane fence.  Our vine gets bigger every year and it is trellised on a cattle panel supported by two t-posts on the ends.  Russ was a horticulture major and explained to me that if we had pruned our vine properly, it would have made more grapes this year.  When the plant goes dormant, we'll give it a haircut so that we have a more abundant harvest next year.

I keep a watchful eye when picking muscadines.  Red wasps love to build their nests under the canopy of grape leaves.  They are hard to see and then when you reach in to pull some grapes off the vine, they fly out and sting you.  Last year I was fortunate to see the nest before they got me.  It was as big as a belt buckle and full of angry aggressive wasps.  In the old days, I'd cut a Dr. Pepper can in half and fill the bottom with gasoline and douse the nest with the gas.  It 'freezes' them instantly.  This method is a no-go for killing wasps around things we're going to eat.  It would not only kill the wasps, but would kill part of the muscadine vine, too.  So I put a generous amount of Dawn dishwashing liquid into a cup and swirled some hot water in the cup.  I through that on the nest and the wasps fell to the ground, unable to fly.  My leather boot put them out of their misery and I plucked the nest off the vine and stepped on it, too.

As I was searching for ripe muscadines and keeping my eyes peeled for wasps, I spotted this dude:

It's only a harmless garter snake, but it made me immediately think of Genesis 3:1 that says, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.  And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"

We have numerous garter snakes all over the place.  They're small and slither under the French doors.  We have to constantly pick them up and throw them back outside.  They eat frogs, lizards, geckos, and worms.  All their favorite foods are around our house, so we're constantly in contact with them.  Sometimes, their desire to get into the house gets them in trouble.  Last week one got slammed in the French door by accident, suffering an injury not unlike the one mentioned in Genesis 3:15.

The serpent I saw in the muscadine vine, fortunately, did not speak to me!  I am under no restrictions from which tree (or vine) in the garden from which I can eat, so I continued picking a bowlful of delicious muscadines.

Discovered Some Serious Tomato Plant Damage

I check on the tomato plants daily.  Despite the afternoons still in the low to mid 90's, the tomato plants have done quite well.  In fact, I was concerned that due to the heat, they wouldn't set fruit.  I had read that they will have problems setting fruit if temperatures exceed 85 degrees Fahrenheit.  Well, that rule isn't set in stone as I'm seeing fruit all over the place.

But I'm seeing something else, too.  I walked down the tomato rows this afternoon and spotted this!

And here is it's neighbor!  What in the wide world of sports is going on?

Well, I have a pretty good idea.  It looks like damage from a tomato horn worm.  I decided I would carefully inspect each plant.  The tomato horn worm's appetite rivals mine.  It can eat a lot in just a short sitting.  The plants weren't like this yesterday.  So I started at the first plant, looking all over.  And then I spotted the perpetrator!  Can you see how camouflaged it is?  It blends right in to the stalk and leaves.

I snatched the hornworm off the plant with the quickness.  You can see how it got it's name.  It has a red barb on his rear end.  I read somewhere that they don't sting or bite, but I wasn't taking any chances.  It wasn't happy with me for removing it from it's lunch.

I'm sure there are more, so I began to go through the plants one by one.  Here's another one!

And another!

And yet still another.  In all, I picked seven of them off the plants, all except one were as fat as my index finger.

Tomato hornworms feed on members of the nightshade family, namely tomatoes and eggplant.  Speaking of names, the hornworm's scientific name is Manduca quinquemaculata.  But I can't pronounce that name.  I choose to simply call them... Chicken food!  I tossed each one over the fence and watched the birds quickly devour them.  Please be assured I watched until they were digested.  I don't want them to make their way back into the garden.

I'll check the plants again tomorrow for any fresh signs of damage.

Clipping Wings

Although we have three acres for our chickens to roam around on, the old saying that "the grass is always greener on the other side" rings true for chickens as well as cows and goats.  Even though I have the wings clipped on my chickens, I have a couple of chickens that squeeze themselves out between the hog wire perimeter fence.  Pro-tip: When you clip their wings, you only need to clip one of them.  They can't fly with feathers on only one wing.

Our new neighbors put in a chicken yard.  More and more people are getting 'backyard chickens.'  There's nothing quite like picking fresh eggs every day.  The neighbor's birds are young and not quite laying eggs yet.  They quickly ate all the grass in the new chicken yard and would fly up on top of their hen house and then jump down over the fence.  About 15 birds would come into our yard and were scratching in the landscape and got into the garden.  They also devoured our persimmons that had fallen from the tree, before we had a chance to pick them up.  We had to do something quickly!

Tricia and I got our old net that we use when we go crabbing, and I also picked up my tin snips.  We had some chickens' wings to clip.  With both of us working together over two days, we cornered the chickens one by one and gave them a haircut.  You just take one wing and using the sharp tin snips, cut the wing feathers way back.  Then we gently tossed them back over the fence to their home.

The chickens squawked to express their displeasure, but at the end of the ordeal, no one was worse for wear.  Except, I broke a cardinal rule of neighborliness.  I didn't let my neighbor know what we had done.  I remedied that situation this afternoon.  I talked to him about it and he was thankful, saying that we saved him a lot of time, energy, and work.  So everything is smoothed out.  Everyone is happy... except for the chickens that have lost their freedom!  I'll have to do something to remedy the problem of two of our forty something hens that get out as I don't want them getting into their yard.  It's been more peaceful over the past few days without a flock of chickens in the yard.  There are two guinea fowl, though, that we couldn't catch, but I haven't given up.  We'll get 'em yet.

A New Shed for the Bullpen

I started to tell you last week about our new construction project in the back pasture that we call the "bullpen."  It's where we keep the males of the bovine and goat persuasion segregated from the females in order to control breeding times so that the babies come when we want them to come.  The bullpen has no barn, no enclosure to get out of the rain.  It is bordered by woods that provide overhanging shade.  We can and do run them into the barn through a gate that's adjacent if weather gets too bad.

For Nicky the bull, it's not a big deal.  For Popcorn, the billy, he doesn't like the rain and is prone to getting hoof rot.  Tricia asked that we build a small lean-to or shed to provide protection from the elements to the animals in the bullpen.  That project has been on the list for a couple of months and this week, we decided to begin so that we would have it done before the north wind starts to blow and weather deteriorates.

Four 4x4 posts were set in the corners and cemented in.  Curious onlookers supervised the process and got in the way.  I had to move them out of the bullpen after my patience ran a little thin.

I looked at several plans, but none were exactly what I was looking for.  I ended up having no plans and would just play in by ear, wing it, and see how it comes out.  I took measurements and composed my materials list and drove to Stine Lumber to get necessary supplies - about $300 worth, although I did use some lumber I had stashed away in the barn rafters.  Side supports went up.  These add support but also will anchor the tin sides of the shed.

I'm no carpenter - not even on my best day.  I just kind of throw things together.  I used a level and tried my best to make things square.  Experience has taught me that the animals don't care about quality construction as long as it is functional.  The remainder of the walls go up as well as the boards that will support the sloping roof.

The roof rafters, I guess you'd call them are now on, supported by 3 inch screws.  The roof will open to the south, providing protection from the north winds of winter.

The roof is up and now the walls start going in.

The south side will remain wide open, but the other three sides will be closed off.  I assume later on we could gate off the opening, if the need arises.

Russ came by the house Saturday afternoon and helped me cut the tin into 5 foot sections and begin hanging the walls.  I couldn't have done this part alone.

Here's our completed shed.  It's small, yet it will provide a respite from cold winds and rain in the winter.

Here's a look from the west side.  A west side story, you might call it.

The project is complete.  Now it's time to get in the garden and start working on the fall/winter planting.

The Worm Turns

The worm turns is an idiom used to explain a situation that changes suddenly and abruptly.  It's appropriate to use that expression when talking about today's topic.  Cucumbers.  Our spring/summer cucumber crop was stellar, stupendous, and superlative.  Each day we'd harvest all we could carry.  We ate them every lunch, gave lots away at church and to family and friends and lacto-fermented many pickles in gallon and quart-sized jars.  

When the cucumbers in that garden petered out, I planted another row of them on the same trellis, while working some compost into the soil for nutrients.  You never want to take more out of the soil than you put into it.  The cucumbers quickly grew, attached themselves to the trellis, bloomed and set fruit. In fact, just as we ate the last pickle from the pickle jar, the cucumber harvest began to come in again.  We were just starting to bring in a half dozen a day and enjoying them cut up with some salt and pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar and then...

And then in one stinking day things turned south.  Worms descended on our cucumbers like the plagues in Egypt.   I guess had I been more vigilant and observant, I could have tried some neem oil on them, but it was not to be.

Just look at the destruction.  A few days prior, the leaves were broad and bright green, tendrils gripping the trellis as hopeful vines inched skyward.  Today we're left with webs, poop and the remnants of formerly productive vines.  

I scratched through the rubble of the failed crop and found the perpetrator, in fact three of them feasting on the last remaining cucumber.  I tossed it over the fence where many hens were waiting and watched with delight as I witnessed the worms got their comeuppance.

But no long faces here,  tomorrow I'll work some fresh compost and some chicken litter into the soil beneath the trellis and I'll plant our fall crop of Sugar Snap Peas.  Things turned quickly with the cucumbers - from abundance to abhorrent.  But things can turn quickly again with our crop of sugar snap peas hopefully and prayerfully planted.  If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Red Sky At Night

 I ran out to the road the other day and captured this beautiful red sunset.  What a sight!

It reminded me of the old saying, "Red sky in morning, sailor's take warning.  Red sky at night, sailor's delight."  I'm not going sailing, but if the saying is true, tonight would be the night to do it.  Did you know that this old saying is mentioned in the Bible?  It is found in Matthew 16:2-3, mentioned by our Lord.

2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.  3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

The Sadducees and Pharisees were two rival parties, but their hatred for Jesus caused them to be in agreement.  That brings up another old saying, by the way: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."  These religious leaders were looking for a sign.  They wanted Him to work a miracle in order that they might believe He is the Christ.  They were always looking for signs and wonders.  These people had the Son of God sitting before them.  Prophecy was being fulfilled before their very eyes and yet they were blind.  No one is as blind as he who just won't see.

Here's the thing:  A miracle or sign or wonder will not convict you to turn from your unbelief to salvation.  Why did Jesus bring up the weather?  He was making the point that their blindness was deliberate.  He was telling them that they had no problems looking at Creation that HE created and draw conclusions to guide them, yet they were confronted by evidence that He had shown them repeatedly and couldn't connect the dots.  Their own Scripture pointed prophecies of the Messiah coming that they should have recognized, but their eyes seemed to be closed to the truth.

Their eyes were closed.  Their hearts were hardened.  In verse 4 Jesus called them an adulterous generation.  Now some of them may have been committing adultery in terms of not being faithful to their wives, but Jesus was speaking more of spiritual adultery.  They were God's chosen people and they were not faithful to Him.  Instead, they were trusting in a set of rules and laws that they had manufactured.  They were worshipping a god they had constructed.  If they were following God, they would have recognized the Messiah in their midst.

Have you recognized the Messiah?  Do you know Jesus?  Have you manufactured a god or a system that you're trusting to get you to Heaven?  Jesus is the One foretold by the Old Testament prophets.  He is the promised Messiah that solved the "sin problem" that originated in Genesis 3.  He is the Good News that the New Testament speaks of.  Try as we might, we can't purchase salvation.  The smartest men and women can't invent a cure for our terminal sinful condition.  All it takes is faith, placing full reliance on Jesus for the remission of your sins.  Despite the weather forecast, if you trust Him, regardless the color of the sky at morning or night, you'll sail into eternity secure with Him.