Homeward Bound

Once in a very long time there comes along a fellow who truly has the potential to direct the affairs of a nation with understanding. Our founding fathers were such men. They understood the dangers of government, and put one in place which left the power where it should be – in the hands of the people. Thomas Jefferson has many quotes on this subject, the shortest being “[It is] the people, to whom all authority belongs.” (–Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 1821. ME 15:328) We utilize our “authority” as we elect officials and communicate with our leaders.

However, there seems to be a problem when the majority of Americans believe one thing, and our leaders are directing us elsewhere. Consider our current state of affairs. No one would disagree that we are currently “at war”. Yet our constitution has given us clear directions in regard to declaring war. It must be declared by congress, and congress is to declare the will of the people. Our constitution puts the seat of power in congress for a very good reason. Lord Acton, a British historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, observed:

“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

I believe our founders understood this well, and that is why our government was formed just so, with all of it’s checks and balances. What I want to know is, why are we at war now, when our congress has not declared it? One congressman, in fact, proposed legislation which declared war and our congress would not vote for it. So it seems that “we the people” are being carried along by a small minority. I say it’s time for a change.

In the past I have tentatively endorsed candidates for president or other offices. But this is the first time I can wholeheartedly recommend an individual for president. Congressman Ron Paul, in my opinion, is “founding father material”. Here’s why:

• He is the only candidate who will only vote for something that is expressly stated in the constitution. And, here’s the neat part – his voting record proves it! He has, for nearly twenty years, stood consistently on his principles! Today in the world of politics, this is truly unique.
• He is the only candidate who believes there should be less government; therefore he’s the only one with the fortitude to steer our country toward true fiscal responsibility. Consider this: he annually gives back a portion of his office budget to the US Treasury. I don’t know about you, but when I hear of a government official acting righteously (not just giving lip service), it gives me great hope for our country.
• He didn’t seek out to candidate for the presidency; others have, like they did George Washington, propelled him forward to a difficult calling to serve our country. In the past, a career in politics was unusual. Men would have a career in some worthy occupation, and then serve our country later on. Ron Paul is such a man. He had a career in obstetrics and delivered over 4000 babies! He also served our country as a flight surgeon in the US Airforce in the 1960′s.

If you have listened to the Republican debates, you know what I mean when I say that he has understanding of history, government & our constitution which seems to be lacking in many of the other candidates. He also, according to the poll results, is the clear winner of the debates, even though the media is downplaying him and not giving him as much air time as the other candidates. When I hear Ron Paul speak, my heart beats with pride to be an American! I remember what our country was founded upon; what made her great, and I shake my foggy brain and want to make her great again.

In summary, I believe Ron Paul is a man of integrity. He is 71 years old, and has used his considerable intelligence to understand economics, historical patterns of government, and the intentions of our founding fathers in designing our country like they did. I pray that other Americans will really listen to him and rally behind this man of wisdom and strength.

For the third year we have stepped into the heretofore unknown world of gardening. It is becoming more familiar to us, but we still have a lot to learn. This year is doing well – especially the cool weather veggies, as we are enjoying a cool spell. I absolutely love green onions from the garden! Rebekah also has a little wild onion garden in the forest. She will often bring me a handful before dinner . They are one of the first veggies we can eat in the spring because they grow so fast

In October we will finally plant garlic. I’ve even written it on the calendar so I won’t forget, as we have the last two years. So far this year we’ve planted spinach (not coming up – I must do some research), black seeded lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, carrots, onions, potatoes, and gobs of tomatoes! Our lettuce is delicious and we eat it with every evening meal – it’s really good with the green onions. It is especially rewarding to be able to supply the fresh vegetable for a meal from our garden. The three oldest children also have a little square garden that I roped off with string. They have planted what they desired to plant from our collection of seeds.

We plan to mulch again with straw or hay, using the Ruth Stout method. Ruth Stout gardened diligently until she was well into her 90′s. Though she is no longer with us, her many articles and books about gardening bring much spunk and wisdom on the subject. She is mostly known for her method of laying down straw or hay at least eight inches thick in order to smother weeds and prevent watering. As soon as I can get ahold of my straw provider, we will have them deliver a truckload of straw bales. The kids will have great fun for a week or two playing on the straw bale stack; then we will begin mulching around the plants and between the rows. After a few weeks, when a few weeds will begin showing their ugly faces, we will just cover them up with straw so they can’t grow through. Simple! But still a challenge in the hot weather when we would prefer to stay inside with the A/C on .

Though we don’t plan to need a lot of watering once we get the mulch on, we have determined that there is a need to have a water supply closer to the garden. A hose laid across the yard just doesn’t cut it! We decided this after two hoses burst due to hot weather, and one hose was shredded by an inattentive mower (I’m not naming names her ) Having a water line put in would cost about $1500, so that was out of the question. So, my sweet husband decided he would bury a hose across the yard. He ran the hose along the back of the patio, up the edge of the cement stairs that lead to the garage, and off the landing into his trench, which is the shortest route of ground to the garden and goes downhill. The trench leads to the edge of the garden, so when we do need to water, it’s a cinch! And o-so-much-better than dragging the hose off the yard every time you want to mow.

We have also experimented with two ways of deterring critters from the garden. The liquid fence (foul smelling liquid that deer hate the smell of) is not very cost-effective or fun to use for the garden, but we like it on our apple trees. The water sprayer with the laser eye (I’m not remembering the name of it right now) was very effective for awhile. The device is battery-operated and attaches to your hose. When it senses movement in the vision of it’s “eye”, it will then spray a semi-circle burst of water toward whatever critter is invading our garden. Generally speaking, this was very effective in scaring them off. However, it was not as effective when the plants began to grow too tall and thick. I think the next thing we will try is the electric fence; if we can find the time and money this year.

We also planted 4 new apple trees this year, which seem to be doing very well. We planted them in a semi-circle around the apple tree that Nate’s dad planted before he died. However, Nathan did find ants – big, fat, black ones – on all of them last week. He learned that the ants were there because aphids were present; the ants were trapping the aphids at the end of the branch until they were nice and fat from sucking the juice out of the leaves. Then they would eat them. What was the solution? Dish soap, diluted with water, and sprayed on the aphids, effectively killed the aphids (and some of the ants). This solution seems to work well for a lot of yard pests. Our decorative cherry tree was attacked by tent caterpillars this spring, and dish soap did the trick with them also. Now I just need to find the solution for squash bugs. I found some of them on my zucchini plants and I refuse to leave a pail of bleach water in my garden, where the children often are present.

In summary, I love my garden! And I love a good portion of the work associated with it. But I still have so much to learn and so much work to get into a likable pattern. Anyway, it gives me a great deal of security to know I am working on it, when I consider the current state of our economy.

At first we were confused. We believed the hotdog wrappers which littered our campsite came from the trash they had invaded. But after we had stoked up a fire the next day, we realized that we had no (zero, nada, zilch) hotdogs left in the cooler. And our butter was decidedly mutilated. Let me explain.

The first night at our campsite was beautiful. The wind blew through our popup camper and the temperature was just right. But some noises disturbed our restful night. I groggily opened my eyes to hubby shining his flashlight out to scare whatever critter dared to approach our groceries in the night. It didn’t work. So he reluctantly came out of the camper to investigate. Here’s what he found: a raccoon with his hand in the cookie jar! Well, really we didn’t bring our cookie jar with us. Nor do we actually own one. However, we did bring our butter, and this resourceful raccoon managed to pry the lid off with his claws, sit back on his haunches, and eat much of our tub of butter! I would give much to be able to have a picture to show you, but all we have are claw marks on the butter container (sorry, I didn’t get a picture of that either).
The next night Nathan and I sat around the embers of our fire and chatted in the dark. I saw the outline of a large, fuzzy creature walking down the middle of the road. His eyes were round, focused flashlights in the night. He was completely fearless; used to taking what he wanted from unwary campers. He was the king of his domain. This was the last I saw of him for the duration of our camping trip.

I am stilled awed with the wonder of it all.

Rubbing their wings together to make a familiar summer song, cicadas and I were only marginally familiar with one another. That is, before this last week. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I think I assumed that this bug was just like any other. I feel that I have been re-educated. By the critters themselves. They were simply inescapable; crawling out of the ground by the hundreds; transforming an otherwise boring campsite into a homeschool room to be envied.

The Magicicada is a periodic cicada with a 13 or 17 year life cycle. This particular brood (brood XIII) of cicadas will not return until 2024 – we were fortunate to have landed right in the middle of the most exciting part of their cycle! There were holes everywhere on the ground just like this one:

The cicadas burrow out of the ground as nymphs, leaving holes like the one above. Then they crawl up nearby vegetation (or laundry ) and begin their transformation. At nightfall, we were able to get pictures of them in their various stages of change.

Here is a nymph crawling up a pine tree right next to our picnic table.

Here is the nymph opening his shell and beginning to change.

Note how he has curled his body back onto the tree.

Now his wings are beginning to fill in and take shape.

Here his wings are almost formed, but he is still white. Only his eyes stay the same. A magnificent red.

The fully formed cicada is much more colorful:

The cicada will hang around for six days or so waiting for his exoskeleton to harden, at which time the males will begin calling to the females with their signature cicada song. They produce the sound using their tymbal, and the females respond by flicking their wings. This attracts the male to the culmination of his life, after which he weakens and dies. The female lives long enough to deposit her eggs into a twig. About 6-10 weeks later, the nymphs will hatch, fall to the ground, and burrow below to find a root to snack on for 17 years of so. How fascinating! I can’t help but think how utterly long it takes this cicada to mature. Once he matures, his only goal is to reproduce, which takes but a short stint into the sunshine (is there a lesson for me here Lord?).

Yet I think he is happy. That is, when he is not being attacked by a purple dinosaur:

Or carried around by a giant bi-pedal creature.  .

I am so awed to have been a part of this rare event. Thank You Father, for giving us a glimpse of Your marvelous creation! My eyes have seen, recognized and glorified the amazing God of the universe. The merciful and mighty God who authored and perfected my faith; the creative genius who authored and perfected… the Magicicada.

Lately, when my little girl Deborah goes outside to play, she has one thing on her mind: catching frogs. The toads and frogs are abundant this year, and they seemed to have moved into the large stump in the front yard, as well as into the landscaping rocks beside our house. I’m afraid they don’t stand much of a chance with Deborah around, for she has a really sharp eye. Here she is with a lovely tree frog she caught last night.

Here is the same frog, on top of the baby’s head .

Over the weekend, Deborah found a baby bird beside the house. She promptly brought it inside and we wondered what to do with the fuzzy little fellow. We learned from our research that we should leave it near where we found it and clear away all of the hoopla, observing from afar to see if Fuzzy’s Mama would return for him. We were concerned that she wouldn’t want him for the essence of Deborah, which surely clung to his fuzz. The ornithology site we visited assured us that birds have a poor sense of smell, so she would likely still want him. Here is a picture of Fuzzy. Isn’t he cute?

Well, after observing from my bedroom window and giving him a nudge closer to his Mom, whom we found was searching in the wrong place, we had success! They found each other, and the mother was able to get her little baby to waddle off after her .

I don’t have any pictures of the critters my son Joshua brought into the house. We found his shoe in Daddy’s office, full of pill bugs. But I do have a picture of some pill bugs that the children played with in the dollhouse earlier on in the spring.

Life with children doesn’t get much more interesting, does it?

Today, my dear husband Nathan joins me in the land of 35 rotations.  The way I see it, he is now half-way done, so to speak, in the oven of life.  Of course, if you add our years together we are already complete.  That is, numerically, if the number 70 means anything at all! (Biblically, 7 is the number of completeness and 10 (according to this source) means the completeness of order).  Anyway, 35 times around the sun means nothing at all if you do not have the Son.  For “in him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

I am so thankful that I have a husband who desires to serve the Lord, and to be a good husband and father.  Recently, I wrote him a note and put it in his lunch.  Here is an excerpt…It really captures my appreciation for him .

“Shiny!” I say as I peer through the window of life’s glass, at the soul of my beloved.

He wipes dishes,
scratches itches,
moves at the wishes – of his dear ones….

This exhortation from Philippians 2 often reminds me of him…”Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”  Truly I am blessed to be able to say such things!  Thank You Lord.

Humorous Anecdote:  I often pull multiples out of birthday years (or special meanings, such as when we turned 33).  Once I was doing this for my mother-in-law, as she was turning 51.  She looked at her husband with a raised eyebrow and said “I’m three 17-year-olds!”