Look up a dear friend

I got in late last night went down to farm to get the mail and check on things. Kenny Ray came home thru Hillsboro instead of our regular way home. I wanted to stop and see an Paulette, she is my second mother. Growing up i spent as much time at her house as did at home. Her son was one of my best friends that i have ever had. Its sad how people drift apart thru the years , we all get to busy in our lives sometimes and forget what is truly important in our lives, family and friends.

Have you ever seen the movie" Stand by me"? About the three boys well that

was Her son Little Ronnie , me and another boy Big Ronnie . The three of us were thick as thieves

when we were young, and just like the movie we slowly drifted apart. I could write a novel on our childhood, as we were latch key kids way back then. I think it is sad that today's kids do not play

outside and have adventures as we did they are truly missing life. Kenny Ray and his buddies love to hear me tell those stories they do not always believe me but they are true.

I left the house this morning about 7 am , me and ole Jack I let Kenny Ray

sleep in as he seems to be coming down with a cold. It was a balmy 12 degrees as i got ole Jack

in the truck , he his always so excited when he jumps into the front seat because he knows we are going hunting. Today's hunting was not as good as last Saturday i only has one race this morning compared to 4 last week , but i did kill Jacks first rabbit that he has managed to bring in complete circle. I thank God for another beautiful day

Family or money

What is the true cost of having a job? It takes me 50 dollars a week in fuel to travel back and forth to work. Maintenance on the vehicle and insurance,it always seems to need something at an inconvenient time . Clothes have to be purchased and cleaned , dinner purchased if you do not pack your dinner, unless you eat Mcdonalds dollar menu it cost about 6 or 7 dollars a day. You get the ideal , and i am sure some people can have more expense than me. Then on payday you get your check stub and look at the everything the government takes. Tari and used to live on less money when we got married than what the government takes now. But the worst of it is I am gone 10 and half hours a day from my family. Time that could be used more effective with helping with home schooling my son , work on the farm to produce more of our needs there by reducing our money needs. By my calculations it cost me about $350.00 a month just to have a job away from my family. And an average of 210 hrs a month . i have about 3 hours a night with
my family thru the week . No amount of money is worth the time that i can never back .

A cold winters day

A cold winters day

I rest before play

Fireside I sit with hot coffee til break of day

When Jack the Beagle and Kenny Ray are ready to play

Jack will hunt and sniff out a rabbit and begin to bay

As Kenny Ray watches the rabbit run away

We joke and laugh till the day fades away

Fireside I sit with sleeping Kenny Ray

And the perfect end to a cold winters day

My truck is worn and old

My truck is worn and old

The memories are great that it holds

Great hunting and fishing tales have been told

And a eager 3 year old

Answers to life questions put on hold

For a sleeping 5 year old

Loads of firewood hauled to keep out the cold

And the stories of a 7 year old

songs have been sang and his dreams been bold

so it goes for a 10 year old

the sign removed , and tears put on hold

because the truck can never be sold

so it goes for a 40 year old

If you have faith, live on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime

I have been at struggle with myself for the last few months with my relationship with God. i have always believed in God, to me my church has always been the woods , streams , i have not seen a church yet the could match the beauty of the woods in October. i have always helped my neighbors and family . and i think a good father and husband, to live and let live. i have always wanted to live a more simple life.and i was talking with my mother last night and she said something to me that struck a nerve that my desire to live more simply was truly a desire to get more in touch with God. That he was working on me.Little did she know but i had read a blog called the Christian Farm and Ranchman earlier in the day. a essay titled Faith Hope and Love , it was very similar

to my discussion with my mother, then tonight i was reading and came upon this phrase

If a man has faith he will live, with equal faith everywhere, if he has no faith he will continue to live the like the rest of the world he is joined to. my sister tells me that God is speaking to my heart and that i need to listen.I always thought that religion would come like a bolt of lightening, but it appears he is talking to me with words and a desire to push away materialism.

Spring time - farm checklist of chores

I have been making plans for the garden and work for the farm as i continue to makes plans for my full time move there. I will be placing the order for the apple trees this week from fedco trees, they offer a lot of old time standards order one of each Fireside, ducthess of Oldenburg and Black oxford . we currently have two old apple trees i do not know the name but they are late fall apple and very good. last winter we lost the best tree it up rooted during a storm but we did get a shoot up from the roots i do not know how well it grow but we are going to give it chance. As for the garden 1/2 runners and greasy grit , blue lake and Kentucky wonder beans. onions ,lettuce, tomatoes, peppers bell and hot ,sweet corn , beets, squash ,carrots, potatoes. I will get with my mother and place a order for the seed we need as we try and save seed every year from the surplus. some before the end of the month i will place the order for some meat chickens for the first of April my goal is to raise 250 this year for all my family and possible some to sell at a farmers market. i also plan to check on my honey bees this week to see how they are coming along as well as place my order for some more bees . Kenny ray and i need to take a weekend soon and finish the fence for the cow that i hope to purchase this spring to feed out for the freezer.We also need the finish cleaning up some ground for his house that we are going to build .

Self imposed bondage /slavery

The middle class including myself, are modern day slaves. We are in bondage to the banks and consumerism. AND WE MUST BREAK THE CHAINS for ourselves as well as our children.

We need to start by teaching our children an learning ourselves to live within our means.

Kenny Ray has to save half of all money he receives he has to put into a savings account. it his hard to do sometimes and we argue and sometimes I lose . I need to pray for the strength to help me follow thru. It seems he his always borrowing money from me for this or that .in order to teach about the cost of money i am going to start charging him interest on the money. and hopefully he

will see the light about borrowing that cd or dvd that was 10 dollars actually will cost him 15 dollars after his debt is paid. it may seem trivial but it is the same for house . we may purchase a house for 80,000 dollars purchase price but the real price is 300,00.00 dollars.Even worst is credit card debt that 500.00 dollars you put will cost you thousand dollars if you do not pay it off. All of this debt is self imposed , as nothing you buy is worth the true cost of the money not even the house when you consider the maintaince and taxes that you continue to during and after the loan as well as the time you spend away from you family at a job. We are slaves to the banks

Rabbit hunting

Went yesterday evening with Jack , Kenny Rays beagle hound . Jack is a young dog that needs a lot of work. we had 3 small races with the rabbit giving him the slip in each race. We need an older more experience dog to help him. It was a beautiful evening. It was cold and we have about 5 inches of snow on the ground. I have posted a picture that was taken a while back of Kenny Ray

and Jack

Teach a man to fish feed him for a lifetime

It is my responsibility to teach Kenny Ray how to take car of himself and family. This means more than teaching him to read and write. It also means teaching him how to put food on the table , it is easy to teach what you love. My father started me hunting when i was 3 years old

hunting squirrels and catching greenuns { bluegills} . Kenny Ray started shooting when he was two

and started tagging along with me. we built a pond on the farm when he was 5 and stocked it.

he loves to go fishing. he got is first squirrel when he was 8 . it hangs on the wall in the family room with his first greenun.he takes care of his hunting dog, and his chickens every morning before he starts his school work.in the spring it is job to take care of the broiler chicks the first 15 days of their life before they are moved to grass then i take care of them as we move them to 10 acres of ground near my work. we usually handle 50 at time. when it comes time to get the garden in he usually does the plowing and discing for me at 12 years old he can handle the tractor as well as me.

he helps with the planting and the weeding and the harvest . he helps making deer jerky and the breaking of green beans for canning. we plan on raising a beef this year .something else he can learn. these skills are being lost to the next generation. as i have seen most adults do not know where their food comes from or how it is handled. if you watch a movie called Food Inc . everyone

would be planting a garden in their backyard, and becoming friends with a local farmer. people should not trust the government to protect their food as they are failing at the cost of your families health. cancer = the food you eat

Saturday Jan. 9 Life the way I see it

I have been working toward a simple life for last couple of years. As i have come to realize that money and things do not make one happy. Because i have been there as you began to accumulate

posses ions there is never and end as there is always something that comes out new and improved

and a must have. Not only does this modern day industrialism consumerism take your money

but it steals something more valuable, it takes your time . And that is something you never get back. Our children do not need their love bought for them all the really need is your time ,whether

you ride bikes or color.play pass , have a tea party. these things a child will remember and the memory will last a lot longer than a video game or a hundred dollar pair of sneakers . I think back about my childhood i do not remember toys , i remember events with family and friends. Kenny Ray ask me all the time to tell him stories about the old days . but i have found that time is harder to give sometimes but is much more rewarding. industrialism/consumerism in my opinion has destroyed many a family as it has caused both parents to work and taken them out

of their roles in the family. it has made the man and wife ,taxi drivers that shuttle their kids around dinner and sexual partners only and at the first bump in the road they lawyer up and divorce. they become selfish and think of them selves instead of whats best for the family.I know as my own family moved from Kentucky as a child from the farm to Dayton and the industrial

world i have watched as my father and mothers family have grown apart once they moved to a 40 hour work week. and away from an agriculture self supporting farm .so begins my plan to move my family back to the farm and a self supportive life so that i may finnish watching Kenny Ray and his children grow up in a way that i believe is a less hectic and a more loving life.

Fri. Jan, 8 my son and his first business

8 degrees this morning , and 5 inches of snow on the ground. My son is thrilled he has been waiting for this , he wants to go to work and earn some extra money for himself. He walked away this morning with shovel in hand
I am proud of him , he came up this plan all on his own . i spoke with a few minutes ago and he is on his third driveway.

Weds Jan. 6

up at 5 am to stoke heating stove a chilly 17 degrees this morning.

started work on garden plan for this spring , as well as an orchard plan .

but i want heirloom seeds and trees, but everything looks to be new and improved.

I do not like the month of January it always seems to be dark and cloudy.

My father hated January , he was not able to get outside and being cooped up really bothered him. Although i do get outside allot rabbit hunting and cutting firewood on the weekends. it just seems so long i get up go to my job in the dark and get home in the dark.
Well it is time to get Kenny Ray up he has to get the firewood in before he starts his school work.

Home sweet Home

This is my home that my son and i built.

It is a work in progress, we started when he was 2 he is now 12. we are about 90% done.