I don’t know much about farm subsidiaries.  So I’m going to start posting what I read about it all.

http://www.heritage.org/research/agriculture/bg2043.cfm

More than half the world lives on less than two dollars a day, while the average American teenager spends nearly $150 a week.

Every seven seconds, somewhere in the world a child under age five dies of hunger, while Americans throw away 14% of the food we purchase.

Another 2.5 billion people live on less than 2 dollars a day.

Americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half of the world does on all goods.

We have so much.

Guilt is not the point. Awareness is.

God has blessed us, but it seems we might be forgetting about those God cares about.

Awareness is helpful.

I can’t claim all these stats. They are in the book Jesus Wants to Save Christians and are properly sited there.

I realized the hard way that being patience is difficult, yet it is very wonderful. I went to Little Flower Farm tonight for dinner. Little Flower is a communal farm. Someone gave 17 acres to a couple that have planted large organic gardens, have three homes on the property, and they all live off the land. It’s an amazing story which when I learn more I will dedicate a post just to Little Flower.  This post is about how impatience I felt as the night started but how beautiful it turned out. Sarah called me today to inform me that the Gabriel house community dinner was going to Little Flower for a celebration dinner. The celebration was two fold, one to celebrate one of the resident’s daughter’s 2nd birthday, and second to celebrate one of the resident’s 2 years of sobriety. I was having a hard time deciding if I wanted to go after I said I was, and I really didn’t, but I did. I had taken the day off to work on my house and relax a little. Well I had worked on my house/yard, but hadn’t relaxed and we were meeting to leave at 4pm since Little Flower is in Louisa Co . (a good 45 to 60 min away) When I arrived to at the Gabriel house to meet folks, half the gang had left and the rest of us were going to pick up the resident celebrating sobriety’s son and new granddaughter (which I didn’t realized she hadn’t seen the new granddaughter yet). We had poor directions, then passed the house, and it took a good 10-15min waiting and loading the infant and father. Needless to say I was getting frustrated that I drove 20min out of the way to go another 10min to wait 15min, costing me well over an hour of my “day off”. When we arrived at Little flower around 6pm, I saw several youngsters in the drive and then was even lest looking forward to a loud and crazy night. I thoguth, this was going to one of those nights that if I had a wife who wanted kids this would be the perfect birth control party!  Needless to say, when the celebrating mother saw her son and granddaughter it make her week. Her eyes were shining and the excitement was overwhelming. She even thanked me three or four times that night for bringing them to the party. WOW I felt like a selfish old man, and was humbled. What joy and wonder there is in patience and sacrifice. I even was able to overhear and participate in some very interesting conversions.  Oh ya an the 2 year old Hispanic girl was soooo cute in her yellow and black dress. She even ran up to me with her arms wide open, and after holding her forever she still wouldn’t let me put her down. How precious are people, the wonderful people of God.

ahhhhh.  I’m taking the day off tomorrow and even thought I’m working on my house and yard I’m sooo looking forward to not going into the office. I’m hoping it will be a very productive day. I’ve found some rotten wood, on the over/under hang of my roof, and I need to tend to the yard. I’m so glad i own a house…..Sometimes.

There are two sailboats sitting in at a marina that have been abandon, and I could possibly get for free or a few bucks.  One doesn’t need much work while the other, well it took on some water during Isabella, and has been sitting since.  I’m thinking about taking them both since one is nearly ready to use, and the other needs some TLC. I really like to one that needs work because the breath is much more spacious and I can move around in it. My only hesitation is I’m not sure how this all fits into my life. I’ve been tossing around the idea of simplifying my life as it is, along with the idea of voluntary poverty.  Yet I LOVE being on the water and boats…  I really would love a boat.

Check out these pictures.

From Sailboats

From Sailboats

From Sailboats

From Sailboats

From the moment I awoke this morning I have felt discouraged, so I asked my self what real reason do I have for feeling this way. Beside discontentment with work, and the complexity of life. Very little. Then I realized that encouragement comes at unexpected at times, and other time never at all. So I remembered how beautiful the words and stories of scripture are, and began to reflect on the charters there in. God reminded me of Joseph’s faithfulness, and the roller coaster ride of his journey. Yet he was able to be a blessing to many nations. It reminded me that in my short time on this earth faithfulness in low moments and the high moments has potential for good, and that my future is not of chaos but of divine control.

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”

~ Richard Bach

Since I don’t post much I really wanted to celebrate that I made three pounds of meatballs and spaghetti sauce to go with for community dinner tonight. Catherine made a great salad and garlic bread. I had a pot full of sauce and meatballs, and to my surprise there was almost none left. I don’t like tooting my own horn, but I was fun to make something people seemed to enjoy. I say this because it was almost all eaten with no empty plates and lots of seconds. So if you ever need dinner for ten let me know if you feel like spaghetti!

This is a slide show you have to scroll through but it will make you think about what bags to use.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016