Back to Bible Basics: The 10 Commandments #2

⁴ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

⁵ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

⁶ And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.


I am not going to lie, this is a scary and a bit confusing one for me as I first read it. I guess all commandments should be scary to us though.  Does this mean we should not have anything in our homes such as stars on the outside of our house, angel statues, pictures of our animals or fish mailboxes?   Okay, nobody should have a fish mailbox, maybe Kevin VanDam, but that's it.  (Just kidding).  Or is it okay to decorate my kitchen with roosters and hens as long as I don't "bow down" to worship or exalt the napkin holder?  There may be people in other countries that still do make alters with different "deities" and actually bow down at those alters for worship.  And I certainly do not want to do anything that would cause the Lord to be jealous and punish me and every generation to my great-grandchildren because of my disobedience.  I do, however, want His mercy.

Below is a short, logical explanation that I found on YouTube that I feel speaks truth and reason.  What do you hold as your standard for the second commandment?

 

Underarm Stinky Stuff

This has been an extraordinarily hot summer; maybe it is hotter than I remember because I worked inside of a sterile, cool hospital department.  Nonetheless, with new animals on the homestead and grown children that don't participate in the chores like they used to, I have sweat like a pig every day.  Part of it is due to the fact that when I get up, all fans, air conditioner and any thing else that I don't need is unplugged and turned off to try and help with the electric bill.  It stays comfortable in the house until about 10 am ( about the time my outside chores are done ) and then I concede to the heat around 1 pm to 3 pm, depending on the humidity and turn on the AC and the bedroom ceiling fan. By the time Hubby gets home, it is tolerable.  By bedtime, the bedroom is very comfortable for sleep.

Being outside doing the chores (animals, laundry, watching the garden die) in triple digits, I am finally used to the sweat dripping off of me- well, occasionally a drop of sweat will drip off my arm and onto my leg and I get scared thinking it may be a wasp or uninvited insect, screaming slightly, hoping that Hercules is the only one to judge me.  But I don't feel "icky" like I used to when I got that soaked with perspiration.  To be honest, I rarely use any deodorant.  I try to take an evening shower before Hubby gets home for the sake our marriage and it is cool enough that I won't sweat too much by that time.  There has been a time or two that I thought the neighbor put chicken fertilizer on the field or that something was rotten, only to find the aroma followed me and became quite strong when I would hang out clothes or any other chore that I had to lift my arms up.   I do try to be considerate when I am out and about in town-, church, the feed store, Sam's club or wherever we may need to go. 

I have long ago discovered the warnings about all the highly scented deodorants and now "clinical" strength deodorants and aluminum.  I heard that if you eat the right foods you won't have body odor.  I have no idea if this is true or not, I am not a strict organic vegan by any stretch of the imagination.  Anyway, I have decided to try a very simple recipe that I saw on YouTube.  (Thank you Southern Homesteading Channel.)  I will let you know my "review" within the next week, as our temperatures are back in the upper 90s to 100s.  *Sigh*
The original recipe used 2 tablespoons each of corn starch, coconut oil and baking soda with 20 drops each of tea tree oil and lavender oil.  I don't have lavender oil, nor the money to spend on it, so I left it out.  Also, because I didn't have a cute little jar, I just used a jelly jar and doubled everything except for the tea tree, I used about 30 drops. 

Ingredients ready

 

Mixed with spoon (I didn't want to get my finger yucky later in the evening)

Mixed and ready for cooling/hardening in the bathroom cabinet

Wait...pretty it up with left over apron material...now we are ready

Do you have a special deodorant recipe that you use? 

DITL

I love watching Day In The Life videos on YouTube-it's not like I have anything else to do, right?  Occasionally, when I am feeling a little lazy, this can be motivating; when I am feeling quite lazy, it is a wonderful waste of time.  Although I don't have a YouTube Channel as of yet, it is coming in the near future.  So, instead of video, I am doing a post of a DITL on Lost Arrow Acres, a not so typical day when we have the car for errands.

5:45-Up with Hubby who is taking the farm truck today so I can take Daughter to work and head to town ( a very rare event).

6:00  Hug Hubby bye and back to the bedroom and strip down the bed.  Tomorrow is hand washing laundry day, so today I am washing jeans, towels and bedding that is more efficiently washed in the washer.  In goes the blanket and pillowcases.

6:15  Read the Bible and prayer for family's protection as we venture off the farm.

6:40  Check out e-mails, internet ads to get a headstart at town.  Get distracted by other websites, JoAnn's, Sam's, the list goes on...Back to reality as the dog barks.  (Thank you, Lord.)

7:10 Open the fridge to see what leftovers there are.  Phone rings.  Hubby called to wish me a good day and tell me he loves me and assure me he made it to work in the old Dodge. 

7:20  What was I doing?  Doesn't matter, the washer has been done and it's time to put in Hubby's to-work pants.  He changes there but has his old ones he wears to and from work.  I am going to fill the laundry basket and hang everything out at once.

7:25  Back to the fridge to pull out the cucumber salad that is almost gone and put it in a smaller container.  Rearrange the leftovers, moving the oldest ones in front to be eaten first.

7:30  Dog barking strangely.  I go to the bathroom window and ask him what is wrong?  Hercules does not reply but I do see that two ducks (Bo and Luke) are outside of the main garden fence.  Err! 

7:31  Knock on Daughter's door and tell her I probably will need her help getting the ducks in. 

7:32  Muck boots donned and out the door.  We try to corner them on the small strip of ground between the greenhouse and their original yard.  They pace back and forth.  Daisy and Cooter look on until they take off running when the late-blooming rooster jumps over the chicken wire (worthless height!) and starts chasing Daisy full speed.  I hop the fence, pick up the feed tray and waylay him before he catches her.  According to Daughter, I hit him hard enough to flip him; I was picking the tray back up and preparing for more battle, but he flew back over the fence and I chased him back past the tree.  Then I realized I had duck poo on my hands from the bottom of the tray-ewwww!!  Girl moment.  I rinsed them in the 5-gallon bucket that catches the water that leaks from the hose connection.  I picked up the tray and realized it had a hole in it.  Humph!  No longer a good feed tray.  The ducks made it back inside the fence by themselves. Really!?!

7:38  We go ahead and feed the animals.  Ducks get fed in their broken tray. Daughter turns on the hose and fills the pool.  Rabbits get food and water and covered back up by the shade cloth.  Then comes the hard part.  We get Max out and Brie and Mollie in so we can feed them and let them eat somewhat peaceably.  Daughter stays out and makes sure Max doesn't do anything stupid, or at least watch him do something stupid.  I go ahead and shake the chicken tube feeder and feed and water the rabbits.  No eggs yet in the nests.  Once the girls, Brie and Mollie start fighting a bit, we know the food is gone.  At that point we lead Max back inside the goat yard and put more food in the large rubber feed bowl so all three can start out eating and then Max wins and the girls go off.  While I was feeding the rabbits, apparently Max was headbutting and actually bit the dark gray rabbit's ear.  We have 3 or 4 free bunnies that wait by the feed shed for us to finish up so they can have a bit of pellet food too. Well, I checked his ear and I don't think Max did it, but there was a big old scrape on his inner ear, so I go in and grab the animal medical bag and a glove.  I spray Blu-Kote on his ear as he and the white bunny are eating their kibble.  Of course, the spray hits the ungloved hand.  Errr!  Back in to finish laundry.

8:15  Hang out bedding, work pants and bee suit on the line.

8:30  Blog about the morning so far...to be continued.

1:55  Back from town.  Between 9 and now,  I got ready to go to town.  Daughter got ready for work.  I went to Hobby Lobby and picked out material for my apron.  I hit the dollar store for a few things (foam plates for our art projects to put paint on, latex gloves for cleaning and animal care, drink additives (Hawaiian punch packets) for Hubby's lunch, a couple of containers for a variety of size for leftovers).  I got a loaf of bread at Aldi's.  An older gentleman let me and the woman in front of me go ahead because we each only had one item.  I thought that was very kind and asked the cashier if I could contribute my change of four dollars to his grocery bill.  I hope that blessed him half as much as it blessed me.  I made a stop at Wal-Mart and got some more sewing items, treats for the family and did not get a dehydrator that I had hoped.  There wasn't one in the store.  So, I will wait a bit.  I made it back home around 1:15 and after putting all the bags in the house I immediately went to ice the bunnies and give the animals fresh, cool water.  I came back in and had lunch.

2:00  Clean the kitchen back up.  Turn on air conditioner and fans.

2:15  Get the clothes off the line and finally make the bed. 

2:35  Vacuum house.

3:00  Talk on the phone with mother.

3:45  Check out facebook-update cover and profile pics.

4:30  WHAT?!  Where did the time go??  Son home from work.  Time to go pick up Daughter from work. 

5:20  Setting up ironing board and pre-washing my fabric. 

5:40  Talk to kids a bit, even though both buried in cell phones.  Toast and burn buns while making hamburger patties.

5:50  Scrape black of buns and shrug.

6:10  Answer door.  Folks from church stopped by.  One of them bought some honey with comb and told us about Saturday night out at a local BBQ place.  (Saving money for a night out with some ex-coworkers so won't be able to afford that.)  See them Sunday.

6:30  Supper finally ready and Hubby home.

6:45   Eat and clean up.

7:00   Take care of animals.  Dry fabric.

7:30  Iron fabric and look for good scissors to cut out pattern.  Hubby and daughter joined in the search to no avail.

7:45  Pout because can't find good scissors.

8:00   Play on iPad, looking and listening to new ideas, while Hubby watches TV. 

8:30   Shower and get ready for bed. 

9:00   Sleep tight in clean bed....ahhh! Good Night and God Bless!

Tuesday To-Do 8/4/15

Baggie drying tree

Last week:  Laundry outside.  Buy fabric to make aprons. Move wood to pile. Bees checked with new smoker.  Menu created.  Baggie tree completed.

This week:  Move wood to pile.  Create menu.  Make jam.  Make laundry detergent. Paint garden bench with oops paint (barn red/burgundy), paint address sign for gate.  Finish apron.  Clear wild blackberry briars from around garden.  Snacks!  We are down to a weeks worth of trail mix and no sweets for my sweets.  I need to make trail mix, no bake cookies and some granola bars this week.  I think Hubby's oats are fine. More of Daughter's school things to finish up in the Big Town. Freeze eggs.

Hubby is still putting up our kitchen drywall; it hasn't gone to quickly with all of our other weekend chores that arise and take priority.  I do need to clean up the dust, nails, screws and glue that is around there, as well as the pile of "no-home" things that have collected, such as tools and other things that have been displaced during the reconstruction process.  Enjoy the journey, right?

Hope your to-do list is a short one this week!

Is Today Easter?

The caveat to free ranging chickens is the possibility of rogue nests.  That's what I found, a clutch of 10 eggs between the front step and the imprisoned killer dog, Hercules.  Daredevil hens!  A couple were small, so the new girls are picking up some bad habits.  I have plenty of eggs right now, so instead of freezing them like the frugal wife should, or even giving them the float test, I decided to just take them to the pond and sling them over the now tall bushes along some of the edge.
I started slinging them and off flew four ducks.  Awww!  If I had known I wouldn't have disturbed them.  I do hope they come back, considering both neighbors are avid duck hunters. 

I left one egg with specks in the nest so maybe they will continue to lay there and not move to another unknown place.  Of course their nest boxes would be nice.  They did find a nice little hole between the holly bush (ouch) and the old fashion rose (ouch).  Kudos for that.  I still get three or four in the nest boxes a day and thought maybe our hens were suffering from the heat a bit.  If I were selling them to regular customers or low on stock, I would keep them penned in their coop until later in the day, but since neither of those scenarios apply, eh, let them do their thing.

Somewhat Silent Sunday 8/2/15



On our pond

 



Mollie and Brie

Blue Moon

Food Friday 7/31/15

I know, I know.  I still have not done my menu for the next month.  There is just still so much in my freezers.  And I have tried very hard over the past few weeks to change my mindset regarding the NEED to go grocery shop every week.  And it has pretty much worked.  I still see so much food to be used that I can't imagine without writing it down what I actually NEED.  I did do an inventory of freezer and pantry and it filled a sheet of paper. 

We are going to the Big Town today for Daughter's Orientation and other college to-do's.  So we are heading to the bee supply shop for a smoker and Sam's for strawberries, so I am going to try and get a decent list together for efficiency. 

I will let you know...

No strawberries.  I picked up some produce, including fresh greens and spinach, cherry tomatoes (as mine are completely gone now), green peppers, apples, cantaloupe, organic green grapes, frozen banana berry and frozen blueberries, as, again, mine have been used up in muffins, parfaits and just eating, and some pinto beans, cottage cheese, and canned peaches. 

I have jarred up some salad (greek, house and chef); I have peaches and cottage cheese to jar up as well as parfaits (greek yogurt, oats, blueberries, honey, and either apples, melon or other fruit as a top layer) for breakfast or lunch or even dessert.  I also made some spaghetti sauce in the crock pot for a couple of uses.

Frozen marinara, ground beef and canned mushrooms in the crockpot

Blueberry oat apple parfait

Salad in a jar for a quick lunch or supper;
I add flax oil and red wine vinegar, apple
cider vinegar or good old lemon juice

I didn't purchase any meat yet.  I still have quite a bit of everything: pork loin and bacon for the family ( I am going to avoid this myself), chicken, both ours and some breasts I bought, hamburger still divided for meatloaf, meatballs and whatever else we need it for, I still have the turkey that I need to cook (Thanksgiving dinner does not appeal to me in 115 degree heat index-call me crazy!), still have some deer burger and some beef chuck for a roast and strips for a salad or whatever.  So we are set for at least a week or more!