Merry Christmas from the Saubles

My kind of quotes ;)

Just received the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog in the mail! The best part about this season is when the darkest day of the year is past, and you can look forward to spring, green things growing, and baby animals being born.

Enjoy these quotes from the catalog :P



"Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses." ~ George Washington Carver

"Let us never forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization." ~ Daniel Webster

"No other human occupation opens so wide a field for the profitable and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought, as agriculture." ~ Abraham Lincoln



"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." ~ Ronald Reagan

"The federal government has sponsored research that has produced a tomato that is perfect in every respect, except that you can't eat it. We should make every effort to make sure this disease, often referred to as 'progress', doesn't spread." ~ Andy Rooney

"Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt." ~ Herbert Hoover

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson



"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field." ~ Dwight David Eisenhower


As young adults and adults, are you going to make excuses for why you aren't doing your share to make this country a better place, plead ignorance, or are you going to do what you can with what you have?... make sacrifices... you will be able to accomplish what you set your heart on, if God is with you.

Vote with your food dollar. Read, study, and never stop learning about the Truth. Educate your family and friends. Plant a garden. Support farmers in your community who are fighting for what is right, even when it comes at great cost to themselves. They need our help and defense against our oppressive government.

Veggies on the Brain

Okay, so I went and had a frappucchino the other day...

... the following day, I went to the grocery store, and started craving Brussels' Sprouts. Now, never before have I even enjoyed the taste of that vegetable.

That tells you something about how utterly repulsive sugar and coffee must seem to a body that is not used to having them regularly.

I also had this deep sense of need for cauliflower, bell peppers, cilantro, broccoli, spinach and carrots. :P

The Death of Hand Labor

I just watched a YouTube video that I don't feel comfortable posting, but the guy really had a lot of good things to say about how groups like PETA and workers' unions are detrimental to our society. Their war has turned farmers into criminals and caused the devaluation of good, honest work, while no one would dare to say that anything bad has come out of the technology industry. We have forgotten the benefits of skilled labor. All innovation without imitation is not healthy.

Yes, I'm all fired up again.

*Dishwashers wash our dishes
*Washing machines and dryers clean and dry our clothes
*Microwaves cook our food
*Factory farms grow our meat, and stores present it in neat little packages... precooked even, if you prefer
*Garbage trucks take away our trash while we sip our morning coffee... from a coffee maker
*Power outages cause folks to run to the local grocery stores en masse
*Automatic lighters and gas 'fireplaces'
*Laptops, blackberries, and iphones (I hope I'm naming these right, lol!) are more common than penmanship and proper spelling
*We have milk replacer, egg replacer, meat replacer, butter alternatives, sugar substitutes, artificial flavor... what's next, food replacer? I'm going to die of heart disease 'cause I use animal fat instead of Crisco?
*Schools to teach our kids
*Hospitals to heal our ear infections
*Stores to provide our food and clothes
*Theaters to entertain us
*Delivery vehicles for pizza, online shopping, mail, catering... you name it

...where are the mothers?

I'm not saying I don't personally use most of the afore-mentioned conveniences (since my family is still quite sane and have not followed me off the deep end as of yet), but I'm trying to command your attention: what is wrong with this picture?

The movies that most disturb me are Wall-E and Star Wars... who would want to live in a world like that? Don't you see that we are going down the fast lane in that direction? Deep down, none of us wants to live in a sterile environment with an out-of-control government taking away freedom AND responsibility, but that's what has happened... we are not better off, are we? Our day-to-day decisions have consequences.

All the 'dirty' jobs are being devalued. Things like butchering, mucking cow stalls, castrating animals, digging in dirt, sweating under a house to fix a leaky pipe, dealing with garbage... who on earth in their right mind would tell their school advisor, "Guess what I want to be when I grow up! A farmer!"

It is no longer honorable. Even jobs like construction, plumbing, and car repairman may be decreasing in workers. Trade schools are decreasing in enrollment.

Those who make their own soap, butcher their own meat, cook every meal from scratch are viewed as 'quaint' and 'old-fashioned'. "Our society doesn't need those things any more. Don't keep looking to the past, but towards the future! Be SOMEbody, do something that the world deems IMPORTANT."

Some of my dreams would be disturbing to the majority of you, as their content isn't rated G. It's the real world that I am starting to live in, and it's not a world of sanitary packaging and the latest movie rating. I talk about manure and earthworms and animal breeding. Years down the road I hope to be talking of cisterns, natural treatment of animal diseases, and just how important a trillion gut bugs are to your health.

My opinionatedness (if that is even a word) may get me in trouble, but more likely laughed at... but it's okay. We all have to stand before God someday and be held to account for what we did with our lives and the call of His Spirit. May God bless the guy that I marry. He's going to need it. :P

The pendulum is swinging back in the other direction. I want to be on the forefront of the battle for common-sense, God-honoring land and animal husbandry, consumer responsibility, and nutrient-dense real food. Like Esther: who knows but whether I was put in this place for such a time as this?

I Ain't Right in the Head

Why am I up so late?

It has been a down-and-dirty last few days.

It seems that a conversation with a friend, scripture verses, and seeing first-hand what can happen on online forums has changed the way I view the internet.

Don't go public.

There's times where posting on forums and talking online may be useful, but do the benefits outweigh the costs?

You have a better chance of meeting real people if you meet them in reality... face-to-face. It's easier to sort through the fake ones when you look them in the eye and watch how they live and work.

Also on my mind is relationships. God sent His son to die for that person that I have such a hard time loving. Why is it so painful for me to do likewise? Still, when there is a person that hates your guts, isn't it perhaps a good idea to distance yourself from that person, as long as in your own heart you deal with any bitterness towards them, and learn to hate what they do, not who they are? I need some godly counsel right now.

Then there are embarrassing moments... they happen to me far often than I feel is entirely necessary. Ahem. "God, um, I get the picture already... humble pie starts getting tasteless after a few bites." It might help to have a sister who could drag me by the arm into a corner to say, "Um, you might want to fix that, er, problem."

Because I am soooo not detail-oriented. I see the big picture, and throw proper grammar, etiquette and caution out the window. I'll probably have a big ol' messy house someday with a houseful of kids that probably need more hair brushing and ironing of pants, but hopefully with a thousand different ideas, projects, changes happening all the time, friends and family invited over spur-of-the-moment, and an open mind to all that God would have in store for us, even if it isn't cookie cutter perfect and we make mistakes in the process.

Why aren't more people vision-oriented? To be honest, it drives me up the wall to live in a family that doesn't like change, and has a hard time dealing with spontaneous events. I guess without more people like my family us visionaries would create a chaotic world in short order.

Oh, good news! God has provided me with a substitute teaching job for four months starting in January. This will mean I am teaching a total of 24 piano students three full days a week. I am blessed that this teacher would consider me for the position, and her students will be a true joy to spend time with.

I'm also praying about selling our Holstein whom we bought for a temporary calf-milk supply, and purchasing a premium Jersey who will benefit from and remain healthy on the intensive grazing system that I am slowly implementing.

That said, my family does not wish to grasp the same farming vision, and tension among the ranks leads me to the conclusion that next year I must set aside most of my dreams. God knows my desires, but is not obligated to fulfill them. He wants my whole heart, and He will be found by me when I seek Him, so I don't need to fear the uncertain future.

Vanity, thy name is Woman

Shucks, it's just so much fun to capture photos!

This is the photographer of the following photos, my gorgeous little sister Abigail.

Why Farmers Are Often Lean...

 

A typical morning goes something like this...

1. Walk slowly down the stairs at 6 AM.
2. Open the gate for the three milk cows.
3. Sprint back to house for the forgotten milk jars. Hopefully the cows remain happy while you're gone.
4. Sprint back to the barn to milk the three cows.
5. Dodge 6 wet tail slaps, jump up to rescue the milk pail from a well-aimed kick.
6. Get up every 5 minutes to either dodge or scoop certain presents from the three cows.
7. Return three cows to the barn.
8. Fill calf bottles with milk and jog to the calf barn from which you have been hearing three calves moo in unison every 10 seconds the entire time you've been milking.
9. Vault over the stall door twice to rescue calf bottle lids which an overeager calf yanked off in its' happiness over being fed.
10. Climb the stack of hay bales to fork hay to the calves.
11. Carry three bales of hay to the cow barn.
12. Wheel a bale of alfalfa to the cow barn.
13. Get stuck in the mud and lose your boot.
14. Carry alfalfa to the calves.
15. Turn on the water for the cows.
16. Carry a bucket of water to the calves.
17. Haul two wheelbarrows of wood shavings to the cows. Lose your other boot to the mud's evil designs.
18. Chase after the Holstein that escaped out the open gate while your back was turned.
19. Chase the said Holstein out of the barn when she tries to hog all the food.
20. Sprint over to turn off the water which is now overflowing the trough.
21. Refill the bucket which the calves knocked over.
22. Skim cream for the days' customers.
23. Clean up the milk parlor.
24. Walk leisurely back to the house for a home-cooked meal.
25. Sprint back out to the milk parlor because you forgot to bring milk in for breakfast.