Category Archives: Farming

Cider Makin’

In the middle of August, on a Saturday that seems more like September, Randa and I are making apple cider from the windfall apples that we picked up in the three-tree orchard last evening. Continue reading

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The Sound and the Fury

To be sure, there are times for righteous indignation in a wicked world. But we should also keep in mind that we were not saved by the whip with which Jesus drove the money-mongers from the temple. Continue reading

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Redirection

For all the promise of the skies and all the signs of cloud and breeze, the longed-for rain did not come. Continue reading

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Hard Ground

Sometimes we are called to a task
that we cannot quite complete
but must make a beginning,
leaving its finishing until
the soil is softer
or we are strengthened, Continue reading

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Breaking Free

I needed some more steel fence posts to extend the drying pasture just a bit before all of the grass has turned to brown. I could have gone to town and bought another dozen new T-posts Continue reading

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Answered Prayer

After these weeks of triple digit heat
in a summer that began in April,
this second season of drought Continue reading

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An Unseasonable Heat

The grass on berm and bank
is dry and stiff,
the color of despair. Continue reading

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Praying for Rain on a Lord’s Day Evening

I lie awake
a little past ten,
still praying for rain,
even while watching the lightning Continue reading

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Theology in a Dry Spell

I pray for a long night
and a following day
of slow, seeping rain Continue reading

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Lemonade

I was reminded recently of an old, old truth: When we learn how to turn misfortune into opportunity, we have touched one of the great secrets of victorious living. Over the years, I’ve learned that a tool or machine is like an attitude: sometimes the best way to fix one is to just get a new one. Now, this is not an election-year story of rags to riches or of fame to shame. Just a man and his mower. Well, former mower… Continue reading

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