Busy days

Thanks to my new friends that have left messages of encouragement,( all two of you know who you are!).

I am already taking a short break from my blogging due to some pressing issues here at the "homestead" and also, due to a need too learn more about blogging. For those of you who are interested in that, I would encourage you to check out this link . http://thepilgrimpath.blogspot.com/ She has some tutorials that will get you acquainted with the process. I am watching them this week during my break.
As you may know from one of my entries, I was diagnosed with Degenerative Disc Disease recently, which is a fancy way of saying that I blew a few disc in my back. As of now, I am awaiting a surgeon's report on how eager he is to operate and considering all my options. This is not the first disc that has been ruptured so I am leaning toward the surgery this time. Normally, I would opt for the decompression type therapy and a few months of healing like I have done in the past. This time we can't wait. As it has happened in the worst economy, we are forced to consider surgery that holds a promise of a one month recuperation. After not working for more than 4 months, we are running out of options. The meeting with the surgeon will be this week so I must decide quickly.
Oh, how I can't wait for the day when I can leave this wretched system behind! Contrary, to what many people write, homesteading, for all of it's hard work is never as abusive to the physical body as the 9-5 world. I realize that I have a relatively, small estate and do not have the pleasure of working a horse-drawn plow, but I remember the day's of childhood, and as hard as plowing is on the back, it is somehow a tolerable ache! I think it has more to do with the rate of work. Somehow, I have been able to get a decent garden ready, sans seeds for now, a great compost pile finished many "freezer bunnies" ready, and of course the normal coop repairs, etc. My sons' will tell you that THEY are the reason I have gotten along so well, and they are largely right. I am happy that I have a willing and industrious group of children who are so helpful to me during this time. I praise the Lord for it and recommend that everyone get themselves 9 or 10 of these little helper's! It is a comfort knowing that my wife and I will not have to be thrown to the State Retirement System one day, and that by having a good dozen or so children around, we will be less of a burden to the whole. Just another reason to consider trusting the Lord in the area of child-birth, along with child-rearing! I know many folks who would point to the current predicament that I am in as a reason NOT to have a large family. I will not take time to address that error right now. I will only say that as a rule, I never use the exception to break the rule.
That is, every time someone brings up the anti-family argument, especially the Christians', they always point out the "what if" scenarios that could leave us in an overwhelming situation... As if a Father of 9 has ever lived a day that was not overwhelming! What I know, is that the Bible is pretty clear on the blessedness of children, and the ability of God. But, that discussion will have to wait because I am involved in so many other things to prepare for the next couple of weeks.

Hopefully, I will be able to keep you somewhat updated over the next weeks as things progress. I will try to post a short essay on Child-Training that another young couple in the church has asked me to write as an aid in their own training efforts. It will be something profound like, "Thank God, every day for a wife that is serious about her job!"
Really.
That's my biggest secret to how a house full of boys (we were blessed with 1 girl, out of the 9), can appear so 'civilized' when they are out fooling the unsuspecting masses to accept my devious message of large well-ordered family life! She is the backbone of the training system here at my home. I don't know if a Patriarchal minded fellow is supposed to say that, but it's true. My wife is the greatest christian witness that I have ever known, in life or in print.
I didn't mean to post on this but it is a worthy subject
.
I believe strongly in a male Head-of-household. In fact, one of the tenets of my Confession of Faith has an entire document directed to the great duty of fathers' in the training up of their children. The Ministers of our church are required to visit in the homes and "enquire after" the daily habit of scripture training among the members. Not lording over any Head mind you, ( Every man is king of his own castle), but seeking to see if the 'king' is perhaps an impostor of the worst kind... A spiritual reprobate, and vagabond who is worthy of the worst upbraiding, should he neglect his duty to daily, break the Bread of Life to His own seed! It is the worst plague on the Church today, that there is not the fire of Family religion near the Hearth of our activities. It has two scoundrels that will one day give a woeful accounting..Father and Mother! If all that the 'back to home' para-church movements have taught us about the Home being the first embryo of the church and the state (properly run, of course), is correct, and that the answer to revival lies in an awakening affirmation of family-integrated churches, then where does the final judgement of our church, and therefore state lie?! At the big, bad feet of the Anti-Christ? Yes, and No. While it is true that the Devil is one of the enemies of our faith, and yes, the World is in there ,too, the enemy that WE will answer for is actually number two on the list..."the world, the flesh, and the devil...." I am far more concerned about number two, than either of the other ones. It is the real culprit of the degradation of society. Fathers do not instruct their children in the Word. Mothers do not weep over their souls. I have known some who could outwardly fool you. I used to be one of them. That is where my wife comes in. She nurtured our family along during those times of my dereliction. She wept for them, and pleaded like Zipporah did for Moses, that God would spare my bloody soul.
I was busy you see. I ran a business and was a full-time student at Bible-college! Not to mention, those 'extra-curricular' activities that kept me occupied during what free time I had left. I won't mention what those activities were, they are not worthy to be spoken of. But, every Sunday you would find me in the pew at the '______ _______ Independent, Fundamentalist Church'. We had Revival and Camp Meetin' 3 times a year. I was there. I looked good. My wife, never once, fell to that false temptation to slander me by 'talking' to a friend. She just kept reading that she was to have a quiet and meek spirit, and that she was to live modestly and with shamefacedness before her children. That perhaps, her chaste conversation would be part of God's plan in my real conversion. Feminism is for weaklings. My wife is a vessel of the Living God to be used up at His whim! She is my hero, for she went to the gates of hell and there, stood weeping and bearing precious fruit for me nightly. Those crass women that sit on Oprah and tell you ladies that this type of subjection is a shame to women's rights are spiritual vampires that live only by draining the true life from you. They tell the stories of how they were treated and how they were 'freed'. Truth is, they were always just a part of their Father the Devil anyways. They couldn't possibly understand the motivation that my wife carried as she would climb out of bed at 2 or 3 in the morning to let me stumble into it! Always waiting with that plate that was set for me earlier that night, just in case. And then, as I would dose off to my wicked slumber, I would hear the familiar sound, the quiet sobbing and pacing from room to room, as she pleaded for these children to hold me dear in their heart! Begging God that they would honor my place and station, even if they could not honor me! Let a feminist live 1 year this way with the most hardened, negligent, oaf of a man, and then see the results. You will see the power of the Scriptures at work. You will see my wife, and you will know that there is no more excuse for you because the great lie is undone... it is not just a figurative writing, it is the Living Word, and if she could live like the Proverbs 31 woman so easily and seemingly effortlessly, then what about you?!
Anyhow, that is kinda' what I hope to talk about soon with my brethren from church and I will try and post the outline here if anyone is interested. I really think that it is the single, most important subject in today's Church. I love Agrarianism, but I love Christian Agrarianism more and the history of agrarian Scotland will testify of both, the blessed time when the Light of Scripture ruled in every individual cottage along the Moors, and the sad times when the Land, though agrarian, was as godless as today.