Granddaughter's visit.

  My wife's granddaughter visited us for nine days.  Her father is an atheist and she is a non-believer herself although she doesn't seem to mind calling upon the Lord's name when she wants to insert bad language into her sentences.  It was our hope to be an encouragement to her and to let her see how Christian people act and what an influence Christ can be in our lives.
   She had some good experiences here.  She saw the ocean for the first time, saw lots of forests (she's from Iowa) and discovered that chickens aren't born in nuggets.   She liked the zoo but not sitting around the house.  My wife had visited her in Iowa for a week and brought her back to NC when she returned home so it is hard for a grandmother to keep on the go for that period of time just to keep a teenager entertained.
  The granddaughter was nice enough but she seemed so negative, only ate hamburgers, chicken nuggets, pizza and candy and had an excuse for ever thing she didn't want to do like riding the miniature train at the Jamestown Park wasn't an option for her because she suffers from motion sickness.
  She's been back home less than a week, has never said thanks for the trip to her grand mother but sure didn't mind complaining that she only wants someone to love her.    Some one does.

Garen News June 24

June 23rd was my 13th wedding anniversary and I'm still in love with my wife.  She has suffered greatly over the last few years but that has only provided me with opportunities to show her how much I really care about her.
  Yes, I know this isn't about my love for my wife but about my garden.  I picked two cucumbers from my garden yesterday, my first two, and it was on my anniversary.  Don't think there is any correlation there; it just happened to occur on the same date.  So how is your garden doing and has all the rain be a good thing or bad thing for your garden?  

How will America end?

All great empires have come to an end and I doubt America is any different than any other dominate people in world history.  Assyria was crushed by a superior military force, Babylon fell when an enemy found a weakness in their defense system, and Alexander the Great's kingdom fell prey to the Romans when his kingdom was divided among his generals.  The Roman Empire fell because of its decadence
   The Roman Empire ruled the world for over three hundred years and at the time of it's collapse was still the greatest military power in the world.  The empire had come apart at the seems politically and society was collapsing in upon itself because of moral decay.  It was as if Rome was a fine piece of clothing that had been sewn together with cheap thread and as the fabric aged the cloth became brittle and the thread rotted and the piece of clothing just crumbled.
  It seems that there is a pattern to the growth, stability, and eventually collapse of each of the world's greatest empires and America fits that same pattern.  Will it be the Russians that take America down, the Chinese, ISIS. or some unknown force that has not come to the forefront yet?     In my opinion it will be none of these.  America will be toppled from within and not from some outside force.
  Our liberal immigration policies are allowing enough people into this country, some who want to change America, some who want to destroy it, and many others who just want to take advantage of us.  We seem to have forgotten what made this country great and has allowed the attitude of respect for the beliefs of others to disintegrate into embracing and accepting everyone as they are.  I think that we will lose our national identity     and no longer know what we believe in, becoming a nation of divided factions  each of which wants to live their lives after their own beliefs rather than living their lives for the benefit of the majority.  A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Garden News

 I already have my loaf of white bread and a jar of Dukes mayonnaise waiting in anticipation of that first ripe tomato.  I had a few of the salad tomatoes Monday with my New York Strip for lunch but I am so ready for that first bite of a tasty red tomato ripe from the garden.  That first celebrity looks to be around a pound in size, twice as big as average and it looks so delicious.  It is almost ripe now but I'll have to wait until Friday to eat it.  Today is my Moms 92nd birthday and judging from how she has been doing lately it is likely her last.
   I talked my two brothers into coming to celebrate it with me.  David ordered her a bouquet of flowers and I'll split the cost with him.  I baked her a strawberry cake (while she doesn't eat cake she will have it to share with family and friends).
  She loves tomatoes almost as much as I do so I planted three vines for her.  They are loaded with green ones but I doubt one will be ripe today.  I'm sure she will have a tomato or two when I go back in two weeks,

The lamb, faith and salvation

  Under Jewish law (the Old Testament0 the Jews brought a lamb each year to the priest to be sacrificed for their sins.  They were not saved by the lamb but by their faith in bringing the lamb.  Christ, who was symbolized by the lamb, died on the cross for our sins.  We are not saved because he died but are saved by faith in the sacrifice.
  Being good, attending church, believing in God, reading your bible, or praying doesn't save us but accepting what Christ did for us on the cross and deciding to live for Him does.
 I pray for each and every person who reads my blog and hope that if you have not already accepted Christ that you will do so.

News from the garden

  I have my biggest tomato turning red and one other tomato that is beginning to ripen.  I've picked a few small yellow tomatoes.  I'm not sure what kind but they are much bigger than cherry or grape tomatoes but about half the size of a roma.  I'm excited about my first tomato which I will eat later this week when it is fully ripe.  It is a celebrity but is much larger than average.  It is almost as big as a German Johnson. .  

   I should be picking squash and cucumbers by the end of this week or the first of next week.  I have already picked about half of my blueberry crop and I picked a few blackberries last week albeit of the wild variety.  My domestic blackberries are beginning to turn red so it will be soon I get to pick those big juicy berries.  

Garden News

The tomato vines are full but some of the leaves are turning yellow from to much rain.  The jalapeno pepper plant has flowers as does the squash, cantaloupe, watermelon and squash plants.  My transplants that I am trying to establish with potatoes are still green.  My glads have begun to open and all my new plants are still living but the bee balm is struggling with all this water.
  My Easter lily bloomed and my tigers lilies are beginning to open.  The pickerel bloomed this week and my water lilies that I separated are growing and one has bloomed.  Overall my gardens looked really good so far.  My only disappointment so far has been my tulips.  I had two to bloom although I had about 8 put out shoots.   I even have some of my wildflowers putting out blooms now. 
  I have actually picked about four of the little yellow tomatoes.  I have had two peach trees and one cherry tree to die and some of my peach trees are bare but some of the first time bloomers are full of peaches albeit small.  Most of my apple trees have fruit although most of the trees have cedar rust.  I spray per directions which has helped some.  I picked some blueberries this week and had blueberry pancakes for breakfast Sunday.  Boy were they good.  My blackberries are setting fruit and my grape vines are full.  My lone pear is still hanging on.  My butterfly bush finally bloomed and my crepe myrtles are filling out.  The white one has a few blooms on it.
  The Japanese beetles made their presence know last week but I sprayed with liquid Sevin dust which drove them away.  I'll have to get some more and respray when the rain quits, if it ever does.
  A few years back we had a rainy spring like this and my tomato plants drowned like many other folks's did and what few tomatoes survived to maturity tasted horrible.  I believe I had one good tasting tomato that year out of thirty plants.  I hope I have better luck this year with so many beautiful tomato plants in full production.
   The frogs have been serenading me regularly.  I had separated some water Iris and placed a bunch in a bucket for a friend and when they didn't come and get the plants I decided to plant them in the creek bed to help keep me from hitting rocks when I mow and the bucket was full of newly hatched eggs.
  I haven't seen any sign of new goldfish but it is probably to soon as they just spawned a week or so ago.  I would like to transfer them over to the big pond if I can ever get rid of the carp that is in the larger pond.  I had nine die this spring when the pumps quit working for a few days.  I sold six last year.  I have many 40 fish left.  Great starter fish for new ponds to get the nitrogen cycle going.
  I can't mow today either because of the rain.  maybe this afternoon when I get back from my doctors appointment.  
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What to do about a life out of control

A young man meet a preacher and they talked for several hours.  The young man talked about how his life has spiraled out of control and he felt he was now at rock bottom.  The preacher, of course, told the man of Jesus.  The young man promised that he would go to church with the preacher and learn more of this Jesus but he never did.
  We all know that if your addiction is destroying your life that you can regain your direction by getting rid of the addiction.  It may feel like your life is out of control whether it be drugs and/or alcohol, relationship problems, bad financial decisions ,  deviate behavior, or some other thing that has control over you but realize that something has control of your decision making process that is causing the feeling of hopelessness.  You need to regain control but how?
   Addictions and deviate behavior makes you feel out of control and you are but something has control of your life.  It may seems like the solution is to regain control but instead one is urged to turn control over to another.  Instead of being controlled by destructive behavior let the Holy Spirit have control of your life.
   I know one will miss the party's and will lose many friends but for most people in this situation it is the party's and friends that are keeping them in the gutter.  It is almost impossible for a person  to decide to clean up their lives and be successful at it.  A drug addict that turns to prostitution to pay for her drugs vows that she is going to change while she is in jail but when she is released she finds that she has no where to go and so has to return to her former life, caught up in a spiral that she can't seem to get out of.
  Instead of taking the fun out of life, Christ returns your life to you and fills you with joy.  Unless you believe in and trust Christ it is something you just can't understand.  Just as I find it difficult to understand the lure of alcohol, and drugs, or the desire to hurt people, it may be hard to accept that Christ is real especially in this unbelieving world but the truth is He is real and He is alive and he will keep His promises.

Taking care of babies is easier

I went to see my Mom yesterday who is 2 weeks shy of her ninety-second birthday.  She is nearly blind, practically deaf,  and recovering from a recent bout of pneumonia.  Like little people she lacks bladder control  and has been left severely weaken by her resent bout with pneumonia.
  Unlike babies she either still believes she can do for herself or thinks she is helping when someone is rendering aid to her but more often than not she makes situations worse and much harder.  Believe me taking care of babies is easier.

If you were in an accident what car would most likely be involved?

According to Wikilender, 11.5 percent of BMW 4 Series models have reported accident damage, and another 7.0 percent were found to have damage that was either never reported to the insurance company or by a body shop doing repair work. With a total of 18.5 percent, the 4 Series is the most often damaged vehicle in America.
   #2 on this list is also a BMW and the next 8 are all luxury cars.  It would seem odd at first that cars built for luxury with all the latest gizmos for safety built in would be the most likely cars to be in an accident and not cars like Mustangs that are built for speed and purchased by younger drivers but if you were driv9ng on the interstate at the posted speed limit everyone would be passing you but if you were driving eight miles an hour over the posted speed limit, the cars most likely to pass you would be a BMW.  Seriously.
  I drive to and from Hickory on a regular basis and the cars whizzing by me are more likely an expensive car.  One of my favorite sayings is "they are smart enough to earn enough money to buy one but to stupid to drive one".  I make that statement about drivers of expensive cars because they are the people doing the most idiotic things on the roads.  I don't know if it is because they think the costly cars will protect them from harm or if they think they are special and thereby more privileged on the roadways   but drivers of expensive cars tend to be more pushy on the roadways and streets of America.

Garden News

  Excessive amounts of rain have affected the gardens with too much water causing some plants to show signs of drowning.  A few years back I lost most of my tomato plants because of drowning and what few tomatoes I had tasted awful.  The difference between then and now is that then I planted to tomatoes in the hard red clay and this years I planted them in a raised bed of store bought rich garden soil.  The plants have a better root system plus better draining soil. , Hopefully they will have much better taste when they ripen.
  Speaking of ripening, the yellow tear drop tomatoes have a couple that are now yellow.  In a couple of days they should be ready for the salad bowl.  They aren't the kind for that much anticipated first tomato sandwich of the year.  That, it seems, is  a couple weeks off.
  The wild blackberries are turning red but they are plenty small this year.  My domestic blackberries are smaller than normal but are still green so seem to have plenty of time to grow in size before ripening/  I picked a handful of blueberries from my bush.  I suppose my the weekend most should be ripe.  maybe fresh blueberry pancakes for Sunday breakfast?

Crippled hands

I know medical news is depressing especially when it is me that I'm blogging about.  My fingers are curling slowly and my hands are getting stiffer.  Some times I have to use both hands to lift a glass while others I have to be careful to insure a firm grip before picking an object up.  Typing is getting harder and writing clearly is all but impossible now.
  On the brighter side, my Mom is out of isolation.  She had pneumonia and Mercer and after release from the hospital was placed in isolation where she had a adverse reaction to the antibiotics and had to be taken off for 4 days.  Yesterday she was sent back to her regular room and next week, if nothing else happens, she can go to get her hair done.

AMD

AMD is short for age related macular degeneration.  The good news is that some forms are treatable and even reversible.  When I received my first shot I was really encouraged because I showed a 70% improvement and the doctor was astounded by my bodies reaction.  Each subsequent shot brought improvement at an ever decreasing rate until a couple of months ago when I showed no improvement then a worsening , even with an increased dosage.
  Last month the doctor tried a different drug which slowed the decline and hopefully will began again the healing process.   If it doesn't there is still hope as there is a third drug and differing dosages that he can try.
  I have a machine that measures the condition in my good eye which will lead to earlier detection than can be had by use of the chart alone.  So far I've used the machine every day but I know that will not always be possible.
  When I began my shots it was a three year program and the doctor was hopeful I would not have to take all the normal amount of shots but now it looks like I may be taking shots for up to 7 years.
  The process is inconvenient but much better than being blind.  

Garden News

My garden is smaller than in years past but larger than last years.  I tried tomatoes in buckets last year with mixed success.  This year I made a raised garden on the north end of the house about 4 feet wide and 30 feet long.  I was able to plant 22 plants in the ground, one in a bucket and one in a small section with a rose bush. along with one green pepper.  All the tomato plants except one are large and healthy and I will soon be picking tomatoes.  I planted that space about a month ago.
  Two weeks ago I made another raised garden on the south end of the house about the same size and planted watermelon, cantaloupe, jalapeno pepper, squash and cucumbers.  That side gets sun all day so I had to mulch the area to keep the soil from drying out too fast and stressing the plants.  They are large enough now that they are beginning to spread.  The area where the tomatoes are gets sun early and the in the late afternoon while shady before noon and in the evening.  That seems to be a winning combination for the plants.
I picked some cherries for the first time this year and have apples and peaches on my trees and well as one pear on my new pear tree.  I'll get grapes, blueberries, and blackberries  from my plants this year too.
For color I planted wildflowers among my tomato plants and while many have grown I have had no flowers yet.
My trip to the zoo plant sell yielded me some nice additions to my yard.  I picked up a purple cone flower, a black eyed Susan, a couple of Milk Weed plants (also known as butterfly weed) and a Mexican petunia.  The Milk Weed plant is the only known plants( so I've been told) that attracts the famous Monarch butterfly.  I picked up two plants but have three growing   so I guess I'm lucky.  I sure hope I picked a good spot for them.  So far it seems I have.
 

Pond maintenance

It has been awhile since I've cleaned my little pond.  Well, actually, I've never cleaned it.  I have drained the water a few times, some intentionally and some not but I've never broken it down and cleaned it until yesterday.  I had not seem my fish in awhile except when the pump became clogged and the fish came to the surface gasping for air.  The algae had become too thick this year for the pump to handle the problem.

  in years past the small pond would run clear or almost clear even without a UV sterilizer but this year it just keep getting greener and greener.  I think I lost the battle late last year and the pond was getting green when I shut it down for the winter.

    I removed ninety percent of the Iris, scrubbed the scum from the sides of the liner cleaned the pump, and refilled with clean fresh water.   I added a declorinator and stress coat mix to the water and put my fish back in.  I began with 27 feeder goldfish and now have 27 rather large goldfish in varying colors of orange and white.  I have a couple that are solid orange and one that is solid white.

I broke off a large rhizome from my water lily (from the large pond) and cut it into 5 sections.  Each section is larger than the original plant.  I put two section in the small pond and three in the large pond.  Hopefully the lilies will spread and cover a lot of the surface area helping   keep the algae at bay.  Seventy percent of the surface should be covered by plants  and I've neglected to do that.

In the past I've used water hyacinth and water lettuce for coverage but by the time that stuff multiplied the water had already turned green.  Year before last I used UV sterilizers and that did a wonderful job but last year the sterilizers malfunctioned and with no surface cover and too many fish my ponds became too green to fast.

I'm giving a few of my goldfish to a friend, and if I can find homes for my carp, I'll put my goldfish in the big pond and stock the small pond with feeder fish.  I may have some fry soon as the goldfish, in appreciation for me cleaning their home, were swimming on the surface two by two singing "I'll soon have a baby for you."  Well, they were not actually singing but they were spawning.

Anyone need some fish?

 

Yahoo sold

  Yahoo has been sold to Verizon wireless.  I'm not sure if the rescent updates are related or not but I was locked out of many of my accounts and had to log back in.  It has been so long since I used a password I had forgotten them so I've been down awhile.

  I missed you too.

You've been cooking potatoes wrong your whole life

  How does the writer of this stupid article now how we cook our potatoes and why is the way someone else cooks them wrong?  I find these articles totally offensive. 

gospel of barnabas

  I was reading news articles and the comments different people make when I came across an unusual person so I clicked on their profile to learn a little more about them.  I noticed that they had posted

an idea that the gospel of Barnabas was proof that Jesus Christ was not the son of God and did not raise from the dead. 

  Barnabas was a disciple of Jesus and became Paul's partner for a year or so.  Paul was a young Pharisee at the time of the crucifixion and held the coats of the men who stoned Stephen. 

   The gospel of Barnabas is supposedly written by this discipline and the gospel claims that Paul was delusional, teaching falsehood about Christ. 
The writer of the gospel of Barnabas claims that Jesus was a prophet but never clamed to be the son of God.   Jesus never rose from the dead because he was never crucified.  It was Judas Iscariot that was arrested in his place.  According to the gospel of Barnabas the lineage of Jesus was Adam Abraham Ismael, Moses,  and then David.  If that were true then Jesus would have been just an ordinary man.

   Those who cite the gospel of Barnabas as proof that Jesus was not God apparently don't know history very well.  Judas was at the temple while Jesus was being tried and is recorded as having attempted to give the 30 pieces of silver back.  he is the credited author of the gospel of Judas which records in great detail the trial of Jesus.  He cannot be both the observer and the observed. 

  The lineage of Jesus, as with all Jews, is traced from Abraham, never from Adam,  Adam is the father of all men, Abraham is the father of the Jews.  Jews trace their lineage through Isaac, not Ismael. 

   Jesus di claim to be the son of God and says that He and the Father are one and the same. 

  But the biggest error in the gospel of bananas is a reference to Mohammed who was not even born until many years after the death of Paul and Barnabas.    

   Just because a manuscript is old does not mean it is truthful. 
FYI;  Mohammed was born in the Arab trading and pilgrimage city of Mecca, in the Arabian peninsula, between 570 and 580 AD.

Bullying snd Karma.

  Bullying is picking on someone because of what makes different than us.  Karma is that energy we give out coming back to us. 

   My wife has two sons,  T is the oldest and he has one daughter.  She was "chunky'.  She was a pretty girl but her father suffers from a medical problem that causes him to think and act different than most people and he has been habitually unemployed due to poor decision making.  I suppose being overweight and poor makes one an easy target for bullies. 
.   The other son, M also has a daughter who is skinny as a rail and her two front teeth are prominent.   She is now of the age when her classmates are beginning to bully her about her lack of weight and her larger than normal teeth. 
  Yea, it can be depressing to be picked on but I believe that if you ignore the bully or turn their taunt into something funny then the bully will be deprived of the pleasure derived from bullying.  For example if the bully says your big teeth makes you look like a rabbit just reply with something like "yes but they sure do make eating carrots easier". 
   Anyway the grandmother thought it might be a good idea to ask the older granddaughter for advise on how to deal with bullies.  The oldest granddaughter was delighted that the younger one was being picked on "because she used to pick on me about my weight".  So the skinny girl is getting picked on about her weight, or lack of it just as she used to pick on other about their weight.  I call that poetic justice.  I think people call that karma now. 
  The truth is, no one should pick on others but we have to accept the fact that it happens and we have to learn how to deal with it. 

Republicans and Trump going to far

Republicans in Texas have some questioning whether anyone but Christian whites and blacks can adopt children as long as they aren't an interracial couple.  If you are Jewish, Muslim,  or gay you may be out of luck.  I understand this is the way it once was except that if you were a certain religion then only couples of the same religion could adopt you.  What your birth mother but as her religious affiliation counted as your religion. 
  Trump is now questioning whether funding traditional black colleges is legal.  There should not be black colleges anymore than there should be white colleges.  Still, we all feel more comfortable around people who are like us and as long as we don't discriminate then it is perfectly okay to fund colleges that are predominately black. 
I grew up in the fifties and early sixties and while I really enjoyed the drug free environment and the Christian values that were shared by many I don't want to go back to an era when people were treated different because they were different.  Our differences should be celebrated rather than serve as fuel for discrimination. 
  I think Trump is wrong but I still wouldn't want Hillary in the White House.