Welcome the new year!

Happy new year to you! May this new year be filled with love, laughter, friends, food, fellowship, faith, learning and new experiences. And may you feel free to leave a comment, even a simple hello.

Grace and peace,
David

Basic Pancakes from The Farm at Hawk Haven

Here is the basic Pancakes recipe we use at our house:

1 1/4 c. flour
2 T. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1 c. milk
1 T. cooking oil

and for buttermilk pancakes, reduce baking powder to 1 tsp., add 1/2 tsp. baking soda and use 1 1/3 c. buttermilk

I add 2-3 handfuls of blueberries, or a can of pumpkin and more flour.

Farm report June 22

The garden is progressing, thanks, in large part to the watering provided by God and supplemented a little by moi. We've added a couple of things and changed the way we have support for vines, and the overall effect has the potential for being very effective, if we can maintain it.

This is a brace that faces west and has cucumbers climbing it (top photo), providing shade for lettuce (bottom) which is still going strong even today, June 22. Here it is 2:00 and already the cuc's are starting to provide shade. We've been fairly successful with squashing squash beetles, with anywhere from 20 to 100 per day. They are slowing down finally.

We also added this strawberry pyramid, with plants on all four sides. The south side has had a little trouble, but still making it. You can see in the background our potato circles, obviously in need of some water.

And we took a goat panel, bent it over a path and created this arch for trellising (I'm sure that's not a real word) with pole beans on the east side and summer squash on the west. The beans are getting the idea, the squash not so much.

The top pic shows the whole trellis and the bottom shows the bean side, although the fact that they're climbing is not very evident.

Finally, we got word from a neighbor that he had found some goats wandering the highway last winter and hear we lost some. We're getting our goats back! Yay!

What a spring!

Singing around the pole

This Saturday, April 27 our OK Chorale will have its annual Spring Show at the Harding School in OK City. There will be performances at 2 and 7, and the chorus will celebrate 75 years of both the Barbershop Harmony Society and the OK Chorale. We will be joined by members of the Music Central barbershop chorus, also of Oklahoma City.

Join us for a fun time listening to some great guys sing wonderful music.

I love you, mommy

Those were the words from my three-year-old granddaughter as we sat at the dinner table the other night. Innocent enough, sweet, pure, child's voice. Never mind that they came on the tail of her mother's admonition to 'eat your dinner.' We'd been sitting at the table for some length of time, waiting for Evie to consume just the prescribed portion of her meal so that we could break out the dessert.
Something about her timing sent me on a tangent; the "I love you" coming in the midst of outright disobedience caused me to reflect on the times that I have done the same - to God, to my wife, to people at work and school. While on the one hand professing my love and devotion, admiration or obedience, on the other hand I am in the throes of dishonoring, disobeying, disregarding that very relationship.
Evie is three. Maybe that's a good enough excuse for her. And maybe a person in a new relationship with Christ is still working things out, and may have an excuse for some path of sin followed. An old geezer like me? I may not be able to come up with a reason, but I've got some great rationalizations.
Lord, help me to be relational, not rational.

Amen. Lord, have mercy.

Once again, I'm working my way through the readings of the Celtic Daily Prayer from the Northumbria Community. The opening litany includes the Kyrie, which asks "Who is it that you seek?" The community responds "We seek the Lord, our God." Then we're asked four questions - "Do you seek Him with all your heart?" "Do you seek Him with all your soul?" "...with all your mind?" "...your strength?" For a long time, for each question I read the response in the text "Amen. Lord have mercy" ready to move on to the next section. Sometimes, in a bit of self honesty, I would pause on one or the other and think a minute, maybe responding with a "working on it" or "not so much so far."

Reading the response today, and thinking of yet another variation on the theme, it dawned on me that the supplied phrase, "Amen. Lord have mercy" really was the most complete, honest answer I could use. "Amen." So be it. It is as it is. Yes, I'm seeking with all my ____, but I know that on some levels it's not a full-in seeking. "Lord, have mercy." God, forgive me for not opening my heart completely to you and allowing all of You to illuminate all of me.

A few days ago we sang a song in chapel with lyrics that capture the essence of that prayer. The chorus says it best: The more I seek, the more I find. The more I find, the more I love. Lord, as I seek You, help me find You. And as I find You, may my love for You grow deeper and deeper, until I can fully respond "Amen! Lord, have mercy."

Back home again

Great week traveling through north Arkansas this past week. Would have been easier if all the state workers were on the same page so we didn't travel back and forth across the state. Devil's Den is a wonderful Park with some great hiking and camping. Blanchard Springs has a beautiful trail as well as a scenic cave with several options for exploring the caverns. Working on a more detailed account later.