Up and Down the Gravel:
It's been busy here in Fernnook. February is birthday month.
Tonight I'll host the third party in as many weeks. Tandy
wants spaghetti and meatballs and chocolate Butterfinger
ice cream cake. She is leaving the rest up to me.

Sunday evening Hattie noticed an ambulance speeding down the
gravel. We called down to G'ma Opal's house and Uncle Jim
told us that he had called it for G'ma. She had another
heart attack. Apparently it has done quite a bit of damage.
She was in ICU for several days, but yesterday evening was
moved to a regular room. Hopefully after they monitor her for
a few more days and tweak her meds a bit more she'll be able
to come home. Her middle name is still feisty.

We are expecting any day now for three cows to calve and one
goat to kid. Kent noticed yesterday that for two of the cows
have bags that are beginning to fill out. I'm excited. It's
been a while since we've had a calf. We are still tossing around
the idea of getting a Jersey again.

Hattie wants to hang some of her clothes in the goat sheds. The
idea is that the human smell will deter predators from bothering
(that would be eating) the kids when they are born. That is
probably a good idea since Tyler saw a bobcat by our swingset
last night when he arrived home from the Bluff.















Bill's Birthday.















Jim's Birthday

On the Finished Pile:
Jane Austin: The Minor Works

What needs to be said. This is Jane Austin mainly in her youth.
It is funny, insightful, unpolished, but good. Included at the
back are notes she recorded about the reactions of her friends
and family to various of her main novels. It was so interesting
to see how different were the viewpoints on which were their favorite
heroines or story lines. I am now reading my least favorite of her
novels. I'll tell you which one that is when I am finished.

Wasps have been a large part of Fernnook this past week. I
was on the phone with my father-in-law when I saw a poor wasp
trying to fly across the living room. Poor thing, he was having
a hard time. Somehow (I sure don't know how) he had picked up
a huge dust bunny and it was trailing down from him. I guess
the weight of it kept him from being able to zip along. He
couldn't get more than 18 or so inches off the floor. As I caught
my breath from laughing, my dear father-in-law wondered why we
had a wasp in the house in February anyway. I don't know. We
have a lot of wasps that come in Billy's bedroom, especially on
warm winter days. I guess they have nests between the walls or
something.

Then G'ma was getting dressed a few days ago and a wasp was inside
her clothes as she was pulling them on. It stung her, according to
her, several times. She looked around the bathroom and all she
could find that looked mediciny was some vapor rub. She put that
on the stings and she had no swelling or pain. Now we know. Vapor
Rub for wasp stings. Who would have thunk?

Hattie and I went to sit with G'ma last night. She wasn't feeling
very well when we got there, so we just sat quietly and chatted
about things. After a bit she was telling me some stories that
included convoluted connections of various relatives. I was trying
to find my way through the maze, but I think I got a little lost.
But--the thing that was so interesting to me last night was a new
recipe she came up with. She loves hominy, but, having no teeth,
it is hard to eat. She can swallow it whole, but the flavor is lost
when you do that. So, she had a brainwave. She fried some bacon and
then dumped a can of hominy, juice and all in the pan with the bacon
and grease. She added a tich of salt. Then she transferred the whole
panful (bacon, grease, and hominy) into a food processor and made a
mush out of it. The mush ended up being quite thick. She took the
mush and made patties out of it and fried them in more bacon grease.

What can I say. They were delicious. She ate one and Aunt Jenny ate
one and she had enough mush left over to fry up some for her breakfast
this morning.

Now that it brilliant. I tasted the mush. It did taste like hominy.
It was delicious, if you like hominy that is.

For all current, former, and wishful Fernnookians--I have news.
Uncle Jim has graciously agreed to let me post his monthly
calendar. It has birth dates and anniversary dates and other
items of note. It it BIG and so the only place to put it is
at the bottom of the page. Scroll down and check it out.

From JT at Between Two Worlds

The President said: "There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know."

Doug Wilson:

This is chutzpah on stilts and steroids. . . . If anyone
were to attempt to call him on this, that person and not
Obama would be called down by just about everyone for being
a troublemaker and small-minded garroter of words. Obama
is not about to be challenged for his deft exclusion from
this question all those millions of innocent lives that don't
count anymore. He is saying, by implication, that "there is
no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being,
except for those millions of lives we have found convenient to
take on the threshold of life, and those lives we find it too
expensive to not take among our most senior seniors. This much
we know." To speak this way is tantamount to saying, and far
more simply, "there is no god."

On the Finished Pile:

"Covenant Theology: The Key of Theology in Reformed Thought
and Tradition" by Peter Golding.

Covenant Theology is a combo of a history of the development of
Covenant Theology through the years of church history and a
definition of Covenant Theology itself.

I loved the following quote from Geerhardus Vos that Golding puts
towards the end of the book.

"Only when the believer understands how he has to receive everything
from the Mediator, and how God in no way whatever deals with him
except though Christ, only then does a picture of the glorious
work that God wrought through Christ emerge in his consciousness
and the magnificent idea of grace begin to dominate and form in his
life. For the Reformed, therefore, the entire ordo salutis...is
bound to the mystical union with Christ....Now the basis for this
order lies in none other than in the covenant of salvation with
Christ."

My family know me. They know me well. Last night Joel left to
go home. As soon as the door closed though, he opened it and
said, "Mom, come here or you might miss it."

I stepped out and he said, "Listen, there's a peeper."

I hugged him, and kissed him, and just about squeezed his head off.

Peepers. Ah, the relief. The delight. The lying awake and just
listening.

True, there was only one, and later, when I went out before I slipped
between the sheets for the night, there was still only one, or maybe
two at the most...but still. Peepers.

Day 11 and the electricity was turned on. It was nice to
be able to play the piano after dark and to run the dishwasher.
The past 11 days haven't been too bad though. The electric
company had a lot of lines to fix.

Perhaps you have wondered how G'ma Opal (98) did through the 11
days of outage. She did just fine. She probably handled it as
well or better than anyone else. She wouldn't even leave her
warm, dark cave until day number 9. Then she went to Dad's house
and took a bath, and then she traipsed off to town for a haircut and
some grocery shopping.

Uncle Jim is going to have plenty to keep him busy through the
next few months. I've included a few pics of their yards and
pole.

FYI: Nine days and no line men in sight yet.

I have been know to brag. We used to live on the prettiest
road in Ripley County. Now there are no pretty roads in
the county. By the way, we are on day seven of being without
electricity, and there are no linemen in sight.












































The above three pictures show why it took two days to
clear the gravel.













































Three pictures from the lane going back to the old homeplace.




























































Four pictures of our front yard.















Movement of one of the Harding utility poles.





























Lines down and out of commission.















Joel's backyard.















Melting snow to flush the toilets.





























Beauty in the midst of the storm and the hope of better things
to come.

"For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,
but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the
creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with
birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption,
the redemption of our body." Romans 8:20-23