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

January is creeping to an end. I like January, but I anticipate
getting a lot more sleep in February. More sleep is good.

For those who think it is only the parents of babies and small
children who lose sleep, you have interesting days ahead.

Last night (as has happened once or twice or more times a week
since the guys got the boat rigged for gigging season)the guys
were out gigging. It was after 3:00 am before the fish were all
safely gigged, cleaned, scored, and stored in the freezer.
They have all the fun, and they do all the work. I just stay awake
until everyone is safely tucked in bed.

I'll get more sleep in February because the season ends January 31st.
Don't tell them I'm throwing a party. It'll be a sleepover.
















Look at Joel's beautiful giant.

On the finished pile...

"Pierced for our Transgressions: Rediscovering the
Glory of Penal Substitution" by Steve Jeffery, Mike
Ovey and Andrew Sach

Highly recommended.

For a full book review see Challies review on Discerning Reader

Recently Overheard Conversation at Fernnook Farm.

Man: I really miss that fresh milk we used to have.

Woman: Oh, man! What about the butter, and the cream for
our coffee? I dream about those things.

Man: We could get another milk cow.

Woman: We could.

Man: You feel like milking her?

Woman: Nope. You?

Man: Nope. But I sure do miss that milk.

I walked down to visit G'ma Opal a few days ago. She was
up on a stool fooling with one of her shades. We worked
and took both shades off and fixed the strings for them and
then washed them.

While we were working we started talking about milking cows.
G'ma started milking when she was six years old. Her folks
bought her a little shiny milk bucket that was wider at the
top than it was at the bottom. She told me some stories about
her milking days and then the conversation took this turn.
(This is a paraphrase, my memory these days is slippy.)

G'ma: I miss the milk, but I do not miss milking.

Laurie: Boy, can I relate to that.

G'ma: The horseflies were the worst.

Laurie: There are about one or two days a year when milking
is lovely, romantic, a fun thing to do. The rest of
the time....

G'ma: Yes! When it is dry out and pleasantly warm.

Laurie: Every once in a while you would be sitting there by the
cow, on the stool, and the sunlight would filter in just
right through the slats in the barn. There would be dust
dancing in the rays of light. The cow would be relatively
clean and quiet and you could rest your head on her side
and milk. Of course, it would be 72 degrees out. Just
lovely.

G'ma: Usually though you'd be dripping sweat and she would dip her
tail in the bucket and then slap you with it.

Laurie: Or your hands would be red and chapped and there would be
mud (and worse) caked all over the cow that you just couldn't
get off.

G'ma: I sure do miss that milk though.

Laurie: Sure do!

She's 98, but who's counting?














The Cherry Cobbler complete with three layers of crust.














G'ma and Cousin Mary lost. Dad and Jenn won. High Five of course.














A little jig to end the evening.
Happy Birthday Grandma Opal!

Kent and I walked down to G'ma's Sunday afternoon. Uncle Jim
was outside working in The Park. We wandered around in The
Park for awhile and then he showed me the whole set-up for
his outside shower. I hadn't really had a chance to see the
whole thing put together yet.

After sitting with G'ma for awhile she wanted to play cards.
Now that was a surprise. There were only three of us, so we
played Rummy. Kent beat us. But the funny thing was that I
kept saying, "Humpf" every time someone would lay down a card.
I think it was getting a little irritating and soon Kent began
saying it and then Grandma. She would lay her card down and
then pick it up again and say "Humpf" and when she did her little
head would bob up and down and her curls would shake and then we
would all giggle. Before leaving we got into a circle and hugged
each other and humpfed as loud as we could.

At least we finally got settled her meal for her birthday (98) which
is coming up this weekend. It will be Pork Roast, Mashed Potatoes,
either Sweet Potatoes or Squash (maybe as a casserole) and Cherry
Cobbler (with lots of crust). I'm sure I'll add a few more things,
but that gives me something to start with.

This is a wonderful video posted at Ladies For Life.

At Watts Up With That Is this story about an NBC crew
trying to document climate change and being blocked by
too much ice.

Tip of the bonnet to Challies.

Up and Down the Gravel
















Actually I've still been somewhat out of commission and
don't have a lot of tidbits to share. However these things
I know:

1. Grandma Opal wants me to make a cherry cobbler for her 98th
birthday party. I, since I am the one who got in trouble for
taking so many cherries back in the spring, have plenty in the
freezer for a cobbler or two. She doesn't really care what the
main meal consists of; it was just important to nail down the
dessert.

2. The Kirk's horse, Katie, has been missing for 4 or 5 days.
Joel has been helping to scour the woods round about, but he's
not seen any sign of her.

3. We bought a new fridge. The old one was leaking and had big
cracks in it. It was a double hand me down and had lived a long
and happy life. Probably it was going on 24 or so years old. The
new one is tall and clean and simple. It has no gadgets, no ice
maker, and no water dispenser. The more bells and whistles a thing
has the greater its chance of developing PROBLEMS. I don't like
PROBLEMS.

4. We are headed to The Big City this weekend for some R & R. I am
really looking forward to it.

5. Tyler finished the bush hogging. Kent is working hard on the new
well house. I keep trying to get up the energy to divide peonies and
irises. Maybe next week...after the R & R.

6. Uncle Jim is working on a cool new path down to Aunt Jenny's place.
Hattie told me all about it, but I've not seen it yet.

7. Oh, this is not really a part of Up and Down the Gravel, but Billy
got to see the VP debate at WUSTL last night. He knew he was in the
top 300 lottery picks, but they weren't sure how many tickets they'd
have for students. At the last debate there they only handed out 150
to WUSTL students. This time they let in closer to 500. He really
enjoyed having the chance to be there.

Rules for marrying. These are funny but good.

This, from Against Heresies, is for those who love doctrine
...and...for those who don't.