A Question on the Economy

11/25/08 - 3rd Day - After Breakfast. This was a question I got for Q&A, but it seemed to need a longer more complete answer than the regular Q&A allows, so I thought I would post it as a separate blog post. I do not pretend to be an economist, and I can't say that my opinion is good or correct. I have been right quite a lot, so I just throw this out there for your information.

Michael,

I seem to remember you telling us that gas prices might plummet like this before the “big crash”. It was in a post or answer about inflation/deflation and TEOTWAWKI (The End of The World as We Know It). Do you remember that, and can you discuss it with us again now that it seems to be coming to pass?

Thanks

Thank you for your question. A brother here at the ranch brought this up just yesterday after I received your question, and I was already planning to write something about this subject, so here goes. My discussions and “what ifs” about the economy have taken place in many different places and in several different forums. I have discussed the idea of deflation/inflation with the group here on several occasions, and I had speculated that prices might plummet as a sign that a complete collapse was imminent. Of course I am not predicting anything. I am just speculating on what I see and warning people so they will know what to look for. I may be completely wrong, but my track record is pretty good. First, let me post what I wrote 17 ½ months ago about my opinion on the three forms that a collapse in Amerika might take:

“...there need be no catastrophic meltdown or huge eschaton type of event that many people are expecting. The end of things as we know it can happen with a whimper just as easily as with a bang. Things generally “wax worse and worse”, and for the most part this is the pattern set forth by Israel in the scriptures – though there were wars, invasions, destructions, etc., generally those things were events in a longer downward slide brought about by idolatry, syncretism, and worldliness. As for events concerning the EOAAWKI (end of amerika as we know it), I have kind of gathered my opinions into 3 likelihoods or scenarios that could very easily come to pass at any time. For preparedness reasons, I list these in order of how likely I believe they are to happen. Of course any combination of these three scenarios (or a thousand others) could also be what actually happens:

1. The internal collapse theory. Modeled on the collapse of the Soviet Union (although I think that that collapse was/is a planned deception). Amerika, embroiled in foreign wars it cannot win and with an economy and social system coming apart at the seams at home, suffers a catastrophic economic and social collapse. The dollar implodes, the credit system collapses, the housing and mortgage bubble bursts, fuel and other “necessities” become too expensive to afford. The banks call the loans, and then collapse themselves when foreign banks foreclose on US debt. Rampant unemployment, massive displacement of people, and general unrest ensues. Amerika balkanizes and breaks into a thousand pieces, many of them warring factions, and becomes like Europe in the dark ages. Here we see the rise and reinstatement of the temporal power of the Antichrist Pope over many of the resultant fiefdoms. The Vatican and the UN become the ubiquitous powers in the land. This is the main theory (with some combination with the others) that I use in my planned book The Last Pilgrims

2. The internal combustion theory. Internal strife, class and racial warfare, and general dissatisfaction result in Amerika coming apart at the seams. Economic riots and exploding crime and terrorism cause various secession and independence movements to proceed, most of which prove to be colossal failures and turn out to be twice as tyrannical than what they replaced. Amerika begins to resemble Central and South America with a dozen banana republics, run by misguided and violent “patriot” movements (socialist, fascist, anarchic), each believing that they are the heirs to the American Revolution.

3. The foreign invasion theory. Amerika, having alienated the rest of the world with her ham-fisted foreign policy, and weakened by her consumerist and debt-based economic policy, grows weaker and weaker. She is a paper tiger, and soon enough, her enemies (led by Russia and China) decide to teach her a lesson. The results of this (after the smoke clears) is similar to that in theories #1 and #2, only Amerika has now been robbed of her natural resources and energy facilities, which have either been destroyed during the war, or taken over by foreign interests” (Michael Bunker “Scatter Q&A”).

Ok, so those are the three main theories I have proposed, and as I said, I expect the first to be the principle one, which may or may not include all or some of the elements mentioned in options the other options. Now, as part of several other discussions, both online and offline, I have discussed why a deflationary period might precede a period of massive inflation, or... interestingly, how a collapse may just involve massive deflation with no real period of inflation.

Ok, so here is how it works. Gas prices skyrocketed over the last year. I have a post on BiblicalAgrarianism.com where there was an article in December of last year speculating wildly that Gas might hit $3.75 a gallon in 6 months. Many people dismissed that kind of talk as ridiculous. Well, in June and July of 2008, 6-7 months later, I paid over $4 a gallon for gasoline. There were many reasons for this price escalation:

1. Massive manipulation of the oil markets by the monied interests and by forces in the U.S. and other governments. Hundreds of billions were siphoned directly out of the economy in just a few months if you'll refer back to profit estimations made at the time.

2. Lot's of scared money was leaving the dollar (which was dropping) and was being invested in oil stocks, oil futures, etc. This drove the price of oil ever higher.

3. There were problems (mostly manipulated and purposeful) with refining capacity, so, in short, demand outstripped supply.

Ok, so as the price continued to rise, more and more speculative money was being thrown into oil stocks which compounded the price problem.

Now we see prices dropping drastically. There can be several reasons for this, and some of it may be a combination of all the reasons:

1. Political manipulation leading up to the election. It has become quite common for politicians and power-brokers to pressure oil companies to drop prices prior to an election. Unsatisfied worldlings do not always act predictably when they are very angry.

2. Simultaneously, we are told that several new refineries and more refining capacity came online. Automobile usage decreased at the same time.

3. As prices dropped, the “scared money” from the markets began to try to figure out where they could put their money in order for it to be safe. Just as this was happening, the banking and mortgage crisis (that I talked about 17 months ago) hit. The stock market plummeted, everyone got scared. Most of the people who were speculating on oil stocks and futures pulled out. Hello price drop.

4. As the drops intensified, it became apparent that the whole fabric of the economy was coming unglued. This means that a whole new bunch of questions were coming up which made investing in oil and stocks even more speculative. What happens if the whole economy collapses and no one is buying gas (see point #5), or no one can afford to operate a vehicle? What happens if money becomes worthless? Some people have all this money from the boom times but now there is nowhere safe to put it.

5. As folks start feeling the crunch from all quarters, people stop buying, stop spending, limit their traveling. Some people sold their gas guzzlers when the price hit $4 a gallon. Some lost their jobs when their businesses could not operate with gas prices that high. Trucking companies went out of business in July and August because of $4 a gallon gas, and now are gone when the price is now $1.70. Now there are FAR fewer customers, and those customers that are left are not buying much gas.

Ok, so now what you have is a massive deflationary period. This could (and might) effect all of the economy. A bunch of businesses are sitting on really big inventories and people are not buying like they were. Everyone is a bit frightened and a lot of people just don't have any money. Others have money, but nowhere safe to put it... I mean, would you trust all of your retirement money or your other cash in a bank? How about in the stock market? How about under your mattress? If people are not spending, you have very few dollars chasing a whole lot of goods. Prices drop dramatically. This is price deflation.

Now, here is where I speculate. There are a couple of different ways this can go.

In one scenario this deflation period continues for a time, then escalates. The prices drop precipitously and businesses begin dumping inventories. At some point, prices will be so cheap that the collective conscience of the consumer system trips and everyone goes out on a buying binge. They begin to spend their money, not on trinkets and toys, but on goods they were not previously able to afford. This could mean automobiles, or it could mean food and supplies, or it could mean Ipods and plasma screen TVs. We don't know. When this happens, and shortly after it, we could hit a period of maximum scarcity. After this, there won't be much money out there, and there won't be many goods to buy. Prices may remain low, but there just isn't any money out there with which to buy things. When you were young, did you ever stare at the penny candy and really, really want some... but you didn't have a penny? In this scenario prices don't skyrocket because almost nobody has money. As business failures increase, this process accelerates until we reach a point where most people just do not have the ability to buy many products at all. Of course most businesses will go out of business, and even if prices stay low in the businesses that stick around, not many people will have money.

In another, more likely scenario, as the deflation period escalates, we hit the point of the buying binge, and this time the producers who are left try to keep up with the demand. Prices do indeed skyrocket as consumers compete for the products that slowly become available. In this scenario the government, which has gone deeper and deeper into debt in order to stave off the collapse, has continued printing money and is either using it in massive bailouts, or is giving it away (in massive social welfare spending and projects like in the New Deal - call it the Obama Shiny Newer Deal) in order to keep cash flowing. Sugar Daddy Obama gives everyone thousands of dollars in tax relief, even if they never paid taxes. Literally trillions of digital or printed dollars are pumped into the economy... The dollar collapses, foreign governments call in their debts, or just pull out of the dollar, and now it doesn't matter how much money you have, you can have wheelbarrows full of it, because you can't afford anything at all that does become available. In this scenario, you may get in line for bread that is priced at $100 a loaf, and you may have $300 in your pocket, but by the time you get to the front of the line the bread is now priced at $500 a loaf. This is what happened in Germany in the Weimar Republic in the early 1920's:

This young woman is burning German Marks because the paper burned longer than the wood you could buy with the money. This is what happened in the Mexican and Russian currency devaluations in my lifetime. In 1992 the Russian inflation rate hit 2520%. In Zimbabwe right now (2008), prices are doubling every 15.6 hours which equals an inflation rate of 12.95 QUADRILLION percent.

So, any or all of these scenarios are possible.

I have constantly said that I believe we will see an economic collapse as I mentioned before, and that this economic collapse could be the trigger event for any number of scenarios that might follow. None of us knows what will happen, and there is the possibility that the powers that be figure out how to plug all the holes and the system limps on for many more years. I don't know. In our community, we plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Many worldlings are seeing the collapse of gas prices as a great sign of the soon return of prosperity. I wouldn't bet on it.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

The December Project

11/24/08 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. As some of you know, in my household, our December Project begins in just a week. As a part of our continuing effort to separate, and to train ourselves and our minds, and to wean ourselves from the world - we will be staying home for the whole month of December. No going to the stores. No running to town. Period.


This type of project has been pretty common for the members of my family. This is how we trained ourselves and weaned ourselves from grid electricity. It's a great experiment, and it will teach you quite a bit about yourself and your condition. Now, December is the perfect month for this project for us. We don't celebrate the christ-Mass, obviously. So we really dislike the whole commercial hubbub during the so-called "holidays". We also don't like the heathen, apostates, homosexuals, and other assorted worldlings telling us to have a "merry christ-mass" every 5 seconds. Although our flesh does like some of the sales (and we might miss out on turkeys at .39 a pound) we aren't in dire need of any of that stuff.

Also, December traditionally is a month that would be used for meat processing and preservation, and for the chopping and stacking of firewood. For a traditional Agrarian family in December, these would have been the main tasks for the month. Here in Texas, when we have many nice days in the 50's, 60's and 70's in December, the month would also be used for building or construction projects. Our december is going to be taken up mainly in butchering, processing and storing meat. Our goal is, if the Lord wills, by the end of January to have put up enough meat for a whole year. That would be a goal we have never yet accomplished in the 10 years we have been on our agrarian-separatist journey. We also hope to begin the construction of a community cold smokehouse. Brother Larry and I have been planning on starting the smokehouse for awhile, and we hope to get started on it in the next few weeks. It is our intention, subject to the approval and will of God, that we have the cold smokehouse built and operational by the middle to end of January. I will be giving more details on the plans, materials, etc. on the cold smokehouse as things move on.

Ok, back to the December Project. I want to suggest that you and your family participate at some level. Sure, I don't expect any of you who are not yet living off-grid, etc. to be able to just take the month of December off with no notice. But there are other projects you can do:

Make a list and write down all of your town/store trips. If you run to 7-11 for a slurpee, write it down (added bonus: write down the mileage for each trip). If you go to the grocery, write it down. If you go to the pharmacy, write it down. Anyway, keep copious notes on each entry. Then, go down and comment on whether this item or trip was needed. Maybe come up with a code (1-10 or something) that tells you how critical the item or trip was.

Do a "needs/wants" test. Get a journal, a notepad, or some type of record-keeping device, and every time you use ANYTHING during the month. Write it down. If you use a stick of butter, write it down. If you use a box of tin-foil, write it down. Anything you consume, write it down. This will provide you with a grocery list of things you normally use. Then go down each item with your family, and discuss what you would do if the economy/system collapsed and you could no longer procure this item. What would you do? This is one of the most critical exercises in which you will ever participate. WHAT WILL YOU DO IF THESE THINGS ARE NOT AVAILABLE for an extended amount of time? What things can you begin to provide for yourself? What projects (like keeping chickens or building a greenhouse, etc.) can you engage in that will help you produce some of these things for yourself? What things can you eliminate now, in order to avoid the pain of having to do without it during a period of stress or danger?

On your trips list, discuss with your family how many of your trips were necessary. How many could have been avoided or combined? How many could have been eliminated with proper planning and foresight? How much gas did you use on unimportant trips? How much did you spend on "wants" that are not "needs"? How many times did you eat out when you didn't need to? Then discuss how to cut out the fat. Pray about it alot, and see what you can do to eliminate unnecessary trips to town or to the store. Plan ahead, and see if you can make a huge dent in your costs.

Anyway, these are December Projects that you can do this year. I know it is short notice, but if a disaster or collapse comes, it will likely be with short notice as well.

We ask for your prayers and support during our December Project. We hope to learn more about ourselves and our situation throughout this project. I should not be off-line, so you may still contact me or send me your Q&A questions during the month. I hope to keep posting to keep you all filled-in on how things are going and what we are learning. If you have any questions about the December Project, feel free to comment here.


Hope all is well with y'all out there.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Butchering up a Wild Pig

11/21/08 - 6th Day - Mid-Morning. Preparation of the Sabbath. Butchering Day. Today we butchered the largest of the wild hogs we picked up last preparation day. We wanted to clear out the larger ones because they eat more and take up more space. We have about 4-5 more large ones to butcher over the next two weeks. We paid $20 each for the large ones. The one we butchered this morning was one that came in with the initial load, and he was already in the trap, so we bought him with the 18 or so piglets. We also have about 4-5 medium sized wild pigs. Anyway...

So we had a few concerns. It is not at all like killing a domestic hog, because the domestic hog we can kind of get to walk where we want it, and we just let it out and then kill it in the pasture, then put it in a truck and drive it to where we want. The wild boar is a totally different issue. First, they are very skittish and "pile" up on eachother when you approach. They are impossible to even count because they will not hold still and spread out. Their instinct is to get into a corner and pile up. Then, the older ones will charge you. They can be very, very dangerous. So, if we shoot one in the pen, how do we get it out? We went through a few ideas, but at last I decided that I would shoot the pig, then I would just walk in there quickly and get it. Sound good?

Ok, so I have to tell you that the shot was perfect. I mean dead on between the eyes with a .22 from probably 15 feet away. She dropped like a dead weight, and she dropped near the far gate, which is what I wanted. Then I got David to come work the gate and I told him "If one or more charges me, let me out then slam the gate closed!" Well, the first time I stepped in the pen, here came a large male charging me. I was quick enough to get out and David helped slam the gate closed before he got too close. Then he walked back to the other side of the pen. So I went in and grabbed the dead pig by the leg and dragged it out. No dramas. Ok, then we had to haul the pig (who was much, much heavier than I thought) to the butchering area. Here is how that went:


In this pic David (nearest) and Kelly carry the pig to the butcher area. Larry supervises (and he carried one end of the deal for half of the way), and Ms. Irby watches on. We actually had a pretty good showing from the community, which is nice and the help is nice too. Before we shot it I would have put this pig at 50-60 lbs., but I was way wrong. Based on how much meat we got, I would say this pig was betwen 100-115 lbs! After we butchered and quartered the pig, we weighed the meat/bone in at a total of 62 lbs., which was awesome and way more than I expected. I was very pleased with the results.

So we got the pig to the butchering area and Tracy and I did the majority of the butchering, with some help from Mr. Braley, Elder David, Kelly, and Larry. The children and Danielle did all the prep and all the "run get" stuff. We met at 7:30, killed the pig at a bit after 8 a.m., started butchering at close to 8:30 and were finished at about 9:30. It was 38 degrees when we finished the butchering process.

The animal was very healthy and all the organs were good and pink, which was also very nice. Not much fat on it, but enough if we wanted to make some sausage or get a wee bit of lard from it. I would say that if one were to make just sausage from the meat, he would expect to end up with close to 40 lbs. of good sausage. For this one, we are going to smoke a large portion of it and then cube it up and can it. The ribs will be cooked up as ribs. These pigs don't have much in the way of bacons, so if you wanted bacon you would probably have to make canadian bacon from the tenderloin or from the hams or other parts of the legs. We won't be doing that this time. Maybe next time. We will probably end up with 20 or more quarts of cubed smoked meat, and then we will have the ribs for a meal or two. Which puts the cost of the meat at about .50 a pound, and the finished processed meat at quite a bit less than $1 a quart. And this is only for the big ones. The smaller ones we will be fattening up ourselves, and we will have quite a bit less per pound into the meat. Of course this doesn't count labor, but we are agrarians, and if we weren't doing this, we would be doing something else. The labor (other than the cutting up and canning time) is very minimal. It is good to have quite a few neighbors over to help, which was fun and nice.

Ok, enough of this for now.

Y'all be cool.

Michael Bunker

Q&A; Fridays, Issue #45

Q&A Fridays! Issue #45

Welcome to Issue #45 of Q&A Friday for Friday the 20th of November, 2008. I want to thank you all for your great emails and questions. I want to remind everyone of the rules by which I will be playing: Not all questions will be answered, and not all those that are submitted can be fitted into one issue. Those that did not make this issue (for length reasons) might be included in a future one. Questions might not be answered or included in the Q&A for the following reasons:

The scope may be too broad, or it may involve a topic on which I have taught at length... ex: “Can you explain the whole Creation?”. The question might need to be asked more specifically, or with fewer presuppositions that I would have to handle before actually getting to the question (I do reserve the right to rewrite questions to make them more clear and understandable or to make them more amenable to the format here). Answering the question might drag me off of “message” or into an area on which I am currently teaching, but at a point where I haven’t gotten to yet. If the question is answered in an upcoming teaching, or would involve getting into a topic I have planned for the future, then I will likely choose not to answer it yet.

The question might be considered rhetorical, or might involve me bearing witness against myself... such as “Will you please go away?”

As always, send your questions to Q&A Fridays:

editor(at)lazarusunbound(dot)com.

I seriously have more great questions this week than I can possibly fit into one issue. Some of the questions, therefore, will be in the next issue. Thanks for all your great questions.

Michael,

I wonder if you could address the issue of wifely submission in the situation of the husband not caring a whole lot about agrarianism or "being ready", etc. My husband is interested in small little things like a garden or chickens, but only if I do most of it. He helps me, but basically it is my "hobby". We are childless and our church, though small and conservative, are very busy with their own pursuit of their particular version of the "american dream". My husband, also, is in pursuit of his "american dream" and I have discovered, over the years, that when something (radical new idea) comes from me, it is not as well-received as it could be. But, I have also learned how to better communicate my concerns and sometimes it seems to take a LONG time to convince my beloved of something. I do realize that the woman is extremely capable of being deceived, so I try to be careful and rest in my obedience to the Lord in submitting to my husband, in spirit as well as in deed. There seems to be some fear of the unknown in my husbands attitude, also. AND he is always tired from his long commute to the big city and his corporate job. He spends about 12-14 hours a day, five days (sometimes six) a week, in that environment and when he comes home, he is wiped out. However, sometimes, if, through my enthusiasm and upbeat attitude, I can spread a little of that to him, he will have the energy and excitement to work with me on our little homestead.

So, after that short (LOL!) tirade, do you have any words of wisdom? Ultimately, my husbands word, unless he asks me to do something that is clearly sin, is the last one for me. I am just asking your opinion. Thanks!

Thank you for your question. Well, let me say that I understand your position, and it is a lot more common than you might think in the Agrarian community. Also, I want to say upfront (before I begin to offend people left and right, which is my general practice) that you are handling everything correctly, and you are doing all that the Bible asks and requires, if you obey your husband in all that he commands, except if he requires that which the Bible forbids, or forbids that which the Bible requires. Obeying your husband is a command of God, and I absolutely believe it should be the practice of all Christian women.

So... words of wisdom. Let's start by giving a little analysis, and this analysis may or may not apply to anyone's particular situation. First, we must recognize that the society and culture we live in is NOT a Christian (or Biblical) society and culture, and it has not been one for a very long time (longer than we have been alive). Therefore we have to understand that we are working on a broken foundation, and therefore we are starting with very flawed material. In a truly Biblical society and culture, we would not marry or choose mates the way it is done today. You would not meet a man, spend time alone with him, “fall in love” (ROMANtic love) and then decide to get married. In a Biblical society you and your parents would work together to find a man IN CHRIST, who already had been raised with a proper Christian framework and worldview. He would know what type of life he should live. He would not be a slave to the world. He would not worship mammon and sacrifice his health, safety, and eternity in order to keep the worldly system afloat. He would have been raised as an Agrarian, growing his own food, and working the land. He would know that the life of a Christian should be lived in Christian community, separate from the world, and he would desire more than anything to pursue that life. THAT is why he would be picked by your father and mother (with your acceptance) to be your husband. And the rest of these issues would never arise, unless he was a liar or a fraud.

Listen, we are not exempt from the consequences of prior sin, just because we are saved Christians. No matter what the Charismaniacs say, if before you became a Christian you were driving drunk and got in an accident and had to have your leg amputated... believe it or not, you will still be absent a leg after you are saved. If before someone became a Christian, they were sexually promiscuous and developed medical problems that prevent them from having children; or if they get a permanent sexually transmitted disease. Those penalties do not go away just because our sins are covered by the blood of the lamb. Sin has very real, physical ramifications. This is what we are supposed to be teaching our children and the next generation. Those ramifications do not disappear because we are saved. One of the problems, however, with many professing Christians is that they are not able to recognize their sin and the consequences of it.

Hey, I know it is hard, but probably 99% of more of true Christians who were married before they came to a knowledge of the truth, are involved in marriages that were entered into sinfully. That is hard to accept, because you can truly love your spouse, be glad you are married to him/her, and be grateful for all God has given you, and still admit that your marriage began in sin. I mean, after all, we were all “shapen in iniquity" and conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5)... yet, “while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8), "when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6). The first thing every one of you out there can do, is CONFESS to yourself and to God that you entered into your marriage sinfully. Don't just confess it, but realize it, own it. Come to grips with it. Discuss it with God, who, when we confess our sins, is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. This doesn't mean he will grow you a new leg, or that your other sinful ramifications will disappear – nor does it mean your husband will be transformed in a split second into the perfect and model Christian agrarian husband. But... it will correct your relationship with the Father, and it will give you new wisdom and insight into many of the “whys” of your life.

Second, we must understand the providence of God and what His purpose is in our lives. All things come to pass because of God's plan. This does not mean God caused your sin, nor is He responsible for it. But He did allow it, and He did it for a reason. He desires to perfect you. All of you out there. And He has allowed many things to come upon you because YOU have very particular needs when it comes to being perfected. You require challenges that some others may not require. Really. Think about it. What is our current tribulation compared to the tribulation experienced by the saints of the past? God wants to prepare you for what you are for, and IF you belong to Him, you should be thankful that He loves you enough to chastise and correct you. For those whom He loves, He does rebuke and chastise. If God hated you, you would be in the same boat with the ignorant of the world. You would love the world and the “Amerikan dream”, and you would have no desire to live a more Godly and simple life. Billions of people go on through their lives each day and have no desire at all to live Godly in Christ Jesus. We praise Him that, as bad as we are, we do desire to be more like Him.

Thanks for your question.

QUESTION: We would like to purchase land in about a year and half, Lord willing. I've seen several Canadian properties that border on what is called "Crown Land" (reserve land held by the government). Do you consider it to be a good idea to have property next to government land? Some of the reserve lands consist of thousands of acres. The advantages are that one would probably never have to worry about urban sprawl near one's land, or nosy neighbors, and hunting, fishing, exploring, are all allowed on these government lands. Can you think of the negative points? I can think of some possibilities, but don't know how far-fetched they are: perhaps it would be easier for gov't to swallow up my land? This is important to me, since we are actively looking at the property listings, and this type of land is relatively cheap.

Thank you, Michael, for your time

You are welcome. This is a hard one to answer, because there are so many things I do not know. The advantages are as you have mentioned. The acres are available for your use (it's as if you had your own national park at your service), and you don't have to worry about things like urban sprawl, bad neighbors, etc. These are very big positives. The negatives are obvious... these parks never shrink in size. No government entity ever fails to grow. The possibility of your land being claimed or taken is very real, though it may never materialize. In some similar situations in the U.S. things have broken in one of two directions. I know of folks in the huge national forests in northern New Mexico who, as the park was enlarged, were allowed to keep their private land (their land is now IN the national park), although they are very restricted as to what they can do with the land, and, if they decide to sell it, there are some government rules and regulations that control how and when they may do so. Others have had their land taken by “eminent domain”. In the U.S., Federal, state, and local governments can (and do) TAKE private property through their power of eminent domain or, they may regulate it by exercising police powers. The Constitution supposedly commands the government to provide just compensation to the owner of the private property to be taken. I would suppose that Canadian law is probably very similar, and possibly even worse. I think an individual decision would have to be made based on the very distinct facts on the ground where you are. There are some places where I would probably feel comfortable purchasing land near a national park. In other places (like Colorado and California, for instance) that have shown a complete disregard for private citizens and property ownership, I would refuse to ever even live anywhere in the state. One of the primary and most important issues we considered when deciding to move to this land we live on now, was that we wanted to live in a place with the least possible government intervention, and with the least possibility of future troubles. That's why we live in Central Texas.

Thank you.

Dear Mr. Bunker

My children are aged 14 and nearly 13 and I'm at a loss as to how to continue with History studies in our homeschooling. We've covered world History and they have a good understanding of the different events and cultures, but where to go from here? I don't want anything "politically correct" you understand. Most curriculum (even from "Christian suppliers") still give the "official story" - I want the "background information" as it were, I want them to dig deeper, understand worldviews, analyze etc. I gave up History at school because it was just so boring (coming from South Africa, how many times does somebody need to study the "Great Trek"). We live in the UK and here it's just kings and queens and "the Victorians" - ho, hum. We're doing a bit of an Old Testament study at the moment, but I'm not overly thrilled with it. So my question is, "How do you teach your children History?"

Many thanks.

History, outside of right doctrine, God's law, and a few other spiritual truths, is probably the most important thing we can teach our children. This is why the Bible teaches us to diligently teach these things (the past, the history of God's people, etc.) to our children – so that when they are old, they will not depart from the old paths, or divert from the narrow way. History can be taught in many ways, and not all of those ways involved books and curriculum. I personally prefer to teach History in the same way I teach morality, virtue, or just about anything else. First, it is necessary that I have a passion for the topic. If I know what I am going to be teaching, and I am really passionate about it, that passion and interest will be shared by the student or child. I am fascinated by history, and my fascination is passed on to others (as you might guess). So, once I have developed an interest in a topic, I study all I can about it. I read numerous books, focusing on the oldest ones (usually, but not always, the older the better). Anytime I run into a mystery, or into some issue that is highly politically charged, say... the Holocaust in Europe or Slavery in Amerika for example – where it is evident that some very wicked and evil people with an agenda are DEMANDING that I not think about the issue or ever study it on my own, I decide to throw out everything that I have been taught, and everything I know. I throw out the political expectations and the possible political ramifications and I “clear the mechanism”. Then I decide to do an in depth study on the issue. I read EVERYTHING I can find on the issue from both (or many) sides. For example, the powers that be demand that we never question the popular and political icon of slavery in the south. We are supposed to automatically accept that southerners are all inbred hillbillies that really wanted to do nothing else but lynch blacks. They beat slaves all day long for no reason, and raped all their women – because white men are naturally attracted to very black skinned African women. Northerners, we are told, were all pious hand-wringers who would give up life, liberty, property, and everything else to free slaves. They were eaten up with how evil slavery was, and they all got together to build an army to stop slavery. I am told that if I question that assessment at all, then I am a racist. So someone does not want me to look into the actual history of the time for some reason. They don't want me to read books written at the time by people who lived through it (on both sides). I learned that History has been written by people with a vested interest in me hating my own people and my own heritage. So, now what I do is I do not allow myself to be prejudiced by political manipulators. Throw it all out. Throw out everything and start over. Clear your head and go and read everything you can on the subject. Be responsible. Do not assume either side is wrong, but just try to find out what really happened.

Ok, once you are convinced you have a good grasp on the real history, now add in the fact that the culture and the society in the time you are studying was very different. Learn a little about that. Then project yourself into that time, living in that culture and society, and try to imagine what you would have been like. What would you have believed? Be honest. The fact is (and every one of us must come to face this) we have been lied to about just about everything in history. Why should we believe the propagandists?

Ok, here is an exercise. Project yourself into the future. Pretend 200 years have passed (on the same timeline) and the Lord hasn't returned and things have waxed worse and worse. Some nation extists on this land, but you don't recognize it. The people now believe that dogs and cats are "people" too. Long histories, performances, and specials teach that there were once people on this continent who considered animals to be "pets" or worse yet, FOOD! The people of our time are demonized for such evil, and are expected to worship and idolize animals. It is better to kill a person, than to inconvenience a schnauzer. If you question what you are being told, you are immediately labeld a hater and your arms, tongue, ears, and eyes are cut off by a space-age 2200 laser and you are then put in a kennel and fed dog food, which you must now eat without a tongue. That's what you deserve for being a "peoplist" and not a "animalarian". Ok, enough of that...

Now, you have arrived. You have a passion for the truth, and you want to learn from it and share it with your children. Now you sit down and talk to them organically. When the topic comes up, you are prepared to speak authoritatively on the subject. Use the subject as a way to teach your children to think critically and to read and study history exhaustively.

One of the things I have done is to try to place historical events in a broader context. I try to put the reader or the hearer in the shoes of a contemporary person, so they can understand it better.

There are many good, historical books that are much better than history books.

Check out the G.A. Henty books for much on European history. They are fascinating and very easily hold the attention, especially of children your age. Check out historical novelists like Daniel Defoe, and then read the autobiography of the writer. Find fiction novels (not modern ones), but old fiction novels that portray the time period you are studying. For example, read Thomas Hardy to study Agrarian Europe in the 1800's. Read Sir Walter Scott (like Ivanhoe) to study the 12^th Century in Europe. Read Mark Twain for a view of life and ideas in the late 1800's in Amerika. You will learn more of the practices of the people, how they did things, and how they thought. Then, when you study a history book, you will better understand the truth of the matter.

Here's a tip. BUY CLASSIC BOOKS. Old ones. Unabridged. Then read them.

Give your children a passion for history, and let them learn to think critically, and to automatically suspect that politicians, ad men, marketers of the corporate “jesus”, sociologists, psychologists, and other God haters can not have their best interests in mind.

Thank you for your question.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

www.lazarusunbound.com

editor@lazarusunbound.com

The experience of all times doth witness that no man is held more in contempt, is more persecuted, or treated more pitilessly, then they which have the singular and special commission of the Lord God to show forth the praise and glory of God to all men (Joachim Vadianus).

More Boaring Details... mainly pics, really.

11/18/08 - 3rd Day - After Breakfast. I bet you can't wait to read more (or see more pictures) or our new boar pen project... right? Well, you will have to. First, here is a picture of a scary robber-girl (little Sarah) who was threatening to rob me if I didn't use my massive blog presence to boost her sagging outlaw career...


Ok, so you waited. Here are some more pics of the new wild pigs and their pig habitat... apparently they are in a huddle to call a play, which means that they are not in the "hurry up" offense.


This next pic is a kind of neat idea I came up with during a sleepless pig-dream filled night. We poured a slab which included a trough crossed by rebar so the pigs could not lay down in it and slosh it out. The slab extends past the fence rails in the picture so it can be filled from outside the fence by the children (who do not want to be eaten by wild boars). The outside portion also will receive a downspout from the roofline shelter we built for the pigs, and the slab/trough has an "outflow" area so that if it gets overfilled it will flow out and away from the pen instead of into it. I have been watering the pigs since 6th day last week and it is very, very easy compared to watering our domestic pigs.


This next pic shows the nifty shed roof shelter, and you can see the feeder which is mounted on the near fence line so that it can also be filled from outside the pen... which is a good idea when dealing with wild hogs.


Well, the plan is to go pick up between 2 and 4 more pigs today since the Marcics arrived to their land the other day (97 acres, almost, but not quite adjacent to the ranch) and would like some pigs too. Then I think we are going to start butchering some (Lord willing) on Friday. The next few weeks ought to include a LOT of butchering details (if you weren't already sick of hearing about it) because we also have two goats that are butcher-ready.

I should be sending out an email on my private "friendslist" today, so y'all be checking your inbox for that.

Ok, this just could be the funniest bit of "christian" goofiness I'v read in a long time. Seriously, this guy has to have gone to Dallas Theological Seminary. "he will come from the Abyss (Revelation 13:1; 17:8). He won't have a mother or father. He won't be born into this world, he will emerge from the sea. This man will appear and immediately go to work -- he will come out of nowhere, no genealogy. His sole purpose is to pull people away from God."

I especially liked this part: "They will be forced to grow their own food and find their own water. No electricity, Internet, water, Wal-Mart, gas, public safety, education, employment, phone, voting rights, transportation, credit or health care unless you receive the mark. The mark is the name or the number of the antichrist, 666 (Revelation 13:16-18). This number is a symbol of incompleteness, or the trinity of evil. All people who receive this mark cannot enter heaven."

So, I wonder what this "pastor" is doing to prepare for no Wal-Mart? I wonder if he is hoarding Dr. Pepper in his basement. I can see it now, the suave Antichrist mounts the podium...

Antichrist: "Ok you Christians... NO WALMART EVER!"
Christians: "OMG... R U Serious? He must be the AC! What about my Voting Rights? What about Public Safety!"
Antichrist: "Just a little tattoo and you can have all the voting rights and Wal-Mart that you want!"
Christians: "NO! As much as we love Wal-Mart, we will sacrifice for our God! From now on, it's K-Mart or worse, we don't care!"
Antichrist: "Ok then, hahahahaha... then you will have to grow your own food!"
Christians: "I hadn't thought of that... well, maybe I can get some non-hybrid cassarole seeds at K-Mart."

Peace y'all,

Michael Bunker

Whereas I Boar you with the Details

11/16/08 - The Lord's Day - It took a full week, but we got the boar pen finished. We had to pick up the wild pigs at 3pm on Friday, and we were missing a few carriage bolts for one of the gates, so we went by and picked up bolts and then the pigs, then we installed the gate while the pigs waited impatiently in the trailer. At long last, Larry, Tracy, and I released the 24 (or so, they are hard to count) wild pigs into the new pen. So far, the pen is doing pretty well. One of the littlest baby piglets got out because the pigs, when frightened, will “pile up” at one end of the pen. This one happened to climb the pile, found a wide hole in the upper portion of the wire fencing, and jumped for it. It immediately realized it didn't want to be outside the pen by itself, and has been standing just on the other side of the fence ever since. We set a live trap out by it, but as of yet it hasn't gone into the live trap. I hope it will go in when it is hungry, so we can get it back into the trap. The rest of the herd seems to be doing well. They are very skittish, but the pen seems to be doing its job.

Our intent (this is a group project) is to keep most of the pigs for about 8 weeks on corn and feed. Some of the big ones will be butchered earlier, and some of the really smallest ones may go for up to 12 weeks, but we figure most of them will be with us about 8 weeks. Everyone who is participating will donate $3 per pig/per week for feed, water, etc. This means that, on average, we each will be paying about $24 (plus the almost negligible cost for the pigs) for what should be a minimum of 50 lbs. of meat. We are also hoping that we will have our large cold-smoker built within 8 weeks, so when we are ready to butcher, we can almost immediately begin cold-smoking the meat.

Our purpose in this experiment is manifold:

1. We desire to begin to change our diets to better reflect what foods are readily available in our area. Texas is home to over 2.5 million wild hogs, and that population is skyrocketing, and there are wild hogs on our land almost constantly. We have not yet started trapping hogs on our land, because, up until now, we really haven't had a good place to store them or feed them out. Also, there are many people in the area who are paid by ranchers to trap wild hogs, and they are usually willing to sell the pigs very cheaply. So, this ought to be a readily available and cheap meat supply.

2. We desire to take full advantage of every opportunity the Lord brings for us to put up and store food in an efficient, agrarian, off-grid, long-term way. Which means we want to move away from more modern ways of food preservation, which means we are moving away from freezing, refrigeration, and even canning. For details on this, please read my “Off-Grid Living” series on food preservation.

3. We desire to learn how to feed ourselves year-round with what the Lord makes available, and to learn more off-grid and sustainable methods of food preservation, and to educate ourselves in more and better ways to prepare and eat indigenous foods.

4. We desire to move back towards a more natural Biblical/Agrarian method of food procurement and scheduling. Which means we work on gardens, planting, harvesting, gathering, etc. during the warmer months; and we work on meat production, harvesting, preservation, and storage, during the cold or cooler months. Our goal, eventually, if the Lord wills, is to put up enough meat during the cool months to last us an entire year or even two.

5. Of course, our eventual desire is to have all of this as a showcase to other prospective agrarians and to the world of a model for independent and sustainable food production and storage.

In the long run, if this experiment is successful and proves to be a sustainable way for meat procurement, we will move away from our current practice of keeping and raising domestic hogs (Durocs). It seems to me that these wild pigs have adapted themselves to our environment, and are ideal for our situation if it works out that we can keep them and fatten them up safely. I am looking forward to our first butchering date. Like I said, there is one of the pigs that is already pretty large and aggressive, and we hope to butcher him sometime towards the end of next week. I will (if the Lord wills) take pictures of the process for you. We also have two goats who will be butchered shortly after that.

Later today, we will be moving our own boar trap to an area that is more conducive to trapping some of the wild pigs we have on the land. Any pigs we catch in our trap will be added to the mix.

Hey, so we might even try to take a few deer this year. I haven't decided on that yet, but it is certainly a doable deal if we have the time.

So, this morning was cold. It was 27 when I woke up this morning... brrrrr. It is supposed to get up to 70 today.

I hope all is well with you all, drop me a comment if you have the time.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Foggy Day Update - "Where have you been?"

11/13/08 - 5th Day - After Breakfast. This morning, we woke up in a cloud... literally...

Though it has been exceedingly nice and sunny, this morning it was 46 degrees and very foggy. I know several of you have emailed me questions for Q&A (and I will be getting to them soon), and others of you have emailed me asking "Where have you been?" since I have not posted for 9 days. Well, in this off-grid, agrarian-separatist life, you have to learn to go with the flow and switch gears in a hurry. Last weekend, Brother Chris found out that a guy in Santa Anna had a bunch of wild hogs he had trapped and he wanted to get rid of them. At first I thought, "Well, I already have 11 domestic pigs, I don't need any more", but then Chris said, "Well, he wants to sell them for $2 a piece". Hmmm... we don't want to be too hasty and look some gift pigs in the mouth, do we? Well, nobody on the ranch (or off it) really has instantaneous accommodations for a bunch of wild boar... do they? No. So we went to look at the wild pigs. At the time when Chris talked to the guy, he had 15 wild piglets. By the time we got there to seem them, he had 18 piglets and a larger wild boar. We told him we would have to build a solid boar pen, and asked if he could hold them for awhile while we built the pen. He said, "no problem". I'm the only one that really has the time, space, and availability right now to babysit a whole bunch of wild pigs for 8 weeks (how long we are going to keep them before we butcher them), so we decided to make the wild pig project a community project with everyone who can do so pitching in to build a new pen. On Monday morning, we got to work:


Brothers Kelly and joseph dig holes for added supports on this section of fence that will hold the wild piglets.


Brothers Bill and Larry, and Elder David Sifford mix concrete for one of the many posts.


We tried to get these post-hole-diggers to dig holes on their own, but they wouldn't. It's hard to get good help these days. Alas, we all had to work at it like good Agrarians.

On Tuesday we were running fence and putting up boards, and on Wednesday we were pouring concrete for a slab and a concrete water trough.


In this pic we have formed up the area for the slab, dug out the trough hole, and secured our rebar.

Today (Foggy Thursday) Lord willing we will continue pouring concrete and we will be finishing the walls of the pen, building and hanging gates, and trying to complete the protective shed roof shelter. Hopefully we will be finished tomorrow before the Sabbath starts so we can go pick up the pigs (last time we heard, he had 28, but we won't be taking that many!).

So that is why I have not posted or paid any attention over at BiblicalAgrarianism.com. I hope to be able to get back to work here starting next week. I have a bunch of Q&A Fridays! questions to answer (send yours in now! editor (at) lazarusunbound (dot) com), and I have some audio sermons to post as well. I am also taking Agrarian and "off-grid" questions for The Center for Agrarian Homesteading Education blog... please send your questions to the same address above.

Blast from the past. Here is a blogpost I put out there a year ago on Thanksgiving day. I thought you might be interested in going back to read it.

Herrick is concerned about Amerika's love for Obama, and has some good comments about the evil of syncretism. A year ago I posted Why I do not support Ron Paul for President, which explains how people are looking for a political Messiah, and how Christians are duped into voting for and supporting candidates who live, believe, and operate contrarily to their own stated beliefs. Once we get good Agrarians out of the political cesspool and out of Babylon, we can start building Christian communities "contra mundum" (against the world) instead of "in the world".

Peace,

Michael Bunker

Q&A; Fridays, Issue #44

Welcome to Issue #44 of Q&A Friday for Friday the 7th of November, 2008. I want to thank you all for your great emails and questions. I want to remind everyone of the rules by which I will be playing: Not all questions will be answered, and not all those that are submitted can be fitted into one issue. Those that did not make this issue (for length reasons) might be included in a future one. Questions might not be answered or included in the Q&A for the following reasons:

The scope may be too broad, or it may involve a topic on which I have taught at length... ex: “Can you explain the whole Creation?”. The question might need to be asked more specifically, or with fewer presuppositions that I would have to handle before actually getting to the question (I do reserve the right to rewrite questions to make them more clear and understandable or to make them more amenable to the format here). Answering the question might drag me off of “message” or into an area on which I am currently teaching, but at a point where I haven’t gotten to yet. If the question is answered in an upcoming teaching, or would involve getting into a topic I have planned for the future, then I will likely choose not to answer it yet.

The question might be considered rhetorical, or might involve me bearing witness against myself... such as “Will you please go away?”

As always, send your questions to Q&A Fridays:

editor(at)lazarusunbound(dot)com.

Michael,

I was talking to a friend who was sharing with me your very interesting and unique views on the training up of children. Something she said struck me like when you hear something that is right, but it is so different from everything you have heard all of your life. I am aware of the need not to build the “self-esteem” of children, and to give them a proper and biblical view of themselves and of God. I also know that children have to be trained to work and to live as Christians. But I had never heard anyone teach that too much “play” is a bad thing, or that it does harm. I'm not sure what to think of this exactly, and I don't know how to work this into raising and training our children. Anything you can add would help. Thanks.

Thank you for your question. Of course I do not believe that play in and of itself is “bad”. I think many valuable and lasting lessons are learned by children playing in a Godly way. What I do teach, though, is that immoderate play (and I will define this, and it will likely shock some of you) is very, very dangerous, and it is a contributing factor in many of the problems in our society, and of many of the mental problems and deficiencies in young people (up to and including my own generation). This may take some time, so please read this carefully and pray about it a lot.

First of all, as I always do, let me give you a little bit of a historical view on “play”. Children have always engaged in play, and it is likely that so long as the society doesn't devolve to barbarianism and bare survival, children will always engage in play. But if you study history like I do, you'll discover some interesting realities. The most successful and the most Godly societies had a very narrow view of play, and adults in those societies did not believe that a child's life ought to be primarily made up of play time. In fact, the more successful and Biblical a culture was, you will find a lesser and lesser emphasis on “play time”. Most Godly biblical/agrarian societies did not have much time for play. The children were very valuable members of the family, and they were needed for the work that was necessary for survival. Children were taught to enjoy their work, to value mature interaction, to define “fun” in a broader and more complete way. Children do not need to be engaged in fantasy, or to be captivated by toys, or to be entertained by light and sound in order to have “fun”. When children learn that intellectual pursuits and realistic engagement with the world around them can also be fun, they grow up to be more competent and intelligent adults.

These earlier cultures produced serious, intelligent, well-rounded adults with long attention spans and with the ability to think critically, linearly, spatially, etc. Cultures where children are given over to games, videos, movies, and endless hours of play time produce adults who are severely colonized, foggy thinkers, dreamers, sluggards, and basically folks who are unable to pay attention or to achieve or complete difficult tasks. Even those few who do master or excel in modern education or in some very specific field, are often completely ignorant of true reality, or of their condition. They are capable of thinking in fragments, and they can excel in things that stay localized in those fragments, but they never become complete, thinking, Biblically grounded people.

In Biblical cultures, play was severely limited to very short periods of the day, generally after all the critical and important tasks were finished, and after any schooling or training was complete. Note: Play was a very limited thing taking place in a very limited time within the day. Play was placed into life to improve it. Today, unhappily for most children, life is that drudgery that interrupts a day of play. In a Biblical culture, you didn't see parents (or mothers generally) opening the door and saying, “Go outside and play” in order to get rid of the “kids” (kids are baby goats and not baby Christians. Young Christians are “children”) or to get them out of their hair. Children were not parked in front of a TV, a video game console, or given games to keep them busy so mom can work. Today, children are even pacified by videos while their parents drive around. “That'll shut 'em up”, the parent thinks. In a Biblical culture, play was a cherished time of release after the necessary things of the day were complete. Production of food, and maintenance of the farm and homestead were of primary importance. Children were not “slave labor”, but neither were they little hindrances who had to be occupied with toys or gadgets while the adults worked. Children learned by doing, and by completing important tasks they were made to feel valuable and important to the maintenance and continuance of the homestead. Children weren't lied to and propped up with “self-esteem” building activities. They derived their legitimate view of themselves as it related to their participation in a family society.

Let me say this clearly. There is no greater harm you can do to your child than to park them in front of a movie or a game during the day so you can work.

The product of the modern view of “play” is all around us. Dumb, stunted, functionally illiterate socialites with phones stuck to their heads (or worse, mobile texting other “kids”) all day are all around us everywhere you go. Listen, some of the men in our group sometimes have to go work with 20-something “kids” today. They say that it is common for these modern man-children to wake up late and then spend most of their work time stuck to a phone, either talking or texting, as if they are some important lawyer or doctor! I defy you to walk through a Wal-Mart without coming upon some 13 or 14 year old girl communicating in some way ia a mobile phone. What Godly or Biblical activity could possibly be going on there?

If your child cannot function without some kind of outside input, then that child has a problem. Worse, if your child cannot pay attention, or stares off into space anytime something important, educational, but not particularly sparkly, shiny, or attention grabbing is going on, then you have a problem. And YOU are the guilty one. You are the culprit. Start today and cut your child's extraneous input, entertainment, and playtime by 90% or more. (hopefully much more). Do it today. You owe it to them. Seriously, if a child cannot pay attention during a family meeting, a time of fellowship, a time of teaching, or during work, and constantly wanders off, forgets what he/she was doing, or just stares blankly into space, it is because you have provided way too much worldly and unimportant stimulation, to the point that important things do not hold the child's (or young adult's) attention.

Yes, I know. All the “experts” out there who are the children of some really screwed up parents who learned all their knowledge of children from books, from movies, and from college, will tell you to stimulate your child visually from a very young age. They will say to give them toys and games that visually stimulate them all the time. HOGWASH. What you are training them to do is to require mental stimulation from something outside of themselves. While some types of mental stimulation do benefit children, this modern idea that children have to have something mythical, fantastical, electrical, fun, shiny, stimulating, etc. to play with or look at all the time is a trick from Satan to steal your children. YOU are responsible for the eternal address of your children, and one day you will stand in front of your maker and explain why you listened to the world instead of to the Bible and to God when deciding how to raise your children. It is easy to say, “Hey, look at me, I turned out alright”, but if you say that, you are one deceived individual. It is easy to say, “Hey, they're young, they'll work it all out later”, and if you say that, you have already lost your children and the only thing left is the judgment meted out by a very wrathful Creator God. Woe unto you people who throw stumbling-blocks before your children. The Bible has much to say to you, and I propose you get to reading it. The time to train your children is now. Don't expect to wait to train them later “when they'll understand it better”, because right now you are robbing them of the ability to understand anything later.

Listen, I'm not a perfect parent, but I have some very unique experience and I know what causes these effects in children. I can meet your 5-30 year old child and tell you what you very likely did wrong with them. When they can't put together complete sentences, can hardly function socially, when they get bored anytime there is any real work to do, or when they space out anytime something isn't visually stimulating to them, or when they have problems following a train of logic, or when they cannot functionally think for themselves outside of the way the world trains them to think... then you have failed them, and if they are young enough, it is up to YOU to change your ways and to try to fix the damage you have done.

I will go over again some warning signs:

If your child cannot pay attention, does not really hear what you say, or quickly forgets what he/she was doing.

If your child frequently stares off into space, or hates doing anything that is not “fun” or “play”.

If your child cannot relate to adults as adults, and is instead attracted to adults who allow them to treat them like children. (For example, if your child will only pay attention to or communicate with adults who “play” with them, or who roughhouse with them). A child should be able to relate with an adult as an adult, and should not shy away from adults who do not act like children.

If your child is always asking for a movie, a video, a game, or to go play.

If your child cannot complete a series of instructions without losing interest.

If any or all of these things are true about your child, then you are guilty of mistreating your child by too much play, too much electronic stimulation, not enough work or participation in important family tasks, and not enough diligent teaching and training of the child.

Now, it is very likely that almost every parent reading this is guilty at some level. I get that, and I know how much that may hurt. Sorry, but someone needs to tell you. Start doing the right things and you will see a gradual but very real change in your child. They will dislike it at first, and they might even be resentful. Who cares. Hell is the alternative.

Thanks again for the question.

Michael,

I know you do not vote, and you do not encourage others to vote. But aren't you a little concerned about this election and what might be down the road based on the result?

No. The Bible teaches that the fearful are the first folks to get tossed into the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8). I do not concern myself with things that are not my business. Irrational or misapplied fear is a tool used of the enemy to draw professing “christians” away from their true business, and to keep them busy thinking that they are changing things, when in fact they are lending credibility and viability to a system of which we are not supposed to be a part. I have a King, and He is not running for President. If you were an ambassador sent to earth by your heavenly King (and if you are a Christian, you are you know), then you would not entangle yourself with the cares of this world; neither would you ever convince yourself that it was your duty to pick between ungodly worldlings for the mastership of a corrupt and decadent society that has placed itself in competition with Jesus Christ for the hearts and minds of men. I am an observer here, and my time here is not long. Our life here is a vapor, and then we go to give an account for how we served our King. My job is to train up my children, live as peaceably as is possible, defend and provide for God's sheep, stand against unrighteousness and error, and to openly display a very viable alternative to the kingdom of this world. My job is to be hated by ungodly men, and to say whatever is true and necessary to prick the consciences of God's children and to serve notice on a dead and dying world that their judgment is nigh. I am called to feed sheep, fight with wolves, expose danger, encourage and lift up the downtrodden, and be a Christian man in a society that is almost bereft of both “Christians” and “Men”. So no... I am not concerned with who the world chooses as their next messiah. I already know the result.

What about success. If your agrarian/homesteading community experiment is a success, don't you think it will be ruined by it?

I do not concern myself with results. I concern myself with obedience. Obedience is mine, results are God's. My job is to be obedient every day and to let God sort out the results.

Michael,

Do you mind sharing with us your recipe for Spaghetti Sauce?

Recipes are a tricky deal for me because I don't generally use them. I cook very instinctively and I cook by taste. But I'll kind of walk you through it.

For the big batches of spaghetti sauce we made for canning, I generally started by having the children peel and slice up 40 good sized tomatoes. These were cooked down until they had a good, thick, sauce-like consistency. In a side pan I browned two large onions, along with 1 or 2 garlic bulbs (chopped). I brown them in olive oil or bacon grease. When they onions have started to carmelize, I added about a cup or so of red wine. Simmer this for a bit, then pour the whole thing in with the tomatoes. I had the children pick a good-sized cereal bowl full of fresh basil from the garden. This was finally chopped and stirred in. You might want to add oregano if you have it. Also add pepper, seasoned salt, and onion powder to taste. Cook this for a good amount of time, and then pour it into quart jars (or pints) that have previously been sterilized. Add 1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice, put on lids and bands tightly, then process in a pressure canner for 12 minutes at 7 lbs. Pressure. If you are unsure about the canning process, please read up about it and follow all instruction that came with your canner. Don't take my word for it.

Michael,

We have about 30 chickens and we are spending a ton of money on chicken feed. It seems hardly worth it. Is there a way to raise chickens without spending hundreds of dollars on store-bought feed?

Well, yes. Here is a pattern of thinking that will help you in answering these questions in the future. Ask yourself... “How would my ancestors, or how would the primitive agrarians have done this?”. Ask yourself if your great-great-great grandparents (who likely had chickens) went and bought feed at the store? Probably not. So here are some solutions.

I don't know your situation, so solutions will vary. Do you live in a town or an urban or suburban area? Do you have land? How much? Do you have a large garden? Do you have any pasture land? How much time do you have?

All of these questions will be critical in determining a solution. First, of course, it would be ideal if you could grow your own crops for feed. If you haven't read my Off-Grid Living for Agrarians series, I suggest you do so. The links to each part can be found on the lower left-hand column of The Process Driven Life blog. Remember now, the idea of feeding chickens with almost 100% feed grains is a quite a new phenomena. Farmers 200 years ago fed their chickens greens, root crops, etc. Mass produced packaged feed grains are really a relatively new thing. If you can grow some easy green or root crops, they are fantastic for your birds, and they will cost you next to nothing to grow. Also, chickens in the “wild” will get about 40% or more of their diet from bugs and other things that they “scratch”. If you can free-range your birds, you will save a large portion of your feed bill. Some crafty homesteaders have found ways to trap or “lure” bugs for feeding to their chickens. My family found an old farm implement book that had a large grasshopper trap in it. Some industrious individual had built a long grasshopper trap out of wood and fine wire. It was about 12 feet long and about 2 feet high and about 2 feet wide. It had a “trap” built into it, and you would drag the whole box over the fields and as the grasshoppers would jump they would find themselves in the “trap”. In the picture you could see literally hundreds of thousands of grasshoppers. The grasshoppers were left to die and to dry, and then they were bagged and used for feed throughout the cooler months. Herrick Kimball over at The Deliberate Agrarian blog once blogged about a “maggot trap” where you would take a killed coon, possum, or other animal, skin it and then put it in a box with a wire mesh floor. The maggots would squirm around and fall off through the floor and be caught in a box or container under the maggot trap. These maggots are excellent protein feed for chickens. If you have some land and plenty of time you can harvest weeds and other greens for your chickens. Again, Herrick writes that he would harvest weeds, grass, and greens and throw them into his chicken yard, where they would build up and mat up. The bugs would begin to multiply under this weed mat and the chickens would scratch through to get the bugs. Periodically, the chicken yard can be cleaned up and the weed or grass leavins' can be used for compost.

Of course, as I said, it is ideal if your animals can free range with no predator or other problems. One of the gentlemen in our community built a chicken tractor. This is a large movable pen where your chickens live. They have access to new “greenage” and bugs when you periodically move the pen. I have seen some very creative movable pens.

One brother we met up on my recent trip up to middle Amerika had a very nice pen system. He had made two movable pens (built by hand on those inexpensive little tow-behind trailers you can buy at Tractor Supply) in which he had chicken roosts and laying boxes. The chickens would be let out in the morning to free-range. The movable pens were surrounded by an easily movable solar-electric chicken fence system. This way he could move the chickens onto new pasture very regularly, and he could still restrict the movement of the chickens, and the possible attack by predators.

Ok, so there are a lot of ideas for pasture raising and free-ranging chickens out there. Basically we just have to be creative and see what we can do with the resources we have. If society were to collapse tomorrow and we were to be unable to go to the store for feed, what would you do? I would have to start mobilizing my family to begin harvesting more food from the 37 acres we farm. We would have to be diligent in finding the chickens sources of protein, but it would be easily doable. That is the way to think.

Hey, thank y'all for reading this and thank you for all of your great questions. Please feel free to send on your questions and when I have enough of them, I'll send out another issue.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

Firewood, Don't Vote, Christ-Mass, Canning, and other assorted stuff...

11/03/08 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. This is going to be a real scattershooting post. I have so much to write about, but I keep wanting to post old articles that I think people need to read. Like particularly, I really want to post the whole article about Christians and voting, entitled Why Christians Should Not Vote from 2004, since tomorrow is the world's so-called "election day", where worldlings have the opportunity to pick between two empty-suited world-loving heretics who hate the real Christ and everything we stand for. But I won't post it, since I have other things to talk about.

And since I am on the topic of being against things. I also want to post my several articles about Why Christians should not celebrate Christmas, which demolish all of the feel good excuses and rationalizations like "Jesus knows my heart and why I am celebrating it" (Yes He knows your heart... He knows it is black as coal). Which is to say, I can do any damned pagan thing I want, so long as I think Jesus thinks my heart is alright in doing it. Here is the first one, and I'll consider whether it would be even worth the time to post the others: Conscience Test: The Christ-Mass.

You would think that if people knew that the Christ-Mass was intentionally marketed by Papists to Protestants who had traditionally rejected the pagan holiday, that they would reject it. Papists knew that if they could get Protestants to accept the mass and sear their consciences, that one day - they would accept every manner of Papist idolatry and abomination without a second thought. Now, religious worldlings in protestant suits are some of the biggest defenders of the Pope's annual celebration of Christ's murder (what do you think the mass is? It is an idolatrous death ceremony, where Christ is supposedly re-sacrificed again and again on the altar... and there you are stupidly thinking it has anything to do with a savior's birth... a Savior who wasn't even born in December). Anyway... moving on.

Hey! Time for some pics.

Here is a picture of our sow Bitty with her 10 little piggies, rooting around a freshly disced pasture.

Here are some beautiful fresh greens (mustard and collard) from our fall garden. We will can these greens today.


Our canning adventures continue. Here is almost a full case of beef from our ranch-raised steer Pedro, ready to go down to the root cellar.


Ok, so here are a bunch of quart jars full of yummy Pedro beef down in the root cellar.


Sometime this week we should be mostly through with the big meat canning project so far this year. Then Danielle and Tracy will start up canning lard and beef tallow, and making beef and pork stock for canning. They may or may not get a bit of time off canning before we butcher a couple of goats for the root cellar as well. Our goal this winter is to put up enough meat for well over one year. We also hope to build our first full-size smokehouse this winter, so that we don't have to always do all of this canning.

Our fall garden is doing great. I should have planted more, and a better variety, but I didn't. But what we planted is doing dymanite. We will be harvesting sweet potatoes in the next couple of weeks as well. Some of my garlic for next year is already sprouting really well, which is nice. I still have two more garlic beds to get built and to plant.

Today will be my first day going down to the office to do some computer work! Yay. I hope to have a "Q&A Friday" issue up today or tomorrow.

THE DECEMBER PROJECT!

I have long recommended that people who are still living on the grid turn off their power for a month just to see how they do. It is a great project, and a great test. Make your plans beforehand, but then just go turn off the power at the box. You can learn so much this way, and it will help prepare you for a life off-grid.

Well, we have been living off-grid for several years, so our December project will be a "next step" project. The Bunker family will not be going to town the whole month of December (Lord willing). This will be phase one of our project. In Phase two we will extend it to maybe two months. This means no going to the store, no running to town for ice. No going to the thrift stores or junk stores. No leaving the land... period. I will write about it and tell you all that we learn. It will be a great experience, and will help us to see just how prepared we are. It will also keep us away from all the pagan "Christ-Mass" nonsense.

One of our other fall/winter projects... chopping and splitting firewood.


We use mesquite wood for cooking and smoking all year long. So one of our projects (which we have already begun, as you can see) is to put up a bunch of firewood for the coming year.

That makes me want a cup of mesquite coffee. I think I'll go get one!

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker