Macon County Chronicle - Opinion / Blogs

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Saved by technology? Really? It may be more of a curse than a blessing. There was a time when both young and old Americans read for enjoyment, but the internet has put an end to much of that practice.  Many adults and youth have abandoned books and newspapers for the computer and the cell-phone. Though modern technology has become a blessing in numerous ways, it has also created more problems than solutions. Today’s youth are looking for a cell-phone with more features, not a book with a hardback cover. Reading requires thinking, and that is something the present generation prefers not to do. Even so called” progressive education” discourage critical thinking. In fact, seldom is it taught in today’s classroom.

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A few sunny days remind us that spring is on its way. It’s time to snap off the winter doldrums and gear up for the season. One of our early March chores is grafting fruit trees.

To propagate an apple or pear tree, we graft a twig on to a rootstock. The twig determines the variety of fruit, while the rootstock determines the size of the tree. most of the folks we give trees to  have plenty of space, so we use standard rootstocks that make a full sized tree. The apples are grafted on to malis domestica, and the pears on to pyrus calleryana.

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All of us have but one life. No rewinds! We can mess it up or we can make it count for good. one of the big problems of day to day living has to do with who is in charge of one’s life.

Recommending something is a risky business. There are multiplied millions of books on the market, but many of them are worthless, not fit to read.  I’ll stick with the book that I’ve read and known to be good and valuable for one to read.

I want to recommend the world’s best seller- the BIBLE. Here are some reasons I recommend it:

Will there not be an end to soaring prices? Now it is happening to both gas and food. What is even worse is the gouging that is coming from both wholesalers and retailers. Recently, while traveling on US70 inside Lebanon, my wife and I stopped at a large grocery store to purchase an item. While there we purchased a box of crackers which was priced at $2.16. I remarked later that the four or five items which we eventually purchased seemed unusually high, resulting in my wife checking the receipt. Guess what? We were charged $3.19 for the crackers, not $2.16. I can’t help wondering how much of this goes on at the expense of food shoppers.

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Oh yea? You political misfits and liberal pagans may find the job a little more difficult than anticipated. You don’t even begin to know how tough the senior citizens of this county can be when their very existence is threatened. So the dummies in DC think they can reduce the elderly population to a helpless segment of the population by either eliminating some medicare coverage or by cutting social security checks? They are wrong!

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One thing I like about Rudolf Steiner’s ideas on farming is that it doesn’t cost much. The preparations I make are easy to do from free stuff. So everytime I turned compost piles I added more, using 32 units in all. The fields were sprinkled with horn manure, and barrel compost 18 times, and we used a lot of horn silica and horsetail later.

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I love this story from an old issue of Sports Illustrated (unknown date):

The game was played in Wellington, Florida. In it, a seven-year-old first baseman, Tanner Munsey, fielded a ground ball and tried to tag a runner going from first to second base.

 

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We are free moral agents. God made us that way. We can choose right, or we can choose wrong. We can build our lives upon the rock, or we can build them upon the sand. Though we are free to make decisions, we aren’t free to decide what the consequences will be for us. As the result of our decision. Adam and Eve made the decision to eat from the forbidden fruit, but God had already made the decision as the consequences of eating of the fruit.

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The Obama administration’s effort to withhold medical care from seniors citizens is nothing new. The same suggestions arose during the last half of the Bush administration. Both groups have insisted that doctors counsel with the elderly who have reached 75 and advise them that from that point on their health would be downhill. Pardon me, I was taught in college that when one reaches 25 his body begins to slowly deteriorate. Of course, what godless politicians want is to withhold medical care from who have reached 75 or else persuade them to ask for a “money shot.” They are doing this in the name of saving money. One trillion is washed on the stimulus package, plunging America further in debt, and now to reduce the debt they want to rob senior citizens of health care. This is Jessie James in reverse order- robbing the poor and giving to the rich- the like of which is the ugly duckling from California. This is what takes the cake- reduce the money spent on medicare and we “can build a stronger America,” so pagans begin in D.C. advocate. Not on my bones they won’t, I’ll let god make that decision for me.

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Urban Development threatens Bell’s Bens 10,000 acres of farmland across the Cumberland River from Nashville, Tennessee. A new bridge and the Maytown complex would bring in 50,000 people and  a second downtown into a community of 150 folks. I was hired to develop biodynamic, community supported farms there in an effort to influence future development in a different direction, i.e. towards local food production.

Our farm’s mission is to grow high quality produce and help others do the same, so this project fit into my parameters. They wanted awe inspiring public gardens on a major highway, Old Hickory Blvd. The fields hadn’t been plowed in 40 years and were in Bermuda grass. We agreed on this list of beliefs and values at our first meeting in late January.

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There are tunnels in the garden, but they are not from moles. We made them ourselves in a hope to keep some greens alive through the chilly weather. The garden is white, but not from snow.

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Winners aren’t born, and they don’t grow on trees. Winners are made. Two winners from Red Boiling Springs High deserve praise. I salute Lacy Colter, a senior who just recently scored her two thousandth points while playing for R.B.S. High. Her keen eye and steady hand resulted in nine three pointers last week and five in the following game. Lacy is a great young lady and deserves to be complimented. So does Larry White, her coach. He won his five hundredth game recently while coaching at RBS. What most parents appreciate about Larry, and I share this same feeling, is the great way he takes care of their girls, whether at home, on the road, or away at camp, he can be trusted to watch out for his players.

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When Christian Herter was Governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch), he arrived at a church barbeque. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished.

As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the women serving chicken. She put a piece on the plate and turned to the next person in line.

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Towards the end of the growing season I’m often asked, “Are you done with the garden?” I usually shake my head and mutter something about turnips and mustard. But that’s not all. The farm relies heavily on the fall garden.

We are still going, and growing, strong. The van and trailer are filled to the brim every Monday for the Nashville delivery. Here’s the list of what our customers received on November 22^nd.

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Several years ago, on a Sunday morning in Philadelphia, a father and his 8-year-old daughter were walking to Sunday School. But when they arrived, they discovered the door to the church building was shut with a notice that read, “Room for no more.”

Sadly, the father and little daughter turned around and walked home. On the way they met the preacher, who seeing the little girl crying, picked her up in his arms and carried her into the church building saying, “Someday, Hettie, we will have a church big enough for all the boys and girls, and no one will be turned away.”

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Writing requires organizing my thoughts into a coherent form. An idea is brought forth in the first in the first paragraph, and then expounded on. I try to slip a bit of humor in, along with philosophy, science and local venacular. The last paragraph has to wrap it up somehow.

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Believe it or not, there is dead weight even in the church. An unknown author has penned a poem which graphically describes this dead weight.

I’ve been a dead weight many years

Around the church’s neck;

I’ve let others carry me

And always pay the check.

I’ve had my name upon the rolls

For years and years gone by;

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The Apostle Peter says that God has “given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness…” (II Peter 1:3). In other words, we have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. God has given to us all that we need to know about life and godliness.

What a timely passage for this mixed-up and ungodly nation!

The first thing to capture our attention here is that God is a giver. He is not a TAKER, but a GIVER. Some people are only takers. They are happy with us so long as we allow them to remain takers. Some children excel in the matter of taking from their parents, but are selfish pigmies in giving to them.

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 We just picked ten bushels of beautiful tomatoes, on October 25, and the plants are loaded with blooms and green ones. Compare this to last year when there was not one tomato by the middle of August. It makes one wonder about the nature of disease.

When an organism and its environment are not integrated, synchronized or well organized, specific organs malfunction. Health prevails when life forces are in the preferred element. Ecological stress disorganizes the stream of life.