~Gleanings from June~

Gleanings is my monthly “link love” post where I share some of the interesting articles I’ve come across the past month.

• Following Christ as a Lunatic Grass Farmer: An Interview with Joel Salatin

Christ as Creator established numerous principles for how this grand scheme would work. He established herbivores, for example, as pruners to make sure biomass did not go into senescence, but rather stay fresh and growthy, aggressively metabolizing solar energy into decomposable plant material that breathes in carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen. The whole earth’s ecosystem runs on sunbeams converted to tangible biomass through the magnificent process of photosynthesis. As a farmer, I have the distinct privilege of participating in this grand scheme, and as a human, I can either humbly encourage it or arrogantly fight against it.

•Spare Me the Sympathy

To say that Jesus holds a high view of children is an understatement. …”for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” So why does our culture see raising children as simply something to ‘survive’? To ‘get through’ so that we can enjoy our years of boredom and retirement? Why do we judge others for choosing to have “a quiver” full of children? Why do we escape at every possible oppurtunity from our responsibilities as parents, teachers, and caretakers of our children?

• It Is Good

God, who could knit bones together with breathe and form whales to frolick in waves with mere words, might have easily spoken a word and everything, from sea mist to tyrannosaurus, dust to people, galaxies to glaciers would have been formed. In a single word. Why didn’t He?

For the same reason that He rested on the Sabbath. God who can breathe life in one utterance- who does not sleep and does not abandon and does not cease and is always present and all knowing and all powerful- does not need rest. He did so, I believe, to show us how to live.

• Human brain hard-wired for rural tranquillity

• One Year Without Groceries

Lots of tips on weeding here…
• Garden Weeds Win

‘Cause, seriously, it’s 75% manure. And there isn’t anything romantic about that!
• Stop Romanticizing Farms

Kroiz and her husband are in the process of restoring a historic barn, and they may eventually branch out into the events business, like weddings. But she was cautious about the transition. “I think that we may run into issues with couples wanting a ‘farm’ atmosphere, but perhaps not the reality: that there are animals living here, and therefore certain smells and a certain amount of poop, etc. must be expected.”

• How to Handle Life with 15 Children

It doesn’t take a large family to find these things out. Some of us are learning these lessons because we don’t have a large family, or we can’t have even one child. Some are learning these things because they are struggling with the dizziness of change, abandonment or illness or a million other trials and tragedies.