Back to the Roots (Radical) - Worked Soil Is Fertile Soil -

Everyone likes butterflies and hummingbirds,
but who plants for them? I do.
The bees appreciate the food,
and so do the adult beneficial insects.

"Nature's Template - The Creator's Design" - Joel Salatin

One of Salatin's tapes features the sunbeam and the miraculous work of photosynthesis. I have neglected that, so here is a brief definition. The intense energy of the sun allows plants to form chemical energy in the form of sugars. What we love about corn is the sweet energy it pulls out of the air from the sun, drawing minerals and hydration through its roots.

Sweet corn basks in the sun. The seed is unwilling  to germinate until the sun's energy is radiating back into the air, creating hot, muggy days. The corn creates oxygen from photosynthesis, which begins with solar energy, water, and carbon dioxide. Thus, this one spectacular creation from the Creator maintains and produces earth's oxygen.

 Drop a Buckwheat seed or a few hundred in empty areas.
Delicate flowers will soon bloom and be tended by pollinators.
The roots are working the soil.

Borrowing from Gabe Brown, every living plant and its roots will generate energy and create organic material to build the soil. The dandelion growing next to the rose is fueling the bush, not choking it. Of course, I do not appreciate the giant thistle next to another rose, energy or not.

I like the word energy because it became the basis in Greek for studying the efficacy of the Word in the New Testament. One example from the past came ancient Greece - worked soil is more productive. That insight is being stressed by Creation growers of today, fallow ground  does not do much. A place owned by a gardener or farmer will improve steadily with the right methods.

John 6:28 ειπον ουν προς αυτον τι ποιουμεν ινα εργαζωμεθα τα εργα του θεου

29 απεκριθη ο ιησους και ειπεν αυτοις τουτο εστιν το εργον του θεου ινα πιστευσητε εις ον απεστειλεν εκεινος

John 6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. KJV

I used this passage on someone who sternly warned me that "We should not make faith a work." This passage stymied him, because he could not handle the irony. Jesus is not saying that faith is the only good work that earns favor with God, but turns around Pharisaical works-righteousness by teaching - The only work is to believe in Me. And He connects this with His work and His Father's in chapter 5 -

John 5:17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. KJV

John 5 and 6 are deeply disruptive of the UOJ claims. All their petite pirouettes on the Word - ignoring its true meaning - are tripped up and made foolish, like a hippos in their tutus pretending to be a ballerinas. They glory in unfaith, but Jesus teaches the Holy Spirit convicts them of this, because believing on Him is righteousness.

Studying this basic efficacy word group in the New Testament is foundational for the Scriptures, since reading in plain English teaches us about the concept itself. For example, the Bible teaches the Holy Trinity hundreds of times, without using the later term Trinity, and without always saying "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." To say the Trinity is not Biblical, as Knapp did, is laughable, showing how Pietism at Halle University rotted into rationalism. 

Note that a Calvinist translation of a Pietist
was the major work of Protestant theology in the 19th century.
A Calvinist translator with a big reputation gave Lutherans their beloved terms - Objective and Subjective Justification.
Woods describes OJ as "universal pardon." Universalism.

1 Thessalonians 2:13King James Version (KJV)

13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

13 δια τουτο και ημεις ευχαριστουμεν τω θεω αδιαλειπτως οτι παραλαβοντες λογον ακοης παρ ημων του θεου εδεξασθε ου λογον ανθρωπων αλλα καθως εστιν αληθως λογον θεου ος και ενεργειται εν υμιν τοις πιστευουσιν

What works in this passage from Paul? The Word of God works, but the word of Fuller (the word of men) does not. People not only know this intellectually but also from their own experience of conversion.  Notice that Paul uses "the Word of hearing," more precisely - the preached Word. Check the meaning of akou in Romans 10. Isaiah 53 - Who has heard our τη ακοη ημων report? 

Greek class - I see acoustics in the Greek word akou, no? The effect of God's Word comes from hearing the Gospel, not from the theft of coaching sessions from Fuller, Willowcrick, and Tony Robbins. How ironic to rob Robbins, who stole so much from others.

So, while Paul and Luther emphasized hearing the preached Word as effective, the genius leaders of Missouri, WELS, and ELCA imagine that the word of man is effective, as long as their synods have the latest statistical reports and the analysis thereof.

The chattering class of Church Shrinkers, who never stop to look at the ugly foundation of their dogma, want to tell us what is effective. They are only effective in destruction, filled with zeal to battle against Christian doctrine and all believers. Like Houdini, they know it is easier to break out of an armored safe than to break into one. Therefore, they burrow into their various declining sects, more difficult to eject than blood-sucking ticks. Their armor is the classmate network, the Fuller network, the love of one drunk for another, and their common loathing of faith. 

Let Us Get Radical - Back to the Roots

Everyone in the media wants to be radical, until the FBI arrives. The real meaning comes from the Latin word for root, and we name a funny little plant radish, because we eat the bright, red roots. 

We cannot have a healthy garden or nation by robbing the soil with anti-Creation methods. Creation Gardening is three dimensional. We have to look in the air for birds and flying insects, in the soil for microbes and earthworms, in the garden for the final results. Focusing on the garden alone is a big mistake.

 My English roots - Howard was British.

I recall seeing one of his descendants in The Lutheran magazine,
where he posed in a state of glee
with anti-smoking celeb Brook Shields. LCA roots. 

Some things I have learned more recently, after reading about the subject for over 30 years are:

• Plant roots build the soil and improve the infiltration of rain, so a fully covered garden is better than narrow rows of little soldiers lined up on a bare (even a mulched) parade ground.
• Some advocates of cover crops simply drill through the lower growing plants to raise the money crop, with tremendous results. Ergo, crowding is not necessarily bad.
• Annual grains sap the soil, while perennials build the soil.
• Many farmers and gardeners are catching onto the singular goal of getting forms of carbon into the soil. because they know the fungus network depends on it to grow.
• The grandfather of these changes took his money from other ventures and put it into reclaiming ruined agricultural land - J. I. Rodale, who looked like an angry Old Testament prophet. The great grandfather is British - Sir Albert Howard, and the Queen of England follows these principles in her own private gardens.

Tiny insects pour from Clethra when disturbed.

Creation by the Word, Conversion by the Word

Gardening and theology are based upon God's Six-Day Creation by the Word. We know the Son of God is the Creating Word, from John 1:3. To engage in anti-Creation methods in His own world is utter foolishness, whether in growing plants or - as they love to say - growing the Christian Church.

Facebook UOJ Stormtroopers Are on High Alert

I seem to be the only one posting about the irony of
Luther's 500th Anniversary being ignored
and his doctrine being opposed at every opportunity.

The Two Best Summaries of Objective Justification

Do You Affirm the Thrivent Pledge, O Ye of Little Fellowship Principles?

Thrivent says, "All your base are belong to us.
You have no chance. Mark Jeske your time."

I know this snippet will create a sardonic chuckle.

Thrivent farms out the management of its matching donations to YourCause.

YourCause requires, as a condition of receiving matching donations, the following: 

The Den of Thieves

 The Wolf of Wall Street -
just the man Thrivent wants as a speaker.
See below.

LCMS-ELS-WELS
all whore for Thrivent's money,
which comes from their members.
ELCA gets a lot of it, but so does everyone else.

Loss of Critical Thinking - British Heritage Forgotten

Sent by a reader, aimed at ELDONA.
There is a story that Wescott or Hort said this, "In chess, too,
a bishop moves obliquely."  The cartoonist knows that
few can define oblique today.

I bought a History of England from Folio Books and read many of the volumes. One time, I read a section to Mrs. Ichabod (nee Jackson) - about the typical Englishman of the 17th century. I said, "This is me!" I enjoyed the part about joking around and devotion to gardening. I even had a part in my front teeth, until the dentist fixed it.

LI said that a shovel appears as soon as we arrive in a new location, and plants are put in the ground.

Terry-Thomas stole my earlier look;
I am not sure if gap teeth are especially British.

Our country owes a vast debt to England and its history of law and justice. For example, to oppose tyranny by those in power, no one had the authority to arrest, try, and execute a supposed criminal. Arrest, prosecution, and execution were separated. If someone asked for a jury trial, he was entitled to be judged by his peers, that is, from his own class. The jury tries the facts in the case.

Critical thinking is directly related to our system of justice, and lawyers help in protecting the vulnerable from the tyrants of today.

I have noticed that many students have no concept of critical thinking in the classroom. Opinions and feelings are sacred, not to be bruised or offended in class. As one plagiarizing student said in anonymous comments, "All he cares about is plagiarism."

Some basic elements in arguing a case, an opinion, a thesis are:

1. Stating the actual argument clearly.
2. Gathering research for and against the argument.
3. Using research to back up the argument.
4. Stating the opposite side fairly and providing a reasonable refutation.
5. Summarizing the argument and ending with the conclusion.

England did not invent this, as we can see from Thucydides, who practiced this in his analytical history of the Peloponnesian Wars. Pericles argued this way too, so this is the fruit of the Athenian foundation for Western Civilization. The English knew this, because education meant studying the Greeks and Romans, not coveting the Kardashians.

A theory or argument may be entirely wrong, but a good presentation of it helps everyone understand the issues involved. That is what debate societies do. The American legal system assumes there are two sides to every case.

Compare the Low State of Lutherdom

Lutherans do not debate issues, but simply start with what the bosses are promoting. There is only one position. As the French Emperor said, "One king, one law, one faith." It rhymes beautifully in French. WELS and Missouri would modernize this as, "Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Fuehrer!"

UOJ is true because Pope John the Malefactor, Matt the Fat, and Mirthless Mark say so. Therefore, gather all the arguments for absolution without faith and dismiss Luther, misquote the Book of Concord, and laud Bishop Stephan's pimp, CFW Walther.

Define Lutheran orthodoxy as those who teach Halle Pietistic rationalism. No need to bother with the issues, Luther, the Apology, or Chemnitz. As Jon-Boy Buchholz solemnly declared, UOJ is "settled doctrine." 

 We don't know what we believe and teach
until the Bishop has spoken. One priest had a question.
He has since disappeared.

 The Chief Article did not mean anything
when ELDONA was schmoozing with the Rolf Synod.

 Here is a woman preaching to Jay Webber's alma mater,
the online seminary run by ELCAts and Romanists.

 It was good enough for Walther
and it's good enough for me.
Gimme that old time adultery,
Gimme that old time adultery...

 This is a Jay Webber Facebook page.
UOJ facilitates all kinds of contradictions and nonsense.

Labor Day Chores Were Fun

 Beautyberry is often used to keep away insects.
The root system kept me from digging it up with easy,
so I moved on.

Do I believe one weather website or its competition? We could have a thunderstorm Tuesday afternoon, or not. Accuweather seems to be optimistic about rain happening, most of the time. Weather.com seems to be against it. In fact, Accuweather has a wet week ahead, starting with Tuesday, but Weather.com declares us dry until the weekend.

Monday started early. Sassy wanted her breakfast and a walk. I let her inside while I aimed at a few gardening chores. The dead KnockOut had to go, and I wanted to move Beautyberry there from the backyard.

Monarda, Purple Bee Balm, or Horse Mint.

Step One - dig the Knockout, roots and all. That went well because I let the plant shuffle off this mortal coil (Hamlet, by Oxford), over the winter and spring. No, I will not say that watching the KnockOuts fade was the "winter of our discontent."
Step Two - dig up the Beautyberry under the tree in the backyard. That proved to be more daunting than removing the KnockOut, so I gave up. Next to it was a very healthy Bee Balm, which came up easily and soon soaked in a rain-barrel. I soak plants, bare roots, and transplants in rainwater as long as 24 hours.
Step Three - rake grass up and pack it around the Butterfly Bush I want to thrive this summer. Grass and clover are quick to decompose and feed the soil creatures. I covered the thick layer around plant with cardboard, weighed it down with old logs, and watered it.
Step Four - retrieve the soggy Bee Balm from the barrel, wheelbarrow it to the front, and plant it with peat humus and rainwater. I left some of the Bee Balm behind in the backyard, so another plant will fill in, to be divided later.

I question the scary gardening theme of plant shock. Perhaps a new plant is just trying to get its roots in sync with the fungal community after transplanting. Mints are thirsty plants and respond with great energy to watering, so I expected a mid-afternoon droop in the heat. Instead, most of the Bee Balm looked happy, healthy, and ready to grow.

Looking across the rose garden, I saw the Mountain Mints, no longer barely there, as they were last year. I should have known - the one buried and lost under the mulch popped up and grew anyway. Mountain Mints love sun and water. Three of them are rising tall, ready to bloom, but not quite blooming. They are scattered among the roses to provide beneficial bug support for the roses.

Buckwheat Again!
This non-grain is now my favorite all around, and easy to sow. Buckwheat is already blooming all over the yard. My only regret is not covering the rose garden mulch with even more seeds. They bloom early and attract a lot of beneficial insects. Even better, they elbow weeds aside, so the gardener can pick his weed, Buckwheat, instead of tearing weeds out of the ground. Buckwheat is shallow rooted and easy to remove, but why pull it? The plant will bloom in the shade and thrive in the sun.

 "Stop lying about me."

Everyone Lies about Hosta
When I think about a plant category, I look up several articles about it. Hosta is widely known as a shade plant, perhaps because it blooms well in deep shade and also spreads through its roots.

However, Hosta loves the morning sun and the afternoon shade. And who doesn't? Roses are similar, except they must have more sun to bloom. And they do not spread on their own. And they have thorns.

"We like the sun."

Ascension Day, Wednesday, 7 PM Holy Communion - Due To Loss of Voice Last Week

Wednesday, May 31st, 7 PM - Ascension Day, Holy Communion

Thursday, June 1, 7 PM -  Greek Lesson, John 6:31ff.

Spring allergies hit all at once last Thursday, and I spent most of the next four days sleeping. I got up early to write and garden today, feeling great.

Memorial Day, 2017

Memorial Day is especially for remembering those who died serving in our military. 

We cannot help but think of those who are active duty, their family members, and those who served in the past.

Warning - ELDONA Meets Tomorrow

Reading this post about Lutheran higher education may help.

I get postings from ELDONA, so I was curious what they would do for their synod and colloquium in the 500th year of the Reformation.

Luther. Luther. Bueller, Bueller, anyone?

So they are no different from the bigwigs at the LCMS-ELS-WELS Emmaus Conference - "It's all about our little sect."

Lutherans go through years of education without knowing the Chief Article of the Christian Faith, even helping to teach against it. Then, if they finally wake up, for whatever reason, they go back to the trivial pursuit of fussy, prissy little topics that will leave anyone comatose.

A rainbow broke the melancholy at
ELDONA's world headquarters.

Wasting Time and Money on Higher Education

Was I right? I created this several years ago.

I am not against higher education. I have spent more time on both sides of the lectern than most people. But most of the money is being wasted among the Lutherans, as I will explain.

Let us forget for a moment the slavish conformists who get hired to teach at Lutheran colleges and seminaries. And we can ignore the back-slapping, back-stabbing politicians elected by Lutherans to advance the twin causes of apostasy and worshi-tainment.

Even with the worst teachers from the Fuller Seminary brigades, every single student has two unequaled assets that seem to be completely unused or abused: the brain and the library.

One - The Brain
God has created us with the most amazing computing and memory device: fast, efficient, working even while we are resting or day-dreaming.

 Lutheran seminary students, cowed, afraid, non-thinking.

What keeps Lutheran students from using their brains to consider the issues involved in their own faith? They must be so consumed with their careers that they are afraid to think or speak. Of course, WELS will kick out any student who begins to question the rank apostasy of the leaders, but that is a blessing. If a gang of immoral drunks refuses to admit me into their sacrilegious circle, should I feel offended or blessed?

Lutherans move through the system like the human robots in Metropolis.
They will repeat any nonsense drilled into them, as the semi-automatic chattering class of UOJists and Church Shrinkers prove.

 Work hard -  you well deserve the next binge.
Your alcoholic leaders will cover for you.

The brain does not work well when pickled in alcohol. The results are slow but sure. Higher order thinking goes away with alcohol and drug abuse. The pleasure centers are no longer what God created, but change almost inexorably to the next drink, the next cig, the next drug.

When this cathedral of books was built at Yale,
libraries were our Ft. Knoxes of learning.
Now we have the Harvard Divinity library on Google
and most classic books for free. Is anyone reading them?

The Library
We no longer have traditional libraries. We have Lenski on our computers, easy to search. We have Bibles galore on various softwares. Anyone can be trained in Greek and Hebrew at home, using various programs.

How can someone be near a library and have one on his computer and yet listen to the drivel taught in Lutheran colleges and seminaries? I manually copied and organized quotations from a wide variety of WELS and LCMS sources. They were all parroting Fuller Seminary and Willowcreek.

I question whether Luther students are learning anything more than the laughable educations of their professors, that Fuller fad that never goes away, the herpes of higher education in Lutherdom.

The Emmaus Conference of LCMS-WELS-ELS ignored Luther to speak about themselves this year. Where are the papers calling pee-wees of theology "Luthers"? Walther - hahahahahaha.

I will save the final salvo for the next post.

 Reuel Schulz in WELS endorsed this idiot,
who got one thing right - CG is a failure.
But WELS did not excommunicate Schulz.
Ask his descendants how the synod treats Justification by Faith.

The List of Creation Farmers Grows - Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin moves his cows, chickens, and pigs to balance
the food input and the fertilizer output.
The video below goes into great
detail about his methods, based on God's Creation.

Queen Elizabeth's private gardens use no
man-made toxins. They are productive and teeming with
wildlife of all kinds.

The Salatin Farm - Polyface

 The Salatins have historic ties to Bob Jones University,
where Joel graduated, but now they attract a lot of the new
generation's interest in pure food and honest farming practices.

The Polyface Story

In 1961, William and Lucille Salatin moved their young family to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, purchasing the most worn-out, eroded, abused farm in the area near Staunton. Using nature as a pattern, they and their children began the healing and innovation that now supports three generations.
Disregarding conventional wisdom, the Salatins planted trees, built huge compost piles, dug ponds, moved cows daily with portable electric fencing, and invented portable sheltering systems to produce all their animals on perennial prairie polycultures. 

Today the farm arguably represents America’s premier non-industrial food production oasis. Believing that the Creator’s design is still the best pattern for the biological world, the Salatin family invites like-minded folks to join in the farm’s mission: to develop emotionally, economically, environmentally enhancing agricultural enterprises and facilitate their duplication throughout the world.

Where have the butterflies gone?
We kill them to get rid of mosquitoes,
but the mosquitoes never go away.
Painting by Norma Boeckler

Building the Soil

When I began serious gardening in the 1980s, in Midland, I had the run of the Midland Public Library, which included the Rodale Books on organic gardening. I also read the scientific books on agriculture, decomposition, and soil structure. Nothing is quite so complex and interesting as the various soils of the United States and how they formed.

Everyone seems to know that the fertility of the Great Plains came from the perennial prairie grasses enriching the soil and the enormous herds of bison moving across them and fertilizing them. However, modern farming has been depleting the soil built up with grasses and mobile grazing.

Joel Salatin farms the way I garden, aiming at Every Day Low Costs, EDLC, a watchword at Walmart. Sam Walton believed in pushing the price down to draw in more customers, to increase volume and lower prices even more.

If I can buy a two-year bare root rose for $6, then why pay $24 for something similar? If I can renew the soil from the leaves thrown away by my neighbors, why should I buy the chemical fertilizer they seem so anxious to use.

One of the best weed suppressors is Buckwheat. A five-pound bag goes a long way and costs what a bag of herbicide would cost, or better yet (sic) - a bag of chemical fertilizer plus weed killer. Buckwheat removes weeds by competition, but it also improves the soil and attracts pollinators. 

Salatin uses chickens to eat his pests, and I use the local birds, beneficial bugs, and toads.

Birds eat Beautyberries late in the season,
but the plant decorates the garden all summer.

Here are some upcoming chores:

1. I am digging up the remains of a once-productive KnockOut rose and replacing it with a Beautyberry plant from the backyard. This introduces more variety in the rose garden, especially with plants that are unusual and fun to show off.
2. The latest thunderstorm gave me rainwater to distribute for special plants and those that need a little boost, such as the Crepe Myrtle twigs.
3. Piles of grass and clover from the lawnmower will be tucked around the Butterfly Bush for extra food energy.
4. A bird planted a Boston Ivy vine by sitting on one of my stumps. Transplanting it to the Wild Garden will give that area a vine that grows well in the shade because it reaches for sunlight. Planted in sunlight, it barely moves.

Crepe Myrtles are weed-like in their growth,
but remain ugly without pruning, watering, and feeding.
The Mother of All Myrtles gets a little pruning all the time,
extra water, and plenty of organic food at the base.

Some recent insights to implement:

• Every living root adds energy to the soil and represents 75% of the organic matter that will go into the soil. Therefore, land without plants is not improving as much as it could with some kind of cover crop.
• The rose garden will be more productive and friendly to beneficial insects with the mulch supporting Buckwheat rather than low-growing weeds like Bermuda grass. Mulch is like a vacuum - something will fill the emptiness.
• Dutch White Clover and Wild Strawberries are good companion plants for the roses too, because they are low-growing, invasive, and beneficial. 
• Water infiltration is far more important than the amount of rainfall. Deeply rooted plants will take the rainfall downward for storage in the soil. 

Creation Gardening Ironic Humor

1. Chemical gardeners save eggshells for their calcium, which do not decompose, and kill Dandelions, which pull up calcium from the soil. Chemical fertilizers, weed killers, and pesticides kill earthworms, which are the only creature able to manufacture usable calcium for the soil.
2. Crazy people gather free autumn leaves from their neighbors. Wise recyclers buy leaf bags from Walmart, spend hours raking up leaves, so they can get rid of a major source of carbon for their soil.
3. Neat landscapers get rid of all yard trash, including overwintering stalks, leaves, and brush-piles. Creation Gardeners listen as the neatnicks marvel over perfect roses that were never fertilized by man, sprayed for fungi, or gassed with pesticides.
4. Gardeners will push their massive mowers back into the garage after the latest breakdown, wondering why their quirky neighbor only spends a few dollars on a rake and some mulch. 
5. Every yard boasts 90-100% lawn, which demands water and all kinds of treatments to match the cover of the Scotts Lawn and Garden catalog covers. But nobody gives a clump of sod for Mother's Day or a bag of grass, newly cut, to a friend. They spend $50 a bunch for roses, as little as $10 at Walmart, but those roses dry up faster than a Phoenix clothesline.

Our Rose Ministry
We have a problem. Mrs. Ichabod and I love to watch roses bloom, so that means pruning them almost daily, sometimes watering them. They need little care beyond that. Pruning makes them grow even more fruitful, John 15:1-10.

To solve the pruning problem, I cut the best roses for the altar, for neighbors, for all the doctors we visit, for the entire block on Mother's Day, for the cancer support group, for anyone who has an interest in enjoying them. Hinting broadly that we had more roses than vases, we obtained a long shelf full of vases, from the smallest to the largest needed. Besides that drink cups serve well.

Our neighbor visits the cemetery almost every day, because he recently lost his mother and his step-father. He and his brother took care of them until the end. They love having roses to leave at the cemetery, so I drop off a cup-vase full of them any time.

Many are bowled over by the roses, and several of our doctors are confessing Christians, not afraid to name the Name. So we give away Creation Gardening all the time. In fact, there is a waiting line for the next shipment of 10 full-color booklets. LI sees the same diabetic specialist and said, "I was there just after you two were, and she was seriously disturbed by the quality of your roses."

 Creation Gardening - By Him Were All Things Made.
Amazon and Kindle.