First Aid for Roses

Today I administered first aid to several rose bushes. They were newly planted but not leafing out as well as the rest. Most of the six had some leafing started, but two did not.

I only needed two tools. One was a bucket or two of rainwater. If you are out of rainwater or not collecting it, water standing for 24 hours or lake water will do. Those two do not have inhibiting chlorine compounds in them. Rainwater has the added advantage of usable nitrogen compounds. That is why rain will green up a lawn quickly even though a long watering will not do much - except keep it alive.

The other tool was a pair of strong pruning shears. The purists would have you use the scissors cutting type rather than the anvil kind. The idea is to cut through the canes and remove a little from one or perhaps several canes.

Some newly planted bare root roses will have dead wood, which detracts from the health of the plant. Sometimes a new cane simply dies and looks wooden rather than green. When deadwood is tossed on concrete, it sounds just like a pencil, dry and hard. I suspect that the cold weather nipped some of the new roses.

Pruning the green healthy canes will also spur growth. It is the nature of all bushes to become more active in growing when pruned.

The cures are not sprays and inorganic fertilizers, but God's own rainwater and pruning.

Falling In Love Rose

Falling In Love Rose is growing beautifully, after a hard pruning.

I planted blackberries where we once only had plantain weeds. We mulched last fall, and the soil was ready and wormy - not as abundantly blessed as the main rose garden, but certainly under the care of red wigglers. With more watering and root growth, the earthworms will multiply with the other soil creatures.

I woke up early and began soaking the blackberry plants in rainwater. Several hours later I planted them, put the mulch back, and watered them.

I tried out the Jackson Aqueduct, sending water around the yard in two phases - first on the rose garden for Mrs. Gardener, along the fence, then along the vertical garden on Mrs. Wright's side. She came over and gave me permission to use their concrete blocks for a Creature Convention Center. I also ordered a hanging platform bird feeder, so we can watch them closer to the house.

One of the fun aspects of bird feeding is how they chase their pals from one source, so birds land on another - if there are alternatives.

Feed the creatures in the soil, feed the plants -
healthy soil means healthy humans.

No, the First President of Martin Luther College (Amalgamated) Was John Lawrenz - For One Month. Second President of MLC WELS Ted Olson Died

Friday, April 24, 2015

President Theodore Olsen is called to glory

Funeral arrangements are still being developed. He was a member of Beautiful Savior, Spooner.

Dear friends in the living Savior,

Today the MLC administrative offices received news from Mrs. Joanne Olsen that President emeritus Ted Olsen died this morning at 7:44am, after a brief hospitalization.  When funeral arrangements are finalized, the family will inform the administrative offices and we will pass along the details for his victory service.

President Olsen served as a parish pastor in Wisconsin and Florida.  He served in various WELS ministerial education schools.  He was a tutor at Northwestern Lutheran Academy in Mobridge, SD.  He was a professor at DMLC.  He served as president of Martin Luther Preparatory School in Prairie du Chien, and finally as the first president of Martin Luther College.

The Lord blessed his ministry at MLC as he evangelically guided the college during the amalgamation of DMLC and Northwestern College.  The fruits of his labors here at MLC remain visible in a college that remains committed to Scripture and with a single focus on preparing gospel ministers for service in the WELS.  We thank Jesus for this faithful servant of the Word.  Now the apostle Paul encourages us to Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  We grieve with the family at the suddenness of Ted's death and the pain of separation.  Yet we rejoice with the family in the Spirit-given confidence that those who die in Christ are alive in Christ.  Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.  May Christ's Easter triumph comfort and sustain Joanne and the entire Olsen family.  May we at MLC honor his memory with a renewed commitment of faithful study and adherence to the inerrant Word, and a passion for the assigned task to prepare servants of the Word to go forth and proclaim the saving message of new life in Christ.  Thanks be to God, he gives us the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the comfort and confidence of the living Savior,

M. Zarling

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=5bc022e089bd092f413025e42&id=6f15c07171

***

The ideal WELS member
was envisioned long ago.

GJ - WELS Church and Change leaders (synonymous with the WELS administration) forced the merger of Dr. Martin Luther College and Northwestern College. Naturally, the clergy resented it but did not fight it with any fire. Temporary smoldering is their forte.

The NWC alumni group was "not allowed" to vote on the merger.

A mail in poll showed that the majority responding did not like the idea.

The Michigan District of WELS shot down four different resolutions aimed at approving the merger. DP Robert Mueller then spoke on the floor of the WELS convention in favor of the merger.

Gurgle promised the merger would not cost more than $8 million, but they spent $30 million. Once again, the clergy smoldered for a short time.

John Lawrenz thought he could be finally more than a high school principal by being the first MLC president. He was largely in charge of the merger. When word got out, his presidency lasted for about a month. Some clergy finally worked themselves into a fury - why reward the NWC graduate who stabbed them in the back? His presidency faded faster than the truth in a WELS PR release.

Lawrenz really wanted to be on the Mequon faculty, but the closest he ever got was the porta-seminary in Asia. Fellow Church and Change pioneer Steve Witte followed him as president of the little seminary that couldn't. Does anyone imagine they teach anything close to Lutheran doctrine?

Virtue Online Link - Episcopal Priest Downloading Child Porn. WELS SP Mark Schroeder Would Provide Instant Absolution and "We Didn't Know"

Wilmington Island pastor and former Bryan County teacher arrested on child porn charges

Wilmington Island pastor and former Bryan County teacher arrested on child porn charges
April 23, 2015By DeAnn KomaneckySavannah Morning News

http://savannahnow.com/effingham-now/2015-04-23/pastor-and-former-teacher-arrested-child-porn-charges
A former teacher and a pastor have been arrested on unrelated child pornography charges.

Bruce Fehr, 54, of Savannah, and Zachary Giebner, 33, of Savannah were arrested following an investigation that began two months ago. During the investigation, investigators with the Southeast Georgia Child Exploitation Task Force discovered that both Fehr and Giebner were downloading child pornography. Giebner was formerly a teacher at Bryan County High School, according to the Effingham Sheriff's Office.

Fehr is the reverend at St. Francis Episcopal Church on Wilmington Island, said Joe Heath, with the Effingham County Sheriff's Office and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Search warrants were executed this morning at each of their Wilmington Island homes where computers were seized and the men arrested. Both men are currently in the Effingham County jail where they face charges for Sexual Exploitation of Children.

The FBI-led Southeast Georgia Child Exploitation Task Force operates in conjunction with State and local law enforcement, to locate and recover juveniles that have been sexually exploited through prostitution and to identify and arrest those who would sexually exploit juveniles by other means. The task force is comprised of agents and officers from the FBI, GBI, Effingham County Sheriff’s Office, Liberty County Sheriff’s Office, and the Pooler Police Department.

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The Rev. Bruce C. Fehr, Rector & The Rev. Lori L. Fehr, Priest Associate

The Rev. Bruce and the Rev. Lori Fehr are 2013 graduates of the School of Theology at the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee, and were ordained to the priesthood on October 4, 2013, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Prior to seminary, they were both active lay persons in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast and at their home parish, St. Francis of Assisi, Gulf Breeze, Florida, and previously at St. Paul's, Ventura, California. They each served on the vestries and as wardens at different times in the two congregations.

Bruce and Lori met in the 8th grade and have been married since 1980. They both earned their earned B.A. degrees in Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine in 1982, and their Juris Doctor degrees from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1985. Bruce was an an insurance litigator in state and federal courts in California and Florida, and Lori has practiced in the area of child welfare and dependency law. She most recently served as a Senior Assistant District Legal Counsel for the State of Florida Department of Children and Families and as first a Managing Attorney and then Appellate Counsel for Children's Legal Services.

They have two grown daughters, Alexandra and Kimberly, and two border collies.

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VOL NOTE: Bruce and Lori Fehr are new priests. They were both ordained on Oct. 4, 2013 by Bishop Benhase of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Gulf Coast.

Aqueduct Finished - Watering the Entire Backyard from One Spigot

Ancient history is summarized as:
"Rome had the drains, but Greece had the brains."
Rome absorbed and used the engineering triumphs of every
culture they conquered. They tolerated the worship of all gods,
except the One True God, Christ, as Luther observed.

I doubt whether my aqueduct in the backyard will last as long the Roman Empire's, some branches are in use today. But I do have the advantage of watering the entire backyard gardens--with soaker hose--from one faucet.

Soaker hose is made from recycled tires, made to leak all over, just like those tires did before they were tossed, only with advantages to the garden. The most water conserving way is to drip water at the base of plants rather than spraying all over Creation.

Bee Balm

The Vegetable Garden Section
Facing the backyard, the first leg of the aqueduct goes left across the vegetable garden, then rises to the chain-link fence. The vegetable garden section inadvertently fed the expansion of the wild strawberries, which had stayed around the faucet. Empowered by the steady water source along the back wall, they moved across and established themselves, a decorative and bird-friendly border. I am now using wild strawberries in other locations for a cover plant and bird feeder.

The tomatoes have been marking time with all the cold damp weather. They will soon take off. Some other plants are the bee balms (horse mint, Oswego tea) I planted earlier, and a bunch of sunflowers.
Some inexpensive roses are well established in the front row.

Peas can be planted very early, sprouting when it is their
time to grow. Does this show design and purpose?

The Vertical Garden Section
The fence is an ideal way to practice vertical gardening. Any vining plant finds an easy toe-hold and plenty of sun. I moved the soaker hose to the top to get it out of the way of planting, mulching, and weeding.

Birds love the spritzing on top of the fence and the dripping below: frequent bathing and feeding, since water encourages bugs, the prime beef of bird-dom.

Currently the fence area has a long stretch of peas, growing like corn in July, some beans, and about 30 asparagus. The asparagus just sent up their first sprouts - tall, skinning, elven, too skinny to harvest this year.

Butterfly Weed is the good-looking cousin of milkweed,
so it also feeds the Monarch butterfly.

The Back Stretch
The hose drops to the ground for the back stretch, where I have Butterfly Bushes and giant sunflowers planted to screen the view. To make sure I had plenty of inexpensive sunflowers, I planted bird seeds (black oil sunflower seeds) by the hundreds.

The back section is mulched with newspaper and wood mulch, with autumn leaves on top. Mrs. Ichabod said my goal is to mulch the entire world. No, just NW Arkansas.

Peace

Chicago Peace

Pink Peace

Mrs. Gardener's Roses
Mrs. Gardener loves roses and always enjoys them, so I put my best hybrid teas along the right fence - the Peace trifecta (Peace, Chicago Peace, and Pink Peace), Mr. Lincoln, Barbara Streisand (don't judge), Pope John Paul II (again, don't judge), and Tropicana.

The soaker hose comes out on the right from my highly-engineered faucet. It passes through the Three Sisters garden, to be planted next week, then along Mrs. Gardener's side, up to the compost, where it will deliver some water each time I turn on the faucet. Compost does better when kept damper than rain alone will accomplish.

Norma Boeckler photographs, paints,
and gardens, using her talents to glorify God's Creation
and Jesus the Creating Word.

The Hose Section
I have an ordinary garden hose attached to my elaborate sub-divided faucet piping (using 3 doublers at a total cost of $5). I need the garden hose for grandson Alex to water the plants when he visits, and to fill the bird baths in the Jackson Bird Spa. They need cleaning and filling once or twice a day.

Cardinals, by Norma Boeckler.

Expansion
I admitted to Mrs. Ichabod that the Jackson Bird Spa needs to be expanded into the Creature Convention Center. For that I have saved two large pieces of cardboard, which is a good substitute for the newspaper layer. On those will go the concrete blocks to build the Center, with nooks for food and shelter, screen on top for keeping seed dry, places for baths, and a toad pond. Mulch covers the cardboard afterwards, since the blocks would be less stable resting on mulch. No I will not sink supporting caissons down to the bedrock layer, not without an enormous gubmint grant.

Watering
To water everything in the back, I only need to step outside the kitchen door, turn on the faucet and set the switches for the left or right sides.