"Green Wood"

While you ponder your needs I will talk about green wood. Yesterday Sierra went along with me to work in the afternoon. When we walked past the wood pile she said I don't see any green wood. This was in response to something I told Rachel the other day concerning the wood I was burning. I told her it was really green but was working really well. So, Sierra wondered where the green wood was. I had to explain to her that green wood had nothing to do with color and everything to do with moisture.

Needs Part II

I do not know if this will narrow the topic down or not. Should we tell people we have needs or hope they ask. I do not share my needs unless I am sure the other person wants to know what my needs are. Of course, if the person really wants to know they will ask. Is it proper to share our needs/struggles in a church setting? I believe part of my hesitation is fear of rejection. If people really knew who I am they would have nothing to do with me.... Is accountability a part of meeting needs? What is a need?

Needs

This morning our Sunday School class was discussing needs in the church. How do we meet needs in the church? Not just our church but your church, any church. How does your church meet needs? Can a church meet all the needs in the church? Should your church be able to meet all the needs? If parents cannot figure out how to meet needs in the family will the church have the ability to meet eachothers needs?

Heat

What type of heat do you the reader use? There are many kinds of heat people can choose from. Options include heat pumps, indoor wood stoves, gas/propane, oil furnace, radiator/water, and outdoor wood furnaces. When we built our house we put in a Wood Master outdoor wood furnace. Several years later I installed a huge Global Hydronics outdoor wood furnace at the farm. The one at my house heats the house and my hot water. We have lived in our house for roughly eight years and I have never hooked my hot water heater up. The stove at the barn is heating the floor in the milking parlor and the hot water. It is also heating the farm house and is set up to heat the water in the house as well. If you have a source of wood these are, in my opinion, the only way to heat your house. It is so nice to stand in front of a register when my feet are cold and have warm air flowing through my duct system. So again I ask, what kind of heat do you use?

Schedule Change

I have changed our milking schedule, just in case you were dying to know. We are in the process of switching to twice a day milking. We will be milking tonight at 6:00 and tomorrow morning at 7:30 and then Sat. night at 8:30. Cows are animals of consistency so I hate to make to many changes. At this current moment they are rather uncomfortable. They are used to be milked at 5:30, 1:30, and 9:30. Right now they haven't been milked since 5:30 this morning.
One other interesting bit of information for you. The other day I got this certified letter in the mail. This letter said that my cyroscope was not what it should have been. Now I must confess I had no idea what my cyroscope was. I made an informative phone call and discovered this test means that I had water in my milk. Alas, this is true. On the day the ran this test I had forgotten to take the pipe out of the tank and pumped the rinse cycle water into the tank. This allowed me to unintentionally ship an extra 200lbs of milk. People do not like to pay for water in the milk. The penalty for this offence? If I get caught one more time in the next two years they say they will not allow me to ship grade A milk. This would be terrible. Hopefully I don't have another memory lapse.....

Jackson Zehr

Jackson six months old

 

"Good Night, My Son"

My Grandfather and Grandmother wrote a book on Uncle Howard's life. While I was growing up Howard had a very big influence in my life. I received this book earlier this evening and I am looking forward to reading it. Howard was a diabetic most of his life, I believe he was 13 when he was diagnosed. He had a kidney transplant in spring of 2000 and due to some complications passed away. This book was compiled so his youngest child would know what kind of man his father was. How many of you have a book in your home about someone in your immediate or extended family? Would you find a book like this helpful in discovering who you are?

Milk Part II

Where milk really and truly comes from.
Thought you would enjoy a picture of my reality.

 

Milk

Since I am in the dairy industry I thought I would find out how many of my readers actually drink milk. The most important question would be Do you drink milk? The secondary question would be What kind of milk do you drink? Are you a strawberry flavored milk person? Do you only consume milk when it is mixed in your scrambled eggs or some other dish? Do you stear clear of dairy products in general? If this is the case..... to shame.......

Sunday Lunch

What is your typical Sunday lunch meal?

Flip Of A Coin

I wonder how many of you make decisions by flipping a coin. If you need to make a big decision do you flip a coin? Sounds to simple and, well, flippant. I believe their is a definite place for flipping a quarter. If you are trying to decide which job to take or which girl to ask, I say flip a coin. Let's say you decide heads you will ask Sally and tails you will ask Jane. Now, you flip the coin and call HEADS but it lands TAILS!!! Your spirit groans because in all reality you want to ask Sally. This means that the flipping of a coin can be a very helpful tool in making decisions. This theory will work for other aspects of life as well. How many of you have flipped a coin?

Potty Trained

Aleya is now officially potty trained. She had begun crawling up on the changing table because she could not stand wearing a wet diaper. Rachel had started training her sometime ago but we were away from home so much we decided to wait. So two weeks ago Rachel started again and in one week she was trained. I realize their is a large school of thought on when you should train children. I have come to the conclusion that if you are willing to wait until the child is ready the child and the mother will be living a less stressful life. What is your opinion? Should we be training our six month old boys? If I am not mistaken some people try to get this accomplished. I believe it is silly. What do you think?

News Paper

Last night I heard Lester Rouluf, or is it Roll Off, said news papers are of the devil. They are not necessary. He said people think they need to stay up with the news but that if we would read the Bible we could stay ahead of the news. Now I personally think this is a rather harsh stance and yet yesterday in the Lynchburg paper they had a rather indecent picture right smack on the front page. Most news stories really are not very worthwhile either. Does the paper really serve a legitimate purpose or is it another thing to read? Oh, by the way, I did cancel our paper subscription.....
Except for Sundays, of course, I need that nice sports section and the six pages of color comics......

Instruments

I told you I would give you my own opinion so here it is. I took piano lessons for years and I am glad I did. It is very nice to be able to sit at the piano and pound out a song every now and then. I can use my skimpy piano skills to learn difficult vocal pieces also. I do not have a problem with learning to play an instrument.
After taking lessons for quite a long time I discovered an intense longing to learn how to sing properly. When I was 16 or so I was taking piano and voice at the same time from the same teacher. While I was thus occupied a thought crossed my mind. Why am I spending time, energy, and funds on piano when I will never be able to use my skill in a Mennonite service? I decided to drop the piano lessons and focus on vocal training. I realize now that I could have gotten a teaching certificate if I would have stuck with it long enough.
In conclusion I don't have a problem with learning to play an instrument. I do have a problem with the philosophy that says it is okay to have a professional fiddler teach you the fiddle but it is wrong to have a professional singer teach you to sing.

Zehr Clan

L-R Back Row
Laureen. Katie, Korwin, Jon Alan, Rachel, Aleya, Glen, Casey, Ben, Juanita, JoAnna
L-R Front Row
Megan, Marcus, Sierra, Grandma, Jackson, Grandpa, Jayden, Hannah

Survey

I am wondering.....
This may be a very touchy issue....
I don't think it should be but I believe I can understand how it could be.
So, if you don't want to answer that is fine.
Mainly because you won't if you don't want to and I won't know why because I don't know you.
Make sense? I didn't think so....
Anyway, how many of you are adopted or have foster parents? How many of you have adopted or have fostered children?

Perfection Part III

Thanks to Creatora for her thoughts. The preacher, I forget who, said that the difference between perfection and being blameless is in confession. No one is perfect. We all sin. Living blamelessly is asking God to forgive us. Do you agree with this? I like it on the surface but it sure sounds simple. Is Christianity simple? I say yes it is. God expects things of us and these things are fairly clearly stated in scripture. Things like loving your neighbor as your self. When we get right down to it this is really hard to do.
Okay enough rambling......
What do you think?

Perfection Part II

Hmmm, not much reponse on that issue. What to do now? Do you not understand the question? Is it poorly asked? You don't care? Oh well..... (sigh)

Sierra

Sierra
Packed and ready to go to Grandma Kauffman's without her parents for two weeks.
She was very excited.....

Perfection

Is their a difference between blameless and perfect? How can one walk blameless in God's sight and not be perfect? God told Abraham to walk blameless....