A new year?

Right before Christmas, we received a letter from the Crown Estate, or at least their agents, giving notice of the end of our Farm Business Tenancy on the land - a notice to quit. Or not. There is a paragraph which says, it may be up for renegotiation (trans: a rent hike) - it isn't clear to us whether that paragraph is standard or bespoke - in other words, we don't know if they want us off, or just want to take more money off us.
We had a beautiful, quiet Christmas, with much joy and laughter, prayer and gratitude.
Yesterday, we took the dogs and walked up on the high downs, went to visit our rams, and generally wondered ...
We can't know anything more until the proposed meeting on 5th January.
Should we fight for it? We've had it nearly seven years. We have a year's notice. When we look at it, although once it held a lot of promise - I ran the box scheme from there for two years - it is now pretty unkempt and provides some sheep grazing, and a LOT of hay. The hard truth is, we haven't done what we intended to do with it.
A harder still truth is that we have knowingly or not, offended, upset, and generally peed off a lot of people in the last decade, living here or hereabouts.
The psycho nutcase who got Neil chucked out of his last farm job down in the village, and threatened to rip his head off if he showed it around the farm again (because I did not run Brownies the way his wife liked!) is only the part of it. We started life at the school, Neil was a governor. We left the school and homeschooled our children for six years. That went over not so well.
We started life in the village CofE church, again, Neil was a church warden. Then we realised things were wrong, moved churches, found God, and received the greatest gift of all. It did not come with local approval.
The people over the road don't like us. Because our cockerel crows.
The family Neil used to work for who, when he was friends with the psycho nutcase, he was hoodwinked (by the p-n) into leaving without notice - they're not over fond of us.
The guy in the village who made an official complaint because I told his Brownie daughter to 'shut up' (in jest, we say 'shut up' all the time in our house! apparently, she had never, ever been told to 'shut up' in her entire life (which was actually self evident) and it destroyed her self esteem totally) whereas, I had no redress for the fact that she blasphemed almost continually, and I was pretty offended by that.

Is this really the place for us to try (yet again) to launch a community project?! Is this not maybe time to move on?

I have just begun with my Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design - and as part of the process, the Learning Pathway, I am going to have to figure out where I am going. Where we are going. Are we staying here? Or moving onto new horizons? What do you reckon?

Please, at least read ....

Joseph Mercola on Swine Flu

Me, I'm just a bit cross with myself, that I'd lost my passion for frugality right before the credit crunch, and my habit of being stocked against an emergency, right before this latest warning.

So today, I started restocking my pantry, my flour and water supplies, and my pet foods and veterinary meds, to a level I would have expected from myself two years ago.

For whatever reason, be it financial problems, illness, family emergency, extreme weather or pandemic, I think it's just plain dim to be equipped for less than one month of comfortable survival - ie you might have to eat pasta rice and beans a LOT but you wouldn't starve.

Keep Paracetemol, Ibuprofen, some electrolytes and anti diarrhoeal meds, Calpol for children, as well as mega vits (especially C and B) and natural remedies such as tea tree, arnica, grapefruit seed extract, and plenty of garlic.

In the end times, there are going to be plagues. But there are also going to be false prophets. And there are also people making a looooooooooooot of money, out of vaccines, and fear.

It looks like these strains of viruses may have come out of our bloodlust - military work. If you study war, what do you expect? Or otherwise, out of our disgusting treatment of animals in factory farming, when God quite clearly left us stewards over His creation.

If the WHO goes to level 6, we'll likely stay home for a while.

But I'm not sure I'd go for vaccine.

Here is the News

And what a jolly day it is.
First up in today's selection, happy news for people who took out mortgages based on overstretched imaginations, and flimsy jobs. It seems the government, er that would be me then, is going to pay their mortgages for them, if the going gets tough. Not by way of a loan, which would be reasonable, but by way of a gift - so that when, inevitably house prices once again start to climb, they will be able to sell their houses at an enormous profit.
Well that's nice then. And those people who decided against borrowing beyond their means, and are now forced to pay extortionate rent? (In fairness, I do not have to pay extortionate rent, having a very reasonable and lovely landlord.) They can just go right on paying rent, I suppose. Granted, if they lose their jobs, they will get a little help with the rent. But they won't get a handout to help keep them in a lucrative property market. And if they don't lose their jobs, or they get on their bikes and get other jobs, well they can just chip in to prime the next bunch of property millionaires, while never having any hope of owning a house themselves. Worth being sensible then. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.

Secondly, apparently, youth is depressed. Especially (and apparently shockingly) 'NEET's (those not in employment, education or training).
Well there's a discovery. Sitting on your backside doing nothing makes you feel miserable. How much did it cost to work that out, I wonder. An early 'Facist Thought for the Week', for me, then. How about some of the poor dears clean up all the litter, clean the hospital wards, talk to the lonely elderly, you get the picture. Maybe that would cheer them up.

Mind you, if they are in education, look what they have to look forward to - if you needed any more persuading that the state is taking control of our children, try this for size.

Well, OK, I turned into Victor Meldrew over night, and I am not normally this Browned off (did you see what I just did there?) on a Monday morning, but honestly. I think I shall give up listening to the News.

Here is our News - there is snow (not as you know it, though, Jane! about a teaspoonful!) - and it is cold and clear and beautiful. As part of our new rhythm, I was up at 5.30, half an hour after Neil, and have made bread for the next day or two, soup for lunch, and beef casserole is in the slow cooker for supper. The children are back at their school work, by a roaring woodburner in the sitting room.
Sadly at the weekend, their pet chicken died.
However, on the upside, God is very good to us - we were given a couple of dozen laying birds and they are already laying about a dozen eggs a day, so our sign can go back up outside!
I have all but one little thing ready for Guides tonight, and so do not need to panic, unusually.

And now, this all being the case, I can walk away from this computer, lunch is ready, supper is ready, Guides is ready, and I can go and learn with my children. Who are not listless, or depressed, but in fact very busy, and will not be exposed to any interfering governmental influences on their intimate lives either now or later. And though rented, our little patch is quiet, and warm, and blessed with great abundance, beyond our dreams.

Good News, eh?

God, bless Patrick Jones

Recently, Waterstones cancelled a poetry reading, following a protest by Christian Voice. You can decide who was pulling whose strings here.
A furore in the christian homeschool world led to several people joining the email campaign to get the event cancelled.

Strangely, my own concern that this is not what Jesus would have done, has been censored, so I can't discuss it with my homeschooling fellows in that arena. But I can say what I like here.

Jesus said:
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

or:
11Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

or:
11-12"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

depending on which human being translated it.

and this (Luke 6)
27But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

and this (Matt 5)
44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

and this (Luke23)
34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

So just because other religions, based on rule keeping and punishment, kick up when someone publishes a book which offends them, is it right for us to do likewise?

Luke 6:26-28 (King James Version)
26Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. 27But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

Are we teaching our children to follow the world and false religions, or are we teaching them to follow their Master?

It kind of sounds to me like we should let him read his poems, and quietly love him, and pray for him. We don't need to do that in view of the national media, since, strangely, that's not who we are praying to. Odd though that may seem.

Here, and unapologetically from 'The Message' which quite often causes me to wince with self awareness, is a little piece of advice, from Matthew chapter 5:

43-47"You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

So Glad I Left

Firstly, a genuine apology to my genuine American friends before I even say this. I do not tar you all with the same brush. I know you do not all think like this. In fact, I know that some of you, my dear friends, do in fact think.

But this woman quoting this article makes me so glad I left my previous blog home.

What, Europe is responsible for all the sex and drugs in the world? Excuse me! Take a look at yourselves! Did we invent Hollywood? Do we have regular High School shoot outs? I don't think so.

Guardian Angel? Who are they kidding. I'm not often really really mad, but this article made me spit nails. Nasty racist piece of thuggery. Innacurate, insulting, facist propaganda.

Normal service will be resumed when my blood pressure has returned to manageable.

Turning the other cheek

In my absolute horror at the promotion of guns as a christian symbol of liberty, following the US election, I have googled in vain to find any reference to anti-gun christians, or christians against guns.
Google quails at the thought. Bemused by her inability to find all the words. she (Google is a she, right?) misses out the least popular one, and provides me with page after page of blogs, web pages, articles .... all proclaiming the gospel of violent self defence. According to one Jesus 'whipped the **** out of the moneychangers in the temple" Do we even have the same Bible?
We certainly don't serve the same Prince of Peace.
As Christmas approaches, I am reminded of the Jews, waiting for their warrior prince, waiting for the king who would set them free from the Romans, wielding no doubt a great sword, and yelling about his rights.
The saviour came, alright. But He was born in a shed, and he rarely even raised his voice. He forgave his tormentors, and taught us to do the same. He spoke the beatitudes.

Around here, sporting guns are the norm. That I can understand. But to own something designed to turn on a fellow human being? A hand gun? An Assault Rifle, for pity's sake?

Some people, it seems to me, are still waiting for the wrong guy.