It's not over until the fat lady sings

I looked up the meaning and history behind the saying "It's not over until the fat lady sings" and I couldn't find too much to clarify the story. As far as I could figure, it was meant to be a sort of threat, meaning it's not over yet and we still have a chance, it's not over until it's over, etc. I didn't want to post it if it's meaning was meant to be rude and insulting, but the only thing I found rude about it and in it's history is that you shouldn't call people fat and doing that in this sentence is a prejudice against Opera singers. I haven't heard much opera, certainly not live opera, and of what I've heard I mostly don't like except for what I've heard of "Carmen". But that is a whole different subject from what I am going to talk about in this post. Here's an interesting article about opera.

This post could also be titled "Hog update number three".

Mr. ------ apparently re-applied for his building permit immediately after the meeting. We knew there was a strong possibility he would fight the decision made last Wednesday. We found out the day after the meeting that he had re-applied by reading the Omaha World Herald. We have not been contacted by any officials as far as another meeting, and we don't know what will happen next. So this is still hanging over our heads, with an uncertain future decision. That can be so depressing. I was so hoping that Mr. ------ would consider how many people live in the immediate area, and our position on the proposed CAFO, and decide to just farm the land instead. But men are naturally sinful and want their way, and Mr. ------ wants no less!

So, it's not over until the fat lady sings.

Psalm 24

Sing along now; I'm sure you all know how to sing Handel's "Messiah"?

Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
The LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
He is the King of glory.
Psalm 24:7-10

Hog update

I meant to post this last night, but the internet wasn't working. Sorry to keep you all waiting.

This morning was the meeting of the board of Supervisors, to discuss and vote on the hog confinement planned for next door. Dad and Mom both took off from work and the whole family went, except, of course, for our dearly departed sister(dancing in MS) and our brother (independent working man). So we got the boys all dressed in clean clothes and went down to the county court house.

The meeting only lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes, and most of that was made up of us on the opposing side giving our arguments, again. And again, Mr. ------ said very little. His building contractor spoke for him, and one other person, but they didn't have much to say. It was pretty tense- the two speakers were not rude as they were last time, but more forceful. It was implied by the opposing side that we would go to court if the board approved the CAFO. The board members again didn't seem to care about health issues; the reason that seemed to most motivate them to vote against the CAFO was mainly the force and size of the opposition, -us. We were told that on average, in our county there is a livestock operation for every square mile, but this is the first time that there have been so many people living near the proposed site, and that those people have been so strongly against it.

It has been such a weird day!

There were maybe thirty people at the meeting on the opposing side, and only about seven on the other side. The board is made up of seven people, and so we needed four votes against the CAFO to win.


We got five!



We won round two, and we really(really, really, really, really) hope there will not be a round three. There is a strong possibility that Mr. ------ will go to court. So I'm not sure how much we should celebrate, but I am very glad that we won. It was a surprise to us that we actually got five votes. We are all very happy with our district supervisor, who said strait out, "These people are in my district and I'm voting against it." We are all for voting him back in next election day! So now some of the pressure is off. Our neighborhood is having a "celebrate fresh air" party some time next week, and for now we just have to keep our eyes on Mr. ------ and watch for a lawsuit.



I went outside today and I breathed fresh air! Hallelujah! The skies were blue and there was no smell! Thank you, Lord! There is still a plain cornfield next door- I love you, cornfield! I'll never complain about the view again! I love our house, our land, our neighbors, and our God!

Check these blogs out:
Doug's blog
Doug Phillips (of Vision Forum fame) has posted many beautiful and inspiring photos from the celebration of Jamestown's 4ooth birthday.

Duty in the desert
I know I've posted links to these blogs several times before, but I just really appreciate what they have to say. So I'll post them again! This blog also has a link to a BBC video about the Afghan woman, eight months pregnant, who was shot through the stomach. U.S. Soldiers saved her life and the life of her son. I posted a link in the past to another blog that mentioned this; go back and see what he has to say.

My desert adventure has more photos and stories of life over there.

The flower police came by today. Every year the chamber of commerce in our town plops big buckets with various flowers planted in it right by the door of businesses up and down main street. Their goal is to make our town look good, I assume. The businesses are responsible for watering these plants and thus keep them alive. Well, we often forget to water our plant, and I am sure it would languish if it were not for the reminders of the flower police, doing their civic duty by keeping an eye out for the welfare of the flowers.

Our renters are moving out this week. This is both good and bad.
Good: we have the chance to get a better renter, one who actually pays rent and doesn't lie to us, and they made me nervous because of their obvious bad character and shady friends.
Bad: It will be a wonder if we get half of what they owe us from them before they leave.
We really hope our next renter will be a honest, upright, clean sort of person!

Jen called home on Sunday; she is in Mississippi dancing hard, and we probably won't hear from her for a few more days. We hope she is not getting too many blisters and that dancing all day isn't too exhausting!

Summer

We set the pool up last Saturday, and the boys have spent every minute possible out in it. Andrew has been wearing his swimming shorts all day, and he keeps asking if he can go out now. Chores and school get harder to do every day, with the swing and the pool both beckoning.
It's 91 today, and it will be in the 90's all week, so it is good weather for swimming.

We are painting the upstairs hallway. Whew! Caleb and I just did the coat of primer and it almost took us all day. Why do people build such high ceilings? We both got covered with paint, and so did the stairs and woodwork even though they were covered with sheets and newspaper, so we ended up spending the last forty-five minutes scrubbing white spots off the woodwork. It was exhausting and I wish we didn't have to do another coat.

Painting the stairway is just one of the projects on my to-do-before-I-leave list. Even though I have roughly a month and a half before I actually do leave, I feel like time is swiftly fleeting and I won't have time to do all that I need too. I am going to be starting a email list to use for updates on my ministry and learning experience in NC, so if you want to get email updates from me, just let me know. I figure if you don't already have my email address, I don't want to you to know more than I will be posting on my blog, so that shouldn't be a problem. I am planning on putting more personal information in these emails than I will be putting on this blog. Also, I am going to get a new email address soon(before I leave!) so I will be sure to send that out to you close friends as soon as I get it.

Stem cell debate

Gary L. Bauer, Thursday, June 21, 2007

About President Bush’s veto yesterday of the embryonic stem cell research bill:

I happened to be in the East Room of the White House yesterday when the president vetoed the legislation. I’m not happy with several recent decisions by the president – the immigration bill and funding of Fatah being at the top of the list. But on this issue, President Bush is absolutely right. Here’s the truth you won’t hear from the Big Media propagandists.

• The veto does not prevent or block embryonic stem cell research. It does prevent the government from forcing you to pay for it with your tax dollars. The research continues around the country.
  
• Embryonic stem cells are not the only option for life-saving cures. Stem cells from umbilical cords, placentas and amniotic fluid show just as much, and in many cases more, promise for cures. In fact, adult stem cells have actually provided successful treatments for scores of individuals with a variety of illnesses.

The evidence is overwhelming that many of those pushing for the right to destroy human embryos in order to harvest cells have a larger agenda – unregulated human cloning.
The ink from the president’s veto pen was barely dry yesterday by the time Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid and Howard Dean had all condemned the president with the same theme Big Media has used in the last 24 hours: science should not be limited by morality. They are wrong. That is one dangerous idea, my friends.

Founder's Quote Daily:

"The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is
to be laid in religion.  Without this there can be no virtue,
and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the
object and life of all republican governments."

-- Benjamin Rush (On the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic,1806)

I need advice but don't take this as a liscense to wax eloquent

Sometime in the next month I need to:

• Buy a camera. There are so many kinds, it's just mind boggling. I'm looking for a smaller size, Nikon or Canon, that can take short videos, has a good flash, and also is not too expensive. I'm also going to need a battery pack and recharger. Any advice as to what to look for?
• Get an email address. My family tells me that Gmail is the way to go. What other options are there? I've only ever used Surfbest and Netscape.

The camera is hopefully the only one big expense before my trip to Ft. Bragg. Otherwise I think I'm set!

More links and news- don't I think up creative titles?

I like using Biblegateway as a quick way to look up verses as I'm blogging, emailing, or studying, and today I noticed that you can add a "Bible verse of the day" box to your blog from their website. I like the idea, but I'm not sure I want to add Biblegateway's little thingy because it uses all translations of the Bible. I would prefer only NKJ or maybe NASB. Does anyone know where I can find a "Bible verse of the day" box where you can choose your own translation?

Michael Yon has a must read post about the work going on in Iraq. It's really encouraging to hear how hard our soldiers are working to do good over there, and it's good to be reminded that although it's going to be 90 degrees Fahrenheit today in NE, it could be a lot worse. So don't complain!

The Fightin' 6th Marines are up to 3500 emails of encouragement. I still haven't written mine yet but I'm going to, and I encourage you all to do it too.

Some of you might like this: The Military Motivator. Fair warning: there are a few crudities.

Duty in the Desert posted the video from CBS news about the special needs children rescued by U.S. Soldiers just last week. Although the story itself is very sad, it was wonderful to see a major news network showing a story about our men helping Iraqis, as they do every day.

Hog confinement update

Last night Mom, Dad, Caleb and I went to the County Court house to argue our case before the elected officials to try to get them not to approve the hog confinement planned for next door. The more I read and hear about hog confinements, the more I DO NOT want one next to our house. Mainly for health reasons- those hogs are filthy, the chemicals used in raising them are harmful, and both the filth and the chemicals are carried by wind and water to the land for miles around, affecting our health and water for the worse. It's really bad for you!
Plus, I don't want large semis on our roads- it's loud and it's dangerous;
I don't want our property to become worthless; we won't be able to sell it if we ever wanted to.

There are at least ten other families that feel the same way. Like I said, our area has a good amount of acreages around it, more so than other areas of the State. You'd think ten to one would be a good ratio. There were five families opposing the CAFO at the meeting, and we all had a chance to speak to the officials. I'm sorry to say two of those families got angry and were rude in their arguments. Mr. ------, who is planning on building the hog farm, is very young and is upset at us for opposing him, which I can understand to some degree. He was not prepared to speak to us about ways to lower the bad effects on our health, such as filters, windbreaks, etc, in fact, I don't think he cares at all about it, and he seems to believe that hog pens do not at all harm people living nearby. He actually didn't say much at all. His family's main argument was that he is a young man trying to start a business. So what? He should start it somewhere else, where there aren't so many people living nearby. He doesn't even live in this county! He doesn't want to live near this thing!

After we had all had our say and some had said more than they should have, namely the angry people on our side, the board members voted to approve the hog confinement and send it to the board of supervisors. I don't know how they could, with so many people opposing; it's like they just ignored us. So next week we go back to the courthouse to argue our case again, for the final time. It looks bad for us, considering how the leaders are more interested in the money generated by this CAFO then the welfare of the people around it.

But enough gloominess! I know who's in charge here, and He has a perfect plan for this CAFO, whether it goes up or not.

For those of you interested in the arts

Here is a really neat website:
The Gaius Project.
Rarely do you see such a clear, God-centered discussion of the arts. It's so hard to find in these days, where so called "art" displayed in galleries around town are actually crude and profane mockery of this God given talent.

Links

Here's some links to blogs from my favorites list that had some interesting posts I wanted to share with you:

Letters from the desert
"Since November I have received over 2,000 boxes valued at over $100,000 to share with the Soldiers here. You have inundated us with beef jerky, twizzlers, shampoo, dvd's and a host of other items. On behalf of all the guys and gals here, THANK YOU!"

Fightin' 6th Marines
These Marines have requested something that you can give:

"The one thing that all Marines want to know about -- and that includes me and everyone within Regimental Combat Team 6 -- we want to know that the American public are behind us. We believe that the actions that we're taking over here are very, very important to America. We're fighting a group of people that, if they could, would take away the freedoms that America enjoys. If anyone -- you know, just sit down, jot us -- throw us an e- mail, write us a letter, let us know that the American public are behind us. Because we watch the news just like everyone else. It's broadcast over here in our chow halls and the weight rooms, and we watch that stuff, and we're a little bit concerned sometimes that America really doesn't know what's going on over here, and we get sometimes concerns that the American public isn't behind us and doesn't see the importance of what's going on."
Check out the blog- last time I checked they were up to 1500 emails, and they're aiming for 6000.

My Desert Adventure
"I will go out on a politically incorrect wing here and ask the question “is Islam a religion of peace?”"

Richard's deployment to Afghanistan
"Well, we have our youngest patient yet. I don't think they get much younger. This little boy's mother was shot in the abdomen. We saved the mom and delivered the baby, who suffered a minor wound from the bullet. Mom and baby are doing fine, and my staff is enjoying caring for a newborn baby."

Health

The boys caught the flu today, the end result of hanging around too many cute girls. So we are all trying to keep taking medicine to stay healthy. I want to be in good health when I leave for Ft. Bragg, so I've been taking some steps to improve my health, which is alright overall but could be a lot better.
I've changed my morning routine so that I am now taking(daily):

• One spoonful cod liver oil- it's really not that bad.
• One acidophilus pill-supposed to be swallowed whole but I just can't do that.
• One tablespoon chlorophyll in my water- chlorophyll is actually almost tasteless, and therefore easy to take.
• One tablespoon apple cider vinegar in my water- not very tasty, but I can take it.
• About half a cup unsweetened healthy yogurt- it's really pretty sour, but you can get used to it.

And that's my breakfast. It is very filling and takes awhile for me to finish. In the next few weeks I'm hoping to a regular doses of Vitamin C, per the chiropractor's orders, and bowel cleanser, along with a parasite cleanse. That all sounds pretty disgusting, I guess. The one thing I ought to do but just really don't want to, is exercise.

Count it all joy

There's a new development planned to go up the field next to ours....

A hog confinement.

2,500 hogs.

You think, oh gee, that should smell pretty bad, I'm so sorry for you, but you know, it's just cute little pink pigs, and we all like ham, right? Oh, the naivety. Read on, and if that doesn't change your mind, let me tell you- ham is bad for your health because of a host of reasons that I can't list here, and ground beef is cheaper anyway.

Check out this informational article: "a host of recent research is showing that toxic air emissions from these operations can adversely affect human health. In industrial-sized hog farms, the manure accumulates as a liquid in pits beneath the confinement building, or in sewage lagoons outside. Naturally, these putrid pools give off an enormous stench."(emphasis mine)

And this is going up a quarter mile away from our house?!?!?!
But it’s not just a matter of malodor:
"According to a 2002 joint study by Iowa State University and the University of Iowa, the manure pits become anaerobic and putrid, polluting the air with particulate matter and many gases—including ammonia and hydrogen sulfide—that can lead to a wide range of health complaints. Exposure to hydrogen sulfide is known to cause nausea, headaches, diarrhea, and even life-threatening pulmonary edema."
A 1995 North Carolina study (Schiffman and colleagues) found that residents who lived in the vicinity of intensive swine operations reported increased negative mood states, including tension, depression, anger, fatigue, confusion, and reduced vigor."

I'm feeling depression and anger already, so I can vouch for that aspect of it.
I guess I need to go look up pulmonary edema....
(I did, and ugh, it sounds terrible)

A 1997 Iowa study found "farm workers and community residents (next to a hog confinement) reported higher rates of chest tightness, wheezing, runny nose, scratchy throat, burning eyes, headaches, and plugged ears."

Besides that, our property would become practically worthless, and we would stink all the time, as would our house, our clothes, our cars, every crevice of our beings and of our home. To feed these hogs would take one semi a day, plus more semis to haul them away and bring more in, so lots of noisy and somewhat dangerous traffic.

There's a meeting on Monday where we can complain. All the people within several miles of the building site are really upset and don't want it built here. Mom says our biggest ally in the "war on pigs" is that there's a Church and cemetery not even a mile away. Who wants to go to Church and come out smelling like a pig? I bet they would loose a lot of members. The owner of the property just can't understand why we are all against him. I'm hoping that all those annoying little laws that our government thinks up while wasting our money and their time,will keep this nightmare from happening.

At Bible study this morning we were all ready to pull out the imprecatory prayers to blast upon this Mr. ----- and his hogs, but Caleb prayed like the saint he is(heavy sarcasm),

"Lord, help us to count it all joy if the pig farmer wins."

Psalm 16

1 Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.
2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
I have no good besides You."
3 As for the saints who are in the earth,
They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
4 The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied;
I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood,
Nor will I take their names upon my lips.
5 The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You support my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
7 I will bless the LORD who has counseled me;
Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.
8 I have set the LORD continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will dwell securely.
10 For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
11 You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

Time

We use that word a lot.
I don't have enough time to post;
it is time to post;
it is also time to mop the floor again;
it's time for dinner;
there's not enough time in the day.

All of these are true in my current situation.

Every time I have a bit of peace and am able to think up something thoughtful to post, I get distracted by all the things to do yet and I forget what I was going to say. I haven't even been keeping up on the news lately. Mostly, I've been doing the usual housework, planning community volunteer events, and working on my pile of crafts. This week my goal is to make four tricorn hats for the fourth of July celebration. I want to get them done on time!