Time flies and summer is over. The cooler fall weather means harvest and also better growing condition for cool weather crops. I planted some beets and lettuces in early September. Here we are harvesting some fresh vegetables in our garden.
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Swiss Chard |
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Savoy Cabbage.
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Kale. Kale can stand frost pretty good.
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Last year we posted that we got 2 air rifles for the family. Since then the kids enjoyed the shootings from times at tin cans. As I mentioned in that post, we need the real stuff to kill off racoons and pests, so I went for Firearms Safety course in May and I got my license after 3 month's wait. The first rifle I now possess is a Remington 597 semi-automatic .22 LR. It is affordable comparing to other brands. However, I would have to build or buy a bullet trap to collect the bullet heads because they are made of lead. I would like to get lead-free ones but I can't find them locally. I might add to the collection someday a .30-30 when Joshua is older so he can inherit the .22LR.
Derek was given the opportunity to preach at his home church Keswick Christian Church last Sunday. He gave a message on "Family in Danger".
Most people love honey. God gave the Israels a land flowing with milk and honey. There is no doubt that unpasteurized and organic honey has great benefit on us. In addition bees are vitally important in agriculture. Without their hard work, pollination would be greatly hindered and consequently we might not get apples, pears, strawberries, squashes….
A recent acquaintance Michael is an experienced bee keeper. He was looking for a place to relocate his bees and we thought this is great opportunity to learn and watch how beekeeping is done. It is an amazing experience. We see how the hives and internal frames are constructed. We see firsthand what a queen, drone or working bee looks like. We learn that you can safely handle the bees most of the time without any protection, although I did get stung.
The bees are a wonderful gift from the Lord. The highly organized hexagonal honeycomb speaks out loud and clear that there is a Master Creator that gives the bees the ability to build such an amazing structure. From Wikipedia, the hexagonal shape means high geometric efficiency. There is no way the evolution theory which talks about randomness and chances could give rise to such supreme structure. Only wisdom from God can achieve that.
We are waiting for the wonderful honey the be enjoyed at the end of summer! Yum yum.
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The mother rabbit was pregnant again this spring and gave birth to 4 baby bunnies. In April, she gave birth to 5 bunnies but the weather was not warm enough and they all died. Things are different this time. All of them survived and grown into cute little bunny. All of us are happy to see new lives being brought forth by God and Tiffany is the proudest of all because she takes care of the rabbits everyday, rain or shine.
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Some people say you can predict what a child would become when he is very young. Well, it seems to us that Joshua might become a great preacher or politician when he comes to age!?! Thanks to the training of 6 big sisters everyday.
We have decided to build a see-saw for our children. We are going to show you the basic steps how to accomplish this. It is very simple and cost around $50. Your kids will LOVE the see-saw built by dads. Email us if you need advice or tips.
With the size of our family ever increasing, we decided to open a new garden area. This time, we will not use the Sqaure Foot Gardening method; rather we would follow the Wood Chips path. The new area is behind the original house and it is a relatively flat ground. So everyone helps to lay down newspaper, shovel compost and wood chips. Then Dad pull the materials in the trailer with the tractor.
We are going to plant space demanding plants first: squash, pumpkin, watermelon and melon.
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This is our new garden! |
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| Cantaloupe. |
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| Pumpkin. |
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| Spaghetti Squash. |
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| Watermelon. I am skeptical if we can grow watermelon successfully here because of our short summer. Giving that watermelon from the south cost less than $4 during summer, this is more or less an experiment. |
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Recently some friends sent us a link to a documentary film about gardening. It is called Back to Eden. You can watch it for free online. This is an eye-opening film that “shares the story of one man’s lifelong journey, walking with God and learning how to get back to the simple, productive methods of sustainable provision that were given to man in the garden of Eden. The organic growing system that has resulted from Paul Gautschi’s incredible experiences has garnered the interest of visitors from around the world.“
We are so inspired by Paul’s submission and willingness to follow God that we examine why we have not had the success in our gardens since we moved to the country. As readers of this blog can browse through our timeline of our garden each hear, we have tried many different “systems”. But I always feel that I am a slave to the garden. Weed, pest, drought, clay soil, frost ….are all against me. Now I realize that I am fighting the battle all by myself, depending on men’s knowledge. I never asked God how to farm. I always looked up books and the Internet.
Paul has taught us again that we should always go back to the Creator, the Holy One who creates everything, including the garden. Who knows better than the Lord how to grow a plant? Thank you Lord for showing us an important truth: ask for wisdom. Jesus never holds back His abundant blessings on those who trust and obey Him, even in planting the garden.
We found a recycling company who gives away free wood chips so I have been hauling my small trailer once a week on my way to work to pick them up. It is hard work and everytime I can only get a small amount. But I am very grateful that I can get this for free.
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Wood chips in the trailer. |
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| Wood chips dumping beside our garden. |  |
| Wood chips applying around our fruit trees. Hopefully we can start to get some fruits next year. We have watied for 5 years! |  |
| Before applying wood chips on grass, remember to lay several layers thick of newspaper. If you are going to start from scratch and plant, be sure to also lay some soil in between the newspaper and woodchips. |  |
If you are a Christian parent and you send your children to public school, you need to watch this documentary film by Colin Gunn (http://indoctrinationmovie.com/). I know most of you don’t know or have never thought about home education. For those of us who came from Hong Kong, homeschooling is illegal and all of us went to public school. Therefore it is perfectly natural for us to send our children to public school. Afterall, we turn out pretty good.
However, have you ever ask yourselves these questions regarding “school”:
1. Where and when did the idea of public school start?
2. Who was behind the agenda of public education?
3. What does the Scripture require of Christian parents when it comes to education?
4. We heard about violence, drugs and pre-marital sex rampant among high school students. Why can’t the teachers do something about them?
5. Why do I keep allowing my children to attend public school where they teach evolutionary, anti-Christian and anti-God values?
6. Why do 80-90 per cent of evangelical Christian young adults leave the faith of their parents after graduation from high school?
In the film “Indoctrination”, Colin attempts to address these important issues.
Before watching this film, I thought homeschooling is preferable for a Christian family. However, after this movie, it dawns on me that there really is no choice when it comes to education for our next generation. If we send our children to public school, we basically give up our God given responsibility and privileges and turn them over to the government. Now, we all know our government and public school “experts” are mostly anti-God humanists who believe in evolution, not creation. For those who live in Ontario, the provincial government is trying to impose perverted sex education curriculum as early as grade 1. In Quebec, they force you to take Religious Culture course which basically claims all religions are equal. In Alberta, they are trying to pass a law to prohibit parents from teaching their children homosexual act is a sin according to the Word of God.
Let us do some simple math here. Assume a child goes to school from grade 1 to grade 12. He is in the public system for an average of 7 hours (more or less) a day, 5 days a week. The minimum school days required is 194 according to Ontario Ministry of Eduation. Therefore, the total number of hours your child spends at school when he graduates is:
7 hours x 194 x 12 = 16296 hours
In these 16296 hours, he is constantly bombarded with evolutionary worldviews, pro-homosexual agendas, New Age ideas, humanistic and feministic worldviews. His teachers and peers keep telling him that there is no God or faith is no longer important in this modern age. If your child tries to pray or even read the Bible at school, he is warned by the principal that religion has no place at school. He would be ridiculed and mocked by his peers if he ever brings up the name “Jesus Christ” in a positive way.
Now, let’s do the math again to find out the time of Christian education your child receives if you send them to public schools. We make the following arbitrary assumptions:
· Both of the parents are working 8 hours a day and therefore only have maximum 4 hours to see their kids every weeknight
· The father leads the family bible time at night for 30 mins. With our busy schedule, I assume a diligent father can have 5 family bible times every week.
· Brings the children to church and Sunday school every week for 3 hours
· Bible study in cell group format for 1 hours every week.
So your child is exposed to Christianity for (in terms of hours in 12 years of public education):
(.5 hours x 5 + 3 + 1) x 52 x 12 = 4056 hour
In conclusion, your child has 4 times more (16296 vs 4056) influence from secular, anti-God sources than biblical ones. If we also take into consideration of the hours your child watches TV, plays video games, surfs the Internet and “hangs out” with his peers, the number is even more terrifying.
With this in mind, it is a no brainer that why Christianity is in decline. Fathers, beside your wife, your children should be your primary ministry. We see broken families everywhere. Without strong families it is impossible to have strong churches. Homeschooling should really be named “Home Discipleship”. It is a way of life. We are required by God to train up our children and make them disciples of Jesus Christ. How can we do that if we only see them for a couple of hours a day? How can we do that if we allow so many non-Christian teachers and students influencing them every day?
Parents, please ponder on this matter seriously because your decision would affect your children and your children’s children eternally. You can either destroy them by handing them over to the government or build them up in the Lord. Let us think about what the Lord said:
Deut 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
We all know that our children learn mostly by observing others’ actions, not words. If they only see us for a couple of hours a day, how can they learn to be a good Christian? On the other hand, you shouldn’t be surprised when they turn out to be like the world because they are simply following others’ examples at school. Of course, homeschooling does not guarantee your children will turn out to be faithful Christians. However, I believe the probabilities are much higher than sending them to school. Most importantly, we home educating our children because we want to obey God.