Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Investing in Food

I've always been a farm boy at heart. I've started listing and reading about all things Permaculture. No, I'm not a woo woo hippy. I think the best solution to a problem is a grass roots solution. Anyway, I will try to bring the following items into my life: 

Twelve design principles

Twelve Permaculture design principles articulated by David Holmgren in his Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability:[16]
  1. Observe and interact: By taking time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.
  2. Catch and store energy: By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance, we can use them in times of need.
  3. Obtain a yield: Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing.
  4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.
  5. Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature's abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.
  6. Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
  7. Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
  8. Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
  9. Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.
  10. Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
  11. Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
  12. Creatively use and respond to change: We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from sin and set us free. Amen!'

Thursday, May 30, 2013

We’re Looking at It Wrong: ‘One of the Most Influential People in America’ Explains How Culture Really Changes

Bestselling author Andy Andrews explained on TheBlaze TV Tuesday that many of us are looking at society’s problems upside down.
Having spoken at the request of four different United States presidents and hailed by the New York Times as “one of the most influential people in America,” Andrews has a unique perspective on honor and culture.
In many of the places he speaks, he said, from private corporations to with men in the armed forces, people are concerned about shaping their culture.  They want a culture of hard work, a culture of honor, etc.
But what Andrews asserted is that no matter where you are, you already have an established culture.  While many have big picture ideas to shape or change it, it’s actually a much more delicate process, he stated.
People have to change not only their actions and decisions — they have to change their thinking. 
“Our choices and our decisions are evidence of our decisions, a product of our thinking,” he said.
From there, your decisions lead to an action, “even if that action is to do nothing,” and those actions lead to results “always and forever.”  Those results form a giant ring that spill into and shape your culture.
“We’ve got to get people thinking about thinking, frankly,” he said, because it’s not just what you think about, but what you don’t think about, that’s significant.
Watch Andrews’ entire interview on TheBlaze TV for more:
Beck devoted almost his entire Tuesday program to restoring society’s honor, telling moving story about a 94-year-old man whose father was a wagon freighter in the late 1800′s.
Do you know the real meaning behind the words “yee” and “haw,” or what it meant to return “with bells on”?
Watch the entire segment to find out, below: