Bush Hoggin’, More Babies
A warm week for this time of year. We could use a few more April showers. Another batch of newly hatched chicks in the brooder. According to Hallie, we’re up 16 spring calves on the ground.
Amy took all 5 kids with her the Abingdon Farmers Market on Saturday. Sunday afternoon we made our first resting visit of the year to the sycamore shade tree down by the river.
With the skid steer still being rented, I try to stay on it as much as I can clearing fields and bush hogging briars. Shout out to the Circle B Fencing boys lending helping hands when I was in a bind. Lots to love about this life in the valley. Being blessed with good neighbors and a good community ranks near the top of that long list. Having good neighbors is a constant reminder that I need to be a better neighbor.
Trying to get the most use out of the skid steer, I’ve allowed myself to fall behind in other areas. I’ve yet to mow the cabin yards or our barn area this spring. Plan to mow at the cabins today, but the cows beat me to the barn mowing. After rubbing the gate open, a herd of 70 bovine mowers was around our barn area grazing. I guess they knew I was behind, so they insisted on helping their farmer out. Ha.
Keeping the cows moving frequently. The momma cows with little baby calves are the most difficult, enjoyable, and entertaining herd to move. The baby calves are figuring things out just as our kid farmers are figuring things out. Makes for nervous mommas (both Amy and the momma cows) and a proud papa. Though filled with challenges and frustrations, these are the best days.
While bush hogging, I’ve been back and forth between a couple audible books, but nothing more notable than continuing with THE BODY TEACHES THE SOUL by Justin Whitmel Earley.
“Most every health problem we have is more spiritual than we think, and most every emotional problem we have is more physical than we think.”
“In terms of dopamine triggers, sugar is up there with sex, cocaine, and cigarettes. The more addictive the substance, the greater the swings of pleasure and pain are, but the brain mechanism is the same, meaning that if we do not see our food habits as potentially as addictive and dangerous as drug habits, we do not understand our brains or our souls.”
“The takeaway may be blunt and uncomfortable, but it’s best that we face it. I cannot imagine a way we can let God disciple our hearts without letting him disciple our eating. The bad news for us moderns is that this will be especially counter cultural and challenging to put into practice because we live in a world of processed dopamine hacking foods. But the good news is that eating as a spiritual discipline is not a new idea. Christians have long held to the spiritual discipline of fasting and feasting as ways to use food to shape our spirituality. Reclaiming this Christian heritage around eating habits may be more important now than ever.”
“Cook your own meals as often as possible… Strive to buy high quality and local foods even if that means you have to buy less.”
The world is changing more rapidly than it ever has. My desire to preserve and hang on to a simple life leaves me skeptical about how fast technology is changing it. Though I own a smart phone and often use it, I am aware that it along with other modern technologies can bring as much harm into our little world as it can good. The good or bad produced by the fruits of technology often depend on what seeds we are using it to sow.
Earley’s writing was encouraging to me on the topic of AI and modern technology. Our smart phones are complex mechanisms capable of spitting out things we don’t understand. But Earley notes that our brains are the original smartphones.
“God gave us brains that are far vaster than our brains can comprehend.”
In the first chapter of Genesis, “God created mankind in his own image.”
“AI can spit out words, and really good ones, way better than most of us. That makes it zero steps closer to being human… Nothing we can create can ever outdo or replace what God created. That is good news.”
“Modern technology use is our tower of Babel because it tries to make us gods, and it’s killing us instead.”
“We thought we were building a gate of the gods via the smart phone and the internet, but all we got was Babel. What does this have to do with the spirituality of the body? Only everything.”
“I saw how technology was sabotaging the garden of my mind.”
“We must adjust our settings so we hold on to our phones less and hold on to each other more.”
Have a good week.
Will