Actually, the dust (driveway) bit the Catalpa. Catalpa wood isn’t strong, and this one shattered when it hit. The day, Wed., 2/11, brought high winds(gusting up to 40 mph), and a short but heavy storm. This is always a bad recipe for old trees. The ground gets saturated, the wind blows, and the roots come out. Much of our 1/2 mile front avenue was once bordered by Catalpas, now probably 100 years old. A wind shear a few years back took out 5 in close proximity to each other, and other storms have claimed a few more. Continue reading “Another Catalpa tree bites the dust”
The surprise that almost wasn’t
In the midst of Iceland, we had been making surreptitious plans with Rainey (Sarah’s husband), to come down and surprise her for her birthday. The ice threw a kink into those plans. Serena volunteered to stay home to look after things, since she had to work Friday, anyway. But we weren’t comfortable leaving her when it involved kerosene heaters and generators. Enter our wonderful cousin, John Graham, who lives in Shelbyville. He agreed to come out and be with Serena during the nights, and help her oversee the mechanical devices that were powering and heating the house. His wife, Ann, took Serena to work Friday, after Serena hiked down to the end of the avenue. (By then, we’d had a few more inches of snow over the ice to make the driveway even more treacherous.) More on that in a minute. Continue reading “The surprise that almost wasn’t”
Encased in ICE
This year has been busy happening, and my posts haven’t, so I’m going to try to catch up today. The biggest recent happening (and the coldest, most destructive and pestiferous) was the now famous ice storm that swept over 6 states — KY being about in the middle. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Oh, we’ve had sleet. It left a beautiful icing on the trees for the sun to set asparkle, and maybe resulted in a lot of small twigs falling to the ground. We had one of those late in 2004.
Raise that kind of storm several exponential powers! Continue reading “Encased in ICE”
Starwars- All Terrain Armored Transport- NOW!!
Remember? 
I remember clearly when I first saw them on the screen. Now Boston Dynamics has developed something that actually is them, and the possibilities are both amazing and frightening. No laser canons, nothing as big as an office building… yet.
It’s below the fold– watch it! Continue reading “Starwars- All Terrain Armored Transport- NOW!!”
Globally inconvenient- we protest!
Big Fix? A renowned environmental consultant says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been cooking the 
books on global warming. Former University of Winnipeg Climatology Professor Dr. Tim Ball writes in the Canada Free Press, “The only place where CO2 is causing temperature increase is in the IPCC computer models.”
He says the IPCC has a habit of releasing computer model summaries before climate studies are even completed. He says by doing this, “The summary gets maximum media attention and becomes the public understanding of what the scientists said… they create an appearance of certainty about a human cause of [global] warming.”
Adding, “The computer models themselves are completely inadequate to represent global climate… but don’t believe me. The IPCC technical report released in 2007, says so.”
Finally, as if to drive home the point, my buddy Bob in Cincinnati sent this picture of a global warming protest attended by hundreds of … snowmen!
Pestiferous
Ahh… now that’s a word!
In a technical sense, it means to bring or spread disease. When I saw it used on a recent blog post, however, that wasn’t what came to mind. Rather, I was thinking about a combination of “pernicious, evil” and “annoying or troublesome”, all alternative uses. Here’s a partial list of my choices:
- Media lies- great distortions of some important truth, endlessly repeated to push a destructive agenda. “It’s not a baby, it’s a fetus” comes to mind.
- Pornography is all it’s forms- the beauty and joy of marriage turned into poison.
- Consumer debt for depreciating things- buy what you can’t afford today while hoping you will win the lottery next week.
- My sins- the bad habits I can’t seem to break, and especially the unnoticed failings which offend God or hurt others.
- Mosquitoes- precisely!
What do you think? For some inspiration, click on the link above and then click on the “Hear” button. Just the sound of it should help you build your own list…
Vanessa- an update
Vanessa Liu, our Chinese guest for Christmas, left yesterday, and we miss her so much! As planned, we took her to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY last Wed. The exhibits are both comprehensive and impressive, and Vanessa mostly listened, kept her Chinese dictionary at the ready, and seemed to enjoy herself. She saw and heard many things that were new to her. At supper the next day, we had a long discussion about “faith in evolution” vs. faith in Christ, and she restated her commitment to evolutionary beliefs. Those are, we believe, the major impediment to her conversion, since she has been taught them constantly since childhood. The good news is that she now has the other side, presented thoughtfully and respectfully. In addition, she participated in giving and receiving gifts (I got a quill and ink set, for instance), attended many church services, went dancing with us on New Year’s Eve, spent several hours discussing his trip to China with our cousin, John Graham and even did some target practice. As we parted, and some of us were close to tears, she stressed that she wanted us to visit her in China. I hope we can! 🙂
Here are some pictures of our adventures together: Continue reading “Vanessa- an update”
Our gift from China at Christmas
We have a special gift with us this Christmas. Vanessa Liu, our daughter’s Chinese roommate at OSU, has come to stay over the holidays,
and in only a few days she has become dear to our hearts. (Here she is with Rene, her friend from OSU who brought her down.) We talk about China & America, the ways our two cultures are different or the same, and why we do all the things we do. She has been helping clean and decorate some, she went to the ornament exchange with the CPC ladies Mon. night, and yesterday she had fun feeding the chickens. She will join us in gift giving and receiving on Christmas day, and be at a big family dinner this Sat. Though she doesn’t understand much of it, she has also joined us in corporate & family worship.
This Sun. evening past we had Continue reading “Our gift from China at Christmas”
I was wrong…
and I hereby admit it. I always assumed that Paul Krugman (NY Times Op-Ed Columnist) was a wacko leftist radical whose opinions were fun to laugh at but hardly ever to be taken seriously. Then I read this. Folks, the man is making some sense here. Madoff is clearly the worst kind of financial scumbag– he deserves hard labor in a rock quarry where all the people he ripped off get to come throw rocks at him. Yet, it’s hard to rebutt Krugman’s argument that large sections of the financial industry deserve, in some sense, the same fate. Here’s the point I am honing in on– Continue reading “I was wrong…”
Do not farm
Almost 200 years ago our family came to this area to start farming. My information on the first 75 years is sketchy; about all I’m sure of is that they didn’t move to our present location until the 1840s, when my great, great grandfather built the “old place” now restored by the Paul Hornback family. In all that time, there were many ups and downs for farming, and no doubt many pessimists. Nevertheless, we’re still here, growing mostly crops and a little jet fuel.
Victor Davis Hanson is a conservative commentator I respect, who is widely read and very well educated. He is a college professor, and a farmer. Here is what he Continue reading “Do not farm”