Vidalia Sweet Onions and Grace Abounding

/ Bill Jones / 4 Comments
Vidalia Onions Ready For Harvest

Vidalia Onions Ready for Harvest

This is the field across the road from our house. It was a pasture for 20 or more years until early this year. They plowed it up, installed an irrigation pivot and planted Vidalia Sweet Onions. In this photo, they have been “undercut” to bring them out of the ground, and the roots and tops were cut off by hand. They’re ready to be put in bins, which are loaded by fork lifts onto tractor trailer rigs and shipped out. 

We didn’t count them, but the trucks were moving in and out for 3 or 4 days in order to get all the onions. We definitely could tell there was a field of onions laying there from the smell that came across when the wind blew our way.

Reminds me of the Israelites complaining that they had no onions like they had in Egypt. They were remembering some small things and forgetting their rescue from captivity. We can remember that even a field full of onions doesn’t compare to the freedom that Christ has won for us!  

“We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.” Numbers 11:5 ESV

Helping “Young” Christians

/ Bill Jones / 2 Comments
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) logo

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Speed dating

  I tried a form of speed dating in Atlanta a few weeks ago (please keep reading, it’s not exactly what you think). I checked the “available” list and filled out my “matchmaking” schedule ahead of time as required. The room was filled with 40 or 50 tables. Each session gave 15 minutes at a table – time to present your good qualities and hear about the other’s activities and plans – then move on to another table.

            My first date was with the Corps of Engineers’ Mobile District (What? Surely, you didn’t think I was really speed dating!). We made introductions and a few seconds of small talk, then, jumped right in to the “date”. As the two representatives read our consulting engineering company’s capabilities statement, they quickly moved into the “it’s not you, but it’s me” speech – “sorry, we don’t purchase engineering services – they come through so and so.” But, they did regret the situation, and they committed to passing the information along to “so and so”. I thanked them for their time and help, and we pleasantly parted company.  

            The rest of the sessions throughout the day were a mixture of results. Some echoed the first one, some were moderately promising, and a few stood out as a good match worth pursuing.

The matchmaking sessions were part of a Small Business conference sponsored by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps, other government agencies like Homeland Security, and large (read that huge) prime contractors were looking for small businesses to help them out. The small businesses, like us, were looking for work.

Our company, and especially me, are newcomers to this government contracting – so far, not really sure we want to get heavily involved. There are so many buzz words and acronyms it sounds like gibberish at times. Finding the right person or people to talk with for help isn’t an obvious process.

Surprisingly, the fifteen minute sessions were helpful. At each one, I learned more. The people on the other side of the table were knowledgeable and wanted to help. They simplified terms, asked and answered questions for clarification, and took me a little farther on the journey toward understanding.

If we’re “experienced” Christians we should keep those thoughts in mind. We can ramble off into buzzwords (Christianese as it’s sometimes called) and provide confusion instead of help to those coming along behind us. Instead, we need to make sure they know we’re willing and able to assist them, and take time (even fifteen minutes is good) and ask and answer questions for clarification. Our responsibility is to use those fifteen minutes, not for speed dating, but to take them a little farther on the journey toward understanding.

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 1 Thessalonians 5:14 ESV

The Resurrection Fern Was Resurrected!

/ Bill Jones / 5 Comments
Resurrection Fern dried out

Resurrection Fern Dried Out

(Since, this time of year, there is a lot going on in the garden, around the yard and everywhere outside, I thought I’d add another post earlier in the week that will just be a photo or two, and some comments and/or Scripture. My longer posts will continue to be on Fridays. Let me know what you think.)

Thankfully we had some good rain last week. The Lord blessed us, and we were revived. The resurrection fern in the pecan tree out front also showed its appreciation and greened up nicely.

At the top you see the “dead” picture taken in early May. Since we didn’t have much rain to speak of in May, it looked worse than this before the rain last week.

Here’s the fern the morning after soaking up a real rain the night before. We all felt revived because of the rain.

Resurrection Fern after a rain

Reserrection Fern after a rain

“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”  Isaiah 57:15 ESV

Those Crafty Cardinals

/ Bill Jones / 5 Comments
Cardinal nest with eggs

Cardinal nest with eggs

I’ve never thought of cardinals as crafty and clever birds, but when it comes to something good to eat, I found they will go to great lengths to get it.

Several years ago I planted six blueberry bushes in the backyard. The next year they were large enough to bear fruit, so I kept checking them during the spring days. I was excited during the weeks as the berries turned from green to purple. Finally, one Saturday, I declared that the next weekend would be blueberry picking time. The bushes were still small and there weren’t a lot of berries, but I still looked forward to having some from our own bushes.

I didn’t have time during the week to check them, but, on Saturday morning, I went out in high anticipation with my bowl ready. My jaw dropped and my heart sank when I found the bushes empty. During that week, the birds, (mostly cardinals around our house) had helped themselves and cleaned them out.

The next year and several years after that I put up PVC pipe to make a frame and put netting over the bushes. I used twist ties to put the sections of netting together and attach it to the frame. That would work for a while, but after a week or two I would look out the back door and see a bird in the bushes, about to kill itself trying to get out the netting. I’d open up the entrance way and shoo him out. As the season went on and the birds seemed to get smarter, I would have to let a bird out 2 or 3 times a day.

            Each time I would look around for holes in the netting. Sometimes the pvc had shifted or leaned and left a gap. Sometimes the pins holding the netting to the ground had come loose. I did watch to see how the birds got in. One day I saw one jump off the pvc onto the top netting. The bird’s weight caused a seam to open between two sections and he hopped through it.

Last year, I built a sturdy frame of 4X4’s and 2X4’s to hold the netting, including a 2X4 runner at ground level. I stapled the netting to the wood, and used squeeze-on clips to connect the pieces of netting. That kept them out until the last week or two of harvest season, when I noticed a couple of rabbits inside the netting and found that they had chewed holes in it. The birds followed them through those, but also figured out if they flapped hard enough on the netting in some places they could work their way between two overlapped pieces and get in.

When I built the frame and installed the netting, I set it up to be able to roll the netting up and secure it with cable ties to uncover the bushes (for easier access for me and the bees). After last season, I did that, and the netting has been rolled up since then. (you can see a picture on last week’s blog)

The flowers came and the berries began filling out on the bushes – hopefully for a good crop for this year. So, last Saturday, I decided it was time to lower the netting, staple it to the runner, and put a strip of chicken wire at the bottom to keep the rabbits from chewing holes.

As I neared the bushes, a cardinal flew out. I looked to make sure there weren’t any others there, and let out an “oh, no!” at what I saw. I moved closer and thought “maybe not, maybe not”. But, then I stood on tippy-toe and peered into the nest I had found. There were three cardinal eggs in the nest.

As I said, “crafty and clever” describes a cardinal. This one went so far as to build a nest and lay eggs, knowing that I couldn’t lower the netting and separate them (and the blueberries) from the mother bird. What a devious plan – but, maybe the little ones will hatch and be out of the nest before the berries are completely ripe. We shall see.

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13.

We can learn from the cardinals’ diligence (without the need for any craftiness or cleverness) in finding what they were seeking. As the verse says, if we search for God with all our heart, we will find him. He has always been there and always will be.