As we get acclimated to our new home, from the country to The Country, an old nemesis has reared its' ugly, unseen head......the dreaded chigger. Even Karen has been exposed to them as she is doing some of the watering duties. I have been overwhelmed with the little pests over the past few weeks and am beginning to look like a goalie at a dart game. Thus, the search for new, and more effective remedies.
While shopping for a hummingbird feeder, after the squirrels nearly destroyed the one left by the prior owners, I was exposed to sulfur and the sulfur sock as a new and powerful weapon against chiggers. I will implement that weapon along with DEET when I venture into the wilds of rural Holiday Island.
We are working hard to make our new house a home, learning more about living in the woods and how to overcome obstacles we never thought we would have to face, let alone, overcome. We have decided this is where we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to be doing, so with God's help and some increased spunk, we will do it.......and we will prevail. Above all..........resist the urge to scratch........
Sent from my iPad
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Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Saturday, June 27, 2020
June 27, 2020. Eureka Springs, AR. Happy Born Again Day
I've written before about June 27, 1999 when I accepted Jesus into my life. The 21 years since then have been an exceptional journey and it seems to get more interesting and blessed as we continue to follow Him and the path He sets before us.
The devotional in Streams in the Desert for this date is so appropriate for me and it would be well worth you looking it up and being strengthened by it in your walk with The Lord. To summarize: The Lord is my strength to go on
The Lord is my strength to go up
The Lord is my strength to go down
The Lord is my strength to sit still
The Lord is my strength.......
Take a few minutes, look it up online or in the copy on your shelf. I pray it inspires and uplifts you as it does me.......every year when I read it............on my Special Day.
Thank You, Lord.
Sent from my iPad
The devotional in Streams in the Desert for this date is so appropriate for me and it would be well worth you looking it up and being strengthened by it in your walk with The Lord. To summarize: The Lord is my strength to go on
The Lord is my strength to go up
The Lord is my strength to go down
The Lord is my strength to sit still
The Lord is my strength.......
Take a few minutes, look it up online or in the copy on your shelf. I pray it inspires and uplifts you as it does me.......every year when I read it............on my Special Day.
Thank You, Lord.
Sent from my iPad
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
June 24, 2020. Holiday island, AR. Are We Having Fun Yet?
At the Passion Play we work long hours and perform a wide variety of tasks. At the end of the day we look back at the events of the day, go to bed tired but anxious to do it all again tomorrow. My head hit the pillow at about midnight at our cabin in Holiday Island and I was anticipating a day of enjoying our new home, doing a few easy chores, meeting with someone who I wanted to help control the humidity in our house, have our televisions hooked up to the Dish and get to bed at a reasonable hour.
It really didn't work out as planned and a few issues popped up which caused some anxious moments and we are at 6:30 still waiting for the Dish guy. I had to dig a hole to find a water leak, will have a friend help me with the fix tomorrow, and still be able to have water and a much-needed shower tonight. We spent a lot more money on the humidity thing, but way less than I expected to update our heating, cooling and dehumidity situation, learned some interesting hints about high speed internet, boosting our cell phone reception, animals we need to protect ourselves from in the. country and a host of other practical things and contacts who will enhance our cabin experience. Karen and Jinny worked all day on indoor cleaning, laundry, putting things "away", planning for a major shopping adventure in Rogers tomorrow and we are still waiting on the Dish guy. We may get to sleep at midnight again. Quite a day of rest. Are we having fun yet? You bet your boots we are!! And looking forward to doing it all again early tomorrow. You know..........God is GOOD.
Sent from my iPad
It really didn't work out as planned and a few issues popped up which caused some anxious moments and we are at 6:30 still waiting for the Dish guy. I had to dig a hole to find a water leak, will have a friend help me with the fix tomorrow, and still be able to have water and a much-needed shower tonight. We spent a lot more money on the humidity thing, but way less than I expected to update our heating, cooling and dehumidity situation, learned some interesting hints about high speed internet, boosting our cell phone reception, animals we need to protect ourselves from in the. country and a host of other practical things and contacts who will enhance our cabin experience. Karen and Jinny worked all day on indoor cleaning, laundry, putting things "away", planning for a major shopping adventure in Rogers tomorrow and we are still waiting on the Dish guy. We may get to sleep at midnight again. Quite a day of rest. Are we having fun yet? You bet your boots we are!! And looking forward to doing it all again early tomorrow. You know..........God is GOOD.
Sent from my iPad
Sunday, June 21, 2020
June 21, 2020. Eureka Springs, AR. Country Folk
Karen grew up in rural Colorado and Utah. I was an Eastern city boy. The past years in the motor home we learned a lot about "roughing it" and at The Passion Play we acquired a lot of outdoor skills. With the arrival of our furniture and other personal items in Arkansas this past week, we can now qualify as country folk. Karen and her sister will be full time at the cabin, while I split time between the cabin and the RV and my Passion Play teaching and acting duties.
Already, the cabin is beginning to take on a home-like appearance and the girls will continue to clean, organize, paint, and handle the indoor stuff while I handle the outside duties of clearing brush, watering, weeding, setting up the work/storage shed, outside painting and critter control. At the moment the squirrels are winning the battle of the bird feeders, but I have only begun to fight. The hummingbirds seem happy, but the birds are not getting their fair share of the bird seed. We will try some different style feeders and hot-pepper seed, to give them the upper hand over the squirrels. We are open to suggestions.
We like it here. We are at the end of a county road with no houses past us, so NO vehicle traffic, no traffic noise from the roads nearby, no motorcycles, no air traffic, and only the sounds of nature, a babbling man-made brook and coi pond outside our bedroom/walk-out deck. We feel so fortunate to have come to this season of life with the freedom we have to serve God as He has directed us; waiting expectantly for what He has ahead for us. Thank y'all for your encouragement and support. We'all are thrilled.
Sent from my iPad
Already, the cabin is beginning to take on a home-like appearance and the girls will continue to clean, organize, paint, and handle the indoor stuff while I handle the outside duties of clearing brush, watering, weeding, setting up the work/storage shed, outside painting and critter control. At the moment the squirrels are winning the battle of the bird feeders, but I have only begun to fight. The hummingbirds seem happy, but the birds are not getting their fair share of the bird seed. We will try some different style feeders and hot-pepper seed, to give them the upper hand over the squirrels. We are open to suggestions.
We like it here. We are at the end of a county road with no houses past us, so NO vehicle traffic, no traffic noise from the roads nearby, no motorcycles, no air traffic, and only the sounds of nature, a babbling man-made brook and coi pond outside our bedroom/walk-out deck. We feel so fortunate to have come to this season of life with the freedom we have to serve God as He has directed us; waiting expectantly for what He has ahead for us. Thank y'all for your encouragement and support. We'all are thrilled.
Sent from my iPad
Thursday, June 18, 2020
June 18, 2020. Eureka Springs, AR. Bigger Barns
We tend to accumulate things as we move through life. Karen and her sister, Jinny, had the storage unit contents from Colorado loaded on Tuesday and then drove for two days to have Steve and I unload it this afternoon. I was surprised at how much we had, since Karen had given a lot of stuff away and left much of it for the new owner of our Fort Collins house. Our new cabin is less square footage with fewer bedrooms, and as we worked and piled a lot into a little area, I thought of the rich fool who had so much he planned to tear down his barns and build bigger ones to prepare for the years ahead. But God had other plans, and it was not for a long life, but to take the fool's life and all his wealth from him..........right then and there.
Thinking we didn't have enough to "furnish" our new home, I proposed that at our housewarming we ask everyone to bring a piece of furniture they no longer were using and we would use it or donate it. It seems more likely, we have more than we need and may have stuff to give away to our housewarming guests. No bigger barns for us. We are thrilled with the "downsize" from Colorado, but also thrilled that we will be "upsizing" from our motor home of the past 6+ years. It has served, and will continue to serve, us well as we continue with our ministry efforts at TGPP. How blessed we are. You know what I'm going to say, in closing..........THANK YOU, LORD.
Sent from my iPad
Thinking we didn't have enough to "furnish" our new home, I proposed that at our housewarming we ask everyone to bring a piece of furniture they no longer were using and we would use it or donate it. It seems more likely, we have more than we need and may have stuff to give away to our housewarming guests. No bigger barns for us. We are thrilled with the "downsize" from Colorado, but also thrilled that we will be "upsizing" from our motor home of the past 6+ years. It has served, and will continue to serve, us well as we continue with our ministry efforts at TGPP. How blessed we are. You know what I'm going to say, in closing..........THANK YOU, LORD.
Sent from my iPad
Monday, June 15, 2020
June 15, 2020. Eureka Springs,AR. And Miles to Go Before I Sleep
Robert Frost penned these words when he was about 50 years old and he lived another 40, or so, years. The words looked at life and death, things completed and things still to be completed. As Karen and I begin a new chapter in our lives, we are well past 50, but we feel there are still things God has for us to do. With our cabin/ property 8.5 miles from The Passion Play, we will be splitting our time between both places and that represents a major change for us.
For the past 6+years we have lived on the premises of where we volunteered and were not only always on call, but within walking distance of our " job". Now we will be going back and forth from the east side of Eureka Springs to the North side of Holiday Island with different zip codes, but the same city as our mailing address. Neither "city" has a traffic light. But, travel we will and once we have the cabin in shape, we will be a two-household family and won't have to transport much from place to place except my CPAP machine which helps me get enough oxygen while I'm sleeping.
I slept at the cabin last night for the first time, while Karen was in Colorado arranging to have our stored belongings trucked to Arkansas.....with Karen driving the truck. There were some new noises, a frog who needed a CPAP to help with his snoring, and deep-woods darkness like we experienced in Deep East Texas. The cabin is a dream and we are going to love it, along with all the chores and projects we have planned for it.
I'm sure we will adapt to the "miles" we will travel, the new regimen and a lighter work schedule at the Play on non-performance days. And I know God has more things in store for us in the miles which are ahead. After all.......it is the Ministry of Miles. Appropriate name when we started it and still appropriate now.
Sent from my iPad
For the past 6+years we have lived on the premises of where we volunteered and were not only always on call, but within walking distance of our " job". Now we will be going back and forth from the east side of Eureka Springs to the North side of Holiday Island with different zip codes, but the same city as our mailing address. Neither "city" has a traffic light. But, travel we will and once we have the cabin in shape, we will be a two-household family and won't have to transport much from place to place except my CPAP machine which helps me get enough oxygen while I'm sleeping.
I slept at the cabin last night for the first time, while Karen was in Colorado arranging to have our stored belongings trucked to Arkansas.....with Karen driving the truck. There were some new noises, a frog who needed a CPAP to help with his snoring, and deep-woods darkness like we experienced in Deep East Texas. The cabin is a dream and we are going to love it, along with all the chores and projects we have planned for it.
I'm sure we will adapt to the "miles" we will travel, the new regimen and a lighter work schedule at the Play on non-performance days. And I know God has more things in store for us in the miles which are ahead. After all.......it is the Ministry of Miles. Appropriate name when we started it and still appropriate now.
Sent from my iPad
Friday, June 12, 2020
June 12, 2020. Eureka Springs, AR. What’s Wrong With This Picture?
First of all, there is no picture. I'm trying to make sense of what is happening in our country, and I can't. We grieve over the death of a man pinned to the ground by an overzealous policeman, but we tolerate rioting, looting, senseless violence. We forget about the seasonal flu deaths which may have reached 62,000 this past year, but have been paralyzed by a flu strain we have seen umpteen times before. We mourn the death of a high profile athlete, but forget about the untold lives lost on our nation's highways each year. Every life counts. Every death counts, too.
We try to censor a current President and look for ways to insure his not being re-elected, but let a former President (who had many issues over his 8 years) to have open access in the media. We say ".....lives matter" yet we have allowed over 60 million abortions in the past 47 years, and seek ways to allow use of public funds to abort even more "lives". We have seen our country being ruled by the "fear factor" because facts and truth are so hard to find and poles apart when we do find them.
I can go to the beach, get a haircut or tattoo, but I can't go to church. I can eat food from a market or in a restaurant, but where is is it made and is it safer than it was before, when we had food poisoning, bad lettuce, bad melons, bad ice cream, or metal or plastic in it?
We are living in troubled times. We have always lived in troubled times. But now we're trying to manufacture a society which offends no one. We are trying to act like there was no American Civil War, that the Confederate lives lost in that war cannot be honored; that while they died for what they believed, that cause was immoral and not not something to be celebrated. There's something wrong with all these things. Why can't we just get along, quit trying to legislate morality and prove how good we are and how bad anyone who disagrees with us is? We're trying to control what is out of our control and denying that the One Who is in Control is The One we should be worshiping and praising. GOD................HELP US.
Sent from my iPad
We try to censor a current President and look for ways to insure his not being re-elected, but let a former President (who had many issues over his 8 years) to have open access in the media. We say ".....lives matter" yet we have allowed over 60 million abortions in the past 47 years, and seek ways to allow use of public funds to abort even more "lives". We have seen our country being ruled by the "fear factor" because facts and truth are so hard to find and poles apart when we do find them.
I can go to the beach, get a haircut or tattoo, but I can't go to church. I can eat food from a market or in a restaurant, but where is is it made and is it safer than it was before, when we had food poisoning, bad lettuce, bad melons, bad ice cream, or metal or plastic in it?
We are living in troubled times. We have always lived in troubled times. But now we're trying to manufacture a society which offends no one. We are trying to act like there was no American Civil War, that the Confederate lives lost in that war cannot be honored; that while they died for what they believed, that cause was immoral and not not something to be celebrated. There's something wrong with all these things. Why can't we just get along, quit trying to legislate morality and prove how good we are and how bad anyone who disagrees with us is? We're trying to control what is out of our control and denying that the One Who is in Control is The One we should be worshiping and praising. GOD................HELP US.
Sent from my iPad
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
June 9, 2020. Eureka Springs,AR. One Day At A Time
I woke up early this morning with a song title on my heart. After my quiet time, I went for a wog (walk/jog) and played the song along with those that came after it. The words tell it all, and that will be my blog post for today. Nothing more need be said:
One day at a time, sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking of You
Just give me the strength to do everyday
What I have to do
Yesterday's gone, sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time
I'm only human
I'm just a (wo)man
Help me believe in what I could be
And all that I am
Oh show me the stairway
That I have to climb
Lord, for my sake, teach me to take
One day at a time
One day at a time............
Oh, do you remember
When You walked among men
Well, Jesus You know
If You're looking below
That it's worse now than then
Oh, there's pushing and shoving
And it's crowding my mind
So, Lord, for my sake
Teach me to take
One day at a time
One day at a time..........
Lord, help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time
One day at a time.
Sent from my iPad
One day at a time, sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking of You
Just give me the strength to do everyday
What I have to do
Yesterday's gone, sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time
I'm only human
I'm just a (wo)man
Help me believe in what I could be
And all that I am
Oh show me the stairway
That I have to climb
Lord, for my sake, teach me to take
One day at a time
One day at a time............
Oh, do you remember
When You walked among men
Well, Jesus You know
If You're looking below
That it's worse now than then
Oh, there's pushing and shoving
And it's crowding my mind
So, Lord, for my sake
Teach me to take
One day at a time
One day at a time..........
Lord, help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time
One day at a time.
Sent from my iPad
Saturday, June 6, 2020
June 6, 2020. Eureka Springs, AR. Humid
Arkansas has a lot of humidity. Not as much as Mississippi or Louisiana, but enough to make it uncomfortable. Our Spring has been very wet, but temperatures have been mild and the humidity fairly low......until yesterday, when the 90 degrees and heavy air made it feel like 104. Today we had more of the same.
Because of the Covid restrictions, we can't use our golf carts or busses, so we all have to walk, and though it is fairly level, we do have a "heartbreak hill" at the end of our Holy Land Tour and it can be tough after a half-mile walk and an hour in the sun. There are some pretty pooped puppies at the end and......the toughest weather is still in front of us. It's been an unusual year and we have been forced to comply with all the rules and regs to even be allowed to open on a limited basis. The fact that we were allowed to open at all is a miracle in itself and we thank God for being given the opportunity to keep telling others His Story. We trust that the best is yet to come. Thank You, Lord.
Sent from my iPad
Because of the Covid restrictions, we can't use our golf carts or busses, so we all have to walk, and though it is fairly level, we do have a "heartbreak hill" at the end of our Holy Land Tour and it can be tough after a half-mile walk and an hour in the sun. There are some pretty pooped puppies at the end and......the toughest weather is still in front of us. It's been an unusual year and we have been forced to comply with all the rules and regs to even be allowed to open on a limited basis. The fact that we were allowed to open at all is a miracle in itself and we thank God for being given the opportunity to keep telling others His Story. We trust that the best is yet to come. Thank You, Lord.
Sent from my iPad
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
June 3, 2020. Eureka Springs, AR. Starting Over
Who would have thought that in our mid-70's Karen and I would be getting back into a house, with acreage, out in the country, without a bed to sleep in and with very few things to put in 2300 square feet of living space. When we started out 46 years ago we were working at Levitz Furniture in Lakewood, Colorado and when a family failed to pay for their furniture, it was repossessed, and we were able to get it for pennies on the dollar and some of that furniture is still being used by family members and some will be in our house when we are able to get it out of storage and transport it here.
But, having lived in less than 400 square feet for the past six-plus years, and planning to continue to live in it part-time for the rest of the Passion play season, we have very little on hand to "stock" our new place. It will be quite an adventure to start over, anew, as we did in 1974. A lot of people have offered to help with moving, household items, furniture and maintenance chores; and with space to fill, changes we want to make, and a lot of flowers, fruit trees, landscape upkeep and just plain curiosity, we are looking forward to what lies before us.
We "walked through" today, take possession on Friday, have a "bless-the property" event on Sunday, and if a promised bed arrives, sleep in that night. Starting over..........who'd-a-thunk it?
Sent from my iPad
But, having lived in less than 400 square feet for the past six-plus years, and planning to continue to live in it part-time for the rest of the Passion play season, we have very little on hand to "stock" our new place. It will be quite an adventure to start over, anew, as we did in 1974. A lot of people have offered to help with moving, household items, furniture and maintenance chores; and with space to fill, changes we want to make, and a lot of flowers, fruit trees, landscape upkeep and just plain curiosity, we are looking forward to what lies before us.
We "walked through" today, take possession on Friday, have a "bless-the property" event on Sunday, and if a promised bed arrives, sleep in that night. Starting over..........who'd-a-thunk it?
Sent from my iPad
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