Nothing to do!

There's been nothing to post on lately! BLEH!

Sweet Potatoes

I think this is a good "first post in a long time" to do! Wednesday was the day that I finally got to harvest my sweet potatoes, after 4 months of waiting. I planted two different kinds of potatoes in my box from slips, 3 Beauregards and 3 Georgia Jets. One of the two kinds overtook the others, but I'm not sure which one.

Here is a little bit of info on sweet potatoes:

Sweet potatoes are native to the tropical parts of South America, and were domesticated there at least 5000 years ago. Austin (1988) postulated that the centre of origin of I. batatas was between the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico and the mouth of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. The 'cultigen' had most likely been spread by local people to the Caribbean and South America by 2500 BC. Zhang et al. (1998) provided strong supporting evidence that the geographical zone postulated by Austin is the primary centre of diversity. The much lower molecular diversity found in Peru–Ecuador suggests that this region be considered as secondary centre of sweet potato diversity. The sweet potato was also grown before western exploration in Polynesia, where it is known as the kumara, remarkably similar to the Quechua kumar in Peru and Nahuatl kumotl inMexico. Sweet potato has been radiocarbon-dated in the Cook Islands to 1000 AD, and current thinking is that it was brought to central Polynesia circa 700 AD, possibly by Polynesians who had traveled to South America and back, and spread across Polynesia to Hawaii and New Zealand from there. It is possible however, that South Americans brought it to the Pacific. The theory that the plant could spread by floating seeds across the ocean is not supported by evidence. Another point is that the sweet potato in Polynesia is the cultivated Ipomoea batatas, which is generally spread by vine cuttings, and not by seeds. Sweet potatoes are now cultivated throughout tropical and warm temperate regions wherever there is sufficient water to support their growth. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics, world production in 2004 was 127,000,000 tonnes. The majority comes from China, with a production of 105,000,000 tonnes from 49,000 km². About half of the Chinese crop is used for livestock feed. Per-capita production is greatest in countries where sweet potatoes are a staple of human consumption, led by Papua New Guinea at 550 kg per person per year, the Solomon Islands at 160 kg, Burundi and Rwanda at 130 kg and Uganda at 100 kg. About 20,000 tonnes of sweet potatoes are produced annually in New Zealand, where sweet potato is known by its Māori name, kūmara. It was a staple food for Māori before European contact. In the U.S., North Carolina, the leading state in sweet potato production, provided 38.5% of the 2007 U.S. production of sweet potatoes. California, Louisiana, and Mississippi compete closely with each other in production. Louisiana has been a long-time major producer, once second only to North Carolina, and closely followed by California, until the latter began surpassing it in 2002. In 2007, California produced 23%, Louisiana 15.9%, and Mississippi 19% of the U.S. total.The town of Opelousas, Louisiana's "Yambilee" has been celebrated every October since 1946. The Frenchmen who established the first settlement at Opelousas in 1760 discovered the native Attakapas, Alabama, Choctaw, and Opelousas tribes eating sweet potatoes. The sweet potato became a favourite food item of the French and Spanish settlers, and thus continued a long history of cultivation in Louisiana. Mississippi has about 150 farmers presently growing sweet potatoes on about 8,200 acres (33 km²), contributing $19 million dollars to the state's economy. Mississippi's top five sweet potato producing counties are Calhoun,Chickasaw, Pontotoc, Yalobusha, and Panola. The National Sweet Potato Festival is held annually the entire first week in November in Vardaman (Calhoun County), which proclaims itself as "The Sweet Potato Capital". The town of Benton, Kentucky celebrates the sweet potato annually with its Tater Day Festival on the first Monday of April. The town of Gleason, Tennessee celebrates the sweet potato on Labor Day weekend with its Tater Town Special.

Thanks Wikipedia!

Now for the pictures!

My grandparents were here from New Mexico for the weekend, so I had some extra help form my grandpa.

Pre-harvest

About the average size that you would get at a grocery store

A little bigger........

THAT'S better!! This baby is my record at 5 1/2 pounds!

All 26 (basically from 3 of the plants)

These things will make awesome sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mmmmmmm......


~Samuel

Simple Truths From Spurgeon

"I will rejoice over them to do them good."—Jeremiah 32:41.

How heart-cheering to the believer is the delight which God has in His saints! We cannot see any reason in ourselves why the Lord should take pleasure in us; we cannot take delight in ourselves, for we often have to groan, being burdened; conscious of our sinfulness, and deploring our unfaithfulness; and we fear that God's people cannot take much delight in us, for they must perceive so much of our imperfections and our follies, that they may rather lament our infirmities than admire our graces. But we love to dwell upon this transcendent truth, this glorious mystery: that as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so does the Lord rejoice over us. We do not read anywhere that God delighteth in the cloud-capped mountains, or the sparkling stars, but we do read that He delighteth in the habitable parts of the earth, and that His delights are with the sons of men. We do not find it written that even angels give His soul delight; nor doth He say, concerning cherubim and seraphim, "Thou shalt be called Hephzibah, for the Lord delighteth in thee"; but He does say all that to poor fallen creatures like ourselves, debased and depraved by sin, but saved, exalted, and glorified by His grace. In what strong language He expresses His delight in His people! Who could have conceived of the eternal One as bursting forth into a song? Yet it is written, "He will rejoice over thee with joy, He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." As He looked upon the world He had made, He said, "It is very good"; but when He beheld those who are the purchase of Jesus' blood, His own chosen ones, it seemed as if the great heart of the Infinite could restrain itself no longer, but overflowed in divine exclamations of joy. Should not we utter our grateful response to such a marvellous declaration of His love, and sing, "I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation?"


~Samuel

Imprisoned......... BY A CAT!

A few days ago a stray cat came around our house, and decided that this is where he belonged. So he would just park himself at the front door and just stare at it waiting for someone to come out, or for someone to let it in (HA, yeah right!). It literally felt like we were stuck inside. I thought that the easiest and quickest solution was to set it in front of a firing squad, but my mom being the humanitarian that she is, didn't see that as the way to do it. My brother Nathan thought it would be nice to feed it a little milk. OH BOY.....WAS MY MOM MAD!!!!! She does NOT like cats. I think that's where I get it from :D. She eventually wrote an email to fellow home-schoolers asking someone to please take it off out hands, and to quote her, "it will either meet it's demise via euthanasia or shotgun, if the coyotes don't get it first". So the cat thought that the milk was a sign that Nathan had adopted it, and started to follow him around wherever he went. Finally, after some procrastinating, Nathan took it to a family from our church. YAY!!!!! FREEDOM!!!!!!!!

Apologies

I know that it has been awhile since I posted last. I'll have you all know that I haven't given up on this silly thing. I've been really busy with school and everything that it's been hard to get on here and. I promise to do something soon.

~Samuel

A Song of Hope

 "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.  They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.  O LORD, save the king! May he answer us when we call." Psalm 20:7-9

King Alfred’s War Song

When the enemy comes in a’roarin’ like a flood,

Coveting the kingdom and hungering for blood,

The Lord will raise a standard up and lead His people on,

The Lord of Hosts will go before defeating every foe;

Defeating every foe.

For the Lord is our defense, Jesus defend us,

For the Lord is our defense, Jesu defend.

Some men trust in chariots, some trust in the horse,

But we will depend upon the Name of Christ our Lord,

The Lord has made my hands to war and my fingers to fight.

The Lord lays low our enemies, but He raises us upright;

He raises us upright.

For the Lord is our defense, Jesus defend us,

For the Lord is our defense, Jesu defend.

A thousand fall on my left hand, ten thousand to the right,

But He will defend us from the arrow in the night.

Protect us from the terrors of the teeth of the devourer,

Embue us with Your Spirit, Lord, emcompass us with power;

Encompass us with power.

For the Lord is our defense, Jesus defend us,

For the Lord is our defense, Jesu defend.

A great rendition of it by a great music artist named Ben Lueders: http://benlueders.com/

And for the record, I did NOT write it the poem! :D

Simple Truths From Spurgeon

"And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him."—Mark 3:13.

Here was sovereignty. Impatient spirits may fret and fume, because they are not called to the highest places in the ministry; but reader be it thine to rejoice that Jesus calleth whom He wills. If He shall leave me to be a doorkeeper in His house, I will cheerfully bless Him for His grace in permitting me to do anything in His service. The call of Christ's servants comes from above. Jesus stands on the mountain, evermore above the world in holiness, earnestness, love and power. Those whom He calls must go up the mountain to Him, they must seek to rise to His level by living in constant communion with Him. They may not be able to mount to classic honours, or attain scholastic eminence, but they must like Moses go up into the mount of God and have familiar intercourse with the unseen God, or they will never be fitted to proclaim the gospel of peace. Jesus went apart to hold high fellowship with the Father, and we must enter into the same divine companionship if we would bless our fellowmen. No wonder that the apostles were clothed with power when they came down fresh from the mountain where Jesus was. This morning we must endeavour to ascend the mount of communion, that there we may be ordained to the lifework for which we are set apart. Let us not see the face of man to-day till we have seen Jesus. Time spent with Him is laid out at blessed interest. We too shall cast out devils and work wonders if we go down into the world girded with that divine energy which Christ alone can give. It is of no use going to the Lord's battle till we are armed with heavenly weapons. We must see Jesus, this is essential. At the mercy-seat we will linger till He shall manifest Himself unto us as He doth not unto the world, and until we can truthfully say, "We were with Him in the Holy Mount."


~Samuel

Back from Colorado cont....

As promised, here are a few more pics and some videos from our CO trip.

Me, Michael and Nathan

Alright, I gotta add something about this. We were fishing down at the Poudre. It was a fairly breezy day, so I was used to hearing branches breaking. Then I heard it a little louder than usual. Low and behold, a cow and a bull come out of the woods for a drink; less than 20 yards from me! It was an awesome thing to see. My uncle said later, "It's amazing to me that we humans get so excited to see such and ugly creature." So true.

Me and a rainbow at ______ Lakes (Shhhhh.. it's a secret)

Now these Camp Robbers (aka Grey Jays) were a lot of entertainment when the fishing was lousy.

Me trying my hand at a 2 man cross-cut lumberman saw

There's more coming. Stay tuned

~Samuel

Back from Colorado

My family just recently returned from our cabin in CO. We spent out time fishing, hiking, and playing lots of cribbage!

Before....

...after!

It's getting late now, and since I'm new to this whole blogging thing, I can't do a lot at a time and still keep it together! I shall post up later with more pictures! God bless.

~Samuel