Whispers of Winter

Unlike Little Shouse on the Prairie, where winter roared and bellowed, winter at Caer David has come to us in whispers, enveloping us in a perfect Narnia.  Softly falling snow and brooks bubbling through frozen ledges of ice have replaced the ground blizzards and rafter shaking winds.  Days huddled inside by the wood stove have been replaced by treks through a gloriously bedazzled winter wonderland and al fresco hot cocoa enjoyed beside a roaring bon fire.  The savage roar of the elements has been replaced by the gentle whispers of winter.

The snow has boxed us in and given Caer David a cave-like atmosphere

Our window tunnel

Miss Serenity stirring cocoa with one hand and making whipped cream with the other

Preparing the motoring basket

Homemade S'mores cookies....

Chicken salad sandwiches.....

Coffee cake and oranges!

Almost ready!

Heading to the bon fire

Getting set up - we even have music!

A perfect time to enjoy each others company

Even the dog was invited!

With his famous "Smarl"

The alcohol burner is keeping the cocoa warm

And the treats are ready

Hot cocoa with fresh whipped cream!!!  Yum!

Dad brought his coffee to the cocoa party!!!

We have so enjoyed living back in the mountains after what seems like a lifetime's exile.  We have wondered at the quiet beauty and drunk in the life-giving, soul-feeding presence of this place.

I hope winter is whispering its life-giving beauty into your soul.  Enjoy it's quiet solitude.

Our Life in Pictures

And our life continues.....here it is in pictures!

The Snug in Caer David

The Snug from another angle

Plenty of water in our back yard!!

The new slaughter trailer for the butcher shop!

I've been reorganizing the office at the shop

It works very nicely with the new counter

We go through about 8 large loaves of bread - a week!!!

And this LARGE jar of homemade granola!

Yum - with freeze-dried raspberries!!

And still - Friday Night Pizza

Lover of Hounds

Our Gentlemen Adventurer

Holy Ground

Eight months ago, when we began this new adventure, we believed that we were building a business. We thought that this chapter of our life would center around building a future, not only for ourselves, but also for our children.  We knew that we would work hard, pull together, and create something out of nothing.  And that, we have done.  However, God has done so much more.....

Our lives have been turned upside-down, and every step of the way we have seen the fingerprints of God.  Little Shouse on the Prairie sold, when, in fact, that was impossible.  The ONLY commercial real estate in the small town where I grew up was owned by a man that I graduated from High School with, and he just happened to be willing to sell.  We had a home to move in to, that just a year ago wasn't even here.  And we had son whom doctors said would never see or walk or hear, not only willing but able to take the lead and run a butcher shop.  God provided us with a Brother (our pastor) who worked with us EVERY day, for 4 months, rebuilding our dilapidated service station, and He provided my father who engineered our entire rail system.  Every step of the way God made the impossible possible.  And every step of the way, we would worry and stress and worry some more.

Master Hand Grenade bossing the job

As we walked through the terrifying unknown, we began to call upon the name of the Lord, not just day by day, but minute by minute.  We began to know that we, indeed, were the same, scared, unfaithful children that the Children of Israel had been during their exodus from Egypt.  Every step of the way God had shown Himself faithful, leading us with His mighty right hand.  And every step of the way, we had continued to worry and fuss, showing ourselves to be faithless children.

Cutting the wall to put in a door

Putting our in our 4 foot by 11 foot cooler door!!

And then, finally, I looked at Sir Knight and said "I don't believe that God is building a business, I believe that He is building men".  All of the construction and the planning and the stress and the worry was nothing but God's way of building our family into children that seek after Him, that know His goodness and His faithfulness.  During the course of the last 8 months, we have traded stress and worry for peace and faith.  Numerous times over the summer and fall Sir Knight and I would look at each other and say in awe and amazement "We are standing on dry ground".  Every problem, every impossibility, every struggle - we walked through on dry ground.  As we put the last rail into place, the last FRP panel on the wall, I turned to Sir Knight and said...."We are not just standing on dry ground, we truly are standing on Holy ground".

We have crossed the Red Sea, but there is a great expanse of Wilderness in front of us.  We are a brand new business, and there is a famine - but we are putting our trust in the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  God isn't in the business of building businesses, He is in the business of building men.  And as He builds this family, we truly are standing on Holy Ground.

Mourning the Age of the Motherhood

Motherhood....a relic of an unenlightened male-dominated culture, designed to suppress the rights of women and limit their participation in the superior functions of an advanced society.  Or so they would have us believe.....

Civilized behavior has abandoned our society.  We are a nation undone.  Our children are floundering, our populace is angry and our leaders are the very worst of us.  The guiding influence that helped shape our nation has been stripped of honor and value, and has been replaced by a vile imposter - feminism.

Motherhood, throughout the ages, has been the shaper of nations.  As mothers have guided their children, so have the nations have followed.  Mothers have brought civility to the uncivilized and hope to the hopeless.  They have created homes worth coming home to and lives worth fighting for.  It was for home and hearth that great wars have been fought and for the love of family that sons and fathers have sacrificed their lives.

Mothers, by their very nature, teach civility and gentleness.  Men, in turn, can be a brutish lot.  Society thrives when the masculine is balanced by the feminine - and who can provide that balance?  Mothers of course.

And now, the refining presence of motherhood is being replaced.  It is being replaced by loud, arrogant, uncivilized and quite frankly, coarse, feminists.  They riot in the streets and shout from the halls of congress.  They demand equality with men while abandoning their already unparalleled position of power.

As I read stories of feminist activists rioting in the streets, hurling insult as their fists are raised in defiance, I think of Proverbs 14:1 - "The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one pulls hers down".  And I realize that with every woman that abandons her post, giving the mothering of her children over to the State, the television or the Internet, we, as a nation, are pulling our house down with our own hands.  While motherhood builds a nation, feminism tears it down - and now, after years of a failed social experiment, our nation is getting ready to crumble.

Without mothers that are willing to pour their lives out for their children, create homes for their husbands and guide their families with civility and integrity, our nation will continue to crumble until we are little more than a cesspool of lost humanity.

And how are we to be remembered?  As a nation who lost it's mothers.....