Sunday, December 13, 2015

The loss of a friend

Wednesday night I received a message over social media telling me I needed to visit a friend of mine because he wasn't doing very good. About an hour later, his oldest child called me and let me know he had passed away.. I was left numb.. It had been about a week since I had seen him and I really wanted to get out to visit him and just hadn't had time in since I had started this job a few months ago... I feel now that it was just an excuse.. I should have and could have made an effort to drive the 20 miles to his home and visit.. He was after all, "one of my best friends".

We went 5 years without even speaking to each other but in 2009, I made an attempt to reconnect. The time we had spoken before that, we had spoken very harshly with each other and our friend ship ended.. But that day in December 6 years ago we reconnected and it was like seeing a long lost friend that moved away.. He had just had surgery and had lost his toe to diabeties the month before.

Instead of jumping forward to the end of my friend's story, I will instead tell some good memories from our past. ..

1989 : we met in the little quiet town of Bonnie, but not exactly sure, if memory serves me correctly it may have been through my friend Tony who I had met not too long before that too... Keith was very charismatic and outspoken. But I seem to think remember that he some how we needed up going to cruise the mall and hit up the arcade.. Even though I didn't have money he still invited me along and offered to pay. This became a regular thing on weekends and we often times would spend the night at each others homes for game nights or wrestling pay per views.
Over the next few years we were pretty much inseporatable except for when I was at school.. You see he was a couple years older than me, and had actually dropped out of school a couple years earlier.

There was times that we would go "cruising" and flirt with girls in several of the local bigger towns.. We always had clean fun as opposed to the things I did when I was around my other friends.. Keith kept me out of trouble and he almost always had my back, as I also had his.

We both had crazy dreams of our future.. Of one of us making it big and the other one taking the other one with him if he didn't make it too...

We both had been told of our short life spans.. Me I was told by several doctors that I would be dead before I was 30, Keith always said that he wouldn't live to see 40 cause "that's just how it is and I don't wanna get old".. So over the years before we both got married to our first wives, we both pretty much did all kind of crazy things to see that we died in our youth.

We both lived a fairly free lifestyle of knowing what freedom of living on what we saw as being on the edge was like. We did what we wanted and how we wanted and didn't really answer to anyone... Well then we had to grow up.

By the end of the summer of 1992, our crazy childhood was over and we had to grow up.. We were both married and Kieth already had a child and I had one on the way.. We had to become " respectable" cause we were now dads.. Oh how it ended up as being just another adventure... And perhaps I will share some more stories of the adventures of Brad and Keith another time...

God speed my friend you are missed
~B

Wednesday, November 04, 2015

just the way I am feeling today

I awoke today feeling the burden on my heart that I have separated myself from God over the last few weeks, and I have been being drawn to psalms today. Regularly I am reminded by people of my previous life  that was so full of hate and rage and how was I drawn to the powers of the darkness. My fight is daily on the spiritual front to not go back to those ways and is only through Jesus that keeps me from those way. I still try to do it on my own but I know that I am not strong enough at times and I know it is only though Jesus to hold me up and guide me through... 

Psalms 139 NIV

1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Leap Trade

Leap trade is a place to trade videogames over multiple platforms with other gamers to recieve games that you havnt played before.. I have been using it since May of this year and have added so many games to my collections now that its not even funny.

http://www.leaptrade.com/register/referrer:whysprs

This is just a few of the games I have traded for over the last few months.. and it all started with me trading off only a couple of games and has turned into this...

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Its been a while..

I'm trying to get back to posting again, and just haven't had the time or initiative to write in some time.

I'm sorry I haven't posted and I know I have some readers quite often but just haven't felt like writing; which, is the entire reason I could never monetize my blog. But that is far and between anything at this point.. So let me catch you up to speed.

We bought the farm, got animals, and attempting a more simple life.. the garden was a big flop this year.. perhaps next year it will be better, I've been dropping fertilizer on it often from the chickens and rabbits the last 2 months.

Chickens completely quit laying because of some night visitor (the sad side of this is that the person took my porcilin eggs and then brought them back the following night, not just once but 3 times) that was stealing eggs, and we had no eggs for about 2 months. And if you don't know, its just so horrible to have to eat store bought eggs once you have been eating eggs that you have collected from your own chickens..

The same visitor took 4 full grown turkeys as well.. Everyone as in neighbors around here keep trying to say its coyotes; however, what they don't see is that a shoulder high fence was pushed all the way to the ground at a fence post which I had to disconnect and pull back up. Also there were no signs of struggle and no feathers spread about.. it was almost like they were completely abducted and never existed, an animal attack would not be like that.

Anyways, time to get ready for work.. Have a great day!!

~B

Monday, October 19, 2015

For those with an ear let them hear

Had something that has been sitting hard on my heart for a fee days now.

I don't understand what has happened in your life, I don't know for sure what made you step away from Jesus, he wants a relationship back with you, an example to you.. You still love your child even though they reject you, God is the same way, He is THE FATHER and will never fail you... Even if other churches out there have failed you and man has failed you and religion has failed you... God is still there for you. I pray for you every night for you are my brother in Jesus..

To another, be watchful and decern the things around you brother, you are over your head for you have forgotten to pray about the situation before you jumped into it, but God has given you that way out that you seek if you look for it as he has done so many times in the past.. I pray for you also my dear Brother that you may see the light and come back onto the path....

I have more and will post later...
~B

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

please vote for me in this contest

Hey all, I know i havn't posted in a while but I need your help in wining a ukulele.. so please vote...
http://lanikaiukuleles.com/summer-strumming-photo-contest/?contest_id=1&photo=167

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Many things a goin on

There's been many things going on as of late, crops seem to be not as good as intended because of the flooding that we had and apparently not all of the things I planted bothered to come up, so will be replanting soon. The both of the lawn mowers have decided to give up the ghost as did the weed-eater, so I am now the proud owner of a scythe and will be doing things the old way. Chickens are doing rather well however and we are getting about half a dozen eggs every other day, its still not up to what I would like but still is getting there and by October we should have about a dozen more daily. We may end up with more chickens over the winter or next spring it all depends on what all happens in the next few months. We will be doing what ever needs to be done to keep our little stake of land in this vast world, even if the farm doesn't become as self sufficient as I wish it was at this time. Even though it's a bit hard for me to get around tight now I will just have to hunker up as always and just tough the pain out...

We have a turkey sitting on at least 1 egg right now and maybe more, I haven't taken a look as of yet and I hate to disturb her as of yet, but will probably do that tomorrow. I'm hoping that she has some firtile ones or there's no need for to be broody. I butchered out the first set of rabbits over the weekend and plan on starting to tan the fur as well.. I already found a buyer but will also try and sell locally as well if I can get some one to buy it. Also believe I may start writing again as well.. I keep feeling this welling up inside of me to tell these stories that need to be told but plan on it to be a way to pay for my farm as well... We need to be sustained and I really can't deal with the stress that it is putting on anyone here with me by working... Anyways that is all for now and please watch for changes to be coming to my blog... You will understand what I mean soon.. Thanks for reading
~Brad

Monday, May 11, 2015

Working the land still

I still have not gotten as far as I wished I would, in the last 2 weeks we have lost a car due to the transmission going out however after a fee days of prayer, those prayers were answered and we have a running car that will get Sandi back and forth to her jobs. I set the tiller on fire, I had just gotten it to run and was going good then it bursted into flames that were a few feet high. I still have not gotten the garden in; however, I did manage to get seven 12 ft rows of corn planted, 5 mounds of watermelons and also 3 mounds of pumpkins planted too. I hope to soon have some others planted soon as well since the rain should have my ground wet enough that I can get some tines down into it. I'm using a garden weasel pro claw so its very time consuming.

The chickens are getting bigger and smarter, the bunnies are bigger too. Also one of our other rabbits had babies Thursday, but out of the 3 she had on one survived. She was a first time momma so I'll let her slide this time  but if the next ones are the same way then I'll need to have a different breeder I'm guessing. I'm writing this over breakfast right now, and finally the rain has stoped so I can go out and take care of the animals without getting wet..I will try and get some newer pictures posted later today.
Take care
~B

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Our Farm. April 2015

Its been my dream for a long time to have a little self sustained place of my own.. November of 2014 that dream started to become a bit of a reality. Every few weeks things would come up making it another step closer to being that reality. First we found a set of rabbit breeding stock, cages and all. We now have our first babies which were born 4 weeks ago today. That is a picture of them from last week. Today, we have chickens... About 2-3 months from now we will have eggs too.. We made sure to get a rooster as well so he would protect our new chicks and perhaps even bless us with some more chickens as we go along. I will also be building a bee hive soon too as we keep getting blessed with honey bees that have been fly too and froe.

I have been working the land a bit and truing to get out garden into the ground as fast as I can. We bought a tiller but for right now I have been working it with a garden weasel pro claw. Its a lot of work yes but during the time that I am doing it, I also meditate and spend time with Jesus. It will have been a week tomorrow that I took the leap of faith to get away from the beverage company I was working for. It was forcing me to become such a horrible person.

Thursday, March 05, 2015

Winter is back with a vengence

Cold cold days, been busy working a lot lately and just haven't felt up to posting anything as of late. 2 days ago I woke up with my knee giving me lots of issues and was in a lot of pain and went ahead to work anyways... Oh the pain! But I still felt with it. Yesterday on the other hand, I could barely walk and I kind of recognized the pain a little with the pressure making the pain subside a bit and hurting more when pressure was released... Needless to say I spent about 2 1\2 hours in the hospital ER just make sure it wasn't anything more serious than it was. With the grace of God, its the disease that He has blessed me with, gout and can deal with it. Its keeps me in check and causes me to live a somewhat healthy lifestyle. It is very painful when it flares up and I would not wish it on my worst of enemies, but I can deal with it through the Grace of God and through the many homeopathic remedies that I seemed out in the past. Luckily I use these quite often because as it seems with the dark past of my ex wife who was a drug seeker, I too was tagged and I'm typically not prescribed narcotics and I am actually glad for this because it makes me more reliant on God to take me through the pain that I have been given. Anyways, yesterday I missed work because of the tremendous pain and could not even bend my knee, today I can bend my knee and no pain but I am completely snowed in by 6 inches of snow on our little farm with a quarter mile from the nearest cleared road. Ironically our "private drive" is plowed by the Amish man that has the saw mill at the end of our "private drive" and he does it so his customers can get to him, but he hasn't done it yet..

Our bunnies are doing great, we bred JoJo and Rosey back on valentines day and are expecting babies on or around the Ides of March, and plan on breading one of the other girls about that time as well and then will wait another month and breed the other one, this way we dont have tons of rabbits ant the same time.  I still dont have the other hutches built as of yet and am still debating on how I want to build them as of yet.

Monday I went and looked at chicks to see what was available and how much they would cost me.. I'm looking at about $24 for 6 chicks and thinking we will go with closer to 12 to start out with so that we have a better chance to have more pullets that roosters.. I still need to build the coops and had planned on starting on that had it been warmer this weekend, I planned on going to and talking to the guy who owns the saw mill at the end of our drive to see how much a load of rough cut would cost me, but it seems I can never catch him working on my days off. Looks like I may just end up having to buy lumber at one of the lumber places at a higher cost :-(  but it is what it is. I know for a fact I can build something similar to what is sold at some of the stores for over $1000 for less than half the cost.

Looks like that's all I have for today..
God bless you all, and have a wonderful day
~ B

Saturday, February 14, 2015

brr its cold again

The last few days has been really cold, like really cold. its been above freezing the last couple weeks but the last few days it dropped down to a meager 12*F.  This morning I allowed Rossie and JoJo to have their date. I think he has been wanting it for some time now, so I'm hoping the deed is done and we have bunnies in about a month or so.  we will probably breed the other two in about a month or so. The lady we obtained our bunnies from said that Rosie should produce up to 5 bunnies and the other two should produce up to 8 each. that's a lot of bunnies..

Sandi has named the other two bunnies, the bigger and friendlier of the two she has named Maggie and the other one Sassy. I have a lot i need to do with soon, such as building the new hutches and chicken coop... i need to get on it soon so that it is done but money has been a bit short and its time again to soon be paying our house payment. but He will provide for us as He always does. It is so Awesome to for God care for us enough to provide as he does!!

well guess I need to get finding things to do today, Happy Valentines Day and will be posting again soon!
from our little farmstead
~B

Saturday, February 07, 2015

Spring Cleaning

Today has been warm and so we have been cleaning around our little farm. We have 2 existing barns on the property and we put our rabbits in one of them for now. The people before us that lived here had horses and didn't take care of the barn which was full of manure which was dried for the most part, so today we went out and cleaned the majority of it.
   We cleaned out the rabbit hutches and feed them, as well as made sure everything was clean for them. I believe I will build all new hutches and design them so that they will be a lot easier to clean and give us better access to the rabbits as well.

We plan on also having chickens soon as well and I will need to start building the coops for them soon before we get them. I really cant wait to have fresh eggs all the time and cant wait to have our little farm become more and more self sustaining. some of the next things we are also planing on is getting other set ups for power as well. We get a lot of wind out here often so I am really thinking of putting in a couple windmills perhaps and possibly even some solar power. we have gotten our power down to about $10 or less per day and I'm thinking it will be even lower in the summer.

Today I also took my bike out (it was Christmas present from work for going to the Christmas party) and rode it to the post office which is about a mile from our house, so its not a long ride but was a nice one. the wind is only blowing today enough to make it a little hard to ride especially for some one as out of shape as me.. but at least I'm going to start getting back in shape by riding.


Friday, February 06, 2015

New Beginnings...

There's been a lot going on in the last few months. First off we moved to a piece of land that we are are buying and are working to turn it into a "farmstead". that being said, we now have livestock .. Rabbits to be exact. we answered an add about a breading pair that was being given away and received them plus 2 more that they didn't know what they were cause they just had been too busy to mess with them. a few days after receiving the rabbits we found that the other two were also females, so it looks like we now have a complete breeding set for right now.. We will be hoping to get another male for breeding out of the new kits when we breed them this time around.

We have worked a lot on the house since we have been here, doing such things as replacing floors, rerunning electricity, and lots and lots of cleaning. I only was able to cut the grass on one half of the front yard before the weather started turning cold and wet, so first warm dry day and i will again start mowing the yard both front and back. there is a whole lot more to be done, but it is now our home and I fully plan on retiring here and be able to enjoy the rest of my life on our little farm.
We love getting to see the sun rise every morning
and the spectacular sunsets as well