Newsletter #262 2024 June 14 Friday

It's been a long two weeks, which flew by! Lots of work on and at the Farmhouse and its surrounds, and we completed our first Men's Retreat! I'm not sure those are the best words to describe it.

(L-R) Paco, Ben, Justin, Carmine, Adam, Michael and me.

Primal Woods

More on this below, but I think its safe to say that the weekend exceeded our expectations. Carmine was our firearms instructor, ably assisted by Michael, who also served as Range Safety Officer.

Sawmill Services

Let’s have a look again at progress in the solar kilns; it has been wet and overcast, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Here are the charts:

We had that really wet couple of days two weeks ago, but we have largely recovered the progress made before that event. Still, we are not quite there yet, and the spring wet has stayed with us

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We are at 9.2% EMC on the 2” lumber; getting close to the upper limit for “kiln dried” of 8%.

Kiln #2 is at 12.6% EMC, so a ways to go yet in the second kiln. No cause for concern, it’s just taking longer than I had anticipated.

Homestead Rebel Farm

Except for that one day, the 28th of May, when we needed to import power from the grid, we’ve had no imports since the 15th of May; you can see the first two weeks of June below.

Now, we have some hot weather in the 10-day forecast:

We will see if we can get by without the AC; I’m guessing not, we will probably give up a few dollars for the extra comfort, but I’ve been wrong before, quite often.

Pigs & Oxen

All is well with the pigs, and the oxen. I’ve got fencing work in front of me, now that the first Men’s Retreat is behind us.

Men’s Retreat

From my side, the real heroes of the Retreat were Geri and Emily. They took great care of us, and so we were able to totally focus on the business at hand. The food was awesome, naturally. And they both joined us at the table for a couple of meals, which was a real treat unto itself. I don’t know about them, but it took me two days to recover.

We had 36 hours of pretty much non-stop fellowship. I know Friday didn’t end until 1 a.m. Saturday, we sat around a beautiful fire and ate s’mores; by 9 p.m. on Saturday I had to get some proper sleep!

Down at the lake, that’s Paco in the lower right, and Ben in a kayak; they were happy to have caught some fish immediately following a significant downpour.

The firearms training led by Carmine and Michael was a big hit, and we all learned; I learned that shooting is a perishable skill. It had probably been close to a year since I’d been to the range. Carmine is setting us up with some drills, both dry-fire and range exercises, so I aim to do better (pun intended).

Ben, me, Justin, Adam and Paco

Sunday morning after some much needed sleep and a great breakfast, we were all good to go.

Justin and I co-lead these retreats; I focus on Homesteading and Being Prepared, Justin’s focus is on nutrition and strength, and we are both about cultivating manhood in the Biblical sense of the word. We are planning the next retreat for Sept 12-15; arrival Thursday, 3 pm check-in, departure Sunday, noon checkout. Most men are charging through life with their heads down, grinding away, providing for their families, but not making the time to meet and have fellowship, and fun!, with other men. If that’s you, reach out to me and join us in the fall!

Proverbs 27:17 English Standard Version

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

As much as we resist slowing down, and finding some time to be truly still, it is necessary.

Farmhouse

Let’s just say a lot of time went into the Farmhouse and its surrounds over the course of the last several weeks. It all brought about the desired result; a beautiful spot to reconnect with nature and with those closest to you. That work will continue, as we look to continuously improve between our guests’ stays; even today I was working on both the house and the path to the lake, as I was yesterday come to think of it.

News

I “restacked” several news items over the past couple of weeks, some of it kindasorta good, some of it not. Check it out on the Notes page.

Books

I’m still working on Sacred Marriage; made progress this week. Still, I’ll wait until I finish to comment more extensively.

Trading off between Devil’s Chessboard, Weapons of Mass Instruction, by John Taylor Gatto, and a new biography, Boone, by Robert Morgan.

I needed something “good” to read about, and Boone fit the bill. Surprisingly perhaps, Daniel was not one of my childhood heroes; those tended to be mountain men, but Morgan is an excellent storyteller, and with Daniel Boone he has a lot to work with.

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All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

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