Spark Plugs

We drive an Econoline E-350 Super Duty passenger van.  You do stuff like that when you have lots of kids.  It's a great vehicle for us, but lately it's been having some...issues.  It stutters and doesn't seem to want to accelerate.  Seems like it's worse on damp mornings.

Sounds like spark plugs/wires to me.

I went home from work yesterday intent on correcting this problem.  I don't often work on my cars because it seems like they are overly complicated, but I know about this sort of job.  Caps, wires, plugs...been working with them since I was old enough to hold a tool.

After a quick change into my manly-working on the car-gettin' dirty clothes, I got all my tools together along with a light (it's still dark in the evenings here) and started on the van.  First to find the wires.

Except that I couldn't find them:

No cap

No wires

No plugs

So I stood in my driveway looking very philosophically at the night sky.  I was actually trying to convince myself that I wasn't a complete idiot.  But looking philosophical was a good cover.

My Dad came over to help.  While I'm not grease monkey (I can do basics but that's about it), my Dad is a grease monkey from way back.  So he helped me to find the cap, wires, and plugs.  Except that they weren't there.

No cap

No wires

No plugs

So we did the only thing two grown men can do when they are stumped about a very manly sort of thing.  We ate a large dinner and laughed a lot.

Upon some further research we discovered that there is no cap.  There are no wires.  There are plugs, but they are sunk in the head (COP system for those who care).  Now, although this is something that normally I'd try to tackle, the way my engine is set up I can't even get to them.  The repair shop doesn't even think they can do it.  So...that's bad.

I got to remembering my old '86 F-150.  Loved that truck.  I'd sidle a step ladder up to it and climb inside the engine compartment.  It was easier to work on.  It was simple.

Even in the arena of our vehicles we are constantly restricted because of the complexity of our society.  Most engines now are very much integrated with computer systems and emissions saving devices.  There are some folks out there very gifted in this area and I sure am glad for that.  But there was  time when any reasonable person could work on their car.  The mechanisms were simpler.  Parts were available.  People up and down the block knew how to work on them and would help.  Today....not so much.

Again, I see how we've shot ourselves in the foot.  As we demand safer vehicles, lower emissions, better gas mileage, lower maintenance, and lattes made for us and passed through the glove compartment (I'm working on a patent for that) we are asking for more complexity.  Take anti-lock braking systems.  Good system.  Seems to work well.  What was wrong with pumping our brakes?

Now, I know that I could easily get pounded by those would say "But we're so much safer." and "Look at all the good they've done."  Well, to be honest, I've not seen any measurable numbers indicating that we are safer.  I think we end up taking more chances.  I think we end up not thinking because we expect the car to do everything for us.  I think we get lazy.

I think I'd forgo a lot of amenities on a car for a simpler model...that would last...and had some plug wires.

Haitians

I remember where I was when the 911 disaster occurred.  I remember watching it on television.  I remember the feeling of horror at the loss of lives and the fear at what was to come.  I remember most the generosity of the people in contributing to the welfare of those involved.  It came in the form of money, supplies, labor, equipment, and prayers.  It was inspiring and humbling in the same moment.  I think it was then that I began to realize the power of the internet. 

Sites were not as sophisticated then and the idea of "social networking" sites had not yet become a central force in the American digital culture.  Yet it seemed with every page refresh, every site link, every virtual venue explored there was opportunity to give.  We saw it again when Katrina struck and when the Philipines was ravaged by the tidal wave.  We saw that the opportunities to give were plentiful; and all thanks to technology. 

I'm glad we're able, now, to help the Hatians.  I have not yet seen an estimate on how much we're giving, but I would suspect it will be huge.  That's wonderful.

Yet in the midst of the devastation and the pain, I can't help but wonder where the relief is for those Americans who live lives of poverty and destitution every day.  We have, on our own soil, men, women, and children plodding through an existence of hunger, thirst, poor health, and untold dangers every single day.  Yet we are not scraping together the funds necessary to help them just live a decent life. 

Why?

While I do not regret the money given to those in need during a crisis, I often think how much better off our own homeless and suffering population would be if only they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  If they were part of a globally watched tragedy at least then they would receive medical attention, food, water, and clothing.  Are these basic needs really so much to ask? 

No, I don't want to take those things away from the Haitians.  They have been through an experience that I can't even really imagine.  They are broken and in need of healing.  We can be that balm to them.  But when the dust settles and we have done what we can to care for the Haitians, perhaps we can turn our hearts to those who are suffering through devastation right in our own backyard.

The Fight

I'm getting excited about raising chickens again this year.  Last year was really a trial run for us.  We did a small batch (well I guess that's relative....100 chicks in our basement did not feel like a small batch!) for a small group of people, mostly to see if we could pull it off.  As many of you know, we did "pull it off" with an enormous amount of grace from God AND lots of help from friends and family.  So, we're ready to go again this year!

I've been working through pricing structures for the products.  We're introducing turkeys into our mix this year, but since I don't have a baseline for them, they're a bit harder.  But I'm REALLY excited about the chickens.  I have a couple of things I've thought through.  They go something like this:

• We're not in this things for money.  Although I would like to make a go of a home/family based business, the truth is that we want to see a community built around a vision from God.  We believe we can meet needs for those around us through a network of folks brought together by the leading of the Spirit...even if they don't know Him!
• We want to meet people where they are.  Isn't it interesting that most health food stores, stores conscious of natural food sources and sustainable farming practices, are typically located outside wealthier suburbs?  There are some who are fighting the fight in Wayne and Monroe counties, but they are in the minority.  
• That said, we need to be competitive in our pricing structure.  We are trying to figure out a cost that will allow people of moderate incomes (like ourselves) to purchase high quality chicken.  
• People in our area are often on a budget.  It's hard to say "Well, we don't exactly know what they'll weigh in at so just be ready." when we're talking about purchasing the chicken.  It might be easier to charge a flat rate. 

That said, I THINK WE CAN DO IT!!!  I've been doing some research at local stores, trying to understand the pricing.  I've checked out Sam's club, Foodtown, and Kroger thus far.  Now, we will likely never be able to price our chickens like your average bottom line Tyson chicken.  They're too cheap.  But they're cheap for a reason.  Their chickens typically live in a giant warehouse styled coop with little to no light and air.  They have a few inches per bird for mobility (they need about 2 feet!) and they are fed things that we might not recognize as "food".  So they get a production line business model together and they can do them cheap.

While the production line worked great for cars, it has depleted the average chicken of any sort of nutrients when it hits your local freezer. Even those chickens labled as "Natural" have several drawbacks which I won't get into here.  But, as I price out the "natural" chickens in the freezer, I think we can beat them. I think we have a shot at selling chicken at a reasonable price competative with the big guys.  Check this out!

Here you can see a Perdue whole chicken for $1.99/pound.  While I can't get a per pound price that low, I can charge less than $15.02 for 7.55 pounds of chicken.  WE CAN SELL FOR LESS THAN THE STORE!

Okay, yeah, I'm pretty excited about that.  Plus, I can promise that our chickens will indeed be all natural, free range, and anti-biotic free.

So what are your thoughts?  Does that excite you?  Let me know.  We'd love to hear back from you!!  Leave your comments here, or check out our Facebook page!

Freedom

Wow...big topic.  Yeah, I'm pretty sure that any blog post about freedom will come up short, but it's been on my mind the last couple of days.  Most of those who know me will hear me enter into a rant about the pains of "big government" in America.  That's why they avoid me in the halls.  Now, to be clear, I'm not an anarchist.  I don't think anarchy has done anyone any good and I do not see it as a Biblical model.  The early church set up overseers and servants to help govern the people.  But a common thread in the New Testament is clearly the concept of servant leadership, that is, a leader is nothing more than a servant of the people.  I think, in general, this was the type of government our forefathers had in mind as they drafted a government of overseers bound to a series of check and balances which involved the scrutiny of the people.  That thought leaves me to say "hmmmm....What happened?"

My thinking (such as it is) goes directly to personal rights.  We love them; we cherish them, I think we'd marry them if we could.  Even when our personal rights conflict with stated rules, opinions, or another person's personal rights, we expect our right to be met.  But whatever happened to serving the people?

Here's an example:  Let's say a university has a rule about living in the dorms and what criteria is necessary to live in the dorms.  A man for some reason cannot meet the rules and is therefore denied access to the dorms.  Yet he sues and wins the right to live in the dorm.

I know....hot button here...what if the person was disabled, had a dependecy, was in a unique situation, or just plain wanted to be cool.  Well, there are questions there, but look at it from another side.  A rule was clearly stated.  A man was unable to meet that rule.  So he sues (or somebody sues...the details are irrelevant to the example) and gains access.  Where would something like that end?  Should I be allowed to use the womens bathroom since I physically cannot become a women?  Is it not my right to use the womens bathroom? 

I fully realize atrocities have occurred where people who could not defend themselves have required assistance or intervention.  Yet that line continues to blur.  As each of us expects that our own personal rights must not be violated, we in turn know no boundaries.  Instead we break the rules as we ride upon the wave of our own self-justification.  But this is not freedom.  Freedom in not unbridled access to all things.  Rather, freedom speaks to us of release from slavery in all forms.  Freedom is about choice and that choice includes laying down my personal rights so that an order, a balance, can be brought about.  I seek not to enslave others to my personal rights by laying those rights down. 

If this understanding of freedom was universally held, we would ask questions like "How will my actions affect others?", "Will my actions hurt a person or institution?, and "Am I serving my fellow man by my action?".  I do not suggest a perfect society will come from these questions, but I'll bet it'd be a great place to live!!

What do you think?

Water

New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg has been doing a series on Toxic Water in America.   Now, you may be thinking that drinking water is of no real concern and hey, it comes from the tap.  It's practically free!  Yet we pay the price for practically free water over time.  We pay with our health.

Note:  if you do not plan to drink anything other than tap water, please stop reading.

I'm serious.  It gets weird.

The articles are disturbing though I think the topic has been treated fairly.  In my opinion, the government has not been treated as an evil villain attempting to poison us all; and that's a good thing (to borrow the colloquialism).  I don't really see the government at fault in all this;  I see us at fault.  The truth is, we desire to live in large cities where all our amenities are provided.  I happen to be a fan of this, at least in some respects (think of the toilet....I'll not go further).  Trouble comes when we give full autonomy to the government and virtually eliminate public scrutiny.  As they say, you cannot expect what you do not inspect.

It would seem that the waste treatment plants are doing what they can to kill bacteria, namely they are spiking our water with chlorine.  At first pass, that sounds terrible.  Yet in reality it's that very process that is saving our lives.  As you read the articles thoroughly  you will see that with all the disgusting additives in the water, invaders from water run off, pollution, and just plain laziness, we would not survive without chlorine.  Documented incidents are included in the articles that call out things in the water that just shouldn't be there; hormones, arsenic, floating chicken heads (what?), and even a report of pickles being discarded in the sewer system causing the smell of vinegar and spices to permeate the complex.  You can see that without the chlorine, we'd be much worse off.  But is that enough?

I've copied a link to a recent interview on Fresh Air hosted by Terry Gross.  Terry is, in my opinion, a good interviewer and often has guests on her show that are interesting.  Her interview with Duhigg was no exception. 

So what, then, is the solution?  Well, I can assure you that bottled water (as in packaged and sold at the store) is only part of the solution.  While bottled water certainly has its place, some studies have suggested that the long term use of purified water alone can be detrimental as well.  Purifying the water, through reverse osmosis or other processes, does clean the water, but kills both the harmful bacteria and the necessary bacteria.  What you say?  Good bacteria?  Certainly, bacteria that your body needs in order to stay well. We certainly want it to destroy the bad bacteria, but some studies have indicated that over time that may too be detrimental to your health.

Have you ever thought about water filtration?  I mean your own filtration system for your own home.  Personally, I use the Berkey system.  It filters out the chemicals and bacteria that I don't need while leaving the rest.  It tastes wonderful too.  But that is certainly not the only system.  Many more exist.  Just google "survival gear" or "water filtration systems" and you'll have your work cut out for you.

But the bottom line is that you must do what is right for your family.  Health is not a matter we should leave up to any government agency.  We must take our families health and welfare into our own hands.  As long as the government is "by the people" and "for the people" isn't that the way it should work anyway?

Big Business

I've had opportunity at times in my life to study big corporations....mostly because I worked at them.  Taking it all in stride, I have found it much easier to work with smaller companies.  One family owned company I worked for a number of years ago now goes down in my history as the best place I've worked.  As I look at some of my other faves I see a line of similarity: the location or department I was in worked like a small business within a big business.

Now, to be fair, I want to own my own business so that colors my thoughts.  But recently it dawned on me why the functions in a big corporation (and I've worked for several) always seems disjointed.  It occurred to me that they are trying to function in a way that is unnatural.  Here's what I mean....

In every corporate environment everywhere (I think that's a politically correct thing to say) whether it's a church (that's probably not a politically correct thing to say), a fortune 500 company, or the little mom and pop shop down the street, the people working there know who can get the job done.  If you need this document typed out in a hurry, you talk to Jimmy.  If you need a good deal on supplies, you talk to Sue.  If you want this project on time, you give it to Ralph.  Whatever "it" is, you know who's gonna get it done.  The reality is that for things to get done in any size company, you have to deal with it relationally. 

Most big corporations, including mega churches and the like, adopt a process model that allows them to produce their widgets in the most efficient and concise manner.  I've been involved in and used those processes for many years now.  Looking at it objectively, it's obvious to me that these processes, developed by the intelligentsia of the age, are as solid as they can be.  Yet they all over look one thing; reality.  They expect humans to follow through with them.  That's really the laughable part of it all.  From what I've seen (and there may be exceptions) the process that has been adopted holds true...for a while.  But eventually, it's all gonna hit the fan and the person who has the most pressure on them will resort to that animal instinct that God placed within them to seek out another person.  They will seek out that person that will get it done, the person they feel the most safe with.  In the end, the process fails us because we need to deal with pressure and problems relationally to feel that we've actually accomplished something.

In an environment where that is not factored in, the process seems ludicrous.  The team tends to rebel against the process because "it doesn't work." Those people who were over burdened before the process came in become even more overburdened because they are expected to follow, loosely, the process for appearance sake while still accomplishing the work in the same old way.  Thus, the whole things seems, somehow, unnatural.

I have not seen an environment where this was not so in one degree or other.  However, some companies do better when they know that the human factor will kick in and they allow some leeway in the process that allows people to do what they do naturally....handle things relationally within the framework of a process.

And still I contend that work is most often done well in the case of a small, privately owned company.  They tend to live off the relationships they've built.  Take care of the people and they take care of you.  It's no panacea I know, but somehow it does seem more natural, doesn't it?

I'll have more to say about working in big corporations in the future.  For now, it is enough to know that no matter where you are and what job you do, relationships are vital.  Remember that and you will build a team around you that will get the job done.  Count on it.

Responsibility

I'm getting excited about raising chickens again this coming year.  We raised 100 last year and butchered them all by hand (yes, including the feathers).  What an unbelievable experience that was!  It spawned a lot of good conversations with friends and family.  I think most people, at least at the outset, were very unsure of what I was talking about.  Though my wife and family were totally on board with this, we talked about it for an entire year before we actually did anything.  Now, to us that entire time was spent learning.  We visited family farms and assisted them in their poultry endeavors.  I devoured blogs, books, magazines, and websites related to poultry just to understand what I would encounter.  When it was time for chicks to arrive, we were ready.

Or so we thought.

Despite our best efforts there was still a learning curve.  You can read more about it in three articles here.  I think, though, that the learning itself was most of the fun.  Certainly the chicks were cute and all and we had great fun in watching them grow, but the greatest benefits is that we now have a knowledge of what to do.  Certainly we are by no means experts.  There is so much more to learn and experience.  Yet there is a knowledge and I can do something for myself.  My children now know exactly where our chickens come from and the joys and pains associated with it.  It is in this feeling that I think life becomes more simple.

Imagine this all too realistic scenarios:  it's the dead of winter and there are three inches of snow on the ground.  The local weather person has just announced that another 10 inches are coming our way.  People begin the mad rush to the local store.  What are they searching for?  Additional food, bottled water, generators (to produce heat mostly), and various and sundry necessities.  They stand in line for hours waiting for these things in hopes of getting the goods before someone else does.  The stress and emotions of it all become overwhelming and verbal attacks begin.  Sometimes it even comes to fisticuffs (when was the last time you read that word in a blog?).  The sum total of it all is a wearying, disappointing mess.

Yet there are those who avoid it all.  They are able to remain un-phased because they know how to handle things themselves.  They might have a stocked pantry or proper equipment.  They may have canned their foods as opposed to freezing them.  Perhaps they have a water filtration system that works without electricity.  The possibilities are endless.  Compared to the scenario at the store, it sounds pretty simple.

The fact of the matter is that we have lost the art of doing for ourselves.  Now, let me be clear; I do not advocate the life of a "lone wolf" who needs nuthin' and no one.  I think this is contrary to the way we were designed.  We were designed to need God and to need each other.  Nor am I a survivalist.  As I sit here in my argyle sweater sipping a cup of Bigby coffee (take that Starbucks lovers!) I would not be looked upon by the great woodsman of yesteryear as  the pinnacle of rugged manliness. 

What I'm advocating is a chance to go out and learn to do for yourself and your family.   We've come a long way from what our Founders intended.  They had no idea that we would be demanding government involvement in pay structures of CEO's and national health care options.  They assumed you and I would help our neighbor's out in times of disaster, not verbally assault the government for not moving fast enough.  We are responsible for ourselves both individually and corporately.  When will we start acting like it?  I think that when we start to take on that responsibility we will understand simplicity in a whole separate level.  When we finally learn to live in the community that Christ called us to, we will take on the simplicity of life that He intended.