Journal Entry -- October 31, 2006

Last week I began the long process of getting back on my feet in recuperating from the flu. A tenacious nagging cough still remains and my energy levels are depleted. I am told it takes about 6 weeks to fully recover from this nasty stuff. Nonetheless, I took the “Pulaski” fitness test. The Pulaski axe, which is a hoe and axe combination, was designed specifically to fight forest fires, though it is a great tool to have on hand. It was designed by the famous forest ranger Ed Pulaski who saved several men’s lives during a horrific fire in August of 1910. Overcome by towering flames and thick smoke, Pulaski ordered his men into a mine shaft at gunpoint and kept them there through the inferno by standing in the entrance to prevent escape. When a rescue party discovered the men in the shaft, one rescuer called, "Come outside, boys, the boss is dead." Pulaski rose to his feet and bellered out, "Like hell he is."

In our mule corral there was a tree that needed removing, but its base was full of fence wire, which had been absorbed by the tree over time, a real chainsaw nightmare. So Art began the hard work of digging around the thick roots and axing them. I assisted and soon discovered what exhausting work it is. The Pulaski test clearly showed that I am in need of serious physical training, which I am undertaking, though gradually. The flu doesn’t help. We eventually cut away the roots on one side and then cut the top of the tree off at about 15 feet above the ground, leaving a long stout lever for pulling it over and out. Next came the beast, our 1 ton Dodge 4x4. We fixed one end of 40 feet of logging chain to the top of the tree and the other to the ball of our gooseneck hitch. Art dropped the beast into 4 low and slowly pulled forward. After making a loud pop when the large tap root snapped, the tree came out instantly. We preferred to have done it with Sam & Sadie, but as they still reside at our Amish friend’s farm, we used diesel power. Sam & Sadie will come soon enough. We pulled the tree and several others into the field behind the coral, which leaves us plenty of work when training with our beloved mules.

I was amazed recently at a sign set up at a local bank, which was intended to draw customers through a play-on-words Halloween theme. It was covered with fake spider webs and had a few gravestones drawn on it. It read, “Let your money RIP at Bank Midwest.” The truth behind this statement is far scarier than we realize. Because a debt-based economy is inflationary by nature, fiat “money” looses its purchasing power over time. The last time the paper dollar had the same purchasing power as a silver dollar was in 1941. Today the American dollar – both the paper and virtual ones (as represented in the purchasing limit on a credit card or in the debits & credits on a bank statement) has less than 2% of the purchasing power of that 1941 dollar. There will come a time, as it has happened with every fiat currency in the history of the world, when it will utterly fail and die, that is, become worthless as a means of exchange, since it already has no intrinsic value to start with. The American people have been addicted to the witch’s brew of debt-based economics for quite some time. Their peaceful treat is about to end, however, and the trick will be upon them, as they see their paper wealth and security disappear into the night like a cackling witch on a broom.

J.R.R. Tolkien did an excellent job in describing the pagan magic of our modern banking system. In the July, 1956, edition of Candour Magazine he stated, "The true equation is ‘democracy’ = government by world financiers . . . The main mark of modern governments is that we do not know who governs, de facto any more than de jure. We see the politician and not his backer; still less the backer of the backer; or what is most important of all, the banker of the backer. Enthroned above all, in a manner without parallel in all past, is the veiled prophet of finance, swaying all men living by a sort of magic, and delivering oracles in a language not understanded [sic] of the people."

The apologia on the biblical use of mules is still coming, though this flu has really slowed me down and drained me of my mental juices, of which I need every drop. One thing I have learned in entering into the life of biblical agrarianism, it leaves little time to talk. Perhaps this is what the churches need with all of the attacks and finger pointing going in reformed circles these days. The autopilot life of credit based ease and comfort leaves too much time for pontification. I believe it would do us all an immense amount of good to relearn what it means to steward God’s good earth by the sweat of our brows in becoming once again the primary producers of the culture, rather than consumers. This alone would straiten out a lot of the bogus doctrine and antinomianism that runs rampant among the Lord’s people. It’s high time the American Christian turns from the international moneychangers, behemoth corporations, and bloated central governments that run things for them and look to the Lord to make their way. Even so, come Lord Jesus!