Today I decided to make use of my compost from the past 8 months. 2/3 of my garden was killed because of a drought while I was on vacation. So, I hacked it up with a machete, and put it into a new batch of compost. First, I moved the container to a new location. Then, I moved the chunky stuff which had not finished composting into the relocated bin. Next I used a shovel to move the finished compost into the garden as fertilizer.

After spreading the compost into the garden, I raked it into the top of the soil until I was sure it was evenly distributed. Now the garden bed is ready for planting some peppers. I’m going to use a soaker hose this time to make sure that the garden gets properly watered, and doesn’t die in a drought.

Last night we had a tremendous thunderstorm. It rained for about 2.5 hrs, and we had 3.5 inches of rainfall. Since it was night, I couldn’t see the damage to the yard until this morning. I seeded my backyard (more soon on that) recently, and this pesky storm foiled some of my plans. It seems that my neighbor’s yard lost an inordinate amount of silt, which partially buried some of my new grass. This explains why I’ve got a lot of silt in areas of my yard, and not much soil. The soil has probably been eroded over the years, and left me with spots which are without topsoil to grow grass.

I think I will have to devise a system of blocking the soil erosion, while allowing for significant runoff. This probably means more digging (fun), more seeding, and more buying soil. At least I’ve got plenty of compost to help out.

This work was one that I liked at times and disliked at times. I enjoyed the first two chapters, because they seem well organized and thought out. Yet, the ending chapters take a more polemical tone. He strikes out at ‘fundamentalists’ and ‘conservatives’, which I don’t really appreciate. More than that, his comments were not central to his argument, which leaves me wondering why he felt it was necessary to include these comments. I was also unimpressed with the editor/translator who left numerous words in Spanish form rather than translating them to English  (Zechariah as “Zacharias”, etc). In addition, sometimes a word would be spelled in British English, and at other times in American English (summarise, and summarize both appear).

The books value is in the early chapters’ argument that the OT canon was established by the 2nd century BC, and that the words were fixed in form by the end of the 1st century AD. He also argues that the NT was basically fixed by the end of the 2nd century AD, with some minor differences sorted out by the end of the 4th century AD. For a Conservative like myself I find value in these arguments, and conclusions. If you were looking for something that dealt with Christians and the environment (God’s creation) this is not for you.

FULL REVIEW HERE

From Popular Science

Popular Science has a fun article “Nine of the World’s Most Promising Ecotopias.” Amazingly, one of them is in the USA – Greensburg, Kansas made the list. From the information I found there was no bogus “carbon offset.” What I mean is that they aren’t simply raising taxes to plant trees in some impoverished country. Rather, these cities (or developments in some cases) are actually building new rail, performing energy audits, and using alternative energy.

If this trend continues to grow, what does this mean to you (a suburban American)? How will it change your life? As a Christian who cares about God’s creation (the environment), that’s what I want to know!

1) You will probably learn to use public transportation at some point. Mass transportation is much more efficient than everyone driving their own pickup truck to work – one person to a vehicle. When done properly (think of the London Underground, or even the Metro in Moscow), mass transportation is every bit as convenient as driving your vehicle down the interstate. In my opinion there is a big upside: it’s generally safer than car travel, and it gives you the ability to read or relax instead of giving in to road rage.

2) You will likely learn some new energy saving habits. You’ll recycle more. You might even compost food waste to use as fertilizer in your garden (if done right it really doesn’t smell). I predict that we will move to LED light bulbs within 5 years. CFL’s will be a thing of the past. You will likely see many incentives to make energy saving improvements to your house, such as new appliances, or adding insulation. Odds are you will do it, and enjoy the savings.

3) this logically follows number two. Watch for energy providers to raise rates or service charges. They won’t be losing income, even though you consume less power. Part of the increase will be that they won’t make as much money from each individual. Another part of the increase will be higher cost of Wind or Solar power (even nuclear) as compared to fossil fuels. When your energy provider switches sources, you won’t experience any difference. You’ll probably make changes, see an initial decrease in your bill, and then watch yourself get nickeled and dimed back to about the same $$ amount on your bill.

I’m no prophet, though I am a licensed Christina minister (who cares about the environment as God’s creation). Yet, I think these steps will be taken, and results will start to show (in the leveling off of US energy consumption) within the next decade or two. Of course, by then you will have forgotten about this blog entry

This book (Carson and Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament 2nd ed., 1992) was a delightful read. It was well organized, and written in an easy to comprehend fashion. I suspect this would be a good introductory textbook (One of my introductory classes used this book). Yet, the book is so conservative that it really needs to be supplemented. As an Evangelical Christian, I agree with most of Carson and Moo’s conclusions (I’m not sure about a 2nd Roman imprisonment, or their dating of Jude), yet I think that their presentation of opposing views could have been stronger. They seem to present opposing arguments in an easy to defeat manner at times. In this respect, the work is not as useful as Guthrie’s Introduction.

Overall the work is useful. It presents a good summary and outline of each NT book, then dives into the questions of authorship, dating, provenance, recipients, and textual issues. As mentioned above it is easy to comprehend, and as such would be useful to biblical students of all levels.

FULL REVIEW HERE

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According to one news source, a Harvard study indicates that passing Cap and Trade would raise gas prices to $7 a gallon. As a Christian who cares about the environment, I’m interested in legislation like this. I’m interested in it failing.

I want to see some sort of Government incentive for using cleaner energy – not a penalty for using the one source of transportation that is widespread in our country. An incentive might allow me to not pay certain taxes for a specified amount of time if I buy an EV. There might be an incentive for energy providers that lowers the tax rate on profits from clean energy. Perhaps the best solution would be to provide a big benefit or prize for creating a new energy technology that is cost effective and could compete with fossil fuel. These are simply the musings of an intelligent person, not an expert by any means.

What I would hate to see is everyday people (especially rural people) have to triple their budget for gasoline. I use a small amount of gasoline by Texas standards, roughly $225 a month (2 vehicles, 4 tanks of gasoline a month @ $2.70 a gallon). If that price went to $7 a gallon, my cost would go to $600 a month. I couldn’t afford that. I don’t have any alternatives. There is no public transportation, and this is Texas, where it is considered “unhealthy” to be outside in the heat (at least that’s what the government says, I like exercising in heat), so walking 4 miles to the nearest grocery store is out of the question. Then there is the problem of the fact that transportation cost on goods would triple as well, meaning that every good and service that I purchase would increase in price. I just don’t see how that is a desired effect.

The kind of change I desire would be better enforcement of current rules, and maybe even to move step by step toward tougher rules on pollution. But mainly, alternative energy just isn’t cost effective. That’s the real problem. As a Christian who cares about God’s creation (the environment), I want to leave as little impact on the non-human world as possible – in fact I’d like to think my actions improve it. But the sort of legislation that Obama is calling for does not seem to match my goals.

My broccoli was eaten by grasshoppers. At least, that’s my conclusion. I have had an abundance of grasshoppers the last two weeks, little bitty guys, and that is when the leaves started showing holes. It’s a shame because I had 3 good size plants that were just about to make a head of broccoli.

I also threw in the towel on my pumpkins. They just kept suffering in the heat. One had separated from the main stem and was living off some drop points along the vine. Needless to say, they weren’t going to be producing pumpkins. So, they joined the broccoli remains in the compost pile. The compost pile seems to be working just great right now, thankfully. It seems to take about 3-4 weeks to compost just about anything I throw at it.

I reworked my 8X8 raised bed tonight and planted a 4X4 bed of cucumbers, and a 4X4 bed of basil (which the package said loves hot weather). Hopefully I’ll get something there. My beans are looking great, as is the corn. Watermelons and Cantaloupe vines seem to be covering everything right now. It won’t be long before I’ll need to start pruning down to the best melons. And, my peppers finally started growing like I thought they should. I’m going to get about 6 good plants I think.

This HUGE New Testament Introduction was written in 1990, as a 4th revision. As such, it brings to bear a lifetime of work by a great scholar Donald Guthrie. The book addresses several of the critical issues of each book. It gives ample space to the synoptic gospels, and Paul’s writings.

In a work this large, it seemed that it was lacking an in-depth discussion of the history of the period, and perhaps NT theology – or the theology of each book. His method is to try and answer questions of authorship, purpose, recipients, structure, date, sources. His discussion of the text is limited to a general outlining of the book. For this reason I think it is a work only useful to advanced students, or as a reference – since he gives ample space to competing viewpoints.

FULL REVIEW HERE

I chose this book yesterday because it was only 245pages. I knew I could get it done in a short day’s work. Overall the book comes from a perspective that I’m not a part of, namely the History of Religions approach to Old Testament. It assumes an evolutionary development of the Hebrew faith from Canaanite religion incrementally so as to contain no real huge innovations. For me this conflicts with my faith-based understanding of revelation. But, in the review I demonstrate some other ways of attacking that argument. Evolutionary development does not seem to be an attractive option because so much of human development is not done incrementally but through leaps in development, i.e wheel, etc.

Cross is a respected scholar, with a very productive career. His writing should not be taken lightly, even when one disagrees with him. He does offer some good arguments for an early fixed text, and early decided canon of the Hebrew Bible, which even conservative evangelicals would probably appreciate.

Full Review here.

When I was starting this book, my 19mo old Daughter walked into the room and said, “Daddy – BIG book”. That about sums it up. This book is a 1300 page behemoth. Yet, it is amazingly helpful in just about every area of Old Testament study. He covers introductory issues, the Documentary Hypothesis, Old Testament interpretation, OT Theology, and goes book by book discussing critical issues and problems. Given its size and scope I would not recommend this for a lay-person or beginning student. Yes, it’s a work for advanced students, or as a reference work perhaps. His conservative treatment of the topics is strangely evenhanded. In some areas he even admits that his position has equal merit to another position, but not more.

Overall, I found this book quite helpful, as my full review shows.