I am hiking across acres of Southwest Colorado with my fabulous best friend, a Black Mouth Cur that I named, appropriately, “Blessing” on our morning “walk” through the fields and woods of the farm where we now live. It is out … Continue reading
February 13 2014
The necessity of self-discipline and the danger of flaunting one’s liberties can’t be over-emphasized. We must practice self-denial and self-control even in matters that are morally indifferent such as strengthening our bodies, storing food; essentially in ALL areas of our lives.
“24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
As I have been gathering supplies and enhancing my earthquake preparations, it occurred to me that I need to be storing and preparing for more than just myself. So I asked the Lord, I am gathering for a crown, right? And naturally His immediate response was “yes”. More light bulbs began to illuminate as I contemplated this.
Matthew 28:16-20 16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (emphasis mine)
Note that what is referred to as the “Great Commission” is not a suggestion. We are commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth to get out there and to spread the good news. The Great Commission had become the great omission. I have been remiss in my obedience to my Lord in soul-winning. I hope you have not.
If I truly believe that we are in the end times, and I most sincerely do, then I need to be about my Father’s business and not just my own agenda. THIS is what I need to be storing up. THIS is what I need to be preparing; SOULS. Yes, I also need emergency supplies, but my center of attention first needs to be in His Word, united with fervent prayer. I need to be praising ad moving deeper into worship. These are essential tools of strength, renewal and endurance. I buffet my body and I buffet my spirit in preparations.
Folks, we are going to go through hell, and in short order. There is going to be an unleashing of the demonic that will blow our minds and many will just fall dead where they are, the Bible warns us of this. It will be an exceedingly frightening and deadly time if we are not grounded in WHO WE ARE & WHOSE WE ARE!
We are victorious children of the King, the sacred uncreated Creator of the heavens, the earth and the seas and everything good that is within them. The Great I AM. He is the Almighty, nothing is too difficult for Him. He is our God!
Or is He?
Are we grounded? Is our spirit in tip-top shape, prepared for battle? Or have we gotten a little flabby? I know lifting that Bible is quite a workout sometimes, but we can no longer give in to the temptation to just flip on the TV or the plethora of other electronic choices. We cannot ignore the Biblical meat-proteins and skip to dessert day after day and expect to be fit!
Matthew 24:21 “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (emphasis mine)
We are running out of time, seriously!
The best preparation in the WORLD is right here:
Dear Lord God, I ask You to remove all deception that I may have fallen into so that I may know the truth and know You God Almighty. Since I am not perfect, I am a sinner that needs forgiveness and I ask You to forgive me. I believe You are Savior and Lord Who Shed Your Blood and died for my sins to be forgiven, and rose from the dead; You live forever. I turn from (repent) my sins and invite You Jesus Christ of Nazareth, God the Son and True Messiah to come into my heart and life as Savior and Lord. Please, help me to glorify You in all I say and do. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and personal Savior. In the all powerful Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth I pray. Amen.
We do not have “forever” to make the right decision, in fact for many of us we may have only days, hours or minutes. No one is guaranteed their next breath, absolutely anything could happen tomorrow, today or right now as you read this. This could very well be your last chance to secure your future, your eternal destiny. I am NOT referring to jesus the prophet. I refer to, believe in, worship, and serve Jesus God the Son, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit; One GOD.
There are SIGNIFICANT events in our near future. Eyes are on the tense Middle East as the Peace Treaty moves to center stage. Check out Daniel 9:27 (Old Testament) you can Google the Bible, easily. But it is very easy for other events to jump on in there before this treaty (which will be broken 3.5 years into it, when the muck totally hits the fan.) is signed. The threat of war, civil war, financial ruin, the destruction of America, poisoned water, martial law internment, plagues, and more could all easily happen at any time.
Do not postpone what you know deep in your “knower” what you need to be doing. I am remembering a Christmas Carole. “… prepare Him room …” Would you prepare Him room in your heart, in your life, yes even in your preparations? He; God the Father, God Jesus Christ the Son, God the Holy Spirit is the ultimate Survival.
Oct. 3, 2013 at 11:48 AM ET
In 1995, divers noticed a beautiful, strange circular pattern on the seafloor off Japan, and soon after, more circles were discovered nearby. Some likened these formations to “underwater crop circles.” The geometric formations mysteriously came and went, and for more than a decade, nobody knew what made them.
Finally, the creator of these remarkable formations was found: a newly discovered species of pufferfish. Further study showed these small pufferfish make the ornate circles to attract mates. Males laboriously flap their fins as they swim along the seafloor, resulting in disrupted sediment and amazing circular patterns. Although the fish are only about 12 centimeters (5 inches) long, the formations they make measure about 2 meters (7 feet) in diameter.
When the circles are finished, females come to inspect them. If they like what they see, they reproduce with the males, said Hiroshi Kawase, the curator of the Coastal Branch of Natural History Museum and Institute in Chiba, Japan. But nobody knows exactly what the females are looking for in these circles or what traits they find desirable, Kawase told LiveScience. [See Video of Pufferfish Making Seafloor Circles]
Unique circles
Pufferfish mating involves females laying eggs in the fine sediments in the center of the circles, and then the males fertilizing them externally. Then, the females vanish, and the males stay for another six days, perhaps to guard the eggs, the study noted.
Males of some species of cichlids (a type of fish) are known to construct crater-shaped mounds that females visit to have their eggs fertilized, Kawase said. For example, male featherfin cichlids in Africa’s Lake Tanganyika build small bowls out of the sand, and display them to females before mating there, said Alex Jordan, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin who wasn’t involved in this study.
But this new pufferfish’s geometric patterns have three features never seen before. First, they involve radially aligned ridges and valleys outside the nest site. Second, the male decorates these ridges with fragments of shells. Third, the male gathers fine sediments to give the resulting formation a distinctive look and coloring, Kawase said. [Photos: Pufferfish Make Seafloor Circles to Mate]
Strangely enough, the male “gathers” the fine sediments using the circular pattern itself, Kawase said. A fluid dynamics test using a half-size model of one of these circles found that the upstream portion of the circle funnels water and fine sediments toward the center. Then, the downstream peaks and valleys funnel the water outward. The speed of water was slowed by nearly 25 percent in the center, where the eggs are laid, the study noted.
Bowerbirds of the sea?
It takes about seven to nine days for the pufferfish to build the circles. The male pufferfish don’t maintain these formations, and underwater currents wash them away relatively quickly. Kawase said they likely give up their old formations because the circles exhaust the fine sediment in the area, and thus must be built anew in areas with fresh sediment.
When Jordan first heard about the circles, he guessed a much bigger fish would have made them. The fact that such a small animal makes such a large formation is “pretty cool, and suggests some underlying biological reason for the size, like poor visibility at depth, or distance between individuals that means males have to make large nests to be found by females,” he told LiveScience.
Research describing the pufferfish formations was published in July in the journal Scientific Reports. “It’s a nice clean study because it provides a definite answer to the question — something that is very rare in biology,” Jordan said.
The formations are very similar to so-called “bowers” — display sites built by various animals like bowerbirds in which to strut their stuff before mating. In this case, the formations may serve solely to gather fine sediments, which females could use to choose their mate, Jordan said.
But until this idea is tested, nobody will know. “The one caveat I have is that there is no evidence that females care about anything more than the fine sand, and even that’s a stretch,” Jordan said. “The beautiful lines and structure could serve only to channel those particles to the center, and have no aesthetic purpose.”
Although Jordan said he doesn’t think that’s the case, the idea that the fine sediments are important to females would be “biologically interesting, because it would suggest that function is more important than appearance,” he said.
DNA samples and video footage of an alleged Bigfoot sleeping in the Kentucky woods have been presented this week by researchers in Texas who say it all belongs to a ‘human hybrid.’
The administration is increasingly citing global warming to justify expansion of the endangered species habitat, pushing development and recreation away from over 26 million acres, the latest to save the Canada Lynx.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week proposed slightly expanded “critical habitat” for the endangered lynx in part because the administration claims warmer winters from Maine to Washington State have reduced the area of “fluffy snow” the 25-pound cat likes to hunt snowshoe rabbits in.
“Climate change is likely to be a significant issue of concern for the future conservation of the lynx,” said the agency in a 187-page proposed rule that will now collect public comments. “Climate change is expected to substantially reduce the amount and quality of lynx habitat in the contiguous United States, with patches of high-quality habitat becoming smaller, more fragmented, and more isolated,” said the agency.
An agency official said that climate change was “not a factor” in the lynx decision, however.
Under the proposed rule, development and recreational activities would be limited or barred in 26 million acres — about the size of Virginia — along Canada’s border in six states. The rule is revised from an earlier one that was challenged by environmental groups for not including enough habitat for the lynx. That 2009 decision had set aside the bulk of the 26 million acres. The new rule would add about 400,000 acres.
“Canada lynx need quiet places free of disturbance from snowmobiles and other human activities to survive,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
President Obama has said repeatedly that he will use his executive powers to institute climate change policy opposed by Republicans in Congress, and the endangered species list is one of those tools.
The government recently cited global warming in proposing to protect the wolverine and 66 coral species.
The lynx move was assailed by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. “While the administration cannot even define how many lynx there are or what the number of decline has been, they are pressing ahead to reissue a habitat designation that will significantly affect portions of six states, and reduce access for a host of activities. It’s concerning that the massive proposal does not include an accurate or updated economic impact analyses, and will create potential regulatory uncertainty for those areas affected,” he said.
Four previously unknown species of snakelike creatures have been found in California — but don’t call them snakes; they’re legless lizards. Prior to the discovery of the new species, there was only one known legless lizard species in the state: the California legless lizard.
Surprisingly, the newfound legless lizards were discovered at a series of sites that weren’t exactly pristine: They include a dune bordering a runway at Los Angeles International Airport; an empty lot in downtown Bakersfield, Calif.; a field littered with oil derricks; and the margins of the Mojave Desert.
“This shows that there is a lot of undocumented biodiversity within California,” Theodore Papenfuss, a herpetologist at the University of California Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, said in a statement from the school.
The lizards live their entire lives underground or near the surface, and often don’t…
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A child died of a gunshot wound on Saturday at a popular campground in Yellowstone National Park, according to park officials, who said the girl’s mother reported that her young daughter had shot herself with a handgun.
Emergency responders were unable to resuscitate the girl after her mother called emergency dispatchers from a campsite near Yellowstone Lake, park spokesman Al Nash said in a statement.
The names of the mother and girl in the incident, which is under investigation, were not released pending notification of extended family members, Nash said. The child’s age was also not released.
A U.S. law that took effect in 2010 allowed people to carry guns into national parks as long as federal, state and local firearms laws were met, according to the National Park Service.
Although hunting is permitted at a handful of national parks, including Grand Teton in Wyoming, hunting or even firing a gun is unlawful in Yellowstone, according to park literature.
The forested campsite where the shooting occurred sits near a developed area in the Wyoming section of the park known as Grant Village, which features a ranger station, lodge, stores and other amenities.
Yellowstone, which was the first area designated a U.S. national park and is among the country’s most popular outdoor destinations, spans 2.2 million acres of pine forests, river valleys, mountain lakes and geysers in parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, and attracts about 3 million visitors a year.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Scientists are assessing the damage from a massive wildfire burning around Yosemite National Park, laying plans to protect habitat and waterways as the fall rainy season approaches.Members of the federal Burned Area Emergency Response team were hiking the rugged Sierra Nevada terrain Saturday even as thousands of firefighters still were battling the four-week-old blaze, now the third-largest wildfire in modern California history.
Federal officials have amassed a team of 50 scientists, more than twice what is usually deployed to assess wildfire damage. With so many people assigned to the job, they hope to have a preliminary report ready in two weeks so remediation can start before the first storms, Alex Janicki, the Stanislaus National Forest BAER response coordinator, said.
Team members are working to identify areas at the highest risk for erosion into streams, the Tuolumne River and the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, San Francisco’s famously pure water supply.
The wildfire started in the Stanislaus National Forest on Aug. 17 when a hunter’s illegal fire swept out of control and has burned 394 square miles of timber, meadows and sensitive wildlife habitat.
It has cost more than $89 million to fight, and officials say it will cost tens of millions of dollars more to repair the environmental damage alone.
About 5 square miles of the burned area is in the watershed of the municipal reservoir serving 2.8 million people – the only one in a national park.
“That’s 5 square miles of watershed with very steep slopes,” Janicki said “We are going to need some engineering to protect them.”
So far the water remains clear despite falling ash, and the city water utility has a six month supply in reservoirs closer to the Bay Area.
The BAER team will be made up of hydrologists, botanists, archeologists, biologists, geologists and soil scientists from the U.S. Forest Service, Yosemite National Park, the Natural Resource Conservation and the U.S. Geological Survey.
The team also will look at potential for erosion and mudslides across the burn area, assess what’s in the path and determine what most needs protecting.
“We’re looking to evaluate what the potential is for flooding across the burned area,” said Alan Gallegos, a team member and geologist with the Sierra National Forest. “We evaluate the potential for hazard and look at what’s at risk — life, property, cultural resources, species habitat. Then we come up with a list of treatments.”
In key areas with a high potential for erosion ecologists can dig ditches to divert water, plant native trees and grasses, and spray costly hydro-mulch across steep canyon walls in the most critical places.
Fire officials still have not released the name of the hunter responsible for starting the blaze. On Friday Kent Delbon, the lead investigator, would not characterize what kind of fire the hunter had set or how they had identified the suspect.
“I can say some really good detective work out there made this thing happen,” he told the Associated Press.
Delbon said the Forest Service announced the cause of the fire before being able to release details in order to end rumors started by a local fire chief that the blaze ignited in an illegal marijuana garden.
I love to camp with my wife and two little boys, ages 3 and 5. I’d say that 75-80 percent of the campers we’ve encountered over the years have been good people who understand the need to be considerate while sleeping with fellow travelers in the great outdoors. But it only takes one dud to ruin your camping experience.
A bad camping trip can make the pleasures of home seem awfully enticing. A great one can remind you of how magical camping can be–given the right circumstances and neighbors.
I prefer to camp at state and national parks because the tent sites tend to be cheaper and more spacious than private campgrounds, where you can sometimes feel like you are stacked on top of your fellow campers. But if you don’t plan far ahead, getting a coveted site at a state or national park on a summer weekend can be extremely difficult.
No matter where you pop your tent, here are seven things not to do a campground.
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What’s it like to be near someone who decides to check in late at night? Last summer, on a rainy night at a state park in Vermont, we heard noises very close to our tent after midnight. We were alarmed because it was a Monday night and the place had totally cleared out after the weekend, with just one family left in our vicinity. Our paranoia grew when a bright, blinding light illuminated our tent. When we had checked in, a park ranger had mentioned that there had been some bear sightings and we feared that the rangers were tracking a bear near our campsite. Eventually, we fell asleep without further incident. The next morning, we found out that the noises we heard were late arriving campers who used their high beams, pointed right into our tent, as they set up their tent in the rain. Some campgrounds police arrival times, but many don’t. There is no graceful way to set up camp in the middle of the night, so please, just don’t do it.
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For every one person who becomes quiet and introspective when intoxicated, there are a dozen who get loud and obnoxious. If you stay reasonably coherent, you’ll be less likely to annoy your neighbors.
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No one thinks that their dog is annoying, but we all know that some pets are better off left home. The only thing worse than a camper who stands by idly as their dog barks at passersby, squirrels or for no reason at all, is one who leaves their dog or dogs chained up, unattended at their campsite while they go off for the day. If you have a dog that likes to bark, buy them a citronella collar or leave them at home.
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This is the most important and often ignored camping etiquette rule in the book. Nearly every campground has rules prohibiting noise late at night and early in the morning, but most places also don’t have the staff to enforce them. At a Kampgrounds of America campground near St. Joseph, Michigan, in July, we wound up next to a trio of women who woke us up at 5 a.m. (4 a.m. in our time zone) with loud chatter, right outside our tent, slamming their car door repeatedly, and allowing their dog to bark incessantly. When I got dressed and walked out in the darkness to confront them, they made no apologies. “We have a race to get to,” one said, as though that justified waking others up in the pre-dawn hours on a Sunday morning.
You might justify leaving your bar of soap thinking that someone might have forgotten to bring theirs, but I can assure you that no one wants to use your leftover soap, so please take it with you.
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I don’t care how good you think your taste in music is — the truth is that no one wants to hear it except for you. Headphones are a glorious invention, but since too many campers fail to pack them, don’t forget your earplugs.
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One would think that campers would know not to snap the branches off of trees for firewood, drive fast around the campground, litter, and leave a fire unattended, but I’ve seen people do all of these things. Everyone slips up occasionally but a little common courtesy goes a long way, especially in the great outdoors.
Great article for animal lovers
The sheltered existence of hundreds of desert tortoises will come to a sad and tragic end in early 2014.
A lack of funds at The Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, located outside Las Vevas, Nevada, will cause the sanctuary to close its doors and euthanize about half of its 1,400 tortoise residents, reports the Associated Press.
The facility was created in 1990 when the overdevelopment—namely McMansions, solar plants, and strip malls—of the turtles’ native habitats caused the critters to be put on the endangered species list.
The center previously upheld a $1 million annual budget, mostly fueled by “raking in funds from fees imposed on real estate developers who chose to build on the tortoises’ habitats,” reports the AP. But the housing market collapse in 2008 caused that fund pipeline to dry up. And, as a result, The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) simply can’t allocate any more money for…
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Wilderness Training 