Twinky

Well, my garden has finally figured out what it is supposed to be doing with these little plants, which are now huge and highly productive. Never mind courgettes, I am getting marrows faster than I can eat them. Anyone know of any decent way to preserve them so that there will be something to eat in a few months' time? I have previously tried dehydrating them...okay if you need some extra shoe leather... :blink: Previous freezer experiments haven't been very nice, either.

Here's two: 1. I needed a new job but wanted to travel the world (not an easy thing with my sort of occupation). Then I decided I needed to develop my relationship with God, and wanted to be with some great believers (Way believers, of course!). Nothing was happening until I put God at the top of the list. I chatted with a non-Way friend about my plans, and do you know, the next week in the national newspaper was a job in another country exactly what I needed, 3 months paid holiday at the end of the job... and there was (I later found) a twig in that city. As soon as I saw the ad (which my non-Way friend sent to me, because as a young believer I was expecting some bolt from the blue or who knows what???), I knew it was the answer to my prayer (the job was hopeless because the business collapsed, but the fellowship was sweet, the country great, and I stayed for many years). 2. One of the young men in my twig was under considerable family pressure and was very unhappy. He just disappeared and could not be found. I got very worried about him. My WOW family and I went out to search for him (where to start??). Yet we found him - in a city of over 1/2 million - within 20 minutes inc travel time. I felt we should go to a suburb where a lot of people of his nationality lived; then to a particular street; then up a hill; then knocked on the first door... and there he was. It was his cousin's house. None of us knew the cousin lived there - or anything about this lad's family. I felt rather like Ananias going to find Paul, in Acts.

Maybe you should post your recipe on Cat Whispering, Dooj. Recipe sounds nice but The Girlies may think otherwise. They have the view that if it is not Go-Cat or liver (Tuxedo) or ham (Crypto) it must be something that will poison them.

So, innies, may we have a sample from the latest Way Mag of an article by the lovely Rosalie herself? Can you scan something and post it? (Or if you don't want to post it yourself, scan it and email to me and I will post it.) mmm... so many Waymag articles weren't really inspirational when I left...they sound even worse now.

Leafy and GC, sorry to hear of the loss of your pets. Always distressing. Creosote is carcinogenic (=gives you cancer) and that's why it's not used any more. Thanks for the tip that lawn needs more nitrogen. Maybe that's it. Though I think the person who sold the house to me had only laid the lawn fairly recently(to make the property look good) - a year or two only before she sold it. Things seem to be flourishing at present. Maybe recent rain has something to do with that.... Took off my first two courgettes (zucchini) yesterday. Some things still haven't got the message though.

Some more firsts, here. I got one of those feeder things that has a clockwork timer on it. Filled the little trays and shut it. Provided an extra big bowl of water. Put down a clean extra litter tray Made no other provision for them (ie, didn't ask neighbor to call in and feed them and empty the litter tray). Stayed away from home overnight. Got home yesterday and the d@mn feeder lids hadn't opened. That means tht the kitties had had no food for - it would be about 36 hours. I thought they would hate me but surprisingly they weren't even very bothered when I put some food down. And because they hadn't eaten much, the litter trays were scarcely used. While I was away I managed to get some peacock feathers (this pub has about 1/2 dozen peacocks just wandering about). One of the feathers is about 5 feet long and has a sort of pointy reverse arrowhead at the end. The spine of this enormous feather is both very strong and very whippy. So I can dangle the "arrowhead" in the air, and waft it around, and wiggle it all over the floor behind chairs and things. It is a most excellent toy and they clearly both love it. They played (with me) with it for nearly 2 hours last night, which must be something of a record. When I got up this morning, there were peacock feathers all over the place. They had grabbed them for themselves and played with them. Third "first". Crypto is getting much more touchable and likes to come and rub near me and sometimes invites me to fondle her head or neck or allows me to stroke her. She was friendly this morning so I grabbed her and sat her on my lap for a couple of minutes. She was as usual terrified and couldn't wait to get away...but she wasn't quite as terrified as she has been in the past. This time she only leapt onto the floor. Other times she has run up the wall (!). Taming these two is only marginally more exciting than watching paint dry on a cold day. However, we are getting there. Incy wincy little bit by incy wincy little bit. Leafy, all you need now is some peacock feathers....

Really interesting, Shaz, thanks for posting.

Nah, he hasn't responded. Right now, he has 10 posts, nearly all in the early part of this thread, none responding to any of the four pages of questions here. I think we'd all like to hear what he has to say, if he can say it rationally and calmly. We see it as the thin end of the wedge, but he probably doesn't. I'd like to know what he really has learned (and not about farming, either) - what has he learned about people and handling situations in a genuinely Godly way? The uproar on this thread and the strength of feeling displayed should give him further pause to think and consider what he may (or may not) have learned. If he is wise, he will be asking himself the same questions posed on this thread. But he hasn't responded at all. Given no information, answered no questions. Just provoked people and stirred up anger. So that's why I wonder if he is a serious poster or merely a poser.

Ha ha, this thread belongs right next to "Cat Whispering"! Maybe, Ham, I should try feeding Crypto egg yolks. Problem will be keeping Tuxedo away from them. Waysider: ain't that just like cats. They know when to react, and when to carry on snoozing. Brainfixed: you'd enjoy Cat Whispering (Open forum) I haven't yet see Go-Cat in "Bacon and Egg" flavor (or even just Egg) but that might go down a treat. I did suggest to them that they made a flavor Robin and Starling, or Mouse and Shrew, but they didn't seem to think that was a good idea.

This guy seems like a drive-by. Says enough to get 4 pages of comments going, never comes back and answers anything. Must be too busy stringing chairs, or corn stooks, or whatever they have on that farm.

I cook an egg for me every morning. My cats have had eggs (raw, beaten), once - maybe twice. Cooked? You must be joking. So, Ham, does that mean I eat cat food?

I went to meet someone off a plane yesterday. This particular plane journey had come from Singapore, don't know if it started there or came on from somewhere else. There was an astonishing number of Chinese-looking people emerging, all with close-fitting face masks. They clearly don't expect that the air in any airport could be breathable. How sad, I thought, that it was so much some people's expectations that they should live in an environment where they needed to wear those horrible things. I wonder what the life expectancy is in some of those Chinese cities that are the most industrialized? Their lives ... for western consumerism. Not a very fair bargain.

We are supposed to STEWARD this planet. Stewardship means taking care of. Taking care of is not - dropping litter all over the place; ripping out rainforests; pumping oil up without regard to spillage; running fuel-inefficient cars, factories and such like; overproducing crops or other materials; and leaving your mess for others to clean up. Even if one's viewpoint is not "save the earth" - isn't it about respect for the other people on this planet? Who likes their next door neighbor dumping their rubbish in one's own back yard? Why do that to anyone else? Sure one day there will be a new earth. In the meantime, it befits us to take care of what we have. Even animals have the sense not to **** in their own nests.

Mean thing to do with the caterpillars. But if it works... I haven't seen any on the bush, but then, it's not in the most accessible of places. When I find 'em on the brassicas and on other things, I chop them in half with the secateurs. A bonfire is good, then work the ash in. I missed having one last fall. I have got something, a brazier wannabe, to burn wood in, so that I can use the woodash. This has been my most unsuccessful year ever as a gardener. It was a lawn before it was a vege garden; previous house-owner had tried a vege garden and didn't get on well with it and so turfed it when she put the house on the market for sale. She wasn't much of a gardener, though. Probably trying to grow illegal plants, LOL. I wonder if there was something dormant in the soil and it had just enough in it to support one decent year's growth (last year). But then, I worked in a large quantity of mature hoss muck when I built the garden. Lots of clay-ey stuff, and rocks (field brash) not too far down. It takes years of care to get a decent soil. My mum's cottage's soil has been worked for over 300 years and is so beautiful and light, it will grow anything. So different from her other house, only 250 yds away, which had been a field before my dad's 25 years of work on it and then her own and my further 25 years or so. ...My house is probably over 120 years old. Who knows what the garden has been used for?

Paw, sometimes it can get a bit difficult to keep a thread on topic. You've seen the posts where the starter has tried to bring it back, and just one or two have tried to carry on bickering. Ability to lock might also be useful if despite a call back to original topic, a thread veers off on something worthwhile and then a new thread could be started and the old one locked. Especially with the multi-quote thing, if previous posts can be copied onto a new thread. But some threads really do just go on and on and on (yawn) way from the original matter about nothing in particular or denying another poster's PoV/experience. Or they end up as a mud fight. Then the mods shift them to Soap Opera. Just a thought.

Another thing that might be helpful: would it be possible for the person who started a Topic to close/lock it? Maybe it was a question that was asked, to which a sufficient answer was received; or a topic that started well but seems to have degraded into something quite silly or off topic. I know that these can get sent off to Soap Opera, but perhaps they could be stopped before they get so debased?

Too funny, T-Bone!

Well, my gooseberry bush has suffered again. Its leaves were flourishing and then disappeared overnight. Then the leaves appeared again and the bush was flourishing. Now they are all gone again. I think it's gooseberry sawfly. Presumably a flying critter, that leaves a larva which turns into a voracious caterpillar. Any suggestions, gang? Nothing in my garden seemes to be thriving this year. However, I have dosed everything with Epsom salts (which contain magnesium and sulfur) and then a week or 10 days later gave another boost with Miracle-Gro. Some things are now showing movement/growth. At long last!! I was given some sweetcorn plants which I have never tried growing before. I followed advice on this thread. Those plants are growing nicely, best thing in the garden. They are underplanted with low-growing crawly plants like marrows/zucchini/squash/round cucumber. If I were relying on my garden this year, I think starvation would be imminent :( . Hey Kimberley what is this about "hilling up" corn? Do I have to rake up the soil, like with potatoes? Not going to be possible, with the underplantings, which I have seen recommended in a number of places. Presumably the raised soil is to improve the wind resistance of the plants?

I wonder how useful the "Reputation" button will be. Excathedra seems to have "damaged" her reputation quite a lot, which another poster has decided to put right for her. Ultimately, posters will get a feel for how worthwhile/helpful/destructive/distracting other posters are, independent of any "marks" given. Could it be that this Reputation button might be used to abuse? By marking a poster down if you don't like their PoV or what they are saying, and thus damaging their reputation? Might be more subtle way than badmouthing them in their posts. Untraceable, too.

Not only that, we weren't allowed to look at the way Jesus handled situations. We were discouraged from reading about him, his way of dealing with people. The gospels were "not written to us" and therefore didn't need to be studied. All we got was in relation to him as the fulfilment of what was required for the Passover. LCM announced that this was now the age of confrontation. But if we had looked at the way Jesus handled situations, we would have seen that he confronted religious hypocrites only. With ordinary people, he showed kindness, compassion, forgiveness. Nor did he make them feel bad about imagined wrongs, real wrongs, not being perfect. He didn't "confront" them in a face-melting way about what they'd done wrong (would the general populace then have worn it? If he had, would they have seen him as the Son of God - or just some nagging meanhearted interfering busybody?) They told us the God of the OT was only half the picture and He was really a God of love. Then they treated us like their view of the God of the OT - always calling it loving to "confront." It was threats, blackmail, and the constant wearing down of God- and self-confidence. Having said that - there were some great people who, if they did need to confront something, really did care to ensure that there were no hard feelings afterwards and made the person feel loved up.

Yeah, there were a lot of Fathers, too. I used to wonder how many people spoke to their male parent in such a manner.

JT, that seems to assume far too much importance for the guy. Yes, he affected all our lives, but he wasn't the Prez of anything important, that he should have such a dedicated web page. Whoever put such together would be either a dedicated VPW worshiper or a dedicated VPW hater and neither would be reliable. Have you checked out the Wikepedia entry?

Check out this recent thread:

Krys, you just might be right, maybe it was just a filler while folks just thought what to just say next. It's obviously a habit that's just far more widespread than I'd realized. Not so practiced in my church, but that might be just my church. Strange, really, when it's not part of most people's normal speech habits. Can't remember now, but was it modelled on some prayer(s) offered in the PFAL class? I have a dim recollection of VPW "just" praying about something or other though I choose not to reflect too deeply on that nowadays. Dmiller: musta been just a wild teaching! (LOL) Tzaia: You just didn't get it, did you? Waysider: you're saying it just got into God's vocabulary, even?

I was listening to an article on the radio this evening and the interviewee said he "just" did this and it was "just" something else and blah blah "just" ... and it felt odd and grating to me. Then I realized that that's how so many prayers went at twig. "Father, I just want to thank you for just [healing / helping / taking care of ...]" And this "just" expression was part of TWI prayers not "just" in the country I lived in, but in others, too. So I was wondering... do you folks who were round way way back remember prayers, "just" asking God to do "just" this one thing for them? Was this really TWI culture, or was it where I happened to find myself living? Was it all the time, or is it a mode of speech that crept in - if so, when? Innies, do fellowship prayers still follow this format? I've heard it among splinter groups... but only very rarely among other non-TWI folks, who tend more to pray along the lines of "Father, would you please..." or "I pray that you would [do something, heal somebody]". Which also sounds a little odd to my TWI-attuned ear. Comments, anybody?