Dear Vigilant Watchman:

Greetings. It came to me that there is room for us to figure a lot of things out.

>...I'm trying to make the most of the land that we have here and get some
> basics down (like learning which weeds I can eat).

That is what I am doing too--and I am finding out that my home is becoming my homestead. The nutritional and physical requirements of man are few.

> My grandparents used to have prickly pear in a pot in the back patio.
> Someone showed me how you can eat the fruit. He took a pocket knife, cut
> off the pear, and cut open the fruit and gave it to me to eat. Just avoid
> the needles. It was surprisingly delicious!

Do you have to peel the fruit or do you just eat the inside as opposed to putting the whole thing in your mouth? The jam is sold. The cactus pad is also edible. People slice it up and cook it with eggs and in different dishes. Someone down the road has it sprawling across their front yard and I have a large open bed with plenty of space for it to spread.

> We also had aloe vera which was handy to have around for cuts and
> sunburns. It has very low upkeep here in Texas and was durable. I don't
> know how it stands up to the cold up where you are at.

I purchased a pot of aloe vera last years that was all clumped up so I have many of the plants. Aloe vera juice is sold for consumption for its health benefits.

>> I am looking to grow tepary beans this year, a desert type bean that has
>> very high yields. If watered too much it grows leaves, and less pods.
>> With low water it gives a good yield. With optimal water, twice as big
>> of
>> a yield as with low water.
>>
>> Southwester Endangered Aridland Resource Clearing House website--
>>
>> http://www.nativeseeds.org/catalog/index.php?cPath=1_14_42
>
> Thank you for the link. I am curious about why legumes and water are
> better for someone than fine meats and wine as found in Daniel. Daniel
> asked the chief eunuch to compare the faces of those who ate pulse and
> water to the others after only 10 days on the new diet and make a decision > himself-- he knew something about the benefits of pulse. I wonder if it > was simply because the king's meat was unclean, or if there is something > especially powerful about water and pulse.

Ezekiel also lived off of beans and water though his were prepared as bread, as I recall. You can take the same substance and make it pottage, sauce, soup, bread, a sliceable roll, etc. Beans have plenty of protein which is what flesh needs to make new flesh. It is a staple. It appears that Daniel eventually came off of pulse--he talked about how flesh and wine had not entered his mouth during his 21 day fast. Ezekiel's bread was for a little over a year, as I recall. Something to consider with Daniel is the divine blessing upon his sacrifice so that what he received was enhanced and his spirit and flesh made powerful because he purposed to keep himself pure for God. He was a man greatly beloved and of an excellent spirit as evidenced from his youth.

> I've been wondering about doing this myself. I'm leaving the heater off
> today in my room. Something seemed unnecessary about having a little space
> heater on constantly to keep it warm.

Soon there may be no electricity--and I am not talking about 50 years from now. The Antichrist Slideshow Part II may be coming very soon. All the pieces are coming into place. We are going to go deep here. I am going to write to you about another thing or two under separate cover.

The Bible has something to say about clothing
Linen for hot weather
Wool for cool weather

I wear a snow suit under my skirt almost constantly and I have a wool sweater and hood sweat jackets and hats. I wear these things in the house. When I get hot, I take off my hat (the head is where the most heat is released) and then put it back on when I am comfortable. THIS WORKS!

> I've been thinking about creating a new site and put the old things back > up. I think I'll do this. I will send you the link when I put it up. Thank > you for asking.

Your successes can help others. We are making another homemade quilt. I've started compiling how we do this (This is one place illustrating comes in. I want to present things as if someone were sitting here with me as opposed to just text). Our quilts are plain. Many years ago, I somehow had the ability to ask my grandmother to show me how to make one. It is one of the few useful things that I ever learned. I took some supplies with me and went down to see her in the country. All my supplies were not all used. There was no room for batting in her quilts. This was handsewing with rags and a backing from the "rag store" (as she called the Salvation Army Thrift Store). We tacked the quilt--it was none of that fancy stitching across the quilt. It was quick, to the point, it worked and it was thin enough to put in the washing machine. I never forgot it AND I still have one of her quilts as a model.

> A note about math and the mind. In high school physics class one time, the
> teacher wrote a multi-step equation on the board and asked the class for
> the answer. People started putting in all the numbers in the calculators.
> For some reason, I was compelled to blurt out a number right after she
> asked. I don't normally speak out without thinking like that, but a few
> seconds later when someone worked out the problem, it was exactly the
> number, to the decimal, that I had said.
>
> I don't know if I had seen the number somewhere, or what. It has only
> happened once to me and may be coincidence. But I wonder if the human mind
> is capable of intuitively solving problems without relying on the rote
> complexities of the greek method. I just remembered this and thought it
> may mean something to you.

I am convinced that the mind ****IS****** able to do that and that the Greek method STOPS IT FROM DOING SO. Yes, your illustration is quite meaningful to me and a proof. I'm too infiltrated with Greek to figure out how to guide someone to intuitive mathematical thinking outside of the few things I've learned from Right Start which tried, successfully, to pull on some of these things but my daughter has places that are blocked up because I could not adequately give exercises in certain key areas. Some things she has to accept just because they work. My window is closed, but if there is a way to unlock this innate ability, it would revolutionize the techniques of counting. Counting would just be counting. The Japanese using the soroban are incredible to watch. Some shopkeepers in Russia still use it to tally customer bills. This is probably true in many other places in the east. I have seen a live demonstration where a young Okinawan man performed computational feats--he probably had the soroban in his mind. In your illustration you are talking about no soroban and I am assuming no training on the soroban. Why could you do this? What was your background? These are rhetorical questions that, to me, demand answers.

I am looking to get back to you very soon.

Mephibosheth

****

Dear Mephibosheth:

I hope you are well...

> That is what I am doing too--and I am finding out that my home is becoming

> my homestead. The nutritional and physical requirements of man are few.

It is very encouraging to hear there are only a few. Nutrition and health is not as obscure as taught in school. How wonderful. Truth is so delightfully simple.

> Do you have to peel the fruit or do you just eat the inside as opposed to
> putting the whole thing in your mouth?

If you eat it right off the plant, you have to tear it open and eat the flesh. The spines on the outside prevent you from consuming it whole. You can also peel it (I don't know how difficult it is to do) to eat it whole. I read that the native americans rubbed the fruit against gravel to break off the spines before eating. Roasting it over a flame to burn off the prickles works as well.

> Soon there may be no electricity--and I am not talking about 50 years from
> now. The Antichrist Slideshow Part II may be coming very soon. All the
> pieces are coming into place. We are going to go deep here. I am going
> to write to you about another thing or two under separate cover.

Thank you. It will be appreciated here.

> I am convinced that the mind ****IS****** able to do that and that the
> Greek method STOPS IT FROM DOING SO.

This reminds me of the so called idiot savants (i think you mentioned them before). Their retardation may keep them from learning the greek methods in school-- so they are uninhibited by it.

> Why could you do this? What was your background? These are rhetorical
> questions that, to me, demand answers.

I don't know why i could do this. It reminded me of how you said that you knew you had chickweed with no explanation. I have never used a soroban. Math (as taught to me) has always been the subject I have to work hardest at and enjoy the least.

> I am looking to get back to you very soon.

Okay. An update on our weeds here-- I have separated 16 different kinds. We have cleaver (with vitamin C) and sow thistle and I'm working on figuring out the rest.

Vigilant Watchman