The Sifford Sojournal

Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.

Page 36 of 92

Garden – Fall 2016 – Update I

Even though we gave a mid-October update on our 2016 garden, outside conditions were still conducive for the garden plants to keep going…

The weather here where we are at is difficult at times in regards to gardens at the end of the year, because what often happens is we will still be having garden-friendly weather, and then a cold snap will hit, followed by weeks of fine weather before another one, or before the cold really starts to take hold for the winter.

The end of last year was like that, and so for the first cold snap, we covered all of our garden plants because they appeared to still be producing. This was November 20:

Here is the tomato plant:

2016 Fall Garden Tomatoes Covered for Cold Snap

And the okra plants:

2016 Fall Garden Okra Covered for Cold Snap

And then here is the okra uncovered after the freeze:

2016 Fall Garden Okra After Freeze

To elevate the blankets over the okra, I ironically used tomato cones:

Tomato Cones Around Okra to Elevate Cover Blankets

And here is the tomato plant uncovered. This plant was a volunteer tomato plant, and I believe is all one big one that just grew and grew:

Tomato Plant After Freeze

And these are two volunteer tomato plants that grew outside the garden on the west side of our house:

Other Tomato Plants After Freeze

But finally, after about another month, the next big cold snap was on the way, so we decided to just pull everything left. Mostly there were only tomatoes, and here you can see the final haul:

Tomato Plant with Tomatoes Picked

Final Basket Haul of Tomatoes

From that point, we just spread them out on newspaper in the house to let them ripen, and then we ate them as they did! Yummy! We even have a few left! 🙂

We are always grateful to the Lord for granting what He decides to from our gardens! We pray He continue to guide us in developing our gardens and homesteads, for His glory and the benefit of His Church.

— David

The Barn – Update VIII – Second Animal Stall

After mostly finishing the barn loft platform, and then doing so after putting in some steps, we were finally able to move more ground-floor stuff we’ve had in the barn up to the loft so we could get the second barn stall in place. This was the plan all along, since we have two sets of goats during breeding time, which is during the winter when we would most likely need for them to have extra shelter.

What was nice was I was able to essentially copy exactly the first barn stall, and when I bought the materials for that one, I had just doubled the materials in preparation for the second, and so I already had all of the supplies needed.

You can see more details of the process in that first barn stall blog post, but here a few pictures from this one. The long boards had been standing on the ground so long, some of them getting moist, that termites had eaten out at least one of the ends, but it was still usable after cutting off the bad part:

Second Barn Stall Side
Second Barn Stall Side from Outside
Second Barn Stall with Gate
Second Barn Stall Gate Closeup
Second Barn Stall from Inside
Second Barn Stall Side Cross Brace

As I mentioned, the purpose of these stalls is to bring in our goats during cold or extreme weather. I added large eye hooks along the side boards to be able to hook each of them up to hopefully keep the chaos to a minimum, and here is a video during one of our fairly drastic (for us) cold snaps we recently had, with them all hooked up in place. Thankfully, it appears to have worked out very nicely, and we are thankful to the Lord!


We are very grateful to God for granting we be able to finish this part of the homestead and barn, and to have a better place of refuge for our goats. Their exposure up in the fields has been a concern for us over the years, and it’s a relief to be able to bring them into the barn now.

— David

Lullaby – Thank You Lord for This Day of Care

Not only did I have a little theme song for William our cat, which I was able to turn into a little lullaby, I also had one for our other cat Mimi.

Her lyrics were “Little Mimi, little Mi-mi-mi,” etc., and I often sing it to her as I’m carrying her into the house at night. Wanting again to do something spiritual with it, and although it has some cha-cha-sounding syncopation in it when played a little faster, slowing it down made it sort of like a lullaby again to me, and being short like William’s song, I put some quick lullaby-esqe words to it, and here is how this one turned out:

Thank you Lord for this day of care
And the graces you did kindly share!
If you please grant us rest
May your name eternally be blessed!

Thank You Lord for This Day of Care

Here’s a PDF:
Lullaby – Thank You Lord for This Day of Care PDF

And this is a musical audio of the arrangement:


Lullaby – Thank You Lord for This Day of Care MP3 (instrumental)

And a vocal version:


Lullaby – Thank You Lord for This Day of Care MP3 (vocal)

When I started to score it, I wasn’t sure how to write the syncopation in measures two and four; even though they’re technically 4/3 with the last two notes tied, that just seemed more complicated in trying to read it than to just write it out the way I did, a little more literally.

Anyway, as before, I’m pleased and thankful to be able to do a little something with the little tune the Lord granted. 🙂

We always pray the Lord glorify Himself through us in whatever way He may, and maybe even through a simple little melody!

— David

Goat Breeding Time 2016!

Recently, it was time to put our billy goats and nannies together for breeding time this 2016!

The following is a video of the event. As I mention in the beginning of the video, our buck Shatner had some problems coming out of our first cold front of the season. It appeared he spent the night sitting in his urine, and the temperature had reached freezing. He was quite cold in the morning and was having trouble standing. He did seem to bounce out of it, and was shown here in the video around the time, but sadly, shortly after the first part of the video was made, Shatner went down hill and soon died. We were both there with him at the very end. He was a good buck, our first, made many kids, and we are thankful to the Lord for granting him to us. Also mentioned in the video, our other buck Rocky has a growth on his back leg, which seems to be slowing him down, although it did appear the other day he is able to get the job done:


With one of our two bucks gone, we were hoping to find a new one, leaning more toward the Lamancha breed with the hope of more milk production. Graciously and with one look at an internet selling list page, there was a young Lamancha buck available in the general area — wow! I contacted the owners, and went and got him the next day. Here he is in the back of the truck just after arriving back after picking him up on that cold morning, and sticking with the famous “Billy” names, we decided to call him Shakespeare:

New Billy Goat Shakespeare

His previous owners said he could jump fences, and he indeed did one time as he was roaming out of the pen. But the silly billy (pun intended 🙂 ) tried again to jump the fence but this time caught his back hoof in the top square of the net-wire fencing, so when he went over, the top vertical wire next to his leg bent up and over the top wire pinching his leg in place. Thankfully, Sue was there, and we were able to cut the wire pretty quickly with only a little, mostly external damage, although it seems to have shaped him up a little with fence jumping. 🙂

Here is his video when we put him in with his nannies. You can sure tell he is younger by his immediate interest level 🙂 :


We are always thankful to God for granting we be able to have the goats and the milk. We thank Him for Shatner and the offspring from him, and for Shakespeare now, and the continued health, safety and provision He has granted for the goats and the homestead, and pray He might grant those continue, and for healing for Rocky, according to His will!

— David

David’s Digest: Love of the World, Part 6 – Denying Lawful Pleasures

This is the planned final part of this series of blog posts, and here are the previous parts:

Part 1 – Cooling Zeal
Part 2 – Truth in Trials
Part 3 – The Evil of Worldliness
Part 4 – Heaven My Way
Part 5 – Worldliness in Much

This is another little related excerpt I found from Thomas Manton in his sermon 6 on Genesis 24:63, of which the entire sermon you can read here:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A51840.0001.001/1:26.6?rgn=div2;view=fulltext

Others for want of considering the end of their lives, are so far from living as Christians, that they scarce live as men, but either as beasts, or as devils. Delight in the pleasures of the world transformeth a man into a beast, it is their happiness to enjoy pleasures without remorse, and to gratify the body; and delight in sin transformeth a man into a devil. Worldly pleasures are not bread, and sinful pleasures are poison: You that are allured by the pleasures of the world, which are lawful in themselves, you lay out your money for that which is not bread; and you to whom it is meat to do evil, you feed upon that which is rank poison; the world cannot satisfy, and sin will surely destroy.

How much of our time is spent in the things of the world, even those that might be lawful? I believe this is an important question to continue to ask ourselves.

Finally, let’s look at the example of Christ, again from Thomas Manton in a sermon on Philippians 2:7, which in its entirety you can read here:
https://sites.google.com/a/oldpaths.org.uk/oldpaths/m/manton/mantonvol18/m000000012/page124sermonuponphilippiansii7philii7butmadehimselfofnoreputation:

[5.] The last lesson is contempt of the world and all the glory thereof. Christ teaches us this lesson by making himself of no reputation in two ways—

(1.) The example of his own choice. The Lord of heaven and earth despised and neglected the glory and riches of this world. He passed through the world to sanctify it as a place of service; but chose not pomp of living, nor the happiness of it, lest we should choose it as our rest and portion: ‘They are not of the world, as I am not of the world,’ John xvii. 16. Those that are dearest unto God must look by crosses and trials to be fitted for another world. If a man say never so much for contempt of the world, yet live in the love of it, his saying is nothing.

But Christ would be a pattern of his own doctrine. Contempt of the world is a lesson of great consequence; salvation lies upon it: 1 John ii. 15-17, ‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world: if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him; for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world; and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.’ Whether we are high or low, full or kept bare, it concerns us all to learn it. Though we flow in wealth, we should be as having nothing, and sit loose from the creature. If we are poor, we must count grace a preferment: James i. 9, 10, ‘Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted; but the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.’

There is required of all an hearty preparation for, when they are not called to a patient enduring of, afflictions for Christ’s name: Phil. iv. 12, ‘I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.’ This is of a hard digestion to a natural man.

Now Christ’s example is a great help to us to check our worldly desires; let us not affect greater eminency in the world than Christ had; and to check the vanity of fulness, or our carnal complacency, that it may not be a snare to us: 1 Tim. v. 6, ‘The woman that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.’ Christ was a man of sorrows; do you profess Christ, and yet are you addicted to vain pleasures, and not able to deny them?

(2.) As it is an argument to confirm us in the certainty of the happiness of the world to come. It were best to choose the easiest life here if we did not believe eternity, to live a life of pomp and ease. The troubles and miseries of the godly have been counted a sure argument to confirm it: 1 Cor. xv. 19, ‘If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.’ God would not make us miserable by our duty. And 2 Thes i. 5, ‘It is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God.’ If the consideration of godly men’s sufferings in this world be of moment to such an inference, much more the sufferings of Christ, who was not only a man good and innocent beyond example, instructing the souls, curing the bodies of so many men, but also the Son of God. His exaltation is a pledge of our happiness, and his humiliation an argument he is gone there as our forerunner.

The kingdom of the world, ruled by Satan, is the enemy of all people — its ends, like Satan’s, are to destroy souls. The carnal man, which is enmity against God (Rom 8:7), is like a cancer to the soul (Paul calls it “the body of this death” in Rom 7:24; see what Puritan commentator Dr. John Gill says about this verse), and these worldly distractions and pleasures are like sugar to that cancer, which feed it and help it grow. Why wouldn’t we choose to deny ourselves these things?

The carnal man is with us until we die, Satan is on the constant prowl, and the world is continuously pulling us toward it. After going through the previous 5 parts (and hopefully the whole sermon here), and this part, I believe that surely this is something for which we should always be on careful watch, for the rest of our lives, if we have concern for our eternal welfare.

May the Lord God almighty help us to mortify the flesh, and by His infinite graces and mercies, may the things of earth during our time here ever continue to fade…

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.

Psalm 73:25-26 – “25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. 26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

— David

A House – Update XLVII – Kitchen Pot Hooks, Utensil Drawer, More Pantry Shelves & Indoor Elevated Water Tank

With some of the kitchen accoutrements being added, the Lord has graciously granted we continue to add some more things in getting it more functional…

Sue liked a utensil drawer and pot hooks idea, so we bought a set of drawers that fit under the counter, and I added some hooks:

Kitchen Pot Hooks & Utensil Drawer

And here are some more pantry shelves added, on the opposite side of the others this time, and with the potential for more levels:

New Kitchen Pantry Shelves

Lastly, all along the plan for the area on the north wall between the counter and the stove was to install an indoor elevated tank for water flow into the kitchen sink. After some research, I settled on a 6 gallon one with a 3/4 inch outlet, that also happens to have a self-venting cap (which I didn’t realize until we got it — bonus!).

And so, I put up a platform, put the tank on it, and ran the tubing and garden hose. On the end at first, I put a hand-squeeze garden sprayer, partially because you could set it to flow automatically, but the outlet was too small, and the flow was minimal. I then replaced that with a valve that is the diameter of the hose, and now it flows nicely, even spraying across the sink when the valve is about 3/4 open.

Here are a couple of pictures:

Indoor Elevated Water Tank

Indoor Elevated Water Tank Hose Valve

And here is a video of it in action:


We are always grateful to God for granting continued progress on the house, and for the ideas He gives us. We always pray this house will be a place of worship to Him!

— David

David’s Digest: Love of the World, Part 5 – Worldliness in Much

1 John 2:15 – “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

This regards sermon 9 on love of the world from a set of sermons on Mark 10:17-27 from Puritan Thomas Manton, where the rich young ruler asks Christ what he must do to inherit eternal life. I found it very interesting, beneficial and challenging.

Here is a link to the entire set of sermons on the topic:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A51840.0001.001/1:17?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

And here is a link to this individual sermon 9 on love of the world:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A51840.0001.001/1:17.9?rgn=div2;view=fulltext

And here are the previous parts from our blog:
Part 1 – Cooling Zeal
Part 2 – Truth in Trials
Part 3 – The Evil of Worldliness
Part 4 – Heaven My Way

The below is part 5 of just some of the main snippets from the sermon. I hope you will take the time to go through the entire thing as it has many more rich explanations and many scriptural proofs.

From Thomas Manton:

Mark 10:22 – “And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.

The last point is taken from the reason of his heavy and sorrowful departure, ‘For he had great possessions’. He had them, is that a fault? Here is no note of crime put upon him, as to his getting of them: he is not taxed with an insatiable desire of riches, nor with unconscionable means to get them; only it is said, that he was marvelously rich, and had great possessions, and therefore he went away sorrowful; so that the point will be this,

Doctrine 5: That the disease of worldliness is very incident to great persons, and men of quality.

If we have not a mortified heart, the very having an estate may prove a snare to us. I observe this, because many please themselves in this, that they have not got what they have by extortion, or cousinage [relational favoritism?], or by any fraudulent or unlawful means, that their heritage comes to them lawfully, in the fair way of providence; but if they have it, and they look not to their hearts, it will enchant them. It is not the means of gathering wealth, but the deceitfulness of it however gathered that chokes the Word. The very possession and presence, though it be not greedily sought for, nor unlawfully purchased, may enchant our minds, and render us unapt to obey Christ’s commandments. Take three propositions.

(1.) Proposition: That it is possible, yea very likely that our hearts may be inordinately set upon wealth lawfully gotten;The mind may be enchanted with a secret delight and desire to retain and increase riches, lawfully gotten. A man may be a slave to his wealth, and loathe to part with it upon religious reasons: it is very likely it will be so when men have any thing in the world.

I do not know how it comes to pass, but so it is, there is more danger in possessing wealth than in getting it; this young man went away sad, for he had great riches: and it is one thing (saith he) to refuse that we have not, another thing to part with what we have;

Covetousness is not to be determined by a greedy thirst only, but also by complacency, delight, and acquiescence of soul in worldly enjoyments. Though we would not desire more, yet if our hearts be glued to that we have already, we are unapt for the kingdom of God,

In short, it is the corruption of our nature, that we are very prone to affect worldly goods too much, and so much the more by how much the more plenty and abundance of them is enjoyed.

They that have much flax and gunpowder in their houses, had need be careful to keep fire from it; so a Christian that enjoys a great store of wealth, had need look to his heart, that corruption do not meet with it; that aversion from God, and conversion to the creature is so natural to us, that when we have great store of the world’s goods, we are ready to set our hearts too much on them.

(2.) Proposition: That the gathering of a spiritual disease is very secret and insensible. Bad humours breed in the body, and are not discovered till a strain; much more distempers breed in the soul ere we are aware, and therefore the more caution is necessary:

Man is afraid of want [lack] and poverty, but who is afraid of riches?

Our greatest learning is to learn how to abound. The worldly-minded judge riches and abundance a happy condition, O blessed is the man, they will say, that is in such a case! It is the sum of every man’s wish; but to be shy of the world, to suspect danger in plenty, it can never enter into their hearts: but alas! as a rank soil is apt to breed weeds, so many snares are incident to this condition, and this sort of life. Alas, they that have great and plentiful estates, how apt are they to pamper the flesh, to grow forgetful of God, slight in holy things, to be wedded to worldly greatness!

As soon as men have any thing in the world, their heads are lifted up above their brethren, and they grow proud, scornful of God’s Word, slighting of holy things, and we are wholly enchanted with pleasures of such an estate, but consider not the snares that secretly are laid for their souls.

(3.) Proposition: There is no means to prevent the danger, but by the continual exercise of good works, and a prudent carefulness to improve our substance for God’s glory, and helpfulness to others…your business should be how you should honour God,

A man’s care should be for contracting and cutting short his desires, and how to make use of it in order to eternal life. Unless there be this constant solicitude upon the heart, it is impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Stay tuned for part 6, if the Lord wills!

May God grant we have a desire and ability to always be on the watch for the snares of the world, especially if we abound!

— David

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