The Twenty Year Construction of Bradna Rose

     A Schooner For East Texas

     After twenty years of building, John Vardiman completed his boat and saw it delivered to the Gulf Coast and planted in the water for the first time. Dr Vardiman was fifty-five years old when he started cutting oak trees to process into beams, timbers, and plained lumber for to construct his 41' 6" 37,000lb sailing vessel. The Bradna Rose was built  using G. Alden's Malabar II design as a guide. The full write-up is available in Wooden Boat Magazine from June 2014, www.woodenboat.com and here is a video story by Bob Phillips of Texas Country Reporter fame 

El Niño

Behold! An excellent article which explains the El Niño phenomenon and the effects it produces on a global scale. It appears to be in full swing this season...

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/11/-sp-el-nino-weather-2014

Shepherd's Chapel

     I have long studied with the Murray men from Shepherd's Chapel Church in Gravette, Arkansas, some seven years at least. Recently I turned on my old c-band satellite receiver to find no signal from Shepherd's Chapel. A visit to their website solved the situation, it seems the c-band feed ended back in August. Every type of feed is available though on the internet from their site:  http://www.shepherdschapel.com/index.htm
on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwX0AEx-qIhQ9kgtlNhyIXw

America, The Land of Dispair

     You may not see it from your point of view, but the "land that I love" is not the same land you grew up in, or is it? Change has come alright and long before President Obama came onto the scene. Each time a new president is elected he brings with him a wave of change, good or bad is left to you to decide. However, the progression of our 'modern society' speaks loudly and with clear definition. It's all about "ME" and my special interests, just how much sympathy can I draw from the poor saps across the land looking for a "worthy" cause to give their hard earned dollars too? Perhaps a bit more specificity is due as all "worthy" causes are not unworthy nor do they support striking against your neighbor and family in pursuit of "justice" for their livestock/pets and kids. 911 has virtually destroyed the American society, allowing for the ease of tattling and snitching on anyone who seems to be minding their own business while tending their own affairs without need of their neighbors help. Reports recently highlighted the undue amount of calls received by 911 operators on every type of situation imaginable, overloaded switchboards due to repeated reports from cellphone callers on the same incident as they simply keep calling until they see some response at the scene. There could be no easier way for the 'police state' to maintain control over the citizenry than to pit them against each other with the 'emergency' system of 911. Is it any wonder why the "terrorists" struck the twin Trade Towers in NYC on 9/11/2001? A complete mockery was made of the "emergency" call system that very day yet the citizens continue to allow it to operate as though it's the only way to get real help in an actual emergency. What has become of the land "of the people, by the people, and for the people" as it was established?

American History

     There is little that is more important for an American citizen to know than the history and traditions of his country. Without such knowledge, he stands uncertain and defenseless before the world, knowing neither where he has come from nor where he is going. With such knowledge, he is no longer alone but draws a strength far greater than his own from the cumulative experience of the past and the cumulative vision for the future.     JFK

     From the foreword in Volume 1 of The American Heritage New Illustrated History of The United States.   copyright 1963

     Of this I fully agree and wisely add that unless a man search farther into history and gain a knowledge of the early peoples and societies so richly spoken of in the compiled writings of the Bible, he stands even more alone and ignorant in this modern day of turmoil driven by forces much higher than his own. For you see, knowledge of the creator is all that will provide a man with genuine purpose while he walks this earth, without it he only has his fellow man to follow, and so much of that is his own foolish desires to build wealth and achieve success in man's society. Study all of history and assemble a vision for your own future, for History is the teller of the future.

French Florida in Georgia

Fort Caroline has been discovered in French Florida, being dated as the earliest effort at colonization in America.

Heritage Daily article

Income Gap? Always!

The Income Gap: How Much Is Too Much? http://n.pr/1hzu4Kg

     There have always been rich and poor, check the history books, and there always will be differences in both wealth and income. Some believe there exists some harmonious balance, some happy gathering between the floor and the balcony, to these I say it will never be found, and if it is forced into existence it will so quickly collapse. Check the history books.