Like a Frog Slides Off a Log

Where to start...

Sermon - preached on Naboth's vineyard. It is a parable for modern life, you could easily read it as a Bush-Cheney abuse of power, but I chose to take an even more poignant reading by using my own personal story of coal companies.

In the late 1980s the Island Creek Coal Company (i.e. Ahab) began buying up land of the Ten Mile community in West Virginia. The family farm was there, a beautiful hilltop place. But my great aunt and great uncle (Naboth) would not sell. So the ICCC went on without them by blasting away the earth around them. The blasts blew out the windows of the farm house. My uncle died before the blasting started, my aunt couldn't take it and was moved to a nursing home. The displacement from the farm, disorientation and grief of home caused a rapid dementia, she died within six months. After the earth was blown up, obliterated and overturned ICCC was forced to stop due to contaminating run-off (sins being passed on to future generations). I hate coal companies!

Work in the garden. Spent the weekend weeding, planting fall vegetables (cabbage and cauliflower) . I was pleased to see an article on BBC news that organic vegetables seem to be better than conventional crops. Although I would say that organic apples shipped to the states from New Zealand is a bit of a lost cause.

From the kitchen. The wife made some delicious, out of this world, strawberry and blueberry scones. She even made some cold brewed iced coffee - props to cooks illustrated for the scones and the ny times for coffee.

Recipe: Cold-Brewed ICED COFFEE Time: 5 minutes, plus 12 hours' resting

Time: 5 minutes, plus 12 hours' resting

1/3 cup ground coffee (medium-coarse grind is best) Milk (optional).

1. In a jar, stir together coffee and 1 1/2 cups water. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight or 12 hours.

2. Strain twice through a coffee filter, a fine-mesh sieve or a sieve lined with cheesecloth. In a tall glass filled with ice, mix equal parts coffee concentrate and water, or to taste. If desired, add milk.

Yield: Two drinks.

NOTE: To make hot coffee, dilute concentrate one-to-one with water and heat in the microwave.

Last week for communion (we employ the intinction method for summer worship) I noticed that folk were having a helluva time tearing off the bread. Reason: the crust was too crispy and chewy (great to have with pasta but not for communion). So I emailed the bread superman for some help. Here is his response:

Here are a few suggestions regarding communion bread: make a round loaf rather than long (you may already be doing this--I'm referring to a lean dough, crusty bread French bread), and when it is nearly cooled, with just a touch of warmth left, wrap it in plastic wrap for about an hour. Then, unwrap it till it completely cools down and then re-wrap it until use. This should keep the crust soft. Another option is to use a milk dough, such as any good white sandwich bread recipe rather than French, or lean dough. These loaves brown up nicely, because of the milk and sugar, and stay soft.They can be baked free standing, like a round "boule" at about 350 degrees until done. Finally, if you have my recipe for Struan, the multi-grain harvest bread, it too bakes up nicely with a soft crust and has a nice spiritual connection as the traditional bread of Michaelmas. I've attached a single loaf version as a file, but a larger version is in "Brother Juniper's Bread Book." It is my single favorite bread (and you can leave out the cooked rice if it becomes problematic--it works just as well without it).

I'm gonna make some Struan this week for coffee hour and see what type of reaction I can get from the folks.

Sabbath Day trek. It was hotter than blue blazes yesterday. So we packed up the kids, towels and lunch and headed to the beach after church, a great amenity of RI. We thought by leaving around 1 we would bypass most of the beach traffic. Guess again. I even thought ahead this time and brought my own beer to have with some fish and chips at Igbys, not a chance. Oh well, so we drove home (took 3 hours) and picked up a pizza a Caserta's. All is all, great Sabbath.

Glad to see ye ol' Anglobaptist had a good time at the Biennial.

Anyone listen to Mike Huckabee on On Point this morning? If I were a Republican I may vote for the dude, sure we differ on all kinds of stuff - major stuff, but I appreciated his straight-forward approach. I was surprised.

Finally, happy to see that Billy Joe Shaver will be in concert later this month in a Boston area club. If you are wondering about the title for this post? Listen to Hard Headed Hearts.