West Eby School program

Tomorrow the school next door puts on its Christmas program. You want artisan, local, small carbon foot-print? They've got it. The hand-written, pencil-colored invitation is done on a folded piece of paper about 8 by 4 inches. Inside, besides the date and time, is written, "We hope to see you 'gliding' by!.."

I'm going.

cookie day

Dorcas and Sarah took over the kitchen for a mother and daughter cookie baking day.

count down at seminary

With only one week to go before the seminary semester is over, Dorcas put the final touches on her timeline of the first 1500 years of Christian history.

centennial birthday greeting to my dad

My father, Lester Mark Lehman (1910-1981) was born today, one hundred years ago (12/11/10). It's a good time to say again, Dad, I love you. He was born a preemie and thought to have little chance to survive. Care involved hardly more than carrying him around on a pillow. His mother bore her next child 11 months later. But dad did survive and went on to rise up through the ranks of the Pennsylvania Railroad, from carpenter's helper to eventually full carpenter. Here's a photo of him in likely first grade at the one room school along Rte 340 between Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse. The second photo was taken about 1972, with his oldest child, Milton, and oldest grandchild, Angela.

Here's what my dad wrote me December 15, 1968, on a Christmas card he and mother sent to me in the Congo:

Dear Glenn,

This is Sunday evening the 15th, sitting at the kitchen table with Mother writing a few lines. Loretta is away. Weather outside is 20 degrees above zero, blowing and very cold. I appreciate the birthday card signed by my three sons. Very nice.

Things are going as usual. Family gatherings over Thanksgiving and Christmas. We all miss you each time. It makes us feel good to know after this Christmas we can or hope to share our joy and happiness together again. We as your parents wish you God's blessing till we meet again.

With love, your Father

And till we meet again, Dad, my love again to you.

new windshield

Cruising south on I81, the Subaru suffered a stone to the windshield and a crack ensued. With the right tools a specialist replaces it a week later. In France the modern laminated glass was invented. La France? La technologie? Yes.

my poor math

Maybe it's my sloppy math. But in the saffron post I had my plot of 4 feet by 12.5 feet equalling 200 square feet. Not, obviously. Fifty square feet. So, divide 50 sq ft into the 43,560 sq ft in an acre and you see that it would take 871.2 of my saffron beds to equal an acre. Hence, if my little plot is worth $31.43 retail, an acre of my plots, all 871.2 earning at the same rate, would be worth--get this--$27,381.82.
But before I buy that chalet in Switzerland, a tiny detail: I think I put about 1.5 hours into my little harvest. 1.5 times 871.2 comes out to 1,306.8 hours. And those hours have to be concentrated in the space of about two weeks or 14 days. Ninety-three hours per day, rain or shine. Okay, get 10 persons willing to bend over for 14 9.3-hour days in a row for $10/hour.
You see where this goes. It is not capital that creates jobs (labor), much as the right wants you to believe. It is labor (jobs) that creates capital. The two, actually, have to cooperate.
Well, back to work. And a big thanks to two sharp readers who caught my wrong math.

saffron harvest calculated

Here's the saffron harvest this fall, dried and settled. Green in background is about one third of the saffron bed. The harvest was taken to a local lab and precisely weighed. Total harvest is 2.68019 grams. Average weight of one single thread is 1.78 milligrams. Stay with me. Saffron is retailed by the grain. There are 15.43 grains per gram. There are 28.3 grams per ounce. At my local grocery saffron retails at $2.29 for 3 grains, or $0.76 per grain. So my total harvest would retail for $31.43.

Let's say I want to make some real money and plant a whole acre in saffron. My saffron plot is 6 steps wide and 2 steps deep, or 4 feet by 12.5 feet, or 50 square feet. An acre equals 43,560 sq. ft., or 871.2 of my little plots equal an acre. So at one acre, my harvest would retail at $27,381.82. This is huge correction from first figure.

In that jar holding my harvest are approx. 1,500 threads or the harvest of 500 flowers. I'm not quitting my day job right away, although saffron is considered the most expensive spice in the store.

the world upside-down

At the seminary, I saw this map of the world. Is the Gospel so powerful it turns the world upside-down? Is it that once you pass through these portals you will never see anything the same again?

inside the seminary

I followed her inside. After checking her mailbox in the catacombs-ish space, she gave me the tour. In the soaring cathedral-like space we saw the lit tree from the other side and through the windows I enjoyed the pastel blue mountains in dawn's early light and the reflected light and the cross in the window overhead.

discovering Dorcas at seminary

Monday I drove to Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Va., to see Dorcas go to school. It's 7:45 a.m. Behind her is the cute cottage. Above her is the Christmas tree amid the arches of the seminary building.

big trucks, tight corners

Add to that sloppy driving and you have tire marks on the lawn and a fallen corner post. The farmer who lives back the lane beside our house put the post back in place. I thanked him and found out the truck has been leaving marks on his lawn, too. With his consent, I reported to the trucking company.