Fourty years have passed in the wilderness

 A second census is taken as recorded in Numbers and the fourty years have passed and only Caleb and Joshua remain as recorded in the first census. Caleb and Joshua had been the spies sent out as two of the twelve members of the twelve tribes of Israel and they had properly recorded what they discovered. God said they would survive to enter into the Promised Land. Neither Moses nor Aaron will enter the Promised Land. I found this second census to be very interesting as daughters were mentioned as the heads of families within each of the tribes. The numbers of Israelis (descendants of Jacob whom God renamed Israel) is a very large number once again just as the first census was a large number. God continues to punish any turning away from Him. The Old Testament section of the Bible is so different from the New Testament. Rules are always needed but when the severity slows down the ability of Homo sapiens to survive in a hostile environment God saw the need for a change although I do not see yet the promise of a Messiah in all these writings God does find a way to alleviate His punishments so that the Israelis, His chosen people to let the world know that He was the Creator God and no one else, continue to survive and flourish. 

I am finding now that rereading the Bible was a path for me to follow at this time in order to better worship God the Creator. At every stage of one's life I have read the Bible but generally in the style of the readings that are set aside for each day since the presence of the World Wide Web in my life. Before that I read as the readings given to us by my Church but not with as much meaning for me as I am doing now reading the Bible from cover to cover.  In my youth when I read the Bible from cover to cover it was less focused and with less understanding. It is too long ago now to remember if I was successful in reading the entire book. 

 Yesterday saw us putting together the British Columbia Kipp material to send to the Archives. There are now two boxes (one banker box and one smaller Archival Box all wrapped up in brown paper and labeled which will go to the post office in the afternoon. It was an hour or so of wrapping up the boxes and finding a copy of The Kip Family of America by Frederick E Kip printed in 1928 that Edward had used for his research and added to quite a bit with a genealogical table that he produced in Legacy and is on his website. It has taken me a while to move to getting this done. It was one of his many mentions in those last years before he passed away. 

It keeps reminding me that I must keep my work organized and headed out the door once assembled in order to not be leaving loose ends. But COVID certainly complicated all of that and Edward had concentrated on some other work the last couple of years and I think had just forgotten his intentions with this material. 

Next up is the Allen family material that is mostly in one box and will get that mailed off to the Allen family that I met in 2019 on one of our last trips to his cousins that he had exchanged letters and information with over the numerous decades since he started into genealogy back in the early 1960s (sixty one years of doing genealogy!). 

Then the 40 plus binders of family pictures to reduce down to six to eight binders of purely family material to organize that material for our grandsons to have detailing Edward's life in particular from babyhood to the last set of pictures just before he passed away (mine tend to be electronic as my younger sister has all the originals). They include his many planned trips into the United States with a couple of organizations that he and George Anderson organized over a decade and a half  between the late 1990s up until 2012 I think although most of this material has been given to the organizing groups for whom they arranged trips into the United States and in Ontario. 

Time to do the Solitaire puzzles.

The Book of Numbers

God the Creator who brought the Israelis out of Egypt and now right to the Promised Land demands absolute perfection. Those who fail are destroyed and God ameliorates this punishment using Moses and Aaron as the catalyst that saves many of the Israeli people so that they survive since they have not actively defiled what God has done for them. I think that is what I understand from these chapters in Numbers. This time of Homo sapiens included many gods that people worshiped but the Creator God, the only true God, had a plan for the world and this was a time of trying to perfect all those who would be part of that plan. Joshua now appears in the writings. But it will be fourty years before the congregation of Israel will enter the Promised Land as God decreed that no one over the age of twenty years at this time in the readings of Numbers would enter the Promised Land. I am at Chapter 20 now and reading these ancient writings in July of 2026. 

The world has entered a phase where the temperature is very high across many parts of the world. It is summer and the sun beating down on the earth is at its strongest. But sometimes I do wonder if we feel it more now because of air conditioning; I do know that the temperatures are higher somewhat but not a huge amount. Into July now and this is generally the  hottest month and the driest. We have had a great deal of rain which has been wondrous for the land and the green grass everywhere is beautiful. Everything is green - the grass, the wild flowers, the trees with their bounty of leaves very thick this year.  Especially the Walnut Tree is heavy with leaves. 

Yesterday was a busy day and we ended the evening with a walk/kayak at Petri. Very pleasant and very crowded as many people enjoyed the swimming and the fresh air. The beavers have built a second beaver den as the family splits now and the older children move on to new homes. All of God's creation lies before Him as He listens and watches for the world to follow the commandments that He sent to us through Jesus the Son of God the Creator when He  came and lived amongst us over two thousand years ago now. The Christian faith developed from Jesus Christ and His followers. 

Today is Sunday, God's day of rest in the Christian parts of the world throughout all the centuries. Church on YouTube once again. 

A little work done yesterday as I work away on Chromosome 1. It is the most difficult of all the chromosomes to sort out the four great grandparent's portions to each of the five siblings tested in a family of seven siblings. The ancient portion at the beginning shared by so many and this is not small lengths. I am sharing many 30/40 cM portions with people who are at least seventh and eighth cousins and primarily descendants of colonial Americans. Their trees fascinate me in their depth taking them back to those very early days of colonists coming to the New England/New Amsterdam colonies (but were they Blake or Knight ancestors; that is the question). 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

On to the way to Canaan - the Promised Land

 It is the numbers, all the counting that sticks in one's mind in the Book of Numbers and yet there are other happenings. The people of Israel are hungry and want meat to eat and Moses is overwhelmed by the responsibility so God assigns 70 elders to help Moses by working with the Israelites on the day to day problems that arise. The rules to follow are many and the knowledge of the land they are heading towards is lost to them by the generations between Joseph who was sold into bondage by his brothers and then sold again in Egypt and God taking them out of their bondage in Egypt back to the land of their forefathers. For the sake of Moses God softens his anger somewhat but the path is difficult for the Israelis as they finally head home but it is hundreds of years since their ancestors went to Egypt to buy food during the time of crop failure. Although this reading tends to be repetitive the numbers are overwhelming of people; of goods; of animals. One trys to sort it all but I am not sure that is what I am to learn as I read Numbers. 

Personally I am pleased with the decision on the pipeline. In the long run the people of a country always pay for the assets. That is what makes a country strong (corporations are not necessarily country supportive; their bottom line is what they look at, at all times, and one must be cautious at how dependent a country becomes on the corporations within it). The corporations benefit hugely from being Canadian (this Prime Minister has a good eye on business and economics and how a country should flow). The oil reserve in the oil sands is said to be worth  7 trillion (Alberta itself must be worth over 30 trillion with all the rare minerals). A good investment made by the government of Canada when Rupert's Land was slowly brought into Canada as provinces and territories.  The benefits will come as time passes but if people are in a rush to acquire what isn't actually their personal property then perhaps they need to find a new place to live although the world is pretty much taken up in terms of formed countries. It is only by the process of support by all of Canada that exciting things like this will happen (British Columbia is supporting the new pipeline as well and otherwise Alberta is landlocked or having to sell all of its oil to our neighbour to the south at a discount). The benefits of the land belong to Canada, provinces are just administrative units unless you have a lot of money to buy the province and anyone buying it for you is not going to be as kind as Canada is to you. Trying to take away from Canada is not democracy; it is dictatorship by the few. Plus you need to get the First Nations to agree to sell the land to you and why ever would they sell their birthright! I am not sure that the history education is adequate these days with regard to the forming of Canada, the acquisition of Rupert's Land and the creation of the new provinces/territories out of Rupert's Land. 

Strange that I would be reading about all the whining that was done by the Israelis in Numbers at the same time as the Separatists are whining that they actually might have to pay something to have a pipeline. Over time we might see the oil companies provide funding (one does realize that the bottom line is very important in order for them to stay solvent and beneficial to Canada) for this enterprise but the advantage of Canada mostly building it; we collect the money from those using the pipeline and the current Trans Mountain Pipeline (built by the taxes of all of Canada) will help to fund this new pipeline. One of the reasons I am leery of voting Conservative now a days is their tendency to try to balance the budget by selling our assets. I am leery of the Liberals but they tend not to sell our assets. 

A little work done yesterday but we had to pick up a number of important items at various stores and all that was accomplished in less than two hours actually. It is very warm here and it will continue for more days. 

A Happy July 4th to our neighbours and cousins in my case in the United States. Canada is giving a gift of 250 maple trees to the United States to help celebrate their 250th Anniversary.  

Solitaire puzzles are next.  

 

 

Reading Numbers

 It is old age that opens my eyes to some items in life I must admit. I never thought about why a Chapter might be labelled as it was but in Numbers the number of males were counted in each descendant of Jacob's sons. They were assigned a particular place to put up their tents around the Tabernacle. The Levites were assigned to Aaron the brother of Moses and their positions around the Tabernacle as the protectors of the Tabernacle were also explained. This chapter is about numbers, the numbers of Israeli males to be placed into the army in particular and to be the protectors of the Tabernacle. The order in which the Israelis would now move following the Tabernacle to the Promised Land was also discussed. What the Levites would carry to bring the Tabernacle to the Promised Land also described in very fine detail. Again the Lord demanded absolute obedience at all times or punishment would follow generally death to the person who did the wrong thing. The desire to keep reading is very strong but I must just read so much a day so as not to move too quickly as I might miss something. I continue to watch for peace in our time being expressed as I still wonder is that something from my childhood or was it in the Bible? 

Good news on the pipeline to tidewater and the current Trans Mountain Pipeline will be the blueprint for a second pipeline following the same course. That still remains in my mind the best way forward. Upgrading the Port of Vancouver is a better move than starting from scratch in the north. Protection of the North Coast is very important to our First Nations and it hosts a 2 billion dollar industry making it most practical to simply clone the current pipeline setup to tidewater. With proven oil reserves in Alberta oilsands worth 7 trillion on the open market at this time, we have plenty to sell for sure. No shortage at all but the XL pipeline which we built to the American border has not yet been linked as the American part of the pipeline is not yet built but I think it is in process. We have a lot of oil reserves in Canada. 

Good news for British Columbia moving forward with this National energy grid expansion. It is interesting that from Confederation onward we managed our immigration and although we grew much slower that way I think we are happy with the results of that careful management which was unfortunately ignored from 2015 on until the present government headed up by Prime Minister Carney. We are back to careful immigration management under the present government. It is important to accept people for whom there are jobs available. 

No work the last few days as it was all about cleaning as I was running one day behind and I can hardly believe it is just two more days after today and I am back to cleaning again. I do like to maintain my cleaning schedule as even being off one day tends to throw confusion into the mix for me. Perhaps it is my age of 80 plus years. 

I do need to get back to my genealogical descent charting and perhaps today I will find time to do that for a while. It is busy though the summer with the yardwork. I do love winter for that reason along with all that quiet time to work in. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

Fireworks in the sky

 I guess someone up the block decided to have fireworks last night; the fireworks for the National Display here in Ottawa were cancelled due to the heavy thunder and lightning storms that we had yesterday. The rain came down in sheets it was so heavy. 

I completed Leviticus today and I perhaps read it this time with more understanding than the last. These were the rules given to the peoples of Israel through Moses. The Israelites whom God brought out of Egypt from their bondage there. To be the people of God, close to Him and His most trusted people the rules that are followed in the 27 Chapters of Leviticus are many and the punishments for not doing so extremely severe. 

Discipline was a very important part of every day when I was a child at school. The rules were kept without deviation and one simply followed them exactly and precisely. You just knew which line was yours and where you were in that line. The world had just been through a terrible World War; the second in the 1900s. Both terrible wars of loss; loss of life, loss of property; loss of health so many losses and even when I worked at the Post Office one could still see those losses in the 1970s with the Stenographic group in the middle of the large working room who did the tasks required by the other workers in the offices around them. Many of them were maimed by that war but each day they came. Some still shell-shocked and feeble but they too came day after day. Computers were coming though and the members of the Stenographic Pool were reaching retirement age and rest and I moved on to raise our eldest daughter born during this time period. 

That is what I understand reading Leviticus. It was discipline on how to live within the close shadow of God. History records the life of the people of Israel and these Old Testament books have been handed down from a long time ago  and then recorded by scribes and then rewritten many times by scribes as the centuries passed. This history of Homo sapiens as known to mankind was written down and carefully preserved by the Israeli people. Archaeology verifies these stories many times over but the experience of my childhood with my grandfather (and grandmother to a certain extent) telling me the stories of their time and the stories told to them by their ancestors tells me that real stories can be passed down through the centuries virtually intact. 

When I first started thinking about all of these stories and decided to google them I was amazed to see in print exactly what I remembered being said to me and for me that was over sixty years ago and for my grandfather who was seventy eight when he died his discussions included great grandparents born over two hundred years ago. The one I am thinking of was Charles Butt baptized 25 Dec 1801 at Winterborne Stickland, Dorset, England. My grandfather went to his 80th birthday party in Dorset as a young child and remembered seeing all of his many cousins, aunts and uncles. Charles was a Wesleyan Preacher although he lived and died as an Anglican in the Church of England. Always fascinated me that information about Charles. But Grandpa said he loved to talk and he talked about so many things but especially the Church and how one lives ones life within the Church of England. So did Grandpa!

Main floor all cleaned yesterday and today is the basement and I shall soon begin. 

Solitaire puzzles first.