Fascinating story about the Altar Stone in the midst of Stonehenge

 We visited Stonehenge twice during our trips to the British Isles. The first time in 2008 and the second in 2016 and both were amazing for different reasons. In 2008 you could up close to the stone and actually see the Altar Stone but by 2016 you had to follow a path around Stonehenge a bit distant but still you feeling close up. It gave me a different perspective looking at it from a distance. I especially wanted to see Stonehenge because my father had gone to see Stonehenge when he was just a boy. His mother took him on a family trip to Stonehenge along with other family members. One of my Rawlings cousins sent me a picture from that time period of a group of people waiting at a bus station.

 This is a picture from before the First World War that my cousin's mother had carried in her purse as a memory probably. My father could not remember when he did mention it other than everyone in the family was going for a trip together (my grandmother and father came to Canada in mid 1913, my grandfather had come earlier to his job in Feb 1913). Is one of those children my father and the woman at the far left sitting down my grandmother? The woman does look like Bessie but it is a long time ago but the Rawlings family was very large and my grandmother had 3 half-siblings and her mother (also a Rawlings) had six siblings and all but two married and had families. I think they were a close family because they still wrote back and forth and I have some of those letters from just before the Second World War. I had mentioned to this cousin who shared the image with me that my father remembered going with the family to see Stonehenge and it was almost immediately that he sent me the picture. Unfortunately when I received it there was no one who could have told me whether it was my father and grandmother on their way to Stonehenge with the family but it was exciting to think about it. Not sure of the location but suspect it might be Ludgershall in Wiltshire. No idea on that. Perhaps I will pursue that thought one day. 

But I am digressing from the story about the Altar Stone and testing that shows it could have come from Northeast Scotland. The Orkneys were also mentioned and we did visit the Orkney Islands and the pictures in the article were an interesting reminder of that trip. 

It was a day of interesting articles as a picture of Kakabeka Falls appeared with a story referring to it as the Niagara Falls of the North (we visited it in 1968 and it was spectacular).  I recognized the picture immediately except for the lovely stairway which must be new since then and a treat to climb these days I suspect. It is 30 kilometres west of the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario on the Kaministiquia River. 

I continued reading Judges and must reflect on the information. I have completed this Book of the Bible and any comment made by me would just be saying what other people say about the Book of Judges. 

Cleaning all accomplished and today it is the main floor. Woke up early and decided to read a bit but Judges is not a book of the Bible that I know very well. I shall have to think about it for awhile. 

Still no work accomplished but that is not unusual in the summer. Still weeding to do outside and will try to accomplish that later in the week. Grass needs to be cut as well. 

We continue as a country to work towards our goal of being an exporter of oil, gas and precious minerals needed by the world. It will make us independent once again. Our military is growing and our defense materials are increasing rapidly as we move forward making ourselves along with the other Arctic countries very defensible. 

I often think of my cousins in the United States and hope that they are managing well. I am not much of a letter writer/emailer as I tend to just work on my projects. 

The warm summer will start to cool off as we enter into the month of August. Hard to believe how fast July has passed.  I always welcome Fall and Winter as I can get back to work once again on my books. 

Solitaire puzzles to do and then back to sleep for a bit.  

 

 

 

Fires still burning all across North America

There are 940 active fires burning in Canada, 489 active fires in the United States (including Alaska),  and 301 active fires in Mexico. The worst area in Central Canada including the Mid North Western United States extends between Northern Minnesota and Northern Ontario through the Lake of the Woods region. The worst area in the United States is the Western part of the country. Global warming is the cause and reducing that needs to be urgent. The average temperature increase in Canada is twice that of the areas south of us and this is also true for Russia which has the same type of boreal forest. The ancient permafrost is melting and that is a huge problem. Interestingly though it does open up the Arctic Ocean for transit making the distance from Canada to Europe/Canada to Asia shorter through the ice free months which are becoming longer and longer. One wonders what the world will be like with the Arctic ice free part of the year. The rain has been very helpful with the smoke. 

I will continue to read Judges but probably not comment on it until I complete the Book. It is a difficult one to read as the Israeli society continues to move away from the strict rules imposed on it by God. Each new judge takes the society further down a destructive path. One still does not get the sense of a prophecy of the Messiah coming to save the people of Israel which appears in later books but rather God is softening slightly towards the plight of the Israelis when they come to him and at least try to follow His commandments but I need to continue reading to understand that. The Judges are Israeli and from one of the twelve tribes of Israel and there are many of them.  

Yesterday I attended Church online and the music was as always absolutely beautiful. My husband loved the music at the Cathedral and I really think that was why he wanted to go there when the new minister came to Dominion Chalmers replacing the older minister. The new minister was interested in a different sort of music. I was happy to be back in my Anglican Church as we were becoming empty nesters gradually although life presented a more interesting life for us as our son in law became part of our house family for a while until they bought a condo and moved on.  I highly recommend that having your children stay at home until they are ready financially to move out into the world. 

Today is cleaning day and it is the top floor and will be one of change as I am moving into the large room with everything just to make my book writing easier and my downsizing of all of Edward's material more top of the mind as I tend to get immersed in my own writing. The success of moving the British Columbia Kipp material to the Chilliwack Archives worked so very well. The material is now available to researchers and many of them live in the British Columbia area including down into the United States and east into Alberta and Saskatchewan. 

Exercises all done and the Cardio Load was 49 and it was one hour and five minutes of exercise. It really is a good start to my day. I have also had a nutritious breakfast - yoghurt, almond granola, mixed nuts and blueberries. Absolutely delicious and energizing. The blog is now written and solitaire puzzles to do.  

Continuing reading Judges

Judges is primarily a book about the individuals who followed Joshua as a leader generally appointed by God but not as effective as Joshua. Israel did not follow the covenant and take over all the lands of the designated Promised Lands. Instead they lived side by side with a number of different kingdoms and over time they forgot the stories of their ancestors and inter married into these other cultures taking up their worship of some gods namely Baal. A number of people became Judges but still the Israelites did not follow the word of God. So God permitted first of all the Midianites to oppress the Israeli people and the Israeli people called out to God to help them and an angel reminded them that they had not continued to honour God for delivering them from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land where they had stopped listening to God and followed the ways of the people who were not Israeli. The Judge appointed by God was Gideon. War followed and the land had rest for forty years with Gideon as their Judge.  But the decay was setting in and Gideon died with the Israelis returning to worshiping other gods namely Baal and forgot God who had rescued the Israeli people from their enemies. God's anger seems to have changed somewhat and He responds when asked to help. I do not believe I ever really understood the Book of Judges. I must read it noticing that the corruption continues and each time it becomes worse. There are many Judges. 

Yesterday was a smoke day and we spent it indoors. It was somewhat visible in the trees but the heavy rain seemed to wash it away. The bad smoke days of a couple of years ago have not returned again because of better management of the forests these past couple of years. The period of dense swirling smoke has certainly diminished. So long as the nations who primarily create the global warming do nothing about it Canada and other northern nations this time of year including Canada, Russia and the State of Alaska (United States) will continue to suffer from lightning strikes that create forest fires because of the very large boreal forests that exist in these countries (that includes the northern states like Minnesota to the south of Canada). However, some countries are working very hard to offset the items that create global warming. But with 555 fires burning in the United States and 658 fires burning in Canada that is a lot of smoke. Also the permafrost is melting at a rapid pace as the northern areas are warming up twice as fast as the rest of the world.  That is bad news. 

Sunday today and Church after a while. I also want to work on the Allen pictures and get them bundled up and sent off to the Allen family which is collecting up all of this material. It would be sad to have these original images lost from the pertinent families. I have given all of my original pictures to my younger sister to retain for the family as she is in an area much closer to everyone. 

Other than that the days move along and work is slowly getting done. 

Solitaire puzzles are next. 

About Global Warming

When I lived in southwestern Ontario I can not remember any alerts for smoke. Even as a young married woman (just 20 years of age) when my husband and I took our canoe up into Northern Ontario throughout the summer months we would still find snow hidden in the crevices protected from the sun. It was always cool at night but now with global warming (Canada is not one of the top ten nations that are considered to be the worst offenders causing global warming) the forest bed is hot and dry and with thousands of lightning strikes we are lucky actually with how few forest fires are burning as the potential is much much higher. The rain today will help to dampen the land and put the fires under control. We have massive forests having traveled in them by canoe and they are all over the northern part of most of the provinces as well as down into the south of many of them;  Canada has the second largest land mass in the world and the maintenance of our forests is high on our agenda but just one large maple tree in my back yard produces enough dead wood/leaves on the ground to fill thirty large recycling bags every summer. One tree and we have billions of them. The rotting dead lumber in the forests enriches the ground and helps to retain the moisture and keep the forest from getting to be too hot in the undergrowth. Nonetheless we do clear large swathes of the forests throughout the summer (good to make pulp with for sure; yet another industry that Canada has). There are fires burning all over North America at the moment but we do have the most forest and Canada is warming up twice as fast as countries further to the south of us because of global warming. But the trees capture carbon and help protect us from global warming; it is a difficult tradeoff actually but we are better off with our forests in this world but perfectly manicured woods are possible in City Parks, built up residential areas and that is why there are so many forest fires burning in Canada, in the United States and in Mexico (all of North America). It is called Global Warming and if one believes the scientists will lead us to a new ice age and then we do not have to worry about Forest Fires! However the last Ice Age likely killed off  Homo neanderthalensis so we continue doing the best we can controlling the fires, helping our neighbours to combat their fires as we are lucky to only have fires in the brief summer period whereas fires to the south of us burn all year round and the smoke travels where it travels (the air streams tend to be out of the southwest and into the northeast so we are not free of smoke either from fires to the south of us when our forest fires are dampened down for the long winter times). 

 Reading the first chapter of Judges and the Israelis continued to take over the Promised Land as God had commanded. Reviewing in my mind the intent of God the Creator throughout these first books of the Bible. There were many gods worshiped on earth by the early peoples but God wanted the people to know that He alone was the True God, the Creator God and He freed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and brought them back to the Promised Land. The land which Abraham purchased and where Abraham had walked and talked with God and God had told Abraham that He would make a mighty nation of his descendants and they would always live in this Promised Land (Israel). In the second chapter already time has passed and God wants the heathens driven out of the Promised Land as He had made Convenant with Moses and Joshua that that would happen as the Israelis took over the Promised Land. God wanted no craven images of supposed gods/no altars built to celebrate these fake gods in His Holy Land which he had given to the Israelis. I will continue reading and tomorrow will think more on all these chapters. 

Having been raised Anglican I am knowledgeable of these thoughts on the Creator God. They were frightening to me as a child and it is only in my early 80s now that I truly can understand why the Creator God went to such lengths to teach the peoples of Israel, His chosen people how they needed to live in order for Him to live amongst them. Greed has to disappear from our world because it destroys; the desire to take what is not yours has to disappear from this world because it destroys and it was Jesus who brought us that message to encourage us to continue with our closeness to God and His Commandments and Jesus gave us the very basic knowledge that can bring peace to all the peoples of the world - Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbour as yourself (that eliminates greed from our life).  It is greed that destroys the very fabric of life. 

Saturday and it is generally a quiet day as I avoid going anywhere. Today though is a rainy one and the air, although full of smoke, will be cleansed somewhat.  

Woke up early

 Still  need a couple of hours of sleep and will head back soon. Yesterday was good accomplishment as we purchased the lights for the electrician to install next week. That is a relief; life was much easier when lights weren't wired in; you just changed the bulb but my husband always enjoyed the new inventions and so there are wired LED lights. Hopefully all resolved and there are four new lights to install. 

Will read the Judges Book in the Bible later today. I like my brain to be rested so that I do not miss anything. I am into some of the more difficult Books in the Bible. The ones that tell of great sadness for the Israeli people. Because they tried to get along with the peoples who had inhabited the Promised Land before they returned from slavery in Egypt, problems arose. I have sort of forgotten all of the parts of the stories so this refresher will be very much appreciated. Joshua has died and the Israelis are now back in the Promised Land; first purchased by Abraham and then promised to Abraham and his descendants by the Creator God. Man walking with God must have been awesome and the Old Testament does give us a good picture of that life. It was not to last though as God's requirements for living amongst people were very very strict and punishment for not following the rules was swift. 

A little work on the books yesterday as I rechecked the latest matches to see if there was anything interesting and a couple became new files to enter. When I enter them is the question but mostly I am looking at them as supportive of what I already have. The database I have created suits me well and supplies me with the information I was looking for with regard to the deep past. 

Avoiding the news for the most part. Canada has a lot of work to do internally to make ourselves much more independent. We were extremely independent after the Second World War and we must get back to that independence. The Prime Minister has found the right path and all of these other items are just distractions that we have to move past. Whether or not the Gordie Howe Bridge opens is really in the hands of the United States. We are ready to open it and the truckers are probably very thankful to have a new bridge connected to the main highways in both countries available to them. We built it on our own using materials from both countries and workers from each country equally and we voluntarily agreed to share the profits if any once the bridge is paid for and what more can one say.  Profits are always somewhat empirical because the bridge will always need to be maintained and upgraded as needed so one never knows if there will ever really be profits if the bridge is properly maintained to protect the users from the United States and Canada - that is really the most important part for sure. Maintenance is the key really. 

Smoke again tomorrow and heavy rain - a combination that is beneficial certainly to the environment since we have so many lightning strikes on much too dry ground caused by global warming.  Hopefully the rain helps to bring the remaining fires under control. I think we are getting used to being threatened as we just carry on with our lives moving ahead with all of these new ideas to make ourselves a global energy power. The natural resources of Canada are huge as is the land mass. We just have to keep moving forward. Strange that in reality the only country in the last two hundred and fifty years plus that has ever attacked Canada is the United States with the last incursions into Canada made by the Fenians coming up from the United States in the 1870s/1880s. But peace has reigned pretty much solidly since the end of the War of 1812-1814. We generally sit down and talk about it as neighbours. That is what God wants us to do.  

Back to sleep for a few hours and then I will read Judges. I am looking forward to reading Judges as I know that of all the Books in the Old Testament it is one of the hardest ones to read in terms of the content. 

Solitaire puzzles all done as well - they are another calming tool for sure.  

During the summer

 In the summer months our only real problem is forest fires primarily caused by lightning strikes. Our winters are long and forest fires not a problem so just a very short period of the year. However we are not amongst the 10 largest polluters in the world and it is global warming that is creating this conundrum in Canada of much hotter summers caused by global warming which feeds forest fires because the forest is much drier and hence more at risk during lightning strikes.  It is difficult to control and generally over in a few days. Although that few days has stretched into longer periods the last couple of years. Last year the smoke was so thick it swirled and we practically never went outside for days. We use air purifiers to keep the smoke out of the house. 

Completed reading the Book of Joshua.  Chapter 22 Verse 5 includes God's commandment which Moses brought to the Israeli people and Joshua repeated: Take good care to observe the commandment and instruction that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, and to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul." The last chapter in the Book of Joshua sees the tribes of Israel renew the Covenant. All the tribes gathered at Shechem and again reviewed the history of the people of Israel coming down from Abraham. Still there must never be a break in the Covenant or God's favour will be lost to the Israelis. I still do not sense any mention of the coming of the Messiah which will be told by the prophets later in the Bible. The Israeli nation must not break the covenant with God at all. Tomorrow I begin the Book of Judges. 

I needed to have some wired in LED lights replaced and was looking for an electrician. I discovered that Enercare offers that service and have joined it along with my furnace and water heater already there and next week will see those lights changed. We just have to go and buy them now. One light burned out about a year ago now and it is difficult to manage that with just lamps. So was happy to have finally discovered a way to get these types of things done. Coming from a family with a lot of electricians one suddenly realizes how differently one lives one's life away from where you grew up. I live it the same personally although different now that Edward has passed away but on a basis of acquiring skills needed to repair and replace items I had really no knowledge. So it is helpful to have these services offered as part of the user network that Enercare has. 

No work done yesterday although I received a note from my brother in law telling me that my sister is enjoying her letters I send every week. That is good to hear and I have every hope and prayer that her mobility improves to suit her. My father was bedridden from the age of 88 years on and confined to a wheelchair. He loved to walk and walked for miles on the beach at the cottage. He always said it reminded him of his childhood and the beaches along the English Channel that they went to when he was a child. So I thanked him in a letter but it didn't like the email address and I forwarded it to my nephew who sent it on to his father. My nephew sent me the new email address. I need to go to the Rideau Center here to look for nice boxes of cards with interesting pictures as I will run out of these cards I found locally. Perhaps we will do that in the next couple of weeks. I haven't been downtown shopping for quite a while. 

I graduated in Science from Western University way back in 1967 and they now have a Western Science Alumni Newsletter.  I just received an email copy today. Edward always donated to Western but I have not kept that up as he donated to a number of places and I added in the Ottawa Branch Library of Ontario Ancestors to celebrate the date of our anniversary as I rather thought he would like that. So I dropped a few of his donations. I shall think about it because I certainly used my knowledge of science through all of my working life and in particular Chemistry and Physics when I was proofreading the National Research Council Journals here for about fourteen years initially directly with the National Research Council and then when we proofreaders were the first to be laid off  by then Prime Minister Mulroney I was hired by the printers who printed the journal to proofread for the remainder of that time period. It was a great job as I went in to work a few days a week for a short period most of that time and than did the bulk of the work at home so I was able to be with my children all the time when they were little. In general no one local knew that I worked at home as I didn't talk about it at that time. 

If the smoke level is down low I shall go out and weed the front garden bed as I didn't get it done last week as the smoke moved in to our area. 

I will do some work on the books today as I have a few hours available now that are not in use. 

Solitaire games next.  

 

 

Joshua manages the division

 Continuing to read Joshua and the division of the Promised Land is recorded tribe by tribe coming down from the twelve sons of Jacob (Jacob was renamed Israel by God) and Israel was formed from the Promised Land. The path had been hard coming out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land; promised to them by God to their forefather Abraham, Isaac his son and Jacob his son. Now the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob dwelled in the land of their forefathers and they lived side by side with the peoples of that land. 

As I read I keep looking for the prophecies but they are not yet and I really do not think the language gives even a hint of the coming of the Messiah that appears in later books of the Old Testament. The need to live the life God commanded was the most important part of the life of the people of Israel. They could not break any of those commandments and survive. 

Yesterday was incredibly busy. I did not realize I could have a maintenance contract on my air conditioner so have done that now although I do intend to acquire a new one for next year but probably in the spring. Will get that set up in the winter time likely although when they come to do maintenance on the current machine which is working beautifully actually they will tell  me about possible air conditioners that I can acquire. This house is small and I keep it shrouded in the days when it is so very humid and hot. It does get warm and I have it set to turn on at 25 degrees celsius but it doesn't run a lot even on the very hot days. It appears to be very efficient. But it is old and needs replacing before I sell the house in a few years. 

The modem is working perfectly and the downloading is much more efficient with the larger modem and it doesn't get very hot like the last one but it was fairly old and needed replacing I gather. I had purchased the 500 MB  per second download option and it doesn't normally go that high but it is well into the 300+ range now which is quick. Mind you I do not do a lot of downloading but that includes all sorts of things like YouTube if you are watching different productions. I do not watch a lot and tend towards religious programs. 

Today will be a quiet day as there is still some smoke in the air and I will not work outside until it has passed. The forest fires burning are normal as the lightning strikes are numerous during the summer months. 

Hopefully some work today as the cleaning is completed for another week. Keeping the dust down is important especially when we also have to contend with smoke. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

Modem all fixed

 An interesting and remarkably busy time whilst the Modem was not working. Absolutely efficient the Rogers agent who came and replaced my modem. Working perfectly. Thank you Rogers. I need to buy a new phone though as my phone is over five years old now almost six years old. It is really my first phone as I just used his hand me downs as I seldom use the phone except for texting. I expect they are considerably more complicated now. 

Only read one chapter of Joshua yesterday but continued reading today and I have reached Chapter 14. This is a story of conquest, God's conquest for His chosen people. After the error made at the time of the taking of Jericho by one family the Israelites once again are obeying without question the rules that God has laid down for them to live by so that He can remain in the midst of their lives.  Still I do not see any comment that would lead me to think that a Messiah will come from God. The rules are the most important part of the daily lives of the Israeli and must be kept 100% at all times. 

Other than that it was simply a day to contemplate how to organize the house to best suit the work that we are both doing - me all the year and my daughter when she is here being my in person caregiver instead of being my caregiver at a distance. But she has a lot of projects on the go and her students are very busy doing a lot of work for her as well. 

I now have a large bin of paper to go through and shred if I do not need it for anything. I do find it hard to let go of paper even when it is no longer logical to retain it. But go it must as I will be drowning in paper otherwise. Being over 80 is rather lucky in some ways as one knows the days ahead are considerably shorter than the days that have already passed in my life.

What a change in life since I was a young child. We did have a family car as well as my father's trucks for his business. But most travel was by car for a family. It took almost twice as long to get to the cottage as it does now as speed limits were lower and roads less direct mostly passing through many many small towns and villages on the way anywhere. I remember when the St Lawrence Seaway was completed and my father wanted to drive and see it. He was like that. Mostly he just drove around the area but something new and spectacular was something that he wanted to see with his own eyes. 

My father traveled to Canada when he was just nine years of age with his mother. His father had already come six months earlier to take up a job with the now Canadian National Railway as a blacksmith. Grandpa loved his work although he only intended to stay ten years and then return to England - the railway had sent out a call for trained people and he answered that call. He had come in February and they could not land in Halifax as it was blocked by ice at their time of arrival so they landed in Maine. Grandpa was very nervous about that he said and the people headed for Canada were kept together and put on a train to Montreal which was where he was headed anyway. He had cousins in Montreal that he stayed with before he moved on to his job in southwestern Ontario.  

When we visited Ireland we went to see the Blarney Stone and I too kissed the Blarney Stone as my father had as a child when their boat stopped to take on water in Ireland on their way to Canada. He was surprised he always said when they stopped at Quebec where everyone who was not a British subject had to get off the boat and go through the usual investigation for arrival in a foreign country but being British Canada was generally thought of as an extension of Britain. Funny really when you think about it. But in 1947 Grandpa became a Canadian - he decided to be Canadian after all. When the time came to return to England after the ten years he had decided on the First World War was then over and the need for people to work was huge due to the tremendous loss of life that Canada underwent in the First World War. 

Must do my solitaire puzzles and then the basement to clean.  

Modem died

No blog today.

Joshua and Jericho

 The Ark of the Covenant was carried into the Jordan River and the waters piled up on the flow side and dry earth appeared for the Israelites to cross into the Promised Land. Ahead of them was the City of Jericho. Jericho is said to be at least 11,000 years old. In these modern days it is located in the West Bank. When the spies from Israel spoke with Rahab who lived in Jericho and protected the two spies from the government of Jericho, she spoke of God as He wanted the world to view Him. He had dried up the waters of the Red Sea so that the Israelites could flee safely from Egypt and the pursuing Egyptians. The success of the Israelites against the Amorites had also told the people of Jericho that God was great. Chapter 2 verse 11 "....... The Lord God is indeed God in heaven above and on the earth below." are said to be the words of Rahab to the spies as she protected them and told them how to escape the city. She asked that her family be spared when the Israelites came and the promise was made and kept because she helped them. 

The story of the fall of the City of Jericho is also an early memory from Church and Sunday School. I think in  my mind I want to think that God early on wanted to send His Son Jesus to us and that He promised it early on but the reality is that those prophecies are still to come according to the scriptures. I think quite clearly God wanted the world to know that He was the only true God who had created this beautiful world. He insisted that the Israelites pay perfect obedience to His laws or suffer the severe consequences in order that He would remain amongst them. 

Am I right that Armageddon has come and we have actually survived; that World War II and the demonic Hitler did not succeed in bringing on the end of the world. The signs were so very strong in Revelations as seen in the world at that time it appears but was it something that came into my brain as a child. Why do I think that? I am I think working my way through my thoughts in that regard and whether God meant that peace would come to all the world and all the countries would work together with their people to make this a perfect home full of peace. That satan and the satanists would be forever banished from our world. That three of the Great Religions of the World (known to me) worship the same God - Judaism, Islam and Christianity - can exist in our world because only God decides how He appears to us through the ages. Jesus came to soften the very strict laws of the Torah and Islam has its own God given existence. 

I was finding the daily readings although appreciated did not clarify items in my mind that were being tossed back and forth between my thoughts. Reading the Bible from cover to cover will answer my questions I think. Choosing the Revised Version Catholic was always a personal choice as it includes Books that are not in the King James Version. 

The great discovery yesterday was most interesting. This family is descendant of Robert Siderfin and Grace Kent through their son Thomas as my line is descendant through his older sister Elizabeth (Betty) (Siderfin) Rew. The match as fifth cousins at 53 cM is large (not huge) but does vary between 0 and 117 with 25 being the most common according to Blaine Bettinger's Shared cM Project.  However that 53 cM match is on Ancestry and TIMBER does reduce the number of cMs if the particular length includes a common area (i.e. common to the British Isles or a particular area in the British Isles in this case). There is a noted pileup area between 44 cM and 53 cM on this chromosome. I do have a number of matches but this one that is traceable is very useful as it again definitively supports the idea that this Thomas is a sibling of Elizabeth (Siderfin) Rew. On Ancestry it is a single chromosome match following later in the chromosome so part of the deletion could be the common pileup area. Rereading and saw that I had put fourth cousin but I am a fifth cousin to the person on Ancestry. Age is catching up to me for sure. 

Today is cleaning day one and it is the top floor. We were busy yesterday moving some furniture around to make it easier to manage and so a good day to begin the cleaning just to clear away any accumulation caused by the moving about. 

We are into a very warm week this week with temperatures well into the thirties and the humidex as high as 48 right across Canada from Alberta to Quebec. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

 

An amazing match

 I was working on the Siderfin book and I do need to revise it unless someone else does as the index is incorrect with page numbers. Sometimes it is right but I think in general the further you get from the front of the book the less accurate it is. However, I had a match with a descendant of the Siderfin family in Ancestry. Her daughter has now tested at My Heritage and I am able to see how much we match. The match is smaller (actually more than 50% smaller) and with the use of TIMBER I have no idea how large the actual match was but we share 4x great grandparents Robert Siderfin and Grace Kent and this new match would be my 5th c 1xr. Amazing that the tester's mother was so much larger. Occasionally I did inherit Siderfin matches that were larger but primarily my other siblings inherited those matches. 

Church today was one of those special sermons that  was delivered by the Right Reverend Peter Coffin who is filling in for this part of the summer. It is very pleasant to see him back in the pulpit as he was Dean of the Cathedral when we first moved from Dominion Chalmers to the Cathedral as Edward decided that it was time that he supported me with my Church as I had attended his United Church for many many years. I was extremely flexible on the Church that I attended as my Uncle/maternal Grandmother had been United Church and I went with them as a child when I visited which was often enough actually. I was familiar with the United Church. But I must admit I was happy to go although I had been attending the local Anglican Church at early service for quite a few years and then went to the later service at Edward's United Church with all the family. The readings at the moment include Romans and the sermon addressed this very interesting Book of the New Testament and I found it most interesting to hear his thoughts on Romans. 

Well time to run and get my exercise. I will continue looking at the new matches in My Heritage as I have already marked two new ones that are interesting but will not add them to my database at this time but this new one for Siderfin I certainly will.  

The simplest way

I think it is a truism that the simplest way works best anything convoluted results in a meandering path that is difficult to follow. Deuteronomy points that out to us throughout the many chapters in this book. The rules of life that need to be there in order that God can continue to walk with man, in this case He chose the Israeli people whom he freed from slavery in Egypt. It was a hard and difficult path that the Israeli peoples had to follow and this Book of Deuteronomy was a continuation of how that path had to flow. 

 Although I was skeptical of the story that the early peoples of the British Isles were descendants of one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, re-reading the first five books of the Bible has reinforced my thoughts in that regard. It was just a thought that grew in the 1800s and was thought about and then shared with this granddaughter when she was just five or six and my grandfather was 75 years of age. As I continue to read I will learn more about the movements of the Israeli people particularly during the times of the Babylonian Empire and all the other Empires that have risen and fallen through the centuries but the Old Testament deals primarily with the time period up to the birth of Jesus Christ. 

 Joshua is the next book of the Bible and I will read that beginning on Monday. I must admit I am not yet seeing the promise of a Saviour/a Messiah but the people of Israel are following the laws of God as they enter into the Promised Land. Moses has prepared them well for the road ahead and Joshua will lead them following the laws that God has given them. That is how I see this by the end of the book of Deuteronomy. I think that fear of the words kept me from really understanding the flow of words in the Bible when I was younger. 

I awoke in the night and read my chapters a bit earlier than usual. I will go back to sleep soon but sometimes my mind becomes too busy and I can not sleep. A lot of items are in my mind at the moment. 

The best way to reach our goals with our military spending is also the simplest way. The GST should never have been reduced. It was done to buy votes and I absolutely hate that. Put forward a decent platform and defend it well but do not buy votes with stupid promises to reduce it in his case it was the GST to be reduced to 5% and it should have remained at 7% because it supports government expenditure and in this case it needs to be directed towards defense spending (we were even told that was always the plan to reduce it to 5% and there was no such plan announced by the then Prime Minister Mulroney and it was a fabrication). Raise it 1% every six months as the employment improves and our projects start to pay their way - no rush, the submarines are still a while off. We need to tighten the belt that keeps us on a good and straight path towards adequate defense and an adequate life for the people of Canada. The big item is to live at home when you graduate (unless you can not because you found a job away from home) until you are financially sound so that you can go out in the world buy that beginner home and live your life.  

The forest fires in Quebec are affecting the air here and we have a smoke day for today. I had planned to weed the front gardens but it will wait for another day. Hopefully it will pass quickly and we will be back to clean air once again. 

I did some work on the matches yesterday looking at My Heritage and Ancestry. There are some new large matches on My Heritage that may be helpful but I will use the note feature to attach them to a grandparent unless I see value in extracting the match into my files. 

Perhaps I will work a couple of solitaire puzzles to put me back to sleep once again.  

My waking up in the night and working was common during the period that I proofread at home when my daughters were young. I would just do a couple of hours of proofreading and then back to sleep. Now in my 80s it has become a somewhat rarer event. 

Sunday and off to Church in another hour and a bit. I have been watching some YouTube videos on the first five books of the Old Testament and there have been comments where the narrator has put forward the idea that within these readings there is mention of the Messiah to come and help the Israeli people with the heavy task that had been placed upon them. What I read is that the task set upon the Israeli people in order to have God live with them was very exacting and precise and any infringement was punished immediately. I do not see any movement away from that precise and exact adherence to the rules set down in the Torah. I do know that I am reading towards the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah.  

The trees

 All my life as long as I can remember I have loved trees. When the Dutch Elm Disease reached London back in the 1950s I watched as the disease took one tree after another all the way down Wellington Street. These beautiful trees down the middle of the road were gone so quickly and I think the city did truly mourn their loss. That is why London was called the Forest City and still has that nickname although heard less often now. 

In the readings today from Deuteronomy Moses tells us that God said:  Chapter 20, Verse 19: .... you must not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them ..... Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you?" Such beautiful words as we are now into the season when forest fires (many many of them natural caused by lightning strikes) are common throughout our forested areas. It is sad to see the trees burn but going to Obatanga Provincial Park just west of Wawa in Northern Ontario (nearly 10,000 hectares of wilderness) a couple of years after a forest fire we found fields full of orchids and other fascinating wild flowers Edward and I on our travels with our trusty canoe in the north. It was absolutely beautiful. Edward had never really traveled anywhere before we married and after we bought the car we went so many places like that to see the beauty of the world around us. The trees left standing were blackened but some recovering and new growth everywhere. It was both sad and beautiful all at the same time. 

Rereading the first five books reminds me of all the Laws that Israel was required to keep in the Promised Land. The last set of chapters continue with the laws and they were many. I still do not sense that God is yet telling Moses to tell us that He will send a Messiah to the people. To me the first Five Books of the Bible are telling me the ancient story of Creation and the length of time from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy is to me a very long period encompassing so much that has happened in the world since its beginnings. I remember as a child someone saying (I think he was a priest from another place (I was very young)) that a day at the beginning could have been many years as God created this beautiful world we live in. I think he might have been a student actually as I contemplate this individual and not yet consecrated as a priest (vague memory now from so long ago). I was a restless child always and my mother would hold me down in the seat to keep me quiet but this time I listened so carefully to what was said as I remember it still. I was maybe four years of age as I recall it was when I first went to kindergarten I think and was learning to sit still. But the laws that the Israeli people must obey are clearly outlined by Moses particularly in Deuteronomy. 

Yesterday a very busy day of weed pulling. The tomatoes are now free once again of all that weed that was amongst them. They continue to grow quickly with fruit upon them not yet ripe. We also planted an herb (Basil) in the shade that we bought grocery shopping. Still more weeding to do and perhaps some today; time will tell. 

I have not accomplished any work but did look at new matches as the beginning of the month passed and I did not do that. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

The Torah

The first five books of the Bible are called the Torah and are the foundational texts of Judaism - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Continuing reading Deuteronomy which, to me, represents Moses preparing the people of Israel to enter into the Promised Land and to hand over his leadership to Joshua. Perhaps one of my most vivid memories of Sunday School was the trumpets under Joshua that heralded that entry of the people of Israel into the Promised Land. At least that was the way that I saw it as a child. The reading is certainly not quite so direct but none the less it was Joshua who led the people of Israel forward into the land that had been promised to their forefather Abraham and continuing to his son Isaac and his son Jacob. In Chapter 10 of Deuteronomy the essence of the law is expressed by Moses to the people of Israel:  Verses 12-14:  O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. 

 Another busy day yesterday buying groceries and it poured as we rushed back to the car with our grocery cart but we had worn rain coats so somewhat ready for that. But it was a very heavy downpour. The tomato plants have enjoyed it for sure. Salmon for dinner with potato salad and lettuce salad. The summer meals are always somewhat simple but energizing. All of the vegetables are now grown in Canada as our growing season is now well past the length for producing food for the plate. So much of the year we must buy usually from the United States or use stored food which is fine but fresh is even better. 

No work done but winter is around the corner and lots will get done. I need to weed today and will do that. The heavy rain will make that an easy task. Perhaps two or three bags of gardening weeds for the pickup on Monday. 

One item we did get done was all that scanning that we needed to do and had collected up. We have a couple of big scanning projects - my husband's thesis still not yet done and some other items that he had done through the years but not published. Some pictures of flowers in the northern woods that I find to be exceptional we want to put into a book in his memory of all those travels we did by car and then by canoe into the backwoods of Northern Ontario. So much to do and time will tell how much I accomplish in that regard. 

Exercises done a while ago now as I awoke early. Breakfast soon but first solitaire puzzles.  

 

Obedience

 Chapter 4 of Deuteronomy and Moses is retelling the story of the Ten Commandments which God gave to the people of Israel to follow and in particular the first and second Commandments.

Chapter 5 of Deuteronomy  Moses knew he would not enter into the Promised Land and now as the time approached he repeated once again the commandments which must be kept at all times in all places through the generations beginning thus. 

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;  you shall have no other gods before[b] me. 

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 

Continuing to read and Chapter 9 details the consequences of rebelling against God. Moses again reminds the people of Israel that it is the wickedness of the nations that they are to displace because God is fulfilling his oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob their direct ancestors. All of the children of Israel are descendant of Jacob (God changed Jacob's name to Israel).  

These are stories I have heard and read so many times as a child and a young adult without really understanding I am thinking. At 80 plus I am reading once again the words of God as told by the writers of the Old Testament. As I looked at the news today there was an interesting article talking about "the Great Filter" and where Homo sapiens is with regard to existence in the universe. Scientists querying why we do not see other life forms like our own in the universe. Coming from a science background I am always mystified by stories like this as I always felt that the Bible clearly explained why we exist. To me it is a plausible story and the mystery that surrounds the first peoples of the world as told by word of mouth and later written down is exactly that a mystery to us that is solved as we read the words of the Bible. Belief in the Creator God has been for all time a lamp in the wilderness beckoning us back to the rules which God gave to the Israelis. The simplified story of Creation in Genesis was written to make us understand that we did have a beginning; the time frame totally unknown but is it something that can be reduced to a scientific explanation. Atheism is foreign to mankind as it blots out God and the words of our ancestors and must be avoided in my humble opinion. 

Yesterday I finished the cleaning and the basement is ready to go once again. Some shopping done and then a walk on the beach and kayaking completed the day. Dinner was late but greatly enjoyed as once again cold chicken and two salads to complete the meal. Summer is an interesting time with all the freshness around us. Because we live in a northern climate we really appreciate summer when it arrives although a lot of us have air conditioning which makes a huge difference. 

Solitaire puzzles to do. I did complete the Blake Newsletter yesterday and will submit it for review today.  

 

 

The beautiful world that the Creator God has given to us

 The last three chapters of Numbers organizes the Promised Land by Israeli tribes and includes the portion that lay outside of the Promised Land beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward. An interesting set of chapters as it is the final story of the first four books of the Bible talking about the family of Abraham, his son Isaac and his son Jacob's descendants whom God delivered from slavery in Egypt back to the Promised Land of their forefather Abraham. The Creator God has shown the world that He alone is the Creator and He continues to live amongst the Israeli people as said in Chapter 35, Verse 34: "You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell for I the Lord dwell among the Israelites."

 Deuteronomy is the next book of the Bible. The first chapter is a review of the happenings that caused the fourty years of living in the wilderness outside of the Promised Land. In the second chapter the land of Esau is ahead of them as the Israelites are living in the wilderness and God tells the Israelites to buy food and water from the descendants of Esau and to pass by them. As they continue in the wilderness the Israelities come to Moab but again they are to pass by as this belongs to the descendants of Lot given to them by God. Thirty eight years have passed in their travels in the wilderness and those who had disobeyed God were now dead and it is time once again for the Israelites to follow God's orders and return to the Promised Land. The review is very interesting and reading the Bible in this way one has a better picture than the daily readings. In my old age I am glad that I decided to re-read the Bible from beginning to end instead of just reading the Daily Bible Verse. 

The cleaning of the main floor was accomplished yesterday. Today is the basement and I shall soon set the Robot to its task of cleaning the rugs. This is still a warm spell and will likely last most of July if not all. July is our warmest month and the driest so I must water the tomato plants which are doing very well with fruit on them already. 

A walk on the beach last evening was most pleasant and it is the busiest that we have seen the beach thus far. It was very difficult to get a parking spot and one just appeared very luckily. We were rather late though as we had done some shopping. I needed a file box and file folders and that was accomplished. A cold dinner of salads (lettuce and broccoli with their extras folded into them) were delicious and cold chicken that we cooked yesterday and will last another day during this heat wave. 

Started a letter to my sister but did not complete it yesterday and will do that today. The time passes so quickly in the summer. 

Iran must not fire on the tankers and for that they have lost their right to ship oil once again. I agree with the Prime Minister on his statement. The NATO meeting sounds like it is going very well. The idea of NATO was totally defense against  aggression. Russia attacked Ukraine once again and killed people. Why do they not return to their borders of the 1990s which they agreed to. They have no right to attack the countries around them. They have plenty of land and there is no excuse for killing the peoples of Ukraine. They are satanists and not obeying the laws of God. 

God gave us such a beautiful world and my prayers are always that we can find peace in this world and live together as He commanded with love (respect) in our hearts for our neighbours.  

Solitaire puzzles are next.  

The commissioning of Joshua

 These chapters are very interesting in Numbers. Again women are mentioned as the only children of a line coming down from Joseph (Chapter 27) and the Lord has decreed that they should inherit their father's portion. God establishes the right heirs as sons and if no sons then daughters, and if no child then brothers and continuing back through the generations to establish the right heir. I never really understood burnt offerings before but the explanation in Chapter 28 is quite explicit and easily understood. These are pleasing offerings to God and in specific time frames, Sabbath offerings, monthly offerings, Passover offering, Festivals like the day of the first fruits. The idea of not working on the Sabbath at your occupations puzzled me as a child. For the burnt offerings it is mentioned that this is a pleasing odour to the Lord but not working is a holy convocation. A holy convocation is a sacred assembly or formal gathering of believers called together to worship God, for instruction or spiritual renewal. 

In the Christian world that I grew up in I was conflicted by this idea because people still did work and gradually it was defined as a needed service and so avoided conflicting with the holy convocation ideal. The Christian world has moved far away from that original concept of the holy convocation on the Sabbath (Chapter 28) (in the Christian world this is celebrated on Sunday for just the actual time of the service). I myself go to Church on Sunday with YouTube. I went through a period of time when I was nine and ten and found this idea of burnt offerings of animals that I saw on the farm and so many listed and I can see those reading now in Numbers. They were troublesome in my mind and I blocked out that idea of sacrificing animals and indeed refused to eat meat for a while. But hearing the stories of the First Nations and their thanks given to the animals which they ate was sort of a balm on that worrisome mind of mine. Moses is instructing the people of Israel because he knows he is not going into the Promised Land and must prepare them so that they continue to celebrate God as God has commanded. 

Packages mailed off to the Archives should arrive in the next week. The material that Edward carefully collected through the years can be useful to people researching the Kip/Kipp family name. He collected a lot of material in the United States where the Kip/Kipp families lived. Although I helped him to collect the material,  I did not absorb any of it particularly because I was not interested in genealogy but simply helping him with his collections. I do not know the Kipp families that he is related to and it just seemed practical to put it all in a repository where any of them can go and see it. At 80 my time is short ahead of me and I especially did not want to see any of it thrown away after all his work on it. 

Top floor cleaned yesterday and it is the main floor today. A huge amount of cardboard went out this week for the collection. We have replaced all of the drape rods and drapes in the house now pretty much. They were getting old and needed new ones. 

NATO will buy ten of the SAAB jets for reconnaissance which is good news as we had debated doing that as part of our fleet but really having them as NATO possessions is an advantage. Germany and France are very much moving to the forefront in NATO. France in particular is heavily armed and nuclear capable. The United Kingdom also increasing their military (they too are nuclear capable) and they too have an Arctic presence. I feel that NATO is progressing forward very quickly and in particular has command of the Arctic which is important as the ice melts. Canada will be part of that protection cover for the Arctic along with Norway, Sweden and Finland with Germany and France. The other countries in NATO are also committed but the heavy work will probably fall to the countries that neighbour on the Arctic plus France and Germany (and Denmark). We will hear at this meeting how much the United States will be involved I think as they too have an Arctic presence with Alaska. Greenland is also part of NATO and the protection plan but Greenland (protectorate of Denmark) has a very small population so need the support of the surrounding nations on the Arctic along with Denmark, Germany and France). I am sure we will hear quite a bit more on all of that. Russia continues to try and provoke NATO but NATO is a purely defensive organization. 

Russia still is living in the times of the 1800s with no concept of a world view that wants peace. I was pleased to see China say at the UN Security Meeting that it is time to wind down this war against Ukraine. Russia continues to murder the people of Ukraine and especially in Kyiv the capital. They are satanists. 

Probably not much work done today but time will tell.

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

 

Yes, the submarine purchase is moving forward

 Picking the proposal from German (and Norway as they also have the same subs) has a huge advantage for NATO and Canada. The crews of the three countries can train together and we are all part of NATO. We will be working together in the Arctic and having the same submarine is an enormous advantage. When I was a child Canada had the largest Navy of all the countries at the end of the Second World War and it continued thus for quite a while. London, Ontario was a military city with Wolsley Barracks being the home for the 1st and 2nd RCR and the 48th Highlanders. They were the largest employer in London when I was a child. We even had Sea Cadets along with Army and Air Force cadets for the young people looking towards being in the military or just for the training which is always excellent. 

Thank you Prime Minister Carney for pushing this ahead month after month. It has been such a long time coming as it was in the 1980s that proper expenditures were made for the military although there could have been more even back then. 

Also thankyou to Premier Ford and Premier Smith of Alberta for the announcement on the plans to have an Eastern oil Pipeline to Sarnia. It is really better than Thunder Bay and then by the St Lawrence Seaway as a pipeline is the safest and fastest way to move oil.  Oil refined once again in Sarnia after all these years is such a perfect idea. Probably it will be a bit before that happens but just talking about it is such a good start. 

Parcels mailed off to the Archives at Canada Post and just under $100 in total for the two boxes. Edward would be pleased that we remembered to do that. It took me a while to get it organized but I am back into that once again as the Allen box should go next week and then work on the Family photo binders (40 of them) down to six to eight and all of the pictures of Edward's nieces and their families will be removed, labeled and an index prepared as the girls were very young when we married and might not remember all of the events. 

Must get back to Chromosome 1 once again and see what I can come up with but busy right now on other things. In the winter I will have more time. 

 

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 (I suspect I skipped parts here and there but I did read huge amounts at the time). 

 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 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.  

The strictness of God's laws in Leviticus

 Perhaps the one verse that really stood out in my mind was in Chapter 20 where God is speaking to the people of Israel through Moses and he says in verse 26: "You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine." Earlier in Chapter 19, verse 18, the Lord says to Moses to tell His people: "..... you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord." The path that the Israeli people had to follow as they made their way with the Lord in front of them as a cloud by day and a fire by night was very strict and the laws of God and they were many had to be obeyed at all times. 

Tomorrow I will complete the reading of Leviticus moving on to the chapter Numbers. As I look back over a lifetime it is a long time since I have read all the books of the Bible one after the other. I have been reading the daily Bible verses for a long time now but actually reading the Bible page by page is a better way I think. 

Today is Cleaning day two and it is the main floor. We have now completed the changes upstairs so that each of us has a room for our desks and materials to do our work but away from our own sleeping areas. I think that works very well and just happens to also be practical in this house as it has four bedrooms. Although quite small in actual square footage the division into rooms lends itself to taking advantage of the ability to separate one's work from one's sleeping. 

When we move I shall probably work in the kitchen or part of the living room as we intend to buy a smaller house. That will not be for a few years though so will take this opportunity to begin the downsizing which I need to do to move. 

Probably not much work done today as I am doing a slightly more thorough cleaning which takes up more of the day. Worthwhile for sure in the long run. We are having a warm spell for this week and then perhaps cooling again although it is July now and Canada Day and generally July is hot and dry. 

Solitaire puzzles next and then the cleaning.