Tofurky & Gravy 

       Welcome  
to Blest of the West .   Home Grown Nutrition, bringing Fitness, Nutrition and Organic Gardening together from a Christian perspective.  Christian.  Conservative.  Organic.  Sustainable.

The Basic concept of this website is life, overall , spiritual and physical.   it is for informational purposes only.  You should see a professional before beginning any health, fitness, gardening or spiritual program of any kind. Although the majority of pages still have some relationship to gardening I have added enough other type pages to make it about life in general.  

Christianity is more important than anything.  Sometimes I rant against preachers, but preachers are people too.  I just have a different take on the right and Christian course of action than many preachers do. There are links to various websites, including but not limited to churches , gyms or fitness centers and nutrition.  It is not the case with links,  but most (not all) of the banners are affiliates.

Some of the articles have advertisments in them, in order to take the articles I am required to leave advertisements and links in them, while these are not my advertisements or links, I still encourage you to visit them 

I happen to think there is a connection between nutrition and fitness, there is also a connection to gardening [vegetable, fruit, herbs, etc.] and nutrition.  One of the best ways to get fit and eat healthy is to grow your own food at home.  Thus the motto "Home grown nutrition" .  

Some of the articles or "content" is by me.  If the byline is Butch West or "Butch" West, or Aulbert West, that is me.

It takes a few dollars each month to have a website and to add features, so there are affiliate banners on various pages, and I ask that you visit them.    And if you can afford it and need or desire something on one of the banners, please go ahead and buy it here.

Most of the articles came from Articles Base.  Remaining articles will either be imported for the subjects on the menu to the left, or I will write an article myself.  I have a few articles on Bukisa.  Some of the removed Bukisa banners will be replaced, I was able to to log in from other computers, and later my own.

Some of the menu links (menu pages on this website), require your input, for example, any gardening or church classes you may wish posted requires information from you.  You may want to consider also posting other upcoming events your organization may have.  I work a regular job, so daily event posting is not an option for me.  Therefore I ask that  you inform me of your event as far ahead of the event as possible.  If you or your group is on Twitter you can send me  a direct message there.  Just look for ButchieBen.

 The form in the following paragraph is designed for recipes, but you can use the last box for anything.  All I require is any contact information I may need to get back to you, preferably an email address or a way to contact through your own website.  Also, if you are someone somewhat famous in your area (John Dromgoole, Bob Webster, Malcom Beck, etc. qualify, as does the guy who host Organic Matters on KTSA) I would like do do an interview with you and post it on this website.  Please contact me and put the word interview in the subject line.  My equipment is pretty much non-existent, so it may have to be entirely online, where I ask the questions via email or a form and you answer them.  If you are in the Central Texas (Austin Area) I may be able to come in person.

If you have a good tasting, healthy recipe, that you think might be interesting, submit this form.   I basically have 2 rules.  Rule 1] 5 (five) ingredients or less and Rule 2] No alchohol [including cooking wine].  I'm changing my wine rule a bit.  You can include wine IF you provide a non-alcoholic substitute ingredient for the wine also.  For example Red Wine or Red Grape Juice.  Cooking Sherry or...  Of course both are just one ingredient.  The 5 ingredient limit I'm willing to bend just a little, ask about it in your submission.   If you wish, you can count up to 5 spices as one ingredient as long as the ingredient is listed as spices.  For example.  Chicken spice: Ingredients: Water, Chicken, Broth, Spices: Basil, Coriander, Chives, Dill, and any or as many spices as you want.

There are, in my mind, two reasons for limiting the ingredients to 5. 1] Is the diet doctor, Melina Jampolis recommends it.  And 2] In this supposedly down economy, it's a good idea to limit the number of ingredients.  You might want to add calorie count and cost for each ingredient.

I'm also beginning to post on sites like twitter, facebook, myspace, eons, blooger, live journal, and thoughts.com.  These are some social sites I was already on before beginning this website and am learning (I hope) to use them to gain traffic to this website.  Many of the links to the box to the right are from Link Market, they appear to be an excellent website, but some of the links there have better relevance on other pages, so I'm adding a link not only here, but also on a page that might have some relevance to the company that I am linking to. Links are not affiliates.  All affiliates have banners or buttons.  

I'm also participating in a few link exchange programs, and those links will be on the next menu page.  

If I don't make enough money off of this website to earn a decent living, I will have to give it up, and keep my day job permnantly.  If you can not afford, do not want, or do not need what can be bought from my affiliates, you can help by praying and asking God to send the right people here.  The ones who want what's here, need what's here, and are willing to pay for it, because they can afford to do so without going into debt.  My affiliates have some sort of banner or button.  The Amazon button is just my personal wish list and the followmebutton is my username on twitter, regardless of what page of this website those buttons may be on.  

It is my desire to make this the best website related to the issues of life that are addressed here in the menu links anywhere on the internet.  Much of it is about gardening, and not just gardening, but organic gardening, and in a sense, going green.  I'm personally not an enviromentalist, per say, but there are a lot of good and even great ideas coming from those who are green.  The earth is the Lord's, but he gave us dominion over it. Being self-sustainable or self-sufficient is an idea that comes from those "wacky enviromentalist".  We must not worship the earth, but while God allows humankind to occupy the earth, we should take care of what He gave us, to an extent.  

Chemical methods are often dangerous and bad for your general health, and there's nothing wrong with looking at the alternatives, even if they are from people we strongly disagree with on other issues.

I'm adding links to Seventh Day Baptist Churches.  I visited Remembrance Seventh Day Baptist Church in Fort Worth a few years ago and was impressed.  I'm also adding links to other church groups. 

While I certainly want to give people a fair opportunity to visit Farmers Markets.  It's why I'm listing them here.  I was not  impressed with the one I visited.  On the radio shows I heard all summer long, that the grocery store prices were going up, and going to the Farmers Markets was now competitively priced.  Well, my visit there proved disappointing.  Tomatoes in the Grocery Store were $1.79 per pound.  At the Farmers Market they were $3.49 per pound. Nearly Double. This is Ok for some people, but growing local should bring prices down, not up.  Frankly, I think some of the rules of the Austin Farmers Markets Association are designed to discourage competition.  I know Organics can be grown for much less money than that.  I know because I've done it.  Not on a large scale, but they didn't have much to begin with.

Having said that, not all the vendors at the Farmers Markets are necessarily Organic, they're certified, but not certified Organic and the one I saw that was had the most reasonable prices.  $2.00 for a basket of green beans, they are about the same ($1.79 lb.) at the grocery store.  So, in that case, though a little more, the price was reasonable.  

Also, the drought here in Texas may have sent the price of local Tomatoes through the roof.  On the gardening radio shows those who were most successful with tomatoes this year (usually a full sun plant) provided a little shade (which made them cooler).

The honey may have been a reasonable price.  I have to check, but a gallon was $44, and I do not think you will find that at the grocery store.  I think a quart at the grocery store is about $14.  4 quarts to a gallon.  $14 x 4 = 56.  So, in this case, the Honey may have been a better deal at the Farmers Markets.  $5 lb. for meat, may or may not be expensive.  Goat milk is expensive anywhere.  I paid more for a quart than a gallon of regular milk at the grocery store.  

At the Farmers Market in North Austin, I saw grass fed beef for $5 per pound.  I thought that was expensive.  Then someone came to the house, selling steak and other things.  They talked me into buying 12 hamburger patties for $30.  The patties were 1/2 lb. patties.  So that's 6 lbs.  $30 ÷ 6 burgers = $5 per lb.  So, maybe that's not such a bad deal after all.

I'm in the process of adding counters to every page.  This is to help me know which pages and information you good folks are most interested in.The statistics on all but the home page are low, simply because I have'n't begun counting them yet.  

I'm also rearranging pages and Ideas, there are currently 81 (visible) pages on the website and a couple of hidden pages (where forms are).  This is what I call a wonderful problem.  I never thought I would use anywhere near 100 pages.  Thought maybe 20 to 25, but not 80 or more.

Hope you enjoy this website, Thank you for visiting. please come again, bring more visitors with you, and remember if it is a God Day, it is a good day, even if it is a bad day, therefore...

Have a God Day.

Butch West

"The Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein.  For the hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods."  Psalms 24:1-2

  

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Calvin Coolidge's Exaltation of Thrift and Hard Work

Author: Bernard J Fleury

Thrift and hard work were very much a part of the Puritan Ethic that framed Calvin’s growing up years and became part of who he was as an adult.
Although his family was economically upper middle class and “Whatever was needed never failed to be provided,”1 nothing was wasted that could be used “Waste not, Want not! The ideal was the self-sufficient small farm that Calvin’s father operated after spending thirteen years as a successful storekeeper at Plymouth Notch, Vermont.
It had been John Galusha Coolidge’s farm that his son, John C. Coolidge took over when Calvin was a little over six years of age. They had been living in what is now known as the Coolidge Homestead since 1876. Besides running the farm Calvin’s father opened the old Blacksmith Shop and hired a blacksmith at $1.00 a day. The blacksmith did most of the “smithing” and assisted with some of the farm work like haying. John liked to work in the shop but only went there when a project demanded precision work like careful welding. As Calvin relates, “If there was any physical requirement of country life which he could not perform, I do not know what it was. From watching him and assisting him, I gained an intimate knowledge of all this kind of work.” (12)
Calvin also grew up participating in and observing the workings of local government because in addition to all the other work he did, John Coolidge was also a Constable or a Deputy Sheriff, and sometimes both nearly all his life as well as being a notary public and at times a Justice of the Peace! (24)
Calvin writes that his father had “such a broad knowledge of the practical side of the law that people of the neighborhood came to him seeking his advice, to which I always listened with great interest. He always counseled them to resist injustice and avoid unfair dealing, but to keep their agreements, meet their obligations and observe strict obedience to the law.” (25)
Calvin’s work ethic was exactly what he had learned from his father!
His value of thrift can be seen in the fact that he and his wife Grace moved to one half of a duplex on Massasoit Street in Northampton, Massachusetts shortly after their marriage, lived there continuously from August 10, 1906 until he became President of the United States on March 4, 1925. When his second term as President was up they returned there from March 4, 1925 until May 17, 1930.
Lack of Privacy after his Presidency trumped his thriftiness and on May 17, 1930 they bought their first home, The Beeches on Hampton Terrace in Northampton, Massachusetts and moved there. It was there that Calvin died suddenly on January 5, 1933.

Endnote
1 The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, New York, N.Y.,
1929, 1989 edition, p. 9. This and subsequent quotations from the Autobiography are used
with the gracious permission of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, Plymouth Notch,
Vermont.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/calvin-coolidges-exaltation-of-thrift-and-hard-work-386638.html

About the Author:

Bernard J. Fleury, B.A. History and Classical Languages, Ed. D. Philosophy, Government, and Administration, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Educational Administration.
Dr. Fleury’s lifelong interest in history from the perspective of the people who lived it, is evident in A Bee in His Bonnet (website: http://greatgeneration.net) that is his grandfather Frank King’s Great Generation story as he recorded it, and told it to his daughter and grandchildren.

Want to begin growing herbs in your home garden? Get started with these 8 easy to grow types

Author: Steve Habib

Every herb found at the grocery store was once a wild plant. For thousands of years growing herbs has been a rewarding practice and continues to be so today. Did you know five percent of the world’s plants have been tested for their medicinal properties? Yes, it’s true. Yet, 95 percent of pharmaceutical drugs are directly linked to plants. That’s an interesting fact, isn’t? Here is something equally fascinating when you think about it. More than 80 percent of the world’s populations rely on herbs for medical treatment of one sort or another.

Best herbs for new gardeners.

Thyme, sage, rosemary, parsley, mint, dill, chives and basil a perfect choices for the gardener just getting started with herb growing. These herbs are easy to grow and care for even for first time gardeners.

Outdoor Growing Tips

When growing herbs outdoors spread them around the garden to keep disease and garden pests away. It is believed that growing herbs will encourage healthy growth among other plants grown nearby. Herb plants should be inspected often for dusty and dirty leaves. If you find soiled leaves wipe them off with a clean damp cloth.

Your kitchen is a great place to grow herbs because of their pleasant aroma and convenient harvesting. Would you like to deter flies from entering your home or kitchen? Grow a container of mint at the entrance of your home or kitchen. That should do the trick.

Indoor herb gardening

Did you know you could protect your herb garden from pests without using dangerous chemicals? How? Make sure you supply the herbs with the optimal amount of water, sunlight and food. You see, bugs attack sickly plants just as a pride of lions target young and weakened prey. Strong plants keep at bay garden pests. Basil, lavender and thyme are known to repel many flying type pests.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/want-to-begin-growing-herbs-in-your-home-garden-get-started-with-these-8-easy-to-grow-types-1199788.html

About the Author:

Steve Habib is an active gardener and researcher on the subject of growing and caring for a variety of plants. To receive our FREE BOOK "How Do Plants Grow" visit the HOME PAGE To learn more about GROWING HERBS visit here.  

How Valuable is Life? This Pro Life Speaker Says it is Priceless

Author: Chet McDoniel

Need a real world example of why pro life is such an important cause? Hi, meet me. My name is Chet McDoniel, and in 1980, I was born with no arms. Why is the pro life cause so important to me? Well, in some countries, I would have been killed within minutes of being born just because I looked different.

But the United States is a civilized nation, and we don't practice such barbaric ideas as murdering because someone looks different than everyone else. We don't abort babies because they will be handicapped. I wish I could say that with pride about my country.

My dad tells that in the delivery room, I was placed in a corner of the room after having the customary post-birth suction, etc, done. I was left alone in that corner and for lack of a better way to put it, I was given a chance to die.

Now, that was in 1980, but the fact remains that a doctor made the decision that my life may not be worth living. What gives one human the right to determine whether or not another human should live? Could he know then, that as a thirty year-old, I would have a wife, daughter, and live a rich, full life?

The question of abortion has come up in my life as my parents have been asked if they would have chosen abortion had they known about my lack of arms prior to me being born. I'm proud to say that they have answered many times that abortion would have never been considered. Even they could not have guessed how great my life would be.

The doctor at my birth, while I owe him my life, was wrong. He should not have given me the "chance to die," and obviously, I disagreed with him even back then. My life is so wonderful that I try to tell every person I meet that you can truly be happy in any circumstance. Life IS priceless! Abortion has no place in this world.

If I, with no arms, can live an incredible, fulfilled life, then every person ought to have the same opportunity. When I attend functions as a pro-life speaker, I love to share my story and my passion for life. Thousands of people have gotten to see me prove that life is priceless.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/christianity-articles/how-valuable-is-life-this-pro-life-speaker-says-it-is-priceless-1168624.html

About the Author:

I would love for you to learn more about my ministry as a Pro Life Speaker. Receive my free report "7 Steps to a Happier Tomorrow" at Inspirational Speaker, today! 

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Learning to Use the Eyes of Your Heart

Author: Mark Virkler

I desire earnestly to live as Jesus did, out of the Father’s initiative, doing only what He saw His Father doing (Jn. 5:19,20; 8:38). However, before I could live that way, I needed first to learn how to become a seer.

I am convinced that the spirit world is there, whether or not I am seeing it. In becoming a seer I am simply learning to see what is. In learning to see, I am learning to bring alive an atrophied sense (i.e., my visionary capacity) and then present it to God to be filled.

Once my visionary sense has been rejuvenated and presented before Almighty God, I am offered the opportunity to live as did Jesus of Nazareth, out of the continuous flow of divine vision.

The Prophets of Israel could simply say, “I looked,” and as they quieted themselves before God, they saw (Dan. 7:2,9;13). I have found that once I have reclaimed the use of my visionary capacity, I too can simply quiet myself in the Lord’s presence, look, and see the visions of Almighty God. I am a “seer” simply because I have become a “looker.”

The Bible says we have not because we ask not. For years I never saw, because I never looked. As I teach people to look, I find that they become seers. This sounds simple, and it is for many, particularly those who are intuitive, spontaneous, and visionary by nature, and who have not allowed the pressure of a culture which idolizes logical, analytical and cognitive functions to cut off their natural, spontaneous openness to vision.

However, for those like myself, who were born naturally logical, analytical and cognitive and have had these inherent leanings reinforced by the rationalism of their culture, seeing the vision of God may not be so easy. Often the intuitive and visionary functions have literally atrophied and died through lack of use; therefore, for these people, the process in not as simple as just “looking” and “seeing.” Even as a muscle which has atrophied through lack of use must be exercised in order to restore its vitality, so must an unused, and thus atrophied, sense be exercised.

This involves three steps:

1. Repenting of the sin of scorning that which God has created,

2. asking God to breathe new life into this inner sense of seeing, and

3. developing this sense which God is restoring.

I began the process of restoration by repenting of my scorn toward my visionary capacity. I asked God’s forgiveness for not honoring and using that which He had created and given me. I also repented of participating in the idolization of logic and analytical thinking which had swept over me, as well as over my culture. I covenanted to honor and seek His ability to flow through vision as much as I had honored and sought His ability to flow through analytical thought.

Then I asked God to breathe upon my visionary capacity and restore it, to bring it back to life and teach me how to allow Him to flow through it.

Now I was ready to take my first few wobbly steps. As I sat in my study seeking God’s face, I was drawn to a scene from John 4 in which Jesus sat by the well and talked with a Samaritan woman. Sensing that God wanted to sit and talk with me, I pictured the scene with a slight adaptation. Instead of seeing the woman talking with Jesus, I saw myself talking with Jesus.

As I peered intently into the picture and looked to see what might happen, it came alive through the Holy Spirit and Jesus moved and gestured, as someone often does when he is talking. With His movement, there came into my heart His words and directives for my life. I sensed God’s voice as spontaneous, good thoughts.

This was the first time I had ever sought for vision in this way, and I was thrilled to see it so readily come alive and be taken over by the power of the Holy Spirit. You see, I had in essence poised myself for the divine flow by setting the scene and then asking God to fill it. I found as I repeated this experiment in subsequent days that God continued to move through these “self-made” scenes, causing them to come alive with His own life and become supernatural visions direct from the throne of grace.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/christianity-articles/learning-to-use-the-eyes-of-your-heart-1166345.html

About the Author:

Mark Virkler is with Christian Leadership University. CLU is a Christian University and Online Bible College offering Christian education including Christian counseling and Christian theology seminaries and offers certificates, undergrad, Masters, and Doctorates in the various Christian colleges of CLU.