Wordless Wednesday

God’s Provision

The last week my husband and son have been cutting and stacking firewood, as one of the local farmers said that we could have all of the wood in one of his paddocks. What a blessing! My husband cuts the wood with the chainsaw, and my son loads it into the trailer.

Then, when they arrive home my husband puts the long lengths of wood through the sawbench, which sure saves a lot of stress on the chainsaw. It is so much quicker putting the wood through the sawbench, too. Our woodshed is starting to look as if we might have enough wood for winter, now. In this area the temperature plummets to minus eight celsius in winter, but in summer it soars to a mighty forty-seven degrees celsius.

I praise God for the beautiful, warm and sunny autumn days so that we can replenish our wood supply. In the Old Testament times, the only wood that was allowed to be cut down were trees not bearing fruit. We don’t cut down any trees – we just clean up the wood that has fallen in the farmer’s paddocks. Today was 26C, and it was an absolutely splendid day, although our old stone home is already starting to feel the effects of the weather cooling down. I praise God that He knows what we have need of before we even ask, and that He provides all that we need!

The God of Glory Thundereth

Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength.
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire.
The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.
The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever.
The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace. Psalm 29

The psalmist in Psalm 29 uses the electrical storm to describe God’s awesome power, glory and majesty, but last night we saw and heard God’s awesome power, glory and majesty first hand! We had a power blackout – it went off at 12:10 a.m., and it didn’t come back on until 2:40p.m – that’s fourteen and a half hours without power, but I praise God and count it all joy.

The electrical storm last night was extremely LOUD – there was the long rolling rumble of thunder, the shaking of the windows and the crrraaack as it thundered overhead.We managed to find the candles, but the matches were absolutely elusive, although we did manage to find a box in the kitchen cupboard, so I lit a candle and went to bed – somehow, everything is right in my world if there is light!. If  it wasn’t so late, I should have probably watched the lightning as well, but I was content to bury my head under the covers, and then the rain started – it absolutely pelted down for about half an hour.

During the daytime I managed to do all of my filing, and the filing cabinet looks much tidier, now. My daughter and I also paid the bills and bought some food when we went to town. Crazy, isn’t it? We have a freezer and a fridge/freezer full of food, and yet we couldn’t open them, as we are never sure how long the power is going to be off for. Most times it is off for over 12 hours and under 18 hours, but nothing defrosts in the deep freeze as long as we don’t open it.

It appears that we are now expecting another severe thunderstorm, as the BOM has issued this warning:

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
South Australia Regional Office

TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
for DAMAGING WIND, LARGE HAILSTONES and FLASH FLOODING
For people in the Flinders, Riverland, Murraylands, Upper South East and parts
of the Mid North and Northeast Pastoral districts.

Issued at 2:07 pm Tuesday, 6 April 2010.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds, large hailstones,
very heavy rainfall and flash flooding in the warning area during this
afternoon. Locations which may be affected include Renmark, Loxton, Lameroo,
Keith, Leigh Creek and Jamestown. Large hailstones are not expected north of the
Barrier Highway.

My son and husband were going to cut firewood this afternoon, but it appears that God has other ideas! With large hail expected, our car is safely ensconced in the car shed, and I can relax knowing that we are all safe and warm at home.

Wordless Wednesday

Not a Bad Day’s Work, Eh?

This is the end result well, nearly the end result of our productive day collecting firewood – it’s going to keep us warm twice more – once when we stack it into the shed and then, finally, in the combustion fire. My son and husband went out to an abandoned farmhouse (with permission from the farmer) to cut firewood, and they came back with a trailer load of firewood. The wood that they cut is fallen wood – there are no trees felled during their wood-cutting expeditions.

After they arrived home, we had lunch, and then my husband put the wood through the sawbench, which saves using the chainsaw, and it is cheaper and quicker to run. He only has to sharpen the saw blade about every six to eight trailer loads, whereas the chainsaw needs to be sharpened every load. This is about a week and a half’s firewood for our home.

I think that the men folk have done an excellent day’s work, don’t you think? Praise our heavenly Father, for we are going to be warm this winter.