Jonathan's Mindless Blog

I have realized one of my very large life dreams.  We have purchased 60 acres of land in Joelton.  This is not just any land either, I’ve looked for over two years for some usable property where I could one day build a house and have a decent size farm.  I was thinking more along the lines of 20 to 30 acres, but God orchestrated it so that I could have more than I even dreamed of.  It’s rectangular in shape, about 680 feet wide and almost .8 miles deep.  It has 3 creeks, 2 springs, a pond, about 40 acres of fenced fields that currently have horses on them and about 20 acres of woods.  The fields are mostly flat, to gently rolling, and the woods have slopes that face all four directions (N, S, E and W).  It’s sloped to get up into the property, and after about 100 yards in, the road is no longer visible.  The neighbors on one side have huge houses and very large yards and the neighbors on the other side have fenced fields that look like they are used for hay.  The largeness of it all is still sinking in and I think it will be a long time before I fully comprehend the awesomeness of it, but in the meantime I’m going to enjoy hanging out on my own place where the dogs can run themselves silly!

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything here… don’t know exactly why, mostly just haven’t wanted to share.  There have been no big trips or significant picture-taking forays, so I didn’t see the need to update anything.  Life is good and I have nothing to complain about!  I totally meant to excuse myself from any leadership roles with the neighborhood association this year, but wasn’t able to bring myself to leave it.  This year I’m the Co-Chairperson and the Housing Director; so much for gaining that time back for myself.
I’ve just finished doing my taxes for 2k6 and just wanted to let everyone know that an owner occupied duplex is the only way to go for tax savings, well that and operating a business.  Unfortunately, Uncle Sam loves the single people way too much.

I have finally gotten around to posting pictures from the Honduras trip!  It has been a little difficult with the passing of my old computer, but it is now done.  I also posted a group of pictures from the Smith family Christmas last week.  It’s another game of “spot your favorite relative”.

I am glad it’s Christmas time.  I like the sights, sounds and smells of it all, not only that but spending time with family and friends is the best.  I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

While I was out of town, I was adopted by a stray puppy. I can’t keep him… I’ve got two already!. He’s super-cute, all black with white toes and a nice small white patch and stripe down his chest. Super afro-furry little guy, and he looks like he’ll be pretty small. I’m guessing less than 30lbs or so. He has small feet so I don’t think he’ll be growing huge or anything. He has some chow in him, but has a totally pink tongue, and cute little ears. He would make a great addition to your family and is just in time for Christmas! Please call or email me if you want to come take a look.  Here are some pictures…

On Thanksgiving day a friend of mine, Landon, and I left for Honduras, Central America to work on Mission Lazaro’s computers. It’s an organization that is church of Christ based and is an enabling agency for the local churches, helping them find pastors, administer programs and the like. They also run four schools, three that the government allows them to run and one that is just thiers. They have a farm where they have beef and milk cows, chickens, pigs, horses and turkeys. The milk from the farm allows the children in the school to each get a glass of milk each day and the chickens allow for a couple of eggs per studen per week. This is really needed nutrition in these areas where the school meal is usually the only meal these kids get for the day. The farm is becoming a childrens home as well, with the goal being to teach the orphaned/abandoned kids how to sustinance farm. Anyway, it’s a really cool organization.

On the trip down, we made it to Miami with no problem, but we got on the plane to depart from there and just sat there for quite a while. The captain came on and said that someone who checked their bags didn’t get on the plane, therefore their luggage had to be removed. This involved unloading almost all of the luggage looking for these 2 bags. After they found them, someone noticed a leak in one of the wings. After waiting 30 more minutes or so waiting for the maintenance crew to arrive, they told us it would take too long to fix, so they found another plane. We all piled back into the terminal to wait for another hour before boarding the new plane, then finally took off to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. One of the things we were a little worried about was getting through customs in Tegucigalpa, since we had a ton of computer equipment, like internal and external hard drives, a complete computer tower, routers and a really cool little Linksys device that is a network attached storage solution. Anyway, the customs line was long and slow and several of the folks in line were getting frustrated, so there was a guy came out from the back and looked at us and asked if we had our form, which wasn’t the one we had, so he just looked a little disgusted and told us to “pass”! No customs check for us! Chad was there waiting to pick us up and we went across the street and ate at the Burger King (yes, third world countries have fast food garbage too), and took off on the three hour drive to San Marcos de Colon, which thankfully was incident free. Friday we started in on all the machines and by Saturday evening, had the bulk of everything done with only a very few loose ends to finish up, which we took care of on Monday morning.

Sunday we went to the ranch/farm and saddled up and rode horses around a bit of the ranch where they had been clearing for planting. Clearing consisted of a bunch of guys with machetes cutting grass and scrub and piling it all up out of the way on the sides. No mechanical help, all manual labor. We got to see some of the new cows, pigs and turkeys on a new 100 acre farm that was just purchased on the back side of the property. They have also acquired a coffee plantation not far from the back side of the ranch where they have already been harvesting some beans. They have a contact in Houston, TX, who is going to let them try selling their stuff at a Publix grocery. After puttering around at the ranch we went to Jarrod’s house and ate a thanksgiving meal, then went to church. On the way to church we rode in a 12 passenger van with 17 people in it! I took some pictures of the kids outside after the service was over.

Monday morning we got up early and drove to another part on the back of the ranch where the Shine Missions group built two suspension bridges this past summer. The bridges allow the children to be able to cross the creek that becomes a river during the rainy season so they can go to school. Before, they just didn’t go because they couldn’t. On a different note, Honduras is the only place I’ve ever seen pine, mesquite and palm trees growing wild in the same field, totally weird.

The local food was awesome, just like I remember. The tortillas are all corn since there is no flour there, or very little. The tacos were quite different than what passes for tacos around here. They take steak and roll it in a tortilla, fry it, put it on a plate, then cover it with the sauce, cheese and lettuce. It’s really good, just not like here. One night I ordered a steak with onions, and when it came out it was a huge steak with what looked to be an entire onion piled on top that was still dripping butter from being sauted. Man it was some really good stuff.

Tuesday, we stopped by their offices on our way out of town and answered a few questions, bought some of the coffee from the plantation, and made the trek back to the big city. We stopped by a grocery store before we got to the airport and I bought six big bottles of clear vanilla for less than $1 each. Landon bought some cookies and crackers and soft drinks too. We made it home on time and with all of our stuff and I can confidently say we had a successful trip!

Pictures will be coming soon, I forgot to bring my card reader home with me this weekend, so hopefully by mid-week I’ll have some photos for everyone to be bored with