The Nature In Us

Newsletter - 5/15/13

2013-05-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

The Nature In Us Newsletter

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Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave and impossible to forget. -- Anonymous

Hello Sweet Friends!

Donna

I prayed that Mother's Day would be special for all mothers out there, but I know in reality there are many people who suffer through this day. Possibly because of a child that has died or a child that lives but doesn't seem to remember you do also. Mothers spend an awful lot of time raising children and often we may have a hard time transitioning from that role to focusing on ourselves.

We can have high expectations from our children, but the best way to deal with that is to turn them over to our Loving Father who loves them more than we do. He will guide and watch over them even in their own seasons of right or wrong. You did all you could do ... your best at the time ... and that's all that could be done. Don't allow yourself to linger in regret and sorrow on this beautiful holiday. You don't have to only consider those you birthed as children, but you can celebrate pets you have nurtured and cared for, children's lives you've been involved in over the years, and even being a mom to a grown person who needs mentoring. Choose to celebrate it, don't dread it!

My sweet husband cleaned the kitchen floor for me and the big master bathroom tub that only gets used twice a year, but needs regular cleaning. I'm not a bath person. Love a shower. Randal uses it a couple times in the winter just to warm up to the bone as he calls it. If we ever build another house I will put a larger shower in and not have one of those whirlpool tubs that you're supposed to put in for resale. Apparently they're not that popular now, so if you're in the process of remodeling or getting ready to build, consider this article: Toss The Tub.

Cicada Nymph Skin - It's Empty!
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For the past month I've heard mention that this is the year for the 17-year Cicadas to come out here in Virginia. Over the weekend I had heard that they had begun merging. Well, the 17-year Cicadas have officially arrived here at Bluebird Cove. I guess you could say they've been here all along since they emerge from the ground by the billions in the USA after a long nap.

As I strolled the garden on Monday I saw oodles of the nymph skins hanging from leaves on bushes and from low tree branches. They climb up from the ground to find a spot where they attach their feet pretty solidly (you have to give a good snatch to get them to detach). Then they begin to crawl out of that skin and become a full-bodied Cicada with beautiful red eyes and large wings. Some folks call them Locusts but they are a different species. Get more info on Cicadas vs. Locusts.

Adult 17-Year Cicada
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I decided I'd like to gather 17 Cicadas to place in a container but got a bit carried away since they were so easy to gather. I think I have about 25 of them now. I collect bugs to put in various little containers that women sometimes keep on the shelves. Since I used to be terrified of bugs it's a continual smile for me to realize that we can be healed of emotional things also, including phobias we've had for many years. Not only delivered but turned around all to the opposite end of extreme, to actually love them and find them interesting.

Cicadas eat foilage so they're not welcome guests on properties and gardens. There is a predator however and that is the Cicada Killer Wasp. It's one of the largest wasps measuring over 1-1/2 inches long. The large abdomen is black and yellow, much like a yellow jacket. This wasp lives at the edges of forests, in gardens, and in waste places. Fortunately for us we know our neighbor has them nesting every year along his stone garden wall.

© Donna L. Watkins
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Cicada Coming Out of Nymph Skin

The females use their sting to paralyze Cicadas rather than to defend nests which is unlike most wasps and bees. They don't attempt to sting humans unless they are roughly handled. They get their energy from flower nectar. It's the larvae that actually eat the Cicadas. The male dies as soon as he mates and the female digs a nest and then kills Cicadas one at a time as she lays an egg and puts one Cicada with each one. That food source will feed the larvae for about two weeks until it is ready to go into pupa stage and come out as an adult the following year.

A few days after gathering the nymph skins and getting photos of the adult, we had just finished eating dinner and I said to Randal, "Let's go outside and see if we find any more adult cicadas." So we did and now I know it was the Holy Spirit prompting us to go and delight ourselves in Father's nature. We saw two separate cicadas coming out of their nymph skins. It was awesome to watch them merge and then for their wings to fill and grow. Amazing to think that our Heavenly Father created all these magical things for us to see and enjoy.

The American Goldfinches are singing throughout the day. I know our House Finches can go on and on like a group of silly teenagers, but the Goldfinches seem to offer some competition with them. To me it sounds like they're fussy or trying to argue with each other. It seems to get so noisy. I've always loved the Scripture about God feeding sparrows so I think of birds as peaceful beings, but they sure can have long conversations.

We are not to be anxious about anything either. One way to avoid this is to not speak forth the negative thoughts that come to mind. We can get pretty noisy with our own verbal expressions. Doubts and fears will come, but we do not need to entertain them in our thinking. It's so important to watch what we say. God created the heavens and the earth and everything that's in the earth by His words (Hebrews 11:3). Our words, when spoken in faith, release either life or death (Proverbs 18:21) and they affect people, things, and circumstances. We can release faith and power within us through our words.

Speak words that line up with God's Word. You will find it lifts you above the negative and you'll begin to get more positive results. When we speak words of doubt, we eventually believe them and have more negative circumstances. It's almost like we're looking for them to come because we've been feeding our brain on them. (Read: A Sure Win Over Our Troubles)

Our words can be our most powerful weapon against the devil, or they can become a snare of the devil (Proverbs 6:2). Let your mouth speak only things that will encourage your trust, confidence and faith in the Lord. It will encourage others also.

This picture inspires me in so many ways. In my heart that is how I picture myself. Dancing before the Lord in a field of flowers like a little child. We need to think and act like children now and then. Jesus said in Matthew 18:3: "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Become like children. A child is so humble. They don't mind if a whole audience watches them pick their nose while they're supposed to be singing. They trust blindly in all that is said by their parents.

What an illustration Jesus gave us. We must become like children. Lose all the masks we wear and be real. King Solomon understood this. He was already ruling and reigning. He had executed Adonijah his brother, Joab and Simei. Yet when the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream telling him to ask anything, Solomon said in I Kings 3:7: "And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in." Solomon considered himself a little child before the Lord. That is so awesome!

Jesus Took Our Diseases
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Our guest room is also my worship room and one morning a couple weeks ago, when I was rejoicing in what Jesus did for us on the Cross, I got out my list of health problems and placed them behind the picture frame. It was like I was placing them on His back.

Through His stripes (wounds) we were healed (made whole) - I Peter 2:24. Now every morning I am visually reminded of Him taking my pain, sorrow and sickness. My peace and joy abounds.

Hallelujah! We've found a home for the feral kitty. I know many of you have said you were praying for her. We called her Torti. She is a muted tortoise feline.

On May 2nd a local volunteer organization came with a trap to have her spayed. I had been preparing for this by getting her to eat inside a cardboard box. She was terrified when it was done until they put a big towel over the cage. That quieted her down and they took her to their home hoping she'd get an appointment the following day. However, the surgery wasn't done until a week later on the 9th.

I had prayed for a miracle that I could find a home for her even though I had contacted everybody I could. But! A miracle is what I got! We have Squeek who is an FIV cat (similar to the HIV in humans), so she doesn't need to place other cats at risk of getting the disease. Squeek is going to be 17 years old in July, so she doesn't need the stress of a new cat in the house since stress is what has thrown her into several immune crises and I don't want to go through one of those ever again.

Torti - The Feral Kitty With a New Home
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After a few days of pain meds and assurance there were no complications, the volunteer brought Torti back in a carrier that we could borrow to deliver her to the home she would have. That was on Mother's Day. What a blessing to me! This made my day very special, but I didn't realize how emotional it was going to be.

Maybe it's the mix of Mother's Day emotions since our only child lives in Oklahoma, but I felt like I was abandoning her. Giving her up for adoption as you would a child I guess. It's silly ... and I know I will see her again since I have already visited yesterday. I know she will do well, but it's been harder than I thought. The volunteer had told me that she believes cats choose their humans and that doesn't help at all.

All of our cats have been strays that I feel have been led to us. Since this one has been "mine" for eight (8) months, I guess I have been more attached than I realized. She's been through so much in the past two weeks after going through a cold winter. I hope she understands that she's going to be one happy girl when she settles in. It's an opportunity to "count it all joy" because it gives me a chance to trust my Father. After all He made it possible, so He will take care of her. I told her that she has a kitty angel watching over her.

I still keep looking for her on the deck before my mind remembers that she won't ever be there again. I will adjust and am so grateful God gave her a home. She's such a beautiful feline!

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Blue-eyed Grass
View Closeup of Flower

I wonder how many of you have heard of Blue-eyed Grass? I had never heard of it before a bird dropped a seed in one of my deck pots years ago. We got a little clump of grass that produced a few soft blue flowers when I first discovered it. After checking out the field guides, I found it was called Blue-eyed Grass. Rather a lovely name I think. It has loads of soft blue tiny flowers all over the ends of the grass.

This year it has grown really large. More than double of last year. It's probably because it stayed green and growing all winter long by being tucked into a corner on the deck facing south because I had planted some Pansies in that pot in the Fall.

When Spring came it just kept on growing and bloomed superbly. It's a beautiful delicate backdrop to plants with bright blooms. The pansies in the pot went through the winter also. We're in Central Virginia and get plenty of nights in the 20's and snow, so this was a pleasant surprise to me. Do any of you grow this in your garden?

Until next issue ....

May You Receive An Abundance of Blessings!
Donna

P.S. Know somebody who needs to see something in this newsletter? You can share this post from the website at the bottom of the post. Look for the little white envelope. Thanks for sharing!

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written by Donna

Posts Since Last Newsletter

Doubt Comes Gradually

Ten American Native Plants You Can Eat

What Happens To Young Birds When They Leave Their Nests

Through The Name of Jesus (DLW)

Pentagon to Court-martial Christians

Soaring Bee Deaths Decrease Pollination of America's Plants

A Bear, A Bridge, and God

RECALL: Many Brands of Pet Food

Safe Handling Tips for Pet Products

Tips for Gorgeous Garden Photos

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The photo(s) and article are copyrighted. You may use either of them if you include the following credit and active link back to this website: "© Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission from TheNatureInUs.com." The link is: www.TheNatureInUs.com.

Doubt Comes Gradually

2013-05-13T17:51:00.002-04:00

Enter Doubt, Exit Faith
by Andrew Wommack

Matthew 14:30, "But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me."

The reason Peter began to sink was because of his fear. In verse 31 Jesus used the word "doubt" in reference to Peter's fear. Fear is simply negative faith or faith in reverse.

Where did this fear come from? Second Timothy 1:7 says, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love, and of a sound mind." It didn't come from God. This fear was able to come upon Peter because he took his attention off of Jesus and put it on his situation.

Fear or doubt cannot "just overcome" us. We have to let it in. If Peter had kept his attention on Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith (Heb. 12:2), he wouldn't have feared. In the same way that faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17), fear comes by hearing or seeing something contrary to God's Word.

We would not be tempted with fear or doubt if we didn't consider things that Satan uses to minister fear and doubt. The wind and waves didn't really have anything to do with Peter walking on the water. He couldn't have walked on the water apart from Jesus even if it had been calm.

The circumstances simply took Peter's attention off of his Master and led him back into carnal thinking. Likewise, Satan tries to distract us with thinking about our problems.

Peter's faith didn't fail him all at once, as can be seen by the fact that he only "began" to sink. If there had been no faith present, he would have sunk all at once and not gradually. This illustrates that the entrance of fear and the exit of faith do not happen instantly. There are always signs that this is happening.

If we will turn our attention back to Jesus, as Peter did, He will save us from drowning. No problem is too big for God. We should cast our care about the problem over on God and just keep our eyes on Jesus, the Word.

Visit Andrew's Website.

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Ten American Native Plants You Can Eat

2013-05-13T17:51:00.001-04:00

Here's an article that may make you begin thinking about planting things that you can eat. Our garden has always had the focus of food for wildlife, but we can plant enough that there's plants to feed ourselves too.

Native Plants We Can Eat
From NWF.org

As we increasingly strive to feed ourselves sustainably, there’s no better place to start than with homegrown native fruits—from blueberries in Maine and scuppernongs in North Carolina to red raspberries in California. We wouldn’t be the only ones to reap the benefits—wildlife love to feast on these fruits, too.

Following are 10 American originals you can grow in your garden come next spring and then enjoy the fruits of your labor during holiday meals and other times. Now is a good time to begin making plans.

To be certain you are not introducing a plant that might be invasive in your area, look for species that are native to your region. Keep in mind that the cultivated varieties available at local nurseries are not necessarily the best choice—their fruits may be bigger, but they’re often less tasty than the native species and may be less attractive to wildlife. Read about these plants.

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What Happens To Young Birds When They Leave Their Nest?

2013-05-13T17:51:00.000-04:00

From eNature.com

A lot of us think that baby birds grow up in a family that stays together and migrates south together. There are some species of birds that stay together after the nesting season, but they are rare.

Most young birds are totally on their own soon after they leave the nest. In fact, in many bird families, the parents migrate south long before their youngsters do.

The best examples of this are the families of most species of hummingbirds. The female raises her offspring until they are out of the nest and able to feed themselves. A few weeks later, she disappears. The youngsters are left alone to fatten up for their long migratory flight to a place in the tropics where they have never been before. Isn't that amazing? .... Read the entire article.

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Through The Name of Jesus

2013-05-09T10:30:00.000-04:00

by Donna L. Watkins

Acts 3 includes the story of a lame beggar who was crippled from birth. He had somebody to carry him to the temple gate daily so he could beg alms. Peter and John came to the temple and told him to look at them. They wanted his full attention. They told him they had no silver or gold to give him but such as they had they would give and commanded him in the name of Jesus to stand up and walk. The man not only walked, but he was jumping and praising God. Obviously he created quite a stir amongst those who were at the temple because all knew him as the crippled beggar at the Gate Beautiful.

In verse 12, Peter says to the crowd, “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?" He also tells them about Jesus whom they had killed and that it was through Him that this man was healed. In Acts 3:16 he explains, “And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all."

His name heals, not our will, strength or determination. If it was any of that, it would mean it partially depended on me, but it's all Jesus. He is the one who paid the price for our healing. He took the diseases on His body, died and then dumped them all back into Hell. "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (Colossians 2:16).

In Luke 4 and Matthew 21 Jesus went to the temple in His home town, Nazareth, and was handed the scroll of Isaiah to read. He unrolled it and found the passage of Isaiah 61:1-2a (which was originally from Leviticus 25:10) where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year of the Lord's favor.” Then He said to them that the passage was fulfilled in their hearing.

The "year of the Lord's favor" was the year of Jubilee. In the Old Testament the concept of the Jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In the Biblical Book of Leviticus, aJubilee year is mentioned to occur every fiftieth year, in which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, land was returned to its original owners and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest. The economy was reset to zero giving everyone a fresh new start. The poor had a chance to recover, the rich could not continue to exploit others for selfish purposes. The year of Jubilee was a time of liberty and freedom--a fresh new start to erase inequities in the culture.

When Jesus went to Hell after the grave, He returned all the inequities that the devil had placed on mankind and threw them back in Satan's face. He "took captivity captive." Ephesians 4:8-9 says, "Wherefore he saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?" Now every year is the year of Jubilee for Christians as far as the meaning that was applied to it. We have been set free from our sins and diseases and whatever holds us captive that is within the evil realm. We no longer need to think that salvation was only to give us a ticket to Heaven. Jesus said He came to give us a "more abundant life" (John 10:10).

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© Donna L. Watkins - Monarch on Coreopsis
North Carolina Botanical Garden at Chapel Hill

Through His name we have the resurrection power of God because Christ is within us. In and of ourselves we can do no good thing (Romans 7:18). This is a very difficult thing for people to learn. Jesus says that without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5), but Christians still attempt to do many things apart from the Lord. We feel like we simply must do something, anything. And even though the Bible says there is nothing good in our flesh, and the flesh profits nothing, we spend a lot of time doing fleshly things apart from the Spirit of Jesus, thinking they are good and profitable.

Peter and John knew they had nothing to give the man, money or otherwise. But they had Jesus to offer this crippled beggar and so they did. Mark 16:17-18 has Jesus speaking to His disciples, "And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

Imagine what our health care system would look like if this were in place within the Body of Christ and the Church today? What kind of live would we have being totally healthy and surrounded by everybody else being healthy. Healing wasn't just for Christians. Christ healed everybody. He didn't qualify folks. Unsaved people today are healed all the time and then they learn who it is that healed them, just as the man at the temple gate did, and they jump and praise God.

Scripture never says these signs would ever stop following believers. If you believe -- they will follow you! If you don't, they won't. Jesus mentioned many times the requirement of faith was belief. He wasn't talked about belief in the head, but belief in the heart. That's why He often used the phrase, "those who have ears to hear, lt them hear" or "those who have eyes to see, let them see." He was speaking to crowds that obviously had eyes and ears, so He was speaking about the matters of the heart. Romans 10:9 says, "if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Some Christians say that those signs and abilities were only for His disciples, but in John 14:12 Jesus shows that it was not limited to the Apostles when He says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father."

If you need another reference of proof, Paul was not one of the Apostles. His experience on the road to Damascus was after Jesus' was crucified, risen and returned to the Father. But Acts 28:8-9 tell us that Paul healed people: "And it happened that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and dysentery. Paul went in to him and prayed, and he laid his hands on him and healed him. So when this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed."

We have more power and ability through Christ than we can imagine. The Church (speaking globally) has left much of what Jesus came to give us on the table and walked away from it. Why? Probably for the same reasons many Christians do today. It's not understood with the mind. These are spiritual abilities and we get used to functioning in the physical realm and aren't always able to cross the bridge to the spiritual realm. The world has become more "me-focused" and mindful to what we can accomplish in and of ourselves.

But it's the name of Jesus and the faith that comes through Him that gives us complete healing .... and we can meditate on that until it gets into our hearts. The Holy Spirit imparts revelation when we seek God with all of our hearts and lean not to our own understanding, and in all ways acknowledge Him. He will then make our paths straight. I am certainly tired of crooked and crippled paths. I know there's a yellow brick road to all that God provided for us when He sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to redeem us.

Reach out, earnest seek His face, desire nothing else so much as relationship with our Heavenly Daddy. Life will be so much more full and complete healing will truly be ours.

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Pentagon to Court-martial Christians

2013-05-09T10:00:00.000-04:00

The very troops who defend our religious freedom are at risk of having their own taken away.

Last week, anti-Christian and left-wing activists met at the Pentagon with military officials to discuss pressing issues in the military. What issues would be of such importance to gain such a high-level hearing?

According to these far-left activists, religion is one of the chief problems plaguing our troops. As the Washington Post reported, some are saying that "religious proselytizing" is at the top of the list of problems in the armed forces -- even on par with sexual assault.

Sign The Petition Today

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Soaring Bee Deaths Decrease Pollination of America's Plants

2013-05-09T09:30:00.000-04:00

From New York Times

A mysterious malady that has been killing honeybees en masse for several years appears to have expanded drastically in the last year, commercial beekeepers say, wiping out 40 percent or even 50 percent of the hives needed to pollinate many of the nation’s fruits and vegetables.

A conclusive explanation so far has escaped scientists studying the ailment, colony collapse disorder, since it first surfaced around 2005. But beekeepers and some researchers say there is growing evidence that a powerful new class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, incorporated into the plants themselves, could be an important factor. Read the entire article.

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A Bear, A Bridge, and God

2013-05-09T09:15:00.000-04:00

A bear was walking across Rainbow Bridge (the real name of the bridge in California) when two cars, also crossing the bridge, scared the bear into jumping over the edge. Miraculously, the bear caught on to the ledge and was able to pull itself up to safety onto a flat area of concrete still under the bridge.

Authorities decided that nothing could be done to help that evening, so they returned the next morning ... View the photos to find out what God did for the bear.

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RECALL: Many Brands of Pet Food

2013-05-01T12:14:00.002-04:00

by Jay P. Margedant
President, Flint River Ranch

We've had a lot of calls & emails of concern about the recall by Natura ™ (bought by Proctor & Gamble the other year) products and what's happening in this industry.

Obviously, there is still a lot of fear in the pet community about origin of ingredients, bacteria and salmonella, in particular.  For those who don't know, Natura ™ has issued a recall last week on their product line(s) due to salmonella contamination.

This recall affects all of their product lines (EVO, Innova, Karma, Healthwise and California Natural) with an up expiration date going up to March 24th, 2014. They want it all discarded.

I don't know if Natura's issue is just with chicken-based products.  I believe that they are pulling a lot of products so that they get every product that could present a contamination issue.  Their goal is to insure pets don't get sick, and the purchasers of their products don't either.

Bacteria; in slight amounts, can actually be handled by a healthy pet fairly well as pets hold food in an acidic gut for a good period of time before it gets passed into the rest of the digestive tract.  Bacteria will be destroyed by digestive acids in the stomach and not cause a specified risk to a healthy pet.  Humans on the other hand digest food quicker than pets, constantly put our fingers to our faces & mouth and we'll get sicker from the residual salmonella that is still viable when it gets into our digestive tract.

Now, I'm not saying that this recall isn't necessary, or that we should be content with salmonella in our pets' products and not be reactive.  Quite the contrary, we should all be vigilant about bacteria around our food preparation area and the proper handling of all pet food products and treats.

Flint River Ranch has been active in insuring that all of our products are provided from certified sources and we test ingredients and monitor all aspects of our production and maintain its cleanliness.  To date, Flint River Ranch has not been part of any recall and we continue to try our best to make sure that we don't ever have an issue like this happen (we don't wish this issue on any manufacture, much less their customers).

I guess it's the nice part of being one of the "little guys"; we're not trying to jam a million pounds of products out into the market.  We focus on small batches of established, holistic formulas. We're not trying to be all things to every possible customers. We focus on the quality of our ingredients and foods, not on how much we could produce.

In all, manufactures do not want you to get sick from handling their products, which is the main reason for these recalls; to prevent human illness from handling these products.  No illnesses have been reported; either human or animal, with this current Natura™ recall, yet the public frustrations at continued recalls is apparent.

Related Article:
Safe Handling of Pet Products

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Safe Handling Tips for Pet Products

2013-05-01T12:14:00.001-04:00

by Jay P. Margedant

In the 17 years that I’ve been in this business, I’ve met all types of pet owners. But one thing that continues to amaze me is how casually people store and handle pet food. Pet food, treats, bones and chews are “food” items. Just because we aren’t the ones eating it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t handle it as a perishable item. You wouldn’t leave baby formula out, so why do some folks handle pet food so carelessly?

I would like us to all remember some of these issues the next time we feed our pets:

• Some companies add flavoring in the form of fats to their treats. Fats attract bacteria, dirt, bugs and the like. Some of this fat can get on your hands as you handle their food/treats. Wash with soap and hot water each and every time you handle your pets’ products to eliminate the possibility of passing the fats to other surfaces or to your face & mouth. Washing your hands after handling your pets’ food and treats will also insure that if there is a bacteria issue, you’ll eliminate risk by keeping your hands clean.

• Wash your pets’ food bowls. I’m amazed at how many folks just add more food to their pets’ bowls. Food bowls need to be cleaned & dry each time you use them. You wouldn’t use the same plate again without cleaning it, would you? Same with your pets’ dishes.

• Wash your pets’ water bowl out daily, too. Allow to be clean and dry before using again. Flint River Ranch has always suggested the use of filtered water too. Cats and small dogs could benefit from the use of distilled water; they just don’t need the chemicals from our city water.

• Wash your pets’ toys. Many toys will have extended life from a good cleaning every couple of days, and you’ll get rid of the salvia and dirt from when you pet last used it. Plush toys can be inspected, mended (if your dogs are like mine) and then washed like towels. I’ve found that they hold up pretty well and also when machine dried you’ll eliminate any bugs that may have found their way into the toy.

• Rubber chews, plastic throws and tug toys can be added into the dish washer and ran through a cycle. We actually do this once a week along with their bowls so everything gets a really good sanitary cleaning. I would suggest that you monitor the heat setting to insure that nothing gets scorched with extra heating. I actually just turn off any heat settings and let them dry normally.

• Pet bedding and rugs. Best way to keep fleas and bugs down is to regularly vacuum and wash your pets bedding often.

• If you use canned food, store any extra in the refrigerator with a tight seal. 15 seconds in the microwave and/or some hot water will easily refresh it for the next meal (take it out of the metal can if you nuke it).

• Storage of dry foods; Flint River Ranch has always advocated keeping your pets food in the bag it comes in, rolled down and clipped shut. Keep the bag in a temperature constant, cool, dark room. I keep mine pets food in the pantry floor. When the bag is empty, throw it out.

• If you use a container for your pets’ food, insure that it is a “food safe” container. If possible, keep the food in the original bag and keep it in the container. Our bags are meant to keep your pets food safe, dry and stable until empty. Never add new food onto of old; you must completely use all of the food up, clean and allow the container to dry before adding more food into it. (which is why we suggest keeping the food in its original bag) It may still be the same formula, but never add new product into old.

• Bones, Toobles and Bully Sticks all have a naturally higher amount of fat in them. Definitely clean your hands after handling them, and I suggest feeding these products outside so that your dog doesn’t leave a lot of crumbs around.

• Antlers are generally some of the cleanest treats available. However, it is good to pick them up after a few days, clean them under some running water and allow them to dry again before giving back to your dog. As with bones and other hard treats, properly supervise your dog as they are chewing on them to stop overly vigorous chewing. Dogs have harder teeth than we do, but if too vigorous they could cause some chipping or damage.

• Here’s one that a lot of us don’t think about but washing your pets paws before they come inside. If you keep your pet in a fenced-in area, the possibility that they can walk inside with gunk and germs on their paws is there. Not to mention the normal household kitty who has a litter box in your house. Wiping their paws off as they come out of their box will go a long way to controlling the dirt and bacteria that they are walking around in as they use their box.

None of this is really new and we don’t need to panic, but I hope this is a good refresher about safe handling practices concerning our pets and the items in their lives. Is salmonella an issue in our world? Sure, not just in pet food but in our own products that we come in contact with every day. But it can be dealt with by continued practice of safe food handling and including our pets’ products. And by insuring that we never, ever touch anything that we might put into our mouths until after we have cleaned our hands and any surface that our pets’ products may have touched.

Keeping their world and ours clean is the most important practice we all need to adhere to. And when in doubt, clean it!

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Tips for Gorgeous Garden Photos

2013-05-01T12:14:00.000-04:00

Taking photos in the garden is way harder than shooting indoors because you can't control all the variables (have you ever seen it snow in a kitchen?).

Gardenista's editors and correspondents have agreed to share their top 10 photo-taking secrets for gardens.

I found them rather helpful. Some you will know and others will be a bit of knowledge to keep improving your photography skills. Check them out.

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Newsletter - 5/1/13

2013-05-01T10:50:00.000-04:00

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The Nature In Us Newsletter

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Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
When I said, “My foot is slipping,” Your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. When anxiety
was great within me, Your consolation brought me joy. -- Psalm 94:17-19

Happy May Day!

I hope it's a beautiful day where ever you are. Here at Bluebird Cove we're seeing more and more green every day. The trees have leafed out so quickly and shades of green are everywhere filling in spaces that were so bare and colorless in winter.

The viburnums are in bloom, there's a few azalea buds the deer missed eating, so we have about a half dozen of red blooms outside the screened porch, the candytuft has pretty white flowers, and the columbines have just begun to bloom a couple days ago.

We have lots of wild blueberry bushes. They were on the property when we moved in. They continue to spread and grow providing nice little berries for the bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks, foxes, deer, and raccoons.

Songbirds also consume the berries, which at our place, includes the Robin, Eastern Towhee, Brown Thrasher, and Bluebirds. We must have more than a 100 of these bushes in groups spread throughout our one-acre property.

They are certainly hardy and are known to be fire-tolerant. Now that's the kind of plants I like. The ones who have an attitude that whatever life throws at them, they're going to survive.

The lovely white blooms dangle from the plant looking like lanterns with a yellow light bulb inside. They have a lovely scent to them.

We've put many hours into getting the property in order after the long winter. We don't rake leaves in the Fall, but rather leave them on the ground to "age" so we can suck them up in the Spring and chop them to use as mulch in our flower beds.

We began doing that about 6 years ago and we've developed a yard full of hard-working earthworms who seem to have miraculously appeared. With the rich castings (poop) they deposit, the plants are fertilized and the soil is aerated as they go about their lives. A terrific addition to any garden. There's also worm composting. More info on earthworms?

Many years back shortly after we moved here to Virginia, we bought a Redbud tree since they look so beautiful all around rural Virginia in the Spring. The color just jumps out at you! These are native trees generally grown in zones 4-9 in the USA. So, we put it in the ground as we had many, many plants here at Bluebird Cove (what we fondly call our property), and as with many, many plants the deer chewed it up. We would watch over it and encourage it along even when the deer had taken a chunk out of its trunk.

At the time, we couldn't use any type of fencing around it - not allowed in the community rules. Over time the pines and cedars grew on our bank and our yard was basically not viewable from the street, so a couple of years ago we put some chicken wire around it which didn't seem to be noticeable even to us from the house. At the time we could not imagine how it had survived with the chunk out of its trunk but it really did well after we were able to protect it and we talked to him a lot also. Oh! I didn't mention the trees name is Mr. Bud. We enjoy naming some of our trees since we become quite attached and seem to form a relationship with them.

Last year Mr. Bud produced a few little bright pink buds but it seemed a stress for him and they never did begin to open. Seems they just dropped off, but his leafing was really increasing and by the end of the Fall, he had grown into a nice specimen of hope and determination.

How wonderful it was when I saw that Mr. Bud has blooms this year in various places on the branches. He looks really good and is proudly displaying his blooms while we rejoice with him that he didn't give up.

I suggest that you take the same advice. Never give up! You may get a lot of bites and chunks taken out of your life, but life doesn't consist only of bad circumstances. There's always good things if we dig deep enough. Don't let the devil convince you there's nothing good in your life. Some folks have started down that path and ended up with suicide.

Once we turn our thoughts over to what the devil wants us to hear, it's a slimy and slippery slope down to the Pit. Don't take the first step in that direction! Encourage yourself in the Lord and believe. That's what will supercharge your life ... continuing to believe there is good, there is hope, there is imagination and there are still miracles. It is said we get what we think about most. If the news makes you depressed and puts you in fear, turn it off and don't go back to it. There's a lot of good news out there ... but it's not what the media is wanting to report.

Last Fall we discovered a "volunteer" Redbud. The Master Gardeners seem to call "dropped in" plants "volunteers." I call them sent by God on the wings of a bird. Although the delivery doesn't come from the wings. Regardless, we dug it up and moved it to a key spot in the bed that's in front of the front porch outside of the dining room window. We called him Baby Bud. We protected him with the same type of circular fence made from chicken wire and he got his roots settled during winter and is now full of leaves and ready to grow tall! Mr. Bud will be encouraged to have a buddy (pun-intended) in the garden with him. More info on Redbud Trees.

Another tree that has made an exceptional show this year was a "volunteer" Crabapple tree. We didn't even know what it was until it began to bloom a bit last year and we saw the crabapples on it. This year it was totally covered in blossoms with a heavenly scent. We had purchased a damaged Crabapple tree with some anniversary gift money from Randal's parents about six years ago and the tree does bloom a bit, but there is no scent to the flowers, so not all Crabapple trees are created equal. More information on Crabapple Trees.

How sweet it is to plant something that God put on your property and then watch over it until it delights in showing you a reflection of its Creator. I believe everything that God made shows us an amazing attribute of who He is.

We've had a lot of these Eastern Tiger Swallowtails floating around. They are huge butterflies and I love walking amongst them because they don't seem to be nervous creatures as some butterflies are. Monarchs especially seem to be fearless, but that could be because of their coloring and toxicity which doesn't make them prey for birds as with most butterflies. The “tiger” part of this butterfly’s name comes from the four black stripes that start at the outer, front edge of its wings.

We had a special visitor arrive on Earth Day (April 22). I was on the screened porch working and heard the crows making a huge fuss in the woods behind us. It reminded me of when they chase the red-shouldered hawk across the skies, but they were dive-bombing a tree branch and making quite a fuss, so I picked up the binoculars and saw that it was definitely a raptor in a tree far beyond our property.

Actually it looked like an eagle, so I ran for the camera and my shoes and headed into the woods. The eagle didn't seem to mind me approaching although I kept my distance till I could get to where I could at least get a shot without other branches and leaves in the way and there I snapped a bunch of photos as it looked around.

I didn't realize that it had the ability to turn its head all the way around like an owl. So many things to learn about wildlife. I moved in a little closer and between the crows and me, this beautiful creature had enough of a challenge to move on. WOW! How awesome it was taking flight right above my head.

Back in February 2011 while I was doing the annual Backyard Bird Count, an eagle landed on our property for the first and only time that I've seen. It was during the last 10 minutes of the count and I was so excited. The crows were on it right away and then a red-shouldered hawk came flying in since they nest in the back woods. What a way to finish off the bird count! View the video of the eagle that visited two years ago.

On Monday while I was working on the screened porch I saw a young Eastern Grey Treefrog climbing on the wall of the house on the deck area. Since I got to raise some of these little guys when they laid eggs in the birdbath, I've grown quite attached to them. More on Eastern Gray Treefrog.

Randal calls me Mama Tad and they do seem to know me and this offspring of a previous generation didn't have any problem allowing me to move him on to my hand. Read about My Experience Raising Treefrogs.

(Note: Always be sure you have washed your hands before handling frogs because their skin is very delicate and they absorb toxins from lotions, etc. readily.)

Donna

Brookgreen Gardens

We attended an Andrew Wommack meeting near Washington, DC last week and on Sunday went to Maymont's "At Home" event in Richmond, VA. The Dooley Mansion was open without charge and elegant Victorian ladies and distinguished gentlemen were walking the lawns and greeting people. It was nice but the over-abundance of "stuff" was quite distracting. I'll have the photos done before the next newsletter and will include a link.

Don't forget to schedule playtime. Remember when you were younger and had to do chores before you go out and play? Well, now you are the adult and you get to schedule as much play time as you want. Life has a balance, you shouldn't work too hard or play too much. Either end of the imbalance is not good for the body and mind. Have you read this post: The Importance of Play for Adults?

Until next issue ....

May You Receive An Abundance of Blessings!
Donna

P.S. Know somebody who needs to see something in this newsletter? You can share this post from the website at the bottom of the post. Look for the little white envelope. Thanks for sharing!

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written by Donna

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The photo(s) and article are copyrighted. You may use either of them if you include the following credit and active link back to this website: © Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission from TheNatureInUs.com. The link to use is: www.TheNatureInUs.com.

Jesus Used The Word As A Weapon

2013-04-25T10:07:00.000-04:00

THE WEAPON OF THE WORD

by Andrew Wommack

Luke 4:4, "And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written,

That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God."

Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13

Jesus answered every temptation with, "It is written." The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17). It is the only offensive spiritual weapon that we have.

Since Jesus was the Word of God (Jn. 1:1), anything he would have spoken would have been the Word. He could have said "scat" and the devil would have had to go, yet He quoted the written Word of God three times.

This gives us great assurance that the written Word of God is sufficient for us. Jesus, in the face of the greatest temptations that Satan had to offer, did not need to say anything that was not already recorded in scripture.

It is likely that when Jesus returns to this earth and destroys His enemies, He will just speak the Word that has already been given in scripture. No wonder Satan tries to keep us from studying and knowing God's Word. Even our good works will hurt us if they keep us from really knowing the scriptures.

God has given us this mighty weapon of His Word! When we speak the Word in faith, hell shakes. Satan and his minions have already experienced what the Word can do. They know its power. We need to know it, too.

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Be a Friend to Bees

2013-04-25T08:58:00.000-04:00

From HSUS

Bees often get a bad rap because a very few species might sting if they feel threatened near their nests. Actually, the majority of North America’s 4,000 native bee species probably won't sting you under normal circumstances.

Did you know that bees are nature’s most important and efficient pollinators? But they are disappearing at an alarming rate. On vast farms and in family gardens, bees move large amounts of pollen between plants, pollinating flowers, fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Bees help plants produce the fruits and seeds that about 25 percent of birds and many mammals depend upon for food. Over 100 crops we use in the United States require pollination.

So get to know your native bees—and learn how to bee-friend them.

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Will Animals Be In Heaven?

2013-04-25T08:06:00.000-04:00

By Dr. Peter Hammond
Livingstone Fellowship

The largest book in the Bible, the middle book of the Bible, the Hymn and Prayer book of the Bible, the Psalms, reveal that all of God’s Creation have contact with God (Psalm 93). All God’s Creatures praise Him. “Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures… beasts and all cattle; creeping things and flying fowl; …let them praise the Name of the Lord for His Name alone is exalted. His Glory is above earth and heaven.” Psalm 148:7-13. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Psalm 150:6

God created all the animals (Psalm 104). All animals belong to God (Psalm 50:10). God cares for the animals. “Jesus said: ‘are not the five sparrows sold for two copper coins and not one of them is forgotten before God.’” Luke 12:6. It is that Scripture which inspired the first act of the Union of South Africa, the minting of the half cent coin and later the one cent coin with two sparrows on it – reminding us that God cares for the very least.

There are those who say that animals do not matter, but the Lord Jesus taught that His people are worth more than many sparrows (Matthew 6:28). If a sparrow is worthless, then of what value are you? A hundred times zero equals zero. A million times zero still equals zero. For you to be of great value, the birds of the air must be of some value. Obviously animals matter to God because the presence of animals in Nineveh is recorded as one of the reasons for God’s mercy in not destroying that sinful city (Jonah 4:11). Read the entire article.

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The Birthday Kindness Movement

2013-04-25T07:56:00.000-04:00

On the surface, The Birthday Project doesn’t look like a typical ministry, nor does its founder describe it as one. But Robyn Bomar says God has used it to reach people who may not have ordinarily given it a chance.

The Birthday Project’s goal is to create a shift in the way people think about and celebrate their birthdays and other milestones. Rather than making the day all about themselves, participants spend the day serving others.

The idea came when Bomar spent her 38th birthday doing 38 random acts of kindness—one for every year of her life. The seemingly miniscule acts ranged from feeding parking meters, to handing out balloons to kids shopping with their parents, to rounding up carts in a store parking lot. She initially didn’t want to publicize how she celebrated her birthday, but her husband, Michael, convinced her to post it on her blog—not to brag, but to share it with people. It soon went viral, and comments began flooding in. Read the entire article.

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Coming To The End of Myself

2013-04-18T10:09:00.000-04:00

by Donna L. Watkins

"When I come to the end of myself, I find the beginning of God." -- Unknown

How much more real this saying is to me than when I pondered it a year ago. I remember wondering how far it was until I would get to the end of myself. It surely seemed like a very long journey for one so independent and full of ideas on how to handle things.

One year later I feel as though I've been yanking and tugging and pulling and pushing my way through to get to complete healing. Once you've been partially healed and once you know that Christ has already given it in the atonement, it's hard to get it off your mind, but the problem with that is that it's easy to believe we can do something to make it happen.

It's done, so how does 'doing' fit into the equation? It doesn't. The key is to have the Truth revealed to our hearts. The bridge is sometimes long from the mind to the heart, but the Holy Spirit is the One who does the work, if we simply step back and receive.

So on the sideline of all that brain activity has been my deep desire for revelation of how deep the love of God is and a growing understanding of who I am in Christ. As I look back I realize how much the Holy Spirit has continued to draw me into His presence to build my trust in the Father so that He could mold and shape me into who He created me to be. I'm convinced that our mode of operation of doing is rooted in a lack of trusting God.

I've been reading The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee over the past half year. It's really deep and yet profoundly simple with many practical illustrations on the experience of the Cross. I read chapters over and over again, knowing in my spirit that it was food necessary for survival.

Looking back over the path of all the struggling I have done thinking there is something I can do to bring about total healing in this earthly body makes me realize the long road the Holy Spirit has had with my soul. But He's good at what He does and I am so excited at how much change can take place in a year.

How much more revelation we can have when we are still to know Him. Understanding of who we are in Christ has to be based in the heart and not the mind to become all we were designed to be and to experience the life that Christ called, "more abundant."

Believing there is nothing my flesh can do about life's situations is a hard thing for me to grasp. I guess I grew up with a really strong work ethic. Most of us are taught that if you want something you need to get out there and get it. Yes, there is great value in being diligent and steadfast, but as a Christian the only way it all comes together is if we're diligent in letting Him do the doing. One idea from the Holy Spirit is worth a million of our own thoughts. Our mind has so many ideas of how to get things done, it's hard for the Holy Spirit to get a thought in at times. It's so foreign to think that doing nothing will produce everything. But that's the grace walk.

The Law brings us to the end of ourselves. That was its purpose. It was written to show mankind what was required by a holy God, and in knowing it, we come to total despair of ourselves realizing there is no way for our flesh to keep the Law.

© Donna L. Watkins
Old City Cemetery - Lynchburg, VA
Pickerel Plant Blooming in Pond at Butterfly Garden
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So, God sends Jesus Christ to earth to take ALL of our sins and to fulfill the Law Himself. As we offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice, as a slave or servant, we find that it's like having a master who has an impossible list of tasks for us to do, and in knowing there is no way for us to fulfill this job, he himself does them all himself.

Christ fulfilled all of the Law for us and we are now free from doing anything of value in the flesh. What we focus on instead is living by the Spirit and being led to each impossible task and then allowing Him to do it through us. God can do all things, but He generally uses people in bodies to get things done. We are of most use to Him in areas where we feel totally useless.

It's so simple it seems impossible. It must've seemed impossible to the people of Paul's time also since they seemed to have a problem with not doing. With the Law mentality fresh and foremost in Jewish minds I'm sure it was inconceivable that we could just rest in Jesus. In Matthew 11:29 Jesus tells us: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Our soul is our mind, will and emotions. We're a world full of people who need rest for our souls! And when we take His yoke and join ourselves to Him, He will carry the load.

We must die so that He can live through us. In so many ways life seems so hard because we face the challenges head-on and struggle to deal with them, or we head for our cave and turn away from facing the issues at all. Neither option is designed to work. We are to turn it all over to Him.

The majority of the Galatians were Jewish Christians and Paul had quite the conversation with them in Galatians 3:1-5 where he rebukes them saying, "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?"

After an example of Abraham, he continues with verse 10 saying, "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

Obviously we've never been able to do everything written in the Law. James 2:10 tells us that "whoever keeps the whole Law but fails in one point is guilty of breaking all of it." The Old Testament Commandments could not be satisfied which is why they had to apply the blood to the mercy seat.

How much more did Christ expand that Law when He gave the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) where He said even if we think something and don't do it, it is still sin. Christ came to become the curse for us and to free us from the Law. We hear that and know it mentally, but our flesh can't comprehend how it works because it can only work as we walk in the Spirit, not while we choose to walk in the flesh with all of our own ideas rushing and rolling around in our minds.

© Donna L. Watkins
Brookgreen Gardens - Murrells Inlet, SC
How Much Love The Father Has For Us (My Title)
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We can say as Paul said, "Oh, wretched man that I am" (Romans 7:24). Paul had a hard time giving up his flesh with all the knowledge and esteem he had known in the flesh, but in the end he says it was all of the same value as dung. "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. 3:8-9)

And in the end the revelation is so simple it's hard to grasp. Paul has a great concern over believers confusing and complicating the simplicity of the Gospel as he writes to the church at Corinth, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor. 11:3). We must come to Him as children. He's a good Daddy. Many earthly fathers were not so, but God is a perfect Father and Jesus said that in seeing Himself we have seen the Father.

The devil loves to deceive us into thinking that God isn't for us so we may as well get in there and figure it out and do it ourselves. The same message he used on Adam and Eve ... God is not for you, He's withholding something good from you. God gives all good things and never withholds from us. He says to us, "I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers (3 John 1:2). Our soul must prosper and the only way to do that is to get it out of the way, renew our minds, and allow His Spirit to walk this life out through us.

All the more reason to get to know Him more and more and more and more. When we see that God IS love, we will have no problem holding HIs hand and not heading out on our own to the wastelands of life and our worthless mental solutions. God IS love ... He doesn't just love, He IS love. Another amazing huge thing for us to ponder.

"When I come to the end of myself, I find the beginning of God." -- Unknown

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Gigi's Herbal Heartworm Success Story

2013-04-18T09:56:00.000-04:00

My friend, Robin, sent me another heartwarming heartworm story from one of her many happy clients. She's been helping people and pets with heartworms for a very long time. Her website has a lot of such testimonies, but I love to share one from time to time in this blog.

There are many heartbroken stories of pet owners who didn't find Robin's website, so if you can help me share this information, more dogs will be able to live and make their human family soooo happy!

Here's Gigi's story submitted by her family:

Our family is extremely partial to boxers and we have always bought them from breeders. However, this time we decided to rescue one. As God would have it, the day we set aside to look for a dog, there was one at a pound, only 45 minutes away!

We (all six of us) went to meet Gigi. Poor baby! She was skin and bones and terrified of everything ... especially people. I was a little nervous about getting her, thinking she might bite one of the children out of fear, but my husband reassured me that she wasn't aggressive and he would like to take her home.

With four children around, Gigi didn't have a chance at staying afraid of people. They loved on her, hand fed her, slept with her, brushed her, walked her, etc. She has become the best dog we have ever had; the most loved dog in the world.

So when we took Gigi in for a routine check-up and found out that she had a severe case of heartworms (apparently contracted at least 4 months before we adopted her), we were devastated! The vet recommended that we either euthanize her, or put her through a $1000+ regimen. We couldn't afford the treatment, so we went home and told the children what the vet had said. They cried for two days and gathered up their life savings (about $20) to help pay for "Gigi's heartworm poison."

I was already treating my family with essential oils, so it occurred to me that there must be some way to treat my pets naturally as well. Google, here I come! Lo and behold, Bandit's Buddies popped up! So I ordered the regimen and began it right away.

Fast forward to her next routine check-up (6 months later). I asked for the heartworm test to be done, just hoping that the severity would be down to moderate or mild. The vet came in with the results of all the tests and said, "Gigi is a very sweet, healthy dog. Just make sure you brush her teeth regularly."

That's it?! So I asked about the heartworm test ... (drum roll, please) ... NEGATIVE! In 6 months! Wow! I barely restrained myself from doing cartwheels and expressed how pleased I was. That was when the vet rechecked the chart, realized that Gigi had previously been diagnosed as being heartworm positive and started back-pedaling ... "Oh, our test must be defective! We'll need to send the blood work out to another lab!" It has been two weeks and I haven't heard a peep from her! -- The Geurink Family

Read more about Bandit's Heartworm Program.
Read Bandit's Heartworm Story.
Read about Bandit's Prevention or Maintenance Program.

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Dangerous Pesticides Found in Celestial Seasonings Tea

2013-04-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

Well, here we go again. Another "natural" food company hitting the dirt.

Tests showed high pesticide levels in 91% of Celestial Seasoning samples. Ten (10) out of eleven (11) tested were found to contain dangerously high pesticides. Read the entire article.

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Frogs Need Our Help, So Hop to It!

2013-04-18T06:16:00.000-04:00

Kermit the Frog once sang, “It isn’t easy being green.” Although then he was lamenting that he blended in too much with his environment, he might be grateful today for this camouflage, as it just isn’t easy being a frog.

Frogs are among the more than 1,800 amphibian species that are threatened and the at least 168 amphibian species that have gone extinct in just the last two decades. Threats to them include habitat loss, water pollution, climate change, disease and invasive species.

Many states are hosting Save the Frogs Day events on April 27 to help raise awareness of frogs’ troubles and funds for amphibian conservation. Read more ....

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Newsletter - 4/15/13

2013-04-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

The Nature In Us Newsletter

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If you judge other people you have no time to love them. -- Mother Teresa

Happy Springtime!

Randal and Donna - 10th Anniversary
April 1987

We acknowledged our 36th wedding anniversary on April 9th, but didn't celebrate since neither of us came up with an idea on where to go. We enjoy taking a trip to celebrate rather than eating out or buying gifts, so that's the motivation to work before play.

It's truly and finally Spring here at Bluebird Cove. We still have some chilly nights, but the days have been lovely and even a few downright hot, but I won't complain about heat.

Right now our focus has been on getting the garden back into shape. Spring is our heavy work time for that since we leave all the leaves on the ground until then to give the plants more protection. We lose less perennials that way and some of the annuals even come back from the roots of the year before.

One of the things I struggle with in gardening is cutting blooms to bring into the house so I can enjoy them hour by hour. I always feel a bit guilty since I figure there's something outside that needs them, and yet I do leave plenty in the ground. I tell the ones chosen for the house that they are very special. Of course I don't say that until they're inside so the other plants won't hear [grin].

Spring Bouquets From Our Garden
Hellebores, Daffodils and Hyacinths
View Enlarged Image

This Spring I made some small bouquets of Hellebores, Daffodils, and Hyacinths. The Hellebores seem to be doubling every year now that they've got their feet settled into the hard Virginia clay that the earthworms have softened for them.

Right now all the trees in the forest behind us have lime colored green leaves coming out. Nothing seems to be able to contain itself from bursting forth. I love it! It's like watching God create Earth all over again.

The forsythias have just about lost all their blooms and the redbuds are budding. We have a lot of hollies and they're all covered with flower buds. They make a very small flower, but the bees love them and the scent is wonderful to us also. View holly blooms.

The butterflies are scurrying about looking for early blooms to feast on. Our state butterfly is the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, a rather large butterfly and with the bright color of yellow very easy to spot as it is flittering about. On Saturday I was on the screened porch after working in the yard and there were two of them dancing up and down as they were preparing to mate.

I imagine we will have such heavenly visions all around us when we get there and spend eternity amongst the many animals. I think we'll even have those things that have gone extinct on our earth. We've not been a good steward of what God made for us, but Heaven will be glorious with all the creatures and blossoms that God designed for our pleasure. We will be able to lie down with these precious beings surely rejoicing with them that the pains and miseries of Earth are far behind us.

We purchased some more butterfly favorites at the nursery yesterday and I will be very excited to get them into the ground this week.

This year I've put quite a few new things in our deck pots. There's a lot of flowers we can't plant in the ground because the deer will eat them, so I put some seeds in pots to have more color on the deck and more nectar for the butterflies and hummingbirds. I sowed Red Salvias, Hummingbird Salvias (salmon color), Cleomes, Heritage Petunias, Hyssop, and even some Spinach for my hubby's "morning mush" (a VitaMix concoction of veggies, fruits and antioxidant spices).

The woods behind our home, and our own acre of wildlife habitat we've developed, are filled with the beautiful songs of so many birds. It reminds me of the Italian tradition of a man wooing his loved one with operatic songs from the street below her window.

All these males singing to attract their mates, just like the frog choruses at night, each male trying to convince the female that he is the most handsome of all and the best choice for fathering the females offspring. Listen to audio of our night-time chorus.

On April 8th I heard the first call of the American Toads. They have a long trilling call that's very recognizable. They used to mate and lay their eggs in our small pond until the huge pond across the street went dry and we had some Bullfrogs set up housekeeping at our pond commanding dominant position since they eat everything else. Apparently they've gone back across the street and our pond is once again available for smaller toads and frogs.

On the enlarged version of the photo, you can see the "string of pearls" (eggs) being laid as they are mating. The female is always the larger of the toads so she is on the bottom of this photo and the weight of the male keeps her egg discharge under water. Read more about American Toads.

We've had Spring Peepers lay their eggs even before the American Toads arrived. They began singing away as soon as the days warmed up. I love to see all the life that bursts forth from that little backyard pond we put in. It's been such a great addition to our habitat for the last nine years.

Life so vividly portrayed in the sounds around us. The Peepers are so loud while we're playing a game on the screened porch that we have to raise our voice to have a conversation.

I can hardly go to sleep at night with the wonder of it all and waking up in the morning is like waking up in Paradise.

The squirrels may not be singing but they've got vocals of their own and the males are running and chasing the gals all over the property and up and down the trees. Leaping from small branch to another tree and simply crazy "in love" with those females.

Watch a video of a male that is happy to procreate as God told them to do.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this newsletter, we'd like to take a short trip to celebrate our anniversary. One of the places we've been considering is Columbia, SC. We rather love the state of South Carolina and have been to many places there, but are not familiar with Columbia. Anybody live there? What places are a "must see" in your opinion? Please let me know! Congaree National Park is definitely already one of our "must see" places. Absolutely awesome!

On my health, I did an update post on the blog last week after a visit to the doctor. I also did an update on that post this morning since things have been improving (Counterattack of The Devil - A Health Update). As stated in the post, I communicate through the blog with family and friends so that I don't have to keep repeating "bad news" which I believe becomes part of us if we repeat it often enough.

Donna

Brookgreen Gardens

It's time to be outdoors, so hope all of you have scheduled times to see all that Spring has to offer in your area of the world. Wash the winter blues away and rejoice in the beauty and freshness of Spring!

Abundance of Blessings to YOU!
Donna

P.S. Know somebody who needs to see something in this newsletter? You can share this post from the website at the bottom of the post. Look for the little white envelope. Thanks for sharing!

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written by Donna

Posts Since Last Newsletter

The Positive Impact of Religion on Health

Birdhouse Basics

Loneliness Taxes Immune System

Puppy FAQ's

Counterattack of The Devil - A Health Update  (DLW)

Oppressed By The Devil  (DLW)

Grow Your Own Birdseed

Outdoor Exercise is Best!

Natural Remedies for Swollen Feet & Ankles

73 Million Packages of Poisoned Bird Seed Sold

Newsletter - 4/1/13  (DLW)

April Is National Garden Month

Previous Posts You May Have Missed

Long-term Sad Effects of a Happy Meal

His Great Love For Us

Cinnamon and Honey (DLW)

Lawn Gone! (DLW)

Gator Mating Season

Dogs - Big or Small?

Don't Give Up, It's Already Yours (DLW)

Creating Bird-Friendly Urban Landscapes

The Importance of Play for Adults

2013 Free Entrance to National Parks & Public Lands

Newsletter - 3/15/13

Guard Against Deception

Are Animals Aware of Death?

A Furry Friend is the Best Medicine

Garden For The Monarch Butterflies

On Nature & God (DLW)

Depression Caused From Wrong Thinking?

Another Canadian City Bans Fluoride

Facts About Poop

Nagging Ruins Even Healthy Relationships

Losing Our Joy In Nature

Humane and Healthy Doghouse Ideas

Take It All, It's Yours! (DLW)

Prayer Power

Study Supports Eating Wheat, Despite Gluten-Free Trend

10 Tips for Taking Great Pet Photos

75-98% of Mental & Physical Illnesses Come From Thoughts

Pesticide Turning Males Into Females

New Health Food for Large Breed Puppies

Why Shop-a-holics - Where It All Began

7 Ways to Curb Your Addiction to Stuff

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The Positive Impact of Religion on Health

2013-04-11T10:55:00.000-04:00

Some people need more than the Word of God to believe things written in it. For those who validate a lot of scientific evidence, you will enjoy seeing how science if catching up with what The Word has said for ages.

The Biology of Belief
By Jeffrey Kluger

We travel to Lourdes in search of a miracle; we go to Mecca to show our devotion; we eat hallucinogenic mushrooms to attain transcendent vision and gather in church basements to achieve its sober opposite. But there is nothing we pray — or chant or meditate — for more than health.

People who believe in a loving God fare better after a diagnosis of illness than people who believe in a punitive God. No less a killer than AIDS will back off at least a bit when it's hit with a double-barreled blast of belief.

"Even accounting for medications," says Dr. Gail Ironson, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Miami who studies HIV and religious belief, "spirituality predicts for better disease control."

The author of four books, including the soon-to-be-released How God Changes Your Brain he has looked more closely than most at how our spiritual data-processing center works, conducting various types of brain scans on more than 100 people, all of them in different kinds of worshipful or contemplative states. Over time, Newberg and his team have come to recognize just which parts of the brain light up during just which experiences.

When people engage in prayer, it's the frontal lobes that take the lead, since they govern focus and concentration. During very deep prayer, the parietal lobe powers down, which is what allows us to experience that sense of having loosed our earthly moorings.

The frontal lobes go quieter when worshippers are involved in the singular activity of speaking in tongues — which jibes nicely with the speakers' subjective experience that they are not in control of what they're saying. Read the entire article.

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Birdhouse Basics

2013-04-11T09:30:00.000-04:00

From Birds & Blooms

There are few bird-watching experiences more rewarding than setting up a birdhouse and having a pair of birds select it as their home to raise young.

Not all backyard birds use houses, including many popular species like cardinals, orioles and goldfinches. But enough common birds do nest in birdhouses to make it worthwhile to set up a few to see what happens.

About 30 bird species in each region of the country are so-called cavity nesters, which means that most of them will also use a birdhouse. Bluebirds, purple martins, house wrens, chickadees, tree swallows and house sparrows are the most common occupants. You might also be able to entice nesters like wood ducks, screech-owls, woodpeckers, titmice and nuthatches.

But setting up a successful birdhouse isn't as simple as "build it and they will come." There are several key factors to consider that will give you the best chance to attract nesting birds. Attract more nesting birds with these five basics.

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Loneliness Taxes Immune System

2013-04-11T08:30:00.000-04:00

The truth ... is that science is catching up with the Word of God. The scriptures are very clear that we are not meant to be alone, that we were created for relationship, first and foremost with God and then with each other: Genesis 2:18 “It is not good that man should be alone,” and 1 Corinthians 12 -20.

Poor quality relationships, which make you feel lonely, are definitively linked to a number of health problems. More specifically, research links loneliness to a number of dysfunctional immune responses and increased blood pressure.

Researchers saw that people who were lonelier produced more inflammation-related proteins in response to stress than did people that were more socially connected. This means they reacted more strongly to stressful situations than those people that did not consider themselves to be lonely.

Chronic inflammation is linked to numerous conditions including coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease as well as the frailty and decline that can come with aging. Read the entire article.

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Puppy FAQ's

2013-04-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

From Dr. Jane Bicks

At Life’s Abundance, we’re celebrating puppyhood. This is partly because we just launched our brand new Large Breed Puppy Food, but mostly because WE LOVE PUPPIES.

Dr. Jane is tackling some frequently asked questions when it comes to baby dogs. Dr. Jane applies her considerable talent and demonstrates her insider’s knowledge in the review of just a handful of commonly posed queries, like …

Why does my puppy have hiccups?
What sorts of vaccinations does my puppy need?
How common a medical problem are worms?

Do what’s best for your pups, now and in the future, by reading the latest post from Dr. Jane now.