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Some of the challenges we faced in the early years of having a family cow involved cheese making. People innocently asked (and still ask) me in a pleasantly excited voice, “Oh! Have you made yogurt? That’s easy!” Yes. I had made yogurt … and cottage cheese, butter, cream cheese, ricotta, 30 minute mozzarella, but at 6 gallons a day I needed to face the HARD CHEESE! To me, “hard” encompassed both aspects of the word – hard, not soft, and hard, difficult.

When it really came down to it, the cheese press and aging conditions were the daunting points. After wasting a lot of money on a cheese press and hours preparing (not to mention months aging), our first cheeses were inconsistent at best. Most were way too dry and/or moldy.

Today I’d like to address the press.

My son, who was seven or eight at the time, assisted me in my search for consistent weights to use in our homemade press. As it turned out, bricks (regular red 2″ x 4″ x 8″) weigh about 5 pounds each. They are very stackable, and fit nicely into a typical kitty litter bucket. We had a plan!

STEPS:

1. Gather supplies

(REFER TO PICTURES BELOW TO SEE WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT)

• 2 identical kitty litter buckets (KLB)
• 2 old cake pans
• Large cylindrical container or straight sided ice cream bucket (1 gal. capacity)
• 2 small plastic cutting boards (need to be new)
• Plumbing supplies:
  – toilet flange
  – 4″ PVC
  – 4″ PVC exit pipe (about 4″ long)
• 4 wide head 1 1/4″ screws
• 1 small, flat-headed, non-corrosive screw
• 1/2″ thick block of wood

Once you are actually making a cheese, you will also need:

• “Bouffant” hair nets or cheese cloth
• 4 wooden spoons or thin sticks
• 10 – 5lb bricks (each wrapped in plastic wrap to prevent flaking)

TOOLS:

• Power screw driver
• Jig saw
• Utility knife
• Scissors
• Pencil or pen

2. Using the jig saw, cut one cutting board to the size of a cake pan and the other to the size of the INSIDE bottom of the KLB.  (This will be referred to as the “1st KLB” from here on out.)

3. Using a utility knife and/or scissors, cut the bottom out of the cylindrical 1 gallon tub, leaving a 1/2″ lip around the edge.

4. Cut the 1/2″ thick board to the size of the INSIDE bottom of the 2nd KLB (use the previously cut cutting board for a template), and place it in the bottom of the bucket.

5. You may need a helper for this. Using the (4) wide-headed screws, center and screw the toilet flange to the bottom of the 2nd KLB right through into the fitted piece of wood inside. Screw in tight enough to JUST hold the toilet flange on, but loose enough to be able to easily remove it.

6. Press the 4″ PVC pipe and cap tightly onto the toilet flange. Using the little, non-corrosive screw, secure the round-cut cutting board, centered on the cap.

7. Place one of the cake pans, up-side-down into the bottom of the 1st KLB. Put the square-cut cutting board on top of the pan.  This will allow whey to collect in the bottom of the 1st KLB, but away from the cheese.

 

8. Place the cylinder tub (with the cut out bottom) in next.

9. When you make your cheese and are ready to load the curds into the press, line a colander with cheesecloth or Bouffant style hair net. I prefer the hair net since it leaves minimal marks on the cheese and can be thrown out without guilt. I could never get a cheesecloth clean enough to reuse.

10. Carefully transfer curds and cloth to the cylinder tub inside the 1st KLB.

11. Fold the cloth over the curds as neatly as you can, and place the 2nd cake pan (right-side-up) on top of this. Then place the 2nd KLB into this curd-loaded 1st KLB.

12. Bricks are placed within the 1st KLB as needed according to the recipe.

13. Use spoons or sticks to be sure to get a balanced press and beautifully shaped cheese.

When you redress the cheese, simply lift the 1st KLB with the bricks out of the 2nd and onto a plate placed on the floor.

So there you have it – a Scottish cheese press! Not including the bricks, this could be made for around $10, if you shop at a thrift store, dollar store and a home center. This will enable you to press and not crush your cheese or your wallet.

A good tasting cheese is not over pressed to the point of being dry. It is not stirred roughly so that the curds become tiny hard beads. The curds are gradually heated up to carefully drive out the whey, yet still enable them to retain a spongy texture. Also, the curd mat is cut into little squares to open it up to the whole process of creating a good cheese.

If you think about it, God is a perfect cheese maker!! In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 we are reminded that “We are pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

So it appears God does the same process to us as we do to our cheese. He allows just enough pressure to drive out the things that “way” us down, preventing us from running the good race. Yet He does not break our spirit. The storms of life that turn us upside down and inside out, cause us to turn to Him as we see our need for something greater than ourselves. The heat in our lives is turned up gradually to drive off the dross and prove our faith is in Him. The heat is not applied to burn us out and drive us away. Humility is taught, if we’ll allow it, with the careful cutting and pruning by the Father who wants us to bear good fruit.

I will close with this one final thought. Up until the last fifty years, when someone talked about “depression” it generally did not refer to “sadness.” The definition primarily used was this: the action of lowering something or pressing something down; a sunken place or hollow on a surface. There is only one way to be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.”* Remember that you are in the hands of a living God, who is molding you, forming you, and yes, even pressing you into His image. So press back – into the heart of the Father.

Verses that inspired this post:

*2 Corinthians 6:10a
“sorrowful, yet always rejoicing…”

2 Corinthians 3:18
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Psalm 102:23
“In the course of my life He broke my strength; He cut short my days.”

Hebrews 12:29
“for our God is a consuming fire.”

1 Peter 1:7
“These (trials) have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

Isaiah 1:25b
“I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.”

Matthew 12:33
“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.”

John 15:2
“He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

Hebrews 10:22
“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

 

Just so you know up front, I am not a proponent of raw milk. I know the amount of work it takes to keep a cow healthy and clean enough to say, “yes, I trust this milk is safe.” I don’t believe most people would do the “clean room” techniques I require.

I do not want to address the dietary requirements for raw milk to be pure within the udder. There are plenty of articles on that topic. I would like to focus on the requirements for cleanliness outside the udder. Since my background is bio chemistry, I approach this issue from that perspective.

In our barn, we partitioned off two small rooms, each 6′ x 12′: the milking room and the clean room.

A chemist views himself as a part of the “clean room.” If he is not clean, then the room is not clean. Our clean room is cleaner than my kitchen! Boots and outerwear do not enter. Personal cleanliness is a must.

There’s a used dishwasher (center sprayer with top rack removed) that fits everything from the milking process.

This is primarily so that nothing ever sits out to dry and become exposed to dust (which of course would be from the barn). It also assures that all equipment is sanitized without harsh chemicals. We use pure soap (Cal-Ben dishwasher soap) and vinegar to avoid contaminating our milk with detergents filled with phosphates and sulfates.

We have an udder washing procedure. The udder is carefully brushed to remove any particles and hair. Our udder wash bucket system, designed from a trip to the thrift store, helps us have all that we need in one hand.

The udder is washed with warm soapy (pure soap) water and a cloth. If the girl is really dirty, we use those blue “shop ” paper towels first. They hold up great and rinse easily. This is done until the cloth shows no signs of dirt. A rinse is done from the second bucket of warm water with a second cloth. This is followed by an iodine teat dip which is dried off with a clean paper towel after 30 seconds.

That’s just to get the udder clean! Then the floor is swept under the cow and around her feet, removing all clumps of manure and hay. This is followed by the “mud-flaps.” “Mud-flaps” are, believe it or not, old pajama bottoms, cut into leg and tail guards. We tie them on so that nothing can possibly be sucked up from them into the milk.

What comes out of the cow is pure. Is the environment it enters pure?

I was struck one morning by the fact that these procedures are so easy for me to follow and not so easy for my husband. Oh no, that’s not a dig at him! His procedures are good enough and I extend grace. It’s just that they are my procedures that I came up with and that I know produce pure milk samples at the dairy lab. In fact, the girl at the lab said she would have flagged it as a falsified sample if she hadn’t actually spoken to me. It came out looking like a pasteurized sample.

But what had struck me was that God has a bunch of laws and procedures for how to live a good life. He can easily follow them Himself because He came up with them and knows they work. He knows it’s pretty tough for us. That’s why He extends grace through His Son.

Romans 6: 14

“For sin shall not be your master because you are not under law but {because you are} under grace.”

Let’s just say:

sin = rain

you = an ant

being mastered = getting wet

law= a colander

grace = a bowl

Then:

“Rain will not get an ant wet because you put it under a colander, and then take it off; but only if you put it under a bowl. ”

If someone lives under the law, there have to be thousands upon thousands of laws for each and every circumstance. Still sin will get in. If you take away law, it will be even worse, as in the time before Noah’s flood. If someone lives under grace, he recognizes the indebtedness he has to Christ, and the relief, and therefore the joy he has. This in turn causes the person’s heart to be thankful and to work on a friendship with Christ who paid for that debt. In truly working on that friendship, one is bound to find out what pleases Christ Jesus, and desire to do those things. The compulsion is from thankfulness and a desire to love God back. The end result is that the person is no longer mastered by sin, but by thankfulness, love, and desire directed toward Christ. Therefore he is mastered by Christ.

Is the ant under the bowl never going to get wet? Yes, when it crawls out from under the bowl during a storm. But the ant isn’t smart enough to get back under the bowl.

Are you?

In all children’s picture books, life on the farm is depicted as just that – LIFE on the farm. Fluffy, clean, golden chicks hatch and follow their mothers everywhere. Spotless, brown calves are found at their mothers’ sides, innocently taking a sip of milk when they need it. Pink piglets tumble over each other on fresh, sweet straw to find an available nipple between 4 or 5 other siblings. Geese and ducks wander on immaculate, green lawns, next to crystal clear, blue ponds with cattails growing at the edges. Flowers are blossoming, bees are buzzing, crops are flourishing, and the sun is ALWAYS shining!!

Well, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but that just isn’t reality. Just like the typical Nativity scene with the literal immaculate Mary and not a smidge of manure to be found, these story books do not depict the truth. With animals come manure and flies. Fowl are named just that: fowl, because that is what they do to every path they take and every bit of lawn or concrete they grace! New born chicks and calves are a wonder, that’s true, but they are sticky, weak and frail. They are prone to predation and sickness, at the bottom of the pecking order, and DON’T stay by their mothers’ sides for protection (or within the fence line, for that matter!) Mama cows clean their new-born, soaking wet calves from head to toe, encouraging them all the while to stand up and drink. They eat the placenta to discourage predators, and even lick their young ones’ behinds to encourage nursing and bowel movements. Mothers on a farm will literally die protecting their young, offering their lives in place of their babies.

It was with a mama hen named Bootie, that suffering and sacrifice tipped the scales of “protecting the young.” Bootie had sat for her typical 21 day incubation/starvation period when the first chick, then another and another arrived. She continued to sit on seven more eggs, while training the three how to catch gnats and spiders and drink water out of her mouth. They would climb all over her, peck her eyes, and fight with each other while she patiently sat and emitted instructional tones.

The seven eggs never hatched. The day after we threw them out, I noticed red, blood-filled mites all around that nesting box. I tried a few different organic suggestions to get rid of them, but nothing worked. Bootie had moved herself and her chicks to the roosting bar, but one chick would not follow. Two days later, that chick lay dead and completely desiccated, covered with red mites in the nesting box. The two chicks who remained under Bootie’s wings lived. A good bleach cleaning and dusting with diatomaceous earth finally did get rid of the mites, but it was too late for Bootie. She died shielding her young, while having the blood sucked out of her.

With much life comes much death.

We knew to some extent, that death would be inevitable when we started farming, but we could not fathom all the different ways it would come. Butchering was a given that we could prepare ourselves to face. Barnyard and hen house fights, neighbor dogs, coyotes, fisher cats, mites, a still-born birth, drownings, hawks and even, the hardest one to deal with, old age – were unpredictable, yet guaranteed.

Death is actually the one and only guarantee this life has to offer.

So the question always comes down to, “How can you prepare for death?” God’s charge to Adam in the garden was to have dominion over the animals. You’re in charge. Don’t let them suffer when maimed or infested. Be kind and let them go in peace, not pieces. You can take care of their lives with secure structures, routine door and gate closures and electric fences, but mistakes happen. I’ve listed a few recommendations at the end of this post that might help you guard against them, and deal with death when it comes. Remember that God is still in control and has lessons planned for you through it all.

The tough part of the “preparing for death” question is when it concerns people. While the scientific classification system lumps us in with mammals and primates, God says that we are made in “Our own image.” The “Our” part is meaning the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No other creature is like that. We are so vastly different from animal and plant life! Our life and death are not so seasonally clocked off , as they are knowledgeably accounted. Do you know where you’ve been, what you’ve done, and to whom you are accountable? Do you know where you will go, who you’ll see, and what will be counted for or against you?

These are important questions to know and ask yourself! They are not even remotely a concern with an animal, are they? A dead animal can be replaced with another, but your life has meaning and purpose. And what is that purpose? Do you know?

The Bible says it is to glorify God. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

It is what Jesus did. He showed us how, through His life and His death – His sacrificial death on the Cross. While animals paint a beautiful picture of this kind of life and death, they are actually pointing to Christ’s example. They point, but they can never fulfill the whole purpose of His sacrifice. Bootie died so that others might live; so did Christ. Bootie patiently and painfully bore the “bringing forth of new life” and taught it; so did Christ. But Bootie died and was buried, where Christ died, was buried, . . . AND ROSE AGAIN to prove that what He says is true. And He says that He paid the price for your sins – the ones you’re accountable for; the ones you committed all your life against God and man; the ones too numerous to count. The fact is, if you’re honest with yourself, that debt you’re accountable for is pretty lofty! It needs to be taken care of before death, and Jesus, who does not lie, says He paid it. Done. Finished. Death has no sting and you KNOW where you’re going.

So, how can you prepare for death?

For you? It’s actually simple. Get to know Jesus.

For animals?
1. Name them meat products like Sir Loin, Filet Mignon (or Minion), Hot Dog, Weiner, and Meatball. There seem to be an endless supply of meat product names. It helps you keep things in perspective every time you pet that cute little brown calf and utter his name in greeting.
2. Don’t name meat chickens – just don’t bother. They’re too stupid and there’s too much unplanned and planned death linked with them.

3. Spring for the portable electric fences for turkey and meat chickens.
4. Keep calves on a 20 foot rope near the electric fence until they learn to respect it. (We make the rope out of braided baling twine so that it’s light- weight, durable, and easy to replace. We braid two metal clasp hooks onto either end.) Once they demonstrate an understanding, take them for a run on the rope around the fence line every day. As they show that they see the wires and shy away from the corners, they can be set free in the pasture.
5. Lock chickens up BEFORE sundown and let them out AFTER sunup.
6. Double check your work if you have had visitors at your farm. We have lost fowl to predators or had cows get out primarily when we got out of routine due to the distractions of guests.
7. Do not let another chicken farmer enter you barnyard with his/her boots on!!! Diseases and parasites (like mites, especially scaly mites) are easily transmitted that way.
8. Do not introduce a new animal to your herd or flocks without completely checking them for disease or infestation.
9. Invest in a sharp hatchet and a .22 caliber rifle. Practice shooting at point blank range.

Scriptures that inspired this post:

Genesis 1:26
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over all the creatures that move along the ground.'”

1 Thessalonians 5:16
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

1 Peter 1:21
“Through Him (Jesus) you believe in God, Who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”

Romans 1:21
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

1 John 2:12
“I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name.”

John 17:4
“I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave me to do”

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
“. . . we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may fulfill every purpose of yours and every act prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in Him . . .”

Matthew 5:16
” . . . let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Ten years ago, there wasn’t a homestead. There wasn’t even a thought of homesteading, animals, garden, or self-sufficient farming. To make a long story VERY short, I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease fourteen years ago. For various reasons we put both our sons on my gluten free diet within the next two years, and my husband graciously allowed me to do the same with him. We found, in those two years, however, that it wasn’t just gluten. It was the American diet that was the real problem.

I remember an Italian woman, years ago in a grocery store, complaining about “stupid Americans.” She was moving from item to item in the produce section, sampling every seemingly sample-able fruit and vegetable and spitting them out! When our eyes met, she seethingly exclaimed amidst voluminous hand gestured, “You don’t even know what food is! This (she picked up a grape and threw it on the floor) is NOT food!” At the time I only thought, “So why don’t you just go home?” Instead, I said nothing and tucked it away in the folds of my mind, somehow not able to forget it.

My sister decided to move to Italy some years later. She found that she could eat all kinds of foods that, here in the U.S. she had not been able to tolerate. She also ranted and raved about how great everything tasted. Again I didn’t think much about it and chalked it up to her happiness with being out of the corporate pressure pot.

The following Spring, a neighbor brought over some tomato, carrot, and cucumber excess from her garden as a kind of “welcome to the area.” I can still remember our astonishment upon eating that first tomato! It was vibrant with flavor and so pleasing in texture. I had several flashbacks at once; one of being in my Italian Grandmother’s kitchen, and another of that Italian woman in the grocery store.

Could it be that we really didn’t know what food was? Could our food really not be food at all?!?!

The final tumbler had fallen into place. As our health problems had escalated from graves disease, miscarriages, constant sinus and gut issues, eczema, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, Celiac, then finally to developmental problems in our second son, we turned over the card of “raising your own food.”

God was very gracious and only gave us a bit at a time. When I counsel people now, it’s very difficult to not dump the whole load on them at once. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. Our first step was to go gluten free along with most additives. Dairy was another struggle, but I could not fathom a life without it. So . . . we stupidly bought a cow!

It wasn’t quite that rash a decision. A year or two of continued digestive problems even after going G-Free, much research about the factory-dairy farm, and finally the viewing of the film “Fresh”, pushed us to the point of no return. One of our farmer friends was struggling financially, and was going to send some of his dairy cows to auction. We offered to buy one for his desired value so long as he taught us how to take care of her. Six months later, the farmer had to move and we walked home with a cow we knew very little about!

We were not farmers. We were not knowledgeable. We did a lot of reading and asked everybody questions. But mostly we had the Lord and His strength, courage, and guidance. Ten years have passed and we now raise all our own beef, pork, chicken, turkey, eggs, vegetables, berries, hay, bees, maple syrup, and some small fruit trees. We drink our own milk and process everything dairy. We go to the store to buy organic fruit, juices, and nuts, and order our G-Free flours on line.

It can be done, but I’ll warn you, the learning curve is more like climbing a rope! Take it slow and steady. DON’T buy 100 chickens because there are 52 weeks in the year! Pray about the next step and WAIT for God’s reply. You are NOT going to save money on food! You should spend A LOT of money on real food. It’s what your body, your earthly tent, needs to properly function, fight, grow strong, and repair. We no longer go to the doctor or pharmacy. We don’t spend hours a day in the bathroom. Rheumatoid and joint problems are gone. Our son is a highly functioning teen with only hints of his autism.

Remember that this world is not our home any more than it was Christ’s. Our real home is in Heaven with our Father, whose Son is preparing for us a place. Like the Italian woman who was apparently stuck here in America, we long to be home. Just like Abraham and Moses, we are aliens in a strange land.

Jesus said that eternal life is knowing God. So our eternal home can begin here on earth – one bite at a time, one step at a time, prayerfully consulting the Father for direction. I am certain that Italian woman either died here miserable or started raising her own food. Just like her, we can’t go home,but the Kingdom of God can be cultivated here spiritually. To some extent, it can even be cultivated physically.

Scriptures that inspired this post:

John 18:36
“Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now My kingdom is from another place.'”

John 14:2
“In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

2 Corinthians 5:4
“For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”

Hebrews 11:9
“By faith, he (Abraham) made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.”

Exodus 18:3-4
“…one son (he) named Gershom, for Moses said, ‘I have become an alien in a foreign land,’ and the other was named Eliezer, for he said, ‘My father’s God was my helper; He saved me from the sword of Pharoah.'”

John 17:3
“Now this is eternal life; that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”

Luke 17:20-21
“The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the Kingdom of God is within you.”

Proverbs 16:9
“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

Psalm 105:4
“Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.”

Welcome to The Scottish Homesteader!

So… finally after umpteen million people have told me I ought to write my ideas down, I am going to attempt it.  Not that I haven’t wanted to share and extend to others the precious gifts I’ve been given by God!  Oh no!  It’s just that … I’m a farmer and THAT answers why.  I’m not just a farmer’s wife, which encompasses plenty in and of itself.  I love being  outdoors, getting dirty, tending and nurturing animals;  much more than I like all the stuff that marches through my kitchen to be processed.  In other words… I don’t have time to write it all down.

     That being said, at this point this site does not have the time for “comments.”  Maybe, once my home-schooled son’s computer and grammar skills are a little sharper, that might happen.  But not now.  As it is, he’s going to have to input this article as part of his Typing class.

     Not sure where to begin – 

     I’m Scottish and Italian.  In other words, I’m cheap and prone to much emotion.  I prefer:  “passionately thrifty” and thus the title of this post.  I treat my heritage as a gift from God that has helped me to see solutions and systems in everyday and generally  USED items.  I share a middle name with the contemporary 3-Rs:  Reduce, RE-USE, Recycle.  Very few things ever make it to my recycle bin whole.  Gallon sized cooking oil or vinegar bottles graduate to convenient grain, salts, or sugar scoops.  Their cut off bottoms make great feed or water bowls to replace the store-bought ones that always crack.

Batteries or marker caps become plugs for unused suction lines on the Surge milker.  Can lids screw easily over holes in incubators or chick coops to regulate air flow, or temporarily cover the hole for the heat lamp cord.  The possibilities are endless!  

     So look twice at ALL your recyclables, including the caps.  Here are some more ideas:

• lids or caps as furniture or chair skids
  

   

• marker caps as spout stoppers
• worn out milking machine inflations cut into washers and spouts for a milk jug (that’s a whole other post!)

  

• switch plain/solid caps for pour types with snap shut lids
• any wider mouth glass quart bottle (that can fit a scrub brush) for separated cream in your coffee
  

   

• scoops from coffee or vitamins can be stored in an unsightly coffee mug (your husband received for writing in a question to the Ag-channel) in your pantry.  Put a new scoop into each jar of dehydrated goods, like garlic or onion powder, for easy, no clean-up, no cross contaminating dispensing.  

    I think I’m so obsessed with re-using stuff because of my real heritage.  Oh sure, I came from an Italian mom and Scottish dad, but I’m talking about my real Father in Heaven.  He’s the One, after all, who wove me together in my mother’s womb from the elements of the earth (Psalm 139:13-15.)  Think about it.  Our Creator hand-picked all the atoms and molecules from which we are made!  What my mother ate came from plants and animals and the nutrients that they had gained from the earth.  What she ate (and my grandmother ate, in fact, since my egg was in my mother when she was born) helped my cells to grow and multiply.  So … I came from dirt.  Hmmm … so did Adam (Genesis 2:7.)

     Where did the dirt come from?  That’s right!  The recycle bin!  My Creative Father fashioned me from used parts and pieces from the depths of the earth.

      Later, He picked me up out of the trash bin into which I had dumped my life.

     Yes, “Re-use” is my adopted middle name.  I inherited it from my Creative Father, Savior, and Friend, Jesus Christ.

Psalm 139:13-15

“For You created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
  I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
Your works are wonderful.  I know that full well. 
My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth.”

 

Genesis 2:7

“The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living being”

 

Job 10:9

Remember that You molded me like clay;
Will You now turn me to dust again?