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Pines, Prayers, and Pelts

Pines, Prayers, and Pelts

10.00

Living in the Swamp

Traveling through a swamp on foot is certainly a challenge. Each step is measured, mud and water explored, hazards are looked for. The swamp is not the place for a carefree afternoon. Life at times resembles a swamp, a place of little joy, and even less peace. Mud clings to everything, fowling up the process and the desired results. Nothing works the way it was supposed to; marriages are a mess, families are in tatters, careers are unfulfilling, and every day seems to bring yet a new health crisis. Inside this book, find comfort in God and in his Word, as it is illustrated with humor and insight through pine trees, beaver pelts, and prayer. Dream with the longleaf pines, and push for the life-giving canopy. Practice for the Forestry Olympics, dodge rolling pins, and participate in search and rescue. God calls us to be trees planted by the living water, not the muddy swamp. These simple parables of the woods will challenge you to not only become better rooted in God, but to clean yourself up from a muddy life lived in the swamp.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Opening in the Woods  

Waterfalls

Bonds
Heads or Tails Reach Out
The Overlook El Camino
A Time for Prayer The Crossover
Canopy Master of the Mast
Saturday Pelts: The Fleshing Board    (Part 1)
Pelts: The Fur Shed    (Part 2)  Where Did the Nut Go?
Forestry Olympics Whiter than Snow
The Bog Lingering Too Long at the Road Kill
When God Sighs Manasseh Swamp
Snags  Forest Prodigal

Excerpt from: Pelts: The Fur Shed (Part 2)

If you are into “the outdoors,” or if you are a kid, you will find that a trip to the Fur Shed is fascinating. Note to old timers: this is not to be confused with the “woodshed” which is not so fascinating. The Fur Shed is like a natural museum, one where you can actually put your hands on the artifacts. Here one will find all sorts of outdoor oddities, such as animal pelts in various stages of cleaning, drying, and stretching: antlers and deer skulls, traps, tree stands, knives, and saws. If an item is used to hunt, fish, or trap, then keep looking, you will find it in the Fur Shed. This is where the hard work of turning pelts into cloth takes place, of turning achievements into trophies.

When a man wants to work on an animal pelt, attempting to clean it up for selling or to make an attractive wall decoration for the living room, often there arises a conflict. The conflict is soon settled when the would-be fur handler is sentenced to solitary confinement. He must take his pelt project to a venue that the wife will not have to venture past. Rumor has it that the actual title given to this venue, Fur Shed, is derived from words spoken by a pioneer wife as she chased her husband, (home after an extended time of trapping in the wilderness), through their cabin with a rolling pin. It was thought she was saying “your dead,” but being a woman of standing in the community, and having a bit of an accent, she was given the benefit of the doubt, and the local newspaper reported it as “fur shed.” Of course that is a rumor, but my own experience of trying to start a Fur Shed in my basement has caused the same reaction from my wife, so maybe it is true. Between the smell, and the sight of various pelts, skulls, antlers, or turkey fans lining the walls and shelves, marital harmony is at stake. Thus we have the “Fur Shed,” and not the “Fur Basement” or the “Fur Spare Bedroom.” Article 1, Section 5, Sub Paragraph 4 of the Jamestown Constitutional Compact, gave wives the right to administer the aforementioned rolling pin to the crown of a husband if there was at any time more than one beaver pelt drying in the house, said house being defined as “where the woman ruleth.” Original copies of this document no longer exist, nor does proof of its existence, but the Order of the Rolling Pin swears by it in their secret meeting, which no man is allowed to attend. They have to stay in the Fur Shed.

Shipping Information: 1-7 books ordered at a flat shipping price of $5.00. Each book ordered above seven, $1.00 added per book. (ie. 8 books $6.00, 9 books $7.00 etc.) Orders above 20 books need to please contact us by phone. Orders from outside of the USA please contact us by phone or email. All orders will be mailed by Media Mail/Bookrate by USPS; and will possibly take 7-10 business days to receive.