New Yankee Remedy

Black Sheep by Ben Fuller

Ben Fuller is a Grammy-nominated Christian singer-songwriter whose story is one of profound transformation, moving from 14.5 years of cocaine and alcohol addiction to finding freedom in Jesus. Raised on a Vermont dairy farm with deep "father wounds," he overcame a suicide attempt and a, rock-bottom in Nashville to become a renowned worship artist touring with Zach Williams.

Early Life and Addiction

Farm Life: Raised on a family dairy farm in Southern Vermont, he worked alongside his father but felt a deep lack of affection, leading to a feeling of emptiness despite his hard work, as highlighted in his SVTC testimony.

The Escape: He started using cocaine and alcohol to cope with the "generational hurt" and lack of love.

Darkest Moments: At 16, he attempted suicide. He spent 14.5 years in addiction, including a period of overdosing on cocaine and the loss of his best friend to a heroin overdose in 2017. 

Transformation and Career Change

Move to Nashville: He moved to Nashville in late 2018 to pursue a career as a country singer, playing at venues like Tootsies.

Finding Faith: In 2019, he was invited to a church in Franklin, TN, where he heard the gospel for the first time and immediately felt a transformation, leaving behind drugs and alcohol.

Musical Shift: He felt called to sing about Jesus, abandoning his country music ambitions for Christian music, notes the K-Love interview.

Current Success: Now a Christian artist, he has performed at the Grand Ole Opry and toured with artists like Zach Williams

Key Songs and Message

"Black Sheep": An anthem highlighting his journey from being a "lost" individual to being "beloved" by God.

Message: He travels to prisons (like San Quentin) and churches sharing his testimony of redemption, emphasizing that God can fix any "shattered life".

Misconceptions

A Christmas Message From The Author

A misconception is a wrong conclusion because it's based on faulty thinking or facts that are wrong. 

Which one of the above pictures is the definition of a true nut? The Walnuts, Almonds, and Pecans are actually the seeds of a drupe. The Brazil Nuts are really seeds from a capsule. The Peanuts are a legume. Lastly, the Acorn is the only true nut of all the pictures above.

I'll bet over 85% of the people would believe that the Acorn is the only one that is not a nut. Making this a common misconception.

Here's another one. Throughout my life, I believed the saying "Blood is Thicker than Water" meant that family is more important than friends. Only recently, within the past few years, did I find out the original saying goes like this: "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb," The blood of the covenant suggests that chosen bonds forged in battle are stronger than the water of the womb, the family you were born into. So here we have another misconception!

In many cases, misconceptions are so widespread that they actually come to mean what the vast majority of people believe them to mean. If you look up "Blood is Thicker Than Water" this is what it will say:

"Blood is thicker than water" is a proverb meaning family ties are stronger and more important than other relationships

The Bible has more than its fair share of misconceptions. The one I will focus on is the Apocalypse. When you look up the word Apocalypse this is what it says:

the complete final destruction of the world, as described in the biblical book of Revelation.

an event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale.

Now, here's what it says about the word Apocalypse when you ask for its literal meaning:

Literally, "apocalypse" comes from the Greek apokalypsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation," a disclosure of hidden knowledge, often spiritual, rather than the common modern sense of world-ending destruction

The book of Revelation is also known as the Apocalypse of John. That right there should give you a good idea of what the meaning of Apocalypse really is. A realization, a revelation, or an epiphany. As opposed to a cataclysmic disaster that brings the end of the world.

Now, here's a crazy twist: I just stated that the apocalypse does not mean the end of the world, but it does mean it is the end of the world as we know it. Let's say that every Christian who has been Born Again must go through the revelation to be Born Again. It's a process that tears down the constraints and prohibitions that society has on all of us. For example, the social stratification that maintains the class system they have in place. Although you will never be completely free of it. At least now you can see it for what it is.

Where was Jesus in this social structure? Was he in the upper class or the lower class? The answer is neither. Jesus was number one, king of the Jews. Because of this social structure, society would never recognise his authority or stature. His rank was God-given, which is in direct conflict with this social structure. The same is true with every Christian who has truly been Born Again. They have a very high rank that no one can see or understand because everyone is part of this social structure, which is in direct opposition to God's law.

In conclusion, the Apocalypse is not something to be afraid of. It is to be embraced as something beautiful. It is something every Christian who has been Born Again has gone through. Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

That's the Apocalypse! This would have never been possible without the love and power of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

Merry Christmas

Samantha Ebert - Flowers

GOODBYE YESTERDAY | Elevation Rhythm & Gracie Binion

Angels We Have Heard On High by Christian Artist Tasha Layton

This is a great little message.

Cornerstone - by  TobyMac featuring  Zach Williams

TobyMac And Zach Williams are both Grammy Award winning Christian artists. They came together for this song called Cornerstone.

Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is considered the cornerstone of the Christian Faith.

Psalm 118:22 

  The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

This verse was believed to be written by King David about 1000 years before Christ was born. Yet, he was referring to Jesus Christ. The Cornerstone.

If you take a closer look it also means that Jesus Christ layed down his life long before he was nailed to the cross.

John 15:13-20New King James Version

13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

The World’s Hatred

In Honor of Black History Month.

FREEDOM RIDER - By Traffic

This was one of my favorite songs when I was a teenager a long, long time ago. I didn’t really know what the song was about I just liked the sound and the way it made me feel.

Today I know exactly what this song is all about! 

Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in Freedom Rides, bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals. Freedom Riders tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters at bus stations in Alabama, South Carolina and other Southern states. The groups were confronted by arresting police officers—as well as horrific violence from white protestors—along their routes, but also drew international attention to the civil rights movement.

The first verse - Is about the spirit (which I believe to be God) He shakes you up to let you know that there’s something terribly wrong here, and hopefully you’ll come to the right conclusion.

The second verse - Is about how the spirit (which I believe to be God) compelled these brave souls to risk their safety and their lives by taking a stand against the many injustices and iniquities in the Southern United States.

The third verse - Time is running out! The spirit (which I believe to be God) will eventually strike down those who refuse to change their thinking. Those who cling to the bigoted belief that superiority over an entire race of people is more important than justice and equality. The spirit (which I believe to be God) will condemn these people.

It might be just a song, but remember what Paul wrote.

            The Crazy Rock!

I came across this crazy rock on a trail near Lake Wangum somewhere between Norfolk and Canaan Connecticut. The worn areas in the rock do not appear to be natural. I believe they were man made. I had no problem carving this rock with my swiss army knife. So this rock is probably soap stone or some type of steatite which has a high talc content. 

Primitive Technology - The Ultimate Do it Yourselfer!

Primitive Technology is a YouTube channel run by John Plant. Based in Far North Queensland in the Australian state of Queensland, the series demonstrates the process of making tools and buildings using only materials found in the wild. Created in May 2015, the channel has gained over 10 million subscribers and over 1 billion views as of February 2022.

Primitive Technology has a net worth of $2 million.

Black Lives Matter - In Honor of Black History Month

To all of the dogmatists out there who snicker and make snide remarks about this long overdue Black Lives Matter movement. Here’s a short video. This is just one example of the horrific treatment the blacks suffered at the hands of the controlling factions who run this nation and it’s government.

The Tuskegee Timeline

In 1932, the USPHS, working with the Tuskegee Institute, began a study to record the natural history of syphilis. It was originally called the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” (now referred to as the “USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee”).

By 1943, penicillin was the treatment of choice for syphilis and becoming widely available, but the participants in the study were not offered treatment.

In October 1972, the panel advised stopping the study. A month later, the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs announced the endexternal icon of the study. In March 1973, the panel also advised the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) (now known as the Department of Health and Human Services) to instruct the USPHS to provide all necessary medical care for the survivors of the study.

                              It’s Groundhog Day

The Big Laughing Gym - ( Gymnopilus junonius )

This species was formerly known as Gymnopilus spectabilis

As you can see in the pictures I cut the biggest mushroom in the cluster out when they were immature to bring home to identify. I then returned after three days to take photographs of the mature mushrooms.... and maybe...

This mushroom can easily be mistaken for the dreaded Jack O Lantern mushroom. The woman who wrote Sensual and Amusing: An Ideal Combination (personal experience #2) (at bottom of this page) calls the Jack O Lantern mushroom mildly toxic. It’s not deadly, but it is definitely a mushroom you do not want to ingest! It will put you through the ringer for a few days! The Jack O Lantern mushroom has a nice look and a pleasant smell. So you have to be aware of this particular mushroom so you won’t be fooled. The Big Laughing Gym has a veil, the Jack O Lantern does not. The veil is a membrane that covers the gills when the mushroom is young (2nd picture). As the mushroom gets older the cap opens up exposing the gills leaving a ring on the stem. The Jack O Lantern has a cream white spore print and the Big Laughing Gym has an orange to rust color spore print (last picture).

 I urge you to read about the two personal experiences of the authors detailed in the links below.

Lookalikes: Honey Mushroom (Armillaria mellea) is honey-colored with a white spore print. The Ringless Honey Mushroom (Armillaria tabescens) is honey-colored with a white spore print, and has no ring. Jack-o'-lantern (Omphalotus illudens) lacks a veil and has a whitish-cream spore print. Deadly galerina (Galerina autumnalis) is smaller and browner.

Description: Large, clutered, yellowish-orange mushroom with ringed stalk; on wood.

Cap: 3.25-7 inches or 8-18 cm wide; convex and knowbbed to nearly flat; smooth, slightly silky-fibrous or with minuyte scales; light orange-yellow to ochre-orange. Flesh thick, yellowish. odor aniselike or mild; taste very bitter.

Gills: attached, crowded, narrow to moderately broad, pale yellow to rust.

Stalk: 2-8 inches or 5-20 cm long, 1-3 cm thick; solid, pale yellow to ochre, streaked with minute fibers.

Veil: partial veil thin and membraneous to fibrous, pale yellow; leaving indistinct, evanescent ring or zone on stalk; ring sometimes persistent, high.

Spores:7.5-10.5 X 4.5 - 6 m; oval to elliptical to almond shaped, winkled. Spore print orange to rust-orange.

Edibility: Hallucinogenic.

Season: August to October

Big Laughing Gym info... (personal experience #1) Geography: North Eastern US (Virgina and north) / Japan [Also found in Western US, however for some reason the western varity is not psycoactive enough to be considered for consumption (besides, you guys out west have enough fun mushrooms growing wild)] ;)

Sensual and Amusing: An Ideal Combination  (personal experience #2) While enjoying a pleasurable evening walk on my property, I stumbled across a clump of large, orangish mushrooms. I was initially inclined to dismiss them as Jack O' Lanterns, a beautiful yet mildly toxic (and certainly not psychoactive) mushroom common to my area. However, upon having a closer look, these particular mushrooms did not possess the typical characteristics of Jack O' Lanterns, and more so resembled Gymnopilus. I decided to collect a few of the caps and bring them home for a spore print, in a hopeful attempt to confirm them as Gymnopilus Junonius.

  Black Walnut and the White Walnut 

The Black Walnut compared to the White Walnut also known as the Butternut. Both of these nuts are worth getting to know if you don’t know them already. They are very similar and very different at the same time. 

When cleaning the hulled nuts be sure to do it outside in buckets or you may end up clogging your kitchen drain!

The Black Walnut

Juglans nigra, or black walnut, is a very hardy species of nut tree. The plant sets fruit in summer but the nutmeat isn’t ready until fall. This is the time of year you might want a hard hat if you are walking under a black walnut tree. Some of the hulled nuts can be nearly as big as a fist and pack quite a wallop when dropped from upper branches. It is important to test a few fruits before picking black walnuts. This is because they tend to abort unfinished nuts and you may be picking up aborted nuts rather than nice, fat ripe fruits. Autumn is the time for black walnut harvesting. In the tree’s native region of eastern North America, fruits drop from September until October. Dropped hulls usually mean ripe fruits, but you should check the appearance to ensure ripeness. The unripe fruit is green while the fully ripe fruit is yellow-ish verging on tan. The hulls have a potent stain, so it is advised to wear gloves when harvesting the fruit. The stain will leave a permanent dark brown on fingers that aren’t protected. Don’t bother picking up fruits that are completely black. These are probably too far gone and the nutmeat may be rotten.

The White Walnut

 Butternut (juglans cinera) is a fast growing tree closely related to and resembling Eastern black walnut (juglans nigra). The two trees can often be found growing together in rich flood plains as well as on the thinner soil of the hillsides. Butternut, aka white walnut, is a sun loving tree that grows rapidly. Several feet of growth is often seen from seedlings every year. The leaves are big, over a foot long. They are composed of many leaflets, often 9, with a large terminal leaflet. An easy ways to tell a butternut from a black walnut is the nuts of black walnuts are round, while butternuts are more barrel shaped.

                                Elderberries!

I was out riding my bike when I came across these elderberry shrubs. I noticed that most of the berries were very ripe. Only a few clusters were immature. I didn’t have my foraging gear with me at the time so I had to go back for them and I knew I couldn’t put it off. I had to act right away.

When I went back I managed to get a good amount. I picked the whole clusters not the individual berries. So when I got home I had to process them to get the berries off the stems. To make it easy some people freeze them first. I have never tried it that way. I used the fork method. That’s when you use a fork to comb through the clusters knocking off the berries from the stems. That worked very well!

There are many recipes to choose from and I’m sure they all have their place. I made a very basic elderberry syrup which consists of 2 parts elderberry tea (decoction) and one part honey (raw is best) I mixed that with 1 part 100 proof vodka. You can use any type of alcoholic drink, brandy, bourbon, etc.. You just have to make sure that the final product has at least 20% alcohol if you want a super long shelf life. Without the alcohol the syrup will have a relatively short shelf life. With the alcohol the shelf life becomes almost infinite. 

I went one step further with the vodka. I used the 100 proof vodka to tincture the echinacea then mixed the tincture with the syrup. It’s a very popular combination. Both elderberry and echinacea boost the immune system, but echinacea is an antibacterial, and elderberry is antiviral so you have all of the bases covered. The echinacea doesn’t seem to affect the taste too much at all.

Flu Busting Echinacea and Elderberry Syrup

Echinacea

Echinacea fights inflammation, bacterial and viral infections.  It is good for the immune and the lymphatic systems.  It is helpful for allergies, colds, flu and other infections.  You can read more about echinacea for colds here.  

Elderberry 

According to Nutritional Healing, elderberry fights inflammation and relieves coughs and congestion . It enhances immune system function, lowers fevers and soothes the respiratory tract.  It is very effective against flu viruses.

            Wanna Get High?

This is one hallucinogenic plant that you DO NOT want to mess with!! It can kill you. This is called  Datura stramonium, or Jimsonweed, also known as Thorn apple, and Devil’s Snare. 

Jimson weed (“Datura stramonium”) belongs to the nightshade family, which includes among its members such familiar garden vegetables and ornamentals as petunias, potatoes, tomatoes, green and red peppers, and eggplants.

I knew a guy who took some Jimson Weed to get high. He told me he was found naked in the Arizona desert on the side of the road digging for gold.

Just like all of these scary plants, they also have a medicinal value as well as an intense high.

Jimson Weed,

 The leaves and seeds are used to make medicine. Despite serious safety concerns, jimson weed is used to treat asthma, cough, flu (influenza), swine flu, and nerve diseases.