In honor of those who lost their lives while serving our country, we would like to share with you President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 Memorial Day remarks at Arlington National Cemetery:
"Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again. It’s a day of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others. It’s a day to be with the family and remember.
I was thinking this morning that across the country children and their parents will be going to the town parade and the young ones will sit on the sidewalks and wave their flags as the band goes by. Later, maybe, they’ll have a cookout or a day at the beach. And that’s good, because today is a day to be with the family and to remember.
Arlington, this place of so many memories, is a fitting place for some remembering. So many wonderful men and women rest here, men and women who led colorful, vivid, and passionate lives. There are the greats of the military: Bull Halsey and the Admirals Leahy, father and son; Black Jack Pershing; and the GI’s general, Omar Bradley. Great men all, military men. But there are others here known for other things.
Here in Arlington rests a sharecropper’s son who became a hero to a lonely people. Joe Louis came from nowhere, but he knew how to fight. And he galvanized a nation in the days after Pearl Harbor when he put on the uniform of his country and said, “I know we’ll win because we’re on God’s side.” Audie Murphy is here, Audie Murphy of the wild, wild courage. For what else would you call it when a man bounds to the top of a disabled tank, stops an enemy advance, saves lives, and rallies his men, and all of it single-handedly. When he radioed for artillery support and was asked how close the enemy was to his position, he said, “Wait a minute and I’ll let you speak to them.” [Laughter]
Michael Smith is here, and Dick Scobee, both of the space shuttle Challenger. Their courage wasn’t wild, but thoughtful, the mature and measured courage of career professionals who took prudent risks for great reward—in their case, to advance the sum total of knowledge in the world. They’re only the latest to rest here; they join other great explorers with names like Grissom and Chaffee.
Oliver Wendell Holmes is here, the great jurist and fighter for the right. A poet searching for an image of true majesty could not rest until he seized on “Holmes dissenting in a sordid age.” Young Holmes served in the Civil War. He might have been thinking of the crosses and stars of Arlington when he wrote: “At the grave of a hero we end, not with sorrow at the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage; and with a kind of desperate joy we go back to the fight.
All of these men were different, but they shared this in common: They loved America very much. There was nothing they wouldn’t do for her. And they loved with the sureness of the young. It’s hard not to think of the young in a place like this, for it’s the young who do the fighting and dying when a peace fails and a war begins. Not far from here is the statue of the three servicemen—the three fighting boys of Vietnam. It, too, has majesty and more. Perhaps you’ve seen it—three rough boys walking together, looking ahead with a steady gaze. There’s something wounded about them, a kind of resigned toughness. But there’s an unexpected tenderness, too. At first you don’t really notice, but then you see it. The three are touching each other, as if they’re supporting each other, helping each other on.
I know that many veterans of Vietnam will gather today, some of them perhaps by the wall. And they’re still helping each other on. They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam—boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home, boys who were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in that war; it was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march. They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something.
And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong.
That, of course, is the lesson of this century, a lesson learned in the Sudetenland, in Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in Cambodia. If we really care about peace, we must stay strong. If we really care about peace, we must, through our strength, demonstrate our unwillingness to accept an ending of the peace. We must be strong enough to create peace where it does not exist and strong enough to protect it where it does. That’s the lesson of this century and, I think, of this day. And that’s all I wanted to say. The rest of my contribution is to leave this great place to its peace, a peace it has earned.
Thank all of you, and God bless you, and have a day full of memories."
Recycled Backyard
Tire gardens are becoming popular and what a great way to recycle something you’d normally toss. You can paint them, stack them or even make them look like flowers!
This Weeks Menu Plan
Remember ALL the recipes we use are GLUTEN FREE
Monday: Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Potato Salad, Cole Slaw, S'mores
Tuesday: Salmon with Asparagus, Rice (opt), glazed Carrots
Wednesday: Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Green Beans
Thursday: Gluten-Free Parmesan Chicken, Noodles with Marinara, Super Salad
Friday: Crispy Orange Beef with Broccoli, steamed snow peas
Saturday: Hamburgers, Waffle Fries, Raw Veggie Plate
Sunday Brunch: Gluten-Free Buckwheat Blueberry Pancakes, Sausage Patties Supper: Beef Fried
Rice
KNOW YOUR FARMER!!!!
Do you know your local farmer? Can you purchase fresh fruits & vegetables, grass-fed beef, free-range chickens, farm fresh eggs and raw milk locally (within 100 miles or less)? If not, why not? Look for your local farmer, he/she can be found.
This week Grandma Farmer is picking: Broccoli, Snap Peas, Sugar Pod Peas, Turnip Greens, Beet Greens, Rainbow Chard, Spinach, Sage, Spearmint, Oregano, Chives (Garlic & Regular), Dill, Thyme, Green Onions, Red Russian Kale, Aragula
Reading Through the Bible In a Year
We are again attempting to read through the Bible this year. Just joining us or did you get behind? No matter and no need to play catch-up. Start where you are today and go forward.
Friday: Luke 1:1-25, Ephesians 1:1-14, Psalms 119:1-8, 1 Kings 1
Saturday: Luke 1:26-38, Ephesians 1:15-23, Psalms 119:9-16, 1 Kings 2-3
Sunday: Luke 1:39-56, Ephesians 2:1-10, Psalms 119:17-24, 1 Kings 4-5
We also like to read a Proverb a Day corresponding to the day of the month. This month I am memorizing Psalms 32, could you memorize a Psalm?
101 Herbs That
Heal
Below is the First 10 in my list of the 101
Plants/shrubs/Trees on our property that have healing qualities.
- Aloe
- Apple Trees
- Aronia
- Basil
- Blackberry
- Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
- Calendula (Calendula officinalis)
- Catnip
- Cayenne
- Chaomile
I only have 58 more plants/trees/shrubs to propigate.
(Chuckle) This also means I get to create more beds to plant all these wonderful
and beautiful plants. There's nothing like edible landscape, incorporate all
these wonderful plants into your landscape and include them in your 'flower' and
garden beds. We will discuss two plants a week.
Aronia Berries
What makes Aronia Berries so healthy?
Aronia berries contain what may be the worlds highest
concentration of the antioxidant anthocyanin. Anthocyanin is the pigment that
makes the berry so dark, (so dark in fact that this berry is the world's best
source of natural dye) and like all dark-colored fruits (blueberries, concord
grapes, acai, etc.) it has been shown to benefit your body in many ways.
What are the benefits of eating aronia berries?
High concentrations of anthocyanins are well documented in many
fruits (most famously the dark grapes that color red wine) to offer almost
supernatural benefits. They work by boosting & assisting your body's immune
system, so naturally there are few ailments that they DON'T work to fight.
For instance; cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure,
diabetes, liver failure, DNA degradation, broken bones, burnt skin, and even
viral infections have all been tested against high dosages of anthocyanin, all
to impressive results.
In fact, science has clearly shown that the only problems your
body could have that anthocyanins cannot help in some way are those that are
'genetic,' because your body's DNA instructions are to make sure that problem
exists.
How much it helps your condition,
however, has too many personal variables to discuss here, so you should consult
a qualified doctor before taking mass dosages of this fruit juice for your
individual problem.
Where can I find aronia berries?
Farmers Markets and your Local Farmers like GRANDMA FARMER grow aronia berries right on their farms!
Blackberry
The blackberry is known to contain polyphenol antioxidants, naturally occurring chemicals that can upregulate certain beneficial metabolic processes in mammals. The astringent blackberry root is sometimes used in herbal medicine as a treatment for diarrhea and dysentery.
Blackberries are notable for their high nutritional contents of dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, folic acid (a B vitamin), and the essential mineral manganese.
Blackberries rank highly among fruits for antioxidant strength, particularly due to their dense contents of polyphenolic compounds, such as ellagic acid, tannins, ellagitannins, quercetin, gallic acid, anthocyanins and cyanidins.
Blackberries have an ORAC value (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) of 5347 per 100 grams, including them among the top-ranked ORAC fruits. Another report using a different assay for assessing antioxidant strength placed blackberry at the top of more than 1000 antioxidant foods consumed in the United States.
Nutrient content of seeds
Blackberries contain numerous large seeds that are not always preferred by consumers. The seeds contain some oil which is rich in omega-3 (alpha-linolenic acid) and -6 fats (linoleic acid), as well as some protein, dietary fiber, carotenoids, ellagitannins and ellagic acid.
