Arlo's Podcast, Life So Far
Mark of the Beast coming soon. Who will take it and who will not. Biggest eternal decision one can make in this world.
Arlo's Podcast, Life So Far
Exploring Faith, Farming, and Life's Everlasting Changes
Well, good evening. It's Arlo Johnson for NBC, january the 4th 2025. I haven't seen you all year. Where have you been? Well, just kidding, we've had an exceptionally warm winter so far. It's been above freezing all the time, at least eight or 10 degrees above freezing. I think the fruit trees are going to bud again and ruin them again. Who k be two years in a row. If that happens, who knows that'll be two years in a row? That happened, yeah, I guess the it's warm, the sap rises in the tree, starts to bud and then it freezes, kills. It doesn't kill a tree, but kills the that year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I see some of these big fields that just actually on the outskirts of Vernon, here you know 1,200, 1,500 acres in one place and another place and another place, big acres is a lot of times cherries and then, of course, apples. Apples are much tougher. They seem to take the cold and the changes and weather and whatever way better. I had an orchard in Vernon, on East Vernon Road, small orchard, and I didn't enjoy owning it, that's for sure, because it was a real pain in the butt. I mean, it cost money to own them. It didn't make me any money, but it was a pretty good lifestyle, yeah, yeah, the plan to carry on to do another book, I guess.
Speaker 1:Carry on to do another book, I guess, is to stay in the same vein that I've done the other. I think I've got 15 on there now, 15 books, but they're like in three sections e-books and paperback and hardcover. They're all one subject, one theme, and then the next one is a different theme. But I'm going along here and it's taking a long time. I should have advertised them more or promoted them more, which I haven't done. And from people I talk to say that it will take a couple of months before it gets up in the chain, far enough until they start.
Speaker 1:Maybe somebody might buy one. Nobody's bought one yet except me, but it can get a little. You know, I paid a thousand bucks to get one audio book done on Audible. I mean, I paid one guy $400 and the other guy $392, american, and it came out to 500 bucks. Another one I think it was 500 bucks, I guess, or something In England, to do the publishing and straightening it out and dealing with sound and whatever else, and you know. So it's not cheap and I'm going to have to try and see if I can figure out how to do it myself, but I really don't think I could narrate it. My voice is getting so lousy and uh, but I mean it's still.
Speaker 1:I've just done on the one theme. You know basically, uh, why, why we're here and what's the whole reason we're here and how most people are mistaken about this. Do not have that square in their head why they're here. And the other thing is I would like to remind people that it's. You know, a lot of people are afraid of dying. Some are not afraid of dying, they're being very brave. But I can tell you that is not a good plan. Not a good plan.
Speaker 1:And you have to do this while you are still breathing on this planet. If you're not basically in tune with Jesus Christ and what God has done, there's a good chance you're not going to be in the first resurrection. And if you're not in the first resurrection, you're most likely not going to be in God's kingdom. I mean, I don't know, I can't guarantee that, but the first resurrection are people who are going to be in Jesus Christ's book of life. Now, that may be quite a few, but I have no idea. The reason I harp about this is not because I'm so religious or anything, but it's straight-blinking facts that if you don't do something about it before you die, you're going to be left out, you're going to be not good, and it's an offer. It's such an offer that it's unbelievable. It's such an offer that it's unbelievable. You know, the idea that you're here for some other reason than just that reason alone is to become a son of God. That's the whole reason.
Speaker 1:Everything's been put together, from creating moon, stars, sun, universe, stars, planets, the earth, everything on the earth, the earth, the distance from the sun, exactly right, the heat is just right tilted so that it turns and creates seasons. Now, isn't that a smart deal, tilting a globe in such a way that how do you figure weather out? I mean, really, you know weather on the planet is so complex. Just think of it All around the weather. Air is moving, clouds are moving, gathering moisture and moving and going from one place to another. Where the moisture gathers is not, maybe, where it rains. It goes over that country and it rains in that country, and God has said that he controls the weather and I believe that Firsthand knowledge of that.
Speaker 1:It may sound, you know, dinky and goofy to people, but I can tell you this we had a deal in probably 1923, 2023, where we had this huge pile of scrap lumber, bush trees, whatever. We were building a 451 home, subdivision, adult community and this was building up, and building up, and building up and it was getting to be, you know, middle of April, just about about 10th of April, 11th of April, and we said we got to do something. We've only got till the 15th to burn or the fire season is on About the. I think it was about the 11th. We tried and we had been watching the wind for at least two weeks and it would always be from the south, blowing in towards the homes, because this pile was right on the edge, the south edge of this project. So ideally we needed a north wind for three or four hours is all to burn this pile down, enough that we could look after it. 11th, they tried, we're going to light it and no, they couldn't do it because the wind was still from the south and we just couldn't do it. And I came out and I said, wait till tomorrow, we'll try it again tomorrow, on the 12th, and I didn't say anything to them. But I got in the car and I sat there for a while and I looked at the pile and I said Father, god, in Jesus name, I ask you, would you allow us four hours of a north wind so that we can burn this scrap pile? Thank you very much. That's it.
Speaker 1:The next morning I came out on the 12th of April at about 7.30 or 8.00 and they had already started to light the fire on the north side of the pile. There was no wind, it was just dead calm and I said, oh man, and I just stood there for a while and all of a sudden the fire started burning a little and the smoke went straight up and then all of a sudden it started to turn to smoke, started to head to the south and I stood there for a while outside the car and all of a sudden I could feel a nice little soft north wind and that went on until about 11, 11.15. I told them about 11 o'clock, around 11, I said we'd better kill it. Put the fire hoses on it now. It's burnt down enough. Kill it, it'll just smolder and carry on forever. So we did and about quarter after 11, 20 after 11, the wind turned back to the south. I said thank you very much. Now, in that ecosystem or whatever.
Speaker 1:South wind, continual south wind in April, been there for a couple of weeks, not a strong one, just a general wind, and I didn't really look up the weather records for that, but I should to see if it still showed south wind, because we had a north wind for four hours that day, right there. Now. How does that happen that? I said this. I'm repeating myself, but I said that I think that God likes to do smaller things that people ask for. Because it's out of their hands, they can't do it. God would have to do it and that's what happened. You can look up the weather records for Vernon BC on April, the 12th, 2024, 25, 23, I mean.
Speaker 1:anyway, I've got to get back to this business of I notice where I'm living. I just observe it. I don't say anything to anybody. I have told them. I've been writing some books, started when I was 90. What a deal. Anyway, the business. I'm in a dying factory, that's what it is. They come there to die and if I stay a little longer, that's what's going to happen to me.
Speaker 1:Now, how many people are prepared to die and are righteous with God? Now, what does that mean? As far as I can understand, that means that you are right with God. Now, why that important is that ? important Now, why is that important? Because if you're alright with God and you understand why you're here and why Jesus Christ died and was crucified, you know, and when you figure out and look into his crucifixion, it is so evil and so ugly and so torturous how in the world he managed to survive enough to even be put on a cross. And he had to do that to pay for sins that you and I can't keep.
Speaker 1:To round it out a little bit, what happened was was before there was anything, anything, there was nothing. There might have been some planets around or something. I don't know. God and the word agreed this is in his records. They agreed that he would be sacrificed for the sons that God was going to create, who he knew would not be able to keep his law. That's basically the law of the Ten Commandments, I guess, and being the penalty for breaking that law is death Period. You break the Ten Commandments, you die, you're destroyed or thrown in the lake of fire or whatever, I don't know exactly what happens, but you're destroyed. Now he couldn't destroy all his sons, because how did he end up with sons? He wanted a family, he wanted sons, and then he started. He had to create all the planets, the sun, moon, stars, whatever the whole universe practically there might have been some, the whole universe. Practically there might have been some, I don't know. They claim to be many, many years old and then to rebirth the Earth, and that's the only one we know of that has oxygen and water and things grow there and people can live there, and ice again, and it's tilted in such a way that you know you have spring and summer and fall and then you have the rest period of winter and it starts all over again.
Speaker 1:Now how soon do people, after they're born, get an idea of why am I here? Where did I come from? They may not say it in those words, but they'll think it. Something will happen around them or whatever, and they'll say well, why am I here, how did I get here? And I was 15 when that happened to me. I remember it just was an absolute moment in time when I just realized why was I here? I'm standing out in the yard, how did I get here? But anyway, that is the crux of everything. That is the crux of everything. And when I watch what's going on in the world.
Speaker 1:Now, like I remember growing up, when I was, you know, 12, 14, 16, 18 years old, maybe that people, everybody was fairly religious. Some were actually quite religious. They, you know, they think nothing of you know talking about God and whatever else, because they went to church every Sunday and they went during the week. You know, when I was young, there was I remember it was a deal at, what was it called? I remember it was a deal that. What was it called? Oh, hmm, you had to go. You went to church in the middle of the weekend.
Speaker 1:It was another group we had. It was called the Cheery Chums Club. Cheery Chums Club All kinds of young people belonged to that. They'd have parties. You know, when I said parties, it would be very, you know, skating parties, birthday party deals. You know we had some big slews around where I lived. You know they had some big sloughs around where I lived and one in particular. I remember, and I think it was in about, I don't know, january, sometime, I believe, or maybe it was December, I don't know, but anyway it froze. The ice had frozen on this slough and there was no snow on it. It was all frozen and you know, just glossy frozen. So we were going to have a skating party on there. Well, we did, we had skates, and then what we did is we had a skating party and a pult party, both at the same time.
Speaker 1:Pult was made in big pots and big fire, you know, and its big pots, and then made p from m potatoes flour,riced otatoes p , and a little salt and what else. Yeah, well, I don't know, we just rolled it together and mixed it up and I think we put a little milk in it, kind of, and some water, vinegar I remember a little vinegar, I think that was to make the oil. We put it sour. Milk, we made it with putting vinegar in milk and we put them in balls and put them in the water and then started cooking it and it would stay in the water.
Speaker 1:Then, when it started boiling and rolling, the potatoes just got, you know, rice potatoes and flour, and sometimes they had like a chunk of ham in the center, a piece of bacon in it or something, and then we had tons of butter, melted butter, or yeah, well, pretty well, melted stuff, and they were, you know, they were this big about big, and they're just floating around in this big tub. The tub was boiling, it was winter and it was cold and we had a fire going keeping the light so everybody could see good, and we were skating on this pond and going, you know, for about a quarter of a mile anyway, back and forth, and the ice was just perfect, you know, just to smooth the table and then you're out in the fresh air, like that. And then you, they had, I think, paper plates or something. I don't know where they got them, but pretty sure it was paper plates, and we sat down with that eating pork trisky, just oh, and I don't know it's an acquired taste, but it's a very. I think you can make things taste good with potato any old way, so long as it's potato.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that's a memory from that part. And you've got to remember there was no TV and no phones. We barely had a phone. And yeah, that was in the 40s, early 40s, and you know I thought things were fairly modern. You know, a car, what the heck. And yeah, that's how different times are, you know. And we'd walk during the dark, walk home and could see the light of our house three-quarters of a mile away, and walk home it was warm as toast in the house, get upstairs in the bedroom and I could lay in bed and look right out at the stars, because there was a little opening around the chimney. I could see right out. Yeah, and you don't want to realize now how big a change that is. Just a little bit every day and big change Goes from, you know, horse driven farming, whatever, which had been going on for a long time, and switches over to mechanical.
Speaker 1:And the first tractors were big, lugging, clumsy things, you know, and it didn't take long before they improved that. A big improvement was rubber tires and John Deere came out with a tractor that everybody wanted, that's for sure. They were two lungers. You know thump-a-thump-a-thump-a-thump-a-thump-a-thump-a-thump. You'd hear them out in the countryside all over, especially the John Deere D. You could hear that one. That was a pretty big tractor, two cylinder, but big, two big cylinders Running on diesel. That, you know, has changed a lot and it wasn't too long. I mean I don't know how many years we went on horses and bundle teams and thrashing machines, but that was for quite a while too. That was most likely for 25 years.
Speaker 1:then they started with combines. They were pretty rudimentary combines to start with, but they were combines and it didn't take long for them to develop from a horse pulled combine, had a motor on it and you pulled it, and to self-propelled combines, to fancier and fancier like year by year, by year. They just jumped up to be tech and these dealers had them lined up in their yard, self-fall and people go together and buy one for both farms or something like that. Not too many, but some did Because it was quite an expense to do that. Pig farming didn't change much, still hasn't. Well, it has, but different meaning. Now Chicken farming. Look how chicken farming has changed. From where we had a hen house, we'd sometimes get roosters in the spring and some chicks or hens, maybe 50-50. We'd get 100, get 50 roosters, 50 hens, and you know the roosters were for Sunday usually.
Speaker 1:I remember Dad trying to do capons, leghorn capons. Leghorn capons are capons that have been castrated. And he had these chicks, leghorn chicks, and he had this little table made with strings going through two holes and a weight on the string on the bottom and he would tie the string or slide the chick under there, put their legs through the back and put the string over them and hang the weight on them , and then he'd put it over under their wings, sort of in front. So their wing was up out of the road and he had to put a slit. I think it was in about the third rib of the chick. And then he had to put in spreaders. They spread the ribs apart because you could move them.
Speaker 1:Then you had to get in there with this long tweezer and pick out these little, two little kind of beans that were up right in his backbone, right under his backbone, and you had to pick, get a hold of it and pull it out of there, rip it out, put it on the table, reach in again, hit the other one oh, now there's blood vessels running all over me. The first, I think it was the first, four or five chicks, just blah. He pulled the blood vessel apart, busted a blood vessel and they just died and I threw him that chick, and the next one, the next one, finally he got it. He got it so he could see good enough and grab it without it killing, them did about 20. and I don't think we sewed them up or anything. We just put some water on the feathers and the ribs came together and they just healed up.
Speaker 1:It was pretty tough on a little chick, but anyway these capons grew up to be like oh I don't know at least a foot and a half high Size on them, about like that. They were like not the size of a turkey but a good half or three-quarters size you then cooked one of those up on Sunday you had a big bunch you had a big chicken dinner. Yeah, they got way bigger, way bigger and I don't know who found that out, but that's a fact. We didn't do that that long, though I don't know the novelty kind of wore off or something, but we had chickens pretty well all the time that I was home. We had a chicken house because we sold eggs. We had a chicken house.
Speaker 1:We sold eggs and cream and all that stuff all the time because that was a stable income. It was a small income, not big, but it was enough to buy coffee and, I guess, tobacco and I don't know what else. Spices I used to buy some meat too. We had to buy meat Not all the time. I had to buy other things fish oil, breakfast stuff, sonny Boy cereal, oatmeal, jam. So a lot of the time we'd go into the store in Hay Lakes, the grocery store. You know a pretty good sized grocery store. It was a general store. It had everything. It had clothes in it. It was not hardware, because there were too hardware stores in town. And anyway, in a lot of cases it got to be that they had to charge up things till fall and the store did just charging up. It's got to be a pretty big bill by the fall. So that's when they'd sell grain, or usually grain, to pay it off. And in the fall too, that's when they'd sell some steers or cattle or whatever Hogs were during the year, but Hogs were Six months or so.
Speaker 1:So yeah, this me trying to narrate something here is pretty hard, pretty hard because I can't control my coughing. So in the printed book it's not so bad. On a YouTube video Not very good, is it? Anyway, that's what I'm going to leave with today, and I think I've got to do another two or three of these to get enough time, the audio book I did for Audible is five hours long. That's too much. I want to maybe get a book that's two hours long, two and a half. I don't think people want any more than that.
Speaker 1:But anyway, we're here in a new year, it's already the fourth, tomorrow's the fifth and. But anyway, and in our case, we haven't had winter yet. like there's snow up in the mountains, ski hills and whatever, All kinds of snow right now, but not down here because we're too warm. We've rained and had rain showers, snow and rain and slush and whatever. That just melts and goes away. And you know, can you imagine how much shorter a winter we're going to have? You know this warm weather is still going to be here. You look at the forecast and for the next week or ten days, same thing, but it's going to come. I mean, it's definite. We've never had a winter yet, but we didn't have a cold snap, a real cold snap, for well, last year it was only two or three days Minus 25 degrees below zero for about three days In fact. That was over. That's not a bad winter.
Speaker 1:You know the thing is, I think we really need to take stock of ourselves. You know, there's not much sense living all this time with people having families and growing up, building houses and stuff to have it all mean absolutely nothing, nothing when an offer that God gives to the people of this planet the second highest existence in the universe next to him, to be a son of God and you notice, I say son because that's what he says to be a son of God. And you notice I say son because that's what he says. He said there's no marriage or anything in heaven. The days of the woman and whatever are over.
Speaker 1:And women say, well, will I not be able to go to heaven? I'm definitely sure you are, but you're not going to be a woman. I'm going to be different too. We're going to be resurrected as a different, young looking male of some kind. I think you keep some characteristics or something, because it seemed to me that people may. I think it keeps some characteristics or something because it seemed to me that people may I don't know recognize or know other people when they end up there. I don't know, that's stuff that's hard to nail down, but a woman will be a man, just the same as a man will be a man. There won't be any difference. They sons
Speaker 1:Nothing that wrong with that, you can't have battling sexes in the universe forever. Who would? Who would want that? I'm sure that God would not want that. No, and you know when you think about it, they would exist forever in a perfect body, no pain, ever, no sickness, no anything, and they would be self-sufficient bodies. You know, that's a miracle, that's a miracle business, and I really do well, it's no use to even try. God says it has never entered the mind of man what God has planned for him, so it's beyond our imagination. So, if people are honest and have any respect or anything for God and Jesus Christ, they would just say thank you very much. You know, I came with nothing, I'm leaving with nothing, and I've been given a great promise from somebody who keeps promises. Anyway, let's leave it there. That's what we should be aiming for. So, as usual, till I see you again. God bless you. Hope everything is well, thank you.
