A few years ago, I believe in 2011, I had a dream about Joel Osteen. In the dream, he was having a garage sale at his house.
Members from his church had brought things from their house that they were contributing to the garage sale. When I walked up, Joel asked if I'd like to see what he was selling.
He took me inside a studio in his garage and there to my shock was a life size self portrait that he had painted. What was so shocking to me was that in the portrait he was completely naked and covered in fur like a beast. Every body part that one would normally see when he wore a 3 piece suit was just normal skin. Everything that would have been covered by his suit was covered in fur, as in fur growing out of his skin.
I awoke from the dream and contemplated what I had seen. I came to the conclusion that Joel Osteen is selling an image of himself that he has created, but in reality he is serving his beast nature.
Monday, April 17, 2017
The call and move to North Idaho
After two years of wrestling with the Lord about selling my carpet cleaning business, I finally obeyed in July, 2010. A few weeks later in August I had a vision of a mass evacuation out of Austin, TX, all lanes going north on I-35 like a hurricane evacuation, yet no hurricanes ever go that far inland.
As I lived 50 miles north of Austin, I figured the Lord showed it to me to help the people, so I prayed for 3 weeks asking for direction as to how to help. At the end of three weeks the Lord showed me I was to move to Sandpoint, ID area. My first question was "Where is Idaho?!"
After giving me countless confirmations that it was His will, I determined in my heart to do it. As one of my daughters was a senior and sure to be the valedictorian of her class, I decided to wait until summer 2011 to move. After a few weeks I happened to think that surely the same God that was sending me also had a time He wanted me to move. After prayer, He told me I was to move in the winter. I argued with the Lord and said I couldn't do that to my daughter, but agreed to go ask.
Unbeknownst to me, while I was wrestling with the Lord over asking my daughter to go during the middle of her senior year, my daughter was having a struggle of her own. The Lord asked her "Is education your idol? Would you be willing to give it up for me?" When she finally said yes, I knocked on her bedroom door at that moment and told of our plans to move and asked if she would move in the middle of the school year. She said Yes!
My next struggle was giving up my teaching job in the prison I had worked at for two years. The Lord has opened up a ministry for me there, and I was allowed to talk to the prisoners about God as long as they initiated the conversations. For two years I had been asked every day and had seen tremendous results. When the Lord showed me I was to move in the winter, I asked "What about my job and ministry in the prison?" From that day forward it was as if someone had turned off the light switch. No one asked about God anymore.
After this, I felt a certainty in my spirit that I was going to lose my job in January and I was to go after I lost my job. There was no indication of this however. After wrestling with this for several weeks, I decided it was time to act in faith, so I started selling everything. My friends thought I was crazy, especially my church family. I was ridiculed, and called in for counseling over it. I was told that my wife had to hear from God or it wasn't of God, to which I replied it was not necessary for my wife to hear. After hearing this, my wife took it to the Lord in prayer and the Lord plainly spoke to her also and told her "Obey your own husband as unto the Lord. " When she shared this she was told "The Lord would have to tell me a lot more than that before I'd go."
As I lived 50 miles north of Austin, I figured the Lord showed it to me to help the people, so I prayed for 3 weeks asking for direction as to how to help. At the end of three weeks the Lord showed me I was to move to Sandpoint, ID area. My first question was "Where is Idaho?!"
After giving me countless confirmations that it was His will, I determined in my heart to do it. As one of my daughters was a senior and sure to be the valedictorian of her class, I decided to wait until summer 2011 to move. After a few weeks I happened to think that surely the same God that was sending me also had a time He wanted me to move. After prayer, He told me I was to move in the winter. I argued with the Lord and said I couldn't do that to my daughter, but agreed to go ask.
Unbeknownst to me, while I was wrestling with the Lord over asking my daughter to go during the middle of her senior year, my daughter was having a struggle of her own. The Lord asked her "Is education your idol? Would you be willing to give it up for me?" When she finally said yes, I knocked on her bedroom door at that moment and told of our plans to move and asked if she would move in the middle of the school year. She said Yes!
My next struggle was giving up my teaching job in the prison I had worked at for two years. The Lord has opened up a ministry for me there, and I was allowed to talk to the prisoners about God as long as they initiated the conversations. For two years I had been asked every day and had seen tremendous results. When the Lord showed me I was to move in the winter, I asked "What about my job and ministry in the prison?" From that day forward it was as if someone had turned off the light switch. No one asked about God anymore.
After this, I felt a certainty in my spirit that I was going to lose my job in January and I was to go after I lost my job. There was no indication of this however. After wrestling with this for several weeks, I decided it was time to act in faith, so I started selling everything. My friends thought I was crazy, especially my church family. I was ridiculed, and called in for counseling over it. I was told that my wife had to hear from God or it wasn't of God, to which I replied it was not necessary for my wife to hear. After hearing this, my wife took it to the Lord in prayer and the Lord plainly spoke to her also and told her "Obey your own husband as unto the Lord. " When she shared this she was told "The Lord would have to tell me a lot more than that before I'd go."
After this I was taken aside by leadership and berated for not being very wise with what I was doing and was told I would have to go through blizzards during the move and my family would die and it would be my fault. This struck fear in my heart and I could hardly pray for three days. On the third day I had a vision and saw one half of an interstate with a particular color of granite in the paving and snow was 4" off the white line on either side with no snow on the road. The Lord plainly spoke to me and said "You will not drive on any snow while going North."
I felt so much peace! All the anxiety was gone and now I felt no fear. I had heard how unpredictable it was in the winter going through Wyoming (the shortest route) but in my new found confidence I asked "Lord, do you want me to go through Wyoming?" Instead, I felt a strong guiding of the spirit to go the southern route through El Paso, TX, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, all the way to Ogden, Utah north of Salt Lake City. Though I prayed often, the spirit would not show me where to go from Ogden, so I looked on the map and determined to follow I-15 north from Ogden all the way to I-90 in Montana, then go West to Couer d'Alene, then north to Sandpoint and east from there to Priest River.
All this time there was no indication that I would lose my job. I was recommended for employee of the month and we were being told it was the most secure job in the state of Texas as there had never been a layoff. I felt very much alone standing against all odds and against the disapproval I felt from my church family. Most I knew were unanimous in saying I was wrong, I hadn't heard anything from God, that none of this would come to pass, and if I did manage to move I'd be back within a year with my tail tucked between my legs.
Right before Christmas I was called to the warden's office and told that I along with 50 other people were being laid off effective January 15th, and that all the alternative positions I could have worked in were being eliminated as well. I was so relieved I could have shouted with joy "I'm NOT crazy!"
On February 2, 2011, my family and I left out of Austin in the midst of the weather event the newscasters were calling "Snowmeggedon". El Paso had been hit hard with snow and the interstate was closed with more on the way. The news was saying that with no snow plow equipment, it might be five days before it was opened back up. In spite of that, we left out headed for El Paso as I knew that was the route the Lord had showed me.
Halfway to El Paso, I drove on the exact road I had seen in the vision which gave us great comfort. We spent the night in Ozona, Tx. When we got up the next morning, Austin had got 3" of snow behind us and was closed, and the interstate was still closed at El Paso with more snow on the way. We were not driving on any snow though!
When we got to El Paso, the interstate was open with the snow back to the white line. After we went through a storm hit behind us and it closed again. I checked the uhaul trucks fuel mileage at each fill up, and the miles per gallon dropped steadily from 10 mpg in Texas to 5 mpg in Arizona to 1 mpg in Southern Utah and for the remainder of the trip. I felt a pressing in the spirit to not worry about it, just keep driving.
As we went through Utah we had heavy snow storms ahead of us and behind us and the interstate was closed at Ogden. However, just like the Lord said, we did not drive on any snow. I continued to pray about the route the Lord wanted me to take when I reached Ogden, but I heard nothing.
When we arrived at Ogden the road was open and we checked into a hotel for the night. I drove to a nearby truck stop and asked the truckers advice as to which way was best to go to get to North Idaho. They all unanimously said to take the route I had reasoned would be best, straight north to I-90 in Montana. That night the interstate was closed north of us. Still, the Lord had said nothing.
The next morning I told my wife that since the Lord had said nothing we would go straight north, but to follow close behind me in case the Lord told me to go a different route. We left out and the road was completely clear. A few hours later heavy snows closed it behind us. We came to a fork in the road, left was towards Boise and straight north was continuing on I-15 to Montana. A 100 yards before the fork, the spirit urged me to go left.
Two hours later someone called and asked if we were caught in the blizzard on I-15 north of the fork, the news had shown cars trapped in the storm. Thank God he had told me to turn! I didn't know where I was headed now as I hadn't looked at a map, so the person told me to turn at Boise on highway 95 and come up that way, which I agreed to do.
When I got to highway 95, the Lord said go straight, do not turn. After I had crossed into Oregon, another phone call came. "Are you trapped in the blizzard on Highway 95? You ought to be right in the middle of it!" When I told them no, I was in Oregon they asked "Oregon? How are you going to get there from Oregon?" I had no idea.
We came over a pass into Baker City and the spirit told me to stop there for the night, though I was wanting to press on. When we checked into the motel, the lady asked if we were turned around by the police because of the next pass being closed. The Lord had done it again!
The next morning I went to the front desk and asked if the pass was open yet. The lady replied that it was closed. I started walking away, wondering what I would do now until I heard the lady say "Yes, no one is going to Boise today!" My heart leaped! That was the pass I had come over the night before! When I inquired about the pass I had to go over, she replied it was clear.
We drove the rest of the day and arrived in Priest River without incident and without ever having gone through a storm or driven on snow! We also arrived with only $1200 in our pockets, no house, no familiar faces, and no potential job, and no income.
To make sure I didn't take credit for anything, the Lord had caused the uhaul truck to gobble up most of our start up money. To this day I can't tell you how many thousands I spent in fuel, I didn't want to know the figure! Also to make us rely on him, my unemployment was denied though it should have been a cut and dry case with me being laid off.
After two days, the Lord led us to a house to rent (a story in itself) and a month later unemployment reversed its decision and sent me my first check. We never missed a meal or wanted for anything to this day.
Praise God for his faithfulness!
Friday, March 25, 2016
Building a Internet Bridge Updated 9/12/17
We are working on building a bridge. Not the kind that goes over water, but one that goes through the air. I am going to attempt to build a wireless internet bridge and bring in wireless internet from a mountain a few miles away that is not in our line of site.
Our internet service has been limited to cell phone or satellite due to living in the country. I don't hear anyone having anything good to say about satellite, and cell phone is very expensive. My cell phone data package from Verizon cost $130 per month.
Our neighbor 600 feet away has line of site to a wireless internet provider and has agreed to let us put a dish on his property with a relay to bring it to our property. I have tried to get around this, but it looks to be the only option.
The plan calls for installing a pole on our road right of way with a internet provider provided dish to bring in the wireless signal line of sight from the microwave tower. We will then connect that to a Ubiquiti Loco M5 antenna that is aimed towards our house at the bottom of the hill. This setup will be powered by a 12 volt battery with a solar panel and pwm controller to charge the battery and a Drok microelectric dc/dc converter with a LED screen which will step up the voltage from the 12V to 24V to power both of the antennas.
On the house end, there will be a matching Ubiquiti loco M5 antenna powered by another Drok dc/dc converter running off of my house batteries. That will go to a wireless router inside the house to bring in the internet. I haven't determined which router I will go with yet.
Here are links to what I'm planning to use: <iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=happyhigdons-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=B00HG1CTDW&asins=B00HG1CTDW&linkId=WW5LPJW5CF2FBHYG&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true">
</iframe>
<iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=happyhigdons-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=B00BYTEHQO&asins=B00BYTEHQO&linkId=7SXOCKMCXTXILHHI&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true">
</iframe>
Update: It has been in and operational now for over a year and it works! I first used two 6 volt L16 batteries wired together in series to give me 12 volts. The batteries were two batteries I removed from the house's solar system after they each lost a cell. Fully charged they only put out 10.5 volts. I could have recycled them and got $16 each (which I eventually did), but I figured I'd get my money's worth first. For 18 months they chugged along powering the remote site. At first they would give me 3 days of internet, in the end they would give a day.
The drok voltage converter works down to 5V and will convert up to 30V I believe. I think the antenna's are 20V if I remember right. It shut off when the batteries reached 5V, then I recharged with a generator and battery charger.
This past December I installed a forklift battery for the house, so I took two 6V golf cart batteries and swapped them for the L16's. The batteries are connected to a Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) solar charge controller that also has a load disconnect. When the batteries discharge to a certain level it turns off the load (the antennas). This setup gives us 5 days of internet in between charges.
I still don't have the solar panels connected, though I do have them. I bought a pair of old panels from Mike Oehler's estate after he passed away. (I wrote about visiting his underground houses in another blog post.)
The install went pretty much as I had planned. Due to my head injury I couldn't do programming of the antenna's, so I paid the local internet provider to do that for me.
So how has it worked? Well, mixed reviews. When it works, it works well. Sometimes weather conditions affect it's performance, but MOST of the time it works well as long as it is charged. When I install the solar panels that should take care of the main cause of internet outages which is the batteries running down. Also, the site is shaded a good portion of the day, so it may take a larger solar array than what I have for it.
The system draws 1 amp per hour on the remote site, as does the one on the house end. The drok converter is just big enough to power the two antennas and is actually more efficient than the Power Over Ethernet (POE) injector that is 110V on the house end. (I ended up using the one that came with the antenna for the house since the house already has a 110V inverter powering the house.) If I later upgrade to a inverter that has a sleep mode on it, I will switch out the POE with a drok so that the load doesn't cause the inverter to "wake up" when that is the only load drawn on the system.
I've found that the system doesn't like to be turned on and off very often. That has caused a lot of grief. At first to conserve power I switched it off whenever it wasn't in use, but the hassle trying to get it rebooted and going again was too much. In theory it shouldn't matter, but this is one case the theory didn't match reality.
I think the system was installed July 2015, but don't quote me on any of the dates or timeframes I've written here. Due to my memory problems it is too foggy!
Update 9/12/17:
It has now been over two years since the system was installed and it has been chugging away day in, day out. Our intermittent internet problems were traced down to bad internet cables. They were replaced by the internet provider twice, both times free of charge. Now it works reliably.
This past weekend I mounted solar panels 70' away from the relay where the panels could be in the sun. I welded up a tilting framework that has three settings: Winter, Spring/Fall, Summer. It is a simple matter to pull quick release pins and change it. I used scrap steel from my job, they formerly were part of a crate for a $750,000 Pratt & Whitney turbine aircraft engine. Now they hold two 33 watt solar panels that were built in 1979 that I picked up from Mike Oehler's estate for $30. (Thank you Alex for selling them to me, they are being put to good use!) They put out 5.5 amps 12V DC in direct sun.
For running the 12Vs to the relay, I am using 1 1/4" electrical conduit that has a 10 gauge extension cord inside of it along with a 3/16" galvanized cable. The extension cord has 3 10 gauge wires in it, so I figure if I need to run more power I'll use the galvanized cable as an additional negative ground. The choice of all the components was based mostly on price! Everything was pretty much free, salvaged either from work or cleaning up a couple of places for people and getting the materials free. I did have to buy the couplings at .79 each.
I also installed a voltmeter so I can check on the state of charge without toting my multimeter or hygrometer up there every time I want to see how it is doing. Everything also got a coat of green rust-oleum paint to protect it from the weather and help it blend in a little better. The paint was mismatched at the local hardware store so I paid $5 for a gallon.
Here is a picture of the solar panel mount. It has a hinge welded in at the front and quick detach pins on the back so the angle can be changed in under 2 minutes.
Here is the battery box with the solar battery charger and the controls for the antennas. The dish antenna is the once that receives and the flat antenna mounted to the t-post on the right is the one that broadcast down the hill to my house.
Jeff
Our internet service has been limited to cell phone or satellite due to living in the country. I don't hear anyone having anything good to say about satellite, and cell phone is very expensive. My cell phone data package from Verizon cost $130 per month.
Our neighbor 600 feet away has line of site to a wireless internet provider and has agreed to let us put a dish on his property with a relay to bring it to our property. I have tried to get around this, but it looks to be the only option.
The plan calls for installing a pole on our road right of way with a internet provider provided dish to bring in the wireless signal line of sight from the microwave tower. We will then connect that to a Ubiquiti Loco M5 antenna that is aimed towards our house at the bottom of the hill. This setup will be powered by a 12 volt battery with a solar panel and pwm controller to charge the battery and a Drok microelectric dc/dc converter with a LED screen which will step up the voltage from the 12V to 24V to power both of the antennas.
On the house end, there will be a matching Ubiquiti loco M5 antenna powered by another Drok dc/dc converter running off of my house batteries. That will go to a wireless router inside the house to bring in the internet. I haven't determined which router I will go with yet.
Here are links to what I'm planning to use: <iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=happyhigdons-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=B00HG1CTDW&asins=B00HG1CTDW&linkId=WW5LPJW5CF2FBHYG&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true">
</iframe>
<iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=happyhigdons-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=B00BYTEHQO&asins=B00BYTEHQO&linkId=7SXOCKMCXTXILHHI&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true">
</iframe>
Update: It has been in and operational now for over a year and it works! I first used two 6 volt L16 batteries wired together in series to give me 12 volts. The batteries were two batteries I removed from the house's solar system after they each lost a cell. Fully charged they only put out 10.5 volts. I could have recycled them and got $16 each (which I eventually did), but I figured I'd get my money's worth first. For 18 months they chugged along powering the remote site. At first they would give me 3 days of internet, in the end they would give a day.
The drok voltage converter works down to 5V and will convert up to 30V I believe. I think the antenna's are 20V if I remember right. It shut off when the batteries reached 5V, then I recharged with a generator and battery charger.
This past December I installed a forklift battery for the house, so I took two 6V golf cart batteries and swapped them for the L16's. The batteries are connected to a Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) solar charge controller that also has a load disconnect. When the batteries discharge to a certain level it turns off the load (the antennas). This setup gives us 5 days of internet in between charges.
I still don't have the solar panels connected, though I do have them. I bought a pair of old panels from Mike Oehler's estate after he passed away. (I wrote about visiting his underground houses in another blog post.)
The install went pretty much as I had planned. Due to my head injury I couldn't do programming of the antenna's, so I paid the local internet provider to do that for me.
So how has it worked? Well, mixed reviews. When it works, it works well. Sometimes weather conditions affect it's performance, but MOST of the time it works well as long as it is charged. When I install the solar panels that should take care of the main cause of internet outages which is the batteries running down. Also, the site is shaded a good portion of the day, so it may take a larger solar array than what I have for it.
The system draws 1 amp per hour on the remote site, as does the one on the house end. The drok converter is just big enough to power the two antennas and is actually more efficient than the Power Over Ethernet (POE) injector that is 110V on the house end. (I ended up using the one that came with the antenna for the house since the house already has a 110V inverter powering the house.) If I later upgrade to a inverter that has a sleep mode on it, I will switch out the POE with a drok so that the load doesn't cause the inverter to "wake up" when that is the only load drawn on the system.
I've found that the system doesn't like to be turned on and off very often. That has caused a lot of grief. At first to conserve power I switched it off whenever it wasn't in use, but the hassle trying to get it rebooted and going again was too much. In theory it shouldn't matter, but this is one case the theory didn't match reality.
I think the system was installed July 2015, but don't quote me on any of the dates or timeframes I've written here. Due to my memory problems it is too foggy!
Update 9/12/17:
It has now been over two years since the system was installed and it has been chugging away day in, day out. Our intermittent internet problems were traced down to bad internet cables. They were replaced by the internet provider twice, both times free of charge. Now it works reliably.
This past weekend I mounted solar panels 70' away from the relay where the panels could be in the sun. I welded up a tilting framework that has three settings: Winter, Spring/Fall, Summer. It is a simple matter to pull quick release pins and change it. I used scrap steel from my job, they formerly were part of a crate for a $750,000 Pratt & Whitney turbine aircraft engine. Now they hold two 33 watt solar panels that were built in 1979 that I picked up from Mike Oehler's estate for $30. (Thank you Alex for selling them to me, they are being put to good use!) They put out 5.5 amps 12V DC in direct sun.
For running the 12Vs to the relay, I am using 1 1/4" electrical conduit that has a 10 gauge extension cord inside of it along with a 3/16" galvanized cable. The extension cord has 3 10 gauge wires in it, so I figure if I need to run more power I'll use the galvanized cable as an additional negative ground. The choice of all the components was based mostly on price! Everything was pretty much free, salvaged either from work or cleaning up a couple of places for people and getting the materials free. I did have to buy the couplings at .79 each.
I also installed a voltmeter so I can check on the state of charge without toting my multimeter or hygrometer up there every time I want to see how it is doing. Everything also got a coat of green rust-oleum paint to protect it from the weather and help it blend in a little better. The paint was mismatched at the local hardware store so I paid $5 for a gallon.
Jeff
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Mike Oehler and the $50 and Up Underground House
In this post I will discuss my visit with the totally unique Mike Oehler (pronounced Aye Lur) and getting a tour of his original $50 and Up Underground House as well as his Ridge House, and even an underground dog house in beautiful North Idaho.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
The Accident
There are many events that happen in the course of ones life, some more significant than others. The most significant thing that ever happened to me was my back being healed. That totally changed my life and my outlook on the future.
On December 26, 2014 I had an accident that caused a brain injury and did the same thing, and this post is about what led up to it and what has transpired since.
On December 26, 2014 I had an accident that caused a brain injury and did the same thing, and this post is about what led up to it and what has transpired since.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Finishing the well
In the last post I talked about hitting water and putting in the well shaft. In this post I will tell how everything came together to actually have water pumping out of the well.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Digging a well
Here is a chronicle of the trials and tribulations of what it took to get a functioning well on our property.
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