Weekly Update: 9.13.25

I was working on exterior siding with Grace and our dad when we heard the news — Charlie Kirk was shot. With so many others in our country, we prayed while we waited for more news. Our work slowed. We talked. A few shed some tears. I wasn’t a major follower of Charlie, but I knew who he was. I’d heard him speak and always appreciated what he had to say. Bonnie-Jean, however, was very much a fan, as were other family members.

I try not to be political on this blog. Homesteading is a movement that can be appreciated by those on both the right and the left. It is something that can unite us, when so much else threatens to divide us. Still, I’m sure my readers can tell that I’m very conservative.

Regardless of which side of the isle your preferred elected officials sit on, we should all be shocked and appalled by Wednesday’s blatant attack on free speech. It’s yet another example of political violence, something that is becoming all too common in our country. And what is more — we should be disturbed by the countless online voices celebrating the atrocity.

It is a sobering reality. I never thought I’d see so many people in my country rejoicing at an assassination.

With so much evil in the world, it makes good actions, even seemingly small ones, all the more meaningful. As we grieved for the Kirks and for our country this week, we’ve tried to do good.

We’ve continued working hard on our siding. Every day, the bunkhouse looks more complete.

We’ve cared for our garden, which is officially winding down. Bonnie-Jean and Erin harvested most of the pumpkins, butternut squash, and honeynut squash we had left this week. Most of our plants are dying back. Aside from winter squash, production has slowed.

We’ve spent part of each day cleaning out the tent. We are sorting through items, donating what we don’t need and tossing what isn’t worth donating. When the tent is cleaned out, we plan to try to sell it.

Last weekend, we took a break from our projects to have some late summer fun. Jeremiah organized a family Survivor game, complete with challenges and a tribal council. Instead of competing for votes like on the TV show, we competed for raffle tickets where we could write our own (or another person’s) name down. At the end of the night, Jeremiah drew a name to win $200.

Jeremiah randomly divided the family into two teams. We sisters, a niece, and our mom made up the blue team. The rest of the family was on the red team. Jeremiah, dressed up as “Jeff,” played the host. We had one team challenge, which included running a relay race, untying knots, climbing through an obstacle course, throwing stars to pop balloons with keys inside, opening a chest, and solving a puzzle.

The red team was in the lead for most of the challenge, but the blue team pulled out a narrow win, which made our niece Eilley incredibly happy. Each member of our team earned one raffle ticket.

Next, we had a food challenge. This was an individual challenge, where everyone earned one raffle ticket per nasty food they ate. I opted to skip my tickets and enjoyed sampling the decoy reward foods with my other weak-stomached family members — potato chips, mac and cheese, and small scoops of ice cream. Those with stronger constitutions choked down everything from pickled pigs’ feet to snails to seasoned crickets.

We finished the evening with a sunset dinner in the woods, surrounded by tiki torches while we enjoyed a campfire. In a mock tribal council, we all wrote the names of our choice on our raffle tickets. In the end, Bonnie-Jean was chosen as this year’s survivor!

With all the somber thoughts later in the week, it’s almost jarring to think about last weekend. Processing the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and then remembering 9/11 the next day, I couldn’t help but reflect on the ways we, as Christians, can fight against the evil in the world. Living a moral life matters, even in our own small, local spaces, because it is an enactment of truth. Love — for other people and creation — matters, because loving hearts overflow into a hurting world in tangible ways. Giving thanks to God and living according to His design matters — not just for the salvation of our own souls, but for the life of the world. As I watched Erika Kirk’s address last night, I was inspired by her strength and bravery in the face of pure evil. Let us follow the example set by this godly couple and keep on fighting the good fight, in whatever ways we each know how.

Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

1 Timothy 6:12