Curt Gesch

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Trump won

Jan 20, 2025 | christiancourier.ca | Curt Gesch

The clear winner of this year’s U.S. presidential election is Donald Trump. And who elected him? People who too often resemble me. As a dual U.S./Canadian citizen I take a keen interest in politics south of the border. I am qualified to vote in Wisconsin (and I do). I love watching TV about Donald Trump. I find Stephen Colbert delightful in his skewering of Trump’s foibles as a candidate and human being.
Three Mary hymns

Dec 16, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | Curt Gesch

When we were children, our father used to make fun of the Roman Catholic folks’ veneration of Mary. I guess it was considered acceptable to make snarky comments because Dad considered veneration of Mary to be idolatry. I think quite differently about Mary now.
Higher ground

Nov 8, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | Curt Gesch

We live in a swamp. It’s not a swamp anymore, but it used to be an ancient shallow swamp or lakebed. The settlers of 1921 chose the only open, treeless ground for a homesite. But building wasn’t easy, especially when it came time for drainage. The original house sat on timbers. Later it was raised and a concrete “ring” now supports the original part of the house. At some point, they decided to add an extension and basement to part of the house but hit water-logged soil about six feet down. Solution?
Praise God for the harvest and for people who fix things

Oct 14, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | Curt Gesch

Last April, I spent about an hour trying to get a piece of machinery disconnected from my tractor. When I finally figured things out, I realized that – while I have words as my “trade” in a certain way – visual learning and mechanics are not my trade. I’m sure that my friends Bill, John, Geoff, Steffen, Justin, Mark and many others could have solved the problem in about five minutes.
Gathering farmers around soil

Sep 30, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | Curt Gesch

When we heard that Dieter Geesing and Ahmed Lasisi, soil scientists working for the British Columbia Department of Agriculture, would be available to conduct a “Soils 101”-type course in our region, we volunteered our farm in Quick, B.C., as the location. The Ministry of Agriculture takes care of refreshments, a porta-potty, and so on, but the host farmer – that’s us, Eskerhazy Farm – needs to prepare soil pits so that soil profiles can be examined.
The big old soft maple tree

Sep 20, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | Curt Gesch

About a mile from my childhood home flowed the Onion River, the water turgid with clay, cow manure and urine. Occasional sections were wooded but much of the wetland near to the river was used as heifer pasture. Abused would be a better word. Over the years much of the trampled riparian zone had been “left to nature” and was covered with willow and marsh grasses. The only home for most wildlife was the area under and around a solitary, remaining oak, elm or maple tree.
What happened to huppeling?

Aug 26, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | Curt Gesch

Is there a Biblical or theological ‘view’ of play? I think not. Examples come to mind: God’s creation of the platypus, for example, or the kangaroo, or the echidna (God seemed to fool around with Australia an awful lot). The Bible does speak about creation and recreation (as in re-creation). This is tied to the nature of Sabbath.
Songs in the supermarket

Aug 2, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | Curt Gesch

Curt was happy to hear that Jakob and Meghan have continued the family tradition of singing while shopping. Liam’s favourite song to belt out these days is “Days of Elijah.” At the end of one daycare day, Meghan opened the van door to hear Liam proclaiming “Behold he comes…” over the 15 other kids playing in the mud. Years ago, I remember shopping at Safeway with three of our children and humming, then whistling, and sometimes singing. The children were aghast and suitably embarrassed.
Imagine a chestnut forest . . .

Jul 1, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | Curt Gesch

Imagine a tree species whose range covered roughly 300,000 square miles from southern Ontario to Alabama, from Maine to Georgia, from Wisconsin to Arkansas. Now imagine that this tree species produced superb, straight-grained wood that was extremely resistant to decay. This tree was used to build houses, make split-rail fences, furniture, shingles, paper and telephone poles. A tree whose nuts were edible (roasted on an open fire) and were used to fatten hogs.
Vignettes of the land: to clear or not to clear

Apr 22, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | Curt Gesch

I asked a Christian Reformed church member about the size of his former dairy farm, what the land was like – if there was any forest on it?