AdAgrA Conference 2025: Growing Better

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Special Interests

Skip Dodson

Dirt to Doorknobs: Understanding Building Design & Sequence

So I think what I'm going to do, since it is just about time to begin, I want to first of all have prayer, and then number 2, I'm going to put out there a little icebreaker type question that you can maybe interact with each other on for a minute or 2, because I've, and I will, I'm interested to hear some of the responses as well to this question, because I'm interested to know what the level of your understanding is on the topic that we're going to be talking about today and tomorrow.

So why don't we have a word of prayer and then we'll get right into it.

Father in heaven, we're grateful for the opportunity that you have given us to be together and learn together and we ask that your purpose and will be done in this theory aspect of the class, as well as the more practical parts that will come this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon.

Father, may your purpose and will be carried out in all that we undertake.

And help us, Lord, to glorify you with our thoughts and with the use of our hands.

All right, for those of you who are lost, This is the residential construction class.

I want to ask you just my name is Skip Dodson.

By the way, I am a general contractor in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

My son will be joining us for the practical portions.

He's a journeyman electrician in Pagosa Springs.

My wife and I have run this construction business for about 5 years now.

Before that, I've worked in on and off in professionally in the trades, as well as doing other ministry related work.

But so the welcome brother, but what I want to ask you all is turn to your neighbor or, you know, you can interact with me too.

Just take a minute and share or ask your neighbor, what is your level of expertise and what is your interest in being in this class today?

And we still trying to instruct the person that was doing the work, through it, skipped and took material money.

And since we're doing the job, I decided I'm gonna learn.

So I've been doing some of the work that the tools turn up little by little through YouTube, asking questions, and trying to learn how to do.

So I'm here so I can get as much as I can in learning, and get more confidence, and go home and know, OK, I can do this.

Well, I'm sorry that this criminal took your money and.

Okay, well, I'm sorry for that, but welcome to the class.

For me, it's just I want to know how to do things because money gets tighter.

I just want to understand how things are going to just get more into the real world.

I've been behind a computer for a long time.

I would like to be the general contractor for my next house.

All right, well has everybody gotten acquainted?

So I think there's a range of motivations for being here.

Yeah, Carol's telling me, her, their family was building a home.

The contractor took materials and walked and ripped them off.

You're not the first person I've ever run into that that's happened to.

And, you know, another brother told me that he's looking to get more proficient in this area because costs are going up.

And if you want to have a reasonable home, the advantage you are at an advantage if you can do a lot of the work yourself.

In fact, we'll talk about that in the next hour, actually, when we talk about budgeting.

Well, let me let's start off, I want to, I actually prepared 3 presentations, and we have 2 hours.

So what I'm going to do is kind of move quickly through this first 1.

Okay, so I don't know if any of you are at that stage where you're in needing to think about design, but you're maybe thinking about a new project, you want to move to the country or you're relocating, that happens with people all the time.

And design is a very important consideration.

If you just turn this thing over to an architect, Your architect is going to draw things that they that they were trained to do.

But You need to have some things in your mind too so that you can guide that process.

Otherwise, you're gonna end up with what the architect likes.

So I'm gonna start off here showing you some ways in which the design process can really go haywire.

Would you guys want to live in this house, for instance?

You can look up on the internet and you can find all kinds of head scratching photos like this.

How do you think that happened, Matthias?

I guarantee you no electrical inspector ever okayed that.

Elizabeth Harrison

All Your Sourdough “Need to Knows”

I'm sure that those who've tried their hand at it has had some what I like to call epic bread fails.

But it's kind of like an art, and it's a science, which is kind of the cool part of it.

But once you kind of get the hang of it, it kind of starts making sense.

And then it kind of is like riding a bicycle.

So let's go into why I love sourdough, or why I think we all should love sourdough.

So I think that it's the coolest process from start to finish or from starter to finish and the whole process Makes my heart sing and I could just ah it's just so great You get really great bread at the end of it, which is a win-win so how I originally got into sourdough Was I for the health benefits?

I always thought it was kind of cool that people had their own starter cultures and they were able to whip up bread whenever they wanted.

Then people would talk about, oh, it breaks down some of the gluten and whatnot.

I was like, oh, this is really interesting.

And they were independent from the powdered or the instant yeast that's in the store.

But Louise was kind of hesitant to kind of jumping into the sourdough world a little bit.

And it wasn't until I started listening to Barbara O'Neill.

I don't know if anyone has heard of Barbara O'Neill.

And I was like, So she kind of gave me that last little push that I needed to kind of really go forward with it.

And then when she was talking about the ancient grains, then she kind of got me into that.

So anyway, it's kind of like a snowball effect.

But that's kind of what started my sourdough journey.

And then it's just been kind of cool learning more about it ever since.

And anyway, So I am curious, hopefully maybe by the end of our Q&A later, you know, how you got into your sourdough.

But whatever your why is for getting into sourdough, I think that the benefits will speak for themselves.

And what's also neat is that these starters, this is not a new thing.

Yes, it became all the rage during the pandemic when we couldn't get access to instant yeast as much, but this is not a new concept.

It's actually the oldest form of leavening bread known to date.

So we will go into a little bit of the history and a little bit of the science.

We won't go too deep, but I do find this stuff kind of cool.

So I hope that you'll find it interesting too.

Hopefully we'll get slides so that way you can see what I see on the screen.

So sourdough is not so much a flavor, it is more of a leavening of bread.

Of course that does depend on how we care for our starter, which we will cover a lot of that today.

We have a lot to cover in a short amount of time, so if there's something I don't cover in this class that, or you would like more information about, I do have a sign-up sheet right here that you can put your email, your name, and whatever topic you would like more information about.

And when I get home from the conference, even if it's after the conference and you have questions when you're going through your own sourdough journey, feel free to reach out and I would be happy to send you any information or help you along the way.

Consider me your sourdough hotline, someone that will walk through the process with you as if you're in the kitchen and you're struggling.

I don't want you to feel like this is unattainable.

I want you to be confident after this, thinking, okay, I'm equipped and I can now go forward.

And I also have a handout that you can take home too about the most common problems that you might face in the corrections.

So this will kind of give you a really good foundation of, okay, kind of like a map to kind of go and help guide you along the way.

You may have seen grocery stores carry sourdough.

We'll kind of go over about what to look for later on.

But much of it does have a lot of ingredients.

And if it's real sourdough, it should only have a few ingredients.

You won't find hydrinated oils or corn syrup or preservatives lurking in your homemade sourdough like you would find usually in the store because big box stores aren't going to go through the long process.

You know, time is money for them so they're going to emulate it but it's kind of false advertising and then you don't end up actually with what you thought you were going to get with the same benefits.

So let's dive in briefly into the history.

If you want more information about it, You can look at amazingbible.timeline.com, biblearcheology.org, thebiblicalnutritionist.com, theperfectloafandfindingshea.

That is my resources that you would see otherwise.

But what that is going to show, when you look into that, is more of the ancient origins of how sourdough was.

It actually has even biblical time origins.

The ancient Israelites would have some kind of starter culture, maybe not what we call it today, called a siur, and that's how they would leaven bread, which is essentially a sourdough starter.

And it was very popular in Egypt and has spread wild ever since.

So those, if you want more information, you want to dive more deep into the origins of that and that really piques your interest, feel free to go look at those websites because there's a lot there, but I'm trying not to go too deep into that.

Amazingbibletimeline.com, biblicalarcheology.org, thebiblicalnutritionist.com, theperfectloaf.com, and finding, Shay, I will spell that, it's Finding and then Chaya.com, I don't know if I butchered that, But when then, so that was way back then.

But then, during World War II, this is when it kind of, the more the modernists start taking up and getting momentum, Fleischmann's company developed a granulated dry yeast in 1943 for the United States Armed Forces.

Then, fast forward, 1973, Le Saufre created instant yeast, which has picked up momentum incredibly even to this day, also known as quick rise or fast-acting yeast, which has received considerable use in market share at the expense of both sourdough starters and the original active dry yeast.

The reason why I mention these dates is because something that prevented me from kind of jumping into the sourdough world so quickly was I was concerned with what does Ellen White say about sourdough bread.

That's always been something I struggled with even after I got into sourdough.

And last year's conference, the gentleman who had the sourdough class, he went really deep into what Ellen White said in the time, in the context, in her writings.

And it helped me with a little bit of the things I was wrestling with.

And I won't be going into as deep because I want to get into more of the starter aspect and there's only so much time in 1 hour.

But I will share a couple of her quotes with you and I do encourage you to go home and continue to research and kind of see this for yourself.

The evidence that I am persuaded to see up until this point is that it seems with the dates and the times, she wasn't really talking about sour dough bread, she never actually uses the word sour dough in her writings, at least that's not what I can find thus far.

She always talks about sour, heavy bread, which would seem to me would be the result of when the starter or the dough process is not being properly done.

Because I can tell you that the first few loaves, they were sour, heavy bread.

And they went to the chickens because they were awful.

But they would definitely not be Ellen White approved.

But then once you kind of get used to the process and you're doing it correctly, then it will be light and airy and sweet.

It really shouldn't if it's done correctly.

But the 2 quotes I will share with you today from her is Manuscripts 34, 1899.

So that's before, way before we were talking about 1943 and 1973 about when those popular yeasts...

Oh, so Manuscripts 34, 1899 is when she wrote this.

This is the Councils of Diets and Health, 315.3.

So if you want to know exactly where, that's where.

Religion will lead mothers to make bread of the very best quality.

Bread should be thoroughly baked inside and out.

The health of the stomach depends that it be light and dry.

Bread is the real staff of life and therefore every cook should excel in making it." Then she continues on, same book, Just the next paragraph over.

Not the least taint of sourness should be tolerated.

It seems to me with the timelines of the dates in history, when the modern yeast became very popular, that it shows to me that it's more of what happens with the sourness that she's talking about is what happens when the culture or the dough is not being properly cared for and then you end up with that.

When the process is followed correctly, however, it will be light and sweet and it really shouldn't have any kind of tanginess even at most.

First, I want to tell you why I love it so much and why I love my starter so much.

John Dysinger

The Sabbatical – Binding Burden or Bountiful Blessing?

So I will just tell you this is the class I was most excited about when they asked me to do it.

So hopefully I can pass some of that excitement on.

My excitement tends to be rather controlled, but inside I'm really excited.

Dear Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to be here.

And Lord, you know, I don't have all the answers.

If I say anything that's wrong, I pray that you would prompt my mind and that could be corrected.

But Lord, we wanna follow you more fully.

We wanna learn to obey your statutes and your commandments.

And so we pray that you will guide us in this class.

First thing we want to look at is how do we relate to the 613 laws of the Old Testament?

Now the 613, I put a question mark there.

Some distinguished rabbi decided that's how many laws there were.

So just to try to, I'm not a theologian, I'm just a farmer.

So just to try to set a groundwork here, I think we would all be in agreement that the 10 Commandments, which were written in stone by the hand of God, are still binding.

I think we'd have general consensus with that.

I think we can also have general consensus that the ceremonial laws, those things pointing to Jesus as the Lamb of God, are not binding.

Okay, but there's a whole lot of other laws, right, which some people call them the civil laws or the judicial laws that was for the smooth running of the theocracy.

You remember, this was a theocratic government.

There's all kinds, There's the hygiene laws, you've read all those.

This was millions of people in the desert without proper sewer systems, right?

You have to be careful or you're gonna get into trouble.

And so God was very careful with all those kinds of things and telling them how to stay hygienic.

There's the moral laws, many of them expanding on the Seventh Commandment.

You're not supposed to do it with this 1 and that 1 and the other, right?

There's economic laws to guard against the extremes of wealth and poverty.

I like those because to me, is that an issue today?

You have the wealth of the world getting into fewer and fewer hands, and poverty increasing.

Now, important to note, it was always God's plan that there would be poor.

And there would be those that have money, cuz that, I mean, that's just as Jesus talked about that, so we won't get into it.

My suggestion, and well, we'll start with this quote from Google AI.

I thought it was a bit of an understatement.

The role of the law of God in the Christian life is a topic of ongoing debate.

So that's what Google has to say, and I would say that's probably very true.

So we're not going to wade too deep into the woods on this, in the weeds, I guess I should say.

But I don't know if you can see that very well.

We need to prayerfully look at the principles behind the individual civil laws and ask the Lord whether they are still beneficial to us today.

You know, I mean, I think an example would be the clean and unclean meats, you know, why is it that we pick that out of everything and say this is still important and a lot of other things aren't so important?

Well, it's Okay, what's the principle If a pig is unclean in the Old Testament time, is it still unclean?

I mean, I would say it's more unclean because of all the factory farming kind of stuff.

So the principle is there are some animals that, because of what they eat and whatever, are not clean to eat.

Okay, so with that in mind, let's look at some of the principles here.

So first of all, we're going to look at a few texts.

This is the main scripture on the sabbatical law.

And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord.

6 years you shall sow your land, and 6 years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit.

But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord.

You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.

What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap nor gather the grapes of your untended vine for it is a year of rest for the land and the Sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you for you your male and female servants your hired man and the stranger who dwells with you.

For your livestock and the beasts that are in your land, all its produce shall be for food.

It's also a way to try to balance out this extremes of wealth and poverty.

And then later in Leviticus 25, we get a little more here.

And if you say, what shall we eat in the seventh year, Since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce, that's kind of a logical question.

Okay, well, how's this gonna work if we're not planting?

Then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year and it will bring forth produce enough for 3 years.

And you shall sow in the eighth year and eat old produce until the ninth year.

Until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.

What I can tell you, You know, it's hard to measure this, but we had the best year ever on the farm this last year.

And I would like to think that that was God's blessing because we were planning to take a sabbatical this year.

In Exodus, 6 years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat, and like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.

You know, there's a lot of people that say, well, this was for the Jews in the land of Israel, doesn't apply to us.

This is just talking about, I think most of you, I think you're Bible students.

You know, God said if you don't do this, what's gonna happen?

You're gonna go into captivity and it's gonna be a forced rest for the land.

So either you cooperate and do it on your own, or I'm gonna do it for you.

And you're not gonna appreciate it probably.

There's much mourning over unproductive soil.

Nailing Down Costs: How to Budget for Your Project

Okay, so the question is what were the joists that I referred to?

Series

Special Interests

Nailing Down Costs: How to Budget for Your Project

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Level 1 Homesteading and Home Gardening

Divine Directions: Understanding God’s Call to Rural Living

1h 2m

Level 1 Homesteading and Home Gardening

Too Expensive? How to Find An Affordable Country Home/Farm

1h 5m

Homesteading Track

Making the Country Move Painfully or with Pleasure?

1h 9m

Level 1 Homesteading and Home Gardening

Greater Simplicity

1h 1m

Intensive: Living Naturally

1. Living Naturally: Overview

57m

Homesteading Track

Three Keys to Successful Homesteading

48m

Plenary

The Making of “BetterTogether”

49m

Session 1

Country Living: Making the Move

1h 14m

Plenary Sessions

I Come to the Garden Alone: Being Single & Living in the Country

1h 31m

Level 1 Homesteading and Home Gardening

What to Look For in Your Country Property

1h 5m

Breakout Session 5

Irrigation

58m

Sound Doctrine