My testimony

By Hubert C. Crowell

What's the secret to a contented, fulfilled lifetime?

Initial, it is actually no solution what God has done for us. He gave His Son in order that we could have Everlasting lifetime with Him. For God so cherished the whole world that he gave his a single and only Son, that whoever thinks in him shall not perish but have eternal existence. John three:sixteen NIV

I recognized Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior within the age of twelve. Setting on the back row with my buddies, I Virtually ran down the aisle in the event the Baptist preacher gave the altar connect with. I'm a sinner, saved by Grace, and I are unable to depend the again and again that God has secured me from harm.

I have always relished creating points and the pleasure that emanates from completing something. When I walk our Doggy, Teddy, round the yard and along the creek, I assumed how great It might be to have a bridge throughout the creek's widest part for the corner of our good deal. It absolutely was an unattainable dream as it absolutely was Practically fifty feet vast there. In the night, God Allow a tree fall inside the very place! I have liked finishing the log bridge over the past calendar year, and now Teddy and I use the bridge on our everyday walks. He even prospects how. God is so excellent! Try out on the lookout for each of the little and large miracles God gives us each day. You could possibly be amazed.

Talking of my backyard. Two other trees fell inside our backyard quite a few years before After i walked Rusty, the Canine we had just before Teddy. It absolutely was a Sunday morning, relaxed and clear as I walked him over the tiny deck with a swing I'd constructed. Soon after Church, I looked out the again window and observed the large tree before the creek deck was lacking! There is an additional tree in the vicinity of my workshop that branches out about six feet up in the trunk. If the tree fell, it was heading for my workshop and would have demolished it. Nevertheless, God intervened, and the two trees met, splitting the doubletree for the fork then veering in the creek! The trunk of the initial tree rested within the deck beside the swing with little if any hurt. I only needed to Lower from the part to the deck and build a block foundation for it to relaxation on.

Next, it can be no top secret that God enjoys us and desires to bless us. He just wants us to perform to Other folks when you might have them do to you personally. Luke 6:31 NIV

My father had a expressing: "Without having a desire, we have nothing. What on earth is lifestyle but a desire and having the ability to set a small amount of it to operate." Hubert H. Crowell.

When my Dad remaining the coal mines, he took up industrial fishing and alligator looking. He usually experienced a really like to the land.

In 1972 my Dad purchased the twenty acres of land within the south side of Lake Bonnet Street for $twenty,000.00. This land starts in the street as sand after which you can is covered with peat till it can be about twenty feet deep on the again. The assets arrived having a dragline which was accustomed to dig up the peat that was marketed domestically. Dad obtained a bobcat and continued to dig and bag the peat. He enjoyed building machines to Pulverize it and demonstrating Every person who stopped by how fast issues would grow while in the soil mix he developed. As being the peat was taken off, the ponds had been loaded again in with a combination of Grime, peat, and cuttings from the tree trimmers in the region.

At age seventy-9, he instructed a newspaper reporter, "It took me 20 years to dig out 50 % this land. I'll spend the next 20 filling it up, then I'm going to dig it out again. I'll be but a hundred and twenty by that point."

In 1982 Dad gave me the peat farm Using the stipulation that he would carry on to work the farm assuming that he liked. Over the next 14 yrs, the west pond was Virtually stuffed, and An additional tiny pond was dug around the east facet and combined with the Formerly dug pond on that facet.

Father died in 1996, and I continued over time to only enable limbs, stumps, and sand to replace the peat making sure that we or some other person could desire and dig yet again!

We continued to work the peat farm and started to produce a small gain around the operation's income and expenses. When You begin making funds, there is often someone who can get jealous and bring about problems. A fellow with a similar operation on one other facet of city was obtaining trouble Along with the county and explained to them to take a look at our Procedure. County inspectors had often frequented the farm, and Father would in some cases run them off whenever they attempted to operate his small business. I attempted to adjust to all The foundations the county brought up in regards to the Procedure. But as time went on, the DEP, Section of Environmental Safety, was in the entire process of shutting down the things they referred to as the mom-and-pop functions while in the point out of Florida.

It started out having a Licensed letter on November seventeen, 1998, in the Point out of Florida, Division of Environmental Security, stating that there might be violations in our operations within the peat farm. We ended up ordered to discontinue operations and seem at a gathering in Fort Myers, Florida. I scheduled day without work from operate and drove to Florida, a tiny bit uneasy, to state the the very least. My lawyer, Thomas Nunnallee, joined me, and we drove from Sebring to Fort Myers for your meeting Using the DEP.

Our Assembly started out with a strange remark in the DEP, "Why did you provide a lawyer along with you?" Later on in the meeting, One more remark was just as strange, "I thought that we experienced all you Mother and pop functions shut down!" This was accompanied by a remark, " I do not see anything at all you are carrying out wrong. It is just versus the law!" We were being advised that there could well be fines and that we might have to get rid of the yrs of fill and fork out to obtain it hauled to some landfill. Take a look at wells would need to be dug on Each and every stop from the property, and tests run to the wells' water. The only thing still left unsaid was jail time! Who'd believe that I wouldn't have to have an attorney!

I had worked challenging to pay off our dwelling and obtain from credit card debt. Father had also provided me 2.five acres of land from the Fakahatchee Strand Point out Protect in Collier County, Florida. He ordered it from a buddy in Kentucky for searching and fishing legal rights. This was a land progress that went underneath and was restricted because of the black panthers in the area. Each year, I'd personally get a letter with the point out wanting me to donate the land to Florida, but I'd personally continue on paying the taxes and ready. Now was time. I presented the land for the DEP in exchange for your high-quality. They mentioned that they'd take a look at it and allow me to know. At 1 position, I even presented to provide them with the peat farm, but they stated no, it will just be a legal responsibility, and they did not want it.

Months of negotiations went on in between Tom Nunnallee and the DEP as we began to shut down the Procedure which was now getting rid of funds. We nonetheless owed cash on the new bobcat, so I presented it to my only staff if he could acquire above the payments. He agreed, expressing he could possibly get some perform employing it or offer it. By the tip of the 12 months, I had to let him go. To obtain the permits for a Class III landfill, I would want to hire an engineering firm for $10,000 and buy a allow, A further $ten,000. But I realized which they experienced no intention of permitting me continue the operation.

The estimate for removing more than enough limbs to show that Now we have even completed some thing would run about $six,000. To remove all noticeable limbs and logs that were above the bottom could be about $fifteen,000. Increase to that the wells and exams, I approximated properly about $20,000. I took out a house fairness mortgage to start out paying the legal professional and anticipated take a look at and cleanup operations.

On Could 19, 1999, I gained a closing copy of your Consent Purchase to resolve violations pointed out within the criticism.

The primary violation wasn't to dispose or store reliable waste in any purely natural or synthetic h2o system, such as groundwater.

It absolutely was agreed upon, and I was requested within 30 days to transfer all visible property trash from your residence to a department-accredited strong waste administration facility.

In just ninety times, we experienced to install keep track of wells and carry out sampling to determine groundwater quality. We could use one AAAF Firefighting Foam Lawsuit particular present properly at the front on the assets and drill One more nicely at the property's back again.

I used to be needed to fork out a civil penalty of $3,900.00 for alleged violations. The DEP acknowledged the swampland and decided the Collier county assets's benefit to get $one,149.50. I must pay the harmony of $two,750.50 towards the DEP. I might also have to pay costs towards the DEP of $300.00 to analyze the donated residence!