Sweeps Week

A combination of Rachel feeding birds in 'Just Call Me a Knothead', and Paul asking us to rerun some of our favorites, has started me down this road. I'm going to rerun one of my favorites from last January in an attempt to get in the running with Paul AND maybe get you to look back thru the archives at what was shakin before you met me. From last January, here's Birdseed.
Birdseed
Ralph's latest blog about "it wasn't funny at the time" got me to thinking about an incident that happened in our home when my youngest son was still attending high school. Like now, we had bitterly cold temps and the ground was covered with snow.
It was supper time (dinner time to you city slickers), I was in my Lazy Boy reading the paper when my wife walks in, half frozen, but gleefully holding a large, empty birdseed sack. She dangled it a while and I said "what". She said,"I felt so sorry for the poor birds that I bought this big bag of birdseed and all the way from the highway to our house, (some 7 miles), I kept throwing out a handful at a time, all the way to here. Ten pounds, gone". I thought that it sounded like a noble and generous thing to do for these little creatures. Not something I would do, because I think that as a farmer, I already scatter corn and bean millings and weed seed over a thousand acres. I not only support the birds but about 250 head of deer. Her effort was never the less, noble.
Thirty minutes later, my son drove in from basketball practice. He burst through the door, slammed it and half yelled, "Stupid Birds"! I lowered my paper and said "What"?
He said, "they wouldn't move tonight, they always move when a car comes along, it's like they all decided to die today". "I must have hit 10 of them"!
I said, "go find your Mom, I think she's in the basement, she'll want to hear this story". He went down, and then they both came up and entered the living room and stared at me like this was somehow my fault. I lowered my paper and said "what"?
Today, you will find the birdseed in two large feeders, in our yard. It wasn't funny at the time, but, well... yeah, it was funny at the time, that's why they both came up to stare at me. I was laughing. Okay, I'm a sick person.

New Driver. Story Below!

Dragon Slayer

My Grandson above, is as big hearted as they come. You couldn't make him say anything bad, about anyone else. He overheard Grandma once, who was looking in a mirror at the time, say she "looked auwful". He immediately jumped up and got in her face to scold her. "Grandma you are pretty, don't say that".
He's a big kid. He's a first grader who looks like one of the fourth graders. That will get you picked on at school because you look big and tough but your mind is still only 7 years old. Eye-hand coordination is just now starting to take off. I'm his male influence here on the farm and we've been working on trying to ride a bike. All of his classmates have been for a year now. We've had a lot of obstacles to overcome. The threat of stitches, if you fall over, being one of the leading ones. And of course whether or not stitches really hurt when they're put in.
We had maybe ten sessions. It started out hopeless. But after about a month of alternately trying and then letting it rest a few days,, SUCCESS!!! All he needed to do now was practice.
I was working on a tractor last evening. It was just about dark but I looked up to see him over by the barn riding this way for a bit, and that way for a bit. He was getting good.
He'd gotten off the bus last night in a bad mood because of what an older kid had said to him. But after doing something he'd never been able to do before, ride his bike, he was on cloud nine. I took him home for dinner. He jumped in the car. Clicked his belt without being told and asked, "Where we goin Granpa?" "Your Mom wants you home for dinner now". Big smile now "Yeah, pizza, I can't wait to tell Mom about riding my bike". He continued, "I like your daughter,,,she's my Mom."
He jumped out and started to the house skipping. I'd never seen him do that. It's hard to break into a big smile and still have tears running down your face.
Yesterday I had chaired a county meeting that was packed with concerned and some agitated citizens. It was the end of a lengthy process we had started to change our zoning and increase economic developement. The meeting had me worried for weeks and it turned out the way we had hoped. Possibly the most important thing to take place in my first four years as a supervisor. A major milestone. But however important that meeting and the events leading up to it were, they pale in comparison to seeing my Grandson on his bike. He slayed a lot dragons that day the bike finally stayed up.

Day is Done

The Nebraska plains. Weeds and dust rejoice in this 'sailors delight'. OR it so dang dry the earth itself may be on fire. (It's really hard for me to wax poetic for more than a line.)

Blogger of the Week

This is my new weekly, and possibly never to be seen again, Blogger of the Week feature. This week RACHEL has been nominated, seconded, and after a bit of discussion, has been elected. She is faily new to the blogging world (or at least this blog is) and meets my standards of a good blogger. She pays attention and isn't just diving around for readers. You can bet I look forward to her comments and she is interesting to read. She follows the discussion from blog to blog and is very clever. The best part is where she lives, it's a lovely area near a lake, I know that, not because I've been there but because I read her blog. You'll be missing one of life's pleasures if you don't start reading Rachel. Good job girl.

ALRIGHT PEOPLE, LISTEN UP!

For those of you faithful readers who got so worried about my wife Marilyn when that young lady came for a sales call, I have a message. Really an analogy.
Marilyn didn't mind me meeting with this sweet young thing for the same reason she would let me stop at a Ferrari dealer in Kansas City. Even though I couldn't afford one payment and I certainly would never fit behind the wheel, she'd pat me on the head and say "you go look at your cute little car, I'll just wait here in this Dodge Caravan until you're ready to go home".

Someone's Gotta Do It

Yesterday, I was discing and also helping my brother who was cleaning and winterizing my combine. I had told him that Cargill was sending a 'grain merchandizer' out to go over some of my old contracts and sign me up with some new ones. I said "It's just something I have to do every year".
I hung around helping Ed because the meeting was here on the farm at 9:30.
The meeting happened and went well. We talked about the future movement in the basis, the corn futures, and a lot of subjects I don't understand completely. I listened but it was hard to concentrate. This merchant has a wealth of information and easily swamps my brain when the talk turns technical.
Did I mention it was hard to concentrate. Did I mention the grain merchant was a young lady. Did I mention she looks like Kelly Ripa of Regis and Kelly fame. Did I mention she could be Kellys 'better looking' little sister.
I think I retained some of what she said.
We stood in front of her SUV with papers spread over the hood. After she left I heard my brother waggle his head and mumble "just somthing I have to do every year".

A Pane

I've posted a picture or two of myself. Most of you know I'm,, well, "fully developed" as a suit salesman tactfully once said. So tell me why, the one fly in the house, can't see me. It's as though I were a pane of glass. Invisible.
The only light in the house, is on, here in the office. It's past my bedtime. I'm ready to write something witty, and bam. Attack of the housefly. He's trying to fly through me. He hits me in the cheek, nose, ear, forehead, gets behind the lens on my glasses, then tries my lips. I swat, regain my train of thought, then round two. Last night I got so angry I started trying to swat him in mid air. I think I tore a rotator cuff AND knocked my glasses off and they hit the fax machine before they hit the floor. I've seen flies act this way in a window. WARNING TO FLIES AND MICE. Build your own %#@%& house to get into in the fall.
Any guesses on why our wire handled fly swatters have bent handles? I suppose picking on a fly makes me a bully. But while I may still have the strength, I'm going to continue trying to drive them thru tables and chairs. I've never done it yet. But I'll keep trying. If flies could communicate, they'd say the same thing my kids used to tell their friends. "Just don't make him mad".

Hey Grandma, get your face down here real close

The Kids in Kansas

I have some young friends that I haven't had occasion to meet yet. I will meet them someday, I am confident. My nephew Marty got me started reading them. They are John and Terah Goerzen from Kansas. Marty and John worked together at one time. Terah blogs about many and varied topics. She's a social worker, and her husband John is a geek. At least by Terah's standards. I can't tell you what John does for a living. Not because it's Top Secret, but because farmers can't explain this kind of stuff. He works with computers and programming. Go take the GEEK TEST on Johns site. I scored 2.something.
John probably isn't a geek as I think of them. He is able to talk down on my level. Some of John's blogs go right over my head however. When I say right over my head I mean I never even saw it, it was going so fast. John is famous in the computer world. (google John Goerzen)
My point here is John gets lots of readers on his blog because of his expertise. He has a 'reads' meter on each blog and when he writes stuff I can understand it may only hit 100 reads, most of his tech stuff gets hundreds and one I saw got up over 5000 reads just on one blog. Check them out. You'll enjoy.