The Nobel Peace Prize

President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
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He says he was surprised.
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I'll bet he was.

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When the President travels to Oslo to accept the prize, I'm guessing the Secret Service will have Kanye West under observation.

Eating The Bait

Midwest Producer
9-11-2009 Edition

September is my favorite month of the year; that is until October arrives on the scene. The farm sort of goes into a holding pattern while we wait for crop maturity to get here. It affords the opportunity to do things you’ve put off all summer, like fishing. We wanted to go fishing this afternoon so after church we hustled home and hooked the boat onto to the Chevy and headed for the levee. (Sorry, I just about broke into song there) The pontoon boat that we purchased last winter didn’t have a depth finder and that explains why we hadn’t caught any fish the first few times we had the boat in the water. Any self respecting fisherman is aware that you must know the depth of the water before making a good presentation of the bait. Presentation in food is everything, right? I know I heard Julia Childs say that back in her days and I’m sure it also applies to catfish.
We had zero fish to show for our first two times out and that only served to validate my need for a trip to Cabelas for a depth finder. I didn’t need anything fancy. I just wanted to know the depth and I wasn’t planning on trying to find sunken treasure boats or the Titanic. “The cheapest one you’ve got will do me just fine, I already know how to fish.” I said smugly. The man wanted to sell me one with GPS and mapping capabilities so I could easily return to a new found hot spot any time I needed to. “Nope,” I told him “I’ll just paint an X in the bottom of the boat if I have a need to mark the spot. No sense of humor for this guy. I bought the cheap one.
Well I must say it was a pretty nifty installation I performed yesterday and it worked flawlessly. I proudly pronounced that we had eight feet of water right behind the boat as we pulled away from the dock. We hit 18 feet and I shut the motor down and gave the command to drop anchor. As Marilyn sighed she said, “I suppose you want me to do that” as she went to the front to ease the anchor down into the water, she asked if this was the depth we were looking for. “Yep this should be perfect.” I was confident, I am the Captain after all.
I repeated those same words over and over throughout the afternoon as we tried 12 feet and 22 and eight and everything in between. We used worms and chicken livers as well as commercial prepared bait and not to mention a feather covered varmint from the bottom of my tackle box. We anchored some. We drifted some. Not a nibble.
Before long I had yielded to the temptation of that big couch across the back of the boat. I stretched out and before falling asleep in that crisp autumn air; I explained the big mistake we had made to my still eagerly fishing wife. “Catfish will bite on chicken livers and night crawlers but we should have brought bait shrimp along too, they love shrimp.
“But we didn’t have any bait shrimp at home,” she replied. I said, “No but we have that two pound package of ‘people shrimp’ in the freezer, the ones we’ve been saving for something special.” “We could have dipped one of those shrimp in the lake to find out that the catfish weren’t biting and dipped the rest of them in cocktail sauce.”
We now have a plan for next time and I’ll bet we won’t care how deep the water is.

What About Ralph

Most of you know Ralph of Homespun Headlines fame. He's a good friend of mine. Our wives think we have nothing in common but they don't need to know everything. I talk to Ralph on a regular basis. That means 4 or 5 times one week but maybe once in the 2 weeks after that. We usually pick up right where we left off. Ralph isn't afraid to give is word on something and when he does he keeps it. That's what this post is about.
This is Char getting ready to 'net' Ralph who appears to be bringing in the big one. They're standing in the front of our boat. The picture was taken 9 days ago.

Here is Ralph making breakfast in the cabin we rented for the weekend.

Here is our traditional goodbye picture we always take one. We always stand in this order. I'm on the Right, Marilyn is in white and the other two are Ralph and Char.

I bring all of this up because they had to drive about 6 hours to get to this spot which is about half way between our homes. He took Char home Sunday nite the 20th. Then on Wednesday the 23rd, he drove the ten hours back across Nebraska to see our new Grandson in a Lincoln, NE hospital. All by himself. BECAUSE? Well, because he promised Tom and his wife several months back, that if you have that baby on my birthday, Sept 22nd, I'll drive out to see him in the hospital. They did and he did. When told to stay home and that it was too far to drive, he simply replied, "I gave my word."

The Campbells and Morrows both have grown and married children and what is kind of different here is that we parents are also good friends with each others children.

I guess Ralph and I are both pretty fortunate and we know it. That's what we have in common.

One last thing, it seems that this summer has been so busy with weddings, reunions, fishing, bithday parties and etc, that everytime we say goodbye to the Campbells, it's followed by "See you in two weeks." That's not always been the case this summer but close.

See you Thursday Campbells.

It's a Boy!

We snapped this picture of son Tom and his family on Sunday afternoon. We were on our way home from the lake and had stopped to see their recently completed kitchen project. Hudson was all smiles and Steph was, well, still pregnant.

This is the same group two days later, yesterday the 22nd. The only difference is Hudson has a new baby brother. This was his first meeting with his little brother and he didn't offer to knock him down or take a toy back or any of that stuff that will be reserved for later. These are two loving, firm, but patient parents and two very lucky children.

This is one of the four lucky grandparents holding an as yet to be named boy. I am expecting a call about the name very soon. You can suggest a name but I can tell you that Cliff and even Ralph have been suggested and rejected. This in view of the fact that yesterday was also Ralph's birthday makes it even more... well, probably not surprising.
I don't know how long it will take for that smile to disappear from Grandma Marilyn's face but when it does, it will return everytime she picks up a grandchild.

UPDATE:

Cooper Leo

8# 9 OZ-

20.5" Tall

The Last of the Wedding

Let me explain something for those who asked. The reason the Campbells and the Morrow's know each other is that my bride Marilyn (L) and Char (Mrs Ralph) have known each other most of their lives. You know, same neighborhood and schools and such. I think the fact that Ralph and I both have an attraction to good looking women is why we're all friends. By him self, Ralph, like me, is nothing to write home about.

Ralph toasting his Son and new DIL Desiree and family. It was delivered with the eloquence we've come to expect from this man.

His new Grandaughter also thought it was touching...OR...she didn't much like it judging by her tears. It was the former btw. She is a lovely, mature young lady.

Me and my buddy Ralph. An umpire's uniform made me feel under dressed. However if anyone had mentioned it I would have ejected them from the party.

The cutting of the wedding cake by the Mr and Mrs Campbell.

This whole thing, the wedding, the reception, were all fun. I don't care who you are.

I sometimes wonder what kind of boring existence I would lead were it not for the Campbells. There doesn't seem to be a reason why we even know each other let alone having them be more than friends. I guess the mutual admiration comes mostly because of the entertainment value we find in each other.
If you can't find it in this picture then I guess I can't explain it. The Co-Best men posed for a picture with the 'officiant' as they are described by Colorado law. The officiant doesn't need to be an umpire but if the wedding is going to be on a baseball field, then it's okay. The umpire isn't really an umpire but he plays one during weddings.

Several months ago I got a call and was told that I was going to be asked to perform a wedding ceremony. One side of me wanted to say no. The thinking being that I didn't need the chance to mess up someone else's wedding. But the overwhelming sentiment from within was a feeling of honor that these two, Desiree and Nate, would think as much of me as I do of them. Nate is Ralph and Char's son and Desiree and her children have together become part of this farm family and we to theirs. All of this coupled with the fact that it was so far in advance of the wedding that it was really something that would never happen. Maybe with luck I would succumb to Blog Flu or perhaps cancer, well in advance of the event. No such luck.

Some of you know I do my best work when under extreme pressure and although I traveled to Denver with the words I wanted to say, all in my computer, the segments were not arranged in proper order, nor were they until game day morning. Err..the day of the wedding. The grooms mother, Char, who is a computer genius, and who had too much to do that day, calmly helped take product from my laptop, converted it into something that would work on her computer and then printed it out. Sorry Char for being such a pain at the last minute, but you are good.

You see, these two, Nate and Desiree, are ardent baseball fans and wanted to be married in a replica of Coors Field where the Rockies play. It indeed was a sceinic venue for a wedding. The grounds crew had done a marvelous job and had the field prepared for play, or a wedding, whichever came first.

The crowd was told to come dressed casually and fun was in the air.

I must say that the wedding had a good balance of fun and deep meaning. I had scores of folks come to me and say that it was the most meaningful and or best wedding they had ever attended sighting the venue, the message, the ballpark organ music and on and on. I am so happy for the couple and know this is done deal. What a great concept they started with.
I should have told them "There's no flowers in basefall." Here I am in the stands waiting for the wedding to begin.

I'm going to start with some photos in no particular order because, well, that's the way blogger treats me. I tell it to put the picture here and it ends up there.

The first pic is of the field in it's ready to go state.

Next is Bubba posing. The third pic was taken during the wedding vows.The last shot is of course the lighting of the "Unity Baseballs."

The lovely girl standing behind Desiree is her daughter. These three along with Bubba make the new family unit and I must say they are all winners.

My next post will be five photo's from the reception.

I'll leave you with the last paragraph from my message to the couple.

'Live, Laugh and Love, like there is no tomorrow, because eventually, that will be the case. Turn to God often, put your trust in him, and he will surely Bless this marriage from now until time immemorial. Be childlike, wonder at everything, Be in awe of Gods goodness.'

Disagreement

Marilyn opined that she thought I was 'Out of Shape.'

I said "No...you're incorrect;... Round IS a shape."

We Are Back

I first want to thank all of you who dropped in to watch the place while we were gone. I'm sorry I didn't 'school' any of you on how to operate our lawnmower, weed hooks, hoes, or on how to pick tomatoes.

We've been to a family reunion in Tennessee. Home for one day and then to Denver for a family wedding. I have a lot to say on these topics but will leave you for now with a pic from a view from our hotel suites', front room down in TN. It is of Lake Barkley or AKA the Tennessee River. (Notice the tug and barge in the photo) The State Park we were in was near the now under water, Fort Henry, of Civil War fame.

The other pic was thru the windshield of our car on last weeks trip to the foothills of the Rockies. A storm was moving in. (click to enlarge.)

I'm Leaving You To Watch The Farm

I'll be back later.

You Decide Which Is Which

One of these pics of the gauge cluster on my Allis D-14 is before the boys painted it, and the other one is after they painted it. Can you tell which is the before pic?
I'm going to have a tiny decal made that says "Spooky Old Allis" and place it on the front end of the hood. If you can tell me where that comes from without looking it up, then you are officially old.