We have a large container of Legos at our house. When those Legos are all picked up and put away our house is the tidiest. We can walk around safely. I can rock in my Lazy Boy without hearing and feeling a crunch underneath. However sitting in the container is not the purpose of those little building blocks. Especially on Mondays those Legos, strung all over, complete the imaginations of these little people. And when that container is empty those blocks are accomplishing what they were designed for.
It's a good habit to keep your fuel tank topped off, especially this time of year. If your driving a diesel, you need to remember to treat the fuel with an anti-gel in cold weather. However if you promise yourself that tank of fuel will never get empty, you're not going anywhere. You're not accomplishing anything. Your security in that full tank accomplishes you nothing.
I'm probably sounding like a broken record but we are still emptying grain bins as the roads allow. Much of the grain was sold ahead of harvest. Some even ahead of planting. Our roads around here went from ice to slop. It's just that time of year.
I sometimes receive a hard time about empty grain bins. Folks tell me full grain bins are their security. I get it. Maybe for an unexpected expense. Or a rally in the markets. During harvest we use bins as a relief valve when the semis aren't coming back fast enough from their deliveries. However if you think about it the grain processors can't make feed, ethanol, or corn syrup if the grain stays in the bin. And farmers can't pay bank notes, buy next years crop inputs, feed their families, or be generous by sharing with others if that grain isn't converted to cash at some point. That's why I'm ok and comfortable making a plan to have empty bins.
We went to the Farming Power Show on Tuesday in Des Moines. Our older grandkids now like to go on their own with their friends. Mark and Stacy also went on Tuesday so Stacy had the girls walking around with her. It was good visiting with Gavin, Roger, Nuper, Craig, Marv, and others. We stopped at Perkins for lunch before coming home early afternoon.
Yesterday was a sunny day with temps near 40 degrees so Matt and Devin helped me rearrange the machine shed and finally get the camper inside. A job I should have had done three months ago.
BJ picked up an o-ring in Des Moines when he and Cassia went to the Power Show on Wednesday to repair an anti-freeze leak on his tile plow. He then moved it to the next job at Mark and Stacy's place. Weather will determine when that happens.
On Thursday Ethan, Noah, Gideon, Cassia, and Stacy attended the Trump rally where Stacy was interviewed by a reporter. Thanks for the picture.
This week I had a little help with installing a 2 way in Jan's pickup. Jackson helped pull the antenna and electrical cables through the firewall into the cab from the engine compartment. Jayden watched although I'm not sure how much he could see. :)
One evening in the Caymans a couple of weeks ago Jan and I went out for dessert. We shared a Creme Brulee at the Copper Falls Steakhouse. Jan said she is planning on fixing us this dessert this evening to enjoy during the Super Bowl. I certainly married a great cook.
Thursday evening at a committee meeting at Oskaloosa Christian School I saw a picture of the old school building in Patty's office. This is the building I started and finished grade school in. I also attended grade school in Pella and Barnes City. For those of you who attended here do you remember the Principal's office in the front left? I was spanked more than once. The old hot water radiators that heated the rooms and would snap and creak during class? And of course everyone that attended here remembers the wooden fire escape in the back.
Our classes 6th grade teacher was a farm wife named Mrs. Slings. I remember her fondly because she would visit with me about farming. I think our class had 13 boys and maybe 9 girls. One day Mrs. Slings asked me to stay in a few minutes during noon hour to talk to me about better applying my God given talent to school work. I often stayed home to farm, even in 6th grade.
Well yesterday after being finished working for the week, I decided to go visit Mrs. Slings. Yes, she is still living. She is in the Pella Cottages assisted living and is going to be 102 years old this year. Her eye sight is nearly gone however her mind is as sharp as the days when she taught us. She told me she graduated from high school at 16 and started teaching in 1938 in Flintridge and Wheat Grove country schools at 18 after two years of college. The roads were mud but she told me she had a 1929 Plymouth with tall wheels that helped her get to school where she had to start the coal furnace in the morning and clean the building in the evening. She dated in college however one Sunday night in the basement at Pella II she saw a young man from Prairie City standing by a pole. She has remembered that pole her whole life. Her and Harold were married in 1942. Just a few days later her new husband went to World War II. He came home wounded Nov 15, 1945. She also told me her father Garrett had a passion for Chr. Ed. and was instrumental in starting Western Chr. High Sch. in Hull and Pella Chr. High Sch in Pella when they moved here when she was a sophomore. Her father's grocery store failed in NW Iowa during the depression because folks had to eat but couldn't pay. She told me yesterday she still remembers me running down that back fire escape of the old Chr. Sch. building, (a no-no) but didn't have the heart to discipline me.
Some call those folks the greatest generation. I tend to agree. A generation of folks who worked, who survived, who gave, and just considered hard work and setbacks a part of life. Those folks won't be with us much longer. Ask them to share their stories. Today we have politicians in our state promising us everything for free. It doesn't work folks. Mice die in mousetraps because they don't understand why the cheese is free. The same things happen with socialism.
Remember the lady in the Bible whose creditors were going to take her two sons in payment for her debt. She asked Elijah, a man who represented God, for help. He told her to borrow as many empty vessels she could find and fill them with the small amount of olive oil she had left in her cupboard. And then pay her debt with that oil. Her little bottle of oil didn't run out until the last of the borrowed vessels was filled. Her potential for paying off debt in this story wasn't oil folks. The oil, through a miracle, was just the means to create cash. Her potential was the number of empty vessels she borrowed.
Our security shouldn't be in full bins, garages, bank accounts, and machine sheds. When we work, survive, trust, and give, like our previous generation did, until we are empty, our faithful God and Father will continue to fill us. Because He is the one that allows the oil to keep running, until all our needs are met. Have a great week.
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