Wonderings from Walnut Prairie

I should have known better

2012-01-27T21:18:00.000-06:00

Were you ever in a place that seems determined to run off business?. After I stopped by the FSA office the other day I had to go to Terre Haute. I should have gotten a can of pop in their break room, but I decided to stop at the TravelMart by the interstate.

I should have known better.

First you pull in to see this sign

OK, 2 signs. One saying trucks HAVE to go around the building this way. The person who put the sign up is obviously not a NASAR fan because you are circling backwards. It just ain't natural. Then there is the 5MPH sign. Ever try and run a semi 5 MPH? Or most any stick shift car for that matter? You circle the building to find this nice big parking lot .... blocked off with railroad ties.

The clear area in front is the access to the fuel pumps. I wasn't in a big truck, but I do have a couple. And I have spent a lot of time in trucks. So it makes me wonder where do you park a truck anyway?

And as you leave you have to dodge these !@#$!@$!%%^^! truck tires stacked in the middle of the driveway

Oh, and gas was about 20 cents higher than in MARTINSVILLE!

I didn't take any pictures inside. But there are signs like WIPE YOUR FEET! and RESTROOMS FOR PAYING CUSTOMERS ONLY!

I almost commented to the gal at the cash register, but I decided what I was being tempted to say was not a good Christian witness. But I should have know better than to stop there anyway. I've been there before. This is where I went to back out of a parking space and as I turned ran the front of the Dodge over a truck tire placed over a hole in the lot and tore my front license plate off. That was after getting !#$$@% about the condition of the restroom.

It's like these guys are trying to give me a reason NOT to stop there. Next time I'll just drive back downtown and see Old Dad. At least he is glad to see me.

Spring has sprung, Fall has fell, Winter's here and ....

2012-01-14T08:53:00.002-06:00

... Wanda, you got your snow. Happy now?

One of the places we seem to frequent more than normal this year is the West Union Cafe.

People tend to develop habits. You know that someone will probably be there mid afternoon or certain evenings.

And you discover you have become predictable when you stop mid afternoon to catch a landlord drinking coffee and Heather asks if we're coming in tonight like usual?

By the way, I saw her one day with her hair down and almost didn't know her.

Or you set down and Savannah brings you unsweetened tea without asking.

BTW look closely over Heather's shoulder on the wall. Yes, that is a picture of Dad

Kaycee asked for a picture of him for the memory wall she wants to make.

And on the way out don't forget to look at the bulletin board to find important information.

It's a good place to eat.

And if you're a regular you can narrow down when I was there to within 2 hours and one of two days.

(They put the salad bar out after 2 PM on Fridays and Saturdays)

I'm both overjoyed and heartbroken ....

2011-12-31T23:00:00.001-06:00

One of the most difficult things I ever did was leave Johnson City, Tennessee and head for Illinois, leaving my little girl on the campus of Milligan College. Milligan is a good college, but it was 500 miles from home and my little girl wasn't old enough or ready for it, regardless of what the calendar said.

To be honest, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to forgive Milligan College. Because my little girl thrived in its environment. She loved the mountains. She grew into a beautiful, well educated, big hearted, young woman. And she stayed in east Tennessee.

It has always been interesting visiting Jill. She has friends with names I recognize. For instance one time when were here she took us to dinner with some of her friends at Jim's house. I am familiar with his work, but when he writes for Christian Standard magazine he uses his full name.

She bounced around several jobs. Not necessarily “normal” jobs. Things live working with an adoption agency finding families and homes for kids. Eventually she ended up working for East Tennessee State University as a grant manager, responsible for … well, I'm not not going to try and explain because I'm not sure I fully understand it. I'm just proud of her for what she does.

A couple weeks ago she got her Masters degree from ETSU. This weekend we returned to Johnson City for a very different reason. I'm both overjoyed and heartbroken. Because we came back to Hopwood Church, on the campus of Milligan College, for Jill's wedding.

I'm overjoyed because Jill has married a very special guy, one I am convinced God was grooming just for her. I'm heartbroken because he lives in the mountains of North Carolina.

So in the morning we will head north, although it will be a little different than 15 or so years ago. Because we're probably leaving Johnson City for the last time. We won't have much of a reason to come here again. Jill will be in the mountains of North Carolina. And while I will be heartbroken to leave my little girl behind, this time I'll be leaving her in the care of a great guy.

'Course, he still isn't nearly good enough for my little girl.

2011-12-26T00:01:00.003-06:00

My First Responder class is progressing slowly. One of the reasons it was moved from West Union to Robinson was because the instructor was on duty or on call there. So we are meeting at the ambulance base. But when the instructor has a run the class gets cancelled, so we are going long on the schedule.

Some of the "clinical activities" really frustrate me. I guess too many years of holding vibrating steering wheels and wrench twisting and beating on things.

My fingers just don't have the sensitivity to find a pulse. I just don't feel it.

I had trouble taking blood pressure, too. I was looking on Amazon and found a Sphygmomanometer (run THAT through your spell check) and stethoscope set that wasn't too expensive so I splurged and bought them so I could practice. Marge would like the color...

I don't think I'll make it as a Doctor ... or Nurse ... or Paramedic. Because I put the cuff on my arm and pumped and listened and released and I just don't hear the sounds well enough to check blood pressure. That or I'm dead. But at least as a First Responder instead of an EMT I may not need that ability very much.

I'm making a First Response kit for my truck. You can buy one for $100 or so, but I decided I could build one that suited my needs better for less. But what do I put everything in? I can uy a genuine First Responder bag for $35 or more .. or go to Walmart and buy a 6 can cooler with a hard liner that will hold everything I need for $5.98.

Any guesses which I bought?

Now I just need to stock it.

Our latest chapter is Emergency Responder childbirth training

MORE information I hope I NEVER need

I think once this chapter is done all we need is CPR certification (or re-certification for most of us in class) and do our finals and we're finished. The finals may finish me alright.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T00:08:00.000-06:00

2011-12-20T06:00:00.007-06:00

Jim and Heidi can't travel home this Christmas, so Friday we went to Madison, WI to spend the weekend with them. Perhaps the most eye opening part of the whole visit was a trip to the grocery store. I know, "All you can talk about is a trip to the grocery store ?" There is a lot more that I consider private. And besides, this was kind of eye opening for me.

When you use the term "organic" around most farmers you can kind of sense the hair stand up on the back of the neck. For most of us in production agriculture this is like a slap in the face. It's like saying everything you have been doing is wrong. That discussion will have to wait. I am talking entirely about consumer perspectives.

If you are unfamiliar with Madison, it's a long way from the Wabash River bottoms. The metro area is probably over a quarter million people. More Volvos and Toyota Prius than I ever saw in one spot. The kids took us to a store called "The Whole Foods Market". It is a national chain of 310 stores (www.http://wholefoodsmarket.com/company/) specializing in "organic and natural". I'm not going to argue organic versus anything so don't write. The point is consumers are willing to pay for it.

Fascinating place for a country boy. My wife said she had never seen that many kinds of granola ... in bulk

And coffee as well

And produce wasn't just displayed, it was arranged

Yes the carrots are carefully arranged in a circle. And cooler upon cooler of cheeses.

So what has this to do with corn and soybeans down in the river bottom ? It convinced me there is a market for things like this. It may be a niche market we who are now the smaller farmers need to consider working in. Oh, the store also had some prepared foods

edit: THERE I got the correct photo
I liked the cookies

Yes, I know it has been 2 weeks

2011-12-15T06:00:00.003-06:00

If you are one of the 4 people who follow my blog regularly you have noticed it has been 2 weeks since I wrote anything. I know, it isn't farming season But it seems like most of my spare time has been taken by the First Responder course I am taking.

It isn't that difficult. It's just been 30+ years since I studied this hard. To be truly honest, I have never studied this hard. I think my brain is too overloaded with useless information. Or just doesn't absorb like it used to. And the schedule of classes Tuesday and Thursday evenings doesn't give me much time mid-week to get ready.

Let's see, what has been happening? I have some things going on I can talk about and some I can't talk about right now. A normal week this month involves 3 lawyers, 2 estates (make that 3 estates. I got a call this evening asking to help set a value on some equipment), 3 different trusts. I am beginning to think my son in law is pretty sharp. He told his dad he didn't care if he left him anything when he passed on. But if he did he wanted it left to him alone, not him and ...

What else has been happening? We (mostly Aman) have been insulating the shop. See the farm page at www.BumpusFarms.us or my AgTalk+ blog at http://agtalkplus.com/?q=node/22574 for more on that. Between normal Christmas activity, getting ready for a wedding, and getting ready for a new grandkid, and all this other stuff I'm about run ragged.

Late night ponderings

2011-11-30T01:19:00.000-06:00

One of the problems being related to my Mom is poor sleeping habits. I might as well blame her as me ;-). I seem to have developed this habit of falling asleep watching TV, then waking up 2-4 hours later wide awake. So I read a bit, or check email and Facebook, and them go to bed and sleep the rest of the night. I've tried going to bed at a "decent hour". I just toss and turn and keep Sue from resting.

Sometimes when setting here by the computer late at night I get to thinking about things ... pondering so to speak. Tonight I've been pondering about family and friends. Some have moved ... for instance Jim and Bob

some who aren't with us any more ... like Grandparents

Dad

Jean

and Lyman

And while Jill has been away from the flat land quite a while, I guess it's time I accept the fact she has moved

I guess time does keep marching on.

Although at times it seems it is all uphill

Lost a friend this week

2011-11-19T07:35:00.000-06:00

We lost a friend this week. Lyman Shawler passed away Friday. Lyman Shawler's visitation will be Sunday 3-7, Funeral 10:00 Monday at Prust-Hosch

http://obituaries.expressionstributes.com/?o=e023217855

You've GOT to be kidding ...

2011-11-11T07:00:00.001-06:00

I think it would be interesting. I don't think I can sell that concept to Sue. It looks better from the back

But I just don't think she'd go along with it. Especially when she saw this

I meant the $7995, not the 70 MPG. Nope, no chance

Larry Boy and the football player

2011-11-04T00:24:00.000-05:00

No, it isn't a new carton idea. It's Grandsons dressing up for halloween

Bet you can't guess which one is which

You've GOT to be kidding ...

2011-10-31T20:08:00.000-05:00

Nope, I'm serious. Halloween lilac blooms

Mom had me take a picture to prove it.

Oh, and I found THE WAY to get the Sweet Gum balls out of the rain gutter. Climb up on the roof with my new Hitachi leaf blower. stick the nozzle in the gutter and walk. Although it is better if there isn't water in the rain gutter.....

I didn't try taking any pictures. Staying on the roof seemed more important.

Odd wonderings ...

2011-10-28T07:23:00.000-05:00

I see Union Hospital is having a a free dinner and presentation about living with diabetes including learning about effective self-management, developing a balanced, healthy lifestyle and overcoming fears surrounding diabetes. I always wonder about odd things, like will the menu be "diabetic friendly"?

(from http://tribstar.com/features/x783643880/Union-Hospital-to-offer-free-diabetes-events):

Union Hospital’s Diabetes Education Center will observe Diabetes Awareness Month with activities.

The public is invited to a free dinner and presentation titled “Taking Control with Curtis Story” on Nov. 7. Story is a member of the sanofi-aventis A1C Champions Program, which is a patient led approach to diabetes education. He will share his personal experience about living with diabetes including learning about effective self-management, developing a balanced, healthy lifestyle and overcoming fears surrounding diabetes. The event will be at the Landsbaum Center for Health Education on Union Hospital’s campus at 1433 N. 61⁄2 St., in Terre Haute and starts at 5:30 p.m. with an opportunity to meet vendors. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. and speaker presentations begin at 6:15 p.m. Call the Diabetes Education Center at (812) 238-7577 to reserve a seat.

On Nov. 15, the center will offer a pre-diabetes class from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Union Hospital Professional Office Building, Suite 503, 1530 N. Seventh St. The class is designed for people who have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance. The cost is $40 and will include a personalized meal plan, physical activity guide, glucose monitor, complication awareness, healthcare resource information and more. Call (812) 238-7577 to register. Low-income assistance is available.

I guess $40 isn't too bad for that if they include a monitor. I'm kind of like a friend. He has trouble trusting most of the nutritionists he sees because they seem to usually be overweight.

Union also has its Annual Spirituality and Health Conference coming up. I'm kind of going "Umm... O K ...." I guess Union Hospital’s Chaplain’s Office is hosting its for care givers to provide support in individuals’ personal grief experiences. It just sounds odd for the hospital to be offering.

I found Jim a trail to go walking on.

Not really. I don't think his Mom could handle thinking about him doing it. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsGC0lZ-5g8&feature=player_embedded. I'm kind of like Mrs B from SE Iowa, "Who in the dickens built it, and how???? " There is an article I just found at http://www.ssqq.com/archive/vinlin27d.htm, but I haven't had time to read it.

I did it! I bought a book!

2011-10-19T09:16:00.000-05:00

I did it! I bought a digital book this morning! And my wife didn't have to show me how!

I know, some thing of me as a techno geek, but in reality my "geekness' means I barely know how to do what I need to in order to do what I have to get done. But Sue, with her own laptop and Kindle is mega bytes farther along than I am. However, I stumbled through it all and bought Danny Hone's book, Lord of the Harvest. I then got a Nook app and downloaded it to the iPad. Some day I 'll be as technically proficient as a 12 year old.

You can order one by clicking on the book title. It links to Barnes and Noble's web site.

Not that I have time to read it for the next month as I'm studying my Emergency Medical Responder book

Windmills

2011-10-15T19:34:00.000-05:00

We found a fascinating little place NW of Poland, Indiana. Maybe I should back up and start at the beginning.

Friday it was apparent we were not likely to get in the field. So I took a "personal day" and Sue and I played hookey. We didn't have any plans other than being together and away from home and the farm. We left Darwin and went north. Went through several big cities like Dennison, Elbridge, etc. We started east and got to Clinton and decided we wanted to avoid the Covered Bridge Festival as much as possible. So at Lyford we went east. We looked at a lot of pretty country. ended up in Brazil for lunch. I'd heard of Eddie's Sandwich Shop

(See the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=128063055082) Little is the operative word. Good food, fun place to be, but don't figure on a large family dinner there. We stopped at a yard sale, then headed toward Poland on Rt 42. We're near Poland when we spy a sign along the road pointing toward the Windmills at Riverside Farm. We took up this winding little road and end up at a fascinating place. He has something like 55 windmills up.

Some are from the 1830's and safe inside the barn.

Some looked more familiar

Next weekend is the close of his season. I'd put it on my list of place to visit next summer.

He has a huge web site at http://www.windmill-parts.com/id20.html Visit it for history, parts, photos, etc.

I try to keep this separate from the farm page

2011-10-14T06:00:00.018-05:00

I try to keep this separate from the farm page, but sometimes that is difficult for me. I get out of bed farming in my head, I work on the farm all day, and quite often end up dozing off in my office chair doing farm related work. So what have I been doing besides farming? Let me ponder a minute ...

Tuesday evening we had one of our twice a month fire department meetings. But that kind of became a farm thing, as we ran out to our shed and looked at a combine for possible trouble spots.

One of the things I am involved in I can't take much credit for is our Wednesday evening youth class at church. This is my favorite age group, ranging from about 6th grade through High School. Michael Leighty is the teacher. My job is to be the old guy. Sometimes we get help in that department from Jon Ledermann ... except he really isn't old enough to qualify. We have been running in excess of 10 kids a week, sometimes more like 15. When you consider maybe 5 or 6 of those are regular's on Sunday it seems to be working.

We try and be rather informal. They have been in class at school all day, they don't need more of the same. So we don't enforce behavior expectations quite as strict as might be expected at school or on Sunday morning. Basically Michael tries to teach a lesson and I try to put a spin on it that makes the kids think. A question was asked last Wednesday, and the answer was of course "Jesus" ... to which one of our regulars responded "That's a Sunday School answer". You are going "What?" Let me explain.

We learn there are certain answers that usually work. For instance in Church we learn a "Church vocabulary" I've gotten onto my kids before for giving pat answers, answers using words we wouldn't use in every day life, "Sunday School answers" instead of using words and terminology we would normally use.

I hope we are building these kids into a community. It would just be fantastic to help these kids develop into a group of friends who look out for and support each other. Maybe I expect too much, but you can't reach what you don't try for.

So what else non-farm stuff have I done? Oh! Aman and I took down a TV tower. The house Dale and Carolyn Poorman moved into had a TV tower they wanted removed. I told them months ago we would do it for them, but for various reasons never got around to it. We were setting twiddling our thumbs this week, so we took it down.

Guess where I was? Hmm..I just realized we left that pipe laying in the yard.

I'm contemplating playing hookey Friday the 14th. We can't do field work, and I hate to start any projects during farming season. We'll see. I better wind this up before I start waxing philosophical Although sometimes your philosophy needs a good waxing.

Building a waterway

2011-09-25T23:08:00.001-05:00

The overflow for our pond had gotten to the place it needed maintenance. That is one of the problems with a grass waterway. If it does its job the grass holds sediment, which then forces water around it negating its effect. So we did some looking and measuring and figuring and called Robert to bring his play toys.

He did some pushing and digging and rebuilt the waterway

After he finished shaping it we seeded it,

harrowed it in,

And put down a straw blanket.

and Voila! a new waterway is made.

This weekend we had rain, so we'll we how it works.

This was a first for me ....

2011-09-17T22:16:00.003-05:00

Let's see, how many firsts this weekend? First time I ever went on a trip after we started harvest, first time I have been in Milwaukee ... or Sheboygan, first time I have stayed a vacation rental house, first time to be on the beach of Lake Michigan, first time to meet several people, ... oh yeah, and first time I ever went to my son's wedding.

Yep, Jim Bob got married.

Probably been quite a while since anyone called him that. It was small, a little different, kind of what you might expect knowing Jim.

I took about 150 pictures. 3 of them might even turn out OK. Let me share a few. Let's start with important stuff. This is Jim and Heidi exchanging vows.

It was really on the beach

The guest list was rather small. Family and a few close friends. Ike and Garrett made it.

What is she pointing at? Most likely it was Ike's daughter, Miss Margo. She was the hit of the event. Here she is with the daughter of another of their friends. And I forgot to ask how she spells her name, but I do know it is her 12th birthday.

She also led the group in a song during the ceremony.

Lovely young lady my fuzzy photos do not do justice to. And speaking of fuzzy photos, what is a wedding without awkward family photos?

Yes, maybe I should have use some mousse. As you can tell by my hands in my pockets and the expression on my face, I REALLY wasn't ready for the shot.

Here we are with Heid's mom

This is a brother and sisters shot.

Velvet, Heidi, Jim, Becky, Jill

The happy couple with Heidi's sister Velvet and her mom Winnie

Oh, and a photo of Shades and Little Shades. David really likes hanging out with Aunt Jill

I had to get a photo of Jim's boutineer. If you look closely one of the components is milo! Ok, so I'm weird. I found it amusing.

And of course I didn't comment (yeah, right)

But the flowers were beautiful

The weather was nearly perfect, the fellowship was good, it just couldn't have been much better. But now I have a daughter-in-law. Somehow that makes me sound older than having a son-in-law

Is this it for Wilkey's ?

2011-09-09T22:09:00.001-05:00

I got a disturbing text message today. It said Wilkey's was closed ... maybe permanently. I can hear Wanda going "Wilkey's?" Let me give some background.

My grandfather grew up southeast of Mt. Vernon, Illinois,

a few miles from Belle Rive

You can get there from the Buford/Ina road, Illinois 142, Interstate 64

Belle Rive has some interesting things. Like the ice machine. You take the ice you want and put the money in a box. Honor system.

It has a really tall water tower

Wilkey's is a little restaurant in Belle Rive

It used to be a couple blocks down the highway, but several years ago moved up on Main Street. Great smorgasboard, fantastic pies. I had heard it was closed for remodeling. It may be permanent. If it wasn't Dad's favorite it was clearly in the top 10.

Here is one more photo I found online. It will look familiar to anyone who has been down Log Cabin Road on the way to Grandpa Robert's

Never have so many ...

2011-08-31T07:22:00.000-05:00

From http://despair.com/viewall.html

Pet peeves and other misc things

2011-08-27T22:23:00.000-05:00

One of my pet peeves (OK, so I have several of them. It's just I learned a long time ago pet Peeves are like a salesman being "right". I was taught and learned quickly that a salesman can be "right" or he can feed his family. Now, I don't mean it is OK to do wrong things. But my job as a salesman was to supply the customer with what he wanted even if I didn't think it was the right choice. If he wanted a 50 page a minute copier even though a 12 page speed machine would do what he needed, it was his money and his decision. If he needed the 50 and wanted the 12 my job was to help him see the error of his ways, but sell him what he wanted to buy if he didn't come to his senses ... in my opinion.

Pet Peeves are kind of like that. I can choose to let them bother me or I can choose to get on with life. So I have learned to live with most of them and just not let it bother me. But we digress...)

As I said, one of my Pet Peeves is rusty grab bars on tractor doors. I like a nice smooth painted one my hand can slide up or down without dragging. So when I finished with the spray tractor Saturday evening I grabbed some emery cloth and polished them up, got out the Rustoleum enamel and painted them.

Always wear disposable gloves when doing this. Because when you get off balance and instinctively grab the bar ...

well, most of it came off.

Oh, and don't drop the can on its nozzle either.

Let's see, what other Pet peeves might I discuss ... Actually, it is something I rarely think about. Life is too short and other things are more important than being upset because the lid is left up on the toilet (that became one after a foreign object got lodged in the toilet gooseneck the weekend company was coming) or the lawn mower threw grass out in the road (that was one of Dad's)

So if you have a Pet Peeve, keep it to yourself and get over it.

Irritations and Pet Peeves are similar. Apple Computer irritates me. I got an iPad through a seed company promo.

Before I can do anything I have to plug it into a computer with internet access (and it better be high speed) and download the latest version of iTunes ... which means I have to have Quicktime to use it. The real irritation came when the desktop would not install Quicktime. I'm still unsure what I did to make it work.

I realize, it will probably all work well and make the sky blue and the grass green. I just hate being told "You gotta..."

I sometimes get rather brilliant ideas for blog entries

2011-08-22T05:31:00.002-05:00

I spent Friday night at a youth 'lock-in" at church. Ever see 2:45 AM at church?

I'll be honest, I wasn't too enthused about it. I'd never been part of something like it, and didn't see much benefit to baby-sitting a bunch of kids.

That may have been a misunderstanding.

We had about 30 kids. I didn't count, but I bet half of them weren't "ours". We ate, we played,

we did a scavenger hunt,

we had a hayride,

all kinds of fun.

And I hope we made a difference in a few lives.

Would I do it again?

Sure would. But I might take a nap first.

I hate buying computers

2011-08-15T07:18:00.000-05:00

I know, those who now me doubt that statement. Just because as I set here typing I have 5 if them in or just out of arm's reach. Well, actually there are a couple more. That is why I went shopping.

My old faithful laptop

decided to quit on me. I had it at the family reunion doing a little writing on it. I put it in the camper and brought it home. When I tried to fire it up it wouldn't. The power light would come on, the hard drive light would light and blink, then it just turned itself off. The display never did come on. A friend has the same laptop, and his recently turned all 4 feet in the air and died. Well, actually his power jack broke. Doing some looking I found that seems to be a common problem. The only good solution is replace the motherboard.
So, is that my problem? I called my computer repair shop and told them I was trying to decide if it was worth the 25 miles drive each way to bring it over and leave it, then come back 25 miles each way to pick it up. After talking about how it was acting and what the possibilities are I was convinced the problem was going to cost more than it was worth putting into this laptop.

Maybe the monitor is bad. Or just a video driver. So I plugged in my desktop monitor and turned it on. I found some kind of Dell diagnostic program running ... until the computer quit working. Hmmm... Tried again. This time I got a blue screen of death, one that give an error code that only means something to a hard core geek. So I tried again, to get a totally different result.

So, do a search for dell inspiron 1000 problem. Whole bunch of results. All of which point toward replacing the mother board. Do it yourself for $150 or have it done for $300. And that may or may not solve the problem but you won;t know until you replace it.

OK now it's time to go shopping.

The problem with computer shopping is you KNOW you will be wrong. Regardless of what you buy there will be a better deal with a better computer, probably next door to where you just bought yours. I've decided you figure out what you want to do and spend time with a (gasp!) salesman. I started to say salesperson, but I have found in the computer world there are very few knowledgeable women. There are some, but not many. If you find one she is fantastic, but she is rare.

So I wondered over to Staples. It is "Back-To-School" time. So there are some laptops at pretty good prices. I looked around. I talked. I admitted my ignorance. I liked it back when your choices were between the SX and DX version of the 486 processor. I remember hearing 2 computer salesmen arguing over whether it was justified putting a 40 meg hard drive in a computer when all the customer would ever use was 20 meg.

I'm getting to be an old geek.

I haven't got a clue what the difference is between an I3 and an I7 processor. Do I really need a blu-ray DVD player in my computer? And a fingerprint scanner .. in my computer? But I do know enough to know a computer should have as much memory (RAM, not hard drive capacity) as possible ... and with a laptop it is always better buying it already in there instead of adding it later. I also was pretty sure I wanted an HP or a Toshiba. There are other less-name brands, but I wanted one of those two. I wanted a number pad like my desktop keyboards. And I wanted to be able run an xP program not available as a later version.

They had an HP on sale with 6 gig of RAM, a nice big screen, and a keyboard with a number pad built in. And the helpful friendly ready to take my money salesman said if I upgraded to the pro version Windows 7 would do just what I wanted.

Well, we'll see about that some other time.

But I took a deep breath and bought it, an HP Pavilion dv7.

Cost less than the first several computers I bought and does more. I7 processor (whatever that means. My salesman said it meant it was better than an I3), Blu-ray optical drive, 17.3" monitor, 6 gig of RAM, finger print scanner, etc.

Following my normal logic, after I bought it I looked it up. PC MAG reviewed it (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388455,00.asp) and said :

HP Pavilion dv7-6163us

editor rating good
user ratings (1) very good

Pros
Large screen. Outstanding battery life.
Cons Not good for gaming. Display resolution too small for 1080p. No USB 3.0 ports.
Bottom Line
With a roomy display and a good selection of hardware, the HP Pavilion dv7-6163us offers more than a typical mainstream system—but a full-blown (and full-powered) desktop replacement it is not.

Not good for gaming. DARN! (OK, if you know me my gaming consists of Spider Solitare, which came with it BTW). It is more powerful than a similar sized laptop a friend bought as a backup for his business use few years ago for $2500. That's about my style, not the latest and greatest but a good bang for the buck.

I decided to mess with the old Dell. Took the hard drive out (only 2 screws!) and put it in an external hard drive enclosure I have. I had to take the HD out of the enclosure, but no big deal. Just 2 more screws. Put it in, plugged it into my desktop, and it fired right up. I can't pull data off it, but I can see it. More hmmmm.... I can buy a rebuilt mother board for $139. I may risk it and see if I can get this one to work again so I can pull some data off it. If I can it would be a great laptop for the shop. Or I may just set it next to the older Dell laptop I have on a shelf someplace.

2011-08-07T06:52:00.001-05:00

I've been away from the office for a few days at a family reunion. I'm told we are unusual in doing what we do and how we do it, so maybe I should describe what has been going on. Let me start with some family background.

My grandfather was raised in southern Illinois. His grandfather moved there from Kentucky. Things were tough southeast of Mt Vernon in the early 1900's. I've heard stories of how great-grandpa lost 20 acres because he could not pay the loan for it. I think if he had $40 he could have saved the ground.

Two of Gramps brothers had gone north to work in the flatlands of Illinois between Mattoon and Arcola, When he was about 16 Gramps had completed his education (all 8 grades). So pretty much carrying everything he owned Gramps went north. Today it's not a big deal, if we want to travel a hundred miles or so. We jump in our car or truck and in a couple hours or less we are there.. Back then it was a grand adventure. In todays society they might have well moved halfway across the country. It was a whole different world. Gramps moved north, found work, married, and started farming with one of his brothers.

I have trouble imagining life back then. For instance ... and I'm not sure if this was before or after he married ... the farmer he worked for hired a crew to harvest. Corn was picked by hand, thrown in a wagon, pulled by horses to the crib where it was scoped off. The farmer had taken a liking to Gramps, so when they got down to the last 40 acres he dismissed everyone else and told Gramps he had a job all winter picking that 40 acres by himself.

Imagine picking 40 acres by hand by yourself being a good thing.

Gramps and Grandma worked, struggled, and saved. I'm not sure about this, but I get the impresson Grandma's Dad was not necessarily impressed with his young guy from the hills of southern Illinois. His parents (grandparents?) had come to the US from Germany. They had planned on settling around Memphis, but when they got there their horses were stolen so they decided to come on north where there was a German community and settled north of Mattoon.

Like I said, Gramps started farming with one of his brothers. They saved up enough money to buy a tractor. They ordered it, and before it came in the bank failed. Gramps had to borrow the money (I think from his father-in-law) to pay for it. Saving the money was hard enough without having to pay for your first tractor twice!

Gramps got the chance to rent part of a farm on the edge of the Wabash River bottoms. 200 acres of flat , mostly developed ground a little over 60 miles away. I remember Dad telling how Gramps had rented the farm but the folks living in the house didn't have to move until almost Spring. Gramps came down with his tractor and plow and slept in the corn crib while he did fall work. More of that stuff I have trouble imagining. He rented a farm a full days drive on an old tractor in a place he didn't know anyone! They lived there a few years (2 or 3 I think) and then moved back north. A couple years later the farm came up for sale. 600 acres in one spot. Mr Buckner (the lawyer ...from Decatur I think) urged him to buy it. Gramps had to take out a second mortgage to buy 200 acres he bought.

Anyway, I am wondering away from the family reunion, but I had to tell you most of that to get here. Grampa had 5 brothers. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but 40 years ago the brothers and their families met for a reunion in a city park in Charleston, Illinois (close to where most of them settled) At some point they decided to have it back home. When Great-Grandpa died they inherited the farm together. Rather than sell it they decided to keep it. for the family.

I won't get into the current ownership, it will be a confused mess one of these days. But we come back every August for a family reunion. The old house is still here. It really isn't fit for habitation but it's OK for a few days. Several years ago a "bath house" was built. It has shower, toilet, etc with a men's side and a ladies side. We have a pavilliion )in other words a small tool shed with no side walls and a concrete floor. Over the years projects have included wiring pedestals for campers and running municipal water to hydrants strategically placed near the camper pedestals. There is no internet, almost no cell phone service. A couple years ago we were down here painting the house. I was 40 feet up in a bucket truck and could not get a signal,

As I set writing this early Friday morning we have 6 campers, a tent, and one family in the house, By Saturday evening I expect that to triple. You can't imagine spending several days with your extended family? I told you we were weird.

Right now there are 2-3 wheelers (ATV's), 2-4 wheelers, and a Mule (not the 4 legged kind) here, I remember 30+ yeas ago having over 30 motorcycles here. I have to run. I'll write more later

It rained !

2011-07-30T06:00:00.005-05:00

I'm glad it rained. Not so much for me as for the grandsons. They should know what rain feels like.

OK, old joke and not true. But it has been a while since we got a general soaking rain. We got one last night. In the area of 3 inches, depending on where you are.

Last night started out kind of routine. Sue and I had been doing some yard work (OK, THAT wasn't routine either) and after we cleaned up were going to get a sandwich when they paged out WU EMT's for a single car rollover accident. We have gotten to the place we have a firetruck respond to calls like that, so Sue and I went to the scene while a couple firefighters brought a truck. We were doing better than the EMT's who had a Paramedic but the rest of the crew wee a few minutes away. No problem, get the ambulance to the scene and I can drive it if need be.

Short story, the rest of the crew responded to the scene, they had a crew and I was relieved (in more ways than one). While that was going on the Deputy got a call about a woman wondering around in some trees and a corn field north of town. A couple of us responded there as well to help.

Did I mention it was just starting to rain as the ambulance pulled out?

By the time we made the second scene it was raining like 2 cows and one rock. (if you don't understand that we'll have to explain it privately). The Deputy and I found her, Deb (the Deputy) got her in the car and took care of her, and we went home, got a dry shirt, and ate supper. Then we started shutting down irrigators.

We're setting along the road waiting for a break in the rain when Becky calls Sue. Mom called her with water running in the basement. It seems water was coming in places it doesn't normally leak. One was the main breaker panel.

We didn't know about that until Mom had some strange happenings in the kitchen. Aman went to check the breakers and got bit. Then he noticed the water dripping out of the box. So we spent our evening vacuuming water and unloading the refrigerator and fun stuff like that.

I needed to find a photo for this post and couldn't find any. But in the process I realized that 2 months ago we were helping an older couple from church with storm damage

and that limb is still on their garage roof. I think it may be time for a friend to go shake their insurance guy's tree.

Not the greatest way to start your week

2011-07-25T23:40:00.000-05:00

I went to a funeral this morning. Not the greatest way to start your week. Dad's sister lost her battle with cancer. The funeral was in a little country church a little over an hour drive from here. It was also in a different time zone, so it was an hour earlier for us than it was there. I was kind of impressed with the number of family friends who had to leave home by 7:00 AM to get there. And some got up a lot earlier.

But something that really impressed me, and I thought spoke highly of my aunt's friends, was something I bet a lot didn't see or realize. Like I said, it was a small country church. It was a standing room only crowd. Repeatedly I saw men get up and offer their seat to a lady standing along the wall. You don't see such chivalry too much any more.

I was also impressed with the number of vehicles that were pulled to the side of the road and stopped until the procession passed.

This has to be particularly trying on her family as a week ago her mother in law was buried.

Having been on the receiving end when dad died I tried not to use the same old expression everyone uses. I didn't ask "How are you?" or "How you doing?" How would you expect them to be? Then there is "I know how you feel..." If you did you would know better than to say something like that. Sometimes all you can say is "We'll miss her, too."

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day.

Back after a long abscence

2011-07-16T05:58:00.001-05:00

OK, maybe it wasn't THAT long. Frontier DSL was a very bad thing to say for a couple weeks around here unless you wanted to be scowled at. I was a bit hard to get along with. Sue was so tired of hearing about it you REALLY didn't want to mention it around her. But they have it fixed and working like it should and life is wonderful and the grass is green and the sky is blue.

So after being unable to post for two weeks what do I start with?

On the farm page I mentioned some tractors. Let' start with a few photos. I have over 60 photos on my cell phone since I last posted

I really wished I had a real camera with me when I saw this. It was back lighted cloud late in the evening. The cloud had a glow around it. It doesn't show very good in a cell phone photo, but we'll try it.

Here is a car I tried to convince Sue she needed

It's basically big blue street legal golf cart.

She wasn't impressed.

Speaking of golf carts, we found this for sale near Effingham.

She wasn't impressed with it either.

It looks like someone took either a Geo Tracker or a Suzuki or such and put and EZGo body on top of it. The radiator as been moved to the back to protect it. I bet it could fling mud!

How about a few July 4 photos? My perspective of the parade is usually from the back. So I get folks as they are pulling out.

LOOK OUT! Noble is driving!

And I am told it may not have been the best day to be walking in costume over your regular clothes

And we of course need a few horses

But things always end well with a few fireworks

Well that was interesting ....

2011-06-26T07:43:00.001-05:00

Something went POP just outside the house during a storm last night. I'm looking things over before calling the insurance agent and an electrician Monday morning. I've not ventured out to get a meter yet, so I've just observing what is obvious.

Right now the back porch original outlets, back bathroom lights and original outlets, front bathroom lights and outlets, east kitchen outlets, basement lights, and furnace do not work. I unplugged the water heater.

We have one circuit on breaker #11 that doesn't do anything. Our draft induced gas water heater is on breaker #17. If I turn off #11 with #17 on something buzzes in the water heater. I disconnected it and turned off both breakers. I discovered this morning the furnace/air conditioner (#26) is not working either, and the breaker is turned on. I observed an LED night light in the back bathroom is flickering when plugged into one outlet, but not when plugged into a different one on a different breaker.

Let's see, did I get the fire insurance paid ?

edit: It appears the problem is the main disconnect switch. It has 120 volts coming in both lines, but only one line coming out has 120. The other is dead. Our noises were from backfeeding through some 240 volt appliances. Once I disconnected them the noise quit.

Hutsonville High School multi-year reunion

2011-06-19T06:00:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure that was the official title, but that was the net effect Saturday evening. They blocked of part of Main Street and had food and music and a silent auction ... actually kind of impressive for a small town like Hutsonville.

There were people from as far away as Washington (state and DC) and New Hampshire and Florida ... and I think I failed to get a photo of any of those folks! Did get folks from Texas and St Louis

A good time was had by all

Maybe more some than others

I'm just sure he used to be younger than her ...

Not sure what I am allowed to say ...

2011-06-16T08:07:00.001-05:00

Not sure what I am allowed to say, so I'll just post a photo and let you wonder

An email I sent this weekend

2011-06-13T06:01:00.000-05:00

I don't like tooting my own horn very much. I stopped to help a couple guys with a flat tire and one of them asked me to drop him an email. I said I would, but what do I write? "Here it is, hope your spare didn't go flat."? They had stopped part way up the hill north of Walnut Prairie with most of the car still on the road with a flat. Awkward, but manageable ... until they didn't set the parking brake on their front wheel drive car and it rolled off the jack shortly after removing the wheel. Here's what I wrote:

David,

Hope you guys made it to Marshall OK. Your request I drop you an email caused me to ponder on why I do things like that. I don't do things like that looking for recognition. If I hadn't told you I would send you an email I would have just driven off into the sunset. OK, so what do I say in this email? Let me tell you why I showed up, and a bit about my town.

We were setting at home when we heard the ambulance called to a neighbor's home. West Union is a small community. (http://westunion.blogspot.com) My wife and I know the patient, we know the Paramedic and the EMT driving. So when Bill called in a 10-46 (disabled vehicle) as they were in route to the hospital we knew there was something special about the situation. My wife turned to me and said "You're going to go check on that, aren't you?" It really was more of a statement than a question. That's why I showed up. Jamie and Avery Booth stopped because they saw a car with a problem a half mile from their house and my truck setting there.

As it says on the West Union Facebook page (www.facebook.com/pages/West-Union-Illinois/118405071514792) "There is a special attitude in West Union. The park, library, community center, the Fire Department, the Christian Church Mission fund, all these things testify to that 'We can do it' attitude." It is an interesting little town. Population around 300, it has 3 restaurants and a carry out pizza place, plus it's the first town east of Moonshine (www.themoonshinestore.com/). West Union has a fantastic Library for the size the town is. Its operating budget is about twice what its tax revenue is. It has the largest t-shirt shop on ebay (www.honeville.com) plus a few other businesses.There are 3 churches in West Union (The Christian Church has a web site at www.wucc.us) And how many towns have their own guided missile?

I mentioned the ambulance. West Union has an ambulance based there. We had 4 Paramedics staffing it on a volunteer basis. After an accident last fall cost us the life of one we are down in numbers but still going. (http://westunion.blogspot.com/2010/10/west-union-paused-this-week.htmll)

So stop by again some time on your way through. We can do most anything but fix a tire.

Mike Bumpus

www.BumpusFarms.US
http://walnutprairie.blogspot.com

2011-06-10T22:11:00.001-05:00

Isn't this a beautiful car?

BMW Z 4

It was setting about 2 1/2 miles east of West Union last week. All week. Right there in the middle of the road. On the hump bridge. Family members know the field beside it as Maxine's 40.

Perhaps you were watching the river stages last week?

Seems the driver either was off his meds or needs meds. He parked the car there and walked to town. Eventually he ended up laying in someone's yard going "I'm not crazy" over and over. By then the water was too high to recover it. I don't know if the river got inside it, but it had to be close. Edington's came after it late this week.

I'm kind of curious what Google will do with this. I posted on BumpusFarms.US and mentioned irrigating. After I posted it some ads popped up for irrigation suppliers on the blogspot dashboard. Maybe I should put in a few random words, Could be interesting.

How's you week been ?

2011-06-05T06:03:00.022-05:00

Well, let's see ... here are a few photos from this week:

(This is a photo of nothing.

That's what Mom saw in the garage Monday

morning when she went looking for Dad's golf cart)

This was at the end of the field. It was related to the golf cart being missing

Tuesday Cole helped me pick up 4 tree tops plus several limbs that blew out of trees along a field.

Amazing how far some pretty good size limbs blew, all in a straight line

Oh, and I forgot to mention Old Molly.

Aman and Kent were planting a test plot beside the pizza place with the 560 and the six row planter. The voltage regulator came off (still unsure how) and shorted out. Caused a bit of excitement. They unhooked and finished with the 966. We haven't had time to go drag it out of the field.

Thursday the fertilizer spreader truck got stuck about 75 feet east of where I got stuck Friday

We have a beautiful stand of no-till corn right across from the landlord's house. Except the fertilizer applicator forgot the 3 acres west of the lane .. with fertilizer, herbicide, and insecticide. I called Thursday and told the manager I was going to spray it myself with glyphosate but don't have time. Could they do it? We're still not sure what happened.

They've thought on it, checked their records, looked at what was sprayed previous, nothing makes any sense. Current thinking is some kind of problem with mixing two oil based products, sunshine and heat and fast growing corn. Anyway, something about the application had bad effects on corn

Anyplace there was an overlap the corn was this bad or worse. The skips looked pretty good, except so did the grass.

So Saturday I dug up a near perfect stand and replanted it.

At least it was only 3 acres. The Syngenta chemical rep said he had looked at lots of fields with similar problems sprayed on Wednesday and Thursday.

The week wasn't all bad, it's just the difficulties seem to stand out in my mind this week ... and I don't have many photos of the good things on my phone.

On the bright side we got recovered the golf cart, Mom's surveillance cameras and recorder were installed, we found Cole (long story), we planted more seed production, we're "sorta done" with corn planting (still have second planting on seed corn and commercial corn depends on how fast the ground behind Mom's dries out ), Becky's surgery went well, nobody was hurt and nothing broken, the river crested and started back down,.

Maybe I should concentrate on taking photos of good things next week.

"Did you take the golf cart?"

2011-05-30T21:28:00.004-05:00

'Hello"

"Did you take the golf cart?"

"No..."

"Well, the garage door is open and it is missing."

"Call the Sheriff, I'll be right over

So we were at plan B before I even left home.

On the way there Mom called. Someone she knows called to tell her there was a pickup stuck in the field south of her house.

He'd been asked to pull it out, but he didn't have that capability.

Short version, the golf cart has been recovered.

The young man who 'borrowed' the golf cart apparently also "borrowed" the truck and enough gas money to fill the tank several times. The owner of the truck was not as ... ummmm ... understanding as Mom.

Mom now has a infrared camera system with a DVR controller/recorder. It looks similar to this:

It sees in the dark, records when motion is detected, and if we can get it figured out can be accessed online.

Are ya busy ?

2011-05-26T17:52:00.001-05:00

Cell phone rings.

"I'm up here at (oldest couple in church)'s house. They really have a mess. Could you bring up your bucket truck?"

What am I going to do, say no?

"Do we need to bring a truck to haul with?"

"Probably would be a good idea"

So Aman and I loaded up and headed toward Marshall. I didn't take enough pictures. As we neared the first curve south of Marshall we saw a shed roof upside down. Across the road a metal tank was on its side up against a building. At the edge of town the old barn at Jane Strohm's no longer needed torn down, just picked up. The house had damages as well.

The south end of town kind of looked like a war zone. Trees down, buildings torn up, and it all looked like straight line winds, No rotation, everything fell the same direction.

Here are a couple views from the bucket truck.

East of town on Vine street a shed was scattered across a field.

Marshall Utilities assisted by City of Casey trucks were replacing over a half dozen poles on the highway just north of the first street in town.

You saw a lot of this around town

Oh, and I have proof Aman was working

We did what we could for them. There is still a big limb on the garage, but they were told it was best to leave it until the insurance adjuster could see it.

But as far as I know nobody was injured. And it looks like Marshall made out pretty well. Look here at some photos from around the Wabash Valley

Lenore would not have liked it

2011-05-21T20:15:00.000-05:00

I planted 2 fields at the Prust house last week. Lenore would not have liked it. Too cold ... too wet ... and I didn't work it.

No, she wouldn't have liked this:

I planted them without doing any tillage

There were a few places I kind of doubted my sanity

One of the problems was caused by old wheat straw.

In some places the straw was so rotten it just tore off the roots. I found slowing to 3 1/2 MPH let the straw work through.

No, Lenore would not have liked it.

Tractor Drive results

2011-05-08T08:07:00.000-05:00

I think everyone considered it a success. If you want pictures I suggest going to http://www.schwartzkopf.org/david/2011_0430_TractorBenefit/index.html David came down from Indy and took over 330 photos.Tractors, people, West Union, Moonshine Store, LOTS off pictures. Here are a few

The auction raised over $20,000. The John Deere A brought $10,000

Over 50 tractors participated from as far away as Champaign. It was a good thing.

We're ready

2011-04-29T21:11:00.000-05:00

Aman and I have been trying to get some tractors ready for the tractor drive Saturday. I have promised a couple people a tractor to drive if they showed up. Kind of looks like they won't be able to, which may be just as well.

Since I am the first owner outside the Strohm family, I had this wild idea in the back of my mind to get the 3010 all fixed up and talk one of the Strohm family into driving it. It was running well, Aman and I replaced the generator and oil pressure indicator lights, put the hood on fired it up to make sure they worked, turned it off ... and that was the last time it ran.

We dragged (literally) the H and M out of Gramp's barn. They hadn't been started in probably a year. Aman aired the tires up, I put new batteries in them and the H fired right off. The M was a bit more contrary. I drained the gas out, (I threw a bucket full in the driveway and lit matches would not set it off. I finally held a butane grill lighter to it to get the old rotten gas to burn.) Aman replaced the plugs, nothing seemed to work. I told Aman "Dad's first words were always 'It's the points'" so we pulled the cap and rotor off and looked at them. Seemed to be OK. But as I went to replace the rotor I noticed it was rusty. I took it to the steel brush wheel and polished it up. Put it together and she fired right up.

I've washed and cleaned and degreased and cleaned ... didn't get so nuts as to wax anything ... the H and M. We got to looking, the H has been run 3 hours since 2007.

Aman brought his B John Deere down,

I jumped on the M,

and we took them to Husi's to be closer to the park Saturday morning. Later we took the H down just in case someone else wanted a tractor to drive. I considered taking Baby (the little 4 wheel drive tractor) but it has duals all around and might be difficult on a tractor drive. But if it is cold Saturday morning I might change my mind.

I was feeling pretty good yesterday

2011-04-27T22:34:00.000-05:00

It had not rained all day. The sun came out. The wind blew. It was a great day. Sue and I were watching "Have Gun Will Travel" and I fell asleep on the couch. I was REALLY disappointed to wake up to the sound of rain. So what has it been like this week? Here's some pictures to give you an idea.

Mill Creek south of Walnut Prairie

This was Tuesday. It's higher now.

In case you can't read it, the sign says road closed during wet weather....

Early Easter present

2011-04-18T06:00:00.002-05:00

G'ma went shopping and found a present for the boys she couldn't pass up. So she got it and gave it to them early. She found a cardboard playhouse you can also color on. I think it was a hit.

The only problem is it walks around

I guess nothing is perfect

Random thoughts

2011-04-14T06:00:00.001-05:00

I thought about just posting the title "Random Thoughts" and leaving the text blank.

I've been having trouble with ringing in my ears, and one of the suggestions I have heard is cut out caffeine. So we're in the process of cutting down ... possibly eliminating caffeine. I've had a headache most of the day, but don't know if it is caffeine or sinuses. I know better than just go cold turkey. I did that once. After about 3 days folks re going "Let me buy you a Coke"

*****

I yelled at some kids in church Wed night. I assist with a Jr High class. Don't teach, just set in and offer words of wisdom ... OK, I just set in. After spending all day in school the kids can be a bit rowdy. Anyway, at the close of class Michael has a prayer time. We voice concerns then stand in a circle and pray.Well, kids being kids they were horsing around while Michael prayed. After he finished I .. ummm ... well ..I asked them what prayer was? When they replied talking with God I explained how disappointed I was with their behavior and told them to leave. They were the quietest they had been all night.

*****

Need picture. How about some flowers? My phone doesn't focus like I wish it did.

Because I didn't have any bricks ....

2011-04-08T19:25:00.001-05:00

I've been feeding Cynthia

and the cats (well, I think there are cats. I have only seen one cat and he was even halfway friendly after a week alone) while Aman and Becky have been in Florida with his Dad and family. Get mail, feed and water dog, check freezer and refrigerator, feed and water cats, clean litter box if needed ... kind of gets to be a routine. Thursday I get the mail and start to the house when Bill from Bunker Hill stops to discuss a couple fields. After we talk a bit he looks up at the top of the garage and says "What's that?".

"That" was the ridge cap coming loose.

So I got the ladder out and climbed up and looked at it. I came back down after looking at it and hit the bottom step. It went SNAP and felt rather unpleasant.

Fortunately it was the bottom rung and broke but I didn't go through it.
(Note to Aman: burn the ladder)

So ... what to do? I looked for nails. DIdn't see any. Probably very close to me but I didn't see them. But I did see a piece of angle iron. Hmmmm...

Now, to most people my title for this may not make any sense. But to those of us who knew Dad and have been around the chemical building and the oil shed it makes a lot of sense. When Dad had trouble with shingles not sealing he would put a brick on them to hold them down. Very rarely did he remove the bricks.

By the way, trees are blooming in Darwin.

It's a great day!

2011-04-01T08:13:00.002-05:00

The sun is shining, it's 78 degrees with an ever so slight breeze, the birds are singing, it looks like an unbelievably great week or two

Oh, and it's April 1

Right Now

	Today	Tonight


Mostly Cloudy	Showers	Partly Cloudy
37°F	55°	34°

edit: Sue and I both got hailed on today! I was in Marshall, she was in Robinson !

You got the color right

2011-03-29T05:48:00.002-05:00

Yes, we are done truck shopping for a while. Aman and I had been truck shopping last week. We looked at everything from Rangers to Hummers but nothing really jumped out and said to me "I can do things for the farm that are not being done". Until Saturday. Saturday I went to Shannon's auction. I was kind of interested in his truck.

2006 GMC Sierra 2500HD w/ SLT pkg, Black 4-dr, 4WD, Duramax/Allison, tires 95%, short bed, leather int., 5th wheel hitch, alum wheels, 90,xxx miles, Bose stereo, capt. chairs, console, rear bench seat, all power ... a really nice truck. I just checked, retail Blue Book on it is $32,000.

I'd said all along the only way I'd buy a black truck was if it was a REALLY good deal. I bid it to $19,000 It went for just a little more than that. A REALLY good deal. Just one I wasn't comfortable with.

There was also some consignment equipment. 2002 Ford F-550, Corn Pro gooseneck trailer, Cat D-4 dozer. I'd looked at them ... not too seriously but they were setting there and I looked them over. And the more I looked at the truck and trailer the more I thought "This could do some things for us we can't do right now." I got an idea in my head of my top dollar amount ... and got both of them.

The fact it is red didn't hurt.

Truck shopping

2011-03-25T19:40:00.002-05:00

Quick update: I'm not shopping any more. The story and photos Monday. I'll say it up front, I hate truck shopping. I know, I know, Sue and the kids are going "WHAT? We have spent YEARS looking at trucks!" Yes, but looking and shopping are different. I have been contemplating if it is time to replace little red. It has 180,000 miles on it and is probably going to start costing some money before too long for repairs. So Thursday Aman and I had to go to Terre Haute for some things so we looked at trucks in a more serious manner. Looking the trucks over, talking to salesmen, getting prices, giving my phone number ... actual shopping.

Part of the problem is I don't know for sure what I want. I have had everything from a basic 2 wheel drive short bed Ranger to a 6X6 with a service bed dually and everything in between. I can argue the benefits of all of them. I'm sure this is equally frustrating for the salesmen. In fact, my only criteria is if it is black it is going to have to be one heck of a deal.

Our first stop was in Marshall. LT as a 4 door 3/4 ton 4 wheel drive diesel.

Great truck for hauling people and pulling a camper. However fuel mileage, even as a diesel, is probably under 15 MPG.

We stopped at Honda, they had one truck and it was black.

The GMC dealer had several choices, but none tripped my trigger .. well, except for the diesel with the new service bed. Can you say $40,000+? We went across the street.

Dorsett's have a truck I am attracted to. A used Nissan Titan extended cab

20,000 miles, very recent trade in. We got to see it before it was detailed. A little more plain that some others but nice. They also had a Hummer H3

We took it for a test drive. I was impressed. "Course, I should be. This one had ALL the bells and whistles included a few thousand dollars worth of wheels and tires. Seriously. I could work out of it. And the color is right. If it only had a tow package.

Down the street Ford has a 2006 Hummer WITH a tow package. Pretty Blue. It was tempting.

We looked at Chevy, nothing there really interesting. We did look at new basic trucks. They call them work trucks. I think it might be better to buy a basic work truck new than most of the used ones we saw.

Then came back to the Nissan dealer. We drove a used Ford, looked at a new Frontier. But no decision was made. The salesman did call me today to see if he could help me.

Don't tell anyone, but I'm seriously considering going back to look at the blue Hummer again. The idea intrigues me. It would pull the camper. It's 4WD, It would carry me, others, and tools. Nobody would mistake me for someone else driving another one of those dirt brown Chevies. To be honest, the Hummer is the only thing we have looked at that jumps out at me and says "This could be better than what you have." However I haven't looked into where it would have to go for service. It could be like a VW. Great car if you were 75 miles closer to a dealer.

But who knows. I might go to Shannon's sale tomorrow and buy the old Dodge.

I may have a new favorite singing group

2011-03-20T14:27:00.000-05:00

I like Big Daddy Weave, I really do. But this song by High Valley really makes the keyboard hard to see

And this one isn't bad

And then there is this one

Here is a mix

Big Daddy Weave ... in Albion ?

2011-03-15T21:00:00.000-05:00

Aman and I were coming through Albion today when I saw a sign ... just one ... that really caught my eye.

BIG DADDY WEAVE IS COMING TO ALBION !

Big Daddy Weave is hitting the road in March for the “Love Come to Life” tour, featuring special guests American Idol Season Six finalist Chris Sligh and breakout new artist Luminate. The tour begins on March 25th in Palos Heights, IL, and wraps up May 8th in Ahoskie, NC.

OK, that may not excite everyone. I've been a fan of their since I first heard them. They are performing in Albion March 27 at 7 PM. I may have to skip church that evening.

For a sample crank your speakers up and go to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEUsyvejlOY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70xy8sPEE4

2011-03-08T21:45:00.002-06:00

No pretty pictures this time. Sometime my mind wanderings get into deep theology. Here is part of a discussion I am involved in ... from a farm forum no less. On one forum I frequent a question was raised about church. Here are portions of the original post:

"Our kids started church here when they were very young and it seems like them and some of the other long time members kids are kind of being accused of being territorial and not very welcoming to new possible members. Our kids have been taught to hold themselves to a high standard. If you think that someone might be trouble then steer clear, they are overall well-behaved and willing to help with about anything you ask, work hard and you really would be hard pressed to find a better bunch of kids. Ministers and youth leaders I think are led to try to bring in any and everyone who needs help as they should, but the rub is that my kids know these kids from school and the community and have a hard time believing that they are sincere after seeing them in real life in other places. After I have told my kids all of their lives to be selective about who you are around should I just say nevermind? The real mission of our church is to bring the Word of GOD to as many people as we can but I'm pretty sure that the more needy folks you bring in the less that the long time members will want to participate."

We could have a long discussion on just that last sentence. But let's blend that in with a couple things my online friend Kay said:

"some people are very territorial and closed-minded and -hearted when it comes to accepting people into their church. ... Being "selective"' in your personal life - who you associate with in school and who you bring into your home - is not necessarily the same as who you want to welcome into your church. Isn't church supposed to be where people go to remake their lives, to be forgiven, to be welcomed into loving arms? Jesus was not too selective, was he?   It is two-faced to teach one thing, and practice another. It is the classic example of hypocrisy. "

So many thoughts rattling around in my head. I'm probably not going to do a good job expressing any of them. I remember reading someplace that nobody is perfect. I think the implications are some are even farther away than others.    I don't have a good answer about how to handle others with a less than desireable history. I guess it depends on how sincere you feel they are. If the kids think they are sincere how they ought to relate to them is a lot different than if they think they are just cming to church meet the opposite sex or if they are just coming for the free cookies and milk.

What is the real mission of the church? Is it to reach out and bring others in? Is it to do good? I have a viewpoint that many will have trouble with. The real mission of the church is to worship God. Nothing more, nothing less. But here is where it gets interesting. When we look through the New Testament we see Jesus say "Feed my sheep". We see phrases like fruits of the Spirit. We see talk about faith and works. We read in James that if we have faith but it doesn't show up in how we act our faith is worthless.

If the church is fulfilling it's real mission (worshipping God) it is going to show up as actions. Not necessarily by the church as an organized body but the church as the people involved in it. At the end of James chapter 2 we read:

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

That is a very, very theologically deep sentence. Where I'm going with all this is if the church is really fulfilling its mission to worship God it cannot help but do the things we see as reaching out to the ... I hesitate to say "lost" but it most quickly gets the point across ... and helping develop them as followers of the faith.

In the Book of Revelation we see various churches mentioned. It is commonly accepted these were real churches but also they were examples for us to study and take note of. One of the things they tell us is a church can mess up. The church is made up of imperfect people, people who do things wrong and mess up.

I was at a conference a few years ago with a speaker from a large fundamentalist denomnation. He said the average church lasts 100 years. His denomination, rather than try and fix a dying church, would just start up a new one nearby.   I understand from a human standpoint that is the quickest and easiest solution, but I'm a farmer who was raised to never throw away anything that had potential of good in it. I think the same of people and churches.

The difficulty comes when we try and reform the folk who have become so set in their ways they don't realize their attempts at doing right are becoming a hindrance to others. I see that happening in my church. The new preacher is advocating some actions, some changes in how the church does things. The problem I'm not sure he realizes yet is some long time, raised in this church members see it as saying Dad and Uncle and Friend were wrong because the didn't "do church" that way. I think that is why the denomination I mentioned just starts over. It avoids the hinderance of history.

I'm wondering away from where we started. Let's look at one more thing.   "Being "selective"' in your personal life - who you associate with in school and who you bring into your home - is not necessarily the same as who you want to welcome into your church. Isn't church supposed to be where people go to remake their lives, to be forgiven, to be welcomed into loving arms?" How do you (and your kids) do both? We are warned in 1st Corinthians 15:33 not to be tricked by false words, that evil company does damage to good behaviour. As I said earlier, I don't have a good answer. If they are sincere then we have an obligation to help them grow and mature.

I've taken a lot of space and still haven't gotten to some of the issues or answers.   I'm not sure there are good answers.

Sue and I finally did it ...

2011-03-01T07:56:00.000-06:00

Yes, Sue and I finally did it .. we joined an organization together.

We have talked about it for a long time. To be honest, our only limitation has been adding another item to our schedule. But sometimes it boils down to "If you aren't part of the solution you are part of the problem."

The problem is we are among the younger members of the local organization ... possibly of the national organization. I keep hearing how the younger generation is more "socially conscious". Perhaps, but it seems to me the younger generation is also less community involved.

I told someone once part of the community's problem is the Deans and Dicks are dying and not being replaced. Not "The Dean" as a position, but Dean as in Dean Strohm and Dean Monk and even Dean Clatfelter (even as eccentric as he was). Dick as in Richard Strohm, Richard Chapman, Richard Cline ... and my Dad.

Nobody is stepping up to take their place. Our community is suffering because of it.

So I can be part of the problem or part of the solution.

What about you?

Apple TV

2011-02-25T21:44:00.003-06:00

Ever watch TV on a hockey puck? For my birthday Jim sent me an Apple TV. Looks like a square hockey puck

You plug an HDMI cable between it and the TV, then plug in a power cord. It connects through our wireless router to DSL and accesses the internet. You can stream movies, TV shows, music, photos, and more.

We've been watching Netflix for a long time. A lot of movies, but the main thing we watch are TV series we don't have access to, things like shows from ABC and Sci-Fi networks. But until now the instant view hasn't been possible. Even with Wild Blue streaming movies didn't work. But with this it works. You can even watch YouTube.

The biggest trouble is convincing Sue that Netflix won't charge us any more for using the instant views and Frontier won't charge any more for the downloads. Well actually I was a bit unconvinced myself until I checked with both to make sure.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go watch a Hillary Duff movie

Church Leaders Conference

2011-02-19T21:26:00.003-06:00

It's been a long day but a good one. Terry, Morgan, and I pulled out about 5:30 this morning and headed for Lincoln, Illinois for a church leader's conference at Lincoln Christian University (http://www.lincolnchristian.edu/)
Bob Lowery spoke, and he was good.
My photos weren't so good

We also caught up with Gary Sheets. He was looking very good

(a LOT better than my photo of him)

Bob was really showing the effects of his medical problems. Motorcycle accident, then cancer, physically he wasn't 100%. He would speak from the podium a while, then sit and talk, then get up again. It was actually more effective than just standing at the podium ... although Bob was not known for that. Mentally he was as good as ever. Here are a few quotes:

"I have turned my soapboxes into kindling wood."

"Sometimes the question has more than one answer."

"Leaders are shepherds, not cowboys."

"I am an unhyphenated Christian."

"Grace makes things a little messy."

"The older I've gotten and the more I've studied, my core values have shrank."

"We are a culture obsessed with titles ... I'm really bugged by some of you who want the title Senior Pastor ... if you are going to use certain titles be sure you understand the consequences ... I've found nothing in the Bible giving that title to anyone but Jesus."

DSL

2011-02-15T20:32:00.000-06:00

Thursday evening a telemarketer from Frontier called wanting to sign me up for DSL. I told him he better check his map again, it wasn't available n my area. He said yes, it was, it had just been opened up. So I signed up.

Well, Monday we got 'er done. Everett unplugged the ethernet from the WB modem to the router and abandoned it. Then we replaced the router I had with the new router from Frontier. He changed a few wires in the phone system, plugged the router in to my phone jack (I had installed a 2 outlet phone jack when I set my office up because at the time I was still on dialup) and that part was done. We had DSL to the local office.

We just couldn't get to the internet.

He talked to his suppport people wherever they are. They ran tests which took way too long and the results totally confused them. They handed us off to other folks who ran more tests and were confused. We spent the rest of the day figuring out the folks who put the stuff in the local office had some wires crossed. Once he figured that out and drove down and fixed them things went to working.

The biggest problem I have had so far involves email. We use gmail and access it with Mozilla Thunderbird. As I understand it Outlook would have the same trouble.

Everything worked until I tried to send an email. It would not go. My smtp server was taking too long to respond. THAT'S when it's really handy to have a brother who is a professional geek. (and I am going to use terms I don't understand, I'm just repeating things) Smtp uses port 25 to send email, DSL for some reason closes access to port 25. No big deal, you go to gmail an turn on IMAP and then set up an account in Thunderbird to access IMAP. SInce I never removed my read messages from gmail they were all there. I could send test messages to Bob, worked pefectly. We declared it done and I took my wife to supper.

When I came home I discovered it had downloaded and removed all the mail in my gmail account inbox ... all 28,606 of them. I now had 28,606 emails in my Thunderbird inbox. I had a new copy of every email for the last several years.

Fortunately I got a lot of RAM memory in my desktop when I bought it. Unfortunately, when you are dealing with 28,000 email it doesn't matter. Filtering, sorting, deleting .. it all ties up your resources.

So how does it work? It makes AgTalk lightning fast. Oddly enough, some sites are no faster than they were on WB. I think that tells me the bottleneck is on their end. But so far other than my gmail problems the only real change is it works faster most of the time. And I'm not falling asleep while the pages load (really, I have done that with WB!)

I'm still tweeking the email part of things. I'm very tempted to just erase it all and start over again. Then I come to my senses.

Don't forget it is Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T06:30:00.000-06:00

Yes, I did ...

You're getting WHAT ?

2011-02-13T22:45:00.000-06:00

Frontier marketer called Thursday evening wanting to set us up with DSL. I said "Sure .... better check your map again."

He did, and we are supposed to have it available. 3 times the speed we have with Wildblue for 2/3 the cost. Actually a little less than that even because we will have unlimited US long distance, so we can cancel that service. Supposed to be here Monday to get us going. I'm skeptical but hopeful.

Jill was home for a couple days. Never long enough, never get said all the things you want to say or do all the things you want to do. When she and Jim come home I try to kind of be available but out of the way

Jr church was interesting today. I printed out my notes, which included a recipe for making dough out of salt and flour for a lesson illustration. I sure wish I knew where I put them. So I winged it. It was a little more difficult than usual because Brenda is recovering from surgery and wasn't there. I forgot how much we relied on her to keep things rolling. Our lesson was on salt and light. For the light I had some chemical light sticks .. turned out I had one for each kid in class. THAT worked out pretty good.

My big project for the weekend was replacing the flapper valve (OK, the toilet flush valve repair kit) in the toilet tank. It was leaking just a little, just enough that while you were showering the fill valve would turn on and top the tank off. You always knew exactly when it happened.

One of my most treasured possessions ...

2011-02-08T21:38:00.031-06:00

On my wall is one of my most treasured possessions. It's really kind of unremarkable. Probably wouldn't bring a quarter at a yard sale. It's just a wooden plaque with a paper glued to it. But you'd have to talk some pretty big money to get me to part with it.

It reads like this:

To dad, this is the first father's day I haven't been there for. In remembrance of the years I was ...

When I was 1, well, I don't remember being one. But I know you were around. I saw the pictures.

When I was 2 I was your little helper, I was all about that farm stuff.

When I was three, I became your BIG girl.

When I was four, you became just "dad".

When I was five, we made doggie dropping cookies and mom got embarrassed.

When I was six, I was a wild-child, the makings of a good tomboy, wanting to be like her dad.

When I was seven, school was easy, afternoons were great, and I waved when you drove by on a tractor.

When I was eight, you started delivering pizza's late at night in the big city.

When I was nine, you helped me build a tree house.

When I was ten, I was really kind of afraid if you.

When I was eleven, we got this dog named Sam ...

When I was twelve, you stuck me in a truck and said "drive".

When I was thirteen, you were completely unreasonable and didn't understand.

When I was fourteen, I finally realized how important my family heritage was.

When I was fifteen, I was introduced to the little pregnant roller skate by you, and learned not to "ride the clutch."

When I was sixteen, I realized you were always a farmer, and that farmers were really the smartest men alive, they just chose not to show it.

When I was seventeen you cried, hugged me, and got in the van and left me to be a big girl on my own.

When I was eighteen, I wished there was a good ole farm boy for me to marry so he could take over for you someday.

When I was nineteen, you finally grew up as much as I was.

Now I'm twenty, and it's your twenty-first father's day, rally the twenty-second since you knew you were going to be a daddy. I'm honored that you're proud of me, I'm glad I can be a big girl, i still look for Case International tractors in the field, I can drive a stick-shift, I know the value of a cold pop on a hot day and more importantly - the company that brings it, I appreciate the smells of harvest and maple trees, and I'm awed at your support. And you'll always be my daddy.

You can't imagine how tough that was to type.

It's difficult finding photos of her, she is usually the one holding the camera. Here are a couple...

She went to college in East Tennessee, and liked it so much she stayed.

I may never forgive Milligan College for that.

She's done some amazing stuff, volunteering, getting other folks to become involved, working with an adoption agency, teaching Jr High Sunday School, currently she manages grants, helping other folks help other folks. Plus working toward her Master's Degree.

No particular reason for my mind wonderings.

I was just setting here thinking about how far away East Tennesse is.

Washing machine repair

2011-02-04T21:12:00.002-06:00

OK, for any single guys who happen to be reading this, or perhaps married guys who haven't had the experience yet, let me explain something.

You know nothing about washing machines.

You may have been doing your own laundry for years, or may have never looked inside of one. Doesn't matter. Washing machines are a woman's domain.

Until it quits, then you better be an expert. Our Kenmore make everything cleaner with lots less water and soap miracle worker started making a funnier than usual noise. I said it that way because when this one starts the spin cycle It makes the windows rattle in my office. It make a little noise elsewhere, but there seems to be a direct link to my office.

When we first got it the laundry room had a concrete floor. Nothing vibrated. But when we moved the laundry room it was not on a wood beam floor. It didn't like the move and was constantly trying to walk back to the old laundry room.

I finally convinced the laundry lady to let me bolt it to the floor. It hasn't tried walking away since then.

But like I said, it started making a new noise, then it stopped making noise and flashed an error code. With clothes and water in the machine.

The laundry lady was not pleased.

So I did some diagnosis. OK, WE did some diagnosis. She found the owner's manual which wasn't a lot of help. The answer to almost everything is call Sears service. Well ... our local Sears store sells them, but they are not a service center. So I did some more looking and poking. The code (once we started looking at the right one) seemed to suggest a drain problem. I checked hoses, looked poked and prodded. I decided the either the drain pump motor or the relay on top of it was the culprit ... and finally noticed this big plug at the lowest point of the machine.

I said to myself "I bet that is a drain." So I got a couple buckets and drained it. Then I removed the plug all the way and found a debris screen in the inlet of the drain pump. In the debris screen I found this

(that's in a gallon ice cream bucket)

14 quarters, a similar number of dimes, several nickels and pennies, a couple ink pens, a 1/4 self-tapping screw driver adapter, a drywall screw, ear plugs, a push pin ... oh yeah, and a seam ripper and wedding ring. I was SURE GLAD to see the last two. Because I KNEW they were not in MY pockets.

I was a hero for finding the wedding ring.

I then pulled the inlet hose off and found a couple safety pins and such.

But we still hadn't figured out the problem. Like a dummy I put it all back together and tried it again. 15 minutes later, once we got all the water drained again, I took the pump apart. The impeller was broken. Probably some foreign object got into it ... like that screw driving adapter with all the extra marks on it like something beat on it for a while. Like an impeller.

Searsparts.com has 7 million parts. But none of these in stock in a store within 100 miles. So Monday our new $90 with shipping pump should be here. Before I install it I think I'll run the drain hose and check for dimes, etc. And then I can go back to knowing nothing about washing machines

You joined what ?

2011-01-30T21:45:00.002-06:00

I'm not much of a "joiner". I belong to my church, the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League), and Farm Bureau (you have to to buy insurance). I also belong to the Soybean Growers ... involved a seed company promo. But last week Sue and I joined the local Ruritan club.

OK, so what is Ruritan? Quoting the website http://ruritan.org "Ruritan is a civic service organization made up of local clubs in urban areas, small towns and rural communities.

Ruritan's purpose is to create a better understanding among people and through volunteer community service, make America's communities better places in which to live and work. The slogan of Ruritan is "Fellowship, Goodwill and Community Service." Club membership represents a cross-section of the community in which the club serves, and is not restrictive with regard to occupation, social position, or any other specific criteria.

Unlike most civic service organizations, Ruritan rarely has national programs. Rather, each club surveys its own community as to the needs of that community and then works to meet some of those needs."

Why did we join? Because Ruritan does good things and, well, to be honest the club needs us. The average age local member is probably on Social Security. If the club is to continue doing good it needs younger members. 3 of us joined last week. Linda is actively recruiting new members. Younger members. I anticipate this causing problems.

In a discussion with Keith Ray, the President of Lincoln Christian University, a few years ago he pointed out something I am finding more and more true. People older than I am will come to a meeting just because it is time for a meeting. People younger than I am will come to a meeting if there is a reason. After about the second meeting they attend where the who goal and purpose of the meeting was to have a meeting because it was meeting night they don't show up any more.

I've seen this concept proven time and time again, in meetings at LCU, in church meetings, in fire department meetings, in other organizational meetings. If things are not happening and a good reason shown for younger folks to invest their time they disappear.

The other thing is, younger members are going to want to try new and different things. Things that may have been tried 20 years ago and didn't work ... then. And they are going to speak up and ask questions. Good questions. Awkward questions. And old answers won't satisfy them.

I have been hesitant to join for a couple reasons. One, I have enough monthly meetings the way it is. And second, I am involved enough with what I'm doing already I don't need any more responsibilities. But the local club needs me and others if it is going to continue. Who knows, we might get some new blood involved in Ruritan that has not been involved in anything in the community. THAT would be great

The cemetery has an email address?

2011-01-23T21:16:00.001-06:00

Yes, the Walnut Prairie Cemetery has an email address. The new Cemetery Oversight Act requires the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) to have a Cemetery Oversight Database. The Act requires cemeteries to enter burial information into this database. The data is to be entered within ten business days of the burial.

So, I spent the afternoon trying to get myself up to speed and registering the cemetery. They want an email for the administrator. I thought about it, and decided to set up an email account for the cemetery. I could have used mine, but this way if anyone else should take over what I do the email address isn't mine. I went to gmail.com and 5 minutes later it was up and going. I set it to forward to my personal email account.

I then registered the cemetery with the Illinois Cemetery Oversight Database. At that point you discover you have to pre-pay for burial registration credits. Yep, the state requires us to enter data in the database, but we have to pay for the right to enter data in the database. If I were cynical I'd say the Governor's brother in law must be in the database business. I guess it's a good idea. But I remember an old saying about the road to Hell being paved with good intentions.

The Cemetery Oversight Act P.A. 096-0863 (COA) is a 213 page document (click here for the condensed 81-page version) that was signed into law on January 18, 2010. This new law makes more than 40 separate references to rule making for the administration and implementation of this Act. Or as someone put it, the laws were not being followed so the answer is make more laws.

If you walk into my office you'll see a nice four color notice framed and hanging on the wall. Since it is the closest thing to an office for the cemetery I have to have this thing displayed on the wall. In color, black and white won't do.

So if you have absolutely nothing else to do you can email the cemetery at walnutprairiecemetery@gmail.com

Gloom, despair, and agony on me.

2011-01-20T23:05:00.000-06:00

I had a bad feeling all morning. I couldn't explain it, just felt it. Nothing to cause it, just a feeling. We went to a seed corn winter meeting at noon. I'm going up the road to Martinsville

and hit the button to open the passenger window and knock the snow off it. It made a less than desirable noise and didn't go back up. It's now got duct tape all around the edge holding it up.

After the meeting I stopped by the Cellular One office. I had backed up my phone contacts on the computer a couple days ago and somehow duplicated all of them. I had everyone listed at least twice.

OK, no big deal. You just copy everything to the SIM card, delete all the phone contacts, then copy them back to the phone. No big deal. Except I couldn't get it to happen. I called customer service who suggested taking it to a local office. Which why I ended up in the Casey store.

Remember that bad feeling I was having. I was showing the lady as Cell One how I was trying to move contacts and delete the duplicates ... when I lost ALL of them. On the bright side, maybe with this out of the way maybe I could improve my bad feeling for the day.

On the bright side of things, after supper I plugged the phone into the computer, touched a few buttons, and reloaded all my contacts.

That is a wonderful screen. Does wonders for your attitude.

I'm a glutton for punishment ...

2011-01-12T21:22:00.000-06:00

I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. Just ask most anyone who has taken ICS-300 training. I know, What's that? ICS=300 is part of NIMS.

"NIMS provides a consistent, flexible and adjustable national framework within which government and private entities at all levels can work together to manage domestic incidents, regardless of their cause, size, location or complexity."

Huh?

OK, try this. NIMS provides a set of standard organizational structures, as well as requirements for managing incidents and events. It is a requirement for just about any federal grants. It's also a good concept .. just a bit of a pain. It is result of a couple Presidential directives, HSPD-6 and HSPD-8

I guess the short explanation is it is a system for managing people

Actually I've had ICS-300 training before, along with 100, 200, 400 and 700. So why am I repeating a class most people hate, wasting 2 days in class again? A couple reasons. This system is designed to make things work better when things get bad. Anytime I can make it work better it is good. The other thing is anytime I take a class like this I benefit. It may not be from the class itself, but I get a benefit.

One of the consequences of fewer firefighters being available (especially during the day) is more and more mutual aid. This means we get in more situations with multiple departments on scene. Anything that helps us all work together better is important.

And there are the side benefits. I met some folks I'd never met before. EMT from Toledo, firefighter from Newton, Chief from Claremont. Worked out well, Claremont is asking to join our MABAS group, so it was nice to get to know Randy before we voted on allowing them to join. Spent the day setting beside the Crawford County Sheriff. Always good to have a friendly law enforcement officer.

And I think I stayed awake through the whole thing!

6 Years Ago ...

2010-12-29T07:24:00.003-06:00

What ELSE would I be thinking about today?
Today my first grandson is 6 years old. That is a bigger milestone than normal.
Just after noon the 29th I'm delivering propane when my phone rings. I have a grandson. 1 pound 3.7 ounces. That was the last call from my Sue's cell phone as well, because she lost it in the toilet at the hospital. But that is another story.
Contrary to what the laws of physics and the State of Indiana seem to dictate, you can drive the 90 miles or so to Riley Children's Hospital in just over an hour, but you are passing things going fast. God is Good. I made it without causing or being involved in an accident. Riley Children's Hospital is a scary and wonderful place, largely for the same reasons. If not for Riley I really doubt we would have gone from this

to this

That's David taking a picture with Aunt Jill's iPhone, taken by his little brother on Papaw's cell phone. Isn't technology something?

Does God answer prayer? All I have to do is look at this red headed little man and I know the answer to that. As I understand it, today my grandson is taking a girl out to lunch ... his idea.
edit: Here is a photo from lunch

Sorry if this has typos. Papaw just got a phone call from David. He wanted to call and tell me he was six years old. I can barely see the keyboard.

God is good

Jesus Laughing

2010-12-24T07:46:00.001-06:00

Brent Olson has been blogging since before the term was invented. He writes regularly for Successful Farming's online site. http://www.agriculture.com/talk/views/humor They put him in the humor section but he gets a bit deep at times. His most recent column caused me to stop and ponder a bit. Here's an excerpt:

The other night we went out to dinner with about a dozen friends. As is often the case, there were a couple of conversations going on simultaneously. At my end of the table, I was looking for a little help. “I still have to write a Christmas column. Anyone have any ideas?”

There was a brief moment of silence and then from the other end of the table, from another conversation, someone said, brightly, “I always eat olives when I drink beer.”

Everybody laughed.

Then someone else looked at me and said, “Olives grow in the Holy Land.”

Everybody laughed again.

Well, yeah, I suppose that’s true, but not even I am likely to try to write a column tying together olives, beer, and Jesus. I don’t know who could write that column, but I’d be willing to bet they never taught Sunday school in a Methodist church.

He goes on to talk about Christmas:

That part of Christmas can slip my mind. ... – I already had the instructions.

“…I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people…”

Can’t get much clearer than that.

Amazing Grace

2010-12-19T17:19:00.004-06:00

In the fire and emergency service it is called a Line Of Duty Death. It means someone died during or because of responding to help others. I'd never been to an LODD funeral until this fall. I've been to a couple since the first of October, and there is another Monday at Sullivan, Indiana. I can't say it is something I enjoy, but at the same time I am honored to be involved.

As I understand it the firefighter/paramedic from Sullivan had finished a run, sat down, and fell over dead. The firefighter from Brocton the Oakland funeral was for had jumped in the firetruck to move it on scene and collapsed. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but I seem to be hearing more about these kinds of things lately.

The Illinois Fire Chiefs Association gets really involved. They have funeral guidelines (see http://www.illinoisfirechiefs.org/service.asp?id=25), offer assistance, and it doesn't matter if your department is a member of their association or not. I was at a funeral in Oakland and parked beside a Fire Chief from north of Chicago.

I know it sound like I am a bit morbid pondering on this today. I got on this train of thought because someone linked me to a youtube video of Andre' Rieu leading in playing Amazing Grace. It seems to be a standard at one of these funerals for someone to play Amazing Grace on the bagpipes. Crank up the volume and listen to this
(NOTE to Mom and anyone else without a fast internet connection. Click the play button then pause it and let it load a while before touching play again)

A search of YouTube for Amazing Grace gives 490,000 hits! it has been called the most popular song in history

Here are 3 of the best vocal renditions:

Wintley Phipps offers some background I found interesting and his performance is outstanding

Hayley Westerna gives a marvelous version She has a fantastic voice

But I think Rhema Marvanne does the best job of singing Amazing Grace I've ever heard:

Amazing Grace

John Newton (1725-1807)
Stanza 6 anon.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.

And Grace, my fears relieved.

How precious did that Grace appear

The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares

I have already come;

'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far

and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.

His word my hope secures.

He will my shield and portion be,

As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,

And mortal life shall cease,

I shall possess within the veil,

A life of joy and peace.

When we've been here ten thousand years

Bright shining as the sun.

We've no less days to sing God's praise

Than when we've first begun.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

I think I made the right choice this evening

2010-12-12T19:25:00.000-06:00

It's been a beautiful week down here on the prairie. I didn't realize how beautiful until today hit. WOW! did winter make it's presence known. We went from what would have been a pretty nice
March day to a "let's go to Florida" December storm almost overnight.

I replaced the Fire Department's Automatic Electronic Defibrolator today. We got it under a state grant a couple years ago. We were notified this fall it had been recalled. Friday we got a new one in the mail.

So I have to box up the old one and send it back to them. We have never needed it and I'll be happy if we never do. Because if WE are using it that means the EMT's were busy elsewhere.

But anyway, I mentioned making the right choice. We had the church Christmas party scheduled for this evening. I came home, pulled the truck in the barn ... and couldn't see the house for the blowing snow. I told Sue we weren't going anyplace that wasn't absolutely necessary.
I called the preacher, one of the elders, and one of the deacons and expressed my opinion that this would be a good night not to have it.

Setting here I've been listening the the police radio. Westbound I-70 between Martinsville and the county line has one 5 semi truck plus 1 or 2 passenger car pileup, with another 2 truck/minivan wreck east of that and a jackknifed semi in the passing lane east of that. Cars setting in line are running out of gas.

It sounds like dispatch has gone into major incident mode. You don't hear any radio traffic that isn't related to this incident or something major. Kind of like I used to tell the kids: If you scream like that someone better be bleeding. If it doesn't involve personal injury I think dispatch it telling folks to take a number and call in the morning.

Yep, last week was beautiful. I should have enjoyed it more.

It's What ?!!!

2010-12-04T20:29:00.000-06:00

Yes kids, don't faint, your folks have their Christmas Tree up and decorated and Becky didn't have to do it. Sue had Kinsey come over and spend the afternoon decorating.

Here are a few photos to get you in the spirit of things:

Grammaw's new bed

2010-11-26T22:51:00.000-06:00

We did something recently we had never done our entire married life. I guess it was time. We bought a new bed. No, we haven't been sleeping on the floor, but it was never in a new bed of which we were the original purchasers. The guys from Glidden's showed up with it today. They had some highly qualified assistants.

The assistants noticed little details, like that guy had a "Ready? OK" (David/Adam term for a measuring tape. You pull it out and say "Ready ? OK" before releasing it to rewind.

David was the first to try it out. It makes good bed angels. (Bed angels are like snow angels but not nearly as cold).

What do you mean I can't jump on it?

It must be good, it's the same name as the town Uncle Jim lives in.

I had a dream ...

2010-11-25T06:47:00.001-06:00

I had a dream ... Normally when you hear that phrase it is some kind of uplifting, life-changing speech. Naw. I had a dream last night and I'm more tired now than when I went to bed.

In my dream we were still under those extremely dry weather conditions we had for the last month or so. Kind of like living in a tinderbox. I dreamed I was driving down a local road just a few miles outside of our fire district and saw a fire in a field. I stopped to try and put it out. The wind kicked up and it jumped to multiple locations and started spreading toward several houses.

I called dispatch but they wouldn't accept where I said I was as a valid address. I heard them on my radio dispatch the wrong fire department to the wrong address. I got rattled and made it worse. So I called some of my guys on the cell phone to come in our trucks.

In my dream one of the firefighters I called was at a restaurant where a salesman passing through was driving a demonstrator fire engine set up for foam operation and ready to work (Hey! If you're going to dream, dream big!). He responded with it while others brought all our equipment.

It was a difficult fire, feeding off dry vegetation and being spread by high winds. But we kept it away from the houses. We beat it. And we had no more than got it out than the department who was supposed to be responding showed up.

I was about as exhausted in my dream as I was at our Firefighter's Challenge at the Fall Festival a few years ago.

And now I am setting here at 6:30 Thanksgiving morning as physically worn out as if I'd actually fought a fire, wondering "What was all that about?"

But hey! Any time you beat a fire and save the day you should be thankful. And it is Thanksgiving Day. So in addition to the uncountable blessings I have to be thankful for I can add beating a fire, even in a very weird dream. Be sure and count your blessings today. You'll run out of numbers before you get done.

Deer retrieval

2010-11-20T06:35:00.001-06:00

I've figured out a great new sideline. I'm thinking of going in the deer retrieval service. You shoot him and I'll go get him. Might work.

Steve got one late Friday. It was actually pretty easy to get to. Nice more or less 10 pointer (I'm not sure the technicalities of point counting)

It was just sundown by the time we got it loaded, so I don't have any really good photos. My Kodak quit and my cell phone doesn't do low light very well.

It was really pretty easy to get to. Pull off the road, down the grade, across 4 ditches, up the GREAT BIG hill turn right and it was laying in the weeds by the edge of the field. Steve says next year his plan is to shoot one earlier in the day so it isn't dark when you are doing all this.

Customer expectations

2010-11-13T07:04:00.000-06:00

I think I spent too many years in sales. 30 years ago when I started with Pickering Seed Company the guy who signed me up could sell ice to Eskimos. But he was absolutely terrible at managing a sales force. He kind of left us high and dry right before planting season my first year of selling seed corn. I called asking about some seed for a county test plot and all he would say was "You better call the company about that." I went to a new season kick-off meeting in Indianapolis with Ken Fleck. We were very dissatisfied. We got there early and ended up helping set up some things. In the process we spent a fair amount of time with some guy named Woody airing our opinions of how we had been treated. Later we found Woody was our new state manager. One thing he said has stuck with me through the years. He looked me straight in the eye and said "Now you know how not to treat people. Your job is to treat them right".

That concept has been bouncing around in my head the last few weeks. We have been kicking around trading combines Our 15 year old combine is usable, but to get it back fully up to snuff we're going to have to sink $20,000 in it. The immediate problem is a main drive gearbox seal leaking, which has to be removed form the combine to be repaired. And it has ruined the main drive belt. And while you have it all apart fixing that you better replace the hydraulic drive coupler because it's been in there 5 years and is a weak point in the 2166. The clean grain augers are worn out. The unloading auger tube is worn so thin we had to replace the elbow this summer because the mechanic who did our combine inspection was afraid it was going to fail and drop the auger on the ground! The horizontal tube is thin enough the metal has wrinkled at a critical point! We found a piece of the top sieve had broken this fall and made a patch out of a piece of galvanized sheet metal from a furnace duct. There are 3 patches on holes in the bottom of the grain tank. The chopper blades need replaced. And we haven't gotten to the elephant ears and transition cone. On and on. And when I get done doing all that I still have a 15 year old engine and drive train in a combine worth $30,000 on a trade. So we start looking online, and I make a few phone calls.

I think the phrase is level of service. Maybe it is customer expectation. I guess it is a hazard of too many years keeping groceries on the table by being a salesman. The biggest deal I ever worked on was about $20,000, which 20 years ago was several copiers and typewriters. If someone called my store and said "I'm thinking of spending $150,000" I'd be their new best friend. I've contacted ... well, I won't name names. Let's just say I think I've talked to all the Case and John Deere dealers within at least an hour drive. My approach has been pretty much the same: "I've got --- and need to replace it. I'm willing to spend $xxx per year on a good used combine." My requirements were pretty simple, 4WD, at least a 20 ft platform, and $xxx per year.

I have 3 dealerships that have never called back. One salesman came and looked at what I had, said he had several that would fit my needs and he'd get back tomorrow with some combines for me to consider. I guess that old song was correct "Tomorrow never comes".

Jerry at Schilling Brothers came out, looked at what we had and listened to our expectations. I told him it would be like changing religions. I'd never even driven a green combine. He brought us out a machine to demo. After we got caught up he took us to look at a machine that was being traded in. He even bought lunch a time or two.

Bill from Bane Equipment responded quickly, came and looked at what we had, and let us demo a combine and corn head. And bought lunch.

OK, so I'm like a baby, feed me and I'm happy.

It's interesting, Aman and I haven't really set a time line as to when things have to happen, but we both seem to have the idea that we need to make a decision by about the 15th of this month. If we don't trade the 2166 in we need to get it in the shop and start taking it apart. We also seem to have come to the same conclusions about which combines to consider. We've pretty much narrowed it down to 2 machines. Want to guess who the guys are selling them?

I just about tripped the trigger Friday, but Bill asked if I would give him until Monday morning. He had a wild idea and needed to make a few calls to see if he could come up with something else. I said "Sure". Because the way thing are leaning right now, Adam isn't going to understand.

Hello from Tennessee ....

2010-10-31T19:37:00.001-05:00

We did something this week I have never been able to do before. We loaded up and went to Jill's ... IN OCTOBER! Harvest is done, plowing is a couple days from being done, Sue wasn't teaching, I wasn't teaching, no Jr Church because it was the last Sunday of the month, and we had some furniture we had been saving for Jill. So we loaded up and headed south and east.

Here's Jill's house

Before you get too impressed it is split into 3 or 4 apartments. We walked around the neighborhood this evening, I guess it is a common thing. Either someone buys an old house as an investment or they inherit one and don't want to live in it. Dad the firefighter was impressed to find this right outside her front door

Saturday evening we went with her to supper at a friend's house. It was kind of a treat, having a meal at the home of someone whose writings you have been reading in Christian Standard for years. We went to Hopwood to church with her this morning.

Even met a couple Farmers... Mr and Mrs Farmer that is. I think both are Doctors, but one in theological and the other medical. Nice folks.
Seemed a bit odd my daughter being one of the communion servers. Hopwood is attached to the campus of Milligan. I'd never been there in the fall Quite pretty. Here is the entrance to Milligan from about the same spot I took the Hopwood shot.

Milligan Chapel

In our walk around town we found several flowers blooming that really shouldn't have been. Like Iris's

And Dogwood's!

We also got to visit her office

Dad was impressed with her desk set

I guess she gets her sense of organization from her Dad

Methodist Church across the corner from her house apparently was having a tailgating Halloween party of some kind, complete with inflatables.

We had a good time. We're meeting Jill in the morning and then we'll be heading northwest again.

Sometimes you have to set back, take a deep breath, and look around

2010-10-21T21:22:00.000-05:00

It's been "one of those ..." (insert appropriate time frame: days, weeks, falls, etc.) I was driving down the road this week when I realized those clouds were beautiful. Sometimes you have to set back, take a deep breath, and look around. So here are a few photos from this fall with a common theme. Look at the sky, often just a background in the photo for what I was trying to shoot. The sky has been beautiful this fall, we have just been to busy to enjoy it.

Isn't this spectacular?

And here is a great sunset shot

Rainbows have been few and far between this fall

I think this was an accidental button click, but it shows just how clear the sky has been most of this fall.

Here I was taking a shot of the plot harvest, but notice the clouds in the sky.

and in this photo as well

If you pay VERY close attention you can tell me where this was taken, but you REALLY have to think about it and know where we farm.

Are you familiar with Woot.com ?

2010-10-17T06:54:00.000-05:00

Woot (http://www.woot.com/ ) is an interesting site. Most of the time they sell one thing a day, and when it sells out they just don't sell anything else until the next day. Well, unless they are having a Woot-out when they sell limited quantities of stuff all day. You have to see it to understand.

One of the interesting things about Woot is the product descriptions of the stuff they're selling. Usually it is more commentary than description. It's often worth visiting their site every day just to read the product descriptions. Here is one from today. If you aren't interested in the media player the commentary is still an interesting viewpoint.

Last Sunday thought it was so cool. But you know what? There won’t be another 10-17-10 for a hundred years, either.

Around here, we don’t believe in privileging one date over another just because of some numerical accident. It’s all a bit arbitrary, ennit? If we were still going by the Julian calendar – don’t laugh, the Russians used it as late as 1918 – that awesome 10-10-10 would be the much more humdrum 9-27-10. Or the Islamic calendar? It renders that day as 11-3-31. The Mayan Long Count calendar says it was 12.19.17.13.18. Yeah, we don’t really get it either. If you bump into any Mayans, ask them for us, wouldja?

So where do people get off designating a certain Sunday as a once-in-a-lifetime event and the next Sunday as barely worth remembering? There are all kinds of incredible things happening today, too. Somewhere, a woman is crying through the first seconds of motherhood, her heart swollen with a love she never knew possible. A man has just broken free of an addiction that had reduced him to something between a robot and a slave: 10-17-10 is the first day of the rest of his life. TV’s Sharon Leal (Boston Public, Guiding Light) celebrates turning 38. And Woot is selling the Sandisk Sansa Fuze 4GB Media Player.

Yes, on this date like no other, Woot salutes a media player like no other. The Sansa Fuze loads files through trusty old drag-and-drop – no need for some bloated proprietary interface. It’ll play just about anything that calls itself a “media file”, from MP3 to WMA to OGG to JPG to AVI to MOV to WMV, including podcasts and audiobooks, plus a bunch more. (You might need to run some video files through Sansa Media Converter, but as The Simpsons said, “Pobody’s nerfect in Australia”.) And its middling 4GB of storage space is expandable with the addition of an SDHC card. It’s the perfect media player for a unique day like today. We think every day is unique and special. And they’re all worthy of celebration.

Except May 24th. No particular reason, really. That date has just always gotten on our nerves.

Hope we never do this again

2010-10-14T22:16:00.000-05:00

West Union has always been a little ... different. One former resident commented recently three things about West Union were way beyond a town of its size. One was the Library, another was the park. But one thing about West Union that was extraordinary was the ambulance service.
West Union paused this week to honor one of its own who was key in developing that service. Rick Poorman died as a result of injuries suffered in a traffic accident involving the ambulance he was working in. No world shattering act, nothing particularly outstanding all, just a traffic accident.
The response has been breathtaking. The funeral visitation started at 4 PM Wednesday and went on until 11 ! People Rick had touched from literally all over the country showed up to honor him.

The funeral Thursday was almost as amazing. Fire departments and ambulance services from all over Illinois and Indiana sent representatives, and equipment to honor Rick

Marshall sent 2 trucks and crew to man our station during the funeral

It was an honor to have them do this.

Saw something I'd never seen at a burial. 2 medical evacuation helicopters, from different providers, flew over the grave site.

To make everyone's day complete, at 9 PM the Fire Dept gets paged to Chiltons Cafe for a fire. Fortunately it was a grass fire behind the building we put out quickly.

Lost a friend this weekend

2010-10-10T22:21:00.000-05:00

It was a long night last night and today is even longer By now this is all out in the public, so I don't think I am betraying any confidences with it.

Local ambulance with 2 EMT's on board picked up a patient complaining of pain (As I understand it he had been in an ATV accident a day or two earlier) were taking him to the hospital in the ambulance. They were going up a state highway about a mile north of the county line in non-emergency mode, no lights, no siren, 58 MPH ( there was an off-duty police officer 2 cars behind also northbound in his personal vehicle)

Pickup on a crossroad didn't stop and pulled in front of the ambulance. Ambulance (I think) hit pickup then rolled. It tore the side off the ambulance, threw the EMT in back and the patient out. Took one entire wall off the box and scattered ambulance contents a long ways. Driver was trapped and very disoriented.

The off duty officer saw it all and had it called in before the driver find his handheld and do it on the radio. Dispatch went into a mass casualty mode and called everyone but the National Guard. Because of the location and cell phones accessing different towers we got response from 2 different counties.

We ended up with 4 ambulances from 3 services, 2 different rescue units, 2 fire depts, 2 Sheriff departments, 3 different helicopters, and IL State Police

One helo landed on scene, the other 2 met the ambulances at local hospital. EMS decided they could get to the hospital before the choppers could arrive.

To further confuse things I believe there was another property damage only traffic accident down the road about 5 miles about the same time.

Rick Poorman was the EMT we lost. I can't remember not knowing Rick.He did a lot of things in the community and will be tough to replace.

I think I need a rainy day ...

2010-10-06T21:48:00.000-05:00

Maybe a couple of them. It's been a great fall for harvest. Almost no rain, good running, pretty good yields. But this many days running starts to wear on you, even if we do generally take Sunday off. I did something tonight I have never done before. I parked a plugged up combine in the shed and left it. I reached the point tonight the best thing to do was go home.

The last few days have had some frustrations. I had some kind of email glitch last week and it seems some email didn't go out even though on my end it said it was sent. Like to my insurance agent, the lawyer who is trustee of some ground I farm, a few "unimportant" things like that.

Then the elevator got full of beans ... about the same time the landlady's bean bin got full.

But we are getting by. I took some to Snyder, and it looks like we'll squeak by. This afternoon I am trying to finish up first crop beans. Creek bottom fields are dry in the middle, but the field edges are still green. Do I leave 20-30 ft around 2 fields or cut them? I cut them ... but the moisture dock I got may have made it an unwise choice. Have one field left, actually just a portion of a field. This is one we left the green along the edge and in a low spot a couple weeks ago. It's dry now.

So I start in. Turns out to be more area than I thought. And VERY tough going. Down and twisted beans,some green weeds and grass, damp ground underneath, just tough cutting. It's going to be hard to finish by sundown, and if I'm not done by sundown it will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to cut. So just before sunset ... yep, I plug the rotor. I get out thr big black ugly awkward wrench and try turning it backwards. Seems to turn fairly freely. I get in the cab, start the engine, hit the switch to turn it on and somehow hit the switch to reverser the feeder house.

For those unfamiliar with the idiosyncrasies of a Case combine, if you reverse the feeder without first raising the reel if can cause the header auger to damage the floor panels on the header.

Did you notice I never mentioned raising the reel?

And the rotor won't turn on.

So back on top with the big ugly wrench.. Then back on the ground and pull the side covers off

Nothing.

It's now dark. I clean of the combine, put everything back on, and take it in. We get the truck in, I send Aman home, and then get to thinking about it. I get my handy little pocket flashlight out, open the door on the feeder house and look inside.

And drop my flashlight. Just out of reach.

I get a little crows foot bar from my truck toolbox, reach in to try and fish it out, and hit the off switch. Which worked. THAT is when I decided it was time to go home.

Oh, and as I pulled in the driveway I remembered the tractor and grain cart we forgot to bring in setting along the road. So when Sue got home from church we went after it. It's in my backyard.

I think I need a couple rainy days to catch up and take a break.

You probably have to be a farmer ....

2010-10-01T22:00:00.002-05:00

You probably have to be a farmer to see some of these sights. Maybe even to appreciate them.

The blaze of corn fuzz as you fill a bin with the fan turned on late in the afternoon

For instance the sound corn makes when it goes through a corn head.

Sunset from the top of a grain truck

A rainbow at an unexpected time

A most unusual weed

Yes, those are cottonwood trees coming up in corn stubble.

I just thought I'd share a few shots you don't normally see.

I guess that means I'm not normal?

I guess I'm not BTO material

2010-09-26T05:43:00.000-05:00

BTO in the farm community is an acronym for Big Time Operator. BTO's are the "industrial" farmers ... sort of the Wal-Mart's of agriculture. They intend to take advantage of every opportunity. I guess I just don't think like them.

We had a pretty good Friday. We expected to be rained out, but instead cut about 20 acres of beans, stopped for lunch with family, then in the afternoon shelled 30 acres of corn. For us it was a pretty good day.

Saturday we didn't get started too quickly. We had to catch up on some things we intended to do Friday after the rain (Don't get me started on the weather forecast / local TV weather persons).

Aman had just gotten rolling good, shelled about 10 ares, when a gathering chain broke. Fortunately it stopped before going all the way through the combine, but in the process somehow it bent a "SUPPORT ASSEMBLY, right hand". It looks like the one below circled in red, except it it left and we had problems with the right

It wasn't bent much. In fact you really had to look to see it was bent. But it threw the idler sprocket out of alignment just enough to throw the chain off and bind up things. We don't know if this is cause (why the chain broke) or effect (the broken chain bent it). I'm leaning toward cause. If I had been a BTO my service vehicle would have pulled up with tools and air compressor and welder and torch and we would have repaired or at least attempted repair on the spot. We decided it was time to go to the shop.

So back to Mom's to the shop. Took it apart, thought we fixed it, put it together, ran it, messed up again, took it apart again, and went to see Ralph. Fortunately Ralph was there this Saturday afternoon. I didn't think Ralph would do anything we couldn't do, but he has better equipment to do it with and (more importantly) he has a better "eye" than I do. He looked at it and said "Oh, that needs to be like this", stuck it in his press and proceeded to (as Sharp used to say in the copier service manual) "shape to fit".

We put everything back together, tried it, and it worked. So at 4:00 on Saturday evening with rain in the forecast ... we closed the doors and went home.

I'll never make it as a BTO. I can live with that.

I went home, cleaned up, took my wife out for supper and spent the evening working on the Sunday School lesson I have to teach. Some things are more important than being the first one done in the area.

Missing someone I never met

2010-09-23T05:41:00.008-05:00

I got a note from a lady in NW Wisconsin Tuesday.

"John passed away peacefully early this morning. He was only on hospice for 5 days, and deteriorated rapidly in those few days. His wish was to be at home, and was very worried about pain. Fortunately he had very little pain, and I was at his side in our home when he passed away. I know he's in a better place with no more suffering now"

John's obit online at http://www.leadertelegram.com/people/obituaries/article_09a4a2ed-0b26-5a0f-be18-1c2c214fbe5e.html

John was a retired dairy farmer from NW Wisconsin. He was one of many people I have met online but never known in person. Barb and John have been friends online for quite some time. Not terribly close, but someone I always kind of watched for when they made comments to see what was going on in their lives.

Barb posted January 2 of 2009 that John's prostate cancer had spread and the Dr didn't think treatments were doing any good. She asked we write John some words of encouragement. He and I exchanged a few letters. Yes, actual hard copy mailing via USPS letters. He sent me a photo of him on his "B" they had restored that was on a Renk Seed newsletter

I never have had much luck copying photos from a pdf file. If you download http://www.renkseed.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=DxKucXZQEEc%3d&tabid=160 it's on page 6. he commented in a letter "The story behind that little tractor is way too long to tell you about." I kind of wish he had taken the time.

This is another one of those places I kind of kick myself. I hadn't mentioned it to Sue or to them, but I kind of hoped we could go see Jim this summer and take a couple days to wonder north to see John and Barb. The way the summer worked out that didn't happen.

Well, I am waxing philosophical, and while a shiny philosophy is nice I think I'll just hit the "Publish Post" button and leave it needing a little work.

I know you're busy ...

2010-09-19T22:06:00.002-05:00

"Hello"

"I know you're busy, but when you get time you need to look at the toilet in the front bathroom."

"...Why?"

"Well, I discovered the wall and floor are wet behind it and I think it is leaking, so I turned the water off to it."

"OK ... I'm on top of a grain bin right now."

"Oh I understand. But when you get time..."

Yes, it was leaking water. Leaking through the tank, or more specifically through a crack in the back of the tank. A crack running from top to bottom. Or bottom to top depending on your vantage point.

So for our fun Sunday afternoon we went to Lowe's. And there was a tank I could buy for $29. But the bolt pattern was wrong. So we decided to splurge for a new toilet.

Boy do we know how to live it up and blow money.

Do you know how many choices there are of toilets? Regular or chair height? Round or elongated? One piece or two? Low volume or what now passes for normal? White or .... ? American Standard, AquaFlush, Jacuzzi, on and on and on.

Yes, THAT Jacuzzi

"What do you think?"

"I don't care as long as it works. Oh, and is white."

Any experienced husband knows those words "I don't care as long as..." mean you probably can't win. So I made an executive decision. We are now the proud owners of an American Standard Champion 4 RH EL toilet

" with the industry's widest outlet, largest flush valve and EverClean surface. It's virtually clog free and it helps keep itself clean." Yeah, right. The box says it will flush a bucket full of golf balls. Don't mention that around Adam.

I know you are suitably impressed. It is now installed ... sort of. Seems it sets taller than the old one so the water supply hose is too short. After some discussion of going to Wal-Mart tonight we decided to live with it tonight. Installation was a breeze except for a problem with the anchor bolts. Which meant I had to pick it up after the wax seal was in place. So we'll see how that turns out.

I've been registering it online. Seems the flush valve has a 10 year warranty. Way too many hoops to jump through to register it. In the process I had to go through a list of American Standard toilets to find the right model number. They show some $1,228 toilets! I best not comment. You doubt me? Go to http://www.americanstandard-us.com/bathroom-products/toilets/?so=pricehightolow&r=16&p=1 and look yourself.

You're what ?

2010-09-16T21:55:00.000-05:00

(9:00 PM)

Hello

Just thought I'd check in. I'm on the way to see if I need to start an irrigator.

(silence, then)

You're what ?

(You can't get the correct tonal accent from the written word)

I'm checking to see if I need to start an irrigator.

What needs irrigated this time of year?

(again the limitations of the written word)

Lyman's double crop beans.

Tonight?

Well, I'm almost there so I may as well.

OK .... be careful.

And folks wonder why I say the only thing worse than having an irrigator is needing one.

it really wasn't a big deal...

2010-09-12T20:11:00.002-05:00

It rained Friday night so Saturday was not a work in the field day ... which caused me to be involved with doing something I'd never done before.

A bit of background.

I have this nasty habit. I enjoy yard sales. Sue has this equally nasty affliction. She (as a rule) hates going to yard sales. There are exceptions, such as going with 2-3 ladies to some town wide sale day or something, but that is more the going than the yard sales. Anyway, I stopped by a neighbor's yard sale this summer and ended up bringing home a dining room set. Table, chairs, china cabinet ... pretty nice set. It wasn't Tell City but it was OK. It had some experience showing but not too bad. I had to work on a table leg but other than that is was pretty good , except for the chair cushions. They showed some wear, so Sue decided they needed reupholstered.

This looks better in the photo than it did in person.

She found the fabric she wanted (and I avoided going "How Much?") and purchased it anticipating a rainy day for her hubby to help.

Remember I mentioned Friday night?

So Saturday morning we started in reupholstering the chairs. First you remove the seats. They were attached with phillips head screws, so I got to use power tools. Then we removed 416 staples from the bottom of each seat. That is an estimate but it seemed pretty accurate. Sue used the old material as a pattern and cut out the fabric

at $XXXX a yard (no, I'm not telling) she was a bit nervous about making an error. She wasn't really that green but as nervous as she was she might have been. There is a bit of the china cabinet in the corner of the photo.

Anyway, we then set the cushion and base on the fabric, pulled it tight and stapled it. Oh, did I mention I do not have an air stapler like the factory does? We only got 250 staples in each one ... or so it seemed.

Anyway, when we got done it looked pretty good.

Pay no attention to the color. My phone camera sometimes has trouble with shades of red.
Notice the bright red Milwaukee drill box in the photo? Compare it to the before photo above.

I'm sure a professional would have done better, but we're more likely to live in this old house than be on This Old House. We finished by lunch and I must say it looks pretty good for a couple inexperienced amateurs. Even got the dragon flies all pointing the same direction.

Oh, BTW if you are a guy taking notes be warned. New upholstery causes other problems. I had to go to Harbor Freight Sunday afternoon with a battery charger to exchange under warranty.

"Since we're close, let's stop by Menard's to pick up paint chips".

Might have been cheaper to got to Rural King and buy a new charger.

September 7 ... September 7 ...

2010-09-07T07:23:00.001-05:00

September 7 ... September 7 ... seems like an important date for some reason ....

Oh yeah, Jill and I went visiting that day

I'm stuck in Effingham again

2010-09-04T20:58:00.000-05:00

Reminds me of a CCR song. We had been having problems with a fire truck. It was not running well, losing power, just generally acting weird. Since we only have 3 trucks it is kind of important.

We took it to Beirnbaum's. They said it needed to see a shop with the correct computer.

I called Effingham Truck Sales and found their shop is open 24 hours a day. They said if we could get it there by 10 PM Thursday they would look at it overnight. So it was off to Effingham and ETS. We dropped it off and went to Neimerg's for supper

Bad job but someone has to do it. They called Friday afternoon and said it was ready. Steve had been over, so I hitched a ride on his way back to Vandalia. They had replaced an injection control module of some kind. A bit after 6 I headed east.

But I had not gotten out of town when the warn engine light came on again. Back to ETS. They poked and prodded and decided it needed another sensor replaced. Then after a test drive they decided it needed the high pressure oil pump replaced. By now it was late enough I didn't want to ask Sue to come after me and there were no loaner cars available. So I went to the driver's lounge and slept through most of a movie. About 1PM I headed east. Old #3 was running better than it ever did.

But I did sleep in Saturday morning.

An end to life as we know it ....

2010-08-31T07:12:00.001-05:00

There was some speculation the sky would fall. Yes, I bought a John Deere tractor. Well, tractor might be stretching it. It burns fuel, moves, and has implements. And no, it is not a Gator. I bought Sue a John Deere lawnmower

We have my Husqvarna zero turn which has worked well for us. I have done things with that I shouldn't have even tried. A quarter mile irrigator alley of blooming Mammoth Red Clover was almost too much for it, but after 2 passes looked great. Anyway, Mom had the big old Cub Cadet with the 72" deck Dad bought to replace the B that she didn't drive any more. Sue tried it and didn't like it either. After driving a zero turn for a while you hate having a steering wheel on a lawn mower. So we traded the Cub Cadet for this.

Yes, there is more to the story. At almost 500 hours my Husqvarna's Kohler engine developed an oil leak. We tried fixing it and couldn't find it. Finally took it to the dealer and they liked to not found it. All told it was out of service about 3 weeks. Fortunately it was very dry weeks and we had the Cub Cadet as a spare. But the 72" deck was so wide we could only haul it on the car trailer. So we decided it was time to trade it for something we could use.

The Deere is not as heavy as my Husqvarna or Mom's Woods, but it will do fine for staying at my house for Sue to drive. I'll haul mine around to mow the various farm yards and lots I have to mow.

And the sky DID fall. Sue went out the first time, turned on the mower, and it started raining. Just enough to be aggravating for a few minutes, but the sky was falling.

I took it as an omen ... no more green tractors on this farm!

Spider Solitare

2010-08-30T05:18:00.006-05:00

Wanda tells me I need to write more. I offered her a guest writer spot but she gracefully declined. But just for Wanda here is something I wrote to use as a devotional at our Church cookout Sunday evening. Since it was at Robert and Ann's we had few unusual toys to play with

BTW I apologize if this is formatted oddly. I'm working on correcting it, but for some reason my laptop and blogspot are not playing well together.

My Devotional:

I was playing Spider Solitare recently when I had a revelation. Maybe I need to do some "'splaining".

Spider Solitare is a computer based card game. Or to paraphrase a friend, "a device of Satan to divert your concentration from something important and cause you to waste time". It is an entertaining and addictive diversion.

We had a thunderstorm roll through, which means I unplug most of my electronic devices. However, I have Spider on a portable computer. I had played a game of it and lost, so I closed it. Later I turned the computer back on and started another game.

One of the more interesting features of Spider Solitare is the ability to restart a game, a "do-over" feature. I was playing it and thinking to myself, "this seems familiar". I then realized I was playing the last game over again.

I had lost the last game and thought to myself "This is great! I know what is coming and can adjust my strategy to fit!"

I still lost

I found myself making the same errors I made the first time I played. And then it hit me. This is kind of like how it is for God. He's setting there outside time, knowing what is going to happen, knowing the mistakes we are going to make.

The difference is I was making my decisions based on the circumstances I was in. Even though I had a choice, it was the same choice I had last time and I did the same thing over again. God has made a decision to allow us to make our own choices. We call it free-will.

What free-will means is we can make our own decisions. God allows us to do that. But he knows what we are going to choose even though that choice is entirely up to us.

My game of Spider Solitare is still on the computer. And I am still losing. But I can restart the game and do it all over again. You can do that with your life.

You can't restart from the beginning. Messes you have made are still going to be there and the consequences must be dealt with. But you can change what happens from this point forward. Unlike my computer game, the moves are not set out for you. You can choose which path to follow.

We have a church buzzword for that. We call it "Conversion". Or sometimes "Decision". What it means is you have decided that the path you are following is not the right one. You have decided to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You have decided to put God first in your life.

It's a big step, a life altering decision.

Which way will you choose?

A few more 5th Sunday evening shots:

I posted a few photos from our airplane ride Sunday on the farm page, www.Bumpusfarms.US

My kids

2010-08-26T21:28:00.001-05:00

OK, so they're not MY kids ... but as far as I'm concerned they may as well be mine. My profile mentions being a Sunday School teacher. They are some of my Sunday school / Jr Church kids. Wednesday evening we had some fun.

Well, maybe a couple were my grandkids.

The kids were given a roll of toilet paper and one kid was "volunteered" to be wrapped up.

The paper didn't stick too well ... and it pulled in two too easily.

But some were better at wrapping than others/\.

Some were really good at it.

Some volunteers were easier to cover.

Of course, afterward we had to clean up the mess. But that is learning as well.

I didn't get any photos of the egg toss, I was too busy catching.

Successul Farming Radio Magazine

2010-08-20T20:57:00.001-05:00

I'm infamous again ... maybe that's the wrong word. A few years ago Darrell Anderson from the Successful Farming Radio Magazine interviewed me for a story about diabetes. Successful Farming is relaunching its @gOnLine site (www.agriculture.com). I am a long time regular on their forums (http://community.agriculture.com ... I'm Mike SE IL.. I know, very creative) and John Walter mentioned me to Darrell. So he called one day and wanted to interview me for the radio magazine about my blogging.

I told him they had to be desperate.

But anyway, he did an interview. It will be aired August 31, but if you want to hear it now go to http://www.northshoreproductions.com/Audio/sfrm3827_2010_aug31_psa.mp3

I'm having a tough time getting motivated. I'm hearing a similar sentiment expressed by several farmers. I don't know if it is weather related or just a holdover from how frustrating the last year has been or what, but a LOT of folks have made similar comments to me. Over on the business computer I have a task list (that's Outlook's version of a to do list) I don't think I actually completed one thing on it this week. Not that I didn't get anything done, just what I got done wasn't on the list.

Well, better get doing some paperwork. Some crazy person applied for a grant for the Fire Dept to replace all our SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) tanks. We were given them a few years ago when another department got new ones under a FEMA grant. But by this time next year all of them will be out of date and not usable. The good new is we got the grant! The bad news is guess who gets to do the paperwork? I know, that's why I make the big bucks. I told a visiting preacher one time what I made as assistant chief. (He spent the day with me. Took him to Moonshine and on a fire run. He remembers West Union) He told me that didn't cover my extra expenses.

Fortunately I'm not in it for the money.

Anyway, I better get off and perhaps keep my blogs more up to date for the next couple weeks. You never know who might be looking. Right Wanda?

West Union Library

2010-08-15T14:10:00.000-05:00

I was talking with Anita at the library one day and she mentioned there was some interest in the library having a web site. In a response that may surprise some, I suggested she not do that. There are new legal requirements I'm not fully aware of concerning tax bodies and web sites. If they have one certain things are required to be posted in a certain way in a specified time frame. I don't know all the details, just have caught bits and pieces of it. I'm sure some Governor's brother-in-law has to approve something.

It didn't seem to hurt her feelings any. She has more to do now than she gets paid for. (That's no big secret. Like a lot of small town things, there's a lot of volunteer work given by a lot of people. Even those getting "paid" often do more than they are paid to do or use their salaries to benefit the organization ... be it library, fire, ambulance, or local government.

Anyway, I had to renew a couple of my url's (that means my internet address, like www.BumpusFarms.US) and discovered GoDaddy had a promo on .info addresses. So I registered http://www.westunionlibrary.info Well, now what to do with it?

I thought about another blogspot page, like this one or the one the farm address is linked to. But I decided it might be best if it was totally independent of these pages. So I went to wordpress and set up a page there (http://westunionlibrary.wordpress.com/) and linked the http://www.westunionlibrary.info url to it.

Wordpress sure operates differently than blogspot. Here is how I opened the first post:

This is not the “Official Web Site of the West Union District Library“. The URL www.westunionlibrary.info is owned, paid for, and maintained by a friend of the West Union, Illinois District Library. As such it is not subject to the various and confusing laws, rules, and regulations an “Official” site would be subject to. If the Library wishes to start its own site and purchase its own URL, that is the library’s privilege and right. In other words, don’t file a Freedom Of Information request because the owner is free to decide it isn’t any of your business!

I told Anita what the user ID and password were if she wanted to change or add anything, but it is legally mine so the FOIA stuff does not apply.

And THAT was my big accomplishment this week.

Bumpus Reunion

2010-08-08T22:01:00.000-05:00

It's been that weekend

Yes, the annual Bumpus Reunion. The weekend where our very extended family gets together for an entire weekend or longer. Yes, several days and nights.

What do we do? Well, for one thing we eat

We're pretty good at that. We have activities for the kids. For instance we have a toy car derby

David enjoyed it

We also have a water slide

and we have and auction. People donate items to be sold and the proceeds go toward expenses for the reunion.

Next year is our 40 year anniversary. Yes, we've been doing this for 40 years.

What traditions does your family have?

For someone who never goes anyplace or does anything...

2010-08-05T07:50:00.001-05:00

For someone who never goes anyplace or does anything I sure haven't had a lot of free time this week. Part of that has been weather related. Yesterday our big accomplishment on the farm was going to Bunker Hill for a free meal. We have lots to do but the temperature and humidity is just too high. I know "We have soldiers in ...." I tried that operating theory last week. I think they are probably in better physical condition than I am.

No, I'm CERTAIN they are in better physical condition than I am.

Went to Camp last Friday. Couple boys from town wanted to go but didn't have a ride home. That's one problem with getting out at 2 Illinois time, working parents often can't get there. I told them if they could get to camp I'd make sure they were picked up. Spending a little time with a couple kids you don't normally interact with is interesting. Coming back from Washington I got drowsy. I needed something from a farm store anyway so we stopped by Tractor Supply. That's interesting as well, taking a couple non-farm kids to a farm store.

We hopped the river and came up Route 33. They were fascinated with things like the old school buses with the windows cut out hauling watermelons, the fact people raised fields of sweet corn and water melons and there were you-pick blueberries. And why DO they detassel corn? Seeing things from a 10 year old perspective is refreshing at times.

I have a hundred things I ought to do today. Today started at sun up with an irrigator. I'm typing this as I eat breakfast. Excuse the crumbs on the screen. I took a few photos at camp. Maybe I can attach them later.

Better run, Later Y'all.

Setting at the desk in the middle of the afternoon ...

2010-07-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

It's a beautiful day. Sun is shining, light breeze, little warm but it IS late July it's supposed to be warm. So why am I setting at the desk on the computer? Well, I'm waiting on a phone call. "I'll call you back just as soon as I look this over" I would've had them call my cell phone, but I need to be able to look over some documents when she calls back. Shortly.

I had to scan some FSA documents for crop insurance and email them to my agent. Did that.

Still no phone call.

So I guess I'll write on my blog.

Still no phone call.

So how has the day been otherwise? Not bad. I did some more painting on the bolt bins. Oh, I didn't mention them? Neighbor is a retired farmer. Never was a big farmer but between farming and selling seed and other stuff he raised a family and kept the bills paid. They have decided to move to town to a smaller place. He had these old bolt bins in the shed, told me if I wanted them I could have them.

"They need a little work, but they're OK"

We went and got them Monday. I forgot to take a before photo but they weren't too bad. Not new, but have potential. Back was loose, paint was peeling, just old bolt bins.

Phone call!

Yes, she's in the other room. Just a minute ....

Anyway, Aman put some scrap plywood on the back to hold it together. I scraped them, got out a can of Dad's leftover paint. Threw it away and got another one. Threw it away. Got out another and painted until it ran out. Finally got some exterior white latex Sue had at home and painted them. Today I got out a quart of IH red Dad had. Threw it out. Found a quart of Oliver Green about half full ...do not know WHY Dad had a can of Oliver green. Painted the trim a bit. I think they turned out OK for what we started with and no more than we have invested.

Now we just have to decide where to put them and what to put in them.

Aman got a new hot rod last week. Bought a little Hyster 3 wheel fork lift

He added a bracket on the back and stuck on a couple more weights we had setting around. He's out of town for a couple days in sales training with Beck's and I had a little time this morning so I decided I'd paint the weights and surprise him.

He's going to be surprised.

I took off one weight, painted the one left, and put the other one back on to paint it. Well ... they're really heavy ... and I may not have set it down on the bracket as gently as I should have. But I really think the bracket needs reinforced.

Maybe remounted. At least my toes weren't under it.

OK, it's 3:00. I'm tired of waiting all afternoon for a phone call. I'll see y'all later.

Phone will ring as soon as I leave the driveway.