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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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.