All Maxed Out

BROWN WEDDING

2011-05-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

Mr Mrs Jason Brown

GREAT TIME BUY ALL

EASTER 2011

2011-05-06T18:54:00.000-07:00

This was our 30th time to 'go up the hill' for the Easter sunrise service.

There were 5o people present from various churches.

It was a beautiful sunrise with the sun showing between the horizon

and the clouds for just a couple of minutes.

The weather was perfect.

Everyone stayed for breakfast following the service.

The men cooked and served the breakfast.

GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

2010-11-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

Darrell and Ruth, ready to go home.

Darrell and Ruth and family (all but David)

Larry and wife (front left)

Mark (in back) Patrick (right front)

Farrell (Darrel's twin) and Max

Elaine, Lee and family

'Doc' and Fern (cousins)

Derek, Denette and boys

Darlene, Ruth, Max, Darrell

Darrell and Ruth just returned from a two week vacation cruise to a big celebration of their

50th wedding anniversary. Darrell and I are related, my grandmother and his grandmother

were sisters. When I was a kid we used to go over to visit them and have dinner with them on

the farm. Darrell's mom was a great cook.

After Darlene and I were married we would go to visit them on Sunday. Darrell's dad, Ike was crippled and could only walk by holding his knee in place. They always had horses. They had one particular horse named Creamo. When Ike would go to do chores, like milk the cows and feed the livestock, Creamo would come up to the porch so Ike could get on his back and ride him out to do the chores. Creamo was Ike's 'wheel chair'.

In later years, after Darrell and Ruth were married, we would visit them and see them at family reunions. We always had a great time. Most people couldn't tell Darrell and his twin brother Farrell apart.

We attended their anniversary celebration and really enjoyed seeing and visiting with family members we seldom see.

HALLOW-EEN.

2010-11-13T08:31:00.000-08:00

JADA USA and a friend

JOEY

COURTNEY

Some of the trick or treaters, out to get some candy. We don't have the kids come like we used to. We live on a farm and there not as many farmers now so less small children. It was always fun to see how they would dress up especially the little ones.

FLOWERS 2010

2010-10-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

This was a good year for flowers. The rain showers came at the right time and cooler weather helped them grow. Some of my fall flowers got frosted before I got to take some pictures of them. The roses were great. I didn't take any pictures so I put two from last year.

I have been having trouble with uploading pics so it has been some time since i have published any thing, hope to do better.

2010-09-09T08:38:00.001-07:00

COUNTY FAIR 2010

2010-07-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

Old Glory
Grand Marshal

You have to have a fire truck

Twirler's

4-H club float

Old John Deere tractor

Old combine, 3 foot cut

New tractor

New tractor with grain wagon

A BIG ONE !

New fuel truck & kids picking up candy

Garden Vegetable display

4-H crafts

4-H Food

Market Goats

4-H market lamb

Market barrows

Market Steer

Pedal tractor pull, Girls

Boys pedal tractor pull

Kids play

Mud volley ball

The winners!

Our County has seven small towns and the annual County Fair

brings the communities together more than any other event.

The fair begins with the annual fair parade.

4-Hers and FFA members enter their projects which are judged for awards. There are also open classes that anyone can enter their projects in.

There are many categories, including livestock, sewing, cooking, artwork,

photography, garden produce, flowers, style revue, fitting and

showing of animals and welding projects.

There are many events to enjoy. Pedal tractor pull, baby show, a petting zoo, events in the arena and many other attractions for children and adults.

There are food stands with delicious home made food.

Everyone enjoys the time of seeing and visiting with old and new friends.

KANSAS WHEAT HARVEST 2010

2010-06-30T04:06:00.000-07:00

Pretty Kansas girl operates her

Dad's combine.

These combines take a 30 foot swath.

Straw chopper in the back chops the straw in small

pieces. The chopped straw helps build up the soil.

One of three combines used to cut this field.

Unloading wheat from the combine to the truck

that will haul it to the elevator.

One of the smaller semi trucks that are used today.
*
Things have changed since I was a kid 70 years ago. A good day in the harvest field then would be harvesting 20 acres a day. These machines can harvest 20 acres an hour. The operator then was in the open with the temperature running from 90 to over 100 degrees. The dust would get in your eyes and plug up your nose. Now a cab with air conditioning, stereo radio, CD players and a nice seat make harvesting much more enjoyable.

For me harvest is a good time of the year to see your green wheat fields turn to a golden color with it's heads turned towards the ground as if it is submitting to be harvested, to give up it's grain which brings to mind the great harvest when mankind yields to the Great Harvester. The farmer is anxious to save every kernel. He doesn't want to lose one kernel, he wants to get it in a safe place from the bad weather or any thing that would destroy it.

One thing that I dislike is marketing the grain. We are at the mercy of the buyers. We don't get to price it, we have to take what they offer us.

Jesus taught several things pertaining to the harvest.

"He (Jesus) also said, 'This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come'."
Mk.4:26-29 NIV
*

"Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field'." Mt. 9:37-38 NIV

"Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please the sinful nature, from that nature, will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Gal. 6:7-9 NIV
*

Hoesli Brothers Polands

2010-06-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

Our boys were in 4-H and they were in the hog project raising pure bred Poland Chinas. They were doing good. They had won first place at many shows in central Kansas. It was hard work but when fair time came around it was fun to watch the boys show their pigs.

The competition was rough at our county fair because our neighbor was an expert in showing hogs and very good in selecting the right one that the judge was looking for. He would show and help the boys get their pigs ready to show. He had a son and daughter that would be showing their pigs also. So if you would get grand champion you had a good pig.

There was a frail, elderly man from over 100 miles from us that would show up at almost all of the pig shows because he loved to show his pigs. He would stay at the fair grounds and ate pig feed. He was a good old guy and the kids liked him.

The boys bought their first Poland China gilts from Paul Davidson. They liked the looks of the Polands and there weren't as many of them as Durocs, Hampshires and Chester Whites. They bought their first boar from Ron Holling. You've heard the saying "worthless as teats on a boar". We found out that the teats on a boar are very important because the more teats the boar has the more his pigs will have. The boys had a Landrace sow that had 22 or 23 pigs. She had a big enough dinner table for all of them.

One time we went to a pig sale in Oklahoma. It was near one of Darlene's cousins so we took the whole family and stayed with them. We had a two wheeled trailer so we made stocks racks for it and pulled it with our car. We probably looked like some hillbillys but it was a good time in our life.

The boys ended up with a boot box full of mostly purple and blue ribbons. We ordered ball point pens with 'Hoesli Brothers Poland Chinas' on them which they would give away at pig shows.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Phil.4:19 niv

2010-05-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

If you would drive around the countryside in the fall you would see fields planted to new alfalfa that would have clumps of dark green in them. That would be turnips, because farmers sometimes put turnip seed with their alfalfa seed. I have heard it is to help keep the fields from blowing, but I think they just wanted some turnips for themselves and their neighbors. Sometimes they would go to town and tell the people they had a field of turnips, go help your self. The last few years some farmers have planted large fields to turnips for fall pasture Cattle love them and it is earlier than wheat pasture

In the early sixties we had a small patch of ground around 1 1/2 acres that was closed in by two ravines. I worked the ground and hand planted turnip seed and never checked on them until fall. I was surprised to see the ground covered with turnips. We picked some of the biggest ones first, they were all different sizes.

We started giving them away, then we decided to try and sell them to the super markets in Salina. They were only selling from 3 to 5 bushel a week. There was a country market in Salina so we stopped to see if he could use some. He took what we had and gave us 25 bushel baskets to bring back the next week. We took him the 25 baskets the next week and he gave us 50 baskets for the week after that. He said he was selling a bunch of them at Fort Riley and farther east. We stopped selling them to the grocery stores and let him do that.

One day he told us that he had rented cold storage in our home town and wanted us to start taking them there. He would give us the baskets and he showed us how to trim the tops so they would keep good for a long time. I'm sure we lost 2 or 3 pocket knives and had sore backs. I think we harvested several hundred bushels of turnips.

I didn't know the Lord at that time but now I believe He blessed us because at that time we had no money. It was a family project. Thank the Lord for the kids being big enough to help. "JUST LOOK AND SEE WHAT THE LORD CAN DO WITH A LITTLE TURNIP SEED"!!!!

"Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.' Eph. 6:17 NIV

2010-05-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

Proud great grandpa and great grandma with Jada

We added these pictures to Jada's graduation

Jada and Joey by the lake

Joey at the playground

Jada and Joey, havin' fun

The graduate
Her brother

Her family

Her Grandpa and Great Grandma

Yesterday we went to Jada's pre-school graduation. We got up early to be there by 9 am. The pre-school is held in a church in her hometown.

They sang several action songs then the teacher asked each one of them what they wanted to be when they grew up.

The thing that impressed me was that they had memorized 26 Bible verses, one for each letter of the alphabet. She didn't hesitate on any one of them as she was going through the alphabet. These are 4 and 5 year olds. I doubt that very many in the churches could recite that many from memory.

We celebrated by going out to eat together after the graduation ceremony.

GOOD JOB, JADA!

My Melon Experience

2010-04-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

I have been a farmer most of my life but my first experience of planting a seed was when I was 5 or 6 years old. Someone gave me honey dew melon seeds. I decided to plant them just west of our house. The soil was sandy and it takes a lot of watering to keep things growing. I dug up a small plot and planted four or five hills. It was close to the windmill so I kept them watered good. It didn't take them long to sprout and come up and they had good vines.

They started blooming, then came the little melons. About a month went by and I had several good sized melons. I decided to check one of them and see if it was ripe. It was still green so I waited a week and checked another one. It was still green. This went on until I had no more melons. I was really disappointed.

That fall the person that gave me the seeds asked about the melons and I told him what had happened. He started laughing and told me that they were green when they were ripe. So much for my honey dew melons.

Years later we planted watermelons down by the orchard. It was when the kids were still home. We had a beautiful patch of melons and they were big. I checked one and it was still green. I told my neighbor, who was known for raising good melons, and he said he would come and show me how to check and know when they were ready. He picked some and said they were ripe---no, they were green! I had a truck-farmer friend tell me he could pick out ripe ones but they were green, too! There were other people who told me they could pick ripe ones, too, but they were all green. They never ripened, they just started rotting.

I checked with K-State and they told me sometimes that happens. I never did raise good watermelons but several years we raised big cantaloupe that were wonderful.

"WHY DO YOU LOOK FOR THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD? HE IS NOT HERE; HE IS RISEN!" Luke 24:5b-6a NIV

2010-04-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

"Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

See, darkness covers the earth

and thick darkness is over the peoples,

but the Lord rises upon you

and His glory appears over you." Isa. 60:1-2

"The true light that gives light to every man

was coming into the world." John 1:9

"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light

we have fellowship with one another,

and the blood of Jesus, His Son purifies us from all sin."

I John 1:7

"But what does it say? The word is near you,

it is in your mouth and in your heart,

that is the word of faith we are proclaiming.

That if you confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord"

and believe in your heart that God raised Him

from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:8-9

"For if when we were God's enemies, we were

reconciled to Him through the death of His Son,

how much more, having been reconciled,

shall we be saved through His life". Romans 5:10

Easter morning people gather here for Sunrise Service. There are people from many different churches plus some that don't go to any church. We all celebrate the Risen Lord. If He had not risen we would not have life. He overcame death for you and me. He paid the price that you and I could have never paid and the best part is it doesn't cost anything, it is FREE! Just call on the Lord. Read Romans 10:8-9 again.

We pray that the Risen Lord is in your life, and if He is not we pray that you ask Him to come in and be your Lord and Savior.

IF I HAVE A FAITH THAT CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, I AM NOTHING. I CORINTHIANS 13:3b NIV

2010-03-21T18:41:00.000-07:00

Waitin' for the train

Durango-Silverton train

Darlene & Max on the train

Jonas, Sheldon, Jeremiah & the train

Jeremiah & Sheldon

Jonas, Sheldon, Max, Jeremiah, Darlene

Jeremiah, Sheldon & Jonas

Jonas, Jeremiah & Sheldon

Sheldon & Mark (hangin' on!)

Sheldon

Jeremiah & Jonas

Grandchildren are a gift from the Lord. Jeremiah and Sheldon are about the same age and they spent a lot of time together when they both lived here. Grandma called them her Katzenjammers. They were always into something they shouldn't be. There is an old saying: "One boy is a boy, two boys are half a boy and three boys are no boy at all". The boys didn't have any idea who the Katzenjammers were so a couple years ago when we ran across an old Katzenjammer comic strip we copied it off and sent it to them.

When Mark and Sheldon moved to Colorado we sometimes took Jeremiah with us to visit them. On this trip, when we went to Durango, we took both Jeremiah and Jonas with us.

Wolf Creek pass is always exciting. We saw a truck that didn't make the curve and was hanging down on the side of the mountain. This was before they widened the road.

We had a great time riding the Durango-Silverton train, if you could keep the smoke and ashes out of your eyes. Mark took the boys fishing up at Siverton while we rode the train up.

One day Mark took us to the top of a mountain in his 4WD pickup. It was a totally undeveloped, one way path to the top, rocks and all. If you met someone one of you had to back up to where you could get by each other. There were new 4WD vehicles that started up and had to go back, but we made it. Then the real excitement came at the top. There was a place where you could turn around but it was only about 25' X 25'. Mark made us all get out while he turned the truck around. Sometime part of the back end of the truck was hanging over the edge of a sheer cliff.

That was enough excitement for one day! On the way down we stopped and the boys played in the snow. This was in the summer. We found two beautiful rock crystals there, one purple and one clear crystal.

We really enjoyed having our grandsons with us.

SONS ARE A HERITAGE FROM THE LORD,CHILDREN A REWARD FROM HIM. Ps.127:3 NIV

2010-03-04T12:17:00.001-08:00

Crocker

Pastor Joe, Crocker, Dad, Mom

Mom, Crocker, Dad

Dad & Crocker

Mom, Crocker, Dad, Max

DISTANCE IS NOT A PROBLEM

The following is an article written by Pastor Joe Thornton about our grandson and his family. It was published in a church publication.

For Jenny and Sheldon Hoesli, members of Lester's Chapel United Methodist Church in Jackson, Tennessee, distance has been a problem they have been able to overcome.

It was overcome to some degree when Sheldon was an exceptionally long distance away. He was serving in Iraq, when their first child, Max was born. Sheldon could not cover the distance in person, but it was overcome when he was able to view their newborn son via satellite hookup from Iraq to Jackson-Madison County General Hospital.

Distance was overcome in October when their second son, Crocker, was born in another location quite distant from Jackson and Lester's Chapel: Wyoming.

Solving the problem of distance can be challenging, especially with two young children. Still the family returns to Lester's Chapel even though shortly after Crocker was born the family was transferred to LaMarque, Texas, near Houston. When Crocker was eight weeks old he was back at Lester's Chapel where he had the role of Baby Jesus in the church's Christmas pageant, the same role that both brother Max and mother Jenny had played as babies.

The Hoeslis wanted Crocker to be baptized by the same pastor in the same church where Max and Jenny had been baptized, so once again they overcame a long distance, traveling the 750 miles to Jackson.

Then the big winter event that swept across much of the country's midsection descended on West Tennessee shutting down most locations, especially in rural areas. This included churches, and Lester's Chapel was among them.

The Hoeslis are blessed with determined spirit that overcomes odds as well as distance. They contacted the pastor, Dr. Joe Thornton, to ask him to baptize Crocker in the Thornton home in Brownsville, a hazardous 25 miles from Jackson. Not to be outdone, the adventurous travelers made their slow journey to fulfill their mission to have Crocker baptized. The Thornton home, located on a long road off a country road, presented the family with not only distance but ice. Neither was a problem for the Hoeslis.

Baptisms and weddings plus visitations for departed have been held before in the almost 170-year-old home of the Thorntons, built by Becky Thornton's great-great-grandparents. Some of the nine children born there were baptized and later married in the front parlor, and their father, a doctor, gave medical care to Civil War soldiers on both sides. Crocker was baptized in the same parlor where piano and guitar "concerts" were held for soldiers who had come for food and shelter and where generations ago babies were dedicated to God.

The church is not a building. It is where "two or three are gathered together," and the family who gathered in the Thornton home for the sacrament of baptism was the church.

Baptism is not only about dedicating the life of a child to God, but it is about the responsibility of the parents, grandparents, and church members toward the infant. This baptism, in particular, shows the determination of these young parents to make that happen, and that in caring for their sons, nothing can deter them. Truly, distance is not a problem.

2010-02-22T09:29:00.001-08:00

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Ps. 51:10 NIV

2010-02-15T07:42:00.000-08:00

Sister Donna with cousin Sue and the old rock

house in the background.

I want to tell you a little about the house. This

is where my sister, brother and I were raised. It

was a 5 room house, 3 downstairs and 2 upstairs,

built of native sandstone that was quarried in the

pasture east of the house. The original house was

built in 1873 with 4 rooms, one room was added

on the south later on. I want to draw attention to

the upstairs window behind Donna. That was LaRoy

and I's bedroom. The ceiling was tapered so that the

outside wall was only 4' tall. You had to be almost in

the center of the room to stand up straight. The stairway

was a steep L-shaped stairway so you had to watch

yourself when you went up or down. There was no heat

upstairs so it was very cold in the winter. The window

wasn't very tight so a lot of times when it snowed the snow

would sift through the window on the floor and sometimes

on our bed. As it was cold in the room, a lot of times

homecured hams and bacon would be hung there. When

the house was torn down we found a button-up shoe, a silver

spoon and 2 hedgeballs (osage oranges) in a hole in the wall

that had been placed there when the house was built.

LaRoy and I

When LaRoy was a senior he got a new 1951 Ford

pickup. There was nothing in a 4 county area that

could outrun it. Don't ask me how I know that. :-)

Me and LaRoy

Dressed up for something. Don't

remember what.

Me Donna LaRoy

LaRoy
8th grade graduation. We went to a rural
school so the graduation for all 8th graders
from rural schools in the county was held in town.

LaRoy by Donna's Pontiac

LaRoy

I THINK on senior trip...?

Darlene Postlethwaite and LaRoy

They started in country school together

in 1st grade and graduated from high school together.

My 8th grade graduation.

Mom Me Dad

Me and Don Casey (a neighbor)

In high school we had a relay team of guys over

200 pounds that we were both on. No one

could beat us because Don could run like a deer.

Donna

High school graduation.

This huge vine was on the west side of the house.

SORRY!! WE GOOFED UP.

2010-01-23T20:48:00.000-08:00

WE PUBLISHED A NEW POST ON JAN. 23, 2010 THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO GO BACK TO DEC. 9, 2009 TO VIEW. WE COULDN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO BRING IT UP WHERE IT SHOULD BE. SORRY!!!

"BUT IF WE WALK IN THE LIGHT, AS HE IS IN THE LIGHT, WE HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER, AND THE BLOOD OF JESUS, HIS SON, PURIFIES US FROM ALL SIN."

2010-01-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

"I WAS IN PRISON AND YOU VISITED ME"

Presented to Max Hoesli. By the Bill Glass Ass'n

for dedicated service in America's prisons

I John 1:7

THE WORK OF GOD IN THE LIFE OF NGUYEN

I believe the Lord brought Nguyen to Wichita because He wanted him to come to the knowledge of the love He has for him. Nguyen came with another purpose in mind, unaware of what God had for him. Nguyen did what he was brought to Wichita to do except at the last moment he changed his mind not to do it exactly like they (his gang in Houston) wanted it done. I believe this is where the HOLY SPIRIT first spoke to Nguyen. The second time was when he was arrested, he freely confessed to what he did. Also at his hearing he openly admitted it. I believe his openness to do what the Holy Spirit was prompting him to do gave the Lord the opportunity to bless him.

Then he was sent to the Ottawa County Detention center. He was placed in pod D and there was a black man from Africa there. His name was Anthony Udo Udo and he knew the Lord. He attended Bible study faithfully. He told me his granddaddy was a witch doctor and his dad hated Christians. But one day the Lord got hold of his dad and he was born again. When Anthony saw what change the Lord made in his dad's life he knew the Lord was real. So he asked Jesus to come in his life and he said "He did". The Lord had Anthony in there to help Nguyen come to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Nguyen could identify with him because they were both foreigners. Nguyen was from Vietnam. Nguyen came to Bible study the first week he was there. He was very difficult to understand but the Lord drew us together by his Spirit so we could understand each other. He asked me to call his attorney because he didn't understand every thing that was going on. The attorney's name was Armond R. Velez. He was appointed by the court. I tried several times, but could not catch him in his office, so I asked his secretary if he could call me. That afternoon he called me back. I could tell the Lord had his hand in appointing him as Nguyen's attorney. He explained what Nguyen was facing and it wasn't good. The next time I went to town I stopped at the jail to tell Nguyen what Armond had said. He told me that he had received a letter from another attorney in Wichita saying he would represent him for $5,000 dollars. I told him I believed Armond had his interests at heart and that the Lord had his hand in picking him to represent him. Nguyen seemed to be satisfied with that and stayed with Armond.

It wasn't long until he asked Jesus in his life to be his Lord and Savior. Nguyen was faithful to come to Bible study and would stay afterward to talk about Jesus. He asked for a Vietnamese Bible so he could read it in his own language and understand it better. All I could find was a New Testament, they were all sold out of the complete Bible. The place I found his New Testament also had several pieces of Christan literature in Vietnamese so I ordered them also. He was very happy to have them to read. We spent time together in a 'one to one' when I had the time. Every time I would come to the jail he would want to visit. He was very polite and always wanted to help with such things as handing out Bibles and material or picking up chairs and putting them away. Then one day I went to visit and he was gone, but he left me a note telling me how afraid he was to leave because he could trust me and he didn't want to lose track of me. And Nguyen was true to his word, every time anything happened that would cause him to move or have a change in his life he would let me know.

They took him back to Wichita to have his hearing. After the hearing they transferred him to Meade, Kansas jail which was smaller and a little more relaxed. God was faithful, He had some ladies come for Bible study. It wasn't long until they brought him back for his sentencing. He was looking at some long and hard time because his offense was a very serious felony. I had talked to his lawyer. He said Nguyen's chances were not good and he would most likely be sent back to Vietnam, after serving several years in prison. This was a fearful thought for Nguyen as he and his family came to the USA when he was seven years old and he had no one left in Vietnam. Also, the Vietnamese government would most likely consider him a spy. So we were praying the Lord would do a miracle in his life. And the Lord did--he got two years community correction in Wichita.

Nguyen was thankful for this but he really wanted to be transferred to Houston where he could be with his family and find a job. Part of his program was to find a job and that was hard for him in Wichita because he didn't know his way around. One day he found a job and we were praising the Lord but not for long. After a week they told him not to come back. He asked them why and they told him the job was just for a week. He had not understood that when he took the job. But God is faithful

A couple of days later he walked outside the building where he was living and there was a man standing on the sidewalk. Nguyen went up to him and said, "Sir, I need a job". The man said, "come with me". He was a painter and needed help. I talked with that man later and he said that Nguyen was a very good worker and that he would like to put him on full time

At this time the Lord also put a black lady in his life. Her name was Rev. Dilce Polite and she was in her 80's. She came once a week and had services for the people where Nguyen was staying. She also would stop by and pick him up and take him to church on Sundays. Some Sundays she would take him to dinner, she was a friend that met a need.

Then, there was Pat, his parole officer, who was very good for him. She knew it would be hard for him to find a job so she was very patient with him. One day Darlene and I were going to be in Wichita. I called her to ask permission to take him to dinner. She was very helpful and gave him a pass even though he hadn't completed all the requirements to deserve a pass. So you can see, the Lord had people in the right places to help him.

We got to Wichita early that afternoon. We had made arrangements to pick Nguyen up at 6:30 so we took the opportunity to go visit Jack West and his family. I was blessed to lead him to the Lord six years earlier while he was in the Ottawa County jail. Jack was a gang leader at that time. I knew he could identify with Nguyen because Nguyen was a leader of a gang in Houston. So we invited Jack and his family to join us for dinner. At dinner Nguyen waited on me like a royal servant. We had a great time visiting and getting to know each other. This was the first time for us to visit outside the jail. We took Nguyen back to Community Correction and headed home. We were praising the Lord for His faithfulness. Then came the test of our faith.

About a week later I answered the phone and on the other end was Nguyen, crying, and telling me Immigration had picked him up and was going to send him back to Vietnam. My heart was broken. The next morning I got a call telling me they were moving him to Anthony, Kansas. He said he would let me know the address the next day. He asked me to call Immigration and see if I could find out anything so I called them the next day. They told me if I was not his legal counsel they didn't want to talk with me. I waited for a week with no letter or call. The next week I got a letter saying that they would not let him call out. The next day Nguyen called saying that he was in El Paso, Texas and they were just waiting to send him back to Vietnam. He also said it could be up to six months before anything would happen

Now was a time of trying our faith. I called Mr. Don Thompson, who was with Community Correction and had also worked with Nguyen, to see if he could tell me anything. He told me that he was there when Immigration came. They just walked in the door and said "where is Nguyen?". They told Nguyen "you are going with us". Mr. Thompson said that they had also tried to talk with Immigration but they refused to talk with them. They had also tried to call them but they would not return their call. He did know that he would have a hearing before anything could take place. He told me "don't give up, and tell Nguyen that he can come back here any time if they release him. He is in good standing in Wichita".

Nguyen called and asked me to call Suzanna Gladney in St. Louis, Mo. She was with legal service for immigrants to the USA. She also said he would have a hearing within six months to determine what they would do with him. They could deport him, send him to prison for several years, or keep him six months and release him. None of this was a good report. Then Nguyen called and told me they had set a hearing date. I asked him if he had someone to represent him and he said he was going to represent himself. He thought that was what the Lord wanted him to do. He asked me if I would write a letter to Judge Gary Burkholder in his behalf. We wrote a letter stating the truth as we knew it. We sent the letter then prayed that the Lord would move on the Judge's heart to do the will of God.

The next thing we heard was Nguyen calling from the airport saying he was going home to Houston. I was not at home so he told Darlene he would call the next night from his home. They had just turned him loose in El Paso so he had to get home on his own. The Lord had His hand in this also because if it had been in any other state he would have had to go directly back to Wichita. He was released in Texas so he could go home first without crossing any state lines. He called me Saturday night and was very happy to see his family and his girlfriend. I told him he had better call Pat (his parole officer in Wichita) right away and tell her what had happened. He called her and she told him she would give him 48 hours to be back in Wichita. His brother drove him to Wichita in time so he wouldn't be in trouble.

Letting Nguyen go home to see his family was a way the Lord blessed him. He called me when he got back to Wichita. The Lord was good to him, he got his job back and things were going good. But his heart was home with his family. He talked to me several times about getting his paper work done so they could transfer him to Houston. We prayed the Lord's will would be done.

I had one more opportunity to take him to dinner. A friend and I were going to Wichita to meet with a man who was with Teen Challenge. I called and made arrangements to take Nguyen out for dinner. I was really looking forward to seeing and visiting with him but the visit was cut short because the man with me got sick. I was very disappointed because I had so much I wanted to ask him that we didn't get to talk over on the phone or at the jail. I didn't know this was the last time I would get to see him face to face.

Nguyen would call me often to let me know how he was doing. Then one day he told me the Judge said he could leave Community Correction, but not leave Wichita. He was going to live with a Vietnamese family that he had made friends with. He moved in with them on July 17, 1999. That evening he called and gave me his new address and said it was great to be out with some freedom to go where he wanted to. But I knew Nguyen would treat his freedom with respect, and he did. As we were talking on the phone I asked him if he got to go out in the evenings. He told me that he stayed at home.

Shortly after that we were gone for a four day weekend. Nguyen tried to call us to tell us he was going home. The paper work for his transfer to Houston was complete so he could go. He had always said he would come see us before he left but we were gone so that didn't happen. The night we got back he called and let us know that he was home.

He now has a wife and three children, a good job, and is doing very well. I pray for him and pray we keep in contact with each other. He calls me about once a month, sends pictures of his family, and sends me gifts on my birthday and even on father's day. It would bless me mightily to get to see him again face to face.

These are some of the ways God worked in the life of Nguyen. Most of all , it's about how He let me have the privilege of meeting this young man from Vietnam. I pray that Nguyen will continue to let Jesus be the Lord of his life. Phil. 1:3 I Cor. 1:3-9 NIV

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" which means."God with us." Matt.1:23 NIV

2009-12-24T04:41:00.000-08:00

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him IMMANUEL. Isa.7:14 NIV

Christmas was a special time of the year in my younger life. Decorating the tree was always a fun time. The tree used then was a skinny tree, you could see right through it. They had few branches and the limbs had a small amount of needles on them. Most of the time they would be dry and the needles would fall on the floor. The first thing we would do is get a bucket full of sand and use it for a tree stand. The trunk of the trees were small so it was easy to stick in the sand.

Next was decorating the tree. We would pop some popcorn and get a darning needle and some heavy thread so we could string the pop corn and cranberries and place it on the tree. It was generally long enough to circle the tree five or six times. Then we would make a paper chain out of 8" X 1" strips of colored paper, or sometimes we used leftover wall paper with flowers on it, and placed it on the tree. Mom had some glass balls and it seemed like one would get dropped and it would break. We always had icicles and most of the time we would put too many on. We didn't have lights when I was young. We had no electricity. When we finally got electricity mom got some lights that looked like a small candle. They had a small ball which had a bulb in it and a small candle filled with liquid on top of the ball. When they were turned on the liquid would get hot and bubbles would rise in them.

The week before Christmas was the longest week of the year because presents started showing up under the tree and we tried to guess whose they were and what was in them. Presents are good because they reminds us of what the Father gave us.

Midnight Mass was a BIG thing. Mom would make us go to bed early. She would say "you will be tired for midnight mass and I want you to stay awake". So we would go to bed but wouldn't go to sleep until about a hour before time to get ready and go. We had three churches that were 10 miles from us, so we would have to choose which one we would go to. So when it was time to go mom would start trying to get us up and we were sleepy and the bed felt so good. Our room had no heat, sometimes snow would sift in through the north window, and the floor was cold but we finally got up. On the way to church we would fall to sleep again so mom would use a strong word to get us in church. We would fight off sleep during mass but finally when the smell of incense came we would know it was about over. There was something special about midnight mass. It was the same people that met there on Sunday but I think it was because it was night time, we were all together as a family, the dark shut out the world and we were centered on the Lord's birthday. IMMANUEL, God with us. He was truly with us.

When we got home we would ask mom if we could open one present. Most of the time she would let us open a small one then she would say get to bed so Santa can bring some presents.

The Father gave us the ultimate present, His son. "For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John.3:16 NIV He gave us an example that we should love, and give the love, that He gave us. But in John,1:11 "He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him". The word receive means to take, you have to take a gift to have received it. I'm afraid that nowadays we are always looking for another present, thinking it will fulfill our needs, but it never will. This Christmas season, if you have not taken the gift from the Father, I would ask you to consider doing just that. THE GIFT IS JESUS.

"THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS ON ME"

2009-12-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

New Jail

Ground breaking and old jail in background

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Lk.4:18-19 NIV

After twenty years of planning the construction of a new detention center in our county we opened a new center that has offices for the sheriff and his deputies, a control center for the dispatchers and guards, plus a kitchen and laundry. This facility has 65 beds and has no bars but has 8 lock down cells that holds two men each. We house prisoners from Kansas City, Wichita and surrounding counties.

With the new facility things changed as to how we had Bible study and getting to take men out for revivals and baptisms. Thursday night was Bible study night. Some nights I would have to have two or three classes because the booking room where we met wouldn't hold them. Then we would have to keep some of them separated for various reasons. It became quite a challenge when I was used to ministering to four to eight, and now a possible sixty five. Most of the time Bible study would have twenty or more. Then there were times that inmates would put in a request for a one on one.

These are some of the things that happened at the new facility.

The first year there were four men that were serious about seeking the Lord. I had a twelve lesson video series that is great but I had no way to play them. So I went to the sheriff and told him I would like to show this series to four men. He said if you trust them you can take the men to the deputy's office and use their T.V. and VCR. That meant I would have to take them out of security. The first night I was real nervous. They were all from Kansas City and I hadn't told them that we were going to leave security, I just told them when the time came. They came to the booking room as usual and I told them to follow me. When I opened the front security door they could not believe it. One man who had been locked up for several months said, as he looked out the windows in the lobby, "there's a tree!". He hadn't seen one for a long time. We went through the teaching and they proved to be trust worthy. One of the men really blessed me. He called his girl friend and told her to buy a television with a VCR in it and bring it when she came to visit. That next week Larry gave me a new TV to use at Bible study. That way we could have our class in the Bible study room. That was ten years ago. I left it with the man that took over the Bible study when I quit.

One night I was having Bible study and after it was over I was leaving to go home. As I was shutting the door one of the inmates hollered at me and said "here is your knife. I found it on the floor". I had forgotten to take my pocket knife out of my pocket! Not all prisoner are bad, he could have got me in big trouble.

There was a inmate named Matt he was from Kansas City. He had a long list of charges on his record sheets. He said he was a Christian. He attended Bible study every week faithfully and he knew his Bible fairly good. His family tried to get him to go to some program but it didn't work out. I work with a program called Teen Challenge. He said he was interested in the program. His family made arrangements for him to go when he was released and he agreed to go. He was released and the day he was supposed to go he changed his mind and went to a crack house in down town Kansas City. About a week later his mom called and told me what he had done. I asked her if there was any way I could talk with him and she gave me a telephone number. So I called it and he answered the phone, he said he was not interested in going to T. C.

That next day a young pastor that went with me to the county jail for several years was having meetings at a local church. So I went to hear him and see what he had to say. He was speaking on II Kings 6 and 7 where Israel was being attacked by Aram and there was a famine in the land.

Elijah, the Prophet told the King of Israel basically that 'tomorrow things will be different'. I heard the Lord tell me that 'about this time tomorrow things will be different', and for me to claim that for Matthew. The next morning Matt's mother called me and told me that Matt called her at 3 a.m. and asked her to come get him. When she got there he was sitting out on the curb crying and he told her he wanted to go to Teen Challenge. He went to T.C. in San Antonio and was the Praise and Worship leader at the Center. They were invited to appear on PTL TV and sing and give their testimonies. No one, not even his parents, knew he could sing until they saw the program. After graduation from the Center he got married, has a family and was doing well the last we heard.

Critics say inmates get 'jail house religion' just to get out, and that is so with some. But I have heard that at a Billy Graham crusade, six months after people go forward and make a profession of faith only 5% are still walking with the Lord. It is about the same in jail.

I could write a book on things that has happened at Bible study at the jail.

I WAS IN PRISON AND YOU CAME TO VISIT ME Matt.25:36b NIV

2009-12-01T08:10:00.000-08:00

This cross was made and given to me by a friend.
It is made of bars from the 'old' jail which operated from 1916 to 1997

PRISON, "ANOTHER WORLD."

1973 was the first time for me to be locked behind bars. I had 'visited' the booking room when I was in high school by request of the sheriff for speeding around the square at Delphos. He lectured us and let us go. This time I was invited by a young pastor to go with him to our county jail to visit the inmates and have Bible study. Our jail was small. The first door opened into an exercise area. It was a four foot wide corridor around the cells. The next door opened into a larger room with a large table where the inmates could eat and play cards This door would be locked behind us when we went in. That is where we would sit at the table to have Bible study and visit. Most of the cells were unlocked so if the inmates wanted to visit or come to Bible study they could. Some would come and visit but when Bible study started they would go back to their cell. Others would stand at their cell door and listen but most of the time after a few weeks of listening they would come and join us. A few times there would be someone that didn't want us in there and they would interrupt by turning their radio high or get some one to play cards with them.

After a year the pastor got moved so I continued to go every Thursday night. There have been several men that have gone with me. Most would go for one to six months and decide that wasn't for them. I had a neighbor that went with me for about five years. He was good, he had a heart for the prisoners and was good for me. He was a young man that had a family and he had a call on his life to be a pastor. A small country church in Oklahoma asked him to come and pastor them. He accepted the call even though he had no schooling. Today he is the pastor of a large church in Enid, Oklahoma.

Some of the things that happened while ministering at the jail: I always had a good working relationship with the Sheriff. When there was a revival in town, or some other town close by, he would let me take the prisoners that I trusted to the revival. We had several baptisms. The Sheriff also let us take them out to a swimming pool, stock tank or church baptismal. Several came to know the Lord. Some would accept Him there and some later on. After several years I still hear of someone that is away from here who had accepted the Lord at the jail and told no one. I just heard about one man that was in jail here for a DUI twenty five years ago. A man from the local AA chapter told me that he was at a regional meeting and this man was sharing his testimony and said that twenty five years ago he was at a Bible study, led by a farmer, in our county jail. He accepted the Lord in his life that night and had not taken a drink since that day. He asked the AA man to let me know this.

In the 1960's one of our local churches had a young pastor on fire for the Lord that stirred up this community. He is in Iowa now pastoring and also ministering in a prison there. Ed asked one of the prisoners there where he got saved. He told Ed in Kansas but 'you probably never heard of it'. He said 'I got saved in jail at a Bible study at the Ottawa county jail'. Ed said 'that is where the first church I pastored is and I know the farmer that has the Bible study there'.

One day a highway patrolman brought a young couple in that he arrested for having a stolen vehicle. After investigation they found out that he was the head of a gang in Wichita called the 'crips' and she was one of his prostitutes. The first night we had Bible study that he was there he stayed in his cell and never said a word. The Sheriff told me later that Jack told him not to let me come in there, that he didn't want any Bible study going on around him. The Sheriff told him that he was running the jail and I could come in anytime I wanted to. He stayed in his cell or stood at the door for about six weeks, then he started asking questions from his door. Eventually he came and sat at the table with us. A short time later he asked Jesus in his life. He started studying his Bible and reading Christian books. He was on fire for the Lord. Then about a month before he was to get out he started pulling back, not even reading his Bible, he stopped praying and eventually he didn't even come out to the Bible study the last two weeks. I thought to my self another jail house conversion "when you see a little freedom we don't need Jesus". Six month later the telephone rang and a voice said this Jack and I said Jack who? He said 'Jack from Wichita and I want to see you and the jail will not give me your address'. I told him 'I will come to town and visit you', because you never give your address out. When I got to the jail I could not believe my eyes. This guy looked like a new man, smiling as you would say, "from ear to ear". "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come!" 1Cor.5:17 NIV I asked him why he pulled back the last two weeks from Bible study. He said he knew it was going to cost him something and he didn't know if he could pay the price. He knew that the gang would demand something and he didn't know what. He said when he got out he went back to the gang. He was there for three days and didn't tell them about accepting Jesus. That evening he told them that he was a Christian and he wanted out of the gang immediately. His body guard beat him up big time. He left the gang that night. He never went back and the gang has left him alone. I wish they all turned out to the good but they don't. Later he invited me to his wedding and it was awesome. A street ministry preacher married them. The gang and the street people were there right along with the church people.

This jail is old and the state of Kansas was on us all the time to make inprovements so I will share some funny thing that happend because of the age of the jail. I shared about the exercise corridor. In the evenings they would let the prisoners out in the exercise area. All they could do was walk or run as it was only four feet wide. On the outside wall there were windows covered with bars about six inches apart. In the summer they would open the windows to let air come in because we had no air conditioning. They let the prisoners have transistor radios and it was hard to get good reception in the jail because of all the iron so they would put their radio in the window. One night someone was walking by the jail and stole the radio. (That's a switch!!) Nowadays most of our prisoners are drug related charges and their girl friends, or someone else, was supplying them through the bars so we put up a fence around the jail. We had the oldest operating jail in the state of Kansas. In 1997 we moved into a new jail. (to be continued)

2009-11-25T06:34:00.001-08:00

And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." Gen.1:20 NIV

2009-11-13T10:51:00.004-08:00

"PHEASANT HUNTING IN KANSAS"

I can not remember who it was that took me pheasant hunting for the first time. I was seven or eight I know I had a 400-10 shot gun that took the small 2 1/2 inch shell. My dad never went pheasant hunting that I can remember but he hunted coyotes and rabbits. We hunted in sunflower fields, draws in fields, stubble fields, pastures and hay meadows. Sunflower fields were the best. Farmers used to leave some fields with wheat stubble. Over the summer sunflowers would be plentiful and the pheasants liked the seed. After soil conservation was started things changed. Now we have water ways, CRP grass, milo and bean fields. Most of the farm land is leased so it is harder to find a place to hunt. There is a program that is called "walk-in hunting". It is funded by the soil conservation district so city people can hunt. If you are travelling on the highway the night before the first weekend of the season you will notice a solid line of head lights coming from the big cities so they can start hunting early the next morning.

Some things I remember about pheasants and pheasant hunting. One Saturday our neighbors, the Casey boys, came over to hunt rabbits. We were walking along the road about a 1/2 mile from home looking for rabbits and flushed out a cock pheasant. Don Casey had a 22 special rifle and he just automatically shot at it while it was flying. It dropped out of the sky like a rock. We all stood there shocked. We went over and picked it up. He had hit it in the head. Unbelievable! I don't know what the odds would be.

Some neighbors from up north came down to go hunting. There were 4 or 5 of them. We decided to go over east a couple of miles to hunt. So we all piled in one car like sardines (three of us and all of them) and headed east of home. The road is just a trail and it is pretty rough. We hit a hole in the road. Someone's gun went off and made a hole in the roof of the car. He had his gun loaded and didn't have the safety on. It was just a miracle someone didn't get shot.

My brother and his brother-in-law would come down and go pheasant hunting. Pete had two bird dogs. It was entertaining just to go hunting with him. Vicki, our daughter, was in grade school and she always wanted to go because his dogs weren't well trained. They would run way out in front of them and scare the birds up too soon. He would call them all kind of names, some good and some bad. He would threaten them that he was going to shoot them if they wouldn't come back, but he never did. He is a frenchman and it would keep you laughing just to hear him talk to his dogs

Two couples, friends of ours, decided to go out to western Kansas and hunt. Their wives decided to go with them and make a trip out of it. They got up in the middle of the night so they would be there at sunrise. After they got there they had a hard time finding a place to hunt but finally they shot one pheasant and threw it in the trunk. After hunting all day and not doing any good they decided not to stay and hunt on Sunday so they headed home with their one bird in the trunk. They got back about 1:00 a.m. in the morning and when they opened the trunk to get the bird it flew off into the night.

Probably the high light of pheasant hunting is an 80 acre field that we own. It has more pheasants on it than any place I have seen, and several deer and quail. It is planted to grass under the CRP program. It has a creek along the west side, a small ravine on the south, and grain fields on the east and north. There have been many years that hunters have taken over 100 cocks from this field.

For more than 30 years a group of men and some of their children have been coming and staying with us for the first weekend of hunting season. Most of them are from a church in Paola, Kansas. They just make theirselves at home and we just stay out of their way. They bring their groceries and fix their own meals. The older ones get the beds until they run out. They don't even mess up the beds, they just throw their sleeping bag on top and crawl in. The rest use the sofas, cots, or sleeping bags on the floor. We have made some good friends and each year there is someone new. Some of the kids that came in the beginning are bringing their kids now. It's always fun on Saturday evening. One of the men is an avid sportsman. He brings fish, wild turkey and all kinds of wild game. He has a deep fat fryer and cooks us up a feast. After supper we do some singing and sharing which is always good. I save all of our hunting ground for them. They get the first chance at the birds.

One time they brought a new man with them. I thought he looked familiar and he told the other men that he knew me from some where. We found out later that we had met 10 years earlier. I was driving a truck hauling hominy from Atchison, Kansas to a feed yard in Pratt, Kansas. It was about 2:30 in the morning and I had finished unloading so I went over to a building that had a small break room for employees. There was a young man in there and I could tell he was in trouble. He had been drinking and was talking about suicide because his wife had just taken off with another man and she wanted a divorce. I prayed for him and shared Jesus with him and he accepted the Lord in his life. He told me that he had not had a drink from that day. He got re-married, has a family and attends church regularly. It always amazes me what the Lord Jesus can do, like bring a man to your house 10 years later that is still walking with the Lord. All He asks us to do is share His love and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

THIS IS MY COMMAND; LOVE EACH OTHER. John.15:17 NIV

"IF IT IS POSSIBLE, AS FAR AS IT DEPENDS ON YOU, LIVE AT PEACE WITH EVERYONE." Rom.12:18 NIV

2009-10-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

"Community" is a group of people living together and having common interests, work, and social life, sometimes described as 'common unity'. Our community was Grover which was named after our country school. The communities that I know about were called by the name of the school, or the school was named after the community.

Maybe we would go to town once a week on Saturday evening. The stores stayed open late in the summer, so people would shop and visit until midnight. If you would tell someone you were from the Grover community, they could identify with that. They would say, 'Oh, that's northeast of town isn't it'.

I would like to share some things about our community that I can remember. The first thing that comes to mind is the dancing in homes. We had a neighbor that lived just across the section that played the fiddle and another one that played the guitar. I was small and it was before I started school that they came over to our house. They moved the furniture to one side of the room so they would have room to dance. We had a rock house made from the sandstone quarried from the pasture just east of the house next to a spring they used in the early days. The house had three rooms on the ground level, a kitchen, living room and bed room, and they danced in all three. They danced several times in the house where the fiddler lived. There were barn dances but they drew people from a larger area. Just four miles west of us there was a very large barn where they had several dances. One of our neighbors was moving away so the other neighbors got together and had a supper and dance in their barn for them. That was the first barn dance I can remember. It was a good time.

The spring I spoke of above was used in early days to keep food, expecially dairy products, cool. You can also still see ruts in the pasture which indicate wagon trains stopped there for good spring water.

Another thing that brought us together was listening to boxing on the radio. The neighbors would gather together to listen to the fight. Dad would shut it off as soon as the fight was over. We had no electricity so the radio was only used for certain thing, like the early markets and other farm related things, because dad would say 'we don't want to run the battery down'.

Card parties were another thing that brought us together. This card party group was made up of people from two communities. We lived right on the line that divided two school districts so it was Grover and Hall community people who participated. Sometimes we would meet in the school house but most of the time they would be held in someone's home. They would take turns hosting the party. This continued for several years. We played 10 point Pitch. It was always fun because every one acts different. Some would cheat, some took it very serious, some just played to have fun. You would know if you got a partner that always cheated. One man, when he had the deuce, would always try to play it twice, another man would put his discards on top of the deck so the other couple would get his discards. Two of the women would kick you when they wanted a certain card played, or they would pass a card under the table, or wink. The hostess would buy four prizes, two for men and womens high score and two for men and womens low score (booby prizes). The ones that were serious wanted that top prize and we had some ornery men that would bid too high for their hand just to 'set' the serious one. The young kids always had a good time playing hide and seek or some other game.

A couple of times, I remember, the people of the community would put on a play at the schoolhouse. Kids would be a part of it also. They would also auction off 'box suppers' to raise money for the schools. The ladies would prepare a supper and put it in a decorated box. The men would bid on the boxes and then eat with the one who had prepared the one they bought. They didn't know until after the auction whose box they had bought.

Life in rural America was a much slower pace and you knew your neighbors. Our rural telephone was the first "Face Book". Instead of clicking your mouse you picked up the telephone receiver and got all the news in the community. We had twelve on our party line and someone was almost always on the line giving out the latest information.

57 Years. "IT IS BETTER NOT TO VOW THAN TO MAKE A VOW AND NOT FULFILL IT." ECCL. 5:5 NIV

2009-10-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

OUR WEDDING PICTURE

HONEYMOON

LIMESTONE HOUSE BUILT BY DARLENE'S
GRANDPA BECK IN 1875

DARLENE

MAX

DARLENE

MAX

DARLENE

DONNIE & MAX
First Communion

MAX

MAX & DARLENE

MAX Eighth grade graduation from
country school

CUTTING OUR WEDDING CAKE

DARLENE

DARLENE
Eighth grade graduation and
Confirmation

DARLENE MARK MAX

MAX

MAX DONNA LAROY

DARLENE'S SENIOR CLASS
(Dignified!)

DARLENE

Memorial Day Aunt Emma's roses

DARLENE senior picture

MAX senior picture

MAX & DARLENE

MAX & DARENE Lawton, Okla.

LA ROY EVA & STEVE DARLENE MAX

Stevie's baptism day

MAX DONNA LA ROY

MAX'S FAMILY

Donna Max Sr. Max Eva La Roy

MAX & DARLENE

Easter sunrise service on a hill in our pasture

"He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord." Proverbs 18:22 NIV

MAX & DARLENE

FAMILY PICTURE Thanksgiving 2008

CLARENCE, MAX, MARK, DARLENE, JUNE, KAREN

OUR FIRST HOME

(Little, Tiny, House on the Prairie)

GEORGE & MAX Ft. Sill, Oklahoma

LA ROY MAX

"Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table." Psalm 128:3 NIV

DARLENE & TOMMY MAX & MARK MAX Sr. & STEVE

STEVE TOMMY MARK

(and the cat excaping!)

MARK STEVE TOMMY

STEVE TOM DARLENE & VICKI MARK

(Vicki's Baptism day)

VICKI & TIGER

(Tiger in mom's doll buggy)

VICKI

TOM

MARK

STEVE

THE BOYS & FR. STEICHEN

VICKI

TOM

MARK

STEVE

VICKI Sr. pic

VICKI, THOM, MARK, STEVE

US & OUR KIDS 2008

US & GRANDKIDS

NEW ADDITIONS BELLA JOY HOESLI

CROCKER ALLEN HOESLI

OUR FELLOWSHIP SIGN BY THE HIGHWAY

BAPTISM AT THE LEAN-TO

EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE

THE FARM

COUNTRY NEIGHBORS BAND Darlene on left

24 YEARS

MAX, MISS KANSAS, DARLENE

DARLENE PLAYING AT FAMILY REUNION

SKIING WITH FRIENDS

On September 23, 1952 Darlene and I made our vows to each other at the Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Kansas. Before God, our friends, and our relatives, never thinking of breaking them. Even though we have had some real rough times over the years it has never entered our minds to give up.

"Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things come and for whom we live; and there us but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things come and through whom we live." I Cor. 8:6 NIV

I THANK MY GOD EVERY TIME I REMEMBER YOU. PHIL.1:3 NIV

2009-10-06T22:33:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken at a family reunion in the spring of 1999, 10 years ago. There are three families, 1st is my sister with her family 2nd my family, 3rd my brother's family. Not all were able to be here, but most were.

"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." *

2009-09-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

As I told you, the first football game I ever saw I played in. It was when I started high school. I had attended country school and my dad was not interested in sports so we never went to town to see a game. My coach was a young man just out of the marines and he was tough. So you can see, all things were new to me. The first thing was learning what room to be at for the different classes I had. I came from a one room school.

I will try to share some things that happened during football at MHS. I had never seen an actual football uniform with pads so that was all new to me and when they told me I needed to buy a jockstrap I said 'huh?'!! I ordered my shoes through the school and I had had my physical so I was ready to start a new adventure in my life.

Our practice field was a half mile from the school so we had to run to practice. The upper classmen made it tough on us freshman. They used us for tackling practice and the coach ran the practice like a marine boot camp. We had to carry the equipment back and forth. There was no water at the field. If we got thirsty one of the players lived on the way. They had a yard hydrant so on the way back to the locker room that was the water hole.

My first year we had two new coaches and they didn't like the way the schedule was made. The schedule had small schools to play on non league games so they changed the schedule to have us play larger schools. Coach said by playing larger schools it would toughen us up and make us work harder. Some of the schools that he picked were Salina, Topeka, Hays and Wamego. These schools were 3 to 5 time larger than us. Some of the people in town thought he was crazy but it paid off a couple years later.

We had no school bus until I was a junior so business men in town would take us to the games. One time we took a cattle truck, we had straw bales to sit on. There would be a caravan of cars. We had 45 or 50 out for football. The Sheriff would take his car and one time when we were playing Hays where they had stop lights, we got to the stop light and it was red. He motioned for the cars following him to follow him. He turned on the lights and siren and took us all through the red light. If that would happen today they would kick him out of office just for using the car let along using the lights and siren.

There was a gangster that lived at the state lake. He was known as Whitey. Everyone knew he was a gangster but he liked football. He played on the town team and he was a good player. The sheriff also played on the town team so Whitey started taking a car load of players to the games. He also let the school use his big convertible for the queen to ride in in the homecoming parade. He also supported sports in other ways. He would be in our local fountain and if some football player would come in he would buy them a soft drink or ice cream. Whitey got killed in Nebraska. They were hijacking a truck load of furs and got in a shoot out with the law. There was also a woman and another guy with him. They were killed or wounded.

After our games, if Kansas University had a game at home, three or four men would take anyone that wanted to go to the KU game. They would have passes for us and put us up in a hotel. We would get to meet and talk with the coaches and players. Dr. Young was a K U fan. He asked me many times to go with him to the games. I went as often as I could. He would stop in Topeka for supper after the game. He liked Chinese food and there was a good Chinese restaurant there. It was my first time to eat Chinese food. It was with him also that I first had filet mignon and cordon bleu, things that were not on our country menu. Dr. Young was my dentist. He was a good man and he liked sports. He had two sons. One was born with cerebral palsy, or something like that. His other son was in high school and he was a great athlete. One summer he and some other guys were swimming at the state lake. They were outside the boundaries of the swimming area trying to swim across the lake and he got a cramp and drowned. This was hard on Doc so it helped him to have some of the players go with him to the games where he could treat them to different things.

We had one colored kid on the team. After the away games we would stop at some restaurant to get something to eat. If we stopped at a restaurant that would not serve him we would not eat there. It was hard to find a place that would serve him so we would stop at a hamburger joint and order hamburgers to go. We would sometimes stop at a small park and eat all together or eat on the way home.

In the fall of 1949 we won our league. There were only 13 points scored against us. That was Marysville and they are a bigger school. The statistics show we scored 210 to 13 in league play. For the season we scored 289 to 63. We lost one game and that was to Hays, a much bigger team. The score was 13 to 7. We had two T. D.'s called back. But what we thought was a bad call was this, we had the ball, it was fourth down and goal to go and they called it short, but there were some reporters taking pictures on the goal line and they sent us a picture that showed we made it by a good foot.

In the fall of 1948 I was a sophomore and the only one from the freshman and sophomore class to earn a letter in varsity football. I played tackle position, Vernon White was a line backer on my side. We were the only two that played all the games with out having a substitute. They didn't run a platoon system so that meant we played offense and defense both. We played the single wing offense.

I was picked to be captain for the team and king at the home coming game. We played Chapman that night and they were called the Greenie's. They had just bought new uniforms so they ran around the field to show everyone their new uniforms and announce that they had changed their name to the Fighting Irish. We kicked the ball to them, they fumbled it, and we ran in for a T.D. 20 seconds on the clock and the score was 7 to 0. We kicked to them again and they passed two times with out catching it. They passed on third down and we intercepted it for another T.D. With the clock showing 1:15 off the clock the score was 14 to 0. We kicked off again. They ran one play and on the second play they fumbled and we ran it in for a T.D. With a little over two minuets in to the game the score was 21 to 0. The final score was 39 to 0.

I had a good friend that waited to go out for football until his senior year. The coach put him in at the end of a game. They were kicking to us and the ball went right in his hands, what luck!! I always wanted to have the opportunity to catch a kickoff and run with it.

In 1949 we were challenged by a high ranking team in the state to play them on Thanksgiving day. They said they would feed us a Thanksgiving dinner if we would come and play them because they thought they were a better team than us. They had to get permission from the state because you were only allowed to play so many quarters a season. There were no play off games then, so we accepted their challenge. We played a rough game but we won by 20 to 13 and ate their turkey. It was the first M.H.S. football game to be broadcast on the radio.

I always had butterflies before each game but after the first play they were gone. That reminds me of the times that I go into prison or meet some one on the street to share the Lord with. After beginning to share with the first inmate, or neighbor, or family member there is peace. They're just waiting for you to share the Good News with them--you owe it to them.

*Scripture verse above---I Tim. 4:8 NIV

Would like to hear from you. Please leave a comment.

A GENTLE ANSWER TURNS AWAY WRATH, BUT A HARSH WORD STIRS UP ANGER---PROVERBS 15:1 NIV

2009-09-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

In 1972 some business men from town came and asked if I would consider running for county commissioner. I had run for sheriff before and lost by one vote and I was glad I did after thinking what the office requires. So I told them I would have to think about it. I didn't make a decision on "Oh, that would be great to be a county commissioner." A couple weeks later they asked if I had decided to run and I said 'yes'. So in November 1972 I was elected to the office of commissioner of Ottawa County, Kansas. This happened 6 more times for a total of 24 years. I had opposition each time.

Our county has 3 commissioners and they govern the county business. The County is the strongest form of government. One of our functions was to try to solve complaints and problems people had. One thing I learned is what Proverbs 15.1 says. When some one would come in the office with a problem that upset them and they wanted to vent it out it was best just to listen. In James. 1:19 it says " My dear brother, take note of this; Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." NIV At first if someone came in the office angry about something that was not true I was totally the opposite. I was slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry. Then the fight would be on and no one would win. I found out if I would just listen to them they would usually answer their own question and solve their own problem. It's not good to fight fire with fire! There was only one person in 24 years that we couldn't reason with.

About 4 years ago I had an appointment with the V.A. in Topeka. It was early in the morning so we left early because it is 125 miles from our home. That morning, about 40 miles into the trip, the fog got so bad we had to slow down and that made us 15 minuets late. We checked in and the doctor said 'You're late and I'm not going to see you'. We told him about the fog but he wouldn't listen, he said 'I have people waiting on me' but there wasn't any one in the waiting room and his next appointment was 1/2 hour away. We didn't argue with him. We thanked him and got ready to leave. He said 'Well, I can see you for a short time'. So we went into his office and all the time he was grumping and growling we just listened and smiled. He told us that he was from New York and he had to get up early that morning and fly to Atlanta, Georgia because he had an apartment there. From there the government would fly him to K.C International three times a week where he would rent a car and drive to Topeka. All this time we were just loving on him. Finally he said 'I'm going to give you a scooter if you can pass the driving test'. (ed. note--Giving an old truck driver a test to drive a scooter??? :-) ) He told us to go to the physical therapy room and to tell them to give me the driving test. So I was taking the driving test and he came down to see how I was doing. They told him I passed the test. He told me to tell them that I wanted a red scooter because the blue ones were ugly and he liked the red one. So I told them I wanted a red scooter and his personality changed, he stayed and talked and joked with us and I'm sure his patients had to wait on him because he was in no hurry to get to his office. My appointment was just for psychiatric evaluation for my Parkinson's and I ended up with a red scooter and got to see the Word of the Lord work and set a man free.

YOU SHALL NOT STEAL Ex.20:15 NIV

2009-08-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

One of the Ten Commandments is " You shall not steal". What I will share with you I believe is physical, mental and spiritual. One Saturday night my brother LaRoy and I were in Delphos with some friends at the park. Delphos had a park in the middle of the town square. When the weather was good it was a place where the young people hung out. It had a band stand and a water fountain and play ground equipment, all the things that goes with a park. Most nights were peaceable but once in a while some one would think they were a bad ass but found out they weren't so bad after all. This night was about the same time of the year as now, watermelon time. Some one was talking about stealing watermelons so that led into the planning of how we could "swipe" (not as bad a word as steal) some melons. There was a farmer east of town that always had a big patch of melons. People from all around would come and buy his melons. When the melons were ready he kept a watchful eye on the patch. He would even sleep out in the patch. So five of us decided to go and see if we could get some of his melons. We parked our car about 3/4 mile away from the back side of his patch. Only one problem, there is a creek we had to cross. It was dark, no bright moon, and we couldn't use a flashlight because he would see us so it took some time to get there. We had decided to each get a big melon and meet back at the car. We hadn't been there five minutes when a shot gun went off and he said 'GET OUT OF MY MELONS'!! So we grabbed as big a melon as we could and took off for the car. As we were crossing the creek someone fell in and got wet. I didn't think I would ever make it back to the car with that big melon. We finally got back to the car and four of us had big melons. My brother had a small melon and we all gave him a bad time about it. Someone said 'let's open one and eat it'. We cut one of the big ones and it was green so we cut another one. Finally we had cut all the big ones and they were all green. Then we cut my brother's little one and it was perfect so we had watermelon and stopped giving him a bad time.

When I was county commissioner we had an elderly man come to our office. He said 'I owe you some money' so we asked him what for? He started telling us "Back in 1936 the county had some steel posts by my place to barricade the road and I needed some to fix my fence so I took three of them. Then in 1937 you were building a bridge by my place and there were some planks so I took some to fix my feed bunk". This was in 1995, 69 years later. He was in his ninety's. We tried to tell him that was long ago but he said 'no I need to pay for them'. So we said $5.00 and he paid us and was set free from what had happened years ago.

Thirteen years later the Holy Spirit brought to my mind that I needed to confess to something that happened 46 years ago. It was when I was driving a truck hauling cattle for Morton truck line. We were hauling cattle to St. Joe, Missouri. There were two of us that night and on the way back we stopped at a small road side park to rest. There was a new picnic table in the park. I said 'I could use that table'. My trailer had the tallest gate so we put it in my trailer.

In 2008 the Holy Spirit said 'you have to make that right'. I said to my self 'That was before I was a Christan. It is all under the blood of Christ now so that must be the devil telling me that'. I tried to make all kinds of excuses not to confess my sin. I would think 'I'm a Christan now, I have a church that meets in my home, I had a jail ministry for 35 years and was a county commissioner for 24 years'. I tried every thing to tell my self not to do it. The Holy Spirit kept reminding me 'you tell them'. Finally I couldn't make any more excuses. So I called the state and told the person what I was calling about. He said you will have to speak with this other person. I told him my story and he said 'that is too long ago, just forget it'.

The moral to these stories is " YOU SHALL NOT STEAL" and you won't have to have something on your conscience for 69 or 46 years.

Hard Times

2009-08-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

In the early forties dad had a stomach ulcer, one of the worst kind. It got so bad he had to have an operation The only doctor around here that would take the case was a doctor in Halstead. He had a clinic that worked with the hospital. It was the Dr. Hertzler Clinic. It was well known in the mid-west as being the best place to go if you had a serious problem. It was set up so some member of your family could stay close to the hospital because there were patients there from all over the country.

Dad had 2/3 of his stomach removed so he had to spend a lot of time in recovery. This was the most severe one that the doctor had done at that time. I don't remember how long he had to stay at the hosital before coming home. But the operation and hospital and after care cost a lot of money at that time and we had no insurance so that put us in debt big time. So, no way to pay the bill. They set it up on a monthly payment plan.

After dad got on his feet mom got a job in town as a cook in a restaurant. My sister was a freshman in high school so mom got a room in town because we only had one vehicle. Back then there were no school buses, you had to get there on your own. So my sister stayed with mom in town and worked at the restaurant on weekends.

That left us two boys and dad on the farm. Things at home changed. Two boys and a dad wasn't like having mom home. The first big change was food. We should have turned into a potato! Every meal we had fried potatoes that were about half done, a lot of pork and beans, pancakes and shredded wheat for breakfast, and peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches for our school lunch boxes. When we would go visit our friends, the Casey boys, their mom knew that the meals were kind of slim down home so she always offered and expected us to eat with them. My brother and I made it a point to visit them often.

We always looked forward to Saturday night because we got to go to town and mom would have us help peel a 100# of potatoes (they served real potatoes in those days). We would take some of them and make french fries in their machine that cut them. When we got done with that, mom would fix us a hamburger and french fries. Sometimes we would get a piece of pie or a chocolate malt. During the winter we would get chili if they had any left. One thing that stuck in my mind, there would be a knock on the back door of the restaurant, mom would go open the door and there would be some black people traveling through town who would ask if they could buy some food. Mom always fixed them what they wanted.

Sometimes we didn't have a lot to eat and our clothes weren't always real clean to go to school, but that is how we helped pay off the medical bills. Our local doctor told us if we would take care of some of his horses he would deduct it off of his bill. That way we didn't have to put out any cash to him. We boarded his horses for many years.

That is how we got through some hard times.

FAMILY: "SONS ARE A HERITAGE FROM THE LORD, CHILDREN ARE A REWARD FROM HIM." Psa. 127:3

2009-08-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Aug. 15th, we gathered at the farm to celebrate life together. Life is something that takes on a whole new meaning when you share it with others. You could sense that something bigger than all of us was going on that day. When family comes together they remember the past, enjoy the present and look to the future. Getting to meet new additions and renew old relationdships are some of the benefits of making it a point to be together.

The weather cooperated beautifullly, the food, shared by all, was outstanding, and the general atmosphere was great. The trampoline got a good workout and in the afternoon a blue-rock shoot was enjoyed by the participants and the ones who watched. Some went over to the Indian cave and were surprised to find that a turkey buzzard had made a nest in it and was sitting on it. So not much exploring was done at the cave.

There were 65 of us gathered from various parts of the U.S. We were sorry that some could not make it but they were remembered and were here in spirit.

The family crest, shown above, is from the registry in 1560. You can see in the coat of arms a web foot which appears in the initial drawing. There is a swan with a silver neck and a red beak. According to our information, this coat of arms showed up in the Catholic church treasury in Glarus, Switzerland in 1799. The family name means 'little trousers' or 'little britches', referring to the lederhosen (leather pants) worn by young boys.

HE WHO KEEPS THE LAW IS A DISCERNING SON. Prov. 28:7a NIV

2009-07-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

In the early sixties I was approached by some business men from Minneapolis to run for sheriff of Ottawa county. The only thing I knew about the sheriff's department was when I was in high school one night some of us kids were racing around the town square at Delphos. It was gravel at that time and you could slide around the corners so that was tempting. They had a night watchman that mainly checked the store doors and tried to keep the peace. He had no gun, just a long flashlight that he carried. That night he went in the pool hall and called the Sheriff so they came to Delphos and told us to report to the jail in Minneapolis. We all drove to the jail then they took us in to the booking room and lectured us on the danger of racing in town and then told us to go home.

I didn't know any thing about running for an elective office. The men that asked me to run carried a petition for voters to sign, that way it wouldn't cost me 10 % of my salary and they also said they would take care of the advertising. There was a bunch of high school kids that said they would back me in this campaign. They had a lot of energy, sometimes too much. They were putting up posters for me but when they would see one of the current Sheriff's posters they would take it down and put up one of mine. The Sheriff caught them tearing down his sign so he put a stop to that. There were ads in the paper for me that I never read until the paper came out. It was a fun time because you wouldn't know what the High school kids would come up with to support the election.

When the election day drew closer I thought 'why did I ever tell those men I would run for sheriff?'. I didn't want to be sheriff. The day of election came. We went to the newspaper office where they had a large board out front with all the candidates on it and we watched as they put the votes from each precinct on it. As the night went on you could see it was close. After all the votes were in there was one vote difference between us, he had one vote more than I had. Some people wanted to recount but I was relived so said no recount. That was my first to run for a office in our county.

"IN HIS HEART A MAN PLANS HIS COURSE, BUT THE LORD DETERMINES HIS STEPS." PROV. 16:9 NIV

2009-07-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

After graduating from high school in 1951 I started working for a neighbor, Lamoine Baldock, which I had done for the last four summers. I did regular farm work and got equipment ready to go custom wheat harvesting. The first place we would go was Hennessey, Oklahoma. This was the first week in June. It was always fun to see old friends and make new ones. We would spend about eight days there unless it rained, then it would be longer. There was another man that had a combine that went with us and if it rained he would play cribbage all day long, so I learned to play cribbage. I was shocked to see how black people were treated there, not good!

Sometimes we would stop at Viola, Kansas and cut wheat there until the wheat was ready at home. After finishing with wheat harvest and field work at home we would head to Presho, South Dakota. Presho was a good stop. Their fields were large and flat so you could cut a lot of acres in a day. But what made it a fun place was the friends that I had made. The place where we stayed was a gas station with cabins. The owner had a son the same age as me and we were good friends. On rainy days we would spend time together. One day we went fishing. We caught a bunch of fish and were so proud of our fishing. When we got home we showed them to his dad. He said they are full of worms. They are no good. He told us sometimes when the water gets warm they will get worms off the bottom of the pond. So much for great fishermen!

Gordie had a new car so we would go to Chamberlain which was 40 miles away. That seemed to me a long ways to go to a movie. But if there was a good show in Mitchell they would go, and it was over a 100 miles. On my birthday Gordie and two other friends took me to Murdo to a large auto museum. Then they took me to a bar and grill for supper and we stayed there a little long. It was late when we started home and that time of the year it gets real cold at night. Someone decided that we wouldn't freeze so we played freeze out on the way home. This was the last year to be with them. Gordie became a great coach.

When I got home I had to be at Kansas State for football practice. They had talked with me to come and play football so I had a room in the football stadium. They had two practice fields. One was just south of the stadium and the other one was the ROTC marching Field. One day when we were practicing in the south field I noticed a man watching me from the sidewalk. It was my uncle Otto from Parsons, Kansas. He was real good football player in high school at Delphos. They won several games in a row. Minneapolis was a larger school but Delphos beat them bad in football. That created bad blood between the two towns for years.

Jack Lorenze was playing on the varsity at KSU. He was from Minneapolis and he and I played together at M H S. He was a senior when I was a freshman. The first football game I ever saw I played in. It was at Barnard, Ks.

While I was at KSU I worked at the student union. It was an old army barracks. I also worked at an ice cream store in Aggieville. It was called The Fountain. It was owned by a dairy in Emporia, Ks. I worked for a short squatty guy. He didn't eat much ice cream but he drank a lot of Jack Daniels. I had worked there about six weeks when I noticed a car parked out front watching the store. Then one night two men came in the store and fired the manager. They asked me if I would manage it for them. There was an older women that would open the store in the mornings so I told them that would work for me until they found a new manager. That lasted for six months. We put in a shuffle board and would keep the high score for a week then give out prizes. It was used a lot. One night a friend of mine was working and he closed the store that evening. The next morning when we opened all the ice cream up front was thawed. He had turned off the wrong switch! That was the biggest problem we had.

I got to know the KSU basketball players. Several of the starters were regular costumers. We had a special called the Zombie which we made in a tall malt glass. We started with a scoop of vanilla ice cream with strawberries and chocolate syrup, then a dip of strawberry ice cream with pineapple and caramel topping, then a dip of chocolate ice cream covered with marshmallow topping with chopped cherries and nuts on top. It was our best seller.

The owners had two stores, one in Aggieville and one in Emporia. Later on they changed the name to Peter Pan. Today there are many stores and are known as Braum's.

Some prices I remember---ice cream cone .05. Malts, sundaes, floats and sodas .20. Zombie .25. Banana split .30. Coke and other fountain drinks .05 and .10. This was in 1951.

CHICKENS

2009-07-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

Clarence age 97

All farmers had chickens when we were kids. They were a part of farm life. Some farmers had ducks, geese, guineas and even turkeys. But chickens were standard for meat, eggs to eat and to sell. The egg money bought groceries. Mom would say 'go catch me a chicken for dinner'. We would try to get one of the hens that was not laying eggs at the time. Sometimes we would get the wrong one and it would be full of eggs in the making. I would chop the head off and mom would have hot water ready to scald the chicken so the feathers were easy to pick off. When we were finished picking mom would clean it, cut it up and cook it so it was ready to eat for dinner that day. When we had fryers we prepared them the same way. Fresh killed chicken tasted a lot better than what you buy in the store today.

Dad's blacksmith shop was under a tree and there were always small pieces of iron laying around. One day when I was playing I picked up a small piece of iron and threw it high in the air. When it came down it hit mom's rooster and killed it. It was one she had kept for the hens. I hated to go tell her but I did and she said 'well, clean him and we will have chicken and noodles for supper.

Mom told us kids a story about something that happened when she was a small girl at home. Her parents lived just north of Miltonvale. There used to be Gypsies that traveled the countryside and one day two Gypsy women stopped at their farm. One of the women told grandma that she had a sick child with a fever and she would like to have a hen chicken to make some broth. Grandma told mom, in French, to 'go get that old setting hen and give it to the woman'. The woman said back, in French, 'No! no! Don't want old setting hen!'. I think they finally gave her another hen. If you didn't give them something they would steal you blind. My mother didn't speak English until she went to school.

Darlene's brother-in-law, Clarence, who is 97 years old, tells when he was in 4-H in Saline county in 1926. The Salina Chamber of Commerce had a program for 4-H'ers to start a project to start a flock of laying hens so they would have eggs to sell. They gave him 14 fertile eggs to take home and hatch. They next year they were supposed to give 14 eggs to another kid so he could start his project. On they way home he broke one so was left with 13 eggs to hatch out. 10 of them hatched and 3 never did. So he ended up with 10 chicks. To his surprise, and disappointment, as they grew they all turned out to be roosters, so that was the end of his project. It's hard to get eggs out of a rooster! But, in later years he really got in the chicken business. He put up a large building that held 1,680 laying hens in individual cages. That is a lot of chickens! He said the most eggs he gathered in one day was 1,402.

Darlene HATES chickens! When she was a little girl her aunts all had chickens and every rooster they ever had 'flopped' her, pecked her and would knock her down. This spring we were in Concordia and stopped at a farm store that had some nice looking flower plants to set out. I went in to see about some plants and came out with 10 baby chicks. Darlene said she is never going to let me go in a store alone again!

When our boys were small we would buy baby chick called a 'straight run' which was a mixture of roosters and hens. We would eat the roosters and save the pullets for eggs. One time we had about 200 and they were just about two weeks from being ready to dress. One night we had a bad storm and the electricity went off. The chickens piled up in the corner of the shed and nearly smothered. Darlene and son Mark dressed 125 in the middle of the night. They were about broiler size and they skinned them.

One time we had 12 hens and 1 rooster in a small pen with a coop. It was son Tommy's job to feed and water the chickens and gather the eggs. We called the rooster Henry and he was ornery. Tom was about 6 or 7 years old and he came to the house all upset saying 'I killed Henry! I killed Henry!'. He had opened the gate to take care of the chickens and Henry got out. Tom picked up a good sized stick and whacked Henry who fell flat on the ground. We went back out to the pen and Henry got up and staggered back through the gate and into the coop. He didn't come out for three days! Guess the stick knocked him out cold.

Jesus talked about chickens. "Oh, Jerusalem, oh, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." Mt. 23:37 NIV

I have seen this many times, how a hen protects her chicks from danger, and if you ever see it you won't ever doubt the love Jesus has for you. We would let some of the hens run free in the spring and they would make nests around the farmyard. Pretty soon you would see a mother hen coming with her little chicks, usually eight or ten. If she saw a hawk fly over that endangered the chicks the hen would make a certain sound to call them to her, spread her wings, and they would all run under them so that all you could see was the hen. The hawk wouldn't bother the hen. Pretty soon you would see a little head peek out from under her wings. When the danger was past she would just stand up and the chicks would go out in safety.

He will cover you with his wings, you will be safe in His care; His faithfulness will protect and defend you. Psalm 91:4 GNB

HARVEST

2009-06-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

There are two main harvests for farmers in Kansas. In summer we have wheat and in the fall we have corn, milo and soybeans. Alfalfa all summer long.

The first harvest that I can remember was threshing oats. The folks lived south and west of Minneapolis before moving to where we live now. So dad had some ground rented over there. It was 16 miles from home. I would have to take the crawler tractor from home to the Barfind place which was the name of the owners of the ground dad rented. At four miles per hour it took a long time. He let me do it because it took so long and I didn't care. I was about seven years old.

Dad had planted oats there and he had bound it up into bundles with a 6 foot binder. He hired a man that owned a threshing machine and had a crew that helped him. He went all around threshing oats and wheat. They had teams of horses they used to pull hayracks to go out and pick up the bundles and bring them to the threshing machine.

The first combine I remember that we had was an IHC#8 that we pulled with a tractor. The combine had a four cylinder Waukesha engine that ran it. It had a 12 foot header. Someone would run the tractor and someone would run the combine. We pulled it with a 10-20 or a 15-30 steel wheeled tractor. The combine had a steel platform that you stood on--no seat, so you had to stand all day long. From there you would have to operate the engine and raise and lower the platform which was done with a long lever. Sometimes I would have to hang my full weight on the lever because I wasn't strong enough to operate it. When we were younger Dad or Mom would operate the combine and we kids would climb up into the combine bin and ride there. That was a lot of fun. We would let the wheat coming in the bin cover us to our waist then we'd work our way out of the wheat. The bin was high off the ground, about 10 feet, so that was exciting to us too. There was a canvas that fed the wheat into the combine and you had to take it off every night because the dew would stretch it then it wouldn't stay tight. It was a dirty job running the combine, but the dirtiest job was cleaning out the sieve and Dad would always say "You are smaller, you can crawl in there". The beards from the wheat would get stuck in it and you'd have to take a screw driver and clean them out or the grain couldn't fall through it and it would just go out the back of the combine on the ground and be lost.

One year a neighbor asked Dad if we could help him cut his wheat as we were done cutting. Dad told him that he was busy but if he didn't care Donna and I could come and help him. So we took the combine and tractor and helped him cut his wheat. Donna ran the tractor and I ran the combine. Harvest was a good time for eating. The women would serve up a feast. We usually had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, homemade bread, pies and cakes and lemonade made with fresh lemons. All this food was homemade, homegrown and delicious. The first day we were helping the neighbor cut wheat he said "Come on. we'll go the house and eat dinner". He had a couple of other hired men and we all sat around this big table. His wife had all the food on the table except the fried chicken. She brought the platter of chicken and set it by one of the hired men. He took a couple of pieces and passed it on and when it got to her husband there were 4 or 5 pieces left on the platter. He took his fork and swiped them all off on his plate. She had to go get more chicken before Donna and I could eat. Donna and I talked about that often and thought it was odd that he did that, but funny too.

Harvest was hard work, especially scooping the wheat into the grain bin at home. It would be a hundred degrees and I thought I would surely die before I got the trailer unloaded. Older men could empty a 55 bu. trailer and never stop. They knew how to handle a scoop in a way I hadn't mastered yet. There weren't many trucks, mainly 4 wheel trailers that most people pulled behind their car to the elevator. Some had a pickup that held about 35 bu. that they hauled it with. Today (June 27th) they cut our wheat and hauled it out in semis that hold 900 bu. at a time.

Wheat planted on hill ground would yield approximately 5 to 10 bu. an acre. Better ground would yield 15 to 20 bu. an acre. Wheat today runs from 30 to 70 bu. an acre.

The first self propelled combine I ever saw was in the mid-40's. When I was in high school I went with a harvest crew cutting wheat from Hennessy, Okla. to Presho, S.D. He had a 12 ft. self propelled that we would load on a small straight truck. I did this for about 6 summers.

FISHING

2009-06-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

Dad ("In the water")

Sheldon fishing the Rockies & Darlene

Jeremiah fishing the Rockies
(in the rain)

Fishing is not one of my priorities in life. My dad was not a fisherman when we were growing up at home. It was always "we don't have time to go fishing now". I don't mean that we never went fishing, just that we didn't ever plan a fishing trip just for fun. When dad got older in life he started going fishing. We always kidded him the reason was that he got old enough he didn't have to buy a license. He became a great fishermen. He fished the creeks, pasture ponds, and rivers around home. One time he came home with two big cat fish and some one asked him where he caught them. His answer--"IN THE WATER". He never would tell where his favorite fishing holes were.

Sometimes in the evening we kids would go fishing on Pipe Creek which is just north of our house. We would find a willow tree and cut a five foot limb off of it because they made the best poles. Then we would tie a 6 to 8 foot string with a large hook on it to the willow limb, and then tie a nut off of a bolt for the sinker. If we needed a bobber we would take a small stick and tie it a foot above the sinker. We fished mainly for bullheads and sunfish. For fish bait we would dig worms and catch grasshoppers as we walked to the old wooden bridge where we fished often. To fish for sunfish we would have to go a mile and half south of home. There was a pasture pond called the Mill Pond. It had a large spring that ran into it and so it was always clear and clean and sunfish like that kind of water. Another place to catch sunfish was Lindsay Creek which is about 5 miles south of us. We had an uncle that lived close to it so whenever we visited our cousins we would go fishing there. There was a large family that lived near that creek, so sometimes as we were walking back to our uncle's place we would stop and visit them. One day we stopped and went inside the house and instead of having chairs around the table, they had 10 gallon cream cans that they used for chairs. They were heavy and I wondered what was in them, so I took the lid off and to my surprise they were full of whiskey bottles! He was a bootlegger and that is where he hid his whiskey.

One Sunday afternoon, the whole family went fishing at the creek north of home and it was really hot and steamy. About 4 o'clock, dad said we better go home because there was a real dark cloud coming from the west. Just as we got home, we saw a tornado touch the ground just one mile north of us. One of our neighbors lived in the path and he had just bought a new 1941 Chevy car. He didn't have a cave to get in so he and his wife drove to another neighbors just east of them that had a cave. The tornado completely destroyed the house and outbuildings and also his new car that sat in the neighbor's yard. His own house and property was left undamaged.

Another way we would fish was to make a trap and place it in ponds. We also made some trot lines with several hooks on them and laid them across the creek. We would leave them there and go check them the next day. When we would have a flood that raised the creeks, we would go gig carp because they would come up into the backwaters of the ravines. They were easy to spot because they do not like the dirty water at the bottom of the water and we would get several of them. We would clean them and mom would pressure cook them and they would be just like salmon.

Dad would always tell us to be quiet or we would scare the fish off, but one neighbor would always whistle and sing and still catch a lot of fish.

The neighbors built a pond in a old creek bed that was partly on out place and another farmer's place. The other neighbor was a good fisherman and he would always stock this pond. Once a year he would invite all the neighbors around to come and fish that day and in the evening he would use his homemade fryer to cook up the days catch for a fish fry to be enjoyed by all who came. There were several people from all directions there to enjoy the fun.

Things have changed since we were kids. The creek just had bullheads and some sunfish, but over the years, beavers started coming from the river and building beaver dams in our creeks.
This made large pools of water and allowed channel cats to come up from the river into the creek. So nowadays there are a lot of channel cats in the creeks that weren't there before.

One of the big attractions was the red steel creek bridge west of our house. People would come to fish off of that bridge and they still do today.

(Council Bluffs--we would like to know what your interest is in our blog. If you would comment we would appreciate it. Thank you.)

HORSEPOWER

2009-06-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

LaRoy Mom & Dad

LaRoy Midge & Mom

In the late '20's and early '30's tractors were replacing the work horse. Especially when the rubber tires came out. All of our tractors were steel wheeled except we had a crawler tractor. It was an IHC 10. In the late '30's dad bought a used IHC F 20 that had rubber tires. It had had steel wheels that had been replaced with rubber. When rubber tires came out for tractors some farmers said they would never put rubber on their tractor. Like any thing new, some are for it and some are not. I remember there would be two farmers challenge each other and they would hook the rubber and steel tractors together back to back to see how good they could pull.

We had two teams of work horses that we used for light work such as raking hay cultivating, mowing, and feeding cattle. In our neighborhood we were about the last ones to use horses. So we kids were about last ones to know how to harness a team of work horses. Dad had two four wheel rubber tired trailers They were made so you could pull them with a car, tractor or horses. I don't know where he got his idea. The front axle was made like a fifth wheel and it had a short tongue so you could turn short or you could put a gin pole in it so you could pull it with a team of horses.

We had a silo 1/2 mile from home and each day in the winter we would go pitch a load 0f silage to feed the cattle. It was work pitching it on then pitching it off. In 1941 my dad had a major operation on his stomach. They took 2/3 of his stomach out so he could not work for a long time. So it was up to Donna and I to do the chores. We would go get the silage after school so we could feed the cattle in the morning. That meant we would have to harness the team two times a day. One day we were going after silage and we were about halfway there when something spooked the team and we had a run away which was very exciting. We were lucky that we weren't hurt but we were both scared

We farmed another place 2 miles west of home and had sargo feed that we would bind in bundles then put them in shocks to protect the feed from the weather. We would wait until winter to go get the bundles so it was always cold. We would take the team and trailer there. We would start the trip in the trailer but before long we would start complaining how cold we were. Dad would say 'get out and walk with the horses, that will warm you up'. So we would walk on the south side because the wind was always blowing from the north, and the trailer kept the wind off of us. Some times it was so cold we would walk backwards so our face would have the sun shine on it. My brother LaRoy always like to hunt, so especially when it snowed he would take a rifle along to shoot rabbits. We had jack rabbits as well as cotton tails, and they would have a nest on the south side of a tree. They liked hedge trees because the limbs were lower to the ground, that made it a little harder to spot them.

My sister Donna probably worked horses more than us boys. La Roy was smaller than me and younger so he didn't get to work with them much. Dad had Donna rake prairie hay and alfalfa with an old dump rake that would put the hay in rows. She also cultivated feed. One day we were stacking hay and Donna was cultivating with a John Deer gp tractor and as she was turning around at the end of a row she killed the tractor. We noticed she couldn't get it started. She tried for along time so we walked over to help her start it. It didn't have a crank, it had a large wheel on the side of the tractor to start it with. We asked her if she had the two pitcocks open and she said yes. So I told let me try so I went and gave it a spin and it took of running. She said 'I forgot it turn that direction'. She was turning it backwards! We laughed about it many times because she had started it many times before.

We had a saddle horse that we would ride for pleasure or use her to work cattle. One time we three kids were riding her to school. It had rained and there were ruts in the road with water in them. It was cold weather and the water was frozen. All three of us kids were riding her. LaRoy was in front Donna was in the middle and I was in the back. Her back foot slipped on the ice and we all landed on the ground. I was on the bottom of the pile. She was a gentle horse but she had a bad habit. If a bird or rabbit would jump out in front of her she would flinch and if you weren't seated pretty tight you would lose your seat. She was a good cutting horse and she was the one dad would use to go coyote hunting with. In the '30's dad would go work for the township using his team to do dirt work. That way you didn't have to pay road tax.

One day the folks went shopping. I decided to ride the stud horse that we kept in the barn most of the time because he would cause all kinds of trouble when we would let him loose, especially if there was a mare in heat. I thought I would ride him down to the corner about 1/4 mile from the barn. I made it in good shape until on the way back. When he saw the barn he started bucking and off I went and woke up a couple hours later, I was out cold. I just let him stay in the barn after that.

We would enjoy your comments on our blog.

PENTECOST AT THE LEAN- TO

2009-05-31T15:06:00.000-07:00

Lean-To sign at highway US 81

Today is Pentecost Sunday and we celebrated the 28th year for the Lean-To Christian Center. We met for the first time 28 years ago on Pentecost. There were two couples and each had a daughter.

The Lean-To started from a word from the Lord. We were going to church in Delphos and Darlene heard Him say "you can stay here if you want to, and that is OK, but I want you to know that this is the way it will be."

About a year earlier we were having praise parties. Several people were coming and we didn't have room for them all. So one day a couple came out to visit and we were talking about a place for the praise parties. We had talked about building on a room and Buck said 'do you have some used lumber?' So we went out to the shed where the lumber was and it looked like we had enough for a twenty by forty six foot room. We started that very day. We formed the footing and got it ready for concrete. Buck said he would call the concrete plant in the morning and we would pour that afternoon. Each day some people would come out and help work on the room. One business man hired three men to come and help. You never knew who would show up to help. People would donate things we needed, like three hanging light fixtures and furniture. The first praise party we had trouble finding chairs enough for everyone. The night before the next praise party someone backed up to our door and told us the Baptist Church bought new chairs and they wanted us to have these chairs. He unloaded 55 folding chairs. That helped to take care of the crowds of 100, or more, people we were having at the praise parties.

The name came from someone who said 'we are building a lean-to, like on a barn.' So we looked up the word 'lean-to' and it said 'a building supported by another structure, often a tree'. We thought that fit us as we can only stand with the support of the cross. There are several other things that the Lord did but I will write about them later.

I want to say something about Pentecost. I think it is over looked by many churches. Today at church we celebrated Pentecost with praise and worship, each person shared what the Holy Spirit meant to them. It was really powerful.

The day of Pentecost is the day the church started. It is the day that the Holy Spirit manifested Himself and it was a sign that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God. ("Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the Gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Acts.1:4-5 NIV). Jesus kept telling them that when He got to the Father, the Father would send the promised Holy Spirit, and that HE DID. ("God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are ALL WITNESSES of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out WHAT YOU NOW SEE AND HEAR") Acts.2:32-33 NIV. This is a great promise for us because we are no longer under the law but the Spirit. V.41 tells us that at the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was first given there were about 3,000 saved that day. But in the Old Testament when the day of Pentecost came the Law was given and there were about 3,000 that died that day. Ex 32:28.

What will you chose, the Spirit of Grace, or the Law?

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourself, it is a gift of God." Eph.2:8 NIV

Ask Him for the HOLY SPIRIT

THANK YOU

2009-05-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Jeremiah. 7 1/2 years
15 mo. Iraq Sheldon. 8 years
12 mo. Afghanistan
39 mo. Iraq

Steve 4 years
15 mo. Iraq
Good pick Meg

Mark 4 years
nuclear submarine

George and I at work
Darlene & I lived with
George & Ann
2 Years

Darlene & I
The first day we saw

each other since leaving

for the Army 1952

Darlene & I at Fort Sill

Me at Kansas State University

ROTC

1951

We are proud of our family members who have made a big sacrifice to help keep our country free. 248 months, 93 of them in hostile territory, away from home and loved ones. We thank them and their individual families for their support and prayers. JOB WELL DONE!!!

REMEMBER OUR YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN IN THE MILITARY

AND THOSE WHO HAVE GIVEN THEIR LIVES

MEMORIAL DAY, 2009

GOD BLESS AMERICA

PARTY LINE

2009-05-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

Communications have really changed in rural America. Our phone system has always been South Western Bell. They were always thought to be the best up to date service and equipment available but in later years the local companies have newer and better equipment like fiber optic. Our phone was the old crank type phone. The reason they called it a crank phone was because it had a small crank on the side to crank out the ring you wanted. You could crank the operator and the people on your line. The operator was one long ring and each person that was on your line had a different combination of rings. Ours was two long and three short rings. Our number was 22F3O.

There were 11 other people on our line plus a long distance operator which served a local farmer owned company. We would hear all their long distance calls ring. With one telephone line you would have to wait on people that were talking to finish before you could use it. It was good and bad. The good was your neighbor could watch out for you. If you needed help you could do a line ring (a long ring) and every body that heard the ring would come and help. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, leading us into WWII, someone heard it on the radio and gave a line ring so everyone knew about it right away. Also, if someone called you and one of your neighbors knew you were gone they would answer it and tell them you were not home, or where you went shopping.

One bad thing was that you had no private call because there was always someone listening. I remember that we had two women that listened to all the calls, and they would butt in when you were talking with someone else. They might say 'no that's not the way it is', or 'did you hear....? Most of the time when you would answer your phone you would hear click, click and you would know people were listening in on you. I guess that's why they called it a PARTY LINE, you always had a 'party' listening. Most of the time when you wanted to use the phone it would be busy, they would get on there and visit for hours. Every time you listened to see if you could use the phone they would know it because it made a click sound. They would say 'someone wants to use the phone', then keep right on talking! If they didn't stop you would have to ring in on them and that would make them mad and they would hang up. We had two neighbor women that didn't care much for each other. They would ring in on each other or tell each other 'get off the line I need to use the phone, you have been on it all day'.

The long distance line for Lamar was always busy in the evenings. Sometimes we had calls ringing all night long on our line. The operator could hear every thing that was going on in our neighborhood. Lamar Telephone Co. was a poor company. They had one wire and they hung it on fence posts, trees, and any thing to keep it off the ground. The poles they had were cut from hedge trees. They were short and not too big, but they had a telephone and that was better than n0thing.

My sister Donna worked for Bell in Minneapolis and Salina as an operator so we got to go and watch what the operators had to do when some one used their phone. They had several operators in our small town because they had to keep the switchboard open 24/7.

We kids had our own private phone company. We made 'phones' like the one pictured above. We would use them between two hideouts. Don't laugh---they worked!!

COON HUNT

2009-05-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

The neighbor that lived one mile north of us had a coon hound. His name was Wheeler. I believe he was what you call a black and tan, anyway that was his colors. I didn't really know this man very well even though he was only a mile from us because he was in another township and the mail and telephone and schools were different than ours. But sometimes he would be driving by our school at recess and he would stop and talk with us. He always had a gun or two with him and had a hunting story to tell us. And he liked to tell dirty stories to us boys so we got to know him better because we were always interested in his stories, especially the off colored ones.

One time he asked me if I wanted to go coon hunting with him that night? I said yes. I think I was 8 or 9 and I had never been coon hunting before so I didn't know what to expect. It was quite an experience. It was scary for me and he made it worse by telling scary stories that he was making up. It was cold and dark and after a half hour I wanted to go home but I didn't tell him. That night I learned to tell the different cry of a coon dog when they are tracking a coon or rabbit or the opossum. The cry is a distinct sound, when they tree a coon they really come alive.

Pipe creek runs through our land so we would hunt it often. The neighbor to the east of us had some land that joined ours that made one mile of creek to hunt. In his field he had a drain that drained the water from his land. It was a 10 or 12 inch clay tile that dumped in the creek. The smart coons would run into the tile. It had two openings in the field and they would get in the tile and the dog couldn't get them. One night we put buckets in the openings before we started so they couldn't get in the tile. Old Wheeler started chasing a coon and soon we heard the old coon hit the buckets so we got some of the smart coons that night. One time when hunters from a northern town was hunting by the tile they had a small dog and it got caught in the tile and they finally had to dig the tile up to get him out.

In later years my brother LaRoy hunted with Lester more than I did. I remember one night all three of us were hunting on Briggs' place. We just turned old Wheeler loose and most of the time we would wait for Wheeler to get his running around done before we started walking but tonight we were still getting our lights and coats on when Wheeler opened up a hot trail and a short time later he treed. So we took off to see what he had treed. When we got there we were surprised there were 5 coons in one tree. So Lester shot them out of the tree. He said it was a family. We forgot to bring a sack so we put four on the dog chain and I put it over my shoulder, two in front and two in the back, and LaRoy carried the other one. Lester said we will hunt a little more and as we were walking things were crawling all over me and driving me nuts so I headed back to the pickup. When I got there I was covered with fleas I had to take my clothes off to get rid of them. That was the last time I went coon hunting.

In those days the fur of the animals were worth a lot of money so coon hunters would skin them and sell the pelts of coons, possums, and sometimes, skunks. If the dog cornered a skunk and got sprayed that was the end of the coon hunting for that night because the dog couldn't pick up the scent of a coon after he got sprayed.

One thing that I really liked about coon hunting was looking at the heavens, all the stars and different lights in the sky, the night life you hear and see, owls, skunks, birds, farm animals and other sounds that made you wonder what kind of animal that was! It was a whole new world. Fleas to you!!

SHEEP

2009-04-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

I can't remember not having sheep when I was a kid. We didn't have a large number, something around thirty. There was a man that lived north of Bennington that had a large flock, in the hundreds. Each year he would have a lamb roast for any one that wanted to come. There was always a large crowd there. He served lamb sandwiches, beans, chips and drinks. We kids always liked to go there. It was like a big picnic and they would have men shearing sheep and other thing to watch like docking (cutting) there tails off.

We had 20 acres of pasture that was fenced sheep tight. You couldn't find a weed in the pasture. They like weeds and tree leaves so the pasture looked like a golf course and the trees were trimmed just as high as they could reach.

Each year we would shear the wool from the older sheep. Us kids' job was to hold them for dad. He would shear them by hand using the old hand clippers and sometime he would cut a hole in their skin that we called button holes. The number of button holes determined how good of a job you did, good or bad. When we kids would try our hand at shearing we always ended up with more button holes (bad). When dad would hire a shearer they had gas powered clippers. We didn't have electricity until '49 or '50. The gas engine would turn a small universal joint shaft that would run the clippers. This made shearing much faster. Then we would take the wool, roll it up in a ball and tie it with twine then put it in a large gunny sack. The sacks were 10' long 3' wide. They would hold a lot of wool. To get more wool in they would have us kids get in the sack and pack the wool tight. They were heavy. Dad would take the sacks to the Santa Fe depot in Minneapolis and ship them to Mid West wool in Kansas City, Kansas. Mid West was a Co-op so it would take some time to get all your money back. They pool the wool all together by grade and then sell it over a period of time. Other times dad would take the wool to Oak Hill about 25 miles from us. The Santa Fe rail road had a special train that would come out from Kansas City on Sunday. The train would pick up all kinds of livestock and farm products on the way back to K.C. stock yards. They would be there for opening market Monday morning. Several farmers would be at Oak Hill with one head or more. They would mark them so they could be sorted out according to owner at the yards. It was a train that met the needs of the small and large farmer.

When lambing time came around we would shut the sheep up at night. This would let us go check the ewes during the night. If they would be having trouble lambing we could help them. Another reason was it was warmer inside.

One day two men came to look at our lambs. Dad was not at home so I showed them where they were. I told them to watch out for that buck because he is mean and they just laughed and said we can take care of our self. So I headed back to the house, then I heard them hollering. I went back and he had them in one of our hay bunks so I opened a gate to let the sheep in another lot. The buck went with the other sheep so the men could get out of the hay bunk.

If I remember right, one day we kids were playing just north of the old rock house. There was a yellow rose bush (the old fashioned stickery kind) about four feet tall. My brother LaRoy was bent over playing in the dirt and this buck came up behind him and butted him right over that bush. My sister Donna got a broom or shovel and chased him off. I don't remember if it hurt LaRoy or not. Donna was 8 or 9 I was 6 and LaRoy was 4.

When our kids were growing up we had sheep so they got to experience some of the same things I did. The kids also showed sheep in 4-H and we butchered about four lambs each year to feed them. We sold our lambs and old sheep at St Joe., Missouri and sometime at Wichita, Kansas when we shipped with the Ottawa County Sheep assoc.

I hope to start writing more now. I am felling better each day. My right arm is still partially paralyzed but gaining with therapy. Thanks for your prayers I would not have been able to stand the pain this winter with out them. The Lord is Good!!

GOIN' TO KANSAS CITY

2009-04-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

ARROWHEAD STADIUM

THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

WRITTEN BY A HIRED OBSERVER

Bob and Kathryn were close friends that helped us in our walk with the Lord. We were having prayer meetings and praise parties in their home in Delphos. We also were having weekend seminars, we rented a rural school that had 3 class rooms, kitchen and an auditorium with a stage. This made an ideal place for a 3 day spiritual weekend. We were surprised at the turnout. People came from a large area. They were hungry for the Lord.

In 1977 there was an International Conference on the Holy Spirit being held in Kansas City. We decided to go. Another couple said we could stay with them with some of their relation. Just 3 days before the conference they told us there wasn't room. This left us with out any place to stay. This conference was world wide. We started calling for room reservations and we got the same answer from all of them: " we have been booked for months". The closest place we found was in Topeka 70 miles away. We kept calling each day hoping that there would be a cancellation or something. We finally gave up. The night before the conference Darlene said call this one again, so I called and they said they had an open room. Two other couples wanted to go but they wanted us to check out the meetings for them first.

On the way to the conference we stopped at a truck stop to get a drink. While we were there a small Ford station wagon pulled in by us, it was from California. When they opened the doors out came 12 adult people, 5 or 6 different nationalities. We couldn't believe how they all got in there. They were on their way to the conference. We started visiting with them. They told us they were all from California. We asked where they were staying and they said they couldn't find any place but they were going any way, The Lord would take care of them. And He did. We visited with them at the conference and they said a Catholic convent took them in.

We arrived at the motel to get our room. They said we didn't have a room there, they had been booked full for six months. I gave them my confirmation number and they just laughed at me and said 'no room'. I went back to the car and just sat there wondering what to do. Finally my wife told me to go back in there and tell them we have a room here and here is our confirmation number. So I went back in and there was a line of people waiting to check in. The man behind the counter looked at me then took a set of keys and threw them to me and said: "Here is your room keys and you are not supposed to have a room here". That really let us know the Lord was with us.

We headed out to Arrowhead stadium for the first night of the conference. We knew it would be a once in a life time experience but we were not ready for what we saw and EXPERIENCED. When we arrived there the parking lot was row after row of buses with banners with all kind of Christian symbols and scripture verses. Prayer groups from all over the world were marching, carrying their banners and singing. It was pageantry at its best--like a movie, only no human had directed it! When we got inside the stadium there were 65,000 people singing and praising God all in one accord. The presence of the Lord was so strong--it was like nothing we had ever seen or heard before.

At one point during the evening during singing of a hymn (Holy God We Praise Thy Name) and prayer we knelt on the concrete for 45 minutes. No one could believe it had been that long. A young man across the aisle from us stood holding a small child in one arm and the other arm upraised for hours. Later we learned that they were from Minnesota and their car had broken down so he was working on the car in the daytime and attending the conference at night.

During the evening one of the speakers made the comment that "We've read the end of the book and WE WIN!!!" The huge, joyous, enthusiastic crowd came to their feet cheering and praising God. The scoreboard was flashing "TOUCHDOWN!! JESUS IS LORD!! TOUCHDOWN!! and it was after midnight when we left the stadium.

When we got back to our motel our phone was flashing. It was a message from the two couples that stayed home. We called them and they said they had tried to rent a camper but couldn't but they were going to come anyway. After we hung up I called the desk and asked if anyone had checked out today because we had friends coming and they needed a room. He told me "No, and you're not even supposed to have the room you are in". When I got up in the morning I went to the lobby to get some coffee. I asked the clerk if they had any rooms and he said "some people just moved out of a room with two beds in it". I said "we'll take it", and guess where the room was---it was a room adjoining ours!! so we could open the door between us and be together.

During the day they had seminars downtown led by every denomination you can think of and you could pick which ones you wanted to go to. One of the seminars we attended was in a room with 10,000 Catholics. They had made provision with a vending company to feed us a sack lunch at noon. It was quite a sight to see 50,000 plus people eating from their sacks. It took about 10 minutes to feed everyone!! It was very well organized with plenty of serving lines.

Each evening we went out to Arrowhead stadium. It was the largest convention they had ever had in Kansas City. Headlines in the Kansas City Star read "THE MOST COURTEOUS DRIVING WE HAVE EVER SEEN!!" of all the traffic to the stadium. Another headline read "PROSTITUTION DOWN---ICE CREAM SALES UP!!". There were also comments about the lack of litter and the cleanness of the stadium.

There were many great speakers at the 4 evenings of the convention. One evening President Jimmy Carter called and spoke to us by phone. His sister, who was attending the convention, also spoke to us.

On Sunday morning we attended Mass at the stadium. Over 500 priests marched in in procession wearing white robes. It was very hot!! A cloud came over and it started to rain on us. Everyone immediately started praying that we wouldn't get rained out. The cloud moved, the sun came out, and it was cool, a beautiful day.

It would take a book to tell all the little things that happened, things we saw and heard. It was an experience we will never forget!!

Saved by His life---EASTER---2009

2009-04-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

   SUNRISE SERVICE
     HE IS RISEN!!!
   ALLELUIA!!!
Read Romans 5:8-10

God tells us that he loves us no matter what we do or what we have done or what we are going to do. When they arrested Him His disciple's scattered, Peter even denied knowing him. Peter not only denied Jesus to the authorities because he feared for his own life, but he also denied Jesus to a peasant girl because he wanted to not be identified with him. I believe that this scripture puts it real plain what we celebrate this week. We have all denied him and we have all run from him. But He rose from the dead, not to give us what we deserve, but to meet our needs. Forgiveness, Grace, Peace, Love, and most of all--Life. This is what saves us-- His life. He is RISEN. What can you do to stop Him from loving you?

PS: After suffering extreme pain all winter I had surgery April 1st. The pain is gone but my right arm is partially paralyzed. Last Monday the physical therapist came in to see me and to help me regain the use of my arm. I asked him how long it will take to do this. He answered with three profound words: "It's OK". He was telling me no matter what stage I am in, it's OK. It really ministered to me that no matter what happens, God is in control and 'it's OK'.

HE IS RISEN!!! ALLELUIA!!!

Living in the Kingdom

2009-03-12T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is where the rubber hits the road. Now that we'd made a decision it was up to us to live it out with the Holy Spirit's help. We had been partiers--Saturday night meant we were usually gone dancing and partying. The first Saturday night after we gave our life to the Lord the telephone rang and the people said "Let's go to one of the nightclubs in Salina". So we went. When we got home we looked at each other and both said it was the most miserable night we had spent. After that the phone would ring every week and I would lie saying that we had company or were sick or had something else we had to do. I didn't have enough guts to tell them that we were Christians now and the Lord had taken away any desire to party that way. I didn't want to offend them. This went on for abut 6 months and then the Holy Spirit convicted me that I should tell the truth. So I did and it freed me to live my new life openly.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new life has come! II Cor. 5:17 NIV

We were Catholic and the words 'saved' and 'born again' were not in our vocabulary. We attended a Bible study with our Protestnt friends and they showed us in scripture what the words meant and helped us understand what had happened in our lives. We wanted to see what our church had to offer so we questioned our priest. He told us "I don't know what you are talking about but there are some meetings going on out in Hays next weekend that you might be interested in". This was Pentecost weekend and the meetings, conducted by a Father Rohr, were excellent. In the evening they had a prayer meeting and we had never been to anything like it. It was awesome! The power of the Holy Spirit was there and healed and delivered people. When we got home we started going to a prayer meeting in the Catholic rectory in Concordia. Everyone would be praying aloud as the spirit led them, then a silence would fall on the group and someone would give a prophecy or a word of knowledge or word of wisdom. There was a little boy, 6 years old, who would often prophesy at length. It was always beautiful and right on. Later, we and another couple started a prayer meeting and Bible study in our own church.

We started sharing with our family and friends but were not able to communicate what had happened to us in a way that they could understand. We were at my sister's house for dinner and she asked our daughter to say the blessing. She didn't say the traditional blessing so then my sister told her children "now you say the real one". She didn't understand where we were coming from but later she became a very strong Christian and prayed for people's healing and salvation and openly shared her new faith in Jesus whenever she could.

We were Godparents to one of my nieces. I felt the Lord was telling me to write her and her husband and tell them what we had experienced in our life. We were taught that it was the responsibility of the Godparents to help form their spiritual life. It took 4 pages and their response was that they really didn't understand why we were sharing this with them. They are a very strong family today, dedicated and living their lives for the Lord. So our responsibility is to share what the Lord has done for us and then let the Holy Spirit do His work.

After a couple of years we realized there was a different emphasis between the Protestant Bible study and the Catholic prayer meetings we were attending. The emphasis at the prayer meetings was on the power of the Holy Spirit Who lives within us and is our present day enabler.

"But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth, He will not speak on his own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come." John 16:13 NIV

So we spent more time at the prayer meetings and at charismatic Masses. We also went to Full Gospel Businessmen International meetings and Catholic charismatic conferences where we observed and experienced many miracles, healings and deliverances. More about that later.

As we live in the Kingdom it is our reponsibility to share the 'good news" (Gospel) with the people around us and whoever we meet wherever the Lord takes us. In John chapter 3 Jesus tells us that we must be born again to see, enter and hear the Kingdom of God. In verse 13 He says "I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?" NIV This tells me that we can all live in the Kingdom of God right now. You must be born again!!

Getting Saved

2009-03-06T13:56:00.000-08:00

In the early '60's I was serving on the school board of the rural school our boys attended. A neighbor who was also on the board rode to one meeting with me and when we got back to his house afterward he didn't get out of the car. We just sat there and chatted for a while then he started sharing with me about Jesus. I thought he was crazy and my wife thought we must be out partying because I didn't get home until 3 am. The next day when I went to work I told some people: "This guy told me he knows he is going to heaven." I thought this was a big joke because no one could know that they were going to heaven. Could they?

We continued our lifestyle for the next 7 years but God was working. He brought a whole new set of friends into our life and they were all talking about Jesus. We would sit up all night (almost) discussing scripture and what it meant to us.

One couple in particular kind of took us under their wing. They would take us to hear speakers. One night they took us and another couple to Concordia to hear a preacher. There was a nun there who had come because one of her piano students was providing special music that night. When the preacher gave the invitation to come to the front to accept Jesus we were amazed to see her go down the aisle. On the way home I said: "That preacher was looking straight at me all night". The other couple husband who was with us said: "Oh, no! He was looking at me". We were both under conviction about our lifestyle but we were tough, we resisted.

Shortly after that a professional football player by the name of Bill Glass was scheduled to speak in our town. (He was an all-American at Baylor University and later played for the Cleveland Browns) I was asked to be a counsellor as a representative of the Catholic church. On May 30, 1971 we went to the meeting in the grade school gym.This time the conviction got the best of us and when he gave the invitation we and our three sons and a niece went forward. It was a great moment---and what a relief!! All of our burdens were lifted and immediately we experienced a new freedom.

Meanwhile---back at the ranch---. During the meeting there was a bad storm. We had trouble getting home because there was water over the road. My sister, who was at our house, with our little daughter and her 2 small children, was running bathwater for the kids when the storm hit. She gathered up the 3 kids and took them to the old root cellar in the back yard. That took real courage because it hadn't been used for so long that there were snakes and spiders etc. down there. When we finally got home we found that the barn had blown down, the back screen door was ripped off, and the bathtub had overflowed.

I think the devil was really mad because he had lost 6 of his own that night!!!

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 NIV

"He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." I John 5:12-13 NIV

LENT

2009-03-02T21:50:00.000-08:00

Donny Me

June 16,1940--First Communion

I was raised in a Catholic family. As long as I can remember we always went to church. We lived 10 miles from three Catholic churches. Minnespolis, Delp0hos, and Meredith which was a small country church. We kids liked to go to Meredith because it was small and there were a lot of other farm kids there. The church would hold about 50 or 60 people. I think the pews were homemade. They were made out of 1X12 boards about 10 feet long. 4 or 5 people could sit in them easy. I remember you had to watch it when you sat down because the pews were not fastened to the floor. The floor was slick and the pews were light. When you sat down they would scoot out from under you if you weren't careful. The kneelers were the same way so if you didn't watch it when you knelt down they would scoot away or turn over. So you can see, we kids would have fun watching things happen and we would laugh when they happened to us.

We went to Minneapolis for catechism. They only had it two times for country kids that I can remember--once before 1st communion and once before confirmation. They were two weeks each.

I remember we would go to confession on Saturday night and that meant you could not eat anything after midnight. We thought we were going to die!! Saturday night was a big thing during the summer because you didn't go to town during the week and if the folks went to Salina we didn't get to town for two weeks. On Saturday nights farm families would gather in town to shop and visit with each other. They would visit until after midnight so on the way home we would want something to eat but that was a no-no because if you broke your fast you couldn't take communion Sunday morning.

When Lent came around it was time to get out the rosary. Ash Wednesday was the start. This was the only time I can remember going to church during the week except for mid-night mass on Christmas eve. We would go to the Ash Wednesday service and get the ashes put on our forehead and NO washing them off the rest of the day. The ashes were from Palm Sunday palms that had been burned and they symbolized repentance and sorrow for sin.

Every night at bedtime we would kneel by our beds and say the rosary. Mom would lead us until we got older. When my sister Donna got older she would lead us. We all got our turn leading the rosary. I remember we would be saying the rosary and fall asleep and someone would poke us to wake us up. I thought we did it for hours but it was only 15 minutes or so. We got pretty good, we could mumble the responses in our sleep. It was a serious thing to our mom. We didn't understand that until later years.

Lent is the time for reconciliation with the Father and His Son Jesus so fasting was a big part of Lent. I remember we would give something up for Lent. Mom would ask us "What are you going to give up for Lent this year?" We would answer with some smart aleck answer like watermelon, washing dishes or going to school. Mom would say "That won't work!" We would give up something like candy, ice cream or one of the meals each day. We would do this to show Jesus that we loved Him. In later years we realized He was more interested in our heart (our inside rather that our outside). I knew ABOUT God but I didn't KNOW HIM.

Joel 2:12-13----"Even now, " declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God , for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity. NIV

Coyote hunting

2009-02-26T21:33:00.000-08:00

My father was what you would call a coyote hunter. He had 3 or 4 coyote hounds. He and a man from Delphos would go hunting on horseback. They would run a small rope through the ring on the dog's collar. One end of the rope would be fastened to the saddlehorn and the other end they would hold in their hand. When they would see a coyote they would turn the rope loose and the dogs would take after the coyote. Sometimes they would catch one. I was small when I first started going with Dad. He had an old Model A coupe with a rumble seat in the back where the dogs rode. Most of the time he hunted with one other person but sometimes he would hunt with a group of hunters. There would be 8 or 10 other hunters and their dogs. In later years there would be sn airplasne that spotted the coyotes for them.

I remember one Saturday night in 1940 we went to town to buy groceries. We would take the cream and eggs to town and sell them for grocery money and we would get to go to the movie which cost 5 cents. While we were at the movie Dad went to the Ford dealership and bought a new 1940 Ford sedan. It was the first two seated car I remember us having. We (kids) thought that was great, we would have a lot of room. It was winter and very cold and we thought it would be nice to have a heater because the old Model A had no heater, we used blankets. But surprise---no heater!! Dad said he didn't want one because if we went coyote hunting with him we would want the heater on and the coyote dogs would get too hot, then they would get pneumonia when they got out in the cold. The next morning, sittiing in the front yard, was the back seat cushion out of the new car and there were the coyote dogs in the back seat ready to go hunting.

In the winter they would have coyote round-ups. They would mark off a 5 mile square, divide the number of people who showed up for the hunt by 4 and place them at intervals on the roads on all four sides of the square. At a certain time they would all start walking toward the center which would be on a hill or a clear, level spot so no one would get shot. Only shotguns were allowed, no rifles. They would shoot their guns off occasionally to drive the coyotes to the middle. When you got close to the center you could see coyotes running in circles trying to get out. Sometimes they did.

I remember one coyote hunt in the late 30's. They got 2 pickup loads of jackrabbits. The county had a bounty of 5 cents on them because they were destroying the farmer's crops.

The last one I remember was probably in the late 50's. The Jaycees (of which my brother was a member) sponsored it. When they got to the center there were deer there. They didn't shoot them because noone had seen deer around here at that time. Now we can look in our back yard and see 30 or 40 and just as many wild turkeys and sometimes bobcat. There have been reports of big cats in the area too, which is probably true as they follow the deer.

Saturday on the Farm

2009-02-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

Billy Max, Donna, LaRoy

Donna, Max Sr., Max Jr., Eva, LaRoy

No school today!! "Get to play?" Most Saturdays--no play. There was plenty of work to do. We always had fence to fix. clean the chicken house and creosote the roosts and some of the sides to keep the mites down, clean the milking part of the barn. We had sheep so in winter we had to clean the sheep barn. In the summer time they were on pasture. The pasture had a creek running through it and the sheep kept the bottom of the trees trimmed as high as they could reach. They also kept the weeds out of the pasture. It looked just like a golf course. The grass was native buffalo grass.

The first chore we had to do was milk the cows. We had 5 stalls to put the cows in. Most of the time we had 6 to 8 cows to milk. We milked by hand. The cats always came to watch us milk because we had a pan we would put some milk in for them. They would stand at the back of the cows and we would squirt milk at them trying to hit their mouths. If you weren't watching, someone might squirt you in the back of the head!! Then we would take the milk to the house and separate it (the cream from the milk). The separator we had was a crank type. It had a bell on the crank that would tell you how fast to turn the crank. It was important to turn it at just the right speed to do a good job. We were reminded often to "listen to that bell". Later we got an electric separator. The cream we would put in the cream can. The separated milk we would feed to the pigs and bucket calves. New born calves got whole milk for a while to get a good start.

On the north side of the barn there were 3 large stalls where we kept the horses. Most of the time we had 4 horses, two teams, that we used to feed silage to the cattle in winter. There was a walkway through the center of the barn with a ladder at one end that you could climb up into the haymow. The haymow was a large room that covered the whole barn where we kept hay for the horses and milk cows.

Some Saturdays the folks would take the eggs and cream to Swifts in Salina to sell and use the money to buy groceries. This would take them 5 or 6 hours because they would shop at Montgomery Ward's. It was a large department store that had clothing and farm supplies. It was also a catalog store. This would give us time to have a calf riding contest while they were gone. Sometimes our neighbor kids would come over and ride, too. We had a corral so we could run the calves through the chute. We would put a pipe behind them so they couldn't back up. Someone would get on the back of the calf, someone else would open the front gate and away we would go! Sometimes good--sometimes bad!! These calves weighed 500 to 600 lbs, so they were good sized calves. One time the calf I was riding got too close to the barbed wire fence. I have a scar on my left leg about 5 inches long yet today. We would watch down the driveway for our folks to come home because they would bring home candy for us. Dad was never very happy when he found out we were riding his calves. He would say "you will run the weight off of those calves". But we would do it again when we got the chance.

Hunting--by son Mark

2009-01-30T22:55:00.000-08:00

Well, here goes....Some of the best times on the farm were in the fall. I always loved to hunt and we had an abundance of places to hunt. I still remember one of the first times that I was able to carry a gun myself when we went pheasant hunting. It was either Christmas or Thanksgiving at Aunt June's and Uncle Clarence's farm south of Simpson when I was about 10 years old. It was the beginning of lessons in gun safety. I believe that Grandad, Dad and the boys and Uncle Clarence were all along that day. We went to a pasture on the northwest corner of the mile line just north of Uncle Clarence's place. We were all getting out and lined up to walk the grass and trees there. I was carrying a Mossberg bolt action 20 gauge shotgun. There was a thumb tab labeled 'safety' located under the rear of the bolt action. I don't know why they called it a safety because it wasn't safe (didn't work properly) , and me being on my first hunt that I could carry a gun, I had my finger in the trigger guard and my thumb on the safety tab. Needless to say in all the excitement I had a real strong trigger finger and as we were walking along my gun, (which Dad had been real diligent in gun carry safety, had been pointed at the ground) decided to 'go off'! Needless to say, there was a hole in the pasture about a foot or two from Uncle Clarence's foot and I got the priveledge of watching the cars until everyone got back from the hunt. It was a lesson I will never forget, TEST YOUR WEAPON BEFORE YOU USE IT! Whenever I used that gun again I would always carry it with the bolt in the raised position and close it before I shot, just to be safe.

Starting in about my 8th or 9th grade year I would go hunting along the creek (Pipe Creek) north of home just about every evening after chores whenever I had enough ammo. Mom had a nice Marlin lightweight 12 gauge pump that I would use. It 'kicked' pretty good but was easy to carry and maneuver. The more you hunted that stretch of the creek the healthier the birds would be and the more coveys there would be as you would keep them scattered. I got pretty good with the gun and could shoot a lot of '3 bags' when I would raise a covey of quail. I had to let the birds fly away for a bit on straight away shots or there would not be too much left except wings and a poof of feathers. I would always get startled when a pheasant would rise and usually shoot before getting lined up, kinda frustrating but eventually I got over that. I would look forward to that time of the year starting with Dove through the end of Pheasant and Quail season. I never really got too involved in Duck and Geese hunting but would sometimes hunt the slough areas in the field for Teal when there was water there. I didn't do much Deer hunting as they weren't as plentiful then but I do more now.

Oklahoma--Flying

2009-01-25T13:57:00.000-08:00

On weekends I worked at the City Airport. My job was fueling up planes, washing windshields, cleaning the leading edge of wings, getting planes ready for the people who were renting them, and keeping the hanger clean. Instead of taking pay I took it out in flying lessons. I learned in an Aeronica Chief. The man I worked for was well known in aviation He was a barnstormer. He gave flying lessons to Gen. Patton. He had several planes and ran a charter service. I would go with him often if he had room. He is now in the Aviation Hall of Fame. He died this past summer at age 101.

Our neighbor had several children and one day he asked me if I could drop candy from the plane for one of his sons birthday. We made up some little parachutes out of handkerchiefs then tied bags of candy on them. They went out in the country about 5 miles from town and I went and got the plane. It was one I had never flown before with a stick rather than a wheel like I was used to so I was a little nervous but I flew over them and dropped the parachutes with the candy. They thought this was great.

At Christmas time they gave 80% of the Fort time off to go home or whatever. Christmas was in the first week and I got stuck in the 20% that had to stay. Darlene rode home with the couple we lived with. Monday morning I went to work. There wasn't much to do because the base was pretty much at a standstill. My commanding officer and I were talking. He knew I was taking flying lessons and he asked if I needed some cross country flying time. I said yes, I could use some. He told me to go check if I could get a plane and take it home then come back Sunday, pick up my pass and drive home. He said he would cover for me. So that afternoon I fueled up the Aeronica Chief and headed north 600 miles. This plane had no radio and very few instruments. I charted my route on maps that would show a windmill and 2 tanks, a small town water tower, or a farm pond. It was visual flying. I stopped at Anthony, Kansas to fuel. It was a small airport and I was lucky there was someone there to fuel me. I was almost home when I noticed 2 airforce planes flying real close, one on each side of me. The pilots were pointing me to get off. I wasn't paying attention and I was flying over the bombing range at Shilling Air Force Base at Salina. They escorted me and I got off!!

A neighbor had an alfalfa field that was 1/2 mile long. I circled the house at home and they came and watched me land and picked me up. I drove some stakes in the ground and tied the plane down. While I was at home I had to give rides to the whole family. My mom had heart trouble so we had to take it easy and she got along ok. My sister clamped both hands around my leg while we were making a bank and she wouldn't let go. I had a good friend come out in the evening to take a ride. My neighbor was carrying the milk to the house and I throttled the engine down and came up behind him. It scared him because he hadn't heard us coming. I hadn't seen their windmill so I had to pull up quick and level out to keep from stalling. He dropped his two buckets of milk and my friend riding with me got sick to his stomach. I told him that behind him were some containers and he filled one and one half of them.

So I spent Christmas week at home with the family. Early Sunday morning I headed back to Lawton. I stopped at Anthony once again for fuel. When I got within 100 miles from Lawton their was a large storm to the west of me which I didn't appreciate. Then I noticed a plane I thought I recognized flying beside me. It was Ralph Swaby, the owner. He got worried about me in the storm and came to see about me because he knew what time I was supposed to be back.

I landed at 3pm at the airport, went home and got some clothes, picked up my pass at the base, and drove home and spent another week with the family. At the end of the week Darlene and I and Steve headed home (back to Lawton). By the grace of God, and having a good commanding officer and flight instructor I got to enjoy 2 weeks at home.

Ft. Sill, Oklahoma

2009-01-20T19:36:00.000-08:00

We liked Oklahoma. We rented a house with George and Anne. All the people were friendly and we had good neighbors.
While we were at Ft. Sill several things happened. That first spring they ended the Korean Conflict so I never had to go there. Shortly afterward we got a new sergeant. He had spent several months as a prisoner of war in Korea. They were caught behind enemy lines and ran out of ammunition. He told us that one of our 5 star generals had something going on (party) so the ship that had the ammunition had to sit in the harbor and wait to get unloaded. So they ran out of ammo. He was in that big torture march of prisoners. They had to march a lot of miles.

When Eisenhower became president he gave a one year extension to all soldiers who had less than one year left to serve. I had more than a year left so it didn't affect me but some of our guys had just a couple of weeks left so they had to serve another year. They were not happy!

Our oldest son was born while we were there. I took Darlene to the base hospital early in the morning. When we got to the nurse's desk they took Darlene and told me I couldn't stay. I was to go home, then to work and they would notify me when she gave birth. They notified me between 10 and 11 am. When I got there Darlene had Steve with her. They were in a large room with two other women with new babies. There was no air-conditioning. This was July 16th so it was real hot. There were no screens on the windows and there were big fans in them. The women took total care of their babies 24 hours a day. They had to walk to the cafeteria three times a day for meals. The birth and hospital cost us $7.50. That was a good thing because I got $37.50 per month. We did pretty good the first week then it was "beans" for the rest of the month. Darlene got $96.00 so we were able to pay our half of the rent but we were broke most of the time. But we were young and in love so we lived on that, I guess.

Fort Sill was a Field Artillery Center. One day they were practicing shooting 105 Howitzers. They made a mistake on the setting and one landed in someone's kitchen in town, blew up their refrigerator. Fortunately, no one was injured. The commanding officer got shipped to another base.

We enjoyed the Wichita Mountains and Dodo Park. Darlene liked fish and chips and Dodo Park had the best. We also often went to an amusement park west of town. They had rides and miniature golf and usually had special entertainment.

Steve's crib was by the window in our bedroom and when he was big enough to stand up in the crib he would get up at 3 am to watch the train that went behind our house every night. He would grab the venetion blind in the middle and bend it down. When the train was gone he would let go of the blind and it made a big noise from bottom to top. He would go right back to sleep. We got used to it and didn't even hear it.

We had a fan we ran in our bedroom at night. One night we decided it would run better if we oiled it. So, we oiled it--while it was running!! This was NOT smart. We had a circle of oil spatters all around the room. We decided we'd have to wallpaper the room. They had this new wallpaper that was pre-pasted and that sounded easy so that is what we bought. The instructions said to cut the rolls to the proper length and wet them in water in the bathtub. We finished the papering in the evening and it looked real nice. When we got up in the morning it was all coming loose and falling off. Those were the "good old days"???

Ft. Sill

2009-01-12T21:09:00.000-08:00

We arrived at Ft. Sill and went to Battery B, 2nd Battlion, and reported for 8 weeks of basic training. There were 223 of us. We were divided into four Companies. Mine was B Co.

The usual things happened. They would get us up and outside at 3 am to stand at attention and get yelled at. Then they'd send us back into the barracks and have us bring out a full foot locker. I was on the second floor so that was a problem. They gave us so many minutes to do this and if you were late you had to do push-ups over a 5 ft. wide rock walled drainage ditch 4 ft. deep. Sometimes they made everybody do it because someone smiled when they shouldn't have, or for any reason they could think of.

One week we had no eggs for breakfast all week. Come to find out the mess Sgt. took all the 30 dozen egg cases downtown and sold the eggs.

The guy sleeping in the bunk above me had a bad heart. It shook the whole bunk. Finally they sent him home.

One of the guys was getting married on Christmas eve. There was an ice storm and his best man couldn't get there so he asked me to stand up with him, which I did.

Darlene came down just after Christmas and she and another soldier's wife got rooms in a lady's house in town. I was still in basic training so I could only go in on weekends. Later we two couples rented a house together.

During the first week of Advanced Survey Training a friend of mine told me they needed 2 mechanics in the motor pool. George (of the couple we rented the house with) and I went to our 1st Lt. Battery Commander and told him that George had a mechanic shop and I worked for him. He told us "I'll call over there and tell them you are coming". George had no mechanic shop but we were both farm boys so we handled it just fine.

People would walk through our shop and pick things up off of our work bench. We would charge up condensers and lay them on the bench so when they picked them up they would get shocked.

We had a Coke machine in the shop. At that time Coke bottles had the name of the town where it was originally bottled on the bottom. At break time everyone would put a quarter in the "pot" and whoever had the bottle with the name farthest away from Ft. Sill got the money in the pot. Also, we would stick a wooden handled screwdriver in a pop bottle, take an air hose with a chuck on it and we could take the screwdriver out of one pop bottle and put it in another one just by the air blowing over it.

One of the mechanics in our shop was originally from Germany. He was in the German army and fought against us in WWII. He came to America and became a citizen because we (U.S.A.) went over there and freed them from Nazi-ism.

We had a Warrant Officer we used to play tricks on. We'd jack up his car and put it on blocks just enough that it would spin out. We would hear some choice words from him. When he got out of the service we were taking inventory and came up short on a lot of stuff. They discovered it in his garage in town so they sent us to go load it up and bring it back.

Army 1952

2009-01-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

Darlene and I had just got married in September, then three week later I got my greetings from Uncle Sam. It said to report to Kansas City induction center on 11-21-1952. That was just one week from Thanksgiving. So on the 21st I boarded a bus in my home town with other men heading to K C. When we arrived at the induction center they had us strip our clothing for a shower and 'delousing' and gave us some army issue clothing. There were three young men from another state that had long johns on but only the bottoms, the tops had worn out and they had taped the bottoms on to their body. They didn't want to take them off but they had to. It was very painful because they had had them on for a long time. That evening we boarded a train (my first train ride) headed to Camp Crowder, Missouri (where the sun comes up in the south and sets in the north??). The first thing they did was line us up and told us if we had a pocket knife to put it in a bucket up front. One of the guys standing by me said his brother said not to do it because you won't get it back. The ones that did never saw their knife again. The next thing was showing us how to make our bunk bed. They told us it had to be taut enough that if a quarter was dropped on it it had to bounce or we would be in trouble in the inspection in the morning. They had us stand guard for two hours shifts with a ping pong paddle. In the day time we would march and they were aways smarting off. They would have us march into a wall or ditch just to aggravate us. But the worst thing was Thanksgiving day they fed us turkey. About 2:00 A.M. men started to go to the latrine and by morning there was no room left. We all got ptomaine poisoning. The sinks were full and every place was occupied. The latrine was a disgusting mess. I think we were there about ten days, then to Fort Smith, Arkansas where we got off the buses in the middle of the night and had a short arm inspection. Got back on the bus and headed to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Battery B for basic training.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOEY

2009-01-04T11:46:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Jan. 3rd was great grandson Joey's first birthday. We were invited over for ice cream and cake. His mom had suggested he could use some new sleepers with feet in them. We thought we'd be smart and stop in a bigger town on the way and pick some up. Guess what--no sleepers in any of the stores--finally found one, not exactly what we wanted but it had to do. We also took him a stuffed monkey made for his grandpa Thom by his Aunt Gevine when he was little (probasbly about 50 years ago). Thom called it "Flopsy", drug it everywhere he went (mostly by the tail). and wouldnt go to bed without it.

We don't see Joey too often so he always has to look us over real good. But he is a happy little boy and makes up easily. He had been standing alone and taking a few steps for quite a while but when we got there Sat. he was walking all over the place and was so proud of himself.

Then there was the cake. It was a decorated 'farm' cake. There was a little cake just fior Joey. They put him in his high chair and set the cake on the tray. In about five minutes you never saw such a mess in all your life! He had to have a bath after the cake.

It was a great party. We pray it was the first of many.

New Years Eve 1951

2008-12-30T13:33:00.000-08:00

Steve Tom Mark
Vicki

This is a special time of the year for me. It's when my eye caught something like it had never seen before, something that I just couldn't forget. It was New Year's eve at the Bohemian hall. I had been there several times before, but this night my eyes focused on this most beautiful young lady. She had blond hair and a great smile. I asked her to dance and we have been dancing for 57 years. I went home that night and told my mother "I met the girl I am going to marry". She is my bride and the mother of four, grandmother of nine, great grandmother of four and hoping for more. I thank the Lord for Darlene. She is the best thing in my life. Things have not always been easy or peaceful but they have been good because God is good. We made a commitment to each other and we have stayed true to that commitment by the grace of God. I would like to share something that is hard but you can do it. The Lord is a Lord of new beginnings. He is always doing new things in our life. It is a new year ahead of us so it is time to look ahead, not behind. Looking back at our failures will kill us. In Lk.9:62 "Jesus replied, 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.' " In Philippians 3:13. "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do; forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead." In 2.Cor. 5:17 " Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has gone , the new has come." If you have not accepted Gods love, mercy, and forgiveness for yourself it would be a good time. Peace.

ICE SKATING

2008-12-27T14:31:00.000-08:00

When I was in high school our class would have ice skating parties. Most of the time we had them in an old river bed north of town. It was a perfect place to have it because the water was protected from the wind and that meant the ice was smooth, it also protected us from the wind. One time we had it at a pond in a pasture without any trees for protection and it was rough and cold. But the times that I enjoyed the most was when my brother and sister and I would get together with some country kids north of us. Our farm home was ten miles from town. We were in the corner of the county so the addresses and telephone company would change. There were five farm families that had kids about the same age. We went to three different schools. We did several things together and ice skating was one of them. If it snowed we would have to shovel the snow off of the ice so we could skate. We skated at night because most of the time the wind would be still. We had bonfires to help us warm up and give some light. One time some one brought a car tire to help the fire out. We went home black and stinking--no more tires! One of the kids fixed up a pole with two six volt flood lights that ran off a battery. We thought that was great, but the best light would be a full moon "Beautiful". We would have hot chocolate, and toast marshmallows on the fire. When it got real cold and the ice was thick we would drive a car on the ice and spin around. Our skates were clamp on skates. I still have mine. One Christmas we got shoe skates. That really helped. These five families had two boys each about the same age. We were together quite often growing up. I have seen some of them in the later years. Out of the ten boys five have passed away, one from each family. This was some of my best years growing up. Thank the Lord for the time spent with them.

What is Christmas to you

2008-12-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

I asked our family what Christmas meant to them

Steve &Deb= Christmas is time for family gatherings to celebrate the birth of Jesus and visit and have a good time

Abby & Kevin= Christmas is a time with family and the ones you love. Shyann=Christmas is when you're supposed to spend time with the ones you love. Ashly= Christmas is the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus and to spend time with your loved one. Jeremiah & Tracy=Christmas is a time of giving and being with people you care about. Jonas & Maggie and Jack= It's time for family gatherings,fun and celebrating Jesus birthday.

Mark= Hope. Sheldon & Jenny and Max= Christmas is a time to spend with family. It is a holiday when Christians can come together and reflect on what is important in their lives.

Thom= Homecoming, Love and warmth. Isiah= It is a day to celebrate Jesus birthday. Steve & Megan, Jada And Joey= Birth of Jesus,celebration, family and friends.

Harold= A time of giving, of celebration. Vicki= Blessed event, family, show love through giving. Cameron= of Jesus. = Courtney Christ is born.

Darlene - Mom= Christmas is the time to remember and observe the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He paid the price we could never pay. Who would ever have imagined that God would send a baby to save us? I'm so grateful for what He has done for us and I'm extremely grateful for the family and friends He has given me whom I love with my whole heart. Max-Dad= Christ became man so He could take our place for our sins. He was a Son so we can become Sons. That is Love. Christmas is Love. And I love my wife and family very much and also my neighbor with God's help. " We love because he first loved us." John.4:19 " By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" John.13:35

I would like to have some of your comments on our blog especially you that visit regularly. MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas tears

2008-12-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

At Christmas time our country school would have a Christmas program. All eight grades would have a part in the program. Before time we would draw names. We would buy a small gift for the one whose name we drew and give them out the night of the program. Then the school would hand out brown paper sacks that had one orange, an apple, mixed nuts in the shell and also hard Christmas candy. All this was bought in the bulk. Each family would buy the teacher a small gift or would make some food to give her. Everybody would have a good time. But there was a time in the program that made me sad. My mother had scarlet fever when she was young and it damaged her heart. This caused her trouble all her life. So I lived in fear all my life of her dying. She was sick and in and out of the hospital a lot. At the end of the program we would all be on the stage and we would end the program by singing Silent Night Holy Night. And I knew mom would cry and that really would hurt me to see her cry. I thought for a long time she was thinking about dying. But I know today that she was experiencing the Joy of the Lord. " But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to YOU: He is Christ the Lord '" Lk.2:10-11. I was 38 years old before I experienced the Joy of The Lord. If you have not experienced His joy just ask Him to be born in your heart. My mom passed away in 1956 at the age of 48. MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Look who's in town

2008-12-23T13:56:00.000-08:00

They say they're here to hunt rabbits and skunks. But i'm telling you you'd better hide your Christmas presents!! Watch out for the barefooted one with the painted toenails!!

Christmas a sad time?

2008-12-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

Christmas time was always an exciting time in my life. I always wondered what Santa would bring this Christmas. We always tried to find where the folks would hide our gifts. Most of the time we would get one big present and one or two small presents like gloves or socks. On Christmas morning we would be up early (4:00 am) and down stairs hollering at mom and dad "we want to open presents". But they were still in bed and they would say if you don't get back to bed Santa won't come. So we would go back to bed and wait until 5:30 and try again. One year the farming was good so my brother and I each got a bicycle, one blue and one red so we would know what one was ours. We had learned how to ride on our neighbors bike so we got on them and rode them down the dirt road to the mail box back and forth. Then mom hollered at us and said come in and eat breakfast. We didn't want to but we did. After breakfast we went back to ride the bikes and a sadness came over us. The dirt road was full of Mexican sand burrs. We each had a flat tire and no stop leak to put in them. We had to wait until the folks went to town (and that was only once a week) to get some stop leak. Merry Christmas!

God name is family

2008-12-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas time is family time. Family started with the birth of Jesus, The Holy Family. Time goes by so fast, you wake up and every thing changes, but we can be grateful that God never changes. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" Heb.13:8. His promises stand for eternity. Our sister-in-law called and invited us to come to her house for soup supper. She said all the family would be home for Christmas except for one daughter and family. My brother had seven children, two boys and five girls. I was a little nervous about going because I have Parkinson's and when I get in a crowd I get nervous and it slows me down big time. But as always there was plenty of laughter and love there. That brought to my mind how important family is to strengthen each other. "My command is this; Love each other as I have Loved you" John.15:12. It was good to visit with each one of the families and see all the new additions. I guess what he showed me again is: "LOVE NEVER FAILS". Enjoy your family this Christmas. (The wine was good,Gary)

Country school in the winter

2008-12-18T19:04:00.001-08:00

Winter could be either a good time or a bad time. The good times were when snow came without the wind. The snow would lie like a blanket and it covered every thing. It was beautiful. My brother and sister and I could walk in the road with out any trouble. The bad time were when the wind would blow the snow and drift the roads shut. Many times we walked to school in a blizzard and the road would drift full so we would have to walk out in the fields. The wind was blowing from the north and we were walking west. By the time we got to school our face and body felt like they were frozen and our food in our lunch pail was frozen. When we got to school the first thing we would do is take off our over boots, coat, gloves and hat and head to the floor furnace. In the middle of the building was a large grate and below it in the basement was a large wood or coal furnace. The teacher would have to come early and start the fire so we would have heat. On real cold days when the wind would be blowing the only place there was heat was to stand over the furnace grate. The teacher would bring soup or hot chocolate on real cold days. By noon our lunch would still be frozen because we left our lunch pails in the hallway where it was cold. In later years the school bought a hot plate so we could bring canned soup and heat it up. The fun time came when we had recesses. We played fox and geese in the snow. When we had a lot of snow we would build forts and have snow ball fights. When the roads would drift with snow we would make tunnels and places where you could sit up in them. We always had a snowman. We would decorate him up good. Some of us kids trapped in the winter and would check our traps before school. You always knew when someone caught a skunk. The school was not near any hills so we would have to ride our sleds at home

Country school in the winter

2008-12-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

School days in a one room country school

2008-12-14T17:27:00.000-08:00

I attended a one room country school. I started there in the first grade and graduated from the eighth grade. We had a county superintendant that was over all the rural schools. There was also a music teacher that traveled from school to school and a county health nurse that visited the schools in the county. For sports we would play softball, tag and run races. Then in the spring we would have a district track meet. There would be several schools participate in the meet. There would be several different races, high jump, broad jump, long jump, accuracy throw, sack and three leg races. This event was held on a dirt road and that road is a four lane highway today. It is the Pan American Highway that runs from Winnipeg,Canada all the way through South America. In the spring they would have eighth grade graduation in the city where the county seat was. Our school was on a one acre tract. It had two out doors toilets, one for boys one for the girls, A water well with a hand pump was where we got our drinking water. There was a flag pole and the flag would fly every day of school. In good weather we said the flag salute at the pole. At the front of the school house there were two doors, one for the girls the other for the boys. The doors opened up into a small room which was called the hall way and that is where we kept our coats, lunch pail and overshoes, etc. You did not go through the girls door. We lived a little over a mile from school. We walked every day rain or snow. Most kids had to do chores like milking, feeding pigs, and chickens before and after school. Our school lasted eight months. Most kids would have to help farm. School would start in September and let out in April. To be continued later---

Don't let the "Holiday's" steal your Christmas!

2008-12-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel." Isaiah.7:14
742-- years latter. "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet;" "The virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means. "God with us" Matt.1:21-23
We in America think of a holiday as a day off from work such as labor day, fourth of July etc. But this a celebration of all celebrations. We celebrate the birth of Jesus. The day when God became Man. "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1Tim.2:5

A BIRTH IS ANNOUNCED

2008-12-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

We received This announcement with great Joy because he was our first great grandson and his father ask if they could name him after me. So that was something special to me. BUT I WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT GIVEN TO ME AT THE AGE OF 38 YEARS OLD. This was the announcement made 2000 years ago and still being announced today: " TODAY IN THE TOWN OF DAVID A SAVIOR HAS BEEN BORN TO YOU; HE IS CHRIST THE LORD." Lk.2:11. "The thief came only to steal and kill and destroy; (he was doing a good job at that in my life) "I (JESUS) have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John.10:10. That is what this birth announcement is all about. With Great Joy celebrate Christ"s birthday. Don't let any thing or anyone steal this LOVE from you.

Ice and More Ice-- December--2007

2008-12-08T19:04:00.000-08:00

Ice storms are bad, especially for farmers with livestock. The water stops, no lights, no heat in the pump house to keep it from freezing. More farmers have generators now and that helps keep some of the necessities operating. Last year when the ice storm hit we were with out electricity. Our daughter and son-in-law asked us to come and stay with them because they have a generator. We stayed for three days with them. It looked like we were going to be several days without electricity. So I called our son in south east Kansas and he said he had a generator that he would bring to Wichita, which is half way, if we would meet him there. We agreed to do that, so we went to Wichita and got the generator. It was about dark, and we were about 1/2 mile from home when we noticed some head lights behind us. As we pulled in our yard here came the electric company and said "Your lights will be on in ten minutes". Praise the Lord! Some people were without electricity for two weeks. We hope this doesn't happen again this winter!

Blessed by our great grandchildren # 2

2008-12-08T08:11:00.000-08:00

Max is 1 year and 2 month old and is growing like a weed.
He is a big boy. Walking and jabbering a lot. He is going
to be a great football player or wrestler! They live 700 miles
from us so we don't get to be with them as much as we would like to.
When he has the opportunity Max likes to ride with G-pa on G-pa's
electric scooter. They spent a week with us at Thanksgiving. Fun!!!

Blessed by our great grandchildren

2008-12-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

Joey Is the youngest grandson he is always smiling.
He started walking very young. He has a very
long tongue just like his dad. G-pa had to get two
gates for the open stairway, one at the top and one for
the bottom. The stairway has always been a challenge.
for the little ones. Joey and his sister live the closest
to us so G-ma and G-pa hope to see them often. We like that
loving that comes with them.

I Hope you know this LORD

2008-12-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,he will quiet you with his love
he will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah. 3:17

Rabbit hunt- Surprising results

2008-12-06T16:29:00.000-08:00

One morning my brother and I decided to go rabbit hunting. We had a couple dogs that always went with us. Most of the time they would scare the rabbits out of their nest before we could get there to shoot them. We decided to go hunting by the Indian cave. As we were walking along the dogs chased a rabbit in a hole in the bottom of a tree. The tree was a big old tree 30' or 40' tall. We could see the tree was hollow because it had a hole 2/3 the way up the tree. We decided to smoke him out. LaRoy went home to get some wooden matches I stayed to watch so the rabbit would not get out. When LaRoy got back we got some small branches to start the fire. After it was burning good we placed some leaves on the fire. It was fall so there were plenty of leaves to be found. The fire was smoking good when we heard a noise at the top of the tree it was a squirrel, he came out the hole in the top of the tree running from tree to tree. The tree was just like a chimney, it was drawing the smoke right through it. About that time we could hear mom saying dinner is ready. So we put the fire out the best we could and went to dinner. After dinner we went back to see if he was still there. When we got close we could see the whole tree was on fire. There was a problem the tree was on someone else's property that was not very friendly. Mom never questioned us but I am sure she knew. MOM's knows every thing. PS: We didn't get the rabbit!