It was a milestone of an era. Everyone I knew kept a coffee can of nails. There were all types & sizes… roofing, finishing, 10-penny, and framing nails. And they were bent. But why keep bent & used nails? Why not throw them away? My parents, my friends’ parents & families had experienced the Great …
Continue reading Lessons From The Farm: The Coffee Can of Nails
Last week I noticed these ducks in our yard at the lake. It was pouring down rain, yet they went about the morning as if it were bright & sunny. When you think about it, they have no warm & safe shelter or control over the weather. They do not have a pantry, refrigerator & …
I asked a dear farmer friend, "What are your thoughts when you plant?" He quickly replied, "I see the harvest!" Think about that. My friend is a seasoned farmer. He has “put-in” a lot of crops. He knows the hard work that lays ahead. He has experienced the enormous risks of poor crop prices, insects, …
I don’t remember the first time I set up my “Username & Password,” but it seems that most of my adult life has been a series of Usernames & Passwords. At first, I thought it was silly. I didn’t know any dark secrets or vast amounts of assets that needed protecting nor was I conducting …
Once the rice was about knee high…when it’s hard to see the snakes, my job was to be a flag-boy for the pilot flying fertilizer, herbicides, or insecticides. It was always just after the sun came up that I would wade into the rice field with the mosquitoes. A flag-boy is the focal point or …
We all start the same way, somebody spoon feeding us. It starts with a plan or strategy of selecting what “lil” Johnny needed, what he would eat, creative ways and time for the “event” and the clean up afterwards. For Mary & me, the sooner our children learned to use their own spoon, the better. …
“Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Ma j. Gen. John A. Logan declared it should be …
I remember the morning, it was June 18th, my first real day of military service. There were some 200 young men walking down the line in a big warehouse, with men behind the counter asking each man what size we were. From underwear to socks, shoes/boots, uniforms, hats…everything we needed. And it all got stuffed …
I must have been 5 or 6 years old the morning my aunt told my cousins & me, “Go pick out a chicken for supper tonight.” Like a well-choreographed dance move she took the chicken in one hand and the hatchet in the other and as she brought the chicken down onto the chopping block, …
Continue reading “Running Around Like A Chicken With His Head Cut Off!”
I remember this gnawing question as a child, a teen, and young adult…the searching for significance. This “searching” took me down many roads…roads that usually led to failure, disappointment & painful consequences. We have witnessed many changes & advancements through history but when you think about it the Dominant Operating Culture (DOC) of the world …
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