Cup A Tea

Tonight the ladies of our church are having a tea party. What does this consist of? Do they sit around and munch flaky pastrys that dry your mouth out and taste like sawdust while gossiping about the latest thing, whatever that is, that has happened? Also, why would you want to get together and sip tea out of a dainty cup when it 90 degrees outside? Lemonade, perhaps, but tea? Men would all bring two liters of soda, sit down, tell a few tall tales that revolve around the lost art of hunting and fishing while glugging down our favorite soda straight from the bottle. After which we would see who could belch the loudest. Wait a minute, that was something we did while camping as a teenager not as an adult attending a church function.
(This is the great thing about writing. I had no intention of writing any of what I just wrote except to say that I thought it was grand that the ladies are having tea. However, for some unknown reason my keyboard has taken control of my fingers and what I wrote I wrote. Writing is such fun.)
How often do the ladies of your church have tea?

Stephen Crane

How many of you have read Stephen Crane's books? I started Red Badge Of Courage when I was in high school and never got through it. Last month I finally read a book of his that was full of short stories. I absolutely loved it. Nothing ended the way I thought it would. Nothing ever seemed to work out. It seemed so real. He had an amazing talent. The talent of taking words and painting pictures with them. Who is your favorite author? What author will you not read?

Good Years/Bad Years

I was thinking today about our anniversary and how long we have been married. Twelve years seems so long. I was thinking about how many of those years were good years and how many of them were bad years. I came to the conclusion that about two consecutive years out the twelve were what we would consider bad years. How many years of your marriage would you consider to have been bad years? Years that your marriage was very stagnate or went backwards. If you have not been married at least five years you may not have expierenced enough things together to really put a strain on your marriage. Physcologist claim that marriages tend to crumble in the 7-10 year window. How about you and your marriage?

Twelve Years

Twelve Years ago today, we were married. Need I say more?

Proud Of My Wieght

22.5 Lbs on his birthday.....

 

The Big One

 

One Year

Yesterday was Jayden's first birthday. It is strange, in some ways, to have a son that was born before you knew he existed..... It is hard to believe he is a year old.....

Work Out

Today I had my yearly work out. We made hay. What more must I say? We picked up close to a thousand bales today. I am now a very weary old man. Tomorrow I shall be a weary, sore, old man. We have 300 bales left to unload in the morning. Want to help?

Hay Fort

The other day I mowed some hay that was located right in front of my brother's house. It is a rather small field, an acre at most, and only produced 30 bales. When I went down to get the hay up this morning, small square bales, I discovered that my nephews and their mother had made a fort using the bales. From what I could gather from the tale the boys told me, they used a little red wagon and a two wheel cart to move all the hay out of the field to the spot they had chosen for the fort. These bales were not light, I would guess they weighed in around 50-60 lbs. I was glad they had the ingenuity to find a way to build a fort and have fun. I was also glad I didn't have to drive and walk all around the little field to pick up the bales. Did you ever experience the joy of playing in the hay? Making tunnels and forts or other interesting things?

Self-employed

How many of you are self-employed? If you are a stay at home mom, you are self-employed. If you are the father and are self-employed, what is your line of work?

Cold Cereal

My wife got this book out of the library titled something like from grain to cereal. In this book they talked about the process that is used to make cereal. I never knew how they got all those different shapes and sizes. Apparently they use this machine that blows hot air into the cereal before it is baked. The air makes all those puffy cereals. So, in essence, we are paying for a lot of hot air. How much cold cereal do you eat? What kind do you eat? When I was growing up I loved Corn Chex. There was a period of time where Wheaties was the cereal of choice. This was based on the fact that they were sending out very nice Michael Jordan posters. I have now gravitated toward the Frosted Mini Wheats.

Survey

I am wondering how many of you attend a church that has regular Sunday evening services. Our church has services three out of four Sunday evenings in the month. We also have church every Wednesday evening.
So there appear to be two questions here that you can answer.
How many of you attend church services on Sunday eve?
How many of you attend a mid-week service?

Flea Market

Today my wife went to the flea market to market our fleas. I, the helpful husband that I am, went along with her to help her set up our flea display. I left her about nine this morning and headed back home. I found the idea of sitting there watching people browse through our flea collection rather boring. Why is it called a flea market? Why not a large yard sale or something of that nature? She sold around a 100$ worth of fleas. This really fleases me:)
Of course we made a couple purchases as well. We found a Schwinn girls bike with training wheels for 10 bucks. I also found an antique 31 day wind up clock for 12$. I think I got a steal.
How often do you attend a flea market and how many fleas do you take home with you?

Stub Shaft

This is the stub shaft that turns the small planetary. This shaft will be replaced, obviously.

 

Completely Shot

Ring gear after 8 years of quality but very grueling work.

 

Mix Wagon

Here is a picture of the worn out small planetary drive.

 

Last One

There are a couple walls missing but this general area will be the children's rooms.

 

Construction Progress

Master Bedroom and Bath. (Basically)

 

Current Home In The Distance

 

Another

 

View From Above

I took this from the roof of the farm house, my future home, this evening.

 

Funeral

My sister and I attended Kevin Horst's funeral today. Kevin was a young man who died in a motorcycle accident Friday eve. He was the husband of Lisa Atkinson Horst. I knew Lisa very well years ago. Lisa finds herself a widow and the mother of 4 plus the little one living inside of her. When I hear of these types of situations I wonder Why? To be honest they make me upset. Kevin was a good man and was highly respected in his community. Apparently he was an excellent trim carpenter. It was also very apparent that he has made an impact on his wife's younger siblings. Lisa will be facing life alone and that thought has to drive her crazy. I think I would want to beat my head against the wall. I know God is sovereign and I am very thankful that he has our lives in His hands. Marcus Yoder preached and in his message he made this statement: Jesus has taken the sting out of death. Jesus faced death and won. Jesus will give us victory. I am paraphrasing some but I think that was the thrust of his sermon. How do we mourn with those we are unable to empathize with?

Aley's New Friend: Cup Cake

 

Ready For The Subflooring!! (I Think)

 

Underway

 

Showers

Ah, the shower. We have just gotten Sierra to take showers instead of baths. For the last year or so she was deathly afraid of the shower. She hates water hitting her in the face or getting into her eyes. We were rather surprised at the exuberant attitude she has displayed towards the shower. Do you remember when you started taking showers? I don't. Seems like I have been taking showers all of my life. Well, that isn't true. I don't think our tub had a shower when I was growing up. When my brother and I moved to the basement the bathhroom was so small all we could get into it was a shower. I loved it. I have never found a shower head that would put out as much volume as that one. It was like standing under a waterfall. I abhore piddly showers. I also do not like fine, misty, drizzly shower heads. I like the huge drops of water. The thunderstorm type of showers. How about you?

Three Mothers

There are three mothers I want to mention today.
First, I want to mention my mother. Mamma is an amazing woman. She raised me which would make any woman amazing. I am fairly certain that I am the reason she now has white hair. I must say the white hair is very becoming and I am hopeful that when I get old my hair will turn white and not gray but that is a subject for another time. Anyway, I realize more each day what a difficult task you had when us kids were little. I wonder how you managed..... It is on mother's day when I remember the things I did that brought you pain and I am sorry about those times. Knowing you as I do you have probably forgotten them.... So, I love you Mamma.....
Second, I want to mention my mother-in-law. I love you for the way you pour your time and energy into your grandchildren. I love you because you poured so much of yourself into my wife. I know we have had our struggles in the relating department but the cool thing about having a struggle with you is how easy it is to talk to you about the struggle. I am a blessed man....
Third, my dear wife....
All the things she does. She spends her time wiping noses and bottoms, cooking, cleaning, laundry and a host of other things I cannot even imagine. I firmly believe that God gave mothers a special ability to be at home doing all of these tasks men are unable to do. Mothers have the ability to nurse sick children all night and still function when the sun rises, at least my wife can. I, on the other hand, cannot seem to make it. We also could spend a lot of time discussing her ability to handle and raise the children while I am off working or singing. I would loose my sanity if I had to be cooped up in the house all day with four children. So, in conclusion, I am very proud of my wife and I love her deeply.

Mono Mixer

It appears that mechanical failure is becoming a major part of this farms daily activity. Today, with the mixwagon loaded, the Mono Mixer decided it should make loud popping sounds and stop working. This caused me lots of stress and made me sweat. I had to grasp a silage fork and fork 4 tons of feed out of the wagon. This mix wagon uses a planetary drive system and something has malfunctioned in the planetary. I am hoping it is only a bearing gone south for spring. Tomorrow I will borrow the neighbors mix wagon to feed and Monday I will be able to play mechanic again.
If I actually knew what I was doing maybe I would be able to enjoy it.
Several years ago our farm was aptly given the nick name Malfunction Junction....
How fitting.....

Bobcat (Again)

Okay, I had mentioned quite a few times lately the struggles I have been enduring with this machine. Last weekend I had to fix a hose on this ole cat. I was hoping this would eliminate the oil leakage I was having. This was not to be. All week it has been drooling oil and my feeble eyes could not find the leak so I kept adding oil. As much oil as we have drooled out around this farm for the last 30 years I am sure we could start an oil well. Anyway, I had this bright idea while I was feeding this afternoon. The bobcat has two side panels that are located between the tires. I decided I would take one of them off and see if I could see anything dripping. What a genious. After many months of wondering where all the oil was coming from I finally found it. There was a hose that was very loose and it took all of 2-3 minuets to tighten. Now I need to add more oil and see if what I fixed actually fixed the problem. I must say it was a very rapid drip. Reminded me of myself......

Yoder Tradition

On my mother's side of the family when an individual had their 13th birthday they were honored by everyone else. This honoring included a short discourse on the individuals life. This discourse was given by the Patriarch himself, Grandaddy. All the uncles and aunts would put money together and purchase a special gift for the new teenager. This was a very special thing for all the grandchildren. It made us feel grand. Here is the speach that Grandaddy gave on my special day.
Aug. 29 1986
Glendon Eugene Zehr. Who is that?
Born Aug. 25 1973 This day joins the elite circle of teenagers. Glen is an unusual boy. He does things differently from most. When I first saw him I felt he had an interesting life ahead. He has had trouble with his ears since he was 5-6 years old. Most folk arn't favored this way. When he was eight he had staph infection in his hip joint. No one knows how that got inside as there was no opening. He was in the hospital with this for awhile. (Editor's note: two weeks) The Drs. at Brookenal were dumbfounded.
Two years later he had Cat Scratch Disease. Jon Alan plays with the cats and Glen gets the disease. Again the Drs. are scratching there heads.
Last year Glen had Pura Para (Editors note: I am not sure this is the correct spelling and I can't quite read the Patriarchs hand writing.) a severe alergic reaction which could cause hemoraging internaly. He was not hospitalized for this. Again Drs. were puzzled and about decided when Glen comes they just as well send him to Lynchburg. This year again, true to form, he contracted something that was aboce the Brookneal Drs. head. They all but crawled under the chairs and out the windows when they saw him coming. They knew he had something they knew nothing about. They sent him on to Lynchburg where the Drs. decided he had Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Fever.
Now Glen had never been to the Rockys but that didn't stop him. He spent about a week in the hospital for this. Two tests were sent off, both coming back negative. Maybe the Lynchburg Drs. are dumbfounded now. For according to that test no one knows what Glen had.
Glen has always loved children. He is very outgoing something we should all cultivate. Glen as you continue through life put your best foot forward. Give God the glory and no one will be able to stop you.
Ernest Yoder.
Did your grandparents honor you in anyway in a public setting?

Dry Weather

About three weeks ago we recieved about an inch of rain. I hustled onto my tractor and planted 52 acers of corn. After this brief frenzy of activity the raindrops went away. They stayed away until Sunday the 7th of May. The heavens opened up and dropped another inch of rain. Once more I made haste to my planter and dropped seed on another 30 acers. This leaves me with 45 acers unplanted. I now need to finish para plowing and make hay. I am afraid the ground is still to hard to plow. The weather man is calling for rain. This would cause my hay making to suffer. This is a farmers worst nightmare.... If I cut my hay, it would rain sure enough......

Aleya

Aleya rode with me while hauling silage with a two ton dump truck this evening. I have been calling her tootlebug just because it seems to fit. She told me I not tootlebug very emphatically. I said oh really!! Trying to sound very surprised. After thinking for several seconds I said Okay muffincake. Are you a muffincake? Her reponse I muffincake. She seems to have an abhorrence of bugs I don't know if that is why she isn't a tootlebug or not.
She informed me at one point that I smell dirt, daddy, it tisgusting. (do you know what that is?)
She just informed me that she wants to go bye bye with a drunk. What she was really saying is I want to go bye bye with the truck......
Kids are something else......

King's Singers

This will be a poll question.
Have You heard of the King's Singers?
Have you heard them in concert?
Do you own any of their albums?

Bobcat

My 863 Bobcat has had a hydraulic oil leak for a long time. Since I got it running again I was hoping we had fixed it somehow, unfortunately, we hadn't. Every now and then it would really bother me and I would proceed to lift the cab and peer into all the deep, dark corners trying to locate the leak. I would always pull the cab back down in frustration and disgust. All the hydraulic hoses and motors are buried deep in the belly pan and you can see nothing. This morning I needed to add oil again and this feeling of desperation surfaced. I began my peering process and much to my delight I was able to find the problem. The reason I was able to diagnose the exact location was due to the amount of leakage. With the engine running it was leaking like a sieve. I took the hose off, which was like trying to mow grass under a tree that has branches 6 inches off the ground. It was an hour of knuckle scraping torture. What is really bad is that I decided the hose must not have been tight because I could not see a problem with the hose. So, like a dummy, I put it back on and started the machine only to find I still had a sieve. So I need to take the thing off again and make a new hose. Such is life....
How often do you do things twice, just for fun......

Hired Man

After much heart/ soul searching I have my hired man. I am amazed with God and His ways. This man is a man that I have known for years and has helped me out of many scrapes. We have worked together many times on various projects. He has the ability to be a do it right mechanic or to be a quick-fix mechanic. A quick-fix occurs when you are in the middle of a project and you do not have the time to fix it right. You fix it well enough to get the job done. He is also excellent with the cows. Then there are the other subtle things that will make the working enviroment very nice. He will be easy to talk to and fun to work with on a daily basis. I had talked to him in passing when I first started my search and was told that he would probably stay where he was. He later came back to me and said that he would be interested in talking. He wanted to make room for his oldest son to be on the farm he is currently working on. This is when the discussions began. Last night we sealed the deal and I am very pleased to announce that starting July the 1st Sonny Yoder will be on my pay roll.

Well Hydrated

Okay, I have been fighting a cold and my wife keeps telling me I do not drink enough water. She says people are supposed to drink half there body weight in ounces. So, if you weigh 200 lbs you should be drinking 100 ounces of water. I keep telling her I drink lots of water at the barn. However, I am discovering that I really am not very hydrated at all. In fact, I think I would classify as the Sahara desert. Now, what really made me wonder was the fact that she is the only one in our little clan who has not gotten the flu/cold this time around. In fact, my wife rarely gets a cold or any other virus that hits the market. So I decided to do a little test with a a 1qt jar. I am suppose to drink, roughly, one gallon of water a day. This morning I drank one quart, at lunch I drank roughly a quart and a half and I drank a few ounces at the barn before milking this evening. So it appears like I still need another quart of water or so. Now she is informing me that it really is not doing as much good as it would if I would drink twelve ounces every hour. I am begining to wonder if she thinks I should drag a water house around with me every where I go. At the rate were going the well be dry and we will be drinking out of the creek. How much water do you drink a day and how does it relate to the number of colds you attract?

Toothache

Sierra has had five cavities for quite awhile. She is very timid about people working on her. (I don't know if this is a result of all the vaccinations she had or not. One time she had to get three shots and this about put her over the edge. I told her I didn't care if she cried but she didn't need to scream and kick.) Anyway, I took her to Dentist in Lynchburg and she wouldn't let them look in her mouth without hollering. I was very unimpressed with everyone involved; Doctor, Nurse, and child. So, we picked a different dentist who does much better with children. Rachel took her in for a prefilling visit and it went fairly well. However, we were fairly certain that they would be unsuccesful in their endeavour to fill the offending tooth. This afternoon was the big ordeal. Rachel said that Sierra was really brave and started out very well. As the ordeal proceeded she got fairly wimpery but nothing like we were expecting. Needless to say we are very proud of the progress she has made in the bravery department. We are hoping this trend continues as we get the others filled. I think children/people need to be able to cry but they don't need to throw tantrums and have screaming fits. What is your opinion?
How do you find a balance between crying and CRYING???

Earache

I am sorry to report that even folks who are over thirty get ear aches. This ache occurred at 2:00 AM this morning. It was one of those aches were you feel an uncontrollable desire to toss and turn. I got up and stumbled to the kitchen. Once their I popped 4 Tylenol and went back to bed. I don't know how long I was awake but it had to be quite awhile. My alarm rang at 4 so drug out to milk. Once I was milking it was semi-endurable. I was busy enough I didn't think about it as much I guess. I got back in the house about 7 and popped two more pills before laying down to take a nap. I fell asleep briefly before I was awakened by the same pain. I rolled around in bed for awhile before deciding I would be better off getting up and going to work. So that is what I did. At some point in the day the offending ear began to drain and this has alleviated some of the pain. I hope tonight is not a repeat of last night....
Have you ever experienced an earache? I would much rather have a fever than an earache.

Peace

What is peace? We, our church, had council meeting yesterday, which I missed due to scheduling conflicts. I always wonder how honest people really are. Everyone has peace with God and their fellowmen. So, I am wondering what is peace. Is peace a love relationship with God? A sappy kind of love? I get the feeling sometimes that some people never get upset with God. Is this what peace is? Or is peace admitting that what life is sending your way is really annoying and you wonder what God is doing. In fact you really are mad at God sometimes. You work through the frustration. You ask God WHY???? God doesn't answer or doesn't appear to answer and you come to grips with the situation and find peace. I believe peace is trusting God even though you don't understand. You know God is in control and you trust him. Peace is accepting what you are facing and admitting you are in pain.
Is it possible to have peace with God and not have peace with your fellowmen? Does everyone really have peace with their fellowmen?
What a vicious circle....