I am here at home sitting in the kitchen, typing on my laptop and listening to Christmas music...yes, I am actually listening to Christmas music on the day after Thanksgiving. This never happens. I usually don't get into the Christmas spirit until December 15th...However, I'm finding it to be very relaxing right now. The rest of the family (excepting the brother visiting the girlfriend) is watching The Polar Express on ABC. I watched it for a while, then got annoyed because of all the liberties the filmmakers took with the book.
Dad used to read to us every Christmas Eve. The story would alternate between The Night Before Christmas and The Polar Express. As I grew older, the latter became my favorite. I loved looking at the pictures, especially the one where wolves prowled outside the train barreling through the woods.
This Thanksgiving has been a good one. We spent a quiet Thursday at my grandma's in Mooresville, then a more festive Friday here in Tangier with my grandmother, grandfather, aunts and uncles. My aunt and uncle were supposed to leave for Jersey City today, but ended up staying an extra day. A friend passed away...nothing to be sad about...she was 96 and lived an amazing life. The funeral was today. I didn't go. I knew her, and she was always chipper, but I just couldn't go. She showed calves at the State Fair in the '20s and used to go with my great-aunt and -uncle to watch the Clydesdales, and that is where I would hear all about her adventures at the State Fair.
But as Keith Harkin would say, "But hey, don't listen to me...this wasn't meant to be no sad song..."
Thanksgiving...it's confusing sometimes as to which side we're going to in one particular year. I confessed this to Dad one year and he said, "Well, we always go to my side (the Browns) in odd years...and that's because the Browns are odd..."
I liked that. So now I just have to remember what year it is (and sometimes, for my scattered brain, that's hit and miss...I remember trying to write a check in November of 2007 and writing at the top, "Nov. 6, 2006," then hurriedly marking out the 6...). So, even year, my mom's side this year. On Thursday anyway.
So today, I just reveled in the Brown oddness. My uncle Matt from Jersey City was trying to figure out where he could find an automatic car wash between here and Clayton so he could get the bottom of the van washed. As far as we knew, there wasn't one until Plainfield. So I mentioned a laser wash in Rockville that I thought seemed promising. My aunt Alyson asked if I was for sure it was automatic. I wasn't, but my uncle said it was worth a shot. "Boy, laser lights...pretty fancy. I bet they have a laser show every Friday...free popcorn...we'll have a car show!"
"Yeah," I said, "that's the entertainment hub of Parke County right there..."
Then my grandfather got into the conversation when he said, "Mother, (speaking to Grandmother) where is that car wash you go to, and is it automatic?"
Grandmother was washing dishes. "Oh well, let's see, there's the automatic one behind the bank, it's pretty nice, I go there every so often because the car is so dirty, you see, but aye, I think you have to get out and do it ya'sel..."
All of us at the table rolled our eyes.
"...and you have to use lots of quarters."
My small cousins (all those under 4 feet) and my brothers played Clone Wars for much of the afternoon. The lone girl, Maya, insisted on playing Yoda, but the boys protested, "But...but...you're a girl!" Their play was complete with lightsaber noises and 3' Noah stretching out his hand Darth Vader style and declaring, "I choke you!" to my 6'3" brother, who promptly closed his eyes and made choking noises with his tongue out.
When my brother came into the kitchen, Uncle Rob asked how the clone wars were going. "Oh, they're going pretty good, they've all got their lightsabers...you know, a clone war."
Dad replied, "Yeah, you should know, there's a cologne war every time you get into your car."
Rob turned red, he was laughing so hard. I smiled...so true...I choked whenever I climbed into the Taurus after he had been driving it for a while.
So yeah...it's been good to be home. Usually, in a weekend, there are multiple moments where I pull out my ever present, "Why did I come home again?" (Dad inevitably answers, "To see me, of course.") Not this time...
I love my family....
(Note: Sorry so random. I reread this and felt like I went all over the place. That bug that's been chasing me and taking my voice ever since last Monday caught me again and I slept for most of the day. Maybe I need more drugs. But I left most at Purdue. Oh well. Maybe I'll be better by the time you see me...whenever you see me...mwuhahaha. I really need some...something. If you have it, just call me up and let me know where we can make an exchange.)
We should make a deal, Elise! I'll get better if you get better? Or maybe we should convalesce together...we can watch horse movies and read and curl up under blankets and cough and hack and try to sleep. We can take cough sryup together! "Cheers!", we'll say, and clink our prescription bottles.
Yesterday, I was in the Union, slightly distracted in studying for Animal Science, and all I could do was doodle "6 days" and underline "6" vehemently. I was sick and drugged up (and I still am) so everything just seemed off. And my countdown didn't help either.
Yes...I am very much counting down to the day I can go home.
I have never wanted to go home this badly. Since November began, I have longed to go home. I know my mother would have come up to get me...but I couldn't leave. There was a wedding...some volleyball games...and nothing just seemed to work out. It helped when, on the day before the wedding, he and I made a trip down to Odell where my uncle works as a custom applicator (he sprays crops) to meet my dad. A couple of nights before, I had gone to a Farm Bureau meeting with my parents, and then rode back with a fellow Purdue student, forgetting my room key in my parents' vehicle in the
process. We visited for a while, and because the wind blows from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. there, we got a blast of ammonia in our faces. And here's the sign I've been off the farm too long--I actually thought it smelled good. I was very happy to get off campus and see crops (or lack thereof, since harvest was drawing to a close) and take the back roads past Fort Ouiatenon and over the Wabash River. Sometimes, it just feels good to go the back way...
That was almost two weeks ago. It helped my longing temporarily, but it's back in full force. I just walk around campus and feel a pit in my stomach, like something's missing. Like I can't be at peace with myself. My mind is constantly wrapped around the words, I want to go home...
Ag econ didn't help much. Yesterday in lecture, Dr. Taylor talked about how agriculture has gone from backbreaking labor done completely by hand to the ease of riding in a combine. He first told the story of a girl hoeing her field and stopping to rest. The way he relayed the tale was beautiful...
"You didn't have to go far from here in 1830 to see a settlement, and this settlement had a few animals and a few acres, and I want you to come and look, and there's a 16-year-old girl...a 16-year-old girl working to clear the weeds from her field. It's about 10:00 in the morning and she stops to rest and leans on her hoe. She's in the shade. She stops and thinks, I don't want my kids to go to bed hungry like I do. What can I do to help my children? And the answer, she thought, was to find a strong, strapping, intelligent, kind husband. Because he could work the land..."
The invitation to "come and look" is what drew me in. That is how to tell a story...draw the audience in.
Then he told of how, when he was 12 years old, he begged his father and the hired man to let him run the plow. So they let him, and the little boy started off. When he reached the end of the row, he had some trouble turning the plow around, even though the horses knew what to do. He finally got it dug back in, though, and traveled back to his father and the hired man. Taylor collapsed, exhausted, and said, "That's hard work! How do you do it?" His elders simply chuckled and said, "Well, we're a little bigger than you are..."
Then he talked about the first tractor the family bought. "It was amazing! I started as soon as I got out of school, and I went up and down and up and down and up...Suppertime rolled around, but we didn't stop for things as unimportant as that...it got dark and we got high tech and turned on the lights...10:00 rolled around and we were finally done, and I had plowed six acres in six hours!"
I was smiling the whole time, thinking, it's true, it's so true. Especially the supper bit.
Taylor continued, "I pulled it out on the road to go back home, and it was like the 4th of July! Mud flying everywhere in front of the headlights, it was great!"
My smile stopped.
That story was the end of the lecture, so he dismissed us, I gathered up my things, bundled up and made my way through the crowds to take my shortcut through the Physics building. I about choked thinking about the end of his story. I knew what that mud in front of the headlights looked like, I could see it....
I could see a frigid, brutal winter night with no one but me home, dad gone at a meeting for three days and the cows out of hay. It was snowing and the ground was frozen. Bundled up in my coveralls, gloves, hat and cast-off DNR jacket, I started the tractor up, guided it out of the barn, speared a hay bale and started up the driveway towards the pasture. I positioned the tractor to back up into the pasture, hopped off the tractor, opened the gate, got back on, put the machine into reverse and backed in towards the metal hay rings. The cows, knowing I was bringing good things, started bellowing and racing to the hay rings.
I put the bale down and put the ring around it, and the cows dug in. I took it as a thanks and headed out, hopping off the tractor once again to shut the gate.
Then I did all that once more. They needed two bales to get them through, at least until my dad got home.
Then I headed inside to eat supper and do homework.
I miss that. There's a feeling of satisfaction like none other when I walk inside the house after feeding my livestock and knowing they have been taken care of and now it's time to take care of myself. I can sit at the table and read a book and sip my hot tea, listening to (quite possibly) Christmas music playing in the CD player and be truly content. I can work on my homework without worrying. I can go to bed that night with a clear conscience because all of my work is done.
The farm life is where I have found peace and comfort. It's in the snow falling, the stars streaking across the sky, warm summer breezes, thunderstorms, picnics, hay baling, the smell of grass, the satisfaction of working hard...gifts from God. I could never leave those gifts. In them, I find solace. Where do you find yours?
I love this entry, because these aren't just mere sentences that you've posted - it's as if there is a piece of you in every word. It seems that not only have you allowed us a look into your mind, but your heart as well. I really appreciate that.
And in response to your question.... man, how do I begin to explain this? I can explain it, but the hard part is getting started. I guess I'll just dive right in....
...It has to do with changes. Relationships, circumstances, surroundings, ect. can often change. And change is always occurring in some form or another. I've heard THM say so many times, "The only thing constant is change." It may be that the only thing that's constant is change, but there is Someone Who never changes. He is constant. Throughout the course of my life I am going to observe and experience a countless number of changes. But God will not change. Nothing on this earth lasts. Eventually, it all fades away. I could wake up one morning to find that I've lost everything on this earth that I hold dear to me. But I'd still have Him. God is always there, and no matter what happens, He is always God.
His ^ mom sent me over here for some refreshment, and you delivered. Beautiful thoughts! Nothing that money can buy satisfies like the joys God created for our delight: a homegrown tomato, the smell of a horse barn, the sound of gentle rain or crashing waves, the feel of kitty cat fur on your cheek. God is great!
Recently my Lil' girl said to me "You're Grounded" in which I reply, yes, that is true. I will not be moved. Satisafaction in Hard work is all over the book of Ecclestiases, it is a gift from Him.
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years to elect incompetent presidents and therefore not be able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy). Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').
2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'
3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns,
lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist,then you're not ready to shoot grouse.
5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
9. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.
10. You will cease playing American football. There are only three kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, Australian Rules and rugby (dominated by the Australians). Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).
11. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians (again World dominators) first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
12. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.
13. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
14. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.
God Save the Queen!
(Personally, I'm excited about the strawberries and cream...
I do believe they play baseball in Japan. Although I have always wondered that about the World Series. Not sure about the Kansas deal...And Gordon Brown is a Scot! So there ya go. The solution to all problems: have a proper tea time.)
Andrew told me that I had to get on and read this. Ohhhh, my WORD! I was dying laughing over here. The one about the roundabouts and metrication had me in stitches, as did the slam on Andie MacDowell's fake accent.
I have to send this to my sister-in-law (raised in Lakenheath, Suffolk, England). She's going to love it.
From the American Farm Bureau Federation. You may find the first story most pertinent.
FOOD PRICES NOT MATCHING DECLINE IN CORN PRICES---The Des Moines Register reported today that consumers are expecting to see prices in the grocery store decline, but it isn’t happening. Meanwhile, ethanol producers say the fact that food prices haven’t dropped with the price of corn proves that ethanol had little or nothing to do with rising grocery costs.
So with the drop in corn prices, who is making money? ConAgra Foods Inc., General Mills and Del Monte Foods all had a double-digit increase in sales during the last quarter, in part because of product price increases. Kraft Foods saw its net revenue rise nearly 20 percent in the latest quarter, helped in part by recent price increases.
Wegmans, a major grocery chain headquartered in Syracuse, N.Y., isn’t waiting for wholesale prices to drop to pass the expected savings to its customers. The company is implementing price cuts that would save the average family $40 to $60 per month. In a message to employees, the owners said, “During difficult times like these, it’s OK with us if we make a little less money.”
DesMoinesRegister.com
THUNE ASKS FOR HEARING ON EFFECTS OF CREDIT CRISIS---Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) is calling on Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to schedule a hearing to evaluate what effects the current credit crisis is having on agricultural production, renewable energy production and rural agricultural-based businesses.
Harkin and ranking member Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) received a letter from Thune stating, “I have heard from constituents and industry leaders in the agriculture sector about renewable energy projects in rural areas that are being put on hold, ethanol plants and grain elevators that are struggling to meet their operating obligations, and agriculture producers and small businesses that are burdened with uncertain sources of financing as commodity prices have fallen from historic levels this summer.”
Thune also stated that agricultural producers are dependent on affordable and accessible credit and therefore it is “critical that family farms, renewable energy producers, and agribusinesses have access to credit, which will keep rural America producing food, feed and fuel for the country.”
USAgNet.com
POTENTIAL WATER WAR BREWING IN WASHINGTON STATE---In Washington state’s rural non-irrigated lands, a potential war is brewing. An Associated Press report states that farmers now fear their wells could dry up if a 30,000-head feedlot moves onto land in southeast Washington’s Franklin County. Laws dating back 60 years allow some drilling for water without a permit as long as water usage does not exceed 5,000 gallons per day.
Attorney General Rob McKenna issued an opinion in 2005 that barred the state from limiting the amount of water that ranchers draw daily for their livestock. Arguments immediately ensued over opening the state’s water resources to unlimited use by large dairies and feedlots.
Easterday Ranches Inc. has proposed building a 30,000-head feedlot on empty land east of the Hanford nuclear reservation and has responded to critics stating that steps are being taken to avoid impairing anyone’s water rights by drilling to a deeper aquifer than most wells in the area, encasing the well and metering for water usage.
QUOTE OF THE DAY---“Grocery manufacturers are making record profits and will continue charging whatever they think they can get away with.”
--Jeff Broin, chief executive of Poet LLC, which operates seven ethanol plants in Iowa, in a Des Moines Register story about food prices remaining high as commodity prices have fallen.
Addition to the news from me since I haven't written about it yet:
Proposition 2 in California passed with 63% of the population voting for it. The proposition outlaws the use of cages for chickens, so by the year 2015, all layer cages must be gone and Californians must find a new way to keep their chickens. This will basically destroy the layer industry in California, the Number 1 Ag state in the United States. This is a problem. The Humane Society of the United States is not just stopping with California though. They're coming east with similar laws passed having to do with hogs in Florida and Arizona a couple of years ago. Here's the story from November 10:
"IOWA FARMERS WORRY OVER CALIFORNIA LIVESTOCK VOTE---The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which sponsored the California ballot initiative that sets new welfare standards for livestock, is pledging to push such changes across the nation. That’s what livestock producers in Iowa and other states worry about. Millions of dollars were contributed to a campaign to defeat the California measure. Iowans contributed $300,000 to that campaign.
Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said Proposition 2 passed because of its emotional appeal. “It highlights the need for us in agriculture to frankly talk about what we do, put the face of the farmer on it,” he said.
VOTER STATISTICS ON CALIFORNIA’S PROPOSITION 2---An interesting set of voter statistics were revealed following the vote in California on Nov. 4 that will change the way farm animals are housed in that state.
Proposition 2 passed by a 63.2 percent to 36.8 percent vote, or by a greater percentage than between the presidential candidates in California. Further, Proposition 2 received more “yes” votes than any of the other 12 propositions."
It worries me because the general public is trying to tell us how to do our job when they don't fully understand what animal husbandry is about. We truly do care about our animals.
The punishment for not following the guidelines: Provides misdemeanor penalties, including a fine not to exceed $1,000 and/or imprisonment in jail for up to 180 days. So who's going to take care of the farmer now that he's in jail?
And here is the Summary of Legislative Analyst’s Estimate of Net State and Local Government Fiscal Impact:
--Potential unknown decrease in state and local tax revenues from farm businesses, possibly in the range of several million dollars annually.
--Potential minor local and state enforcement and prosecution costs, partly offset by increased fine revenue.
Several million dollars is an amount that can't be ignored for long by the state that is the Number 1 ag state in the nation. If it works its way east, we're in trouble.
So, how do Californian voters expect chickens to be housed? ARe they all to be free range chickens at free range prices and with free range loss of stock to predators?
What does no cages mean?
I'm not surprised such a law passed in CA, the land of fruits and nuts. I think Iowa would be a harder sell.
^ I'm guessing free range is what they expect. I honestly have no idea. No cages means production will go down drastically because there's not room enough to house all the chickens. This is my understanding, anyway.
A Tribute to the Stockman by H.W. Munford
Professor of Animal Husbandry
University of Illinois
Written 1917
*******************
Behold the Stockman!
Artist and Artisan.
He may be polished, or a diamond in the rough--but always a gem.
Whose devotion to his animals is second only to his love of God and family.
Whose gripping affection is tempered only by his inborn sense of the true proportion of things.
Who cheerfully braves personal discomfort to make sure his live stock suffer not.
To him there is rhythm in the clatter of the horse's hoof, music in the bleating of the sheep and in the lowing of the herd.
His approaching footsteps call forth the affectionate whinny of recognition.
His calm, well-modulated voice inspires confidence and wins affections.
His coming is greeted with demonstrations of pleasure, and his going with evident disappointment.
Who sees something more in cows than the drudgery of milking, more in swine than the grunt and squeal, more in the horse than the patient servant, and more in sheep than the golden hoof.
Herdsman, shepherd, groom--yes, and more. Broad-minded, big-hearted, whole-souled; whose life and character linger long after the cordial greeting is stilled and the hearty handshake is but a memory; whose silent influence forever lives. May his kind multiply and replenish the earth.
yep, we have "Highland Cathedral." Our version is this one, which is instrumental, but really pretty. :) We may have a version with the lyrics, but I don't know.
I think I got a little burned out on Hoodwinked when it first came out. It was really fun to watch this time, though. Maybe that's because we've been somewhat starved of "family down-time" lately.
We'll have to watch it when you and Nicole come down for a visit. ;-) Of course, by then I'll forget.
What's your schedule like in the beginning of December? I'll have to check that with Nicole, too. Andrew has finals in the middle of December, of course, as I'm sure you both do, also.
