November 7, 2012

A friend wrote to me this morning, expressing concern over the re-election of The President.  I wrote back saying:

"I am very distressed that Obama appears to have won reelection. I fear for our country.  I fear for the world.  But, I know that in God's sight, these things must come to pass.  In Matthew 24:8, Jesus says "All these things are the beginning of sorrows.  I am firmly convinced that we are living in the end times, and that the things that preclude the end of the world as we know it are upon us.  We have done what we can to stave off the day, but it is now at hand. Turn your heart to God through Jesus Christ, and though the body may perish, our soul will survive."

I thought that I would share that with my readers.  There is not much else I can say about yesterday's elections. The people have spoken. Whether they are guided by the hand of God, or the hand of the devil, I do not know. 

All I do know, is that I have done my political duty. I supported the candidates that I thought would best serve us. In the end, it will matter little. My human will continue through good, or evil , and when the time will come, it will cease to breath in. Then my soul will  be free from this world, and as a little child, I will sleep safe in the arms of Jesus.

Agape
Lee

Update From The Farm

So I get this message from my beaucoc son saying something like why haven’t you written on your blog? I miss reading it.  So, I figured I’d better get off my duff, and write. Or, I suppose, more accurately, I’d better get ON my duff, in front of the computer, and write.  So here’s the latest from Fringe Benefit Farm.

The Sugarbeet harvest is over here in the Lower Yellowstone Valley. As you know, I drive a truck in the harvest, hauling beets from the field to a receiving station, where they are piled and then transferred to Billings to be processed into sugar. 

It’s really a good job. Sort of a vacation for me, whose life now that I’m retired is pretty much a vacation anyway.  For a few weeks, I get to go to work driving a semi again. This year I got upgraded fro the International that I had been driving for several years to a Kenworth.  Say... Bigtime! 

The harvest went well. We had a little rain, and couldn’t get into the field for a couple of days, and then had to be towed through the field for several days in order to load the beets.  Ytrying, and sometimes frustrating, but, all in a day’s work.

The beets are planted in rows, and irrigated by enormous sprinklers.  When they are ready to harvest, a worker drives a tractor pulling a defoliator, which cuts the green leafy tops off, and flails the greens into virtually nothing.  Then a worker, in this case, my boss, Steve Lachman, who owns the farm, drives a tractor pulling a beet digger.  The digger cuts them out of the ground, cleans most of the dirt off, and deposits the beets into a semi trailer pulled by a big truck tractor.  The beets are transferred to the piler, where they are weighed, graded, and tested for sugar content.  They are then transferred to Billings to the Western Sugar Co-op refinery to be turned into the delicious stuff that makes your tea sweeter, and your crumpets tasty.

It is October 29th, as I write this. The elections are getting close, and I have been busy campaigning for the Libertarian Party candidates. 

I am terribly worried about the direction the United States is taking under the leadership of the Republican and Democratic parties.  I am among a large number of people who think that the government is not following constitutional guidelines, and as the horsey set says, is about to come a cropper. 

I have been a follower of Ron Paul for a number of years, and not that he is no longer in the running, have switched my allegiance to Gary Johnson, the candidate of the Libertarian Party.

I have been a member of the Libertarian Party for a number of years, and believe that they have the right approach to the governance of our nation.  That approach is pretty much summed up as “Leave us alone, we can do it better by ourselves without outside, and especially government interference, thank you very much.”

I could go on for hours, but I won’t. (I can see the readers all saying, “Whew! he’s finally off of that political stuff”.)

The Lord has been blessing me recently as a preacher.  I have been delivering some (I think,) particularly good messages lately.  I record all my sermons, and in listening to the playback, sometimes say, “Wow! That guy really is a preacher!”

 If you want a CD containing some messages, I have them available for free.  I would ask that you kick in a couple of bucks for postage, and supplies, though. If you can’t afford it, I’ll send them out anyway, but it does rather put a strain on my income, which is largely Social Security.  (What!?!, a Libertarian on Social Security?!?) Yep.  I paid. I draw, but I don’t abuse. 

The blank CDs cost something, The labels, and the ink to print them cost something.  I DO NOT want to maker a profit, as mine is pretty much a self supported missionary effort. Kinda ,my way of paying back some of the goodness that has been given me by God’s wonderful grace, and the atoning blood of Jesus.

I thought about transcribing one of my sermons here, but I’m not all that good a typist, and it takes hours to do a sound to writing transcription.  But if you are deaf, I will.  Hey! Gotta get the message out about Jesus any way I can.

I am still doing freelance radio commercials from mky little studio here at home. - See my website -  leethevoice.com

I am currently doing commercials for The Marks Group.  It is a combine of eight or ten radio stations, and four or five TV stations.  I mostly do spots for our local outlets here in Montana and North Dakota, but have done several for the entire chain. 

I have done a couple of ads running nationwide for Betty Kilbride who is an author and friend.  I also recorded one of her books for an  audio book, but don’t know when it will be released.  I’m pretty proud of the fact that I did it though. Not many people get to do that. 

One of my ambitions is to do voice-overs and narrations for TV and films.  I’d like to do stuff like narrating National Geographic videos and the like.  I have a friend in California who does, or did, the voice over for Disney documentaries.  That looks like a pretty good gig.  I’d like to do cartoon voices too.  May not happen, but I can dream. 

We had a little bit of snow a couple of nights ago, but not enough to measure.  It’s Deer season in Montana, and My friend Ron and I plan to go out and pursue the wiley stag. If things go as they uysually do, we’ll have a cold snap and a heavy snow driven into a blizzard on the day we plan to go out.  It won’t stop us though.  That way the hunting stories are better.

I’d like to take my Kids and grandkids out hunting with me, but they all live a thousand miles away in the east and the west.  There is not a lot better place to live than Montana, but I do miss spoiling grandkids, and being a pest to my kids. 

We are having some friend in for Thanksgiving this year.  Mom, Buck and Mary were up last year. That was one of the better things that happened in a long time.  I miss my family. We are a pretty tight knit bunch, and our numbers are starting to diminish more rapidly than I would like.  We lost Judy and Virginia this year, and the older generation is looking pretty shakey.  Hmm. Guess Im pretty close to that age myself.  Oh, well.  I’ve enjoyed the trip so far, and am looking forward to the destination.  I can see it now.  “Lee, wipe your feet. I don’t want you tracking gold dust all over the floor.”

That’s about all for now from Fringe Benefit Farm. Hope to be a little more faithful in writing in future, but no promises.

Agape
Lee

Losses

I really want to write something, but I don't know where to start. I am grieving. Last December, I lost our sister Judy. It was expected, because she had been fighting cancer for years. Surgery, radiation, chemo, and some wonderful experimental treatment in Missouri that prolonged her life for years. But it got her. 

      I remember her as a tiny little thing that Mama brought home from the hospital in 1944. She cried a lot. I was four years old, and was learning to tie my shoes. I didn't understand that babies cry a lot. 

      She grew up to be a pretty girl, and right out of high school, married the love of her life, Ron. He was a Forest Service guy, and is a brilliant man, who absolutely adored her. But she's gone, and there is a hole in the heart of Ron, her kids, our mom, my brother, and me. How can you replace someone like that.

       Then, last month, I got a phone call late at night from Mama. I knew that it was bad, because she would never call at that time of night, unless it was. And it was. My oldest daughter, Virginia was in a coma, and not expected to make it. I readied myself for the trip to California, and in the morning, just before I left, I got the message. She was gone.

       I went out anyway. I tried my best to comfort her husband, Pat, my son-in-law. No, my son. He became part of my life, and always will be part of my life as a son. The same for Virginia's former husband, Dann. He is one of my sons too.

       But a light has gone out in my life. My little Grinnie girl is gone. How I loved her. She had a hell of a life. More like a life of hell. Her Daddy, and her mom are both addicts of one kind an another. She was reared by a succession of step dads who did not always treat her well. I don't want to go into that right now, because this is a time for tears, and not a time for getting all pissed off. Besides, those guys are dead. One may still be around, but he's dead to me.

      Virginia loved the sunshine. She loved to play out in the sun. She would spend most of her “Daddy Day” with me when I lived at the beach, picking up sand dollars, pretty shells and pretty rocks. Virginia loved pretty things. 

      And she loved to dance. If we had been rich, and could have afforded dancing lessons, she might have been a ballerina. But she wasn't. She was a beautiful, outgoing woman with an infectious smile that could charm anybody who ever saw it. 

       She loved animals. She got a wild mustang, and tamed it, and gentled it, and rode it all the time.

       There was a down side. Alcohol. I am sorry to say that she inherited the family disease. She fought it, and struggled with it, and, like her dad, it cost her everything dear to her. One of my most cherished memories is being invited to speak at a major 12 step organization convention. (She wrangled it for me. Her and that grin.) My two girls were on the platform with me. Both sober and in their right minds. What a joy that was.

       The bright spot in my story, is the booze didn't get her. An overdose of Tylenol did. Seems it accumulates in the system. Everything is fine until one day you take the recommended dose, and your grandmother calls your dad with bad news.

       I don't know where to go with this. As an inventory step, I know that I am not at fault, but I am still walking around with a hole in me... Two holes. Both of them caused by the loss of two of my most cherished people.

       My life will go on, and I will survive another 24 hours, and another 24 hours until one day I get the chance to see them again. And I will, because I know that they were both committed, born again Christians, and we will meet again in heaven. My soul rejoices in that. But right now, my human is very lonely. 

Agape

Lee

 

A Nice Morning

Good morning!
 At 7:00am, I could see well enough to not have to feed the chickens in total darkness. The sky is lightening nicely with just the remainder of a few clouds moving off to the east.   It is still pretty cool, at 17f above, but at least it's above. I think it is going to be a very nice day.

It has been a very dry winter here at Fringe Benefit Farm.  We have received less than 6" of snow, and a total of around 2" of rain. That is not going to be good for the grass.  I hope to be able to buy a couple of wiener calves this spring. We plan to sell one in the fall, and eat the other. Hoping for enough soil moisture to be able to provide enough grass to feed them without supplementing.  So, like every other cattleman, - Hey, a herd is a herd, no matter the size-  I'm hoping for enough rainfall, or snowfall to provide the soil moisture to grow the grass that will grow my stock.

One of the neighbors has put cattle in on the the harvested corn field across the ditch. He asked if he could put up a fence along my side of the ditch. I was delighted. I really didn't have enough money to build the fence to keep my cattle in, so it was a good thing for all concerned.  He put up the posts, and strung one wire, which he electrified. All I have to do is buy enough wire to string four more, and  Tadaa!  a fence. Ain't God good?Barbed wire is expensive, but fence posts are really expensive, and while calves are not too bad, they still cost. Hopefully, God will provide so that I can provide.

That's what farmers do. We provide. We provide for our families, and provide food for a hungry world.  In the end, there's not a lot of monetary profit in it, but the satisfaction index is very high. We know when that truck leaves with the last load of cattle, or sugar beets, or grain, or vegetable produce, we have done our part. Hopefully there will be enough to satisfy the banker too. But we all survive.

Not much else, Still busy making commercials here and there, and preaching the word of God. All is well on Fringe Benefit Farm.

Agape
Lee