Odds & Ends from the Weekend

A few things that I thought I'd just make note of:

Last Tuesday I bought a 'new' van. New to me, of course, but it's used, of course: a 2001 Chrysler Town & Country. The 1998 Caravan I've been driving for 3 years now (I think) was doing OK but was having a few "issues" over the past year. Little stuff that added up, like doors that automatically locked every 22 seconds; turn signals that may or may not blink; the world's worst headlights; tires that never wore evenly; four way flasher lights that blinked 42 times when the brakes were stepped on; a driver seat that never would tilt forward all the way; and the transmission slipped one day as I was backing out of the driveway. And so I started scouting for something else. I located this before going to Oregon last weekend, thinking if it was still around when I got back, it might be mine. Now, it is! It's "gunmetal blue," at least that's what I call it. As soon as I clean out the white one it will go up for sale so the actual cash outlay won't be that bad.

Last Friday at church we had a fundraiser/fellowship event. The Sunday school moms want to buy a projector to use for classes, etc., to project DVDs and photos or whatever onto a wall or screen. Thrivent already sent us $500 that was applied for, so we needed to show them that we raised a little bit of money ourselves. We watched "College Road Trip" using a borrowed projector and a new DVD and speaker system we decided to buy, and had pizza and popcorn. It was well attended, we had a good time, and got over $300 raised even tho some of us were confused if we were donating toward the pizza or toward the projector! We do seem to enjoy doing these little things together at Living Word!

Saturday morning I noticed Omar had a 'straw' sticking out of his mouth. When I reached down to pull it out, it turned out to be stuck there. He apparently met a porcupine overnight. Fortunately for him he only had two quills, a longer one and a short one, stuck in his mouth area. Porcupines are a little tougher to deal with than skunks, I guess. I was going to take a picture of him but by the time I remembered to go out with the camera, he had managed to get the longer one out. That afternoon after we finished sorting pigs, I held Omar's head still and Lou used his pliers to pull out the shorter one, which turned out to be about an inch long even though we could only see about 1/4 of it sticking out. He held still for us and seemed happy to be rid of it. It was making him lick his upper lip a lot while it was in there.

I think Lou had a record cash hog sales weekend this week. We don't know the occasion, but between Thursday night and Saturday night Lou shot and loaded out 21 pigs to people who came to buy them here. We seem to be the only game in town, everyone else quit or retired a year or two ago. And then I found money in the washing machine from his other overalls (Thursday or before?), so a grand total of 22 !

Ben needed to deliver a load of corn yesterday afternoon (after church, day off ya know) so Kelli and Nicholas came along out to have a day at the farm. Nicholas likes all the stuff he can get into here, the pots and the pantry and the plastics drawer, outside in the dirt and the dog water dish, dog food to eat and pigs to see. He got to ride in a truck, a tractor, and a couple of 4wheelers, and even got to chase pigs that were out (riding 4wheeler with Ben) for a little bit. We all had crepes for dinner and I am sure he was asleep before they got very far down the road. It was a full day, and a nice afternoon. We've been having nice days -- 86 today -- but will cool to mid-70s this week. So far only one morning with frost in places, but no serious damage to sweet corn yet. Chopping season continues for Ben but he is trying to take at least 1/2 day off on Sundays.

The corn price took a dive last night and today after a brief uptick last week based on the promise the government was going to intervene in the banking crisis. They didn't pass the bill today so corn went limit down in all contracts by the end of the trading day. Obviously the economy is too intertwined with ag markets -- a sinking ship takes down all the other boats with it. Could be difficult for some of those farmers who were paying $8000 per acre for corn ground last week that was $2500 just 2 years ago to make it pencil out if corn goes back to $4/bushel (it was at $7). One thing that always stuck with me from a farm speaker we heard once was "don't make 30 year decisions on 2 year markets." So we'll see if there are some farm units for sale in a few years around here again, at some more reasonable prices.

Lou caught an ugly cold ... he wonders if it was at the Immanuel anniversary deal, but that was an entire week ago. 'Tis the season, wherever he got it. Hoping it is fast and furious. He has a plane to catch on Sunday, and granddaughters to visit.