#364 FRIENDS AND FANCIES
by Bob M
The weather has been perfect temperature-wise this past week. It has been calm, just enough wind to keep the windmills turning and keeping the tanks full of water. We haven’t had frost so far. A third of an inch in the rain gauge the other night settled the dust making preconditioning calves more pleasant for the Spearhead crew these past few days.
Grasshoppers are abundant, the worst I have seen since the 1930s but not nearly that bad. The severe drought was present at that time. Grasshoppers resorted to eating wood in the absence of much else. Fence posts were black with them. I remember, while haying an old field of Russian thistles, we’d shove our pitchfork handles into the stack to preserve their identity. Should’ve left one out and kept if for a souvenir.
I went to another estate auction the other day. Now, I feel I can go to my “warehouse” for replacements if I lose a tool, break a dish, in the awkwardness of my old age, or need a quick gift for someone. All of this is with the realization that my indulgence is at the expense of my poor heirs who eventually will have some leftovers to haul to a goodwill center or to the junkpile but have I ever been having fun!
Now to change the subject; this is the final “chapter” in my seventh year of writing for the Bennett County Booster which started in September of 2003. A year or so later the Sheridan County Star Journal, the Valentine Midland News, the Grant County News and the Arthur Enterprise have also made room for my column. Each year the Booster has compiled my writings and has made 500 copies. As in the past, the last 52 weeks, from Sept. 30, 2009 to Sept. 29, 2010, will be captured in a book, this one entitled FRIENDS AND FANCIES 7.
Besides having readers of the five newspapers mentioned I also send Friends and Fancies to about 250 in my address book. With that kind of exposure I would like to present a possibility which just occurred to me, with the hope that it can be further exploited by some of you:
This is a Democratic Republic form of government which we hope will last into eternity but there are certainly no guarantees. In many cases an aggressive minority is coming with ideas that are against the principles of the all- too- complacent and silent majority. There are items such as abolishing prayer in schools, the removal of legendary Christian plaques from public places, taking “In God We Trust” off our currency, the removal of crosses from our national cemeteries and other atheistic ideas which are of grave concern for most Americans but are we going about counteracting those proposals in the right way?
We have received many calIs and letters from ALCJ and other Christian organizations for financial and moral support to defeat those changes by trying to influence politicians who are in favor by changing their minds. Here is, in my opinion, a better way. I believe the general public should decide on monumental issues like these which will actually drain the life- blood from our nation if they should ever be enacted, not the rabble-rousers who seem to think they are in charge. NBC recently conducted a poll to find 86 percent of Americans believe in God.
I don’t have an” in” with any political leaders and no idea how to promote my idea but, hopefully, some of you readers might have. I am very optimistic that these atheistic drummed-up ideas would be overwhelmingly defeated if they could be brought to a vote by the general public. Is there any way this could happen? I hope that you will have some ideas. I plan to call my state senator and those who represent us in Washington to try to find how these radicals, a minority with less than 14 percent of our population, can come up with threatening plans to destroy the foundation upon which the laws and precepts of our United States of America was created. I don’t believe their thinking is in accord with very many in this “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.” I only hope we can find a way to squelch their dangerous philosophy before it goes further!
by Bob M
The weather has been perfect temperature-wise this past week. It has been calm, just enough wind to keep the windmills turning and keeping the tanks full of water. We haven’t had frost so far. A third of an inch in the rain gauge the other night settled the dust making preconditioning calves more pleasant for the Spearhead crew these past few days.
Grasshoppers are abundant, the worst I have seen since the 1930s but not nearly that bad. The severe drought was present at that time. Grasshoppers resorted to eating wood in the absence of much else. Fence posts were black with them. I remember, while haying an old field of Russian thistles, we’d shove our pitchfork handles into the stack to preserve their identity. Should’ve left one out and kept if for a souvenir.
I went to another estate auction the other day. Now, I feel I can go to my “warehouse” for replacements if I lose a tool, break a dish, in the awkwardness of my old age, or need a quick gift for someone. All of this is with the realization that my indulgence is at the expense of my poor heirs who eventually will have some leftovers to haul to a goodwill center or to the junkpile but have I ever been having fun!
Now to change the subject; this is the final “chapter” in my seventh year of writing for the Bennett County Booster which started in September of 2003. A year or so later the Sheridan County Star Journal, the Valentine Midland News, the Grant County News and the Arthur Enterprise have also made room for my column. Each year the Booster has compiled my writings and has made 500 copies. As in the past, the last 52 weeks, from Sept. 30, 2009 to Sept. 29, 2010, will be captured in a book, this one entitled FRIENDS AND FANCIES 7.
Besides having readers of the five newspapers mentioned I also send Friends and Fancies to about 250 in my address book. With that kind of exposure I would like to present a possibility which just occurred to me, with the hope that it can be further exploited by some of you:
This is a Democratic Republic form of government which we hope will last into eternity but there are certainly no guarantees. In many cases an aggressive minority is coming with ideas that are against the principles of the all- too- complacent and silent majority. There are items such as abolishing prayer in schools, the removal of legendary Christian plaques from public places, taking “In God We Trust” off our currency, the removal of crosses from our national cemeteries and other atheistic ideas which are of grave concern for most Americans but are we going about counteracting those proposals in the right way?
We have received many calIs and letters from ALCJ and other Christian organizations for financial and moral support to defeat those changes by trying to influence politicians who are in favor by changing their minds. Here is, in my opinion, a better way. I believe the general public should decide on monumental issues like these which will actually drain the life- blood from our nation if they should ever be enacted, not the rabble-rousers who seem to think they are in charge. NBC recently conducted a poll to find 86 percent of Americans believe in God.
I don’t have an” in” with any political leaders and no idea how to promote my idea but, hopefully, some of you readers might have. I am very optimistic that these atheistic drummed-up ideas would be overwhelmingly defeated if they could be brought to a vote by the general public. Is there any way this could happen? I hope that you will have some ideas. I plan to call my state senator and those who represent us in Washington to try to find how these radicals, a minority with less than 14 percent of our population, can come up with threatening plans to destroy the foundation upon which the laws and precepts of our United States of America was created. I don’t believe their thinking is in accord with very many in this “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.” I only hope we can find a way to squelch their dangerous philosophy before it goes further!