ground hog

Somebody needs to shoot that stupid groundhog in Pennsylvania. He didn't see his shadow and what I heard is that's supposed to mean "SPRING." Last week we had two snow days and school was cancelled. At my house we had 4 to 5 inches of snow. Then last night we had crazy wind and rain. And today it snowed and rained and snowed and rained. The weather man says that we are supposed to get a lot more wind and snow this week. Well, I have spring fever. I want to fertilize my yard. I want to mow my yard every other day and make straight lines in the grass. I want warm sunshine. I want to hear the frogs at night. I want to get out of the house and quit eating cookies and pies and home made bread. I want to put my muck boots away and get out my flipflops. The camelia's and daphne and daffodills are blooming. It's just wrong to have to shovel the sidewalk and take warm water out to unthaw the water for the chickens. The days are getting a little longer. Baseball is starting and they have swim suits out for sale at Costco. BRING ON THE SUNSHINE.

amen

46 days......really hard workers....thousands of trees....hundreds of trucks...hours and hours spent in the car...lots of Triscuts and Tillamook squares.....dozens of donuts and muffins and coffee....6 turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner in the barn.....snow storms....freezing weather......cars in ditches......helicopter crashes (not ours)...trucks wrecks (not our truck but our trees)....tree stealing theifs caught..... muddy roads....mean Mexico tree buyer....nice customers.....elevators, bailers and chainsaws put away...... slings hung back in the barn......pallets stacked......tractors pressure washed......prayers answered.....greatful heart......AMEN.........aaawwwwwwhhhhh

32 years ago

November 25, 1978.

I loved you then. I love you still. Always have, always will.

My way or the highway

I was watching the news the other day before I headed out the door for another crazy busy day of tree harvest. There was a short video from You Tube of a house cat standing up to a crocodile. The cat slowly crouched down and moved forward towards the croc. The crocodile then turned and retreated back to the safety of the water.
That is how I feel the last two weeks or so. In my case, the crocodile is a Mexican tree buyer that has been yanking my chain and being dishonest. We have went round and round about how our contract of him buying and me selling trees would work. Eventually I was like the house cat. I decided to stand up to him, tell him like it is. It's my way or the highway! He tried to lie some more. He begged for trees. But with everything I had, I stood up to him and sent him down the road. Ahhhhhhhh, sometimes stubborn trumps over smart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sAF8gMN9c0

timesheets

It's almost Christmas tree harvest time again. You know what that means. . . . . .it means that the punks have been asking where the time sheets are. They like to turn in time sheets with hours on it of things that they have done around here to get paid for. They really do work sometimes. Other times they put stuff on their time sheets that crack me up and so I pay them for that, too. The other day it was payday and they wanted to put something on their time sheet. I asked them what the did and they said . . . . . "well, we put the clothes pins on the clothes line in groups of five." HUH??!?!? I went and looked. Sure enough, they did group them in fives. Since I haven't used the clothes line in at least a year I would have never noticed. But now that I see what they have done, I know that the next time I need to hang clothes out to dry I won't even have to worry about how many clothes pins there are. I can just look and see the groups of five :) See, they saved me time and money. I think I should pay them for that, don't you?

reunited

Last night I sat glued to the television. I watched as the miners in Chile were lifted from the bottom of the mine and reunited with their loved ones. Each reunion was so amazing. I was overcome with tears with each miners reunion. You could see the emotion and joy on the faces of the families waiting as they were lifted. There was also excitement among everyone involved in the rescue. I couldn't take my eyes off of them. As I layed in bed I thought about that same kind of reunion that I imagine myself having one day with Jay. I pictured it in my mind. I felt it with my heart. And I know that, just like the miners and their families, if I stay focused and I remain positive that day will come and it too will be amazing.

FOCUS

Man, talk about stress. It is almost Christmas tree harvest time again. Because of the economy and the over supply of Christmas trees, the orders are SLOWLY coming in . We usually know by now how many trees we will be harvesting. This year is different than any year before. The buyers are waiting and waiting and waiting. I am not sure what the hold up is. I know that it is a buyers market and they have the control. We have really good trees and it is hard to sell so cheap but we will have to do what ever we need to do to move a bunch of trees.

I know, too, that all of this is making me crazy. I try my best to DON'T PANIC. BE STRONG. DON'T STRESS. HAVE FAITH. BE POSITIVE. Well, let me tell you, I failed the "don't panic." My hair is all turning grey. And the "be strong", I failed that too. I cried. It didn't help. "Don't stress" made me eat all the chocolate that I could get my hands on. I do "have faith." That one I can do. I talk to God and Jay a lot. The "be positive", well, I am positive that if lots of orders don't come in real soon that I will be a grey haired, chubby, crybaby. But I will keep talking to God and to Jay and I will get focused and we will get thru this harvest.