40 years ago today

Forty years ago today I started my new family although it was just two of us it was a pretty good idea.  Back then we were in college at Southwestern University in Weatherford where I was in my senior year and Shouna was in her sophomore year.  Shouna was from El Reno, Oklahoma and majoring in piano while I was majoring in math and of course from the Osage and as I have proudly said many times before from Shidler and Grainola.

I met my sweet wife and I should say good looking as well while I was with another girl at a Thanksgiving dinner put on by my roommate and me.  Lynn Snyder, now a preacher, from down by Houston now but Amarillo back then and I dreamed up having dinner with a few friends.  Lynn and I cooked the biggest Turkey and as I recall it was around 22 lbs. with dressing and lots of fixin's.  I also recall Brenda (his future wife but not engaged yet) and Shouna's roommate brought an apple pie which Lynn made fun of which was not abnormal for Lynn.  He was always doing about anything to aggravate Brenda.  The best part about this activity was that Brenda would squeal like a pig.  Now if you do not know what that is like it means she squealed extremely loud at an extremely high pitch.  I have to admit it was a lot of fun to hear Brenda squeal.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun and it seemed like time rolled by after that until after Christmas when school would start the spring semester.

  I was not dating anyone and Lynn smarted off saying Shouna would not date me because she was too busy and too many other guys were in line.  Of course that was what we called Bull Crap (sorry about that) as I was always up for a challenge.  Not so fast though.  The first time I asked her out she told me she could not because she had to play the piano at a revival.  Now for those who have never heard of it that is when a church has a church service for several nights in a row and invite a lot of visitors to introduce them to Christ.  The point is she refused me!  Then later that evening she showed up at the Baptist Student Union with another guy who is a well known  preacher.  I have had a great time telling this story for a long time and I have never told the precise truth.  I have always left out the part she was at a revival and that the famous guy was just dropping her off as she did not have a car.  I have said she stood me up to date a preacher.

Our next attempt at a date was to go out for a coke and Shouna ordered water, yes water.  I was embarrassed but realized this was going to be a cheap date as in a-low-maintenance-woman.  I was sold especially after we stopped at the Laundromat where she crawled into a dryer on a bet.  then she took my car and locked the doors on me upon which I unlocked the trunk and crawled in as she was driving off without the lights on the car.  It was after dark.  She drove around Weatherford with me in the trunk with no headlights.

Out next date was at the T-Bone in Weatherford with Lynn and Brenda (our roommates) where Lynn got Brenda to squealing again after he put her bracelet high upon her arm so far that it got stuck.  Then Lynn being the nice guy he was tried to help her get it unstuck.  He grabbed the butter and started buttering her arm.  She squealed louder.  It did not work so he started sloshing water out of the fish tank  to help loosen the bracelet.  She squealed louder and louder.  It was a ruckus.  I about cried from laughing so hard as well as did Shouna.

Not necessarily our next date but one shortly after.  Rocky Carter, boyfriend and now husband of Karen Carter who is Shouna's sister, and Karen came from El Reno to fix a meal and hang out with Shouna and I.  The girls fixed dinner while Rocky and I hung out and in fact went and got something to eat because Rocky was sure the girls would not cook enough.  They made friend chicken.  The challenge was they burned the dinner rolls so bad they looked like horse turds and threw them in the trash.  Next they refused to tell us for about 10 years that they found mouse poop in our tea and then made tea which they served anyway.  They did not drink the tea.  Out of guilt and a need for repentance they finally came clean after several years of marriage.  Hard to believe we stayed with both of them.

Now you can probably see why the last 39.5 years seem pretty easy after such a hard beginning.  And I should mention once we started dating right after Christmas break she NEVER dated another person in spite of Lynn Snyder's predictions.  His prognostication skills stink and Brenda still squeals today when he irritates her.  You probably wonder why I say 39.5 years.  Well those first 6 months took some get'in use to and we had to have a talk'n to each other.  It was really fun looking back and the difference we made was we decided to love each other in spite of our emotions which was also love.

Well we have had fun and are proud of our three children.  Wynter the oldest is married to William who is a good looking guy from Columbia and I don't mean South Carolina but Central America.  He is one heck of a soccer player and wonderful to our daughter.  Wynter is a school teacher where she loves kids and helping those who struggle most.  She has a wonderful heart and is the best I have ever seen at helping adults with special needs.  She is extraordinarily talented and we have always said she has more smarts in her little finger than either of her parents.  Chase is next in line and has over 11 years as a fireman and paramedic and married to Kathryn who is as kind and loving  daughter in law we could have ever asked for.  Chase is like his granddad Olson in that he can think about a problem and figure it out.  He fixes everything and knows more about motorcycles and hunting than anyone I ever knew.  Preston, number three, is the most loving and outgoing person ever.  We never and I really mean never meet a stranger.  He and I went shopping Friday and we met folks everywhere because he will stop them and tell them his name and ask for theirs.  Most folks around Edmond recognize him because he always wears a hat and will engage them in conversation if they will just glance his way.  He does have down syndrome but I would say he has UP-syndrome as it is one of the greatest blessings I have ever had outside my wife and family, all 7.

Now just so you know I do have lots of other family members on my wife's side (Sorters and Davis families from El Reno to Kiowa to Heartshorn to McAlister to Calvin to Denison to who knows where)  and on my side of the Olsons and the Lanes and I have no idea how many that is.   They are strung all over America with names like Schaefer and Crow to Snyder, Del Priorie, Lane, Heath to Oltmann and on and on from sea to shinning sea.  I just wish we could  get all them together at one time and see what a site that would be.  The fun thing is they cover every walk of life and social and economic situation and I don't know of one of them I don't care about, even the democrats.  That was a joke about the democrats so don't get your panties in a wad.

So what do you learn in the Osage:

• Family is more important than my wants and wishes
• Love overcomes my disappointments and distresses
• Christ has given me freedom from my errors and mistakes
• God forgives and people need to forgive as well

they say we forget 80% of the bad in our lives and remember 80% of the good.  I believe we need to forget and forgive all the bad and keep on keeping on.

Thanks for your time and MERRY CHRISTMAS,
gary@thepioneerman. 

It is in the air!

As a little boy growing up in the Osage I was terribly excited about this time of year.  It was filled with decorating the house and Christmas shopping and Mom's chocolate fudge packed with pecans.  And I do mean pecans with a short on the e and not a long vowel.  Pe-cans with a long sound is what you do when on a long trip and the driver does not want to stop, you Pee in the Can, not good.  OK, back to the season. 

If anyone wants to make me very happy you can make me some fudge with pecans and make it milk chocolate.  As Dad would say, "that is good eaten".  In addition to fudge Mom made a fabulous fruit cake which normally I never like but there was something about hers that overcame whatever was wrong with fruitcakes.  I would have to say that Cathy and Marie Heath (Aunt Peggy Heath's daughters) sold fruitcake to raise money for the Ponca High School Band to travel to the great parades we enjoyed on New Years Day each year.  Those were pretty good fruitcakes as well.  Also I would add that Aunt Peggy made some mean Christmas candy (that means pretty dad-gum good).

Starting a few days before Thanksgiving Mom started getting all the fixin's done.  She would make home made bread which filled the house with smells of Thanksgiving plus she made a fabulous dressing with bread rather than corn bread.  Her cranberry salad is still the best today.  In fact she makes it every year for Larry Wayne when he comes home from South Carolina for the holidays.  Now that I think about it, she does not make it for me for Thanksgiving.  HUMMMMMM?  He is special and ???  I am not going to go there.  Now at our house we did not do the turkey thing too much but we had these giant hams in our house as we raised and butchered hogs.  I may be wrong but the hams in our freezer were smoked and weighed about 40 lbs., they were huge.  We use to have to take a stiffed back saw to cut them to get them small enough to cook or serve.  They were always great.  In fact this reminds me of the bacon and hog jowl which were fantastic.  Do I like to eat?

Green beans and corn, all from our garden and put up for the winter, were served in big bowls.  The beans were cooked with chunks of ham which put a little fat in them but the flavor was filling to the nose.  Wow!

Now desert was heavenly.  Somehow this story has gotten tangled in food.  Well Mom's pecan pie and pumpkin pies were special.  Although I will have to say that my sister in law's (Elaine Davis) pecan pie is nothing to sneeze at, pretty special.  Now again the pumpkin pies were for Larry and Debbie and Dad as I was not a fan and still not particularly even if you put some whip cream on top.  But pecan pie is heavenly.  Mom used karo syrup and white syrup in hers and they were a little darker on the inside and very rich in flavor.  Dad-gum-it, I can smell it now.

Every year on Thanksgiving morning around daylight Larry and I would dress in our warmest clothes and boots and put on our hunting vests loaded with shot gun shells, add a shot gun and we were off to the woods up and down Beaver Creek.  We were hunting quail which were always plenty.  I loved looking up in the trees empty of leaves and showing the giant red squirrel nests.  The squirrels on Beaver Creek were about four times bigger than these rat looking squirrels in Edmond, OK.  Plus they were pretty.  We always saw lots of red birds, meadowlarks and sparrows as well as an occasional raccoon (coon as we called them).  The trees were very cool as we had walnut trees with those giant black soft outer shells and then the extremely hard inner shells protecting the fruit.  Plus the acorn trees had huge nuts on them compared to most varieties.  Then of course there were cotton woods along the banks of the creek and elms of different varieties.  Larry and I would walk up and down the creek scouting out covys of quail for hours.  Larry was a great shot and I was mediocre as I was too impatient and would shoot too fast.  It was great fun.

Well by the time we got back dinner (lunch for most of you all) was ready and we were starved.  I don't know why but Dad hardly ever hunted with us but I know on that day he would do all the chores for us so we could hunt.  Dad was a servant just like Mom.

Well I better go but get in the spirit and smell the love in the air.

What do you learn in the Osage?

• Family is more important than our expectations 
• Smell is not just with your nose but with your heart
• tradition is peaceful, go, enjoy, rejoice

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

It is an exciting life

I cannot tell you how many times I reflect on the Osage, Shidler and Grainola every week but the impact it had on my life is everlasting.  I know life on earth is limited and of course it is effected by the past but my eternal consequences are also directly impacted by those small but impactful parts of life growing up in the Osage.  As I reflect I think of my folks forcing me to go to church almost every Sunday and especially those years where they gave out the little bars for perfect attendance.  My mom would never let us miss even if we were at Grandma Annie's in Oologah.  We would get a written document showing we attended Sunday School and YES I absolutely still call it Sunday School, not flock and not community groups.  Last week Jesse Garrison lost his wife of 47 years and I had to think of just how many folks are able to make it that far.  This morning I was doing a little Bible study on perseverance and I have to believe that it takes some serious perseverance to make it 47 years.  I know because Shouna and I have been married 39 years 10 months and 7 days which tells you we are very close to 40 years December 21st, 2014.

Now if you know Shouna you know we have been married 25 happy years (that is a joke).  You also know that she is the funny one in the house (that is a joke).  And you know that I am the talented one (that is a joke).  Now for the facts.  She is God's expression of unfailing love to me.  She has loved me through the ups and downs of my life.  She has raised three of the greatest kids I could ask for and I would have to say the best parts of them came from her.

The other day I asked her if she thought we should slow down and cut some of the things we do out of our lives and her answer was very simple, "why?" and "no".  Let me tell you what we do and I sincerely hope you do not take this as bragging or being boastful but that it is a reflection of what we value and where we want to invest our lives.  I should also state that a primary value is we believe we should serve others not by enabling them for bad behavior but supporting them in good behavior and helping people reach their highest potential in everything they do.

Aw forget it.  I cannot do it.  If you want to know come see us and let's have a cup of coffee and share our life stories.  I bet you have some to tell as well.  But I will give you some highlights of our lives together.

We were married December 21st, 1974 while in my senior year of college which I will point out that I am a strategic thinking as December 21st is the longest night of the year, go figure.

We, or I, finished college at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, OK.  Shouna finished at the Conservatory of Music in Chicago (thus proof that she has the talent).

Straight out of college I went to work for Ross Perot and EDS in Dallas and moved around a few years but the coolest thing I like to talk about is how great Ross was to work for and how proud I was of the folks who worked there.  Over 80% were retired military.

We have always served in our church and are thankful for those who in our early years taught us by example to get over our fears and share Christ with those we got to know.  We taught Sunday School for 34 years and if you are wondering why I don't talk about the business successes and failures it is because the most important and lasting thing we have ever done is sharing our faith not by our words but by our actions.  We may not teach formally today but we still teach and are involved in other types of Christ centered activities like Wings (www.wingsok.org), Joyful Sound Choir, camps for children and adults with special needs, Mendachurch (which is a group of folks who go into churches that are struggling and help them to change), National Christian Foundation (NCF), and other organizations and charities.

We have a wonderful garden where we spend a lot of time and we love our children and their families.
You see we don't measure our success by the money we make or made but the friends we have and the lives we have invested in plus those who have invested in us.

Yes, we are busy, very busy, busier than most but who cares as long as we feel good about what we do.  I hope you can and will look back (just for a second) and be happy with how you invested your life.

So what did I learn in the Osage?

• Givers Gain
• Losers lose
• If you give even when it hurts YOU will be the winner
• Forgive, forget and go on and count your blessings one by one and see what God has done

Thanks for your time and with a little luck (I don't believe in luck) we will make it to 40 wonderful years!

gary@thepioneerman.com

What wakes you up everyday?

Years ago I heard a friend say that every morning he got up he would look outside his bedroom window and say, "Good Lord it is morning".  I have to believe that is a little disrespectful but after some traumatic events in his life he decided he needed to take another road in life.  He started each day when waking up to look outside and say, "Good morning Lord".  Another way to look at this is the old saying, "is your cup half full or is it half empty?". 

I may be a little strange and I know for a fact that I had a tendency when I was a kid to get up in the morning and be pretty happy and lively.  In fact after I got married my wife suggested many times that when I wake up in the morning it would be nice that I not be so loud, energetic, and plain old excited about my day.  She claimed it was biblical and that folks generally like to wake up slowly and then speed up.  Well in my book that dog does not hunt. 

I like to get up in the morning and in fact if I get in a solid 6 hours before noon doing what is on my mind and agenda then I feel pretty good about my day.  You see at that time it is lunch (I should remind you that when I grew up in the Osage Lunch was Dinner and Dinner was Supper) and the way I look at it is now we are at half time.  If you still are not getting it, my GLASS IS HALF FULL.  I remember the first time I heard the phrase half full vs. half empty and I frankly just did not get it.  I thought that if it were just half full it was still good news in that I had something to drink. 

Well here I am at age 61 and I am just as excited about today and tomorrow as I have always been.  In fact last week I was asking Shouna, my wife, if she thought we should slow down our schedule or start saying no to some of the requests that come our way requiring some of our time.  To my surprise and a pleasant one at that I have to say she looked at me and said, "No and why would we?".  The way we look at it is if we are having a good time and doing what we think God wants us to do we might as well keep rowing our boat in the same direction.  Man do I have a great wife or what!

Now don't get me wrong, not everything is perfect at home or elsewhere but  I like my odds and I thoroughly like where we are headed.  If you think I am prideful or naive you have not read my blog a few weeks ago about some of my failures.  OK, OK! 

What wakes me up in the morning?  Since I get up before daylight it is not the sun but it is the Son and the fact that I count my blessings not my failures.  My days are the same as when I was in dear old Shidler High School.  Back then the only time I had regret was when I missed getting in on every play in a game or missed getting an A on every paper.  I was never satisfied with sitting on the bench even when I was on the bench.  I was never happy when Old lady Head gave me a B or Happy Butt (Gladys Snyder, if you don't get it send me an email and I will explain the relationship of Glad-ys and happy butt) gave a test and I made a B.  I was never happy when Coach Cotham or Gilbreath sat me out for a single play even if it were special teams.  Coach Smith drove me crazy and not just in drivers education class when he would put in better players like Julian Codding or anyone else and make me sit down.  Once we were playing Ralston and I got fouled out and I was so mad sitting on the bench. In summary what wakes me up in the morning is I have things to do and being second or sitting on the bench are not in my list of to do's.  I want to get my projects done.  Yes I put too many things on my list but I want to be busy.  Life is good and I want every minute to count.  I don't want to look back and say, "I wish or I could of ... or I would of....". 

Just a side note.  Mrs. Head and Gladys Snyder were two of the best and greatest teachers I ever had.  So when I make those comments it is with great love and respect to two of the greatest ladies ever.

Well, thanks for listening.
What do you learn in the Osage?

1. God is awake in the morning before I am
2. If I talk to Him, He will talk to me
3. The best of days were back then, yesterday, today and tomorrow
4. GOOD MORNING LORD

Thanks again,
gary@thepioneerman.com


 

The unspoken words

I have the pleasure of working with a person doing personal coaching, mentoring and financial planning and whatever you want to call it.  He made a comment to me about his dad.  He said his dad was not verbal and did not teach him a lot of the things he wants to teach his children.  I thought that was great and many times what we do for our families is a direct response to how we were raised and what we thought was right or wrong with our raising.  Well that got me to thinking.

Dad, Clifford Olson, did not depart on me a lot of wisdom or values verbally.  But what he taught me was enormous.  He got up out of bed every morning and I don't think he had an alarm.  He got up before the cows and the birds awoke.  He went outside and started doing chores then came inside to get coffee (very important) and breakfast.  Now that I think about it Mom, Opal (Lane) Olson, did the same thing.  They did not yell at me to get up but they EXPECTED me to get up.  If I laid in bed Dad would get some ice and put under my t-shirt.  Just a side point:  Mom always bought me pajamas and I hated them.  So mostly I slept in my t-shirt and underwear.  I am sure you needed to know that.  Now Dad had a few other tricks.  He would get the baby kittens and put them in my bed or baby puppies.  What I learned was Expectations are big and it is a VALUE they taught me.  I wish I could say I never yelled at my kids but I cannot but I did have expectations of their good behavior.

They taught me to value work, not to hate or resent it.  They did it by doing not by demanding.  They expected things to be done right and if not they would simply allow (make) me to do it over and over until it was done right.  I don't believe they ever tried to make me do more than I could but they knew I could do more than I thought I could.  I learned it by their examples.

It was never an option to not go to church.  I don't remember them ever saying "I am too tired to go to church".  They taught me values not by what they said but by what they did.

I don't remember Mom every saying, "cleanliness was next to godliness" but her actions were very clear.  She expected it.  She practiced it.  So did Dad.  If there were weeds growing up around the barns or the equipment he was showing us how to fix it and sometimes letting us cut the weeds without his help but he NEVER sat and watched.  He worked along side us or worked on something else.  He was an example.  He expected us to see what was needed and expected us to take action.  If there was work to do he did not think he needed to point it out but he would if we missed it.

These stories are all about values they shared with us not by words but by doing, showing and expecting.

I am actually sitting here laughing about how I learned so much with so little ever said.  I am thankful for the education.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• it is more effective to be an example than it is to speak 
• if you want good behavior you have to be an example of good behavior
• spend some time thinking about what you learned and how you learned it.  I bet the big things were by example.

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

What can I say?

If you don't know what this is about get a copy of the Shidler Review Newspaper.  IT will make sense once you read the paper.  This is my response to the doctor.  I don't know what kind of doctor he is but it is pretty easy to see where he is coming from.  You be the judge:

Response from the Pioneerman:

Facts do lie by thepioneerman.blogspot.com:

            I have lived in the Netherlands and have had family in Norway.  The Netherlands is very pretty and wonderful people.  But what makes it or Norway better than the good old US or Osage county?  Someone’s survey not mine and someone’s analysis, Not Mine.  Let me give you food for thought Doc.  Norway is colder than heck and in most folk’s survey would not make the top 10 for that reason alone.   I should also point out that without the dumb Americans ingenuity and money Norway would not have all the oil money which props up its financial balance sheet (thank the US for that, oh but they are not so smart).  The Netherlands is wonderful and the one of the most drug infested places in the world and without the “Good Old US”  they would speaking German today.  They have great sports and wonderful people, but lifestyle, NOT.  But if you want the government giving you cradle to grave benefits and lots of alcoholism because there is not enough to do and lots of drug attics, supported by the government, then maybe it is a great place.  If you want really high taxes and little incentive to get ahead then go for it, not me.  I bet the survey showing it to be a great place to live did not give much emphasis on what is going on with the youth and culture which is ultra-liberal and in my survey, deteriorating.  Now I will not keep going on with this but I never promised perfection here or there or in my writing.  In fact I am not a liberal or a doctor that is liberal but I do not want the dramatic government control in Norway, Netherlands  or Sweden.  Now on Australia I will not argue that it is pretty good in a lot of ways and more like the good old US.  I would say that if I were doing the survey and not a liberal biased media Australia would be very high on my list.

Now let’s touch on the education system.  If everyone believes the education system is better in Canada, Japan and Israel based on the survey the doctor likes then why are more folks moving to the piss-poor educational system and American system than move to Canada, Japan and Israel combined?  Also why is it more new “stuff” invention, new ideas, new perspectives etc. come from the sorry old US than these three countries combined?  Why are our schools full of students from these three countries students and theirs are not full of ours?  Are there some things better there than here?  Sure.  Which one do you chose?  Why?  It is obvious, we have more to offer.  Another point which I do wish would change in our education system and that is an extreme liberal bias.  If you don’t believe me let’s do a survey of what percentage of educators are republicans vs. democrats.  Sure there are other tests but let’s just make it easy.  Ask a Japanese person about the suicide rates and the lifestyle of the students in that country and then decide if their system is better.  Also how many students in Japan public schools are non-Japanese compared to the US?  Nothing compared the diversity of the American schools.  I do know about the education system in Japan because I have experienced it.  I would not want it for my children even if they are better in math.  I prefer a student with character, independent thinking, creative, and a desire to get ahead in this world and not dead because of suicide.  Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great Japanese folks but again where would they be if not for the sorry old US and its sorry military who kicked their butts and were not barbaric in the treatment of captives.  If only Uncle Snyd was alive today I believe he would have a strong opinion about how Japanese treated him as a prisoner of war.

Life expectancy:  I have no idea but if I were a doctor I would examine the facts which I certainly do not know.  But I bet there might be some DNA involved and there might be some FACTS which don’t make it a good comparison.  But the fact is I don’t have the time or inclination to figure this one out but if I were a doctor I would search out the facts and opinions as I do not trust a survey until I see the survey and how and when the questions were presented.  If you don’t believe surveys are biased wait until we get closer to the elections and you will see surveys showing opposite results on the same subject.  I personally struggle with watching FOX and CNN as they are both full of liars.  What happened to true reporting rather than sensational reporting?

Incarceration rates:  There are so many holes in this one it is hard to know where to start.  First off, It is an American way that says “if you do the crime, you do the time”.  I had a person commit a crime against me that was extreme and he went to jail for 6 months.  It would be my survey that says stealing millions of dollars is a profitable business if you only go to jail for 6 months.  Now if you are a pro-drug person and want legalization of drugs then you probably want a lot of folks to be out on the streets stealing and robbing to pay for their drug habits.  Or you can do like the Netherlands (top place to live) and provide needles and drugs to folks at tax payers expense which I personally call enabling.  Now that brings up another subject if we allow folks who steal and do drugs to stay on the streets and not be punished by society then we are enabling folks with impunity.  I would suggest that a parent with liberal views might be more willing to enable their child to make bad choices but I am not that person and don’t intend to enable my children (to late, they are already grown and responsible productive people).  That was probably offensive but I am speaking about my survey not one liked by the Doc.  In summary the incarceration rate does not bother me but I do think we have lots of problems in the system and could reduce the incarceration rate.  First off a lady who sells $26 dollars of marijuana does not need to serve a year in prison but she does need to pay for her crime and there are lots of alternatives if the liberals including the ACLU would get off our backs.  Simple answer without expounding:  Make her do community service with crediting her based on minimum wage.  Now I am not saying she just pays off the $26 but I am saying she pays for all the expense of dealing with her like say $1,000.    Now you may not like it but I grew up with a little fear of punishment and it kept me out of trouble.  I actually like this subject but just have to stop. 

Lastly, I actually I bet I might like this doctor because it does not bother me he has a different opinion and I am a curious person who wants to hear the other side.  But, this is why people from all over the world including those countries which by survey are better places to live with better education and better lifestyles are trying their hardest to get into America. I wonder how many folks from those countries try to move here each year vs. those here wanting to move to those countries.  I suggest the doctor might be missing the point.

Last thought on Jingoism:  I personally have played Jinga many times and it is fun.   Now you know that was a joke but I am poking at the doctor as he thinks it makes him smart to use words that others have never heard.  I looked it up and basically it says: whoever uses this word probably thinks they are smarter than everyone else.  OK, Just kidding.   

Have a great day. 

What do you learn in the Osage?

·       In a fight I want to have a Marine on my side, not an intellectual or even a doctor.

·       If I get shot by a fanatic or liberal or criminal not incarcerated I do want to have a conservative doctor (first choice) or a liberal doctor (who does not know I am a conservative).

·       Freedom of speech is protected by our principles and our actions!  Let’s don’t lose them.

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com

http://www.thereviewok.com/
go sign up for the review and see what this is about.

What do you learn at 13,190 feet

Let me tell you, I learned a lot at 13,190 feet at Wheeler Peak.  It is the tallest peak in New Mexico.  After the most recent knee surgery this year plus two broken ribs and broken toes and not counting the motor cycle wreck a few years ago and two surgeries to repair what did not heal correctly after 3 months on crutches adding another 6 months on crutches I feel pretty dog-gone good to be 61 years old and made it to the top and down without more injuries.

As I climbed I had to stop often to catch my breath and the air got thinner and thinner.  What I thought was going to be hot temperatures turned out to be cold temperatures around 39 degrees and the winds were between 70 and 100 MPH at the summit which is the top.  Just to give you a little more perspective at what is called the saddle back which is about 200 yards from the summit but only about 30 or 40 feet lower than the summit there is a peak kind of like the top of a ladder.  As I was standing on that peak it was about 3000 feet down on my left side and about 3000 feet down on my right side before something would stop your fall.  The bad news is rocks were what would stop your fall or my fall in this case.    Add on top of that the winds and the fact that heights scare the crap out of me I chose to ask God, "what do you want me to learn from this".

Now as a side note you are probably asking yourself why I would do this if heights scared me.  Well this is not my first rodeo as I have done this before but in Colorado.  Also I am OK with it as long as I don't look down while standing up, it makes me dizzy.  Second when I was about 50 years old I put it in my bucket list that I always wanted to do some back packing.  My dear son, Chase, challenged me to go for it.  I am one of those folks who does not like taking chances.  I have no desire to jump out of a perfectly good airplane which my son has done and my wife has wished to do.  Motorcycles (also in my bucket list which I did do) seemed like a good idea but after one wreck and a few surgeries I sold my Road King Classic Harley Davidson.  I had put on 16 miles before I sold it.  Yes, kind of like Grainola, population 32 divided by 2.

Back to what I learned on that mountain.  I really did ask God what I was to learn from the adventure.  I learned:

1.  I can do more than I think I can, 

2. With God I am in His hands and He can overcome my fears.,

3. He will take care of me even if I do not understand the fear and pain

Well I guess I have already shared what I learned but it was not in the Osage.

So what do you learn in the Osage:

• I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me
• Give it all you have and you will not be disappointed in yourself
• Half hearted effort is no effort at all

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Life is a box of Chocolates

Forest Gump made that line famous and for a guy who seemed very simple he had a lot of wisdom.  I suggest you watch the show again.  Today I saw a Facebook page (the closest thing we had to Facebook was those pictures we passed around each year and traded with our friends) that said, "people just join the military because there too dumb to go to college...".  I had a cow over this one!  First off she spelled "they're" as "there" and second only because folks who had guts and gumption and cared about their freedom sacrificed for this country.  I wish I had her picture as I would post it for something to throw darts at.  Sure we Americans and our leaders make mistakes but overall it is infinitely better hear than anywhere else.  But this happenstance made me think about all the old folks that came out of Grainola and Shidler and literally every town in the Osage and beyond to fight for America.  Where were the intellectual cowards when it got down to protecting America?

Think about it for a minute.  How many people not only gave up their life and if they lived their quality of life because they were injured.  My first cousin, Stanley Patterson, a US Marine went to Vietnam twice and has paid for it his entire life.  Wayne Patterson, his older brother, was in the Bay of Pigs and their dad, Uncle Harley, was in WWII.  Arnold Jones of Grainola was a highly decorated soldier from Grainola, Andrew Glazebrook fought in WWI and WWII, Uncle Snyd (Vernon Snyder) was a prisoner of war with the Japanese and the list goes on and on.  Mark Whitt served for about 30+ years all for God and country.  Mark's dad (also Mark) was a veteran as well.  Then we have this sniveling punk kid spouting off remarks about military people.

OK, back to a box of chocolates.  In life we are blessed because you just don't know what is in that box of chocolates and sometimes you get one you just have to spit out.  Isn't life better when we can look at the contrast of the good and bad?  I was asked today if I had ever failed in a really big bad way.  Heck yes!  I would dare say there is not a single person out there who has not doubted their own abilities, talents, smarts (country for intelligence) and even looks.  In fact I know of at least two young teenage girls over the years who could have won most beauty contests and thought they were ugly and overweight.  I for one did very well in school both college and high school and have for years wanted to be smart like almost everyone around me.  We are harder on ourselves than anyone else and sometimes we take little bitty things that someone said and we make it into something horrible about ourselves.  Sure there are those who seem to always be confident but I bet you a dollar to a donut they doubt themselves many times.  We are all human beings and we have all messed up.  Just keep looking for that piece of chocolate with the caramel and a nut in it.  Time always passes and hurts, doubts and wounds heal.  I know folks think that I have lived a great life and everything turns into money.  Bull S___!  I just never have quit, thrown in the towel, screamed calf rope (anyone remember that one) or stopped trying.

Think of it this way I have a box of chocolates and in each one is a triumph or a tragedy and some are bigger and some are smaller than others.  So here is my pieces of chocolate:

1. got a great job right out of college working for Ross Perot
2. Moved to Dallas and then to Chicago
3. Got into Amway (hard work and lots of rejection, painful experience but made a lot of money)
4. Changed jobs and hated it
5. Had our first child (one of the very best things to every happen)
6. Moved to Oklahoma and a new job
7. While doing that started a chain of day care centers (big bad failure, bad idea)
8. Bought more day care centers (big bad idea)
9. Bought more real estate to average out of a bad deal (worked pretty good)
10. Bought a bank (president committed fraud, big bad idea)
11. Very successful career in data processing for banks while living in Oklahoma with short moves to Colorado and Texas then traveled all over the US.
12. Bought Auntie Anne's Pretzels stores (8 - all over Oklahoma)  - very bad idea
13. Started an armored car company - one of the worst ideas
14. built a business of owning and operating ATMs/money machines all over the US - very good idea for about five years then became a bad idea 
15. Bought more real estate, rental houses, offices, land, farms
16. Started development company for housing projects - very bad idea
17. Started home construction business - worst idea yet
18. Start commercial office building company - very good idea
19. Bought more land and a farm
20. Built the first Pumpkin Patch in Edmond - very good idea
21. Quit data processing company and started consulting company - not real bad but not good
22. Went back to finance industry = very good idea
23. Started software companies to build remote deposit applications for banks - so so
24. Built software for collection of bad checks - so so
25. Started selling credit card processing services to banks = Pretty good
26. 2007 and 2008 what can I say  -  bad bad bad but buy buy buy
1. if you don't get it what I am saying is it was a bad deal if you owned stuff but a great time to buy, which I did
27. Became a certified trust officer managing trusts - not great but not bad either
28. started a financial planning business - pretty smart
29. taught Sunday school to young marrieds and youth for 37 years - good idea
30. started a non-profit for adults with special needs - Wings - very good
31. Raised three children - very proud of them and the decisions they have made
32. Stayed married for 40 years as of December 21st, 2014 - pretty good idea

I left out so much but you get the idea.  You win and you lose but Never ever cheat, steal or lie.  Help others reach their goals.  Give a smile and encouragement to everyone.  Trust God when it gets dark even if you or me have not followed the straight and narrow.  Get up one more time than you get down.  Thank God for the blessings of opportunities that have gone bad.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

1. Persevere
2. Never, Never give up
3. Love life and forgive others will give you freedom from bondage of bad thinking

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

My old red bicycle

Every body had a bicycle but some had really nice ones.  At least that was my take on it.  I remember Larry, my brother, had a white Schwinn and I had a red one but not sure if it was a Schwinn.  Billy Snyder had one of those fancy racing bicycles with thin wheels verses my fat wheels.  It was always a challenge when you lived on a farm as there were stickers which would put holes in your tires so it seemed we were always fixing flat tires.

I remember that dad tried and tried to help me ride a bike but I was just was too clumsy.  He would hold the bike while I tried to get on but as soon as he would push me to get started then let go I would fall over.  Finally one day he put up two steel posts (actually they were wood posts as steel posts/T posts were not around yet) just far enough apart so that my rear tire would fit in between.  This made it stable enough that I could climb on the bike and then take off.  Probably one of the reasons I had so much trouble learning to ride a bike is that I was big for my age.  To put it in a nice way, I was huge for my age.  In the second grade I was over five foot tall and clumsy as can possibly be.  I tried over and over to ride that bike and mostly struggling to get on it and get started before falling on the gravel.  I tried to do it on grass but it was so hard to move on the grass that it was next to impossible but certainly easier on the knees and elbows.  Using my dad's new invention I could get started and of course the faster I went the easier it was but ultimately I had to stop and that was disaster for a long time.  I really did not care about the loss of blood because it was too important to conquer the bike.  Ultimately I won but there was another problem.  You probably are asking yourself why I did not use trainer wheels.  Two reasons:  The first is they bent when I fell over and I tore them up and second it was too expensive to keep buying more training wheels.

You see we lived on the dead end of a road one mile north and three west of Grainola on Beaver Creek.  What that meant was to get anywhere I had to go up three hills and down three hills all covered in loose gravel to get where there was a choice on direction/an intersection of roads.  Of course these were public roads and cars, trucks and animals all used them.  If you are not from cattle country you don't know that there always seemed to be a calf, steer or cow out on the road or Vea Harris had lots of white geese that possessed the road.  The good thing is usually you could see the dust in the air of a vehicle coming and you knew to get out of the way.  Keep in mind the gravel roads were really one lane and you had to get over to the edge to let someone get by.  I never gave it any thought but it was dangerous but I never knew of anyone getting hit by a car or truck.  There were plenty of bike wrecks as once Larry bit the dust going down hill and had terrible cuts and bruises and it took weeks for him to heel.

But overall bicycles were freedom for us.  Eddy Harris and I were always getting together for some sort of mischief.  Of course you know if you have been reading my blogs for long that one of our favorite sports was gathering the eggs and throwing them.  We got in a lot of trouble for that.  One thing about Eddy and I is we were good at  thinking up stuff to do.  You will probably think we are crazy but Eddy and I figured out how to get rid of the giant piles of red ants.  If you have never seen them you have no idea but they were big and there were thousands of ants.  Well Eddy and I figured that if we got some gasoline (we tried diesel but it was not as much fun)  and pour it down the hole we could lite it like a volcano.  Don't try this as you will need to get licensed and certified and inspected by the United States government and pay some fees then fight for years to get permission and in the end you will lose your right to freedom of speech and it will probably violate someones personal rights.  Was that political?

Eddy and I were never the sharpest rocks in the pile and besides a blind squirrel gets lucky every now and then and finds a nut but we were creative.  I don't know if anyone taught us how but we could fix flats on those bicycles better than about anyone and we soon learned to fix regular tires as well from all the pickups, tractors, trucks and bicycles.  It was especially easy when the Harris's got a tire repair machine like they had at the Duval Gas Station in Shidler.

Anyway, this was about the time we were 9 years old which will probably really shock you but we would try anything for fun. Our friendship never ended and now that Eddy has passed I still like to think about all of our good times like when we went prairie chicken hunting in the back of a flat bed pickup chasing the birds and shooting while driving.  We never did kill any that way but it was a heck of a ride.  Just for you we were probably half way grown by then, close to 13 or 14 years old.

Back to bicycles:  My love for bikes and riding those gravel roads lasted even after I got my first car.  Yes, my first vehicle was a car and not a pickup (truck for you city folks and again, yes, I am one now).

So what do you learn in the Osage?

1. Growing up is not hard to do but it can be hard on the folks
2. Children today need to live in the country and grow up with an opportunity to have clean fun
3. You can take a kid out of the country but you cannot take the country out of the kid

Thanks for listening,
gary@thepioneerman.com
www.thepioneerman.blogspot.com 

Mom

Well July 19th, 2014 was my mom's 86th birthday.  She grew up in Grainola or at least the school district of Grainola.  If you turn West at the first road on the North side of Grainola and go one mile (memory is failing me) then take a right (north) on the gravel road and go to the top of the hill where Bob Jackson now lives you will find where Mom grew up as Opal Wanetta Lane.

Don Casselman told me she was the prettiest girl out of Grainola but to me she was Mom.  This weekend I just tried to get her to tell stories about growing up there.  Now I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but here is what she said.  She said, "the women did all the work back in those days and the men talked and sat around but that ended with Grandma Annie".  Based on what I saw that is the truth.  Mom and Dad were the hardest working folks I have ever known with one exception, Grandma Annie!  It did not matter if there was anything to do they were doing something that was productive.  I think Mom could create work.  In fact I think one of the reasons Dad worked so hard is Mom thought up more to do than Dad cold ever possibly get done.  If she was not cooking, ironing (mom ironed everything:  sheets, t-shirts, jeans, maybe even socks) with lots of Niagra Spray Starch, cleaning (mom loved a clean and orderly house) she was working on us to get our 4-H projects or school projects or teaching Debbie, Sally Joe Shumate, Janie Shumate, Susie Snyder how to sew, or she was canning for the winter.  If all of that was done we were killing chickens and putting up chicken to fry during the winter.  And if that were not enough she had us weeding the garden which was anywhere from 1/2 to over 2 acres each year.  The garden actually got smaller over the years but most of the time it was close to 2 acres.

Mom could multi-task like no other.  I think she could iron clothes, watch "the Edge of Night", bake cookies or pies and keep me in line all at the same time while keeping a conversation with anyone going at the same time.  Mom will not like this part but she had some funny lines that I always liked:

• I have forty eleven things to do.
• If she did not think it was worth her time she would say, "I don't have time for that shit"
• If you are going to do it you might as well do it right.
• Would you rather do ??????????? or go to college

Mom was a motivator and a great example.  She cared how she looked and she darn sure cared how we looked.  I think if I had ever come home with a tattoo or ear ring she would have ripped my head off.  In fact what she probably would have said is, "if you have money for that then you don't need to live hear" .  I preferred her cooking over those type of luxuries.  

Mom was never an enabler of bad behavior.  Punishment was swift and certain.  If I would smart mouth her or dad it was guaranteed you got a trip immediately to the back porch where the freezer and a flyswatter or paddle would be waiting for my bottom.  She did not ask questions and it was best I not offer any excuses.  I know I was stronger but I knew who had the power and who cooked the meals and provided shelter.  Mom had expectations and it was not a choice to live up to them if I wanted to live there.  Of course she never said any of that but I felt it.  I remember making a remark how Jon Tanny got to do certain things at church and Mom suggested that I could go live with them then.  At church I use to get anxious at how long Kearney Graham or any preacher for that matter would go and if I could not control myself I received a pinch on the arm or leg.  Now that was not an ordinary pinch but one that would last for a few days.  Today we would call it child abuse but I would enlighten you that we have a lot more problems with bad behavior because parents do not pinch so it hurts and lasts.

I guess what I am saying is I really did and do have a perfect Mom.  Sure she made mistakes but I have never met a mom I respect more, honor more or love more.  Now I guess I should let you know and I would never believe it but after 40 years I believe I married a perfect wife, kinda like Mom.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Count your blessings that your mom cared enough to punish you for bad behavior even when it was tough to do so 
• Love encourages guidance even when we don't want it
• Consequences - there are always consequences for bad behavior and good - 
• would you rather have gotten a spanking when you were young or go to jail when you become an adult

• Mom was never mean, she just loved us enough 
• One of the greatest gifts I have ever received besides coming to know Christ was great parents who grew up in the Osage as parents and gave me their legacy   

Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com

What makes a good outlaw?

You probably think I am going to share with you about the Bad Lands or The One Armed Bandit/Johnny Payne (one of my classmates) but the answer is NOPE.  I am talking about the parents of the spouse which I commonly refer to as the Outlaws vs. Inlaws.  Fact is that reminds me of an old ????????
What is the definition of "Mixed Emotions"?  That is when your Mother-n-law drives over a cliff in your new Cadillac.

Well I have to say that I have been pretty lucky in that my Outlaws are pretty good or I should say "have been so far" because "it ain't over till it is over".  I knew I had a pretty good deal when I first met my mother-n-outlaw over 40 years ago.  My future wife / girlfriend and I went to El Reno and her mother was making chocolate chip cookies.  Now my mom made the best or maybe it was my sister, Debbie, but my mother-n-outlaw is right up there with them.  Now it was not the quality of her cookies that made the deal with her daughter seem like a good deal but the fact that she allowed me to test the cookie dough before it was cooked!  Yea!  My Mom would whack your hand for that.  It was not allowed to test the cookie dough or anything else in the kitchen.  Naomi (alias for mother-n-outlaw) even allowed me to snitch potato chips.

But my favorite story of the first time I met her was even better, at least for me.  She was preparing t-bone steaks and she wanted to know how I like my steaks.  Shouna told her I liked them medium to just past rare.  Naomi said in her sweet voice and her eyes and forehead wrinkled so as to say, you have got to be kidding, " why no one likes it like that".  And she was not asking a question but stating a fact.  It was one of those very sweet moments that make you know you have a keeper in an Outlaw.

Now I have to tell you about the father-n-outlaw.  I suppose he was a little disappointed in that he expected his daughter to bring home someone who could carry a tune more than on the car radio or at least could play a guitar or something.  Dale Davis never learned to read music but could play and sing any tune and any instrument and still does today at 87 years of age.  In fact he had surgery last year on his finger so he could play the guitar.  He had his finger made to permanently bend!

Every time I ever went to the house everyone was taken to the garage where there was a permanent band set up with piano, guitars and speakers.  I should probably tell you about that garage.  I don't think there was ever a car parked in it and it was huge.  Dale got to have a little space for tools and lawn mower but the rest was for Naomi.  She was and is the most thrifty person in the world.  I learned very quickly she was the "Garage Sale Queen".  For years we never had to buy much of nothing as she found everything at garage sales, clothes, tools, furniture, you name it - she found it.  Now I will have to say a few times I got a shirt that was a little too wild for me but she saved us thousands of dollars.  Shouna told me that growing up she had more clothes options than anyone and it was because of her mother and those garage sales.  The point is the garage and every ounce of space was utilized for Naomi's treasures.  I know I am having a little fun at her expense but she is by far the best blessing for a mother-n-outlaw you could ever have.

Even last night in the hospital after she had major surgery she discovered I had not eaten lunch and dinner and she started digging for food in her purse/bag while she was connected to all kinds of tubes and monitors.  That brings another point up about her.  After her surgery on Wednesday we named her "Iron Woman".  She woke up like nothing happened and started talking and has taken virtually NO pain medication and today is Friday.  She is tough.  I guess if you consider that Naomi is from Kiowa (down by MacAlester) and Dale is from Calvin (same) they must be pretty good country folks.

Well this is getting a little long and I do have lots more stories about the Outlaws which I will share.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• If you want to find a good woman, talk to her mom first
• Second, talk to her dad
• If a girl can cook and looks good you might consider keeping her for the long haul

In December we will be married 40 years, 25 happy years.  Not bad 25 out of 40!  Just kidding.

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Off color but some things just never leave your memory

Remember the good old days when you could climb aboard the water tower at Shidler and sign your name or name your class and then there was some graffiti on the bridge where you would sign your name?  Well I was going around New York City the other day and some of these folks who do graffiti are really great artist!  In fact if they would take their talents and paint they would be a lot better off and probably would make some money.  But now I am going share with you some good old graffiti that I observed while growing up.

At the annual Osage County livestock show each March I would stay in the dorm above the livestock arena and it seemed that there was a lot of wisdom on the walls of the shower/bathrooms.  In particular I remember at the urinal:  Look Up, look up (until you were looking at the ceiling) and then it said, "look down you are peeing on your shoe".  I thought that was pretty good and still do.  Then there was the one in the toilet on the door, "please flush after use, Pawhuska needs drinking water".  How can you forget these tidbits of history and wisdom?

Then there is the oral graffiti which I contribute to Smitty's son (Grainola) who was in the third grade or maybe it was the first.  He first shared this on the school bus but later Mrs. Shumate shared it with me as he told it in class.  It was a poem, here goes and I warned you.

My name is Link

My shit stinks

My balls hang down 

Like log chain links

Now I know I should not have shared this tidbit but it still makes me laugh today. So if you are too offended then suck it up.  

Now you might not believe it but I am a conservative born again Christian that believes in the Resurrection of Christ and salvation through grace in spite of this story.  Growing up I had a lot of hangups about folks that took themselves too seriously and thought every person that took a drink or cursed a little did not love God.  But as I grew up what I realized is that all of us make mistakes and only the grace of God is important.  Not all that trivial stuff like not dancing, saying a bad word here or there or having a beer or the guy or girl that makes a mistake about sex or some other thing is important but ONLY your relationship with Christ makes a difference.  If any of this offends you or if you have a difference of opinion I make only ONE suggestion, read the Bible.  Don't take my word for it or any one's opinion because that does not matter.  It took me until I was 20 years old to really read the Bible and make a conscience decision about such matters.  I suggest you go for it.

How about you sharing some of those old graffiti's with me?

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• don't get your underwear in a wad 
• If someone tells you their opinion, check the facts before you take sides
• This is really going to surprise you, some democrats are right about some things and some republicans are right about some things and they are both wrong a lot of times.

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

New York City

Here I sit in New York City again.  I find it very interesting but never better than the Osage.  My first visit was in 1970 on my way to live in the Netherlands for a few months.  It was then that I met Ed Sullivan and got a bloody nose riding on a bus going to the United Nations.  I was filled with curiosity and no fear.  Today it is different but the same.  People walking the streets all hours of the day from every walk of life and every country.  There are a few more electronic signs, actually a lot more as I recall there were NONE back then.  The taxi cabs are newer but just as dirty and the drivers don't speak much English.  Probably the biggest difference today is that back then I had no idea what to expect and today I get what I expect:  a lot of cars, thousands of people per block, streets are relatively dirty, bags of garbage stacked at the corners next to what use to be phone booths.   Yes, that is one big difference, there were lots of phone booths with those doors that folded up when you stepped inside.

• What else is different:  
• hair is no longer just brown, black, white, blond or gray but all of those plus PURPLE, PINK, RED, GREEN and sometimes Rainbows of colors.   
• Guys holding hands with guys and tattoos like you would not believe.   Back in the good old days about the only folks with tattoos were ex-Navy guys with anchors on their arms.  
• Shorts, everyone wears shorts but amazingly enough folks are dressed up like they are going to a party and girls are wearing dresses and high heels.  Now I am not speaking about those little short heels but I be you some of these are at least 6 inches.  It has to hurt.  Back in the old days you would never catch me in shorts but here I am today in shorts in NYC.
• Street performers everywhere.  I don't remember any back then but I may have just missed it.  But I am sure the performers back then were not dressed in the costumes like today.  I saw this guy wearing only underwear and a guitar!  Shouna even recognized him from some commercial.  Then there were two girls in itty bitty bikinis playing guitars and Preston gave them a thumbs up and said they were good.  I was wondering what that meant to him?
• Now I will have to say that NYC folks seem to be healthier looking than Oklahoma folks.  I suppose it is because they have to walk everywhere.  
• Soccer, yes, soccer is everywhere with the World Cup going lots of folks are wearing jerseys for their teams.  My son-in-law is from Columbia and he played soccer in college so he is in yellow today and lots of folks on the streets are wearing Columbia colors and USA soccer team colors and jerseys.  
• Believe it or not but I think most folks in NYC are pretty friendly and more so today than back then.  What changed?  Some say it was 9-11 and how it pulled folks together uniting them as one community.  

I do enjoy the city and watching the people but when it gets down to it I really like home and home is where the heart is.  Maybe another way of saying it is where my friends are is where my heart is.  One of my dearest all time friends was raised in Queens NY and he just texted me (WOW, we sure did not have that back in 1970) and I know that my heart is with him and his family just like it is with Edmond, OK and all of my Shidler/Grainola/Osage friends are: EVEN IF YOU ARE NO LONGER IN THE OSAGE.  So yes I do believe home, family and friends define where a  person's heart is.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Love is where you give it
• It is a choice to be happy where you are at
• Give the gift of friendship and you will never be lonely

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

a little divergence from normal

I cannot help but show you some of our flower garden as we are in peak season.  So here are a few pics.  And yes we did get our love of gardening from the Osage.

Thanks for looking,
gary@thepioneerman.com

Anticipation

I am still young but it is a relative term so let me start by saying that when I was very young I anticipated the end of school and the additional freedom it provided.  About the time I was in 5th, 6th and 7th and maybe the 8th grade each summer started off with hauling hay and getting ready for wheat harvest.  As soon as school was out and Bob Scott delivered us home we would head out to load up the fresh alfalfa hay and put it in the barns.  The smell of fresh alfalfa was wonderful.  In fact I liked the smells of farm life of every kind.  I never minded the hogs or chickens or the whatever was in the air.  The sun was warm and the winds were cool and the new babies were popping all over the farm.  It was often that in the night there would be a sow (female mother hog) delivering babies and with anticipation we wanted to know how many!  Generally there were at least 6 but sometimes 10 or more and mostly around 7 or 8 new babies in one litter.  The concern there was that the sow would not rollover on top of one of the babies and kill one or that there would be too many and not enough spigots on the sow to feed them all.  Hopefully that is self explanatory.  Then there were the new baby calves born early winter that were jumping and running and it was fun to catch them as long as the momma cow did not get too mad.  Back to the alfalfa.

Generally Dad or Larry had bailed up a bunch of hay so Larry or Billy Snyder (Gladys Snyder's son) would help and we would load the hay and put it in the barns.  In the early days you had to buck the bails on your knees and put it up on the truck while one person drove the truck and one person was on the back stacking the hay.  Luckily someone invented a hay loader which would pick up the bails and throw it up on the truck where you would grab it and stack.  I don't know why but it seemed that the objective was to always put on 100 bales on a load.  Typically at our house we had a four wheel flat bed trailer but when we were hauling at Uncle Snyd's we would load on a flat bed truck or a trailer or both.  As you may recall Uncle Snyd was the uncle who spent years in WWII in a prison of war camp run by the Japanese.  He was not very fond of them.

Another great thing about the spring was the anticipation of wheat harvest.  When it came, it came and went in a hurry.  Every combine in the area was hooked up, cleaned up and greased to make sure it was in working order and would stay that way.  During the early years we used an Allis Chalmers combine pull behind which attached to the Allis Chalmers tractor.  It cut a swath of about 8 feet as compared to the new combines which have cabs, radio, air conditioners, 40 foot headers (40 foot cut swath), and no tractor was needed to pull it.  That old combine could even harvest corn when it came time.  I don't remember for sure but I think it held 50 bushels of wheat before you had to dump the wheat into the truck.  It took several loads to fill a bobtail truck with racks on it.  The new ones have about 500 bushel hoppers and the trucks are bigger and most of the time the combine unloads while cutting into a cart which takes the wheat to a semi-truck/trailer which is several times bigger than the old bobtail trucks.  Amazing!  The fun thing was many of the farmers would work together and of course as we all hauled our wheat in to the elevator to sell it there would be a line of trucks waiting to be weighed and dumped at Dale's Feed Seed and Fertilizer store and Elevator.  Everyone got to see each other in one place and everyone was in a hurry to get there then wait their turn.  Everyone would be talking about wheat prices and how many bushels they were making.  I think this was actually an effort to be the best liar about how good your crop was.  We would all take the time to have a pepsi and a babyruth candy bar or a butterfinger while waiting.  It seemed that everyone took a little liberty to spend a little money at this time because it was basically one of the only two times a year a farmer would get income.  Can you imagine only getting a check twice a year and not even knowing for sure how much it might be?  That is farming and ranching.  It is the real gamble in life but one that is loved by many.  Just in case you don't know it the other payment is for when you would sell your calves that are ready to go to the feed lots and it would happen in the fall for the most part.

I think we were helping the Mcconaghy's one year when it was especially hot and I was riding in the back of one of the bobtails full of wheat and someone passed out beer to quench the thirst.  I had never seen my dad take a drink until that day and I got to taste it as well.  I really never cared too much for it but when it is hot and dusty like it gets during wheat harvest it tasted really good.  I was probably in the 7th grade then.

In my mind there was never enough time to get all I wanted done in a day then and still today.  Maybe there is a trend?  But I sure anticipated a break to go fishing after school was out.  It was that time of year when the fish seemed to bite the best and sitting under a shade tree anticipating that cork to go moving around a little just tickled my interest.  I loved it.

So how could it get any better than living in the Osage?

• It just can't
• I have found that life is good everywhere but you have to decide that for yourself.
• Tough times happen to EVERYONE but that is what makes good times and small things seem and feel soooooo good.
• Love living where ever you are and love the one you are with, it is a choice NOT an emotion.

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Kids and Dads

I guess every kid goes through a time when they want to be "just like Dad" and then they go through a period when they do not.  For me Dad was something more than cool, he was my example.  When I was very young I just wanted to be able to take as big of steps as he did and stay up with him as he moved so fast.  As I got older I wanted to be liked by everyone just like Dad.  He never seemed to have any enemies although I do remember a few times he sure got POed (Put Out for some and something else for the rest of us).  The only times I remember him being angry with someone was when he had helped a person out and they did not say "thank you".  He just never got over those kind of things.  The other funny thing is when he got mad it was at things, like machinery or a tractor or a hammer or a cow or bull but he never seemed to get angry with me or any particular person.  Now he would get disappointed with a bad behavior like the time I got in big trouble with the law (read back through the old stories and you will know what I am talking about).  Well anyway what I wanted to say about Dad was that he was a great example not by what he said but how he lived.

Every day of every week I believe he woke up with a list of things to do and a passion to get them done.  He could get ready to go to work faster than about anyone right up until the day before he went into the hospital at 87 which was the beginning of the end of a great life.  Now I could speculate that the reason he got up and out so fast was that he wanted to get his list done because Mom was one of the best at making a list of things to get done as well and if he hung around he would be working on her list rather than his, but who knows?  He did not ask for help from us kids, he assumed it as fact.  If I was not out of bed quickly in the morning I could be assured that in the spring a new baby cat or a few new puppies were going to wind up in my bed with me.  If there was nothing alive then he would bring me some ice and put it on me, then he would laugh and walk away.  He was my mentor.

Well that brings me to what drove me to write this story about my Dad's legacy.  His grandson, Richard Crow (Debbie's son), is about 90% like him.  Richard who lives in Perry, Oklahoma and has built GroundZero Storm Shelters to be the largest tornado shelter company in America is so much like him it blows my mind.  Richard gets up every morning around 4:30 and by about 10 or 11 he has done more work than most will get done in a day, just like Dad.  I would also want you to know he can be found loving his family and still working late into most evenings.  One big difference from dad is Richard is bigger by about 30 to 50 pounds but about the same height.  If I were in a fight I would have wanted Dad at my back although Richard would be a great backup.  Richard would also sweep dirt just to make it look neat and clean, just like Dad.  Now that I think about it Richard's brother Clifford is a great worker and just like Dad as well.  He is a fireman in Kingfisher and he wants everything to be done right, fast and now.  And another thought about Dad's legacy.  Chase, my oldest son, is a fireman in Edmond and in fact his picture is on the front of the Metro section of the Daily Oklahoman today 5/15/14, is also just like Dad in many ways.  He can figure things out like an engineer and fix about anything, just like Dad.  He works diligently everyday and purposes to get things done and quickly, just like Dad.

So what do we learn in the Osage?

• watch what you do because someone will repeat it and that will be your legacy, protect it
• your actions really do speak louder than words
• love can be seen by those you duplicate, think about it

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com