I love Manuel Labor

“Do what you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”    Confucius

“The word retirement isn’t in my vocabulary.”          my dad

“Work smarter-not harder.”  me- I say it all the time

     “There is only so many dollars per hour you can earn with your back, there is no limit to how much you can earn with your mind.”  Lowell Lundstrom

     “You need to create one of these- maybe more than one.”  Sid Blackman in conversation with me regarding forming a  corporation.

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      Two weeks ago, Grace and  husband were here planting 32 young  apple whips.

     Hero (as Grace refers to him) commented on how much he enjoyed  moving dirt, because his current job as a supervisor is mostly mental,  his body craves  physical activity. 

      I described to him  the business model I run my construction business with.   – He loved it.

   I told  him,  “I see myself like a Sergent in the army,  with his men in the trenches.  I chose to keep my construction business small, doing one job at a time.  I am on the job doing the work with my crew.  

 Practically speaking, it means I will never become a large company but…. 

     It keeps me physically active and in shape.

     It has enabled us to raise 4 children, keep food on the table, and a roof over our head.

    I cast a big shadow on the job site in terms of the atmosphere.   I enjoy construction , and refuse to put up with a negative, sassy gloom and doom employee.    When I do have to hire someone,  the qualities I look for are attitude  related- , do you play well with others,  do you have a little hustle and are you teachable?    I could care less if you’ve ever picked up a hammer  in your life.  In fact, I prefer to hire someone with no previous construction experience.    It wears me  out  having to debate with  someone  “a better way” to do something.  

       Little known trade secret-  there are usually  3 or 4  different ways to do most things.

      In the  late 1990′s I made an intentional decision to cut back on  job stress .    it isn’t until you are in up to your eyeballs in your chosen profession you discover certain jobs carry bigger  stress “price tags”         

        If you are successful , the temptation is to grow larger.   My dad  once told me that more men on the payroll does not automatically translate into  more net profit @ the end of the year.    You come a point in construction, where it  becomes  a full time job keeping all the balls in the air, and you as the owner no longer have time to physically do the work yourself. 

               I’ll never forget what Vito told me several years ago-  he worked for Chase Manhattan Bank in NYC  in  management  He and I were talking about work, college, personal satisfaction, etc -

 “Doug you do know what a PHD behind your name means right?…

(pause)   

“Piled Higher and Deeper.”  

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What do you like your  daily responsibilities?

 Not like?

Do you see yourself doing this 5 years from now?

What is your “dream vocation”?

What is the hardest thing about your days?

Footnote:  Two  of my daughters have told me  they  would like nothing more than to be a wife and  mommy-  so I’m not just thinking about punching a time clock w/ this one.

Robber Taken Out With Baked Beans

 “Give me the keys to your truck and your money.”

       Son-in-law Matt stopped at the   Super Walmart in Federal Way Washington about 10:30 PM  to pick up some groceries.   He parked next to a van.     As he came out of the store,  putting the  groceries in the back of the pickup, a man  suddenly came up behind him pressing a pistol to his head.   “Give me the keys to your truck and your money.”

  Matt said to him “OK man, be cool.”  

      Matt is an Iowa farm boy had moved to Federal Way  with our daughter to  fly  for an air ambulance  at this point in their life.  He noticed two things about the gunman.  First,  the safety was still on the gun , and secondly, his finger was not on the trigger.

      As Matt tells the story, he continued to move slowly,  grabbed a 32 oz. can of Bush’s  pork and beans, turned  and hit the guy in the side of his head as hard as he could.  The thief dropped to the ground….m0aning.  Matt took the can of beans and hit him 4 more times. 

      “I could hear things cracking after the 4th hit so I quit.” Matt said.  

      Matt did not want to touch the gun, and put his prints on it,  but neither did he want to  leave it in the parking lot while he went to get help so he parked  his  truck on the pistol.    Matt  grabbed some zip ties out of his truck,  and zip tied the guys hands behind his back, dragging  him over to the cart return and zip tied him to there.  The thief was not going anywhere @ that point, so Matt calmly goes back into the store with the bloody dented  can of pork and beans,  tells the cashier he’d just been assaulted in the parking lot,  and someone needed to call the police. 

      “I want to get this blood washed  off my hands right away.  I will be in the bathroom if  the police get here before I’m done.”

       When the police arrive, they ask Matt if he was  carrying any weapons?   “Well, that all depends…my tool box is in the truck and everyone of these tools could be a weapon if they  have to be.”

      The police officer wanted to look behind his seat for weapons, but the baby car seat won’t allow it to move forward.

     “You seem to be just a normal dad.” the officer said with a smile.

       As they continued to talk, Matt mentions where he works,  and the officer lightens up .

     “Hey I know you guys, we’ve brought people in to your air ambulance service before.”

   

photo of Matt with son Rigg

Moral of the story: 

    Mess with the bull and you may get the horns.”

Town Hall For Hope-Countering Fear

       “March 2009 was the  best month ever for home sales  in  our Cedar Rapids  real estate office.”  said my brother-in-law Steve  to me this Easter over  honey glazed ham and green bean casserole.

  “Why doesn’t that stuff make the newspaper? ”   I asked.

      I am not a fearful person, so it’s been  unsettling for me that for the past several months  I’ve been experiencing  various degrees of fear.   It’s not every day,  some days are more intense than others.

     It feels like  fear has been circling my mind  like  a dark cloud of bats coming out of hibernation:

         I have a neighbor who is a fearful person.  He’s been fearful for as long as I’ve known him.  I honestly feel sorry for the guy.  He knows more about what’s going on around our place than I do.  I do not want to be like him.

   I do not watch much TV and haven’t – since the mid 1980′s when our television broke.     I remember going through withdrawal, just like a drug addict.       There just wasn’t any money to buy another “idiot box” as my dad would call it, so it was  6 or 7  later before we replaced it.    When we did finally get another one, I discovered  I didn’t like to sit still in front of it for very long and   never reacquired the addiction.  Today  I try to stay up with current events  via the Internet, my work radio, and an occasional Cedar Rapids Gazette.    Even with that limited exposure to ”The News”  fears  have gradually been seeping into my heart, and I’ve been  disgusted with myself.

    Last night my wife and I sat in Mike and Patrice’s  living room linking up with over   1,000,000 people   at 6000 sites nation wide  to listen to  financial expert Dave Ramsey discuss  the current financial  situation.

 I came away encouraged. 

  Here’s a link to a website with lots of goodies:

http://www.townhallforhope.com/

  I’ve caught his program on the radio a few times, but am not a regular listener.  

          Here are some real economic facts:

2009: Unemployment is at 8.5%, there is no inflation, and the home mortgage rate is 4 3/8%. The Stock Market dropped 57%, but it has recently risen from a low of 6400 to over 8000.

Why aren’t we hearing anything about a 1600 point rise in the stock market  since March?

   Since so much of economic news is tied to consumer confidence and  perception..you’d think somebody would be  beating that drum just a little wouldn’t you?   Their  silence  speaks volumes to me.

 

The best antidote for this kind of fear is the facts…

 

50% of United States  home foreclosures in 2008 came from 35 counties in 12 states.

   35 counties!!!!   Did you get that?  out of the whole United States…1/2 of all the foreclosures  nation wide originated in just 35 counties (out of the 3141 counties nation wide= 1% of the counties are responsible for 50% of the foreclosures.   If you happen to be in one of those counties, then my heart goes out to you…but that doesn’t change the fact that it is not a nation wide recession @ this point.

      Ramsey also said people who are always talking about “end times” and things along that line make him nervous   I can’t tell you the number of times I have said that very same thing to my wife.   

      One last observation from last night. There is an  elitist mentality of many (no all) of our elected leaders that troubles me.    Ramsey said, that 90% of the e-mails to one of his state  representatives was against the economic stimulus bill….90% !

     and yet that  representative told him (Ramsey) that he knew better than they and it was in their best interests that he vote for it. 

       Ramsey gave several  practical suggestions to stay encouraged.  Be sure to check out that website if you’ve been needing some hope. 

    Any body else experiencing any fear(s)?  or am I the only one    You can tell me…I won’t tell anyone.

Your Invitation To Our 30th Anniversary Celebration

Marriage is not a ritual or an end. It is a long, intricate, intimate dance together and nothing matters more than your own sense of balance and your choice of partner.” - Amy Bloom

    Here is a recent photo of us @ Chucky-Cheese’s when we went there with our granddaughter Addy :

       April 21 2009  Today  is our 30th anniversary.  I wanted to do something to mark it.  How does a   little music,  some wine and cheese, and  a couple of choice comments sound?

      First the music. 

      Going to pull the curtain back just a little on our relationship and share “our song”   We just picked it a few years ago. :

    

 

Next the wine and cheese:

   And finally a couple of thoughts.

  In March I wrote      this letter    to Sharon  (fellow blogger) on marriage    so rather than re-invent the wheel, I”m going to take the easy way out , share that link with you.  I’ll close with a couple of quotes that resonate with me…

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    ” I have no way of knowing whether or not you married the wrong person, but I  do know that many people have a lot of wrong ideas about marriage and what  it takes to make that marriage happy and successful. I’ll be the first to  admit that it’s possible that you did marry the wrong person. However, if
you treat the wrong person like the right person, you could well end up  having married the right person after all. On the other hand, if you marry  the right person, and treat that person wrong, you certainly will have ended  up marrying the wrong person.   I also know that it is far more important to  be the right kind of person than it is to marry the right person. In short,  whether you married the right or wrong person is primarily up to you.”
Zig Ziglar

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“One of the great illusions of our time is that love is self-sustaining.
It is not. Love must be fed and nurtured, constantly renewed. That
demands ingenuity and consideration, but first and foremost, it demands time.”
David Mace

     “Common courtesy plays a big role in happy marriages. People who are permanently married are polite to one another. They don’t want to hurt one another’s feelings, and they don’t try to make the other one feel humiliated. People who are married for life are extremely kind to one another.”

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      “The role of the female in every species is to pick the right mate.   The wrong  males are supposed to be barred from mating and procreating. Nature didn’t  intend human females or females from any other species to “fix” deficient  mates; we’re just supposed to reject them so they don’t pass on their bad
genes.”
Elizabeth, thoughtsopinionsrants Blog

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    ” Arguments are a natural part of any relationship, but cruelty is not. “

     Hope you enjoyed the party-  thanks for coming! DM

 

   

Going to take a break from writing but…..

 

 

 

I’ll be back…….

 

Buy Fresh Buy Local and Monk’s Orchard

 “The most important ingredient in the welfare of an orchard is the sound of the orchardist’s foot steps.”

     Tree ripened, crisp,  juicy, flavorful, red, yellow, green, locally grown, apples!

            The 2009 growing season is almost upon us.  Monk’s orchard is  gearing up for the biggest apple crop yet….Royal Court,  Gala, Sun Crisp, Honey Crisp, 3 varieties of Red Delicious, Ginger Gold, Brae-burn.

       On the same property as our orchard is a  Bed and Breakfast.

     Are you feeling stressed?    How does a weekend mini vacation at our Bed and Breakfast sound?   After you wake up on a  queen size sleigh-bed with  a pillow-top mattress, you  can enjoy a delicious breakfast with   farm fresh eggs,  baked french toast and fresh fruit.  Then take your cup of   dark roast coffee out on the 2nd floor  deck overlooking   the rolling hills of Eastern Iowa.   After breakfast, you  could take a stroll through our orchard, depending on the time of year, we can even send you home with some apples. 

       There is always something to do around here.    Saturday April 18th, we’re hosting an apple tree planting party- (You’re still invited)   we need to replant 30  Cortland’s and Gala’s  and bury a drip water line.

       I love this logo for our River Bend  ”Buy Fresh Buy Local”  Chapter:

If you’re looking for fresh, delicious, locally grown produce, you owe it to yourself to track down producers affiliated to this National organization.

http://www.foodroutes.org/

        Drop me  note in the comment section if you’re interested in coming for a stay.     We’re less than 1/2 a mile off a major paved highway….far enough off that you can’t hear the road noise,  and only   30 minute  from the  Dubuque  airport.      Here are four  additional photos of our orchard from last year:

A Childs Marble

     “…the unsinkable Titanic took about 2 1/2 hours to sink, from 23:40, when the iceberg brushed the ship’s starboard….

     Oddly, the first lifeboat launched contained only 28 people, despite a capacity of 65.

       There is always only a small subset of people who can see the meaning of small events at first- the child’s marble, once stationary, now slowly rolling off the cabin table onto the deck floor…..”

                     Andree Seu  World Magazine 4/11/09

 

      Imagine for a moment,  you are on the Titanic On April 15, 1912,  around 12:30  AM….KNOCK – KNOCK-KNOCK -I’m  standing there, your  cabin boy with  an urgent message from the captain: 

       ”Please come to the upper deck immediately, there is a problem!”

      How would you feel?  Would you be upset with me for waking you in the middle of the night?

    You decide to ignore me, because:

A.  You are  snug in your little cabin, and getting up in the middle of the night is not how you like to live your life, and who in the H#LL am I anyway???-  telling you what to do-  I am just a dumb cabin boy. (or carpenter as the case may be)

B.   This is the unsinkable Titanic…you’re a passenger of the world’s greatest ship. End of discussion

C.    You’re oblivious to the dangerous iceberg field you’re captain has set his course through.

D.    What you don’t realize is in another couple of hours, this boat  as you know  it will sink..there are life boats available, but  if you don’t get your sorry carcass in one, it won’t matter, much.

  E.    You can be the most positive,  confident, “My glass is  half full”  type of person in the world.

    You can recite  all the positive mantra’s in the world, visualizing  your ship steaming into the New York Harbor…that does not change the fact  your  ship has just scraped an ice berg, and is taking on water.   -  doesn’t mean you are going to drown (see part 2 of letter D above)

Here  are some marbles on the table you may want to pay attention to:

Marble #1  Marble # 2   Marble #3 Marble #4  Marble #5 Marble #6 

     One of the smartest moves you can make @ this point is  to get your mortgage paid off….so no matter what happens with the rest of the economy,  you’ll probably be able to ride it out.  We were just listening to a Suzie Orman tape  from 2003   (The Laws of Money, the Lessons Of Life) where she said basically the same thing….What she said then carries even more weight now 6 years later.

I will pull the trigger

Content Warning- This one may be disturbing to some of you

 

      I had to put my 250 pound pet  Holstein calf down the Winter of 72.   He’d caught pneumonia, we had him  on antibiotics but  he  kept going down hill.  You could see his rib cage through the  thick winter coat of black and white  hair, his  lungs were filling with fluid by the sound of it.   His  eyes sunk   into his head.  I went out to do chores one  morning to find him trapped under a wooden fence,  covered with wet  manure.

 

      By the look of him, I  thought to myself, he may linger 3 or 4  days, but the mark of death was  on him, so I made the decision to “put him down.”

     It is one thing to kill  for food, sport, or self defense, it is another thing, to kill when  it is your pet.

      I led him behind the barn,  he was weak so  he just stood there panting.  I stood  4 feet from him, aimed my 4-10 shotgun at the side of his head…

        and pulled the trigger. 

 

      He just stood there-   but he didn’t fall down like I’d expected him to so I loaded another shell in the chamber and shot him a second time.

 I cried.

     Years later, as an adult, as I sat in a conceal and carry weapons class, we watched a movie reenactment. A woman had purchased a pistol for her personal protection but when she found herself alone with an intruder, she was unable to pull the trigger- he ends up with the weapon, and the story ends on a disturbing note. The point they were trying to make was this- if you’re not willing to pull the trigger, then don’t own a gun.

      If you don’t believe in owning a gun- that is your decision and I respect it. There are lots of criminals out there, who do own guns,will continue to own guns regardless of the law, and have no problem using them on you. My mind went back to 1972- Would I be able to pull the trigger if I found an uninvited intruder in my home who intended harm?

 In a heart beat.

      

Sorry if this post doesn’t leave you with the warm fuzzies- I tried to warn you. One of my goals for this blog is to pass on to my kids my thoughts on many and varied subjects- including my thoughts on personal protection. DM ——————————————————————————–