Ugly

Spring is officially here, the weather is definitely feeling hopeful, and the days are longer.  But this is still, in my humble opinion, the ugliest time of year.  The grass in the yard is still brown, matted down from the snow, and covered with a spattering of leaves, sticks, and starling droppings.  The driveway and barnyard is rutted and muddy.  Everything is colorless.  Nothing looks good this time of year.

All that is left of our once beautiful snow is the dirty, shrinking piles.

Misplaced gravel in the lawn.

Mud and ruts, and round bales that were frozen to the ground.

Manure piles waiting to be spread.

The area of the yard that Gus uses as his winter litter box.

The non evergreen landscaping is trashy and bleak.

Even the Christmas tree is starting to look a little forlorn! :)

Ugly.  But we live with the hope and assurance that soon there will be a transformation that will change the face of the earth.  And our attitudes will improve with the springing forth of the newness that spring eventually brings.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Genesis 1:11

Transition

The PED virus, a swine specific disease, showed up in the United States in late spring of 2013.  It has been spreading throughout the Midwest since then, affecting numerous farrowing operations.  It is not zoonotic, therefore it poses no risk to other animals or humans, and it poses no risk to food safety.  It is a production disease that spreads rapidly through the herd and is acute to almost 100% of nursing piglets for a 3-5 week period until the sow herd develops immunity.  This is why we are seeing record hog prices for this time of year, and futures prices for summer that are at all time highs.
Pork prices in the stores will be going up!  If our weaned pig suppliers can avoid the disease, we should have a very profitable year producing pork.

We had a beautiful March snow that covered the muddy, dreary landscape for a day and a half.  Now it is back to muck and puddles.  I got stuck twice today with the feed truck on the mushy, icy ground.  I wish the transition from frost to firm was a lot quicker.

We went to the house of mourning again this week.  We laid to rest a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and Christian.  Sally was my wife's first cousin, and she was the first of the cousins on the Schlipf side of the family to pass away.  It's a little unsettling to see a new generation transitioning to eternity . . . because this is our generation.

Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
Psalm 69:14

Poetry and Wages

The latest that I have heard is that this was the 4th coldest winter on record.  The winters of 77-78 and 78-79 were both colder and I remember them both.  Thankfully, it is starting to feel like spring, and now we can look forward to weeks of mud as the snow melts and the deep frost comes out of the ground.

My favorite Daughter-in-law brought me donuts last week.:)  She did a good job "finishing" them!

Since getting home from Texas, we have sang twice on the Zion's Harp recording project.  Once at the Rejoice Recordings studio, and once in Roanoke Church.

Saturday night we were going to eat out at Texas Roadhouse.  They told us there was a 2 hour wait.  Sorry, I don't think so.  Applebee's worked out just fine for us.

After our brush with Bonnie and Clyde in Texas, I have continued to do more research.  It turns out that Bonnie was good at creative writing in school, and she wrote a lot of poetry.  Some of her poetry was inspired by the women she met while serving some time, others by the lifestyle that she and Clyde chose.  They found much of her poetry in the rental house in Joplin that they narrowly escaped from when the police raided it.  The verse on her tombstone was from one of her poems.
 Here is one of her better known poems.

The Trail's End

You've read the story of Jesse James

of how he lived and died.

If you're still in need;

of something to read,

here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang

I'm sure you all have read.

how they rob and steal;

and those who squeal,

are usually found dying or dead.

There's lots of untruths to these write-ups;

they're not as ruthless as that.

their nature is raw;

they hate all the law,

the stool pidgeons, spotters and rats.

They call them cold-blooded killers

they say they are heartless and mean.

But I say this with pride

that I once knew Clyde,

when he was honest and upright and clean.

But the law fooled around;

kept taking him down,

and locking him up in a cell.

Till he said to me;

'I'll never be free,

so I'll meet a few of them in hell'

The road was so dimly lighted

there were no highway signs to guide.

But they made up their minds;

if all roads were blind,

they wouldn't give up till they died.

The road gets dimmer and dimmer

sometimes you can hardly see.

But it's fight man to man

and do all you can,

for they know they can never be free.

From heart-break some people have suffered

from weariness some people have died.

But take it all in all;

our troubles are small,

till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.

If a policeman is killed in Dallas

and they have no clue or guide.

If they can't find a fiend,

they just wipe their slate clean

and hang it on Bonnie and Clyde.

There's two crimes committed in America

not accredited to the Barrow mob.

They had no hand;

in the kidnap demand,

nor the Kansas City Depot job.

A newsboy once said to his buddy;

'I wish old Clyde would get jumped.

In these awfull hard times;

we'd make a few dimes,

if five or six cops would get bumped'

The police haven't got the report yet

but Clyde called me up today.

He said,'Don't start any fights;

we aren't working nights,

we're joining the NRA.'

From Irving to West Dallas viaduct

is known as the Great Divide.

Where the women are kin;

and the men are men,

and they won't 'stool' on Bonnie and Clyde.

If they try to act like citizens

and rent them a nice little flat.

About the third night;

they're invited to fight,

by a sub-gun's rat-tat-tat.

They don't think they're too smart or desperate

they know that the law always wins.

They've been shot at before;

but they do not ignore,

that death is the wages of sin.

Some day they'll go down together

they'll bury them side by side.

To few it'll be grief,

to the law a relief

but it's death for Bonnie and Clyde. 

Bonnie Parker

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Romans 6:23