Reflections

It was hay season and I was 16 years old. On a warm June morning, i was managing a 70 acre hay field with a 1969 John Deere 4020. This was  a tractor that came into production in 1964 and they continued to make until 1972. It literally came off the assembly line 2 years after I was born. This hydro static power shift model weighed approximately 9560 lbs. Graduating from a little snapper lawn mower from home, this machine was powerful and gave me the feeling of power! If you've worked with any powerful equipment, you know the feeling I'm talking about. So, on this Saturday, my boss, friend and agricultural mentor, Carl Hicks, asked me to use the 4020, which had round bale forks, to pick up and organize the hay. I hopped on the  JD, cranked her up and went about my simple task. Being in the foothills of North Carolina, the pasture that I was managing had hills with terraces.  Terraces were an idea of many agricultural departments in the 30s & 40s for the purpose of ...

I use a calendar calculator occasionally to calculate contracts and due diligence dates for real estate related transactions. Using a website, I thought I'd have fun and figure how many days I've known my wife. I met Elizabeth on a balmy August 4th Saturday in 1984. Ronald Reagan was President, Van Halen's famous album 1984 was most popular, the cost to go to a movie was around $2.50. Earlier that year,   this thing called a personal computer, the Apple Macintosh was making its debut. Like our first date, the Space Shuttle Discovery launched  its maiden flight on August 30th, 1984. As the dew on the fescue in the early morning, the world was fresh and innocent with new ideas everyday.  I was 17 years old and had no idea about the journey I getting ready to go on. Like most high school guys, I was looking for a girlfriend. I was looking for good and God was about to offer me great! So, this 16 year old Texas girl makes her debut into Mocksville...

Willie Nelson strummed , “I grew up a dreaming of being a cowboy”. I’m not sure what year it was that I wanted my first pair of cowboy boots; maybe 10 or 11. I think every young boy that came of age in the 70s and early 80s was influenced by John Wayne and the rugged appearance of the American Cowboy. To me as a young man, Texas was where all cowboys lived. They poked cattle, rode horses and flirted with pretty Texas women. As funny as it may sound, I always wanted to date/marry a woman from the Lone Star State. That was God’s gift to me and worthy of another blog, but in 1984, I stood at the altar with a girl born in Dallas. Dan Pate, Matthew Deihl  and me branding cattle in Montana When I was 12, I had the opportunity to work on a farm.   I learned to run the 1969 John Deere 4020. There was nothing like corralling the cattle, running them thru the head gate, vaccinating, de-horning, and (yes) castrating the calves. As a young kid, the smell of cow manure...