"DON'T LEAVE IT ON THE DESK"

I don't normally pass these on but this one really touched me. I hope it touches you too.

"DON'T LEAVE IT ON THE DESK"

There was a certain Professor of Religion named Dr. Christianson, a studious man who taught at a small college in the western United States.

Dr. Christianson taught the required survey course in Christianity at this particular institution. Every student was required to take this course their freshman year, regardless of his or her major.

Although Dr. Christianson tried hard to communicate the essence of the gospel in his class, he found that most of his students looked upon the course as nothing but required drudgery. Despite his best efforts, most students refused to take Christianity seriously.

This year, Dr. Christianson had a special student named Steve. Steve was only a freshman, but was studying with the intent of going onto seminary for the ministry. Steve was popular, he was well liked, and he was an imposing physical specimen. He was now the starting center on the school football team, and was the best student in the professor's class.

One day, Dr. Christianson asked Steve to stay after class so he could talk with him.

"How many push-ups can you do?"

Steve said, "I do about 200 every night."

"200? That's pretty good, Steve," Dr. Christianson said. "Do you think you could do 300?"

Steve replied, "I don't know.... I've never done 300 at a time"

"Do you think you could?" again asked Dr. Christianson.

"Well, I can try," said Steve.

"Can you do 300 in sets of 10? I have a class project in mind and I need you to do about 300 push-ups in sets of ten for this to work. Can you do it? I need you to tell me you can do it," said the professor.

Steve said, "Well... I think I can...yeah, I can do it."

Dr. Christianson said, "Good! I need you to do this on

Friday.. Let me explain what I have in mind."

Friday came and Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the room. When class started, the professor pulled out a big box of donuts. No, these weren't the normal kinds of donuts, they were the extra fancy BIG kind, with cream centers and frosting swirls.

Everyone was pretty excited it was Friday, the last class of the day, and they were going to get an early start on the weekend with a party in Dr. Christianson's class.

Dr. Christianson went to the first girl in the first row and asked, "Cynthia, do you want to have one of these donuts?"

Cynthia said, "Yes."

Dr. Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?"

"Sure!" Steve jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten. Then Steve again sat in his desk.. Dr. Christianson put a donut on Cynthia's desk.

Dr. Christianson then went to Joe, the next person, and asked, "Joe, do you want a donut?"

Joe said, "Yes." Dr. Christianson asked, "Steve would you do ten push-ups so Joe can have a donut?"

Steve did ten push-ups, Joe got a donut. And so it went, down the first aisle, Steve did ten push-ups for every person before they got their donut.

Walking down the second aisle, Dr. Christianson came to Scott. Scott was on the basketball team, and in as good condition as Steve. He was very popular and never lacking for female companionship..

When the professor asked, "Scott do you want a donut?"

Scott's reply was, "Well, can I do my own push-ups?"

Dr. Christianson said, "No, Steve has to do them."

Then Scott said, "Well, I don't want one then."

Dr. Christianson shrugged and then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Scott can have a donut he doesn't want?"

With perfect obedience Steve started to do ten push-ups.

Scott said, "HEY! I said I didn't want one!"

Dr.. Christianson said, "Look! This is my classroom, my class, my desks, and these are my donuts. Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it." And he put a donut on Scott's desk.

Now by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. He just stayed on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting up and down. You could start to see a little perspiration coming out around his brow.

Dr. Christianson started down the third row. Now the students were beginning to get a little angry. Dr... Christianson asked Jenny, "Jenny, do you want a donut?"

Sternly, Jenny said, "No."

Then Dr. Christianson asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten more push-ups so Jenny can have a donut that she doesn't want?"

Steve did ten....Jenny got a donut.

By now, a growing sense of uneasiness filled the room. The students were beginning to say, "No!" and there were all these uneaten donuts on the desks..

Steve also had to really put forth a lot of extra effort to get these push-ups done for each donut. There began to be a small pool of sweat on the floor beneath his face, his arms and brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved.

Dr. Christianson asked Robert, who was the most vocal unbeliever in the class, to watch Steve do each push up to make sure he did the full ten push-ups in a set because he couldn't bear to watch all of Steve's work for all of those uneaten donuts. He sent Robert over to where Steve was so Robert count the set and watch Steve closely.

Dr. Christianson started down the fourth row. During his class, however, some students from other classes had wandered in and sat down on the steps along the radiators that ran down the sides of the room. When the professor realized this, he did a quick count and saw that now there were

34 students in the room. He started to worry if Steve would be able to make it.

Dr. Christianson went on to the next person and the next and the next. Near the end of that row, Steve was really having a rough time. He was taking a lot more time to complete each set.

Steve asked Dr. Christianson, "Do I have to make my nose touch on each one?"

Dr. Christianson thought for a moment, "Well, they're your push-ups. You are in charge now. You can do them any way that you want." And Dr. Christianson went on.

A few moments later, Jason, a recent transfer student, came to the room and was about to come in when all the students yelled in one voice, "NO! Don't come in! Stay out!"

Jason didn't know what was going on. Steve picked up his head and said, "No, let him come."

Professor Christianson said, "You realize that if Jason comes in you will have to do ten push-ups for him?"

Steve said, "Yes, let him come in. Give him a donut."

Dr. Christianson said, "Okay, Steve, I'll let you get Jason's out of the way right now. Jason, do you want a donut?"

Jason, new to the room, hardly knew what was going on. "Yes," he said, "give me a donut."

"Steve, will you do ten push-ups so that Jason can have a donut?"

Steve did ten push-ups very slowly and with great effort.. Jason, bewildered, was handed a donut and sat down.

Dr Christianson finished the fourth row, and then started on those visitors seated by the heaters. Steve's arms were now shaking with each push-up in a struggle to lift himself against the force of gravity. By this time sweat was profusely dropping off of his face, there was no sound except his heavy breathing; there was not a dry eye in the room..

The very last two students in the room were two young women, both cheerleaders, and very popular. Dr. Christianson went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, "Linda, do you want a doughnut?"

Linda said, very sadly, "No, thank you."

Professor Christianson quietly asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Linda can have a donut she doesn't want?"

Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow push-ups for Linda.

Then Dr. Christianson turned to the last girl, Susan. "Susan, do you want a donut?"

Susan, with tears flowing down her face, began to cry. "Dr. Christianson, why can't I help him?"

Dr Christianson, with tears of his own, said, "No, Steve has to do it alone; I have given him this task and he is in charge of seeing that everyone has an opportunity for a donut whether they want it or not.

When I decided to have a party this last day of class, I looked at my grade book. Steve here is the only student with a perfect grade.

Everyone else has failed a test, skipped class, or offered me inferior work. Steve told me that in football practice, when a player messes up he must do push-ups. I told Steve that none of you could come to my party unless he paid the price by doing your push-ups. He and I made a deal for your sakes."

"Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Susan can have a donut?"

As Steve very slowly finished his last push-up, with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350 push-ups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.

Dr. Christianson turned to the room and said, "And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, on the cross, plead to the Father, 'Into thy hands I commend my spirit.' With the understanding that He had done everything that was required of Him, He yielded up His life. And like some of those in this room, many of us leave the gift on the desk, uneaten."

Two students helped Steve up off the floor and to a seat, physically exhausted, but wearing a thin smile.

"Well done, good and faithful servant," said the professor, adding, "Not all sermons are preached in words."

Turning to his class, the professor said, "My wish is that you might understand and fully comprehend all the riches of grace and mercy that have been given to you through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He spared not His Only Begotten Son, but gave Him up for us all, for the whole Church, now and forever. Whether or not we choose to accept His gift to us, the price has been paid."

"Wouldn't you be foolish and ungrateful to leave it lying on the desk?"

I Think She Gets It.

Last night at 4:35 am I heard a sort of funny sound coming out of the bathroom by our room. Funny for 4:35 am anyway. It sounded like R sobbed. Just 2 little sobs and it was just enough to wake me up. VERY STRANGE!! Our bedroom doors where mostly shut like normal and so she wasn't in our room so I got up and took a look in the bathroom. There she was, our little just turned 2 year old, sitting on the toilet!! Her PJ pants were off as well as her pull-up and she'd been there for a little while as she'd finished the job she'd come to do :) So I got her off, wiped her up and told her what a big girl she was!! Then she ran off to bed to get tucked in. I'm still in shock.

R is pretty much toilet trained but she has never gone on her own accord before. Normally I just tell her to go and she does. We've been working on her telling me when she has to go but I think she's happy with the way it is now and sees no reason to tell me. She's only had 2 pairs of wet pants, and one dirty in about 3 weeks. I'm going to have to stop telling her to go and wait and see if she'll catch on to telling me then.

She sure picked an odd time to go to the bathroom totally by herself for the 1st time!! I have NO idea how long she was in there but she sure was quiet! I just hope she wasn't there for hours stuck on the toilet! I don't think so though as she could stand when I got her off and so her little legs couldn't have been too numb. (J had this problem when he was little as he loved to read on the toilet.. 45 minutes later we'd kick him off and he wouldn't be able to walk his legs were so numb!!) She uses a stool to get up there but often pushes it away with her feet once she's there and so she can't get off!! That's what she'd done last night. I love that she went all by herself and knew what to do.. but I'm leery about it becoming a habit in the early hours of the night. Should be an interesting weekend!! LOL!!

Strawberries With Grandma!!

Good to the last drop!! R is licking the table while the other kids look on.

Grandma cutting up strawberries.

R holding a 'big un'

The 4 enjoying the strawberries.. a real treat!!

My folks came over for a hot dog roast recently and brought dessert. It was a bit chilly outside and we moved inside for dessert.. strawberries and chocolate sauce!!

The Finished Front Piece!!

Here you go.. finished picture of the front area we've been working on. Right to left..raised beds, white car that will soon be gone, newly cleared area (smoke is the last fire!!), if you look close you can see 3 piles of pallets and 3 of straw which will be farrowing shelters for the pigs which are in the picture on the far left. There is a fence there but it's hard to see in the picture. The house is just out of the picture to the left.

Well, Papa and I feel like we've accomplished something BIG this spring. What with clearing the trees from the 1/3 acre in the front, moving the shed; trucks and STUFF, cleaning up firewood and burning the junk we're about done in!! But it is finished!! We cut down the last of the trees by the raised beds and cleaned up that mess one day. Moved the firewood, we now have more firewood in our stack then we used last winter :) BONUS!, off the area and stacked some on the edges, got the kids helping to pick up branches (they get paid with freezies :) and burned the LAST pile in the front!! Moved some straw and pallets into the area for our new employees farrowing areas, built a fence around it and moved in the PIGS!! Our 3 gilts are going to farrow in about 3 weeks and we wanted them up front where we could see them. We also LOVE the job they do with tilling the earth and digging up sticks, roots and rocks. Which are then easier to take out.

The pigs were SUPER easy to move and Papa had to move pretty quick to keep in front of them. He had a bucket of slops and they KNEW it and WANTED it. They are so funny!! They have such personalities and we always enjoy their quirks. They've since settled right in and BEG food and drink off anyone who comes on the yard! They remind me of bad mannered dogs at a picnic! But louder. We wanted a fence to keep the piglets in as well as a visual barrier for those people who drive up into the yard so we took one of our big long orange and black electric chicken netting fences and put it around the corner of the pen by the house, 2 wires keep the pigs in around the other 3/4 of the pen as we aren't worried about the piglets going that direction.

While we had the bobcat here this weekend Papa burnt our old fallen down picnic table that collapsed last chicken butchering day, moved the smoke teepee out of my yard! and off the garden area, moved the 3 compost piles that were also in the garden area next to the house, moved a TON of firewood, stirred the compost into the peat moss/manure mixer beside the driveway and filled my raised beds the rest of the way!! Papa also moved Jake (a yellow IHC flatbed) out of the old pig pen behind the barn and into a hole in the trees in the new area. Jake got tucked into the spot where we took out a couple of dead pine several years ago and beside the last adult living pine tree on our place. We like our neighbors but we don't need to see them and I'm pretty sure they feel the same way! It is amazing how different the whole place looks now!! It looks like it's had a major face lift!! Neither Papa or I can believe how much BIGGER this new area makes our place feel. It's only 1/3 of an acre but the difference is huge. When you only have 5 acres 1/3 of an acre is noticeable.

Earlier this spring Papa and I measured out our 5 acres with a really long measuring tape we use for building and found the 'acre' marks. So we know that from the front road to about where the barrels of sand used to be (or right at the corner of the driveway) is an acre. Then from there to the back of the chicken barn is an acre, then from the back of the chicken barn to the front of the lagoon is an acre. Then the front of the lagoon to the cross road is another acre and the rest is an acre and a bit. SO that means that with a few exceptions we are FINISHED cutting down trees in the first 3 acres of our 5 acre place. We got Bindy, our 1st cow in October 2008. We started clearing trees that next spring. Which means in 2 years we have cleared 3 acres pretty much by hand!! We did use the bobcat to haul 5 meter chunks of firewood beside the firewood stack and to pile some junk to burn in the front area.

We are not quite finished clearing. There is both sides of the lagoon to clean up and we are planning on clearing up the pond area completely. We plan on leaving a band of black spruce between the lagoon and the pond for wind reasons but it will need a bit of ground clean up as the black spruce does fall over quite a bit and the pigs have been through it a couple of times. But these projects can wait. The pond area will be the easiest part as it is all small poplar trees and just needs to be cut and burned, and we may get to that this year yet.. but right now there are other things that need doing :) Like hutches for the pigs to farrow in and our new milking set up which both need to be DONE by mid May.

We have a bit of raking, seeding and watering to do in the front which is next on the list. But as I told Papa I have lifted my LAST piece of firewood, unless it's nicely dried for the inside fire, until little Mr. Jesse makes his appearance!! I'd heard that you could pull a groin muscle easily during pregnancy but I'd never actually pulled one before.. NOT fun!! Papa agreed that this was probably a good idea. Another bonus of the spring work is that I've gained very little weight this pregnancy even these last few weeks when many people gain a lot!! I'm just hoping I can keep it up for these last 8 weeks :) Now if only I could get Papa to milk for me full time and not just the weekends.. though I'll take the weekend and be happy.. for now :)

Moving The Shed.. FINISHED!!! :)

Where the shed USED to be. Note moving the IHC's went really well, but I got NO pictures as I'm grunt driver; none of them have steering unless moving and my arms got a work out driving them over and trying to BACK them in to the bush, and I had to be IN them for him to move them. Actually he moved Clifford all by himself but it was so fast I didn't get a picture. FINISHED. Looks great hey!! We can still see the IHC but we don't have too if we don't want too. Heehee. Papa did point one thing out though and he's right. Before we could ignore the shed as it was in a bad place to be usable but now it appears to be staring us in the face and begging us to clean it out and USE it. Oh my.. that will be quite the project. We'll have lived here for 5 years in June and when we MOVED IN we filled the shed and have just continued to do so. Yeah. It's a MESS!!

Moving The Shed. Part 5.

It seems that no matter how I do it the pictures always get in the wrong order!! :) This is the shed in it's new spot. Papa is squaring it to the house in the picture. Here he is turning it to face the house. The back of the shed is about 12 feet from our property line. I'm planning on moving my raspberry canes behind this shed along the fence.

Here is the shed ALMOST there. It tipped horribly at times thru out the move because the different sizes of logs under it. All and all it went really well.

Moving the Shed. Part 4. Day 2. :)

Papa moving some peices of poplar for the shed to roll on! Boy that bobcat comes in handy!! :) Thanks C & R for the use of it!! The shed on the move!! YEAH!!! Here it is about half way there!! I got a neat video of it and I might try and post it yet. He just pushed from behind and it ROOOLLLEEDD on the logs and TA DA!! :) I'm pretty excited to have it moved :) Can't ya tell?? LOL.

Moving the Shed. Part 3. Attempt #1 and #2 :)

Ok the top one is actually attempt #2 And the shed has moved about 20 feet already. The Travelall is pulling it and I was in the bobcat giving it a little shove to get it going. The pallet leaning against the shed is what Papa put on the bobcat forks so it wouldn't damage the shed. Worked great!! Ok this is attempt #1. See the logs under the shed? The shed is going to roll on them but to break it loose was a bit too much for the bobcat so Papa tried the Travelall. It would have worked but the support in the middle broke and it was getting to late to do keep going. So we started again the next morning.

Moving The Shed. Part 2.

Chip is watching Papa lift the shed with the bobcat so he can put poplar poles under it for skids and rolling power.
Ok now you can REALLY see it. We started 2 years ago and took about a 8th of the trees out starting by the raised beds. Then last fall and this spring we really went at it and it's mostly finished behind the shed. This sounds easy but mostly it was black spruce with a bit of white spruce and poplar mixed in. Black spruce is the WORST tree on the place we've had to deal with yet. They grow tall and spindly with lots of branches and very close together and the wood is pretty useless if it's small. We took all the black spruce out first and then took a good look at was was left and decided to take them all out! This spring we decided to MOVE the shed and are VERY happy with it so far. As you can see we left a 20 foot buffer of trees between us and the neighbor and about 30 feet between us and the road. Our 5 acres is very long and narrow.. the shed you see above the trailer in the picture is the neighbors.

A Better Picture. :) Stil Shed Moving BEFORE Pictures.

Ok mostly what you see is the inside of our covered parking area and two little boys getting firewood. BUT if you look behind them you can see from right to left. The driveway, the trees over my raised bed area, a break in the trees that we did years ago for the log truck driveway, , the ambulance, scout, and pickup, and then more trees behind the IHC's. The shed is just out of the picture surrounded by even more trees.

Ok now that we know the area I'm talking about ON WITH THE SHOW!! LOL :)