Sunday, March 22, 2009

Blessings


Blessings to you this morning. Have you been blessed? I sure have!

This morning on the way out of church one of my friends told me she was reading this blog. I was immediately almost embarrased. You think of people in far off lands reading your Internet writings, not your closest friends!

I guess I have written long enough now and told enough people and many of you have told each other that "Ed is writing a blog." Why would he do that?

I like to write. I like to talk sometimes. I thank my teachers for helping me with both. Mrs. Ella Mae Alexander comes to mind first, then all my great teachers from kindergarten through Master's thesis. So many great teachers!

The most powerful one though was dad. He was always so happy, so happy being a farmer and a husband and a dad. He loved livestock and the crops that fed them. It just came naturally to him and has to me. He loved being Grandpa but longed for his youth, I am getting that, too.

Yesterday I went to an auction where the old farmer sold all his machinery and toy tractors and rented out the farm to his neighbor. That is quite a moving time for me as dad would have no part of it and was planning his next crop on his death bed.

LuAnn went to an auction in St. Martin at a house that was built by the first Archbishop of the Diocese that is now Cincinnati. The house is amazing, built in 1854. I would love to see that house and this old house being built. Can you imagine? Bake a brick out of local clay, cure it and lay it brick by brick. Three bricks, even four bricks thick like this house. Amazing!

I decided I couldn't buy any more toys for my collection so I watched the cheaper stuff sell then came home to let Sable out of her crate. I called LuAnn and she said bring Sable over, you have to see this!

Sable is getting comfortable riding in the truck and when I open the door now she is at my footsteps ready to jump in. Big strides for a timid Shepherd a couple of weeks ago!

Sable is an attention getter. Dog people come right up to her and start petting her and asking questions. She sure is an attractive young German Shepherd female. The auction speakers bothered her at first like it does me but LuAnn said don't worry, it is good for her. Sure thing, she drug me all the way to the truck when we left!

I saw Freddie Ring from Sardinia, hadn't seen him since school I think. He was attracted to Sable and we started talking. Small world! He was the cousin of Patty Hansleman, the girl they married me to in the Tom Thumb wedding when I was a little kid. He described it and started naming names I hadn't heard in 30 plus years.

Many of you asked about yesterday's picture from my picture file. Where was that taken? From the driveway of my neighbor's house across 28, the old Chillicothe Pike our farm is on. It gives a neighbor's few of our farm, something neither one of us ever thought we would be seeing every day!

Anderson State Road, the old Anderson Station path just south of us is where the auction was yesterday when those early Catholics settled in St. Martin and built was is now the oldest chapel in the Cincinnati Diocese. I lived on that road for 10 years and all of my children were raised in that house. Next Saturday the church is cleaning all the cemeteries in that area and the one across from my old house is one of the first in the region when white man settled here.

That was part of our Saturday. Hope you had a good one too!

Ed Winkle

3 comments:

  1. I didn't make it all the way through Church today. I was drafted to teach the kids class. The lesson was about King Saul being chosen. I was not ready. The adult class was about Ezekiel and the dry bones. I could hear the adult class and was just blank for the kids. So I told them the story of Ezekiel and the dry bones. They thought that was pretty cool. Don't know if they learned a thing.
    Our pastor is getting up in years and usually hits the save three topics in every sermon. My wife was home with a headache so I left. I just drove around and looked at fields for a while.
    I have a couple Slik toy MM tractors left they are even painted the correct colors. Should send you one. I think they are now out of business.

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  2. Missed my point. I have one or two faithful viewers of my blog. Collieguy has been with me from the start. He is an old friend who lives in Iowa. Sometimes he comes out of the woodwork with a comment and startles me. Kind of funny. No sure anyone else still reads it. If you quit for a couple years readership tends to drop.
    My problem I think is that I have never used my real identity on the internet. It just didn't seem to be the thing to do back when i started and so I've just always been Budd E. Shepherd.
    Kind of funny I guess!

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  3. Always like to read your comments, Budde. I have been tempted to buy the Silk Oliver toys. Do you know if my 50 model Oliver 77 is Silk or someone else? We Have been looking at a lot of fields, too... I don't know why so many people read my page, probably my NAT link has a lot to do with it.

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