Bidwell Ohio

LuAnn is going to Verizon'e Blackberry school then we are heading down to my sister's place near Bidwell Ohio. I think I remember how to get there! You get off US 35 before you get to the Ohio River in a little town called Rodney, where Linda and listen both go to church and got married there.

We were there for Lisa's wedding last year and went down to Gallipolis to meet her new baby boy Joshua this summer. It sure is different down there than here, mainly pasture land and some tobacco.

My sister still teaches elementary school and now Lisa Jo does too. You how valuable good teachers are and how important they are to society. I call it our Christian mission and many days it is a challenging one.

We were like dad, loved kids and would do anything to help. You don't want to harm or impede children but today's parents need to do a little better job and a lot more discipline. The neighbor has nine beautiful kids, why can't they all be raised like that?

Rodney is also home to Bob Evan's Hidden Valley Ranch and his first big restaurant. We were passing through one day and stopped for breakfast and LuAnn said shouldn't you call your sister? I said no, she will be here. About that time her and Fred walked in and LuAnn looked at me like how do you do that?

Fred did an excellent job running Bob's 1700 ac ranch all his life, usually running 500 registered Chaolais. In 1985 Bob and I were part of a 30 person agricultural delegation to China for 30 days. I still have the slides somewhere, gave that talk over 100 times to thousands of people.

Fred is a farmaholic, worse than me. I can walk away but he rarely does. He sure built the finest ranch and cattle operation I ever saw. It wasn't a tax write off, they made money.

Can you imagine palpating hundreds of heifers by yourself? Fred did it. I think Linda married him because he was so much like dad.

He just had a successful trip taking Charolais bulls to Florida. He drove through what was left of Hurricane Ida. That thing did us a favor and sucked our moisture out of the air Tuesday so we could harvest all week. Another really good we of harvest.

Farmers could start finishing here but the bins are full, the elevators are full and there is no where to haul it. Farmers are starting their own piles and the big one in Melvin, a million bushels outside is full! I will have to get you a picture.

Speaking of which I have a big bin for sale that will fill a big machinery shed if anyone is interested.

Ed