I’ll probably get “Hate Mail” for this one!

I believe Americans are losing their ability to communicate in any meaningful way. Pick up a book written by our founding fathers and tell me it isn’t true!  We’ve become “Simpletons” when it comes to language!  (I know this has been bothering you and you’ve probably been asking yourself – “How did this happen?”)

Well, here’s my five minute synopsis.

Once upon a time, people had to make an effort in order to talk to one another. They had to leave their house and drop whatever it was they were doing (work or play) and walk down the lane, across the fields, over the hill or across the street so that they could look their neighbor in the eye…. and they had a conversation.

The telephone comes along and now we no longer have to take an hour or two to visit a nearby neighbor, we can just give them a ring.  We can save all that travel time and still do whatever it is we want to do. Conversations were shortened just by virtue of the fact that we probably had to stand in the hallway to talk into the phone. We no longer had to look our neighbor in the eye and conversations became more superficial.

Now we have cordless phones so we don’t have to stop anything to talk, we just go on with our daily routine and rather than giving that person our complete attention, half of our mind stays on our tasks and they get the other half!  That’s why no one gets their stories straight anymore.

Oh, and did I mention Caller I.D.?   We know who’s calling before we even pick up the phone – and once we see who’s on the other end, we might not pick up at all!   Oh, we’re very selective who we give our time to these days, and the machine can talk you….. um….. ah…..  I mean those other people! “Oh, did you call?  Did you leave a message?  Something must be wrong with my answering machine!”

Radio and television comes into the picture and now we no longer want to take the time to even call because we are engrossed in our favorite programs. If someone calls us, we want off the phone because quickly… well, you know, Perry Mason, Gilligan’s Island or Gunsmoke was about to begin (my wife says that “dates” me). The television has been called an “Electronic Fence” and rightly so because it put up a very effective barrier between people and their neighbors. I’m sure that most everyone is aware of the fact that TV executives and producers change camera angles or scenes at intervals no longer than 6 seconds because people’s attention span begins to wane after that and we get bored with the program we are watching. Boy, there’s a testament … Americans have a six (6) second attention span!

CB radios came along in the 70’s and FCC rules dictated short, to the point communications so as not to tie up the airwaves. We even came up with 10 codes to shorten our conversations  more. Add to that, the fact that everyone within range could hear your conversation so you learned not to say anything personal. It was training us for what was to come.

Computers come along and with them … e-mail. We now dumbed down our writing skills as well because our friends can answer us back the same day. We don’t take time to craft a letter any more!  No more anticipation while waiting for the Postal Service to deliver a letter for us, and then a reply in return.  I used to hear about all the communications people had with a whole network of e-mail friends – they could send their little snippets of information to 50 or more people  with one keystroke. Of course they are all our friends… really!   And we learned to leave all intimacy out of our conversations… and our relations.  Oh, and with Spell Check  and Grammar Check we don’t much care if we can spell or not, our computer takes care of that for us.

Next come the cell phones and all this texting stuff. We had to invent a whole new language in order to keep our communications short. We can’t even spell words correctly because that takes too long and takes up too much memory (the phone’s….. or ours?  I’m not quite sure!) I spoke with a father the other day who told me his daughter’s cell phone bill recorded 3000-6000 text messages per month. I’ve heard other parents who tell similar stories and are so proud of how popular their child is.  These texts, they say, are just proof of how many friends their kids have. Am I missing something somewhere! This started with the e-mail groups. Is it possible to actually believe that anyone can have hundreds of friends. I can tell you right up front, there aren’t that many people who give a rip about me! Can we really call these friendships? In my experience, cell phones can actually get in the way of any real friendships or conversations left to us. Who of you hasn’t been cut off in a real conversation because the person you were speaking to had to take a call on the cell phone or read a text? It just goes to show that whoever is on the other end of the phone is a whole lot more important  at that moment than you are!

Blogging comes along….. and we now can tell our side of the story (just like I’m doing now) and we don’t even know if anyone is listening….. and maybe we don’t even care any more. We can go to great lengths portray ourselves in any light we please, and no one is the wiser. For the most part, it’s a one sided conversation … but that’s OK because we’re so busy we don’t have time for a two sided conversation anyway.  I’ve heard that in order to be a good conversationalist, you have to spend a lot more time listening than talking.  That’s because the other person gets to spend all the conversation time talking about what’s dear to them – themselves.  If they have to listen to us talk about ourselves, they get bored with the conversation.  What does that say about me as I write this blog?

Then there’s Facebook – Just put out information about yourself! Read what other people say about themselves. It used to be called being a busybody or a gossip, but we’ve gone beyond that.  But only if you’re invited!

And now, Twitter. Damon Darlin, Technology reporter for The New York Times has called Twitter  “a hyperspeed form of blogging in which you write about your life in bursts of 140 characters or less, including spaces and punctuation marks”.  He further suggests that Twitter is the enemy of human intellectual progress. Have you counted the number of characters in this blog post, including spaces and punctuation marks? It’s just a few more than 140 characters (that’s a joke!) and I’m having a really hard time really expressing my true feelings on this subject!  I don’t think I can say anything in 140 characters or less!  In fact, if you look back over most of my posts, they tend to be just a tad long. Some might call me long-winded!  Twitter asks one question …. “What are you doing?” and millions of people respond by “tweeting” what they’re eating for dinner, or some such. Come on, who really gives a rip what you’re eating unless you have asked them over for dinner and they are sitting across your table eating that food with you!

I concur with the Officer in the picture above ….. “NO OFFENSE FUTURE MAN, BUT IS EVERYONE IN YOUR TIME RETARDED?

Give me a neighbor I can just talk to over the fence!  Give me “Back Door Friends” whom I can sit down with over a cup of coffee!  Let’s have a conversation and see the sparkle in one another’s eyes, the curve of a  knowing smile, the touch of a hand, a mischievous wink, a knowing nod, !  Give me authentic relationships!

In slightly more than 140 characters….

Allen

Yes, they tied the knot!  Tyler and Taci were married a month ago and have returned from the honeymoon two weeks hence.

Ahhhhhhh…..”Wedded Bliss!”

T & T Mucking Stalls Together

To quote a line from a Rich Mullins’ song

“This is real life Baby!”

Allen

Yes, you read that correctly.  Tyler Shropshire is engaged to be married to Taci Winterthieme, who I believe is the most wonderful girl in all the world, (oh, and to all you guys who might think of disagreeing with me, well I have to say without apology that you are wrong, so don’t even try, lol).

God has been so good to us!  We believe He brought us together and has been there to lead and guide us every step of the way.  I know you will all want to hear our story, but right now I don’t have time to tell it all, so I will just sum up a little.  Don’t worry, Taci and I will be sharing the entire tale after our wedding and in the mean time I think my parents might have a thing or two of their own to say.  Anyway, we found each other’s blogs in February of 2008 and started doing a little commenting back and forth around April of the same year.  To make a long story short, (at least for now), we felt like the Lord was prompting us to think about marriage to one another and after much prayer, (and many answers), the possibility of a courtship was brought up.  At that point we were convinced this was what God wanted us to do, so I started five months of phone conversations with Mike, (her Dad), and boy was I nervous.  However, everything went very well so Taci and I started writing letters to each other and soon after we broadened our contact to phone calls and emailing.  I can’t share all of what we talked and wrote about, but the end result was that I ended up traveling back to her place for a week during the first part of August.  I proposed on August 5^th 2009 and although I took her somewhat by surprise she answered yes without hesitation and ever since I have been living with my head in the clouds.  And by the way, I really like it up here and have no intention of coming back to earth any time soon! lol

The wedding date is set for October 3^rd out in Iowa, after which we will have our honeymoon and then have a reception here in Twin Falls.  Needless to say we are both very busy and even more excited!  Wish us well.

Tyler

The third cutting has been baled and is is now put up. This is approximately two weeks ahead of the last few years. Perhaps we can get a small 4th this year.

Grandpa baling in the morning

Grandsons pick it up in the evening.

Allen

“Higher Learning” The phrase conjures differing pictures for different folks. I would wager that for most, some sort of a formal institution with brick and mortar buildings, lecture halls, professors and students is the first thing that comes to mind. This is not necessarily the view I take. The purpose of learning is to fit us for life, and I do not agree that it can only come from an institution. In fact I am acquainted with many men who are highly educated who can not change their own car tire, wire their home, repair a faucet or grow a tomato. Well, school is always in session around our place and we have a great variety of curriculum as needs arise and futures are prepared for.

Our current array of classes have to do with home renovation and maintenance. The first course offering is ROOFING. Some real “Higher Education”! The apartment above our garage is in need of a new roof among other things and well….. my sons have never attended this class before, and school is now in session.

Class began with setting up scaffolding so that we could gain access to the roof. This is where the “Higher” comes in!

Stripping the old shingles came next. As we began we realized that there was 4 layers on this roof. The number of nails that had to be pried out of the roof was unbelievable. The correct tools made the job a little more bearable but it was still a hot, nasty job!

These were then swept up, shoveled into a wheelbarrow and dumped over the roof edge to the pickup waiting 15′ below. According to the receipt from the dump, we removed almost 3 tons of shingles.

It was big job and we had 3 generations working side by side on the roof. This not only makes the job easier, it also makes for deeper relationships. L to R – Allen, Matthew, Dad (Randy) and Tyler.

The roof was then cleaned and asphalt impregnated felt was nailed in place. Shingles were then nailed in place. We did not have a nail gun to do the job and they cost too much to rent, so it was hammer and nails. No one hit their fingers with a hammer on this job, so I consider it quite a success!

Well, the job went very well and we actually had some fun doing it. And the finished product looks great.

There is much more to learn at The Promised Land Institute of Higher Learning. Upcoming classes include but are not limited to…..

• raising and rebuilding a roof over the entrance and stairs
• scraping, priming and repainting the exterior
• stripping and refinishing hardwood floors
• re carpeting
  
• tearing out and replacing the tub, toilet and bathroom sink
• installing wainscoting
  
• installing a new kitchen sink and faucet
• interior painting
• installing a new natural gas furnace

The classes are many and will teach real life skills that the boys will take into adulthood. We’re making a life, not just a living.

Allen

Doing what I love to do most!

Spending time with the “Wife of My Youth” on a recent trip to the mountains. She’s been by my side for 30 years now.

LIFE IS GOOOOOOD!

Allen

I enjoy keeping tabs on our blog stats and looking at what it is that interests the people who visit our site. I find it intriguing that even if I have not posted anything on the subject in quite some time, one of the top category searches has always been on the subject of raising and processing chickens for meat. One of the reasons I find it interesting is the fact that since there is so much information out there on the subject I’m suprised someone would still be interested in what I have to say (that goes for everything I write). That being said, as we were getting into processing chickens ourselves, I too read everything I could find. Reading blogs about how others like myself, with similar interests, are doing things has given me much needed encouragement to start several daunting projects. With that in mind I am posting a video of how we process our poultry. Now keep in mind that I do not do thousands of these birds each year. We only process what we eat. I tell you this because I watched a video of Joel Salatin eviscerating a chicken and it only takes him 30 seconds. I don’t need to see things like that because it is more of a discouragement than an encouragement. Watching videos like that make me feel like a klutz with no thumbs. Well, it takes more than 30 seconds but we get along. (about 3 minutes to eviscerate and 4.5 minutes from dead chicken to finished product) Cleaning chickens is NOT one of my favorite things, but it is possible for the average person. Hope this encourages you to give it a try

Allen

The peas in the west garden have given us several pickings but it is time for them to go. We spent the cool of the evening pulling the vines and piling them at the top of the garden where we could search for the last remaining pods together. The vacated space will be planted in a green manure to be tilled in this fall.

After we pick all the peas off the vines, we haul them to the goats. Here’s Tyler taking a load over.

Allen

With all the rain that we’ve received this spring and all the damage it did to the alfalfa crop throughout the region, we have been very blessed this year to have the first two cuttings under cover with no damage whatsoever. We had just stacked our last load of the first cutting when it started to rain. And it rained some almost every day for a month ruining any hay that had been cut but not baled. All that rain just gave our second cutting a head start and we have just finished putting it up as well.

Bales,Blue Sky & Pickup

Picking Them Up - 50 Bale Load

Throwing Them Down

Filling It Up

Again, I say we have been blessed!

Allen