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Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Spring is here. I know that it is here officially as I have suffered through three days of the normal spring cold. It starts with a stuffy nose and then rolls into coughing and the need to sleep 23 hours of the day. I am over the worst of it now and seem to be on the uphill swing.
Just a couple of things this week. The gas prices continue to rise which leads me to wonder at what point will it not be affordable to drive to work anymore. Have you thought about it? At what point does the cost of driving actually overtake what you bring home? I received an email this week from an area farmer who purchased a new John Deere tractor, one of those great big ones with the huge tires. He noted that the dealer delivered it close to empty ( I hope they at least gave you a couple of free caps). It holds 350 gallons of diesel fuel and to fill it with today's prices costs $1400! I wonder how many years my great grandparents farmed without ever spending that kind of money on fuel, and if you read a little further you'll find out.
My cousin called this weekend, and she and her sister were cleaning house again. I love them dearly and it is a highlight of my year when they clean. I always get a call telling me that they have started a box for me, treasures from the past to look through and stick away in my own home. Amongst the photos and scraps of paper about the family was an old worn ledger book. I wondered what it was at first, knowing my uncle well enough to expect the unexpected. When I got home I sat in my chair and ran my hands over the tattered cover and carefully opened the pages. There, in my great grandmothers hand writing was the farm books from 1934 through 1959, the last two years in my great grandfathers hand after great grandmas death. The first year, 1934, when they had moved to Dexter and the only notation was a note at the bank $711. Some one was still giving out money in the midst of the depression.
It will take a while to go through the mundane and not so mundane notes and figures but what an adventure it will be to dig back and look at a piece of history, even if the only one who finds it remotely interesting is me.
See you next week...remember, we're all in this together.