We made it! April is here, and I saw my first Robin on March third. There were three of them, and that is a good sign of Spring! I must admit it seems the Groundhog was right on this winter. It’s been fairly mild. I have seen measurable snow in April, but it doesn’t lay on the ground very long. The full moon this month is April 23rd and is called Pink Moon. How could they come up with such a name? Well, I’m glad you asked. It comes from the flowers in spring that have a pink bloom. That flower we call the Creeping Phox, and some call it Moss Pink. Now keep in mind different Indian tribes called full moons different names. At Dale Enterprise the warmest day recorded in April was 88 degrees and the coldest was 19 degrees almost 70 degrees difference, unbelievable.
April has a lot of history. The Titanic sank in 1912 on April 15th killing approx. 1500 people. I believe this should be a lesson to never make the statement “God himself could not sink this ship”. It gives you cold shivers when you hear that statement.
Also, the Civil War began on April 12th, 1861, and ended April 9th, 1865. Approx 750,000 young Americans died during that period, the war that put brother against brother.
Last month I told you about March weather, and I’m a little late submitting my story because the “In like a lion” came a little later last month and made it very difficult to submit with the lights flickering. I know at one time Shenandoah Valley Electric had almost 15,000 customers without power and at the time of writing I still don’t know to what extent the fires affected our community. I want to say a big thank you to the emergency responders and the Electric Company workers and the many others that risk the perils of working in such extreme conditions. I also want you to know that at such times extra prayers are needed for the safety of all people involved.
It is time now to talk about something more lighthearted for my April story. Speaking of fires, some of you old timers can remember your parents or even grandparents preparing the gardens for planting, and this included burning off the garden. You would take rakes and rake all the old vegetable stems and corn fodder and rake them in a pile, then after 4:00 o’clock you would burn the piles of fodder. This cleaned off the garden and also added ash to the garden which was beneficial to the garden for growth of your vegetables. And also, many, many years ago the larger farming operations needed to replace the older implements with newer ones. And what implements am I talking about? Well, horses of course. My daddy told me when they bought their first little Ford tractor, he thought he was in a different world. He said they needed the horses to plant the corn, and they needed the corn to feed the horses. Yea, that is between a rock and a hard place! And later when they bought a Minneapolis Molene, NOW that was a tractor, for the 8N ran about 25 horsepower and the Moline approximately 55 horses.
Back to the story, so there were some fellows that wanted to replace some of their older horses, and they came up with a plan. Instead of shopping around the local area for a team of horses, they would venture into the far reaches of West Virginia, and hopefully “find a bargain”. Maybe they could find someone that might not be up on the current market price, and they could save some money on their purchase. So off they went, early one morning taking Horace Greeley advice: Go West Young Man Go West”. After several hours of driving, they found themselves in a sparsely populated mountainous area and after a few more miles one said, “Stop, stop look over there!” and sure enough there in a field standing along the hill a beautiful team of work horses. “Pull in here,” the one said. As they exited the truck and approached the house an older gentleman in dirty overalls and a worn out hat came out on the porch of a house that resembled a shack more than it did a home. “Can I help you gentleman?” the older man asked the would-be buyers. “Well, we are in the market to buy a team of horses and as we drove by we sawyou had a team in your field. Would you be interested in selling them?”
“I had not thought about it. I bought them to pull logs when I cleared a field up on the ridge and they did great when I pulled out the stumps, but I’m finished with that project now.”
“Well, how much would you take for the pair?”
The older man thought for a few seconds and replied, they are a beautiful team, and I would sell them for $XXX.XX.”
The would-be buyers asked, “Is that the best you can do?”
“Well yes, for a team as nice as they are that would be a fair price at the market today.”
(Pause) The reason for the X’s is I cannot remember the price the man quoted, but it was spot on for the actual value of that team.
The hopeful buyers looked at one other and replied, “Well, that’s a little more than we wanted to put into a team at this time, but if we get back this way again, we may stop in next time.”
The older gentleman replied, “Now I don’t stay here all the time. This is my hobby in the summer and on breaks. You see, I am a PROFESSOR at West Virginia University in Morgantown.” The men retreated to the truck and when they were seated the one said, “Let’s go home. The people back here are a lot smarter than we are. We won’t find a bargain back here.” And back home they went. My advice is taken from the Bible in Proverbs 12:22 “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal faithfully are his delight.”
So, in all your dealings I advise you to deal faithfully.
Believe it or not
Until Next Time
Ronnie
