Big businesses in small places

The "big house" looks a lot different and better than it did last week. Dad and Bob have most of the plumbing work done that they can do. No. their work doesn't really show the improvement but it is a vital step in the process anyway. The rest of us are continuing to scrap, prime, paint, restore old doors and even do wallpapering. So after relating the scaffolding option last week I got some resounding reprimands about getting on a scaffolding so the morning they asked me again if I would put ceiling wallpaper on from a scaffold and ladder I told them I had orders not to get on the scaffolding. So I measured and pasted and two men put the paper up. They have the ceiling on in one big room so we are anxious to start with side paper. That will really make those rooms come alive. Don't think we can wrap it up in the 2 weeks we have left here but we will definitely have made a big dent in the work.

On Friday we tour but the tour committee has to be creative to find interesting places to tour in this place. Have to admit that when they came up with a book binding company in a little town a few miles away from Rexford we almost yawned. But the tour committee (one couple) do a lot of research on such things so we all went to Selden, KS. The buildings were not impressive to say the least but when one of the owners started explaining the process and what they all do we had to admit it was awesome. The address on the web is kbindery.com and that gives a better picture of their work than I can write in this blog. (even though it will be shorter than last week, I think). They bind books by sewing which is not done much anymore but it is much stronger than the glued method many use nowadays. They will redo old books such as family Bibles, personal Bibles, text books, etc. as well as add new covers, emboss or stamp them in unique ways as well as bind entirely new books. The tour leader was one of the bosses and he was a very amicable person and made the tour very personal. Then have been in business for 40 years so have some credibility. Because of the method of binding they get orders, large or small, from all over the country.
On Saturday Dad and I did some of our own touring in an occupation we are familiar with. This picture is of the road sign of the Thomas County Feeders, Inc. feed lot. Don't think you can read it but it is all Certified Angus Beef, they co custom cattle feeding and their capacity is 18,000. Looked to us like every yard was full with black Angus with the exception of one red Angus. We could not get up close to the operation but we appreciated the fact that in the middle of what seems to be pretty much only crops and not much else for farming that a feedlot of this proportion was out here on the Kansas prairie.

Then just a tad down the road was this dairy that we had seen from a distance on the road into Colby. We took the opportunity to drive on the yard and look around. While the picture is not especially impressive the talk with the young owner was. They have had this dairy up and running for about 10 years. They come from Lancaster, PA area. As some of you know, milk production is not profitable right now. In fact, some people are selling "cows for cash" a government program which enables you to sell your cows with some definite guidelines involved which I won't attempt to explain. This place milks 1700 cows and I was told they milk 3 times a day. ( that detail I heard at the beauty shop) With the price of milk right now they lose $100. a cow a month. Figure that times 1700 cows. Dad told one of the RVICS people that figure and he thought the dairy should fold right now. Could tell he had always lived OFF the farm. (he is a PK and also a retired Pastor) Anyway, the young dairyman was the typical optimistic farmer who remembered when they PROFITED about that much and hoped the prices would rebound and make up for these loses. The same family has a dairy 40 miles from here and milk 2100 cows. The two sons run the operations now but have set up precautions to protect their parents from financial disaster. They were cutting silage the day we were there and both parents were working in difference capacities so they are still physically involved but financially protected.

Because of an abundance of rain this summer the crops look very good. A large area had hail some time ago but it must have come too late to hurt the corn. However, most years the irrigation rigs have to be used. The rigs still stand in the fields and make a great resting place for birds that are migrating from the area. I hope you can see that all the black spots are birds. The picture shows only about 10th of the rig and most of it was covered with birds.

So our Friday and Saturday tours of Kansas Prairie enterprises were enjoyable.

Everyone of our group has really put a lot of effort into this project and we are all starting to take possession of the project. We have a better understanding of the necessity of the house and have really gained in our appreciation of diversity of abilities of each group member. In our group devotions Dad and I have used our family as an example of how diversity brings learning and appreciation of various abilities as well as ethnicity. That is one lesson we have tried to learn as we toured the country the past year as well.

We are doing well, enjoying the almost perfect weather and praise God for this opportunity to work in this particular area assisting an organization in reaching out to people in a unique way.

Love to you all,

Dad and Mom