Corn,Beans,and the Housing Market

When I living on the farm one of the perilous aspects of the profession was, The whipsaw fluctuation of crop prices. Crop prices fluctuated with the weather for sure, but just as much maybe more by the crop forcasters.Every time a crop forecaster would make an announcement---“This years corn crop expected to be a record breaker, The soy bean planting are up 15% so expecting larger than normal harvest.” Announcements like these of course drove the prices down and by the time harvest time came around, It mattered little if the forecasts were nothing than a smell in the wind, as” harvest conditions effect crop” so the forecaster is always right he just changes his story. I know these things although detrimental to the farmer, make wall street people, a lot of money on the futures market .Good or bad that’s one of the reasons young people are not staying in agriculture, which in my way of thinking is a shame. Anyway the reason I point all this out is.
I guess I want some one to tell me Who started the housing market challenge we are now experiencing? Is there someone who took a booming economy, low unemployment, controlled inflation, and a very friendly lending atmosphere, and turned it into a housing slump? I realize oil prices, cut consumer spending, But is that the end-all answer? When is someone going to say” Look, we have an ever growing population, Baby boomers reaching retirement age, and the lowest interest rates in years! OOOPS-----So anybody have a handle on where this whole thing started? leave me a comment---Thanks David Shriver http://flippin.davidshriver.net

TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS

Your conscious is only between about 10% of your mind, the rest of it is what is known as your subconscious. I know that would not surprise my teachers I had in school, I think there would probably be some debate of whether I used my entire 10%of my conscious mind at any time during my schooling years..

Your subconscious is the most powerful thing you own, and the most dangerous one. When you hear of people having anxiety attacks this is totally the subconscious mind taking complete control. Throwing an individual into a complete panic for no reason apparent, to anyone ,but that persons subconscious mind.

If you know how to make it work properly, it will do things for you and help you achieve your goals and dreams. The laws of attraction.

If you do not work it properly, it will fight against you on any thing you want to achieve - including being happy. You also will be using the laws of attraction ,but instead of attracting the goodness into your life ,you will be attracting the bad.

Your subconscious has no personal preference for what is happening on the "outside" it only cares how you are dealing with things .(problems,obstacles,challenges).

If you are dealing with them incorrectly, your mind will "quit" on you, and you will lead a miserable life where everything is a struggle and there is little or no hope at all. Where every problem has no answer, all obstacles are insurmountable, and you end up turning from every challenge.
The subconscious mind can be programmed (basically the secret)By dwelling on the good,----seeing the beauty,----and expecting good .We attract ,what our subconscious mind see‘s.. laws of attraction.

Laws of attraction are real

Whether you realize it or not, the Law of Attraction is already working actively in your life right at this moment. The events, opportunities and experiences you are experiencing today were set into motion by the thoughts and actions you‘ve taken previously.

The secret to the Law of Attraction is really about realizing that this law is already active in your life and deciding that you want to deliberately attract things into your life consciously rather than leaving it to the vagaries of your subconscious. This is going to take some effort on your part and if you are trapped in a negative spiral, it is probably going to take a great deal of work to change the patterns of your thinking. You’ll need to monitor your emotions in particular, because it is your emotional state that gives you the clues to the kinds of things your thoughts are attracting to you. With practice, this monitoring will become more routine and you’ll be able to let the negative thoughts go lightly while you move your focus onto the positive.

One of the main differences between the writers of the early 20th century and those who write about the Law of Attraction today is the emphasis on just how much work you need to put into consciously working with it. Many of the new breed of writers suggest that it is easy and that merely thinking about what you want for 20 minutes a day and putting together a vision board or two will get you on the road to prosperity and abundance.

The early New Thought writers such as Wallace Wattles, on the other hand, suggest that you need to do a lot of work and must deliberately take charge of what you are attracting into your life throughout your every waking moment. In the words of Wallace Wattles, echoing a common phrase in Christian,teaching you need to "pray without ceasing". In my opinion, this the correct course to take. And as Napoleon Hill taught; pursue it with a burning desire.Put a lot of work into the Law of Attraction and reap the large rewards. Or put a little work into it and watch the rewards trickle into your life. It's your decision. Reap what you sow.

Resourcefulness

I guess I was twelve years old when I received my initial lesson on resourcefulness. Now this wasn’t a lesson that was in a book, It wasn’t handed down by my older cousin ;no this lesson was one I had to figure out all by myself.
You see back then all the farm kids rode the school bus to school, I won’t go into this too far but I can remember my oldest daughter explain to me that If she couldn’t get a ride to school, she just wasn’t going. Well I jumped all over that and forced her to ride the bus,untill the pain I ended up enduring became too great then she rode with a friend, Oh well, Anyway when I rode the bus there was a pecking order in as the older high school boys owned the back of the bus. After being picked up and thrown to the front of the bus I understood this. On our bus route were a family named Vonburg,Of which there were four brothers. Three of the brothers were older and in High School the youngest,Mikey was a year younger than me. A really old way of describing them would be to label them as ruffians which is what they were; bullies.
The older ones started egging on the little brother, saying they didn’t think he could whoop me, and Mikey of course rose to the challenge of his older brothers, and started slapping me around. I had been taught not to fight ,and especially never hit a girl or someone younger so I retreated to the seat next to the bus driver.
I was really in a dilemma shrugged it off and when I got home I asked my Dad what I should do; expecting to hear him tell me to stand up for myself under the circumstances. However that was not his reaction at all just the contrary. My Dad went into a tirade about his son becoming a bully, and gangs and violence, now remember this was rural Illinois in the fiftys,So he over reacted some what,and told me that if he ever heard of me getting in a fight I wouldn’t get a drivers license until I was twenty one years old and undoubtedly would end up in prison. This was not the helpful advise I was looking for, and was no where close to the world I was living in.
Every day the bus ride to school and back became increasingly intolerable as Mikeys brothers saw I wouldn’t fight back and cheered him on.
Then one day I was sitting with my friend who lived in the bottoms, we were talking about my going down to his house and boxing with boxing gloves.Mikey sitting in the seat behind us was listening and spouted off that he aught to come down and beat us both up .It was like I could see divine grace showering around me as I said that would be a great idea ,he could finally beat me up. So we set it up for that night after school.
We all met at my friend house and went into the barn ,had an area all set up with old horse harness making a make shift ring, Of course Mikey wanted to waste no time so I put the boxing gloves on and my friend was going to referee. Ding,Ding,I don’t think ole Mikey ever got a blow in as I tore him up, We ended up being somewhat friends as Mikey had a whole new outlook on things. After that his brothers even treated me with respect.
I wouldn’t and couldn’t disobey my father, or dishonor his wishes as well as I could not go on being constantly challenged, belittled and, goaded.
The recourse a pair of boxing gloves, some old horse harness, and a little bully that needed taught a lesson.
Problem solved What a wonderful world we live in may we all strive for a clarity of purpose, and resourcefulness

Ornery and vinegar

When I was only four or five years old, I was over at my Grandma and grandpa’s house and while playing outside I stubbed my toe on the sidewalk in front of their house. Of course I was crying and carrying on so my grandma came out and said she would go get something to make it better .After a while She came back outside with a pan half full of vinegar and held my foot down in it.
Now this was in the early fifties, and apparently people back then didn’t know what we know now of chemical makeup of different things so apparently my grandma didn’t know that she was submersing my bloodied toe in acid. And she must not have known that acid on an open wound would be unbearably painful. Unbearable pain at an early age ,or I guess any age, is an unforgettable experience. Well as I recall my Dad thought the whole thing rather humorous, or so I remembered.
When I was a little older, one day, my dad, while mowing the grass hit a clothes hanger with the mower and a piece of the hanger hit him in the leg. My mom had put wire clothes hangers ,stuck in the ground around her flower garden to keep the dogs out of her flowers. And my dad not seeing one hit it with the mower. Well my mom doctored it and it seemed like it just wouldn’t get better. Then one morning my dad woke up and a blue line was going up his leg, Blood poisoning ;off to the doctor for tetanus ,and penicillin shots. My dad was going to be ok but was suppose to stay in bed for a few days. So my dad was in the bedroom my mom was in the kitchen and I said” Daddy says he wants you to put some vinegar on his leg”
My mom poured some vinegar in a little dish and got some sterile cloth and headed for the bedroom as I headed for the back door .I heard my dad yell HEY WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME KILL ME, I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK!--- as I ran for the barn.

Sprint cars

Sprint Cars


The first time I ever saw one I was 14 years old.

I grew up on a farm along the Mississippi river just north of Hannibal Mo; Of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn fame.We lived on the Illinois side farmed in the bottoms and raised cattle up on the bluff. My Dad had been fighting poor crop prices;unpredictable weather, and the possibility of a flood every year.

Having a degree in agriculture from Western Illinois U he put some feelers out for prospective opportunities;and one came along.My Dad was Hired by a research laboratory in Ohio,to become Assistant to the president--He later became pres.While well and good for the rest of my family I was looking at a total change in my life not the least was the school in Ohio didn't have football,Something as important to me as breathing,but I didn't get a vote so off to Ohio we went.Well this lab my Dad went to work for had a research farm so upon my arrival I rode my bike out to see if they needed any help bailing hay.This started my Hay Bailing years.I ended up working summers for an alfalfa mill bailing hay for them (all of this to stay in shape for hopefully college football)Herein is where the story has its beginnings.

We had a hay field right next to the Race track at New Bremen (an asphalt track)Well we were working out there on a Saturday afternoon and the promoter A mr Cook, came on out to the field with tickets for the USAC Sprint car race on Sunday.So Sunday after church I hopped on my bike and rode it 6 miles to the race track.Now this was 1965 I saw AJ Foyt,Larry Dickson,Waldo Andretti--Marios brother, Eddie Sacks-Later was killed in the Indy 500 that year.It was wonderful sounds ,the smell,and the cars were soooo beautiful tryed to go to The speedway whenever they had a USAC race then one day someone told me of another track not to much farther away .--By this time I had my Drivers licence The race tracks name was Eldora .1/2 mile dirt track.A life changing event the first time I went. I remember A car from Dayton Flipping all the way down the back stretch with the drivers arms stretched out over his head from inertia It was the most violent horrendous thing I had ever witnessed just knew the guys that drove those things had to be crazy ;It wasn't too long after that I knew I had to drive one.

I started out in Hobby stocks then late models It Wasn't until I was In my 30's that I finally got A Sprint car . We raced the Sprint Cars for 6 wonderful years mostly Florida With the Tampa Bay Area Racing Assoc.Then with American Winged Outlaws,we raced Florida Georga,North and South Carolina's,Tennessee,andAlabama All through my Girls Jr High and High School Years we Raced.Had the only all Girl pit crew I must say definitely the happiest days of my life ----SO FAR

Lessons from the bean field

When I read John Grishoms The Painted House I saw so much similarity between my growing up in the River bottoms of Illinois and his in Arkansas.His of course took place before I was born but the river is timeless. Grishams family grew cotten Ours grew soybeans;and thats where our story begins.

My dad said that a farmer is judged by the straightness of his planted rows and the cleanliness of his bean field.Well his rows were always straight as an arrow and you didn't see a weed in our bean fields thanks in no small part to me starting when I was about 6 years old .Every summer my Dad would get some old broom handles and bolt a sickle blade to the end; and that would be your weeding stick for the summer.My Dad would roust me out of bed and down to the bottoms we would go 'weeding four rows at a time and our fiels were a half mile long most of the time you would get to the end turn around and get back to the truck by noon then eat the lunch my mom had made us; then one more round and it would be dark. Time to go home sleep and again tomorrow.We would listen to the St Louis Cardinals on the truck radio on the way home In fact I saw my first world series of many on the radio.My Dad didn't talk about the war much but every once in awhile When it was just him and me He would start talking as we worked cutting them dern weeds.I heard about flying fighter planes in North Africa All about p51 Mustangs,british spitfires,P38 called the flying tigers My dad flew all of them. He told me of flying to see my mom one sunday afternoon from st Louis The whole town came out to see him off;and when he took off he circled around and buzzed the airport just a few feet off the ground He laughed and said you should of seen them run.He got lost in the fog in Italy kept losing altitude pulled the stick back still dropping untill he dropped out of the clouds in a valley he was upside down and didn't know it ;He just rolled it over and followed the valley. He said God was definately his copilot .

I always had a great dislike for weeding beans,the sweat in your eyes.had to go barefoot because the black gumbo would stick to shoes and made you ten foot high So I didn't wear shoes much in the sommer (I didn't mind that much) Bugs that would bite and sting and the hotter and madder you got the more they would bite and sting Fighting through weeds a lot taller than me facing it seemed like unsurmountable challenges every day all day

But i'd give almost anything to spend a day in the bean field with my Dad