cc: file, Andrea, Tony Hafen, Sara and Des Penny, & Maxine Shirts
"Most of life is about digging ditches. We dig one hole, and then we, or someone else, fills in that hole, and so we dig another hole. Growing up on a farm, I learned how to dig ditches. I'm sorry none of you kids ever really had the opportunity. Brian probably had more opportunity than any of you, specifically the year or two Uncle Des was a gentleman farmer in Cedar Valley. However, by then most of the watering was done with sprinklers. Paul, you spent one summer on the farm helping Grandpa Nelson, and maybe this is one of the things done right for you. What I realized in an off hand comment I made this week is the great value I have in knowing how to dig a ditch. More on this comment later.
Thoughts about digging ditches reminds me of the movie `Holes' which Andrea and I went to with Mom Shirts this summer. This must have been when I fell far behind on my Thoughtlets, because a word search does not show that I wrote about the movie. This is a GREAT movie. If you haven't seen it, you need to see it. Even if you can't learn through the physical act of digging ditches, you can learn some pretty good vicarious lessons about the value of digging ditches through the movie `Holes.'
I believe it was the summer after I graduated from High School that I took Doug Bonzo out to Calf Springs Ranch with me when I went to do maintenance. Doug was in the Cedar Third Ward, and all I can think of is that the fact I was going out there alone to mend fence and change the water resulted in him tagging along. One of the things that needed to be done was to dig out the ditch from the upper pond down into the meadow below. I took off my shirt, got in the ditch and was shoveling mud out. I remember listening to Doug Bonzo tell me about easier ways to get the job done. And I remember thinking, well, at least I get the job done. I know Uncle Glenn did not like to have to dig out that ditch, and he got a bunch of prima chord and laid it in the ditch and just blew the overhanging grass out of the way. Guess it made a real big mess. Maybe it was a better way. But I know I never heard of it being done again, and so I think it is safe to say prima chord was not a proven Best Practice for cleaning the ditch in the upper meadow at Calf Springs ranch.
Maybe because of all of the ditch banks I cut through and furrows I connected with head ditches on the farm, I remember on one visit to Cedar Dad asked me to dig a ditch at the west end of the front yard. My ditch was deep and quite a bit of work. One of my Cousin Lynn's kids came by and saw it, and I remember being surprised when they told me they had never seen a ditch dug like that before. I always figure if the ditch needs to be dug, the best way to get it done is to get a shovel and do it one shovel full at a time. Upon reflection, maybe this is because I did not like the ditch digger Dad had.
One of my earliest remembrances was sitting as dead weight on the ditch digger. It was like a pointed snow plow, that fit into the ditch and cut the grass on the banks, lifting sand out of the ditch and onto the bank. Dad would connect it with a big chain to the tractor and then pull it through all of the ditches on the farm. I was to sit on the ditch digger, while he pulled it through the ditches, and it bucked worse than any wild horse I ever rode. It was very hard to be a dead weight on the ditch digger and not to get thrown off and hurt. We had to do this once in the spring and again in the fall. I got to know all of the ditches on the farm quite well during this process. And even though it wasn't as much work being a dead weight as working at the back end of a shovel, sitting on the ditch digger was such an unpleasant job, I learned to prefer the use of a shovel.
The other thing I always had to do in the fall, after pheasant season, was to burn out all of the weeds in the ditches. I had a 10 gallon can of fuel on two little wheels I dragged around, and it was connected to a little flame thrower. I did enjoy burning the ditches. There is something fun about starting fires and watching things burn. And I never caught any fields on fire (like Charlie Garfield did) nor did I catch the corrals and silage pit dump on fire (like Darrell Krueger did). I was such an angel! (At least, I seldom got caught doing dumb things.)
Monday was spent working on the GDC data. The project is coming along nicely, thanks to Les Denham. There was a major problem with projections, and Les was able to help me solve this problem. So now the issue is the time it takes to extract data from the data base and to get it into the Landmark workstation. Oh well! One shovel full at a time. Matt worked Monday evening at Shaggy Bag, and so I stayed at the office and worked until about 10:00 PM.
Tuesday was more of the same. Except in the afternoon Joe Roberts and I went to Core Labs and had a meeting with Tony Rebec and one of his associates. I thought it went very well, and I'm more optimistic than ever that we might get this joint venture off of the ground. There will be follow-up meetings next week. Now Joe is worried there is not enough profit in this for him to make much money. I agree with this assessment. I went back to the office and worked late. I was struggling with extracting data from the GDC database.
Wednesday morning I went in early, and was able to get the first horizon extracted from the GDC data base, into the Landmark Project, and displayed as maps, cross-sections, and depth-slices. I was also able to get this data transferred to html files which Les burned on a CD for me, and I was at GDC's offices to meet with Richard Verm at 10:00. He was tied up and it was 10:30 before we started our review. It went well. It was during the review of the examples I have put together for GDC that I made the comment to Richard,
Two points about my comment. One: It was a simple
example, and Richard seemed to understand exactly what
I was attempting to get at. Two: I learned something
from the words that came from my mouth, and this is
something I have learned to recognize as listening to
the spirit, or learning from The Holy Ghost. What I
learned was there is a relationship between the drudgery
of pulling data out of data bases and moving it into
horizon files and digging ditches. I also learned I
enjoy digging ditches. And in terms of the work, I
walked away from the meeting optimistic this work is
going to lead to a viable long term working relationship.
I went back to II&T and worked on stuff until late. I
was feeling pretty miserable with a flu, and almost went
to the doctor on the way back to the office. But I
didn't because it acts like a virus and Doctors can't
do anything with a virus.
On Thursday we went to Vidor for the Thanksgiving Day feast. It was a very nice day. Andrea had stayed up late making orange rolls, frog-eye salad, and pumpkin cake/cobbler. I was still feeling poorly, and so I slept in. Andrea was up early to finish up her cooking. Andrea, Matt, and I picked up Jeannie Dartford at 9:30 and were in Vidor by 11:30. Melanie and Jared, it was good to see the two of you and Colby Cade. It was interesting how Colby didn't want much to do with us in his home environment. Maybe he remembers falling down the stairs. Melanie is starting to look pregnant. February 15th isn't that far away. First granddaughter. Wow! It boggles my mind to be so old and so blessed.
It had been raining a lot in Vidor, and frankly, it looked like the yard could have used someone digging a few ditches so all of the water would drain from some of the ponds. Colby was out with Grandpa Jackie on the 4-Wheeler driving through the mud and having a great time. Some of the kids were so muddy, you could only just recognize there was a kid under the mud.
I was allowed to carve the three smoked turkeys. Jackie Wright, Melanie's Father-in-Law, said they smoked 160 turkeys this thanksgiving. No wonder no one wanted to carve the turkeys. I again realized I am going deaf, when Sister Wright said `Where are the phones?' and I answered pointing to the turkey bones. Oh well! There were suppose to be 65 people at the feast, and it didn't seem like there were quite that many. However, it is definitely a good sized crowd, and it filled up the little pavilion. What a great way to spend Thanksgiving. Melanie and Jared wanted to see a movie. We decided on `Elf.' However, both theaters in Beaumont were sold out. So Melanie and Jared ended up going to `Master and Commander' while Matt, Andrea, Jeanie, and I went to see `Time-Line.' Andrea has been reading the book, and wasn't quite through. But we went anyway. As stated when I read the book, (0332.html & 0333.html), it is a great story. And I thought they did a good job with the movie. The reviews weren't very good. Andrea thinks this is because the French were the good guys in the movie. We got back to the house a little after 10:00 Thursday evening.
On Friday morning I dropped Matt off at the Katy Mall at 6:50 AM, and drove into II&T. I was busy working on the workstation by the time `The Engines of Our Ingenuity' came on. John Lienhard made an interesting comment in this program, #1035, which can be interpreted as being about digging ditches, and which I wrote down as a possible stanza for Prime Words:
I struggled all day, and planned to go back and work
on Saturday. However, still was feeling puny, and
Andrea wanted to work on the books, and so I ended up
staying at the house on Saturday. Friday evening Andrea
and I went to the temple together. I ate at Subway,
while she bought a book at the church bookstore for a
family in need. To show how spiritual I am, when we'
got home I watched two James Bond movies. Oh well!
Today started with a bummer. We attempted to call Sara as arranged, and could not get a line to go through. Oh well! Otherwise, today was nice. Nice talks in Sacrament meeting. A new ward member, Sarah Barber, talked about types of talents:
In Gospel Doctrine Steve Salt (b) added another
possible stanza:
We had a nice afternoon, and it is only 4:30 and I am
caught up with my Thoughtlets. Happens when you just
keep digging the ditch of life one shovel full at a
time. I encourage each of you to take the time to
learn with your muscles the value of digging ditches."