Fresh Country Air

Ahhhhhh.....spring! No more school. For now. This is the chance to get out and see the light of day instead of being couped up with my nose stuck in a book. This chance to smell alfalfa drying in the sun, get all kinds of kee mischt, und grisley schmutz all over my hands. It will be short lived, but very much enjoyed while it lasts. I'm back to building silos again, but still working in the ER on a per diem basis. How many nursing students do you know who do that? Nursing and building silos with the Jo-Wengers are practically two different worlds, and to try to explain to either side what it is like in the opposite business is nearly futile. Most nurses, students, and professors that I know of don't have a clue what a day of hard manual labor is like, nor do Jo-Wengers have a clue what it is like to study, do research, or practice healthcare provision. It's funny to occasionally hear some of the questions either group has about the other.

To meet the cultural diversity requirements at Alvernia College, this semester I took a Transcultural Nursing class, and had to participate in a group project to research and give a presentation on people from a different culture. Without me giving any input or suggestions, the rest of the group I was in chose on their own to do the project on Amish. HA! Let's just say that you can't believe everything you read in a book, and no amount of reading will ever compare to going out and working among people of a "different culture." You really get to know people pretty good when you work closely with them every day. To make a long story short, I could have easily done the entire presentation on my own, and could have given the class a real eye opener compared to what we actually did as a group, but instead just presented my share of about 10 minutes worth of the presentation, and collected the grade afterwards. I doubt if the majority of the class can even tell that there is a difference between Menno's and Amish other than maybe a foggy awareness that the two exist.

So what is so hard about silo building? Try heaving cement slabs (staves) around all day in the sun. Or try troweling concrete for about an hour straight inside a silo where it is probably about 120-130 degrees Farenheit and the air is full of concrete splatter, dust, and amonia, with almost no ventilation. Concrete releases a lot of heat, moisture, and amonia gas while it is hardening, and silo's are designed to keep things in, so the ventilation is very limited. When you come out of there, 90 degrees with high humidity feels like a cool breeze. Silo building and repairs is heavy work most of the time, and when you come home and crawl in to bed feeling sore all over, it's a good kind of sore, because it's good exercise and you know you did a good honest day's work.

Nursing is all about paying attention to a barage of details and it's all about mind work. The heaviest thing you might do is lift a patient. Hospitals have these nice things called thermostats that control the temperature all year around, and you wear clean clothes all day. If they get dirty, you need to change clothes. And the nice thing is, if you work in an ER, you have that sense of being in one of the best possible places on earth, if you would happen to experience the acute onset of a medical emergency. However, nurses take several years off of work to go to school, and drop a significant chunk of change to pay for that education. So there are lost wages and expenses at the same time - something a silo builder probably couldn't afford to do. Also, nurses have to think quick, think critically, they need a vast array of knowledge, and they need to know how to put that knowledge to good use (to put it in simple terms). If you give it all you have to offer, you might come home from the day mentally exhausted, but with satisfaction in the fact that you did your best to make a difference in the health and well-being of someone else.

I think I might have said this before, but I'll say it again. There are three kinds of work:

1. The kind that takes a strong back and a weak mind

2. The kind that takes a strong mind and a weak back
3. The kind that just simply takes a lot of nerve, but doesn't take a very strong mind or back.

Or some combination of any of those three. Silo building takes some nerve, especially when you are hanging by a rope or harness or standing on a tiny little platform 100 feet up in the air. Don't look down!!

Question: How many Yonie's does it take to build a silo? This Menny Mennonite Men?

Or maybe this many Menno's?

Or maybe this woult chust apbawt dooua like so:

This silo took one day to build, and I think they used about 8,000 bolts to put it together. There are more pictures in my slide show, and the finished product at the end of the day is the picture of the two silos side-by-side. The first one was built another day. Also, the picture of the guy standing on a platform on the side of the wall doesn't show the whole setting. Below him, it was about 70 feet to the floor of the silo because it was empty inside.

Two Toulouse Gooses

I picked up some chics downtown. Yeah, literally! The feathered type, that is. Two Malard ducks, two Pekin ducks, and two Toulouse geese. At least that's what they are supposed to be, but we'll know for sure once they mature and get their full plumage. The last couple of years I had been getting one duck every spring, but I think it would be better to have more than one so they can run around the yard together in a herd.......er.......flock. I'm not sure I'll bother trying to name them like I used to either. There are too many birds, and I'm coming up short on good duck names. All I can think of is weird names, like Flibberdyjibbit.

Oh, by the way.....

About the music player that I added: I know that some of the music I added may not exactly be the preference of everyone that visits my blog, but every song that I added was added for a reason. Some of them are just there because I think they are funny, like the "Laughing Song", or "In the Belly of the Whale" or "Mississippi Squirrel Revival." I hope those bring a few giggles to brighten your day. You sort of have to listen closely to "In the Belly of the Whale" to catch the humor of it. I get a kick out the line: "It might behoove me to be heaved" - from Jonah's perspective. The words for that entire song can be found by doing a Google search for "Newsboys Lyrics."

"One of These Days" by FFH has a dual meaning for me. Yes, the meaning that the song was written for, but also I like that song because one of these days I want to (fly) be a flight nurse...... get it?????? LOL! OK, well I thought it was good.

Most of the other songs are there because of them being good praise worship & witness songs, well, most of them. I tried to pick songs that have lyrics that are easy to understand - not ones that have the lyrics drowned out by the instruments. Some of them I just like because.....uh......I like them, and that's all the reason I have. I tried to add a variety of musical styles, and not all of them might be your favorite flavor, but the point is, listen to the words of these songs. There's a message to be heard, and it's similar to that of the Spirit in the Psalms. As mentioned, most of them were added for a reason. This white boy isn't exactly a charismatic, but likes to hear and make joyful noises. Hope you enjoy them!

About the videos, those are likely to change occasionally, maybe. At least, they are more likely to change than the music list.

Sorry, to those of you who can't download of of the music or videos.