Last Chance Prom

Here is the next little project I am helping put together.
 I think it will be sooooo FUN!!!!
The proceeds go to the scholarship fund so come on out
and support a great cause.
*******Heck, come on out just to laugh at old farts
                       in prom dresses and tuxedos!

Life is a Highway

 Life's like a road you travel on
When there's one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend, Sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind.

There's a world outside every darkened door

Where blues won't haunt you anymore

Where the brave are free and lovers soar

Come ride with me to the distant shore.

                                  We wont hesitate   Break down the garden gate    There's not much left today

Life is a Highway

I want to ride it all night long

If you're going my way

I want to drive it all night long

There's no load I can't hold

Road so rough this I know

I'll be there when the light comes in

Tell'em we're survivors

~~~   Tom Cochrane

Cattle Sale

Cody was up and out the door by 7:00am with a load of cattle, headed to the sales yard.
 Jim & I had a few steers and heifers to sell but the main reason to go was to sell Cody's steer.  He had picked out a steer, last fall, for the Palouse Empire Fair. He had fed it, halter broke it, and been his buddy since last November.  Last month, when fair time came, Cody decided that the steer was not quite finished yet. He weighed enough to make the cut but he didn't have quite enough fat to make a good steak! So instead of just taking him to the fair and selling an inferior product into our food system, my boy did the right thing and held him back to finish out. Cody missed out on showing and competing but like he said, "This is what producing cattle has taught me. Your name is only as good as the finished product."

Cody sat at that sale and patiently waited for his steer to come through the sales ring. And he waited, and waited...........and waited. He waited for 7  1/2 hours and still no steer. He could see the steer in the pen, RIGHT NEXT TO THE SALE RING GATE but still it didn't come through! Finally, Harold Johnson (thank you, thank you!) hollered at the chute guys

 " Hey! Get that boys steer in here! He has been waiting 8 hours!!"

The steer came into the ring as calm as could be. Remember this steer was halter broke and loved people! He didn't come in all wild eyed and try to eat the ring men, or scale over the ring like most do. He sauntered in and stood there. When the ring man paddled him to get him to move around he just looked at him.
I think the steer finally saw Cody and just stood there and looked at him with bewilderment.

All the cattle buyers took this as a sign that the steer might be injured or sick. He just stood there and looked at Cody. The bidding started and the final price was .51 cents a pound. Thank you Grandma Elaine for hollering "Owner NO-SALE! We are taking him home!!"  At that price Cody realized he couldn't have even paid for the grain he had fed him!   So we loaded him up and headed home. After we feed him for a few weeks,

to get back the weight he lost while standing in a pen for 9 hours,

we will have a beef available if anyone needs one for their freezer!

Cody asked me, " If you can't even break even, why would anyone raise cattle?!

Son, that is the eternal question that ALL cattlemen ask themselves!!






Driving home tonight, I was trying to think of what 'life lesson' this might of taught Cody.

The only thing I can figure was ---

                1- Don't show up too early

                2- Don't sell too late

                3- Every once in awhile, even if you did the right thing,......

                                LIFE MIGHT JUST SCREW YA IN THE POOT!

Grandma Dorothy

My grandma Dorothy is the most beautiful woman in the world. I am not just saying that just because I kinda look like her! Her beauty is inside and out.  Her life ambition is to make the world a better place for everyone no matter their background, race, income or social standing.

She had a tough life starting out. As one of the only German families to settle in Steptoe, they were very discriminated against. She soon found out it was the wrong thing to tell her mother that the other kids called her 'the dirty dutchman' because that just caused her mother to use more soap and scrub her harder on bath night! Her mother, Emily, didn't understand that dirty dutch man didn't have anything to do with soil and she would exclaim to Gram "but WHY- we are not Dutch!"

One of her great honors, that she talks about, was being crowned The May Queen. She finally felt that she was starting to be accepted.  Gram was very skilled in sports. I might have got her looks but I sure didn't pick up her athletic ability.

She was kind of a hellion.

 THAT I might have got from her!

Gram's teenage years were ones of turmoil. At 17, one of her teachers noticed she was putting on weight.  The teacher brought Gram home to have a talk with her parents. After a heated discussion it was discovered that Gram was 8 1/2 months pregnant! She had no idea because female matters and sex were never discussed in the home.  When she began menstruating at 16 she was convinced she was dying and confided in a teacher that she didn't need to finish her school work because she soon would be dead.

Imagine the teachers surprise when she had to give THAT lesson!

Grams father refused to allow her to stay so it was off to 'the unwed mother's home' in Spokane.

 It was here that she finished school and received her diploma.

It was also where she learned she truly loved 'the icky neighbor boy'.

My grandpa, Cloy Harvey, grew up near Gram.

  His grandmother, Maggie Jackson, was the midwife that delivered Gram!

But growing up, he was just the icky neighbor boy.

In one of Grams autograph books, Cloy wrote the poem

"Roses are red, Violets are blue, Piggies stink and so do......".

I know he was 10 years old at the time, but that's just mean!! 

  When Gram was at the unwed mothers home, It was Cloy who came to visit and check on her.

 It was Cloy that never shunned her.

 It was Cloy that offered to marry her, even though the child was not his.

Gram grew to love him so much that she told him that she could not

start out a life together with him having to bear her burdens.

 So on December 7th 1941 (Yes, the day of Pearl Harbor) Gram gave birth to a little girl that she called Linda Louise. She was born 11 days after everyone (and Gram) realized she was pregnant!
She had decided to give the baby up for adoption knowing she would never

 be able to protect her from small town slings and arrows.

She raised her for six weeks and with heartfelt sorrow, handed her over to a childless family.

 One baby picture, that Gram has clung to for many years, is that of Linda Louise.

Skip ahead many years, after she married Cloy, after she gave birth to my dad-

 Richard and the girls, Marie and Susie.

Skip ahead to one day, five years or so ago, and the phone rings and the voice on the other end says

 "Are you Dorothy Suess? I think you might be my mother."

Grams heart swelled with joy. Linda had found her!!

Linda was now almost 60 and her adopted parents had passed away

and she had learned the truth about her birth.

 So with open arms we have welcomed Linda into the family.

 It makes me so happy that Linda is able to know the most beautiful woman in the world, like I do.

I love you Gram and hope I can be half the wife, sister, mother and grandma that you are.