Fork rebuild

Don't use skid steer forks to tear concrete out. I don't have a before picture, but here is the process of rebuilding the bent up frame.

Sliced apart

 the bad piece taken out

 Welding new 1/4 plate on the back

 welding the back piece back on

Ready to return to normal service.

Alive!

Good morning,
I'm stuck at my workbench for several minutes holding a piece of a nail gun with one hand as the epoxy cures, and with the other hand I am undertaking the grueling task of typing on my iPod with one index finger.

My prayer has been for the last few days for my Bible reading. I want it to change. Sometimes it's a duty performed at the beginning of the day, sometimes it's a joy. At times when I want an answer to some problem or question, I have trouble getting anything out of my reading because I am spending all my time reading between the lines trying to get some kind of answer ... and entirely missing whatever God wanted for me that day.

We know the Bible is a living Book, right? But do we really read it like that? It is time for a fresh perspective. It is our necessary food. When you sit down to a meal, do you concentrate on the vitamins and minerals and calories and how they can be used to support growth or bodily function in certain areas? I'm sure there are people like that... and they are miserable eaters! No, we will get all the good and necessary things out of a meal if we just enjoy it.

So I've tried that in my Scripture reading and it is amazing! Sit down in anticipation of a pure hearty meal, and you will be blessed by the Holy Spirit's illumination as you take it in. He knows just how to apply it to your life and what you need for today, and what you need to give to someone else today!

I came to work this morning full and satisfied... And something tells me it was more than the glass of Carnation instant.

Keep On...

Someone has more bad news for us every day.

Social Security percentage increase.

Gun/ ammo regulations and bans.

Healthcare "reform".

So? Keep talking doom and gloom. Go pound your head on a wall a million times.
It won't change anything.

I heard someone say, "The Christian with the proper perspective lives every day like the end will never come, yet expecting every morning that this could be the day."

God has a plan for all of us... if we will just let Him fulfill it.
He will speak to us through His Word... if we will just read it.
He will fill us with joy... if we will praise Him.
He will fill us with hope... if we will believe.
He will unlock doors... if we will turn the knob and walk through.
He will part Jordan... if we will dip a foot in.
~Elliott P.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Romans 5:1-5

This I Know

Sometimes things just stop you in your tracks. Make you consider life again, and what it means.

It started last Saturday...
A sore throat. By Sunday a serious sinus infection had set in. I was going to work New Year's Day, but felt too sick. I worked the rest of the week, but it was just miserable, with constant stuffiness, nosebleeds, headache...

Wednesday by noon I was feeling a little sorry for myself. I was working on the corn planter, and the guys were fiddling with a skid steer in the shop, filling the room with fumes. I was getting frustrated and cross...

When my phone beeped. It was a text from a friend. About another friend. The family we stayed with when we went to Ohio September 2011. I had seen them once again this past September, and had a pleasant conversation with the father, Raymond. A down-to-earth man who ran a small excavating business. A man with a pleasant smile and an encouraging word and a spiritual perspective. A man I barely knew, but I felt comfortable with. We talked about relationships, disappointments, finding God's will for our lives. We discussed the shop he had been building at his place.

And as I looked at my phone Wednesday afternoon the surroundings dimmed and seemed far away. For Raymond Miller: father, husband, friend, had fallen off the roof of that shop...and died.

I've had the rest of the week to think about it. I did chores for friends so they could attend the funeral, and the family was never far from my mind. It touches a tender chord in me, as those of you who know me will understand. I know what the shock, the pain, the transitions are like. And as we "weep with them that weep", some of us truly do understand. That's the way our Father planned it.

I don't know why these things happen. But "It is of the LORD's mercies we are not consumed" and sometimes maybe we should  ask why these things don't happen. The risks I take all the time in my dangerous occuptaion, taking safety for granted way too much...next week could be my last day..we don't know...

But this I know. That God send His Son to the world, and through Him we have hope.

Here are some different words to one of my favorite songs:

I Cannot Tell

I cannot tell why He, the King of Heaven,

Should leave the peace of all eternity,

Why God Himself should lay aside His splendor

To leave the Father's side and come to me.

But this I know: our silence filled with singing,

And all our darkness fled from heaven's light

When Christ the Lord, so human, yet so holy,

In love was born a child for me that holy night!

I cannot tell why He, the Joy of Heaven,

Should give Himself to suffer for my sin,

Why Holy God should love me in my shamefulness,

Why He should die to draw my soul to Him.

But this I know: that Christ the Lord is risen,

And praise His name, He's risen now in me!

Because He lives, I'll rise to life eternal!

He took my guilty heart, and I'm forever free!

I cannot tell when He will rule the nations,

How He will claim His loved ones as His own;

And who can tell the holy jubilation

When all His children gather 'round His throne.

But this I know: all flesh will see His glory,

And skies will burst as all creation sings.

The Son will rise on one eternal morning

When Christ, the Savior of the world, is Lord and King!

Words by Ken Bible, inspired by William Y. Fullerton
Music: Traditional Irish Melody
© 1996 by Pilot Point Music. CCLI Song #2120519