Alo—Lancaster Firming, Thursday, December 24,1981
Stuck on the Christmas spirit
Thank goodness it’s Christmas. This is the
one season of the year when .people try their
best to be jolly and kind to their fellow men.
All around us there are people singing and
smiling. Young children’s faces are aglow as
they wait in unabated excitement for the
coming of Christmas morning and all the
festively-wrapped presents under a decorated
evergreen.
The snow that blanketed the ground this
week adds its special touch to the holiday
spirit with ‘children’ of all ages taking time out
to do a little playing in the fluffy white flakes.
I'm glad it snows at Christmas time. The
frozen ‘present’ from the heavens makes us all
realize that there are still things in this world
that we have no control over. We all just have
to sit back and wait to see how many inches
will be insulating our winter grain fields by
morning.
With the coming of snow, people have to
slow down and take it a little easier, regardless
of their hectic schedules. Without pressing
fieldwork to call us, we can all relax over a cup
of hot chocolate and enjoy the beauty of the
snow-covered hills and trees.
The winter weather gives us all the needed
time to reflect on the true meaning of
Christmas as we trudge through calf-deep
drifts or sit idling in vehicles, waiting as
snowplows and cinder trucks clear the roads.-
And, in the spirit of Christmas, people seem
to be more patient and willing to be Good
Samaritans to fellow travelers. I personally can
attest to this phenomenon.
Last week as I was following up on a story in
snow-covered Berks County, I managed to
expertly plunge headlfehts-first into a deeply
drifted driveway. Now, don’t /ump to con
clusions and say “Lady Driver.”
You see, the driveway was aimed in a north
south direction up a sloping hill. And with the
east-west wind we were experiencing, the
snow had blown a ‘level’ camouflage across
NOW B THE TIME
To Sort Tobacco
Tobacco stripping is underway
in this part of the state and many
hours will be spent removing the
leaves from the stalk. The days of
special handling and sizing seems
to be over; however, it is still very
important that growers sort the
injured and ground leaves from the
good tobacco. This will be required
if the crop is being sold on grade.
With some “pull off Vcrops this is
less important. On the other hand,
growers should be fair enough to
sort out the undesirable leaves. If
this is not done, the buyer will be
unhappy and look elsewhere for
their tobacco supplies. Some
sorting is necessary with every
crop, regardless of the method of
selling.
To Take Inventory
An area of our operation that is
very important at cius time of year
is inventory. With the close of the
year most of our farmers close-out
their records for the year. This
means that if you are going to have
a Farm Analysis made, you should
take inventory of all your supplies.
You’ll need this to do anykind of
farm analysis, because the amount
of grain, hay and other supplies
Off the
So yiMAlngi
By Sheila Miller, Editor
By Jay Irwin
Lancaster County Agriculture Agent
Phone 717-394-6851
that are in storage will vary from
year to year, and unless this is
taken into consideration, you
cannot have an accurate analysis
of your year’s operation. So, as
accurately as possible, record the
amount of hay, grain, feeds, seeds
and fertilizer that are on hand.
This is th efirst step in an accurate
farm analysis.
To Understand
Firewood Volume Terms
Energy costs are continually
going up and many people are
using woodbuming stoves as a
means of reducing oil and gas use.
This means buying more firewood.
It is a good idea to know what
you are buying. Some firewood
sellers may offer such
“measurements” as face cord,
rick, rank, stack, truckload or
■pile” and buyers often oelieve
they are getting a cord.
A “cord” is defined by Penn
sylvania iaw as - "the amount of
wood which is contained in a space
of 128 cuoic feet when wood is
ranked and well stowed”. This
means a neatly piled rank of wood
4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet
long. Those selling fuelwood are
what I later found out was a low spot.
As-my front tires began to sink, I knew I was
in trouble. And with my back tires still on the
highway, I futilely attempted to reverse the
direction I was moving. Thanks' to the
snowpacked, icy conditions of the secondary
road, my car just didn’t have the gumption to
back out.
Well, if the car wouldn’t go backward, the
only other choice was forward, right? That’s
what I thought, too, and decided to get the
momentum I needed to buck my way out of my
predicament.
As you’ve probably guessed, all I ac
complished in this endeavor was to get my
little blue car into deeper trouble but >at
least I was totally off the road.
Just as I was beginning to despair my plight,
help arrived in the form of a yellow highway
'truck followed by a compact brown Rabbit.
Without a word, my ‘rescuers’ trudged toward
the car, surveyed the situation, and took-up
their positions to the rear.
As I gave the accelerator the needed nudge,
the suited businessman and the flannel
shirted public employee heave-ho’ed. With a
whir and a whine, my little snowbound car was
once again on the road, ready to try the next
interviewee’s lane.
Since I nad to keep the car moving, I never
did get to meet the two people who took the
time to help me out of a bad situation. And, I
never did get to thank them personally.
I suppose that’s what Christmas is all about.
Loving, caring and sharing our good will with
others. My “thank you’’ to the two Good
Samaritans on the road I’m sure was un
derstood as I waved them a grateful goodbye.
During this season of sharing happy times
with family and friends, may the spirit of
Christmas be with you all. And, may God grant
you safe traveling and a guardian angel as you
gather together to celebrate this time of joy
and love.
Uauie under the lan nuc» uic> aac
the term“cord” alone.
A “face cord” which is the term
most widely used is'a neatly piled
rank of wood 4 feet high, 8 feet long
and as wide as the lengths of the
sticks of wood. If the pieces are 16
inches long, you have one-third
cord of wood.
It pays to know the amount you
agree to buy.
A Farm Builders Conference and
Tour is being held January 21 and
22 in the Lancaster area. It will be
an opportunity for farm builders
and their staff to leam more about
farm structures. A tour of six area
farms will highlight new building
and remodeling ideas, and the
performance of these buildings in
coldweather.
According to County Agent,
Glenn Shirk, the conference is
designed to cover a variety of
topics of interest to farm builders,
and should be valuable to those
wno are looking for new and better
ideas to incorporate into their
designs. For more information and
a registration form, contact our
office.
Board
To Register for
Farm Builders Conference
FINDING
THE MESSIAH
December 27,1981
Background Scripture:
MarkB:27-29; Luke24:25,26;
John 1:35-42; 7:25-31.
• Devotional Reading:
Colossians 1:3-14.
“We have found the Messiah!"
Thus said the Galilean fisher
man to his brother, Simon Peter.
According to John’s Gospel (1:35-
42), Andrew had gone out into the
wilderness to see this man they
were calling John the Baptist. He
had heard John say of Jesus,
t “Behold, the lamb-of God” (1:36).
With a companion, Andrew had
followed Jesus for some distance
before Jesus turned and asked,
“What do you seek?” And Andrew
and his companion replied, “Rabbi
(which means Teacher), where
are you staying?” What they were
saying to him was that they wanted
to be his followers.
Andrew Found Simon
Yet, although Andrew called
Jesus "Rabbi, v when he found his
brother Simon Peter, he didn’t call
Jesus a Rabbi, but “the Christ.”
Andrew had already decided that
Jesus was the long-awaited
Messiah, an expectation that
appeared repeatedly in the Old
Testament.
So what was the Messiah?
As a Jew, Andrew and Simon
Peter probably knew that the term
“Messiah” meant different things
to different people. In Hebrew the
word literally meant “the anointed
one." Such a person was someone
OUR READERS WRITE,
AND OTHER OPINIONS
Give credit where due
I was at the Penna. Ag Arena proper credits given.
Sale and I heard the auctioneer Charles D. Kier
(Harry Bachman, swine sale) Monroeton, PA
state he purchased this bred gilt Editor’s Note Bachman was
and was donating her to the sale one of many buyers who resold an
arena fund. _ Ag Arena purchase and con-
She was then resold so that half trlbuted 100 percent to the Holding
of the $5OO went to the sale plus full fund. We feel that every donation
amouht the second time she went to the Ag Arena fund was
through the sale. -noteworthy, whether it was Mmo,
Harry Bachman should be given livestock, or money. 'However,
credit for $5OO donation and 1 space does not permit mentioning
believe the same picture should every important individual who
run. in your next edition with made this sale a success.
(Turn to Page Al 2)
HAV HAWS
'Jill
c *§mtvi
"I thought I toid you not to wake me until you heard the
sound of 35 little feet and a jolly bo, ho, ho!”
specially set apart and designated
by God for a particular mission or
task. The anointing rite was a
symbol of God’s selection.
Andrew and Simon Peter
probably also knew that the
Messiah was often identified with a
king, because it was the king who
was in the position to bring help
and deliverance to the nation. King
David had been God’s “anointed”
and, according to the prophet
Isaiah, so had been Cyrus, the King
of Persia who freed the people of
Israel from their Babylonian
bondage. So the Messiah would be
someone chosen and sent from God
to bring deliverance to the people
of Israel.
When Christ Appears
But what kind of “deliverance”?
To be sure, many Jews looked for
someone to deliver them'from the
bondage to Rome. But others
looked," not only for physical
salvation, but- for spiritual
deliverance as well. Still .others
looked for a Messiah who would
bring the apocalypse—a time when
the earth would be cleared of its
temporal kingdoms and in their
place erected the Kingdom of God.
We cannot know just what An
drew meant when he-said “We
have found the Messiah.” Yet, it is
not so important what Andrew
meant as it is what we mean when
we call Jesus the Christ. Our
situations and needs in life are
different and thus the meaning of
the Christ for us will vary
somewhat. Jesus is the Christ
because God sent him to heal our
brokenness and we are broken in
mind, in body, in spirit, and in
relationships. We experience
broken families, broken homes,
brokeif communities, and live in a
broken world. The Christ is the one
anointed by God to heal our
brokenness wherever he finds it.
It matters little that Andrew and
Simon Peter discovered in Jesus
their Christ, unless we too can say
with them: “1 have found the
Messiah!”