Another feature on the McNary Farm was the orchard. It sat behind the main house, backed up to the property line. It was in a corner of the permanent pasture, but had its own fence to protect it from our imaginary cattle (remember, we had no livestock).

We need a national concurrence as to what are appropriate government-funded activities.

The founding fathers saw the purpose of the federal government solely to defend the borders and promote free trade between the states. In the ensuing 250 years, it has become an unrecognizable monster.

You haven’t lived until you have sat in front of a bushel basket of green beans and told to snap them.

The founding fathers were cautious and fearful of setting up a government with anything like an imperial office as its head. They had had it with King George, and they were determined not to make that mistake deliberately. 

So now my family has a farm, on which my parents had a large mortgage. They bought these 164 acres for $15,000. Keep in mind this was 1957 when a foreman in a factory, like my dad, likely made about $5,000 a year.  

In about 15 months, we are going to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States. I am having a little trouble wrapping my head around this, for I can remember celebrating the 200th anniversary like it was yesterday.

It is difficult to find an exact number of federal workers fired by DOGE thus far. What with judges overturning executive branch decisions (how is that even possible?) and general confusion in the reporting, one can make the case for perhaps 200,000.  

We stayed in the tenant house on McNary Road for several weekends, waiting for the renter in the “bigger house” to move out. I have no idea what those arrangements were, I was a little kid. They must have been satisfactory, for I never heard my parents discussing them.

This has likely been the lowest week in the Democrats’ performance since Jimmy Carter told us to put on our sweaters if we were cold. This party has sunk to not acting like teenagers but acting like fifth- or sixth-graders.

I follow Tim Keller’s example of how to pray – ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. Supplication – that’s asking for stuff – takes the longest portion of this devotional time. You are likely on my supplication list (kept on my phone), for it is wide ranging in physical location and time.

I must admit, I don’t remember anything about buying the McNary Farm on McNary Road in Paint Township. I was in the first grade. I do, however, remember our first night staying there.

The kerfuffle in the federal government ranks over Elon Musk asking you what you did last week has been laughable. The harrumphing around as if this is an indignity is hilarious. Basic truth: If someone is paying you, don’t they have a right to know if you did anything to deserve your pay?

Musk is obviously brilliant. You don’t become the richest person in the world by being dumb. His company SpaceX has run circles around the publicly funded NASA. As far as stealing your data from Social Security, he points out he already had it when he was with PayPal.  

I am not sure exactly when my parents decided to buy a farm. I must have been 4 or 5. I remember us driving around in Highland and Adams counties looking at farms. There was one I remember called the Opp farm in northern Adams County. Something happened that we never bought it. I have no idea what that was.