Football

My football playing career has come to an end a little sooner than I would have liked. I broke my left collarbone at our game on Saturday night, four minutes before halftime. We were on offense and I was running the ball and when I got tackled my left shoulder hit the ground first and there was a pop and a bolt of lightning shot across my chest. I've been thinking about it and I don't know what was different about the way my shoulder hit this time compared to the million other times it has hit the ground and I will probably never know.
I've been playing football for nine years, this year was the tenth. I started in third grade playing flag football for Manhattan parks and recreation. I played flag for fours years. My first year I had an awesome coach who really knew what he was doing and how to explain stuff to a group of rowdy third graders. It was this coach that started my playing quarterback and this wasn't because of my great athletic ability. It was because I was the only kid who would stand there and listen to what he had to say. My second year of flag football I had a group of college guys for coaches and they were not good coaches. They just wanted to have fun and didn't teach us anything, which is what led my dad to coach my team for the next two years. He got my uncle to help and we went undefeated my fifth and sixth grade year except for one tied game, since you don't do overtime in flag football. Those were two awesome seasons.
Next came seventh grade and my first year playing tackle with the Manhattan Eagles, a team started a few years before by a Manhattan C.H.I.E.F. dad.  That first year I didn't really know what to expect, although both my dad and uncle came to help coach. My uncle helped coach high school though and I didn't see him much. I ended up starting at quarterback for most of the games, because our first string quarterback had messed up his shoulder. We however didn't win any games that year. When football season started my eight grade year I was excited because I had grown some and was a little bigger than the 90lb seventh grader I had been the year before. We had a rough season that year because of the lack of big guys however we had some close, hard fought games we just weren't able to pull out. For me personally it was a pretty good season, I figured them and at one game that season I rushed for over 300yards. At the end of the season, it was actually at the last game, just before halftime I tackled a guy and broke my right collarbone so this is not a new experience for me I seem to have a way of finishing seasons. At least in eighth grade I broke it at the last game of the season, instead of the third game of the season
Next, came high school and I can honestly say that going into my freshman year and sophomore year, I was nervous. I wasn't very big and although I'd been one of the bigger guys on the field during eighth grade, now as a high school player I was no where close to big. I didn't play a ton those first two years of high school and to be truthful I was kind of a wimp, it was my junior year that I really started to see playing time. Actually I can count on my hands the number of plays I got to take off for the entire season that year. Last came my senior year. I was nervous about this year because instead of looking up to someone, I was going to be the one people where looking up to. Things started out rough, first we didn't have very many players however we had enough. We lost our first game, and we lost bad because we didn't play well. We also lost our second game however we played hard and it was because we couldn't stop one guy that we lost. The improvement from our first game to our second was huge, we had also got a couple more players so things where beginning to look bright. Then came our third game, and a team we knew nothing about. We had never played them before. Things started out okay and we actually scored first but then they started going downhill. First on our our other running backs probably tore his ACl and then just before halftime I broke my left collarbone. We did end up losing the game although even after losing two skill players, and we only had a few. We had more size this year than before which is awesome except we had fewer ball handlers and less speed and after the game Saturday we have two less ball handlers. Even with these setbacks I saw some guys really step forward and take leadership. The team did an excellent job adjusting.
I'm pretty disappointed that this is how I had to end my senior year of football. This wasn't how I thought my last game would be but I'm thankful I've been able to play as long as I have been and that my dad and uncle I have been there pretty much every step of the way.

This is from my first year of flag football in third grade. I'm the one closest to the camera with blonde hair.

 These two are from my last game of my senior year. In the bottom one I'm caring the ball.

Well this week is rather exciting or at least tonight is. The Eagles first football game is tonight playing Blue Valley at Randolph. I am pretty nervous though because we only have ten players who can suit out and one of those has been sick all week. Even with those small complications I believe we are ready for this game.  Tuesday however I will probably come into class black, blue and, hardly able to move, I'm going to take a beating tonight as well as every Friday night between today and the end of October and I pray I make it through the season without any serious injuries.
On a different note I just finished a small welding project. My grandpa mows yards in manhattan and needed his trailer ramp rebuilt. It was broken in half on one side and then was built heavier than it needed to be. It almost took a tractor just to lift the ramp. It took me longer to build then it should have just because I never seem to have any spare time.  It didn't take much to do. It was a lot easier than the ramp I built for my trailer. This ramp is just a square covered in expanded metal with hinges on one side that attach it to the trailer. My ramp was a bifold. It was two pieces on four foot long and the other three foot long. These were attached with hinges so that the ramp folds out to seven feet long or can be used at only four feet long.  The only problem with the design of my ramp versus the one I built for my grandpa, is that mine is incredibly heavy. Someday when I am old I won't be able to lift it that is for sure.

Not a lot going on this week. Actually every week for the next couple of months will be pretty close to the same for me, school, work, football. That is pretty much all I do.  Football this year is going to be interesting, we only have ten players and only a few skill players which means we are pretty thin in the ball handling department.  We are having trouble practicing because of the so few players. It is hard to do hitting drills because when you don't have very many players you hit over and over again which is bad because it makes it easier to get guys hurt. Actually, our running back broke his collarbone just last week during a hitting drill. Not only are hitting drills tough but normal practice, like when we are just running through plays, is hard because we don't have enough players to have an offense and a defense which means we are just playing against air. It makes it hard to want to go full speed and give it your all when there is nothing to motivate you.
When I'm not playing football or doing school I'm at work and I don't get to work near as much as I would like to but I do when I can.  Right now we are just finishing up baling prairie hay and the third cutting of alfalfa we just have to finish hauling it all back to the farm. Which is a fun job or at least I think it is, especially when it is hot. Hauling hay involves sitting in a air conditioned cab with a radio and shifting gears. The hardest thing to do is get out and unhook and hook up the hay trailers. We are also getting close to gearing up for fall harvest. It is still a few weeks out but we are all looking forward to it. With all of the rain we had this year and a lot of it coming at very key times during the corn and bean growth cycles this years fall harvest is hopefully going to be really good. We are trying not to count our chicks before they hatch however.

Summer

It had been quite a while since my last post and a ton of stuff has happened although none of it was really anything spectacular. The main thing I've done though is work however since this summer has been sort of strange which has made doing some things rather difficult. With all of the rain we have had it has been hard to do certain things because it was either too muddy or because there was another chance of rain.  When it wasn't raining or to muddy I swathed, raked, and baled hay. Then once all of the brome hay was baled I spent around a week straight hauling hay. I counted one day and figure I hauled somewhere in the area of 250 round bales by myself.  This may not sound like it is very many but when you figure that each baled weighs roughly 1400 lbs. each. Which works out to be 350,000 lbs. of hay. Then once most of the brome was baled it was time to start wheat harvest which thankfully went without any serious breakdowns. Harvest had to be the highlight of my summer and not just because harvest is awesome and lots of fun but because I got to drive one of our semis on the road. I was able to upshift without too much trouble but downshifting and stopping I had trouble with which is probably a bad thing. Well that is a little bit about what has been going on and I will continue to tell you about my summer and what is happening over the next few weeks.

Well I have to say this has got to be one of the weirdest springs ever. One day it is 80 and sunny and the next day it is 32 and snowing.  I love snow and the cold but after a certain point it is time for it to warm up.
This Saturday I'm headed to Nebraska to pick up a couple of grain bins with a friend of my family, Mr. Dowell. He runs a charity called Planting Hope International. This charity ships these grain bins overseas to a guy in Laos.  This man, Kirby Rogers, is part of a company that sets up grain bins as harvest centers, which are basically like our co-ops. The goverment doesn't mind them setting up churchs with these harvest centers because the centers are helping the country make more.  We are leaving around 8:30 Saturday to go pick up several bins which will later be shipped to Laos. I'm looking forward to it. We should get home around 6ish Saturday night.  A couple of my friends are going as well so it should be a lot of fun.

Not a lot going over these last couple of weeks.  Blake and I did get the siding taken off the outside of my new bedroom on Friday, got it sheeted, house wrapped, and the new windows put it.

 

Just last week we did have some excitement. My sister Bethany went out to check on her goats and found a baby. Then while we were out there one of the other goats went into labor and my little siblings got to watch a baby goat be born

This one(Larkspur) was the one that was born while we were out there.

This one (Lilac) was the one Bethany found when she went outside.

 

 This has been pretty much the extent of whats going on. I've started working Saturdays though so I will probably start posting pictures of what is going on there. 

 
 













I started gutting my new bedroom two weeks ago. Blake and another friend, EJ Swihart, came up and in one morning we managed to gut nearly the entire room.  It was a mess. The room we were gutting was built just after the Civil War so there no insulation and over 100 years of dust inside the walls.  We actually had a neighbor point out to us that in the places that the dust is inches thick, the 1930s(the dust bowl) probably had a major role in the amount of dust.

Before is on the left. After on the right.

Here is a picture of some of mess. Believe it or not this isn't all that bad. At one point the entire floor looked like the right side of this picture.

 

 

We managed to do the nearly complete destruction in just a few hours. We had to get it done so we could go move a play set. 

My dad and I have been working on the room some over the last week and have managed to get more done. We have drywall on the ceiling and the slopes and we have the carpet ripped up.  We are ready to put the floor down but we have to wait because dad wants to put lights in the ceiling in the dining room. That is why there are holes in the floor in the below picture.  We also framed for the new window but have to wait for a nice day to put them in because we have to take the siding off the outside to do that.

If look at the floor you can see the hole in that we are going to use to put lights in the dining room and you can also see the drywall on the ceiling and the slope on the right side of the picture.

 

Here is the new window frame

I'm not really sure why this didn't post but this was a blog post that was supposed to publish a few weeks ago.