Small and Simple Things

In case I've misled anyone, I want to show you that Rensselaer is not just a sleepy farm town.  We have big business as well.  There's Walmart.  A necessity for every city.  And other businesses too.

There's Ron's Barber Shop.  He also runs the auction shop.  He and Craig are on a first name basis.

 Oh yeah, doesn't every city have a roller rink?  OK, we've not been inside yet, but we see people lined up on Friday nights.

And then there is the John Deere dealership just down the road a piece.  I can't begin to imagine how much these tractors cost.  I think a lot of small farmers rent them.  

I don't know what they do here, but it is by far the largest building in town.

This building is right across the street from the last.  It is ConAgra (I think I spelled it  correctly) and it obviously has something to do with agriculture.  One of our ward members works here.  All I know for sure is they work 24-7.

As is to be expected, we have a lot of silo type structures in and around town.  This one is huge.  For the first week, we used this as our "landmark" to help us find our way home.

The streets in Rensselaer are laid out in a unique pattern.  Picture a large box with a smaller box cut out of the center.  The streets in the large box run directly east/west and north/south.  The streets in the small box (the city center) run diagonally like giant X's.  The main highway (231) runs north and south, but as it approaches the center of the city, it slants to the south west across the center of town and then turns south again.  The main east/west road (114) enters the city from the west, slants southeast, then continues west again.  So where they cross, neither road is going the direction you think it should be going.  Sheesh.  Wherever we were, we would just look for the silo to find the north part of town.

As with most towns, some people just cannot have enough lawn decorations.

As we approach "spring cleaning week" which as everyone knows is the first week of May, a lot of people are cleaning up their yards in preparation for planting.  They simply gather the dead plants and whatever else they may want to get rid of and burn them.

Yep, right in the middle of the backyard.  It smells really good.  Like campfires.  California and their silly fire laws.

All over you will see these little ponds.  Please excuse my finger in the corner.  I'm not sure how they are fed, but they never seem to dry up.  At least they haven't seemed to diminish in the 4 weeks we've been here.  And do they have a purpose I wonder.  There are not animals to graze (well, maybe except the deer that are wild and live everywhere we've heard, but we've yet to see any).

Craig FINALLY talked to the man in our small branch who has a tractor.  He was told that they don't plant until May.  Also, they don't till the soil.  Evidently, they don't have to.  Only the north east part of the county tills the soil because there is more clay content or some such thing.

We popped in for a visit, but they were not home.  He promised Craig he would call and let Craig ride in the tractor.

We do, actually, sometimes do missionary work.  We visited with Sister Shelton who has not been to church in a while.  We invited her to come to the Relief Society luncheon.  SHE CAME!!!  There were about 10 sisters there.  We all laughed and had a wonderful time.  Now if we can just get her to church.  All she needs to do is get up, get her daughter ready, and drive 40 minutes to church by 9 AM.  Piece of cake.

We have been several times to help Brother Wagner pack up his house to move.  Never once have we mentioned church.  Then last week, as he and Craig were moving boxes, he said, "I know I need to come back to church.  I'm going to try to get there on May 4th."  Out of the blue!!!!  In our struggling branch, even one more person is a lot.  This Sunday, we are having a pot luck lunch after the meeting.  We're going to give him a food assignment (he loves to cook) and hope he shows up.  Then we are going to invite Sister Shelton and tell her she can eat for free.  Heh heh heh.  If they both come (and no one is holding their breath here) it will be wonderful!!!

So far, we have been tornado safe.
We keep plugging away.