From the Home Place

December 30, 2025

The thermometer reads 24 degrees at 4 a.m. We are aiming at 45 for today’s high, with a NW breeze. I hope to leave the house soon to go look for a bugle cow. My tag expires tomorrow evening, so it’s down to the wire.

The date carried the same date as today, the year was 1982, Miss Deb and I were operating the home ranch. Two of our three kids were in school, but they were on Christmas break. During the night it had started to snow, again. We had close to a foot on the level, but as usual, most of the snow was in frozen drifts, making feeding a real issue.

We didn’t have a tractor that would start with the constant sub-zero temperatures, so feeding was the job of our very old 1967 Ford pickup. The ‘ol gal did have four-wheel drive and I had her chained up on all four. With 44 little square bales on her back, we headed north to feed the main bunch of cows. Though it was only a two-mile journey, it would take at least that many hours to get there, feed, chop ice and get back home, hopefully without getting stuck.

I bundled up and headed out. Letting Jenny (the name of the ‘ol Ford) warm up for a little bit while I carried four sacks of cattle cake over and placed them in the cab with me, next to the scoop shovel and axe. We were well loaded and hopefully about to make our way north. It was snowing and blowing so hard that the direction was somewhat questionable at times.

As we picked our way across the pasture because the two-track road had long disappeared, Jenny was working hard, chewing her way through snowdrift after drift. A bit of shovel work here and there and eventually we found the ‘ol gals waiting for us, behind their windbreak. I began feeding all of the hay we had on board, then scattered the cake on top of the hay. After walking through the old gals who seemed plum froze down and hungry, but healthy, we headed for the windmill.

There we found a condition that was not at all unusual, the riser pipe was frozen. So I carefully wrapped the four used cake sacks around the pipe from ground level to the discharge pipe. Tying each sack into place with the twine from the bales I had just fed. I then pulled Jenny as close as possible on the north side for a little bit of a windbreak, and then I did something I had never done before in this situation. I prayed.

You see, just months before, Miss Deb and I had both committed our lives to Jesus. Though we were neither immediately transformed, we were both growing in our new-found faith and were getting comfortable with calling upon the Lord to help us with the constant tough situations around the ranch. So, I prayed, asking the Lord to use my concoction to thaw the frozen pipe.

Using a handful of hay scraps from the back of the pickup as tinder, it took a couple of farmer matches, before the bottom sacks began to flame. Soon all four sacks were blowing flames in the wind. I remember enjoying the warmth of the fiery tower and continuing to pray that the mill would once again pump water. I did not have the time, and our cows didn’t have the energy for a two-mile hike through knee deep show to move to another pasture.

When the flames had died out, I used a pair of pliers to turn the sucker rod a little to the left and then a little to the right. I then slowly released the break on the mill and praised God as the sucker rod moved up and down, soon bringing water to the tank!

It took me a bit to get chopped through the ice in the tank, but as the windmill pumped fresh water and I was able to remove most of the ice, I crawled back into the warm cab of ‘ol Jenny and headed back south toward the house. That was the day I learned to praise Jesus for helping me with what could have been a real difficult situation.

Yes, I had used the cake sack thaw method before, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but today wasn’t about me, it was about my Heavenly Father helping me take care of critters. I must admit; there would be other times it seemed as if the Lord was sitting in heaven, laughing instead of helping, but for the most part, He seemed to be there to help us through tough situations.

In 1986 we would leave for Phoenix, Arizona so that I could begin my formal education to fulfill His calling me into full-time Christian ministry. Oh, for sure, there have been plenty of difficult times between then and today, but it is always good to visit with Jesus about the situation, even if He chooses to let me plod my way through such times with little help from Himself. Other times, I barely get finished praying before He begins to set thing on an healthy course.

So today, I will pray before getting into a different pickup but still heading north. And you can count on it that I will wait to see how God answers my prayers. For you see my friends, the answer isn’t of great importance, the conversation with my Heavenly Father is what is of greatest value. For long ago, standing by a frozen windmill I learned the truth of Psalm 50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.” Regardless of the hunting success of this day, I will “honor” God with my praise for allowing me to walk across the hills, visiting with my Lord and looking for a bugle cow.

I hope your day is also filled with times of praising our Lord!

Honoring Him with you, Neal