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Bits & Balderdash

Early in February I began to try and eat better, exercise more and generally just take better care of my health.

I used to refer to my self as pre-diabetic but the reality is that I am a diabetic! Last fall I scored an A1C of 7.0 for which I was very happy considering I've had A1C's as high as 11+! That is not good! I had a recheck of my A1C in March and it was 7.3 for which my doctor was very happy. But in reality I knew the real truth.

With my daily blood glucose number a total mess, in early February some good friends I know were just beginning a new healthy eating regimen. So Lynn and I thought what would it hurt.

After just a few weeks my morning fasting blood glucose reading were down into the 90-110 range. While not perfect ... GREAT for me!

As a bonus, in early February my weight was at 208, at of today, April 9th I'm down 23 pounds to 185! I'm super stoked! My new milestone if to reach 170 which is only another 25 pounds!

I'll keep you posted!

Pastor Steve   

What An Adventure!

Five ears ago, Lynn and I bought our first home i n Oskaloosa. For all the years
before that in ministry, we'd always lived in a parsonage in both Pittsfield and Clear Lake. (A parsonage is a home provided, owned and up-kept by the church.)

After buying our home we began renovations! One of the things I've always wanted was a wood burning stove, so we installed one in what we now call the fireside room, which was a three-season room we converted to a four-season, with a wood burning stove!!!

One of the men of our church (Jerry) helped me (did all the work as I watch) with the stone work around the wood burner. He did a wonderful job!

While he was working on the stonework we made plans to cut a couple of truckloads of firewood and then split it at his place in the country. We had a wonderful day in the timber and I loved hanging out with him. However, shortly after our day in the timber and splitting wood, my friend Jerry was called home to heaven. Words cannot express how thankful I am for the opportunity that I had to spend time with Jerry!

Sometime after the funeral, I called his wife and asked if I could use the wood splitter to which she responded "No". My heart sank. When she continued "my daughter and I think that Jerry would have wanted you to have it!" I was floored!

That is where this blog post is headed ... Servicing the Wood Splitter!

This spring I put in fresh fuel, changed the oil and the last thing I wanted to do was replace the filter for the hydraulic fluid system. Now that was an adventure!You see, Jerry built this splitter from the ground up and I had no real idea where to get a replacement filter.

The only information I could find was the brand: CROSS. The only other writing that I could make out was "25 MICRON". So the search and the phone calls began!

Long post longer, it became a 4 day process that included either phone call or visits to businesses in Des Moines, Pella, Ottumwa and Oskaloosa! The search ended when a guy at an Auto Parts store in Oskaloosa said he was not willing to give up until WE figured it our ... and he did! In the meanwhile I smoothly drained over 2 gallons of hydraulic fluid all over my garage flood! So I go buy 100 pound of oil dry and start cleaning ... But the wood splitter is fully serviced and ready for another season for splitting fire wood!

What an adventure!

Pastor Steve

Note from Pastor Steve: I've had this article written for a week waiting for some pictures of the wood splitter ... have not gotten that done yet for I'm posting this now and maybe someday I get some pics of my splitter and get them posted as well.