Blackacre Ranch: The New Minecraft

Good Morning!

My youngest brother, Clark (#5 of 6) recently got his first email account for becoming a Deacon this past week. Don't know why, that's just usually when my siblings and I would get to create our first email, at about 12. So naturally, being the wonderful older brother I am, I throw him into the next mass email so he can hear about spiritual stuff. 

Later that week, on Saturday, Clark made some comment about reading my email. I was thrilled, my younger brother actually cares about me! (Clark's awesome, my favorite brother currently shorter than myself.) I ask him what he thought of my email, and he says it sounded like I was giving a talk in church! I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but hey, why not have Sunday all over again on Monday?

Life is going at a regular pace now. I still feel like I'm wasting my time, but that's a bit unavoidable. However, I am choosing (more or less) to stay busy with the time I do have. I end up on the ranch 3-4 times a week, which is like 2/3rds of my not-Sunday days. I'm reading books, entertaining ones as well as spiritual ones. I have other goals to work on, like different scriptures to memorize, but I'm mostly just trying to get a schedule down. Waking up is still difficult, but it helps when you have 5 other siblings who are supposed to get up in the morning. At least, they're supposed to. We're not always successful. 

I'll keep the spiritual thought a bit short, maybe. When I was learning to play Minecraft (I was like 17) I was hanging out at a friend's house, and he was teaching me all about using the "right tool for the job". The pickaxe mines the stone, the axe is used on the tree, the shovel for dirt, and the sword for hitting things, like pigs and sheep. 

Sometime this past week I was at the ranch (big surprise) and I was tasked with digging a trench to uncover a 'T' intersection on a buried water line. Well, I was using one of our shovels and it was working out reasonably well. The soil was sandy, the day was cool, I forgot my water bottle . . . A typical ranch day. However, after an hour or so, I had made progress, but hadn't found what I was looking for. Then, my mom comes over and kindly mentions that I wasn't even digging in the right direction! 

Holy cow, imagine that blow to your ego. One minute you're doing 'pretty well' and the next you're exhausted and demoralized because all your effort was for nothing. Well, I start digging the other end of the trench, and this just sucks. I'm worn out and beat, and the job isn't fun anymore. Then, a thought strikes me. We have a pickaxe, don't we? So why not use it?

I collect said pickaxe and transport it to the dig site (I just walked, nothing fancy) and swing it into the ground for all I'm worth, and it works wonders! In half an hour I dug down and found more of the pipe, doubling the amount of progress I could make. I didn't find the intersection that day (Grant and I come back the next day and find it), but I learned one important lesson: there's a reason movies always have prisoners dig trenches with shovels, AND pickaxes. I think.

To the intended point - When you feel like you're spinning your wheels, or headed the wrong direction, try something a little bit different. Add another tool to your inventory, try going the other direction, or even get someone else's opinion on how to approach the problem. We're surrounded by family, friends and good people for a reason. So use their skills with yours, and you'll find what you need. 

Keep smiling, even if your week isn't as perfect as you think. There's going to be bad, yes, but there's always some good hanging around. You can't have one without the other. 

Talk next week!

- Talmage Williams

Pictures: 

Myself with my trench, and general ranch happenings.