Red Dirt Ramblers – Stop #1: Get To Know Kathy Moore of Anichini-Moore Ranch & Farm

Kathy Moore shares her passion with Kelly & Julie at Gray Owl Coffee.

Note: See the introduction post to this series HERE…

(Kelly’s perspective) It’s 10:00 a.m.,Tuesday, December 28, 2010.  Julie and I are headed south on I-35.  Our destination? The Gray Owl Coffee house in the heart of Norman.  She and I have spent less than thirty minutes together at this point, yet I’m comfortable and can already tell traveling with her would be just fine.  In fact, I’m thinking it might even be better than traveling by myself for this particular journey…and I’m a highly expressed introvert; traveling by myself is one of the greatest rewards I give myself.  Julie is sitting in the passenger seat with an ink pen and a half-sized legal pad, trying to write down – in chronological order – all the “Bomgardner sons” our common great-grandmother had.  Stumped with some of the missing facts, we call my dad to ask for help filling in the gaps.  As he provides the details, I become sobered when he recalls a story that was, until this point, only a brief shred of substance in the back of my head.  He tells us that one of the boys had died during a move to a new home.  They were either building or taking down a cellar and it caved in on him.  For a few minutes my mind begins thinking about the safety cellars in Oklahoma provided from tornadoes and inclement weather, and could – at the same time – be dangerous as exemplified in his story.

We overshoot our exit because I am busy talking to Julie about something.  We double back and began to make use of her iPhone GPS device; those things are handier than a pocket on a shirt.  We park and walk into the Gray Owl at the exact time for our appointment. As I enter the “best coffee place in Norman,” I begin scanning the room for any sense of recognition.  I know Kathy Moore only from her photo on the internet and have no idea when it had been taken.

I find her sitting in the middle table right across from the cash register; I know it’s her because there is enough familiarity with her website to be certain.  Julie and I head over to her table, say hello, order our drinks and settle in for what would be a two-hour narrative by Kathy of her life, her farm, her hopes that still exist, and her dreams that have been told “goodbye.”  A short version of what we gleaned from this meeting follows:

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The Ranch Hand’s Guide to 2011

We’re just a few days into 2011, and I don’t mind admitting to you that I didn’t make any resolutions this year.  I didn’t last year either.  However, there are some general guidelines that I can list on one hand that help me enjoy my days here at the ranch. This list comes with a visual: a hand.  The hand starts closed, and as you read through the list, open one finger each time.  Start by opening your pinky first.  Go ahead.  No one is watching.  Just do it.

pinky
Start with a closed fist (most people approach new things that way anyway) and open one finger at a time as you read.

1.     Never wrestle with a pig.  You both get all dirty, and the pig likes it.

2.     If you can’t sing – dance.

3.     Some people grin and bear it.  Other people smile and change it.

4.     Ride the horse in the direction it’s goin’.

5.     You can’t keep trouble from visitin’, but you don’t have to offer it a chair.

At this point you’ve got an open hand.  Hopefully it will lead you to an open heart.

Open hand
You don't have to wear gloves, but let me warn you...this does not work while wearing mittens.

In the weeks to come I’ll be translating these “Ranch Rules” into “City Speak” for those of you who prefer to live there.  I’ll also be providing some examples of how these rules have been applied to my life out here on the ranch.

Now, there are a few of you who are pretty smart and can translate these all by yourself.  That’s great!  There are even more of you who will find a way to apply each of these after I give the examples.  Everyone else may just have to live through 2011 (and maybe 2012) before they realize these rules might just be better than resolutions.  In other words….

“There are three kinds of men.  The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation.  The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves. “ ~ Will Rogers

2011 is here.  Let’s give it a HAND.

[julie]

For “Ranch Hand Guide” Week #2 post, click here.

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Almost Silent Sunday: 1/2/2011 – Boe’s Sunrise Stories

I’ve known Boe Parrish since he was the Children’s Minister at MetroChurch back in the early 90s.  I first saw him providing a chapel service for the Oklahoma Christians Schools (OCS) elementary group.  The students were sitting on the floor in an auditorium, and he was standing on the stage sharing an object lesson with them in what I can only describe as a loving and regulated voice.  As I leaned against the back wall waiting for chapel to be over so I could take my daughter to the dentist, I asked someone his name.  Later, I began teaching at the OCS high school and saw him from time to time on campus.  A few years later I recall that he wrote a book.  Then I think I saw him on and off at Panera Bread in Edmond for several years, either having breakfast by himself or with a friend – sometimes praying, sometimes studying, sometimes listening. Later he was helpful in facilitating information about a former student who got hit by an SUV while out of state, then again…facilitating information about a dear friend who recently died.  Boe has been in the periphery of my life for a good long time now.

As I was preparing this post I kept thinking back to my memories of interactions with Boe.  My predominant thought is to recall him looking up, meeting my eyes, and smiling.  His smile hasn’t changed and is almost an institution in the City of Edmond.  It genuinely warms my spirit each time I meet the glance of his face.  Which leads me to the reason I’m sharing his narrative with you today…

Boe has been posting snapped photos of early morning sunrises in Oklahoma on Facebook for quite some time.  His folder now has over 40 of them.  He’ll post one about every week or so…sometimes a few at a time.  I always enjoyed them but never knew the context for which he was gathering these brief moments of outdoor beauty or why he shares them.  Now I do.  It seems that he’s somewhat of a transportation service provider to a couple of his family members…but I’ll let you read the story in his own words.  Then I’ll share with you a few of his “Simply Glorious” (his title for the photo folder in which he stores them) sunrises he’s enjoyed over the past year or so.  Okay, I’m sharing nineteen of them.  So, for your “Almost Silent Sunday” moment with the RDC, here are Bo’s Sunrise Stories, provided in his words and with his cell phone or camera:

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Red Dirt Ramblers ~ Intro, Kick-Off, and a Road Map…

In the 1970s, George Salter of the Atlanta Journal began a trek that would evolve into his blip on the radar of American History.  He would pick any small town in the state of Georgia, travel there and begin to ask around.  Eventually, he would find a story worth telling.  And then he’d tell it.  I wasn’t even aware of this work when I began to mull over traveling around our great state this past summer and taking roads not well traveled.  I wanted to meet the people at the very ends of the trails…those who had lived lives I would never experience unless I somehow came in touch with them.  It was then that one of my friends commented to me during our discourse, “Yeah, like the Georgia Rambler!”  After researching his work, I thought to myself… “Yeah, like the Georgia Rambler.  Exactly.”

But this is 2011, and my state is Oklahoma, and I’m a girl who was born some time after the Georgia Rambler so it can’t be ‘exactly.’  It might not even be ‘nearly.’  And, to begin this series I had targeted areas I wanted to learn about (as opposed to randomly just beginning to look around) – as well as wishing for a traveling companion the first time out.  Perhaps I should tell you about both of those wishes before I begin to share about the people we met and places we visited over a period of about 40 hours last week.

First…my companion:  I had as my ride-along none other than our Homestead and Garden writer, Julie at the Ranch.  A back story about her and I includes the fact that we are third cousins who never got to know each other until this past year, and that’s only because of the social networking phenomenon we now take for granted.  Julie packed her bags, loaded up her vehicle and headed toward Oklahoma last Monday morning.  Her first stop was Collinsville to see friends from her college days at OSU.  Monday night they greeted, ate, laughed and got caught up from the time they saw each other last.  The next morning, she headed to Edmond and by 10:00 we were on the road driving toward Norman.  Our agenda was loose, flexible and neither of us were highly committed to any of the ideas we were bandying about betwixt us.  In the end, however, a journey was made.  People were met.  Things were learned.  And somewhere along the way Julie and I found out just how connected our lives had been while growing up even though we never formerly spent time together.

Continue reading Red Dirt Ramblers ~ Intro, Kick-Off, and a Road Map…

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Simple Sabbath: Hope is in the Eye of the Needle

Mark 10:17-27

Maybe you’ve read this passage before, or perhaps a similar passage in Matthew or Luke.

The story is basically this: Jesus was ministering one day and a rich guy runs to him as Jesus is about to leave, falls on his knees and asks how he can inherit eternal life.  Jesus gives him the standard 10 commandment “don’ts” and the rich guy states he has kept all these commandments since his youth.  Then Jesus goes on to direct the guy to sell all his possessions, give the money to the poor and follow him.

At this, rich guy gets bummed out and leaves because he has a lot of stuff.  Jesus tells his disciples it’s easier for a camel to make its way through the eye of a needle than the rich to go to heaven but, that through God, “all things are possible”.

I love the reading of this passage in Mark, particularly, because it states that Jesus looked at him and loved him.  Won’t it be cool some day when Jesus looks at you that way?

This passage has given me a lot of reason to pause and think over the years because so many people like to write the end of the rich guy’s story in a negative frame.  But I’d caution you; the end of this particular story is not written in the Bible. So many folks just assume that the rich guy did not do as Jesus instructed him, but we don’t know whether he did or not.  I’ve heard people use this passage as New Testament justification for the death penalty.  But this passage ends with hope: “with God all things are possible.” In other words, rich guys getting into heaven and camels getting through needle eyes.

I encourage you to find the hope Jesus’ disciples were presented on that day.

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