Fullamanure #5: Banking and everyone should own a bank

I spent most of my career in the finance industry and so it should be no surprise that I know bankers literally in every state of the union and have traveled to every state except Alaska, but it is on my bucket list.  As it turned out one of my friends or at least was a friend from Eufaula, OK talked me into investing in a new bank which he would start in Elk City, OK.  It was to be American National Bank and we started out in a trailer house.  I never moved there but was on the board and some committees at least for a period of time and that is why this story is a humbling one rather than a source of pride.  One thing I should tell you is that you should read the little blue book about your liabilities for owning and being on a bank board before you invest and get involved.  I read it after the fact and it scared the begizzies out of me.  yes, that is an OKIE word.

Well it started out fine in about 1987 after almost all the banks in Oklahoma had either been closed or were in financial difficulty due to the FALL of the oil industry during the Early 80's.  If you do not know, about every home builder went broke and anyone who served the oil business that had a loan went broke.  In fact Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma City was the beginning of the end when it was closed.  That little 40 million dollar asset bank grew to over 400 million (as I recall)  in just a few years but the worst part was they had originated loans and sold them off to National Bank of Detroit, Continental Bank of Chicago and a large bank in Seattle which I cannot recall the name.  They had originated loans in the billions of dollars and Penn Square just about took down the entire banking system and pretty much these three banks.  Ultimately there were over 100 banks in Oklahoma closed by the FDIC and it was down right ugly.  

Elk City had grown so fast before the bust that folks were living in tents because there was not enough houses or hotels.  The bust had occurred and every bank in that part of the state was in trouble so it made a lot of sense that starting a bank at that time would be easy and a safe bet plus a great way for those who had lost faith to move their accounts.  GREAT PLAN!  Things went well for a few years but then I remember asking some questions at the board meeting that angered the president and a few board members.  In particular I had asked how the president spends over $4,000 per month every month and we add about 4 or 5 checking accounts and a few small loans each month and spend this amount of money.  I remember asking if we would ever make enough money on these few accounts to pay back our investment not including salary expense.  You would have thought I started a fire as the president got really angry with what I was implying.  Then a few months later we had an expense for $26,000 (approximately) for concrete work.  I asked where the concrete work had occurred and again I got a few folks mad.  Just a few months later we got a letter from the Comptroller of the Currency requesting some clarification of the books and specifically how we had accrued some income from the settlement of some loans we had purchased from the closed bank in Hammond, Oklahoma.  A side note is we made the Wall Street Journal for making the first total asset purchase of a failed bank.  It was only about $4 million in loans but we paid the FDIC around $400 (as I remember) for the loans and then we went about re-working the loans to put them on our books.  It seemed like a steal and I would say it was originally.  To make this long story short, basically our president and one of his buddies had a side company where they charged the bank 30% of the loan as it was re-worked.  Sounds pretty smart except the entire thing crashed.  Yes, the bank was closed and we lost a lot of money.

Well this story got a little long so let's just clean it up with:
What do you learn in the Osage?

• If it looks too good to be true, RUN
• You cannot outrun a loser, think hard
• Don't ever regret your mistakes, learn from them
• Enjoy the victories as they make the losers small in the rear view mirror

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Rose colored glasses

Never let success get to your head.  Never let failure to get to your heart. I love this statement.  According to a study the number one reason for failure is arrogance.   I don't want to get into politics but it seems that Washington D.C.  has got  more than its fair share of arrogance.  My dad, Cliff Olson, use to say that sometimes we just get too big for our pants.  I think that is the same thing. OK, back to Rose Colored Glasses, which is the thinking that something is better than it is or at least seeing the positive side of things.  I guess that is me as I am a positive kind of guy and that I like to look for the good in things but sometimes that is a problem.  I think wisdom is the beginning of looking at both sides of the coin before drawing a conclusion.  Another way of describing that is through an example. Have you ever had someone draw a conclusion without knowing or at least examining the other side of the story?  I was examining a business opportunity for a friend of mine and he was very excited about the income opportunity and wanted to move forward on it.  He was exactly correct, he could make a lot of money with the new business.  I asked him how much of his time it would take and he said about 5 minutes each time and he would make more than $100.  I asked who would do the billing and collection and accounting and set up the appointments and run the ancillary operations.  I also asked him how much he would be giving up in income by spending 15 minutes each hour on this as he would perform the 5 minutes evaluation 3 times per hour (maximum).  I also suggested that he might not be able to assume 3 per hour and that some folks will take more than the 5 minutes.  Guess what?  when it was all said and done he would lose about $5 per hour. Then there is the story of a person who is getting a divorce because the other person cannot handle money and they are always broke.  But after talking to the other person there were at least 3 sides to the story.  His, Hers and the correct story.  She was not handling the money well because she thought making over $200,000 per year allowed her to be free spending.  She did not take into account that the house was about $400,000 and the monthly payment was over $3000 per month and the two cars were over $1700 per month and after taxes they were making about $14,000 per month and they needed to be saving 15% for retirement or more and that they had 3 children and two were teenagers with cars and they needed to be saving for college.  Of course they were going to private college and a private high school.  They were BROKE!  Not because of how much he made but because of the decisions they were making TOGETHER!  She had Rose Colored glasses on and he was focused on his image by the cars they drove, the schools their kids were in and the  house he said they needed to live in.  There is a lot right and a lot wrong with all of this. Don't we all look at life differently and some with Rose Colored glasses and some with a negative orientation and some with just plain naivety or lack of understanding. So what do you learn in the Osage? Always ask a few questions before giving our opinion Opinions are just that, OPINIONS Pause every time before making a decision except when driving, it might save you a lot of money and headache Put on your Rose Colored glasses and look at life, it will make you feel better Thanks for listening, gary@thepioneerman.com

My get up and go has gone up and went

It may not be a perfect quote but Janie Shumate performed a skit at the Osage county talent show and I honestly thought it was the most memorable skit ever.  Even more than the "Long tall Texan" skit which I was the front half of the horse and we were funny.  Does anyone remember that song, "A Long Tall Texas"?  Anyway, I will never forget that, but of course I have forgotten some of the details.  But here is the point, I am now 65 years young and most of my closest friends are just ahead or just behind and we find ourselves talking about how the world keeps moving and we seem to be slowing down.  Basically "My get up and go has gone up and slowed down".  Or,  has things just gotten faster and more demanding?  What changed?

Now we talk about who died, what hurts, what parents are doing or ailing from and where they should be living, when should I start taking social security and how I get the best deal on Medicare supplement policies (call Linda at my office if you need help, I love my policies), what kind of toys we want (like lake houses or retirement homes in Arizona or fishing boats), how much time we can spend with grandchildren (a wonderful blessing), how the new electronics work (iphone or android and especially our Alexa from Amazon), and food.

Now I have to admit I am not a foodie but Larry Travis makes the best Gumbo I ever tasted.  Larry is a foodie and I might as well mention Greg Jehlik and Jim Wicker are foodies as well.  For a small fee I will get that recipe for you but don't tell Larry I made money on his recipe.  Shari Cook makes a great corn bread and now Shouna makes it as well.  You have never tasted scallops until Greg Jehlik cooks them up for you.  I guess from all this you see why I have to cut back on food.  Speaking of weight gain, I don't know what happened because when I left high school I was full grown and weighed 205 pounds.  I know that is right because Coach Cotham put that in the football program and he would not tell a lie.  But today, well a few months ago, I was up to 270.  Now I am down to 250, Praise the Lord.

If you have not tried it, do what I did and lose 20 pounds.  My knees and hips don't hurt hardly ever and I feel 100% better and I get more done and have to sleep less.  Why did it take me so many years to figure out losing 20 pounds would make such a difference?  My pants even fit better, who would have guessed?

Well, I better get, I hear the garage door coming up and that means Shouna is home and I better get to work.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Your get up and go does not have to get up and be gone as soon as you think
• Focus on living and not on dying, lose some weight and feel better
• If you want to live a long life, don't speak evil, especially about other folks

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com

a Great example - Dale and Naomi Davis

Lately the flu that has gone around and ultimately took the life of my father in law, Dale Davis.  It was not quite that simple as he had the flu, double pneumonia, congestive heart failure and some kidney problems plus he was 90 years old.

As you know I always have a side story to interject.  Pneumonia was a mystery to me when Mrs. Shumate asked us to spell it on a test and I never forgot that Jim Heath and Joy Frank (number six of the Grainola Grubers) both spelled it correctly.  How was I to know that there was a silent 'P' on the dad-gummed word!  Who ever came up with that stupid idea?  Oh well, some things you just can't fix.  Back to Dale.

Dale was a great patriarch and had 48 family members (folks) and I think if i took the time it was a total of 50 with the two new ones in the family.  They were in the ICU and his grandson Daryl Davis brought in the guitars and Naomi (his wife) had crawled in the bed and took a nap until the music started.  Yes, in the ICU and the doctor said it was a first and it was also his ticket out of ICU.  It was a turning point and we all thought he would be home to El Reno soon, but that never happened.  He did go home but it was to his heavenly home.

He grew up a farm boy outside of Stuart, Oklahoma where music was a constant and TV was not.  But what was amazing is that from the very first time I met him until he passed he played any stringed instrument by ear and he taught every child and grandchild the love of music.  I would say he leaned toward old time county, like Bob Wills and many others, plus old time gospel.  I can honestly say not one time did I go to his house was there not guitars and piano and mandolin music played either in the garage before they moved or the living room in the new house.  Music was more important than football on Sunday afternoon or Monday night.  By the way  in case you do not know it, Stuart is close to Ashland where Naomi grew up which is on the way to Kiowa which is known for its high school graduate, Reba McEntire and yes Dale did play music with Reba when she was a little girl.  Reba would come up to the local meeting place in Kiowa and sing with all those who gathered.  I should also mention that Shouna (my wife) had a granddad (Naomi's dad) who played the fiddle until he was 103 and that ended only because he passed away.  He was also one of the Kiowa musicians.  For such a small town it sure had a lot of talent.

As a tribute to Dale and Naomi, I have to say the most wonderful thing about them is everyone in their family, that is old enough to know about Jesus, has heard the testimony of  NOT Dale and Naomi's words but their actions.  They served and served until they could serve no more and then served even more.  What a testimony!

Thanks for being a great father in law and mother in law (outlaws as I called them).

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Life is not about the words you speak but about how you live your life
• The biggest lie I ever heard was, "sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me".
• Quiet and deliberate behavior speaks louder than any words 

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Art and Mrs. Jacques a legacy worth remembering

I was not lucky enough to know Mr and Mrs Jacques until I started school in Shidler (1966), the big town nearby.  My first recollection of meeting Mrs. Jacques when AJ and Dave had a few of us over.  She fixed Indian fry bread with honey and butter and cinnamon.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  She could cook but most of all she was an exceptional hostess and made us all feel at home.  Now just thinking back about that, How did Dave and AJ not get huge from eating such great deserts.  You could say they took their food and just grew tall rather than out like me. 

Art always seemed to be a smart and gentle person who just would laugh at the things we would say and do.  He always seemed a little quiet and contemplative.  I suppose that is a nice way to say he was a thinker.  I don't remember seeing him or hearing him do or say an unkind act or word.   Another thing I always admired about Art and I guess I should give credit to Mrs. Jacques for it was that is he always was well dressed.  In particular I liked his white pressed western shirts and his felt hat.  I would say beaver hat but some folks might get offended by that.  Wordsmithing has become way to difficult these days.  For you folks who don't know it western felt hats were made from beaver and you could get different quality hats based on the quality of the hide.  Isn't that a slapper?  If you don't get it call me up and I will explain or you could just study beavers and find out that they would slap their flat tales on the water to warn their family of danger.  Now you know more than you ever wanted.

Now I do have to tell of one event at the Jacques ranch which I will never forget.  We were working cattle by the house and they had something I had never seen and quite frankly did not pay enough attention to until it was too late.  They had an ELECTRIC branding iron which they hung on the fence of the stock pens or shut as we called it.  Anyway I was making sure the cattle were moving in the shut when I accidentally slapped the electric branding iron with my hand.  It felt real good, after a couple of weeks.  It took the hide right off my hand and I was branded.  I guess that made me part of the family.  Anyway that hand started oozing droplets of water right fast.  I don't remember what Mrs. Jacques put on it other than cold water but I was feeling it for a few more days.  Today when I look at that hand it is hard to notice but there are a few small scars left.  Kind of like the scar on Jon Tanny Olsen's hand from when I stuck a pencil  in his hand when we were in about the 4th grade.  That is another story.

Oh well, time to close.
What do you learn in the Osage?

• Accidents can be learning opportunities
• Scars are so you don't forget
•  Wisdom is when you take those two together and warn the next generation to be careful

Thanks for listening,

We miss you Mr. Jacques,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Fullamanure #4: Everyone needs to be in a multi-level marketing company at some time in their life

Just to back up a few years, Shouna and I moved to Chicago in 1976 as I was transferred by EDS to work on a facilities management contract with Central National Bank of Chicago which is about one block from the Sears Tower and one block west of the old First National Bank of Chicago and on the west side of the L-train.  I was on the 3rd floor which is eye level with the L which was always interesting but noisy.  I was an SE - systems engineer which means I wrote programs for EDS and ultimately banks.  Just for a little more background and historical record keeping for my children, I was a programmer who wrote computer programs in assembler language primarily and reports were written in COBOL.  I doubt anyone knows what those languages are but maybe COBOL as assembler language is right next to binary / hexadecimal which are combinations of zeros and 1's or more specifically on or off.  Does that help at all? My most famous adventure in EDS lore was that I was an expert on what we called WAAPDSUT or I-AM-a-SUPPER-ZAP.  Basically it was a method to change things in the computer by breaking ALL security and it was a "lose your job" for trying it thing to do.  The funny thing about it was that we had installed a new banking system DDA which meant demand deposit accounting and it had a lot of problems which created what we called dumps.  Basically that means it broke often and generally in the middle of the night.  Bob Scott was a super smart guy who headed the team out of Dallas and I was the local Chicago person supporting the system.  It was the middle of the night when we got what was called a data-exception or SOC7.  In English that means the system crashed and no one's account would be updated in the morning unless it was fixed.  Well, I solved the problem and called Bob in the middle of the night and he told me to use the I-AM-a-SUPPER-ZAP routine.  I told him NO and he yelled at me, cussed at me and then threatened to get me fired if I did not use it to fix the problem.  I explained that I was trained that it was grounds for being fired if I proceeded.  Finally after a lot of yelling I did the deed.  As it turned out I became a hero and became the go to guy around EDS for  I-AM-a-SUPPER-ZAP. 

I should add that Bob became a close friend and moved to Chicago where he was the team leader.  At one time he told me I would become an alcoholic before he became a Christian.  He lost that one.  Should I also mention that Bob and his wife had a few of us over for a very formal dinner where the salad had cherry tomatoes on it?  Well as a side story I tried to eat one of those tomatoes and squeezed it in my mouth to the point it exploded and went all the way across the table.  Not COOL!

Back to the subject, shortly after joining First Baptist Church of Hoffman Estates we met some folks who seemed to drip with money, Brian and Marg Hayes.  Shouna and I were sitting in church and they were sitting next to us but after church they were extremely nice and invited us to a musical downtown at the McCormick Place.  A week later they dropped by our apartment in their motor home and picked us up for the musical.  We were impressed.  When we got to the McCormick Place Brian parked at the front door (a little surprising) and we got out and walked in.  To our surprise everyone there seemed to know the  Hayes family.  After the musical we met Rich DeVoss, founder of Amway and what seemed like a hundred people.  Again we were impressed.  We had no idea who we were with or what Amway was or even who Rich DeVoss was.  A few days went by and of course they shared the multi-level marketing plan with us and Shouna and I were off on another Fullamanure adventure.  In less than 12 months and a lot of stories later we were making more money part time in Amway than I was at EDS working about 60 to 80 hours a week.  Over the next five years we found ourselves traveling a lot with folks in Amway including our first trip out of the continental US together to Puerto Rico.  We even became speakers at Amway rallies and they flew us around the country to speak to hundreds and thousands of people.  It was a great time and shortly after Wynter was born in Hoffman Estates, Illinois in 1979 we moved back to Oklahoma to raise our lovely girl where she would know her grandparents and cousins.  It was a great time with lots of great memories and yes our Amway income continued for years even though we were not active until we forgot to renew one year.  

Well, what do you learn in the Osage?

• You can do anything you set your mind to
• Life is like a box of chocolates, you don't know what you might get
• Life is an adventure, keep your eyes on your goal and not on the effort

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Fullamaneur #3: Diversify but do it at the right time

In 1980 we moved back to Oklahoma from Elk Grove Village which is a suburb to Chicago where I worked for 5 years for EDS/Ross Perot.  I was still under 30 and lots of ambition flowed through my veins.  So about the end of 1980 I had found an acre of land in El Reno on Country Club Road close to Interstate 40 and where the town was growing.

Well I am still amazed she hung around me after all my idea, but we decided to build a day care center because everyone needed one these days and El Reno is where Shouna grew up and they needed a lot of services.  I got a bank to give me a loan and about $450,000 later I was in business and I had some wonderful folks in El Reno working and we were off to a great start.  BUT HOLD ON, I did not expect the state of Oklahoma to change the rules and reduce reimbursements for child services for folks on assistance by over 20% and then change the rules on how many children per student and raise taxes and add more paperwork.  I did not know the federal government was going to spend millions of dollars to open a single day care center much less several and each one that opened took a few more students.  I did not know that if you had a government daycare center like at the FAA which cost over $2 million and charged the same or less and paid the employees twice as much as me because they did not have a mortgage payment or property taxes.  Then the worst happened, Penn Square and First National Bank of Oklahoma City failed and about half the banks in Oklahoma were ultimately closed and as they use to say "the fat lady sang" in Oklahoma and about every company in Oklahoma was either broke or going broke and layoffs were everywhere.

Luckily I had a great job and as we started losing thousands of dollars a month then 5 and 10 thousand a month I figured out that other folks in the same business were broke and worse off than me.  In fact I went to the broke banks and found a few more daycare centers that were shuttered and I was able to purchase buildings that originally cost $500,000 for less than half and without any money down as long as I would make the payments on those buildings.  Well, suddenly I had a chain of daycare centers called "Country Club Children's Centers" and I was able to move from losing $10,000 per month to 5 then 3 then 2 then even make a little profit.  I did have to finally close the El Reno center because it was always losing money and if you remember "The Rainbow Bible" developed by Billy Huey of El Reno became the new owner.  My trash became their treasure and blessing.  Who says the Lord does not work in mysterious ways?

To end all this I would say I learned a lot about a lot of things.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• In every pile of manure is fertilizer for something to grow, just give it time
• The lessons you learn make you ready for the next hill
• After every hill you climb there will be another hill on the horizon and in the next valley is fertile soil for another dream to bloom, maybe growing right out of that old manure patty

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com

check out http://www.lanelegacy.company/

Fullamaneur story number 2: If you have a dream, make it happen!

I am so blessed in that I have a wife and sometimes a reluctant family (when they were younger) who allowed my ideas to become real and I would have to admit that Mom and Dad did a lot to encourage me to follow those dreams.  So here we go on #2:

I am trying to figure out what year we started THE PUMPKIN PATCH as it was to become known.  It must have been about 24 years ago when I purchased a farm west of Edmond on 178th between May and Penn.  It was nothing but 80 acres of sunflowers and ragweed but I saw something much bigger, A FARM, but not just any farm.  I saw what I called Green Acres Farms.  Actually I got that name because my family and especially my wife made fun of me as I would go out after work in my dark suit, white shirt and tie and get on my tractor and start working.  Now if you are not old enough to remember the TV series Green Acres with Eva Gabor and Eddie Albert whom always dressed formal, like me, on his farm you should look it up and watch a few of the shows.

We really did not get started with the idea of a pumpkin patch but it was about June 1st when I took over the farm and the only crop I could get planted and harvest that first year was pumpkins.  So the entire family got to work including Mom and Dad who now lived in Perkins Oklahoma (long story on how and why they left the Osage for Perkins where Dad carried the mail and Mom opened a TV and appliance store).  We plowed and worked about 20 acres and planted it to pumpkins.  I researched and laid down drip pipe and used a water well to pump water 7 days a week 24 hours a day through miles and miles of lay flat pipe to reach the drip pipe with drippers every 12 inches.  Things went pretty well until around the middle of August when the pumpkin plants were getting pretty big and someone tossed a cigarette out the window placing the entire section on fire.  There were no houses within a couple of miles but the flames were extremely high and the fire was hot and fast as it moved south to north.  I was on my way back from Kingfisher when I saw a giant amount of smoke in the distance.  Naturally I thought it was close to the farm but not the farm.  As I got closer and closer I figured it was our place.  Fire trucks were everywhere and Wynter and Chase were there driving vehicles off the property (remember Chase was 9 and Wynter was 12).

Well the great thing was it burnt off all the dead grass but it burned down the barn and Ford tractor but the real blessing was the fire jumped right over the plastic pipes (I guess because there was cold water in the pipes) and the water never stopped flowing and NONE of the pumpkin plants were damaged.  Our farm made the front page of the Daily Oklahoman and we were famous, the hard way.

Well, when October rolled around we had contacted a few schools and churches to see if they would like to have a field trip to the pumpkin patch where we would tell them how God made provision for us through farming and crops and seeds and hard work.  SURPRISE SURPRISE!  It went crazy and we had thousands of folks come out to pick pumpkins.  In fact we estimated over 25,000 people came the first year.  This could be an entire book of stories as we continued over the next 7 years opening our farm to as many as 75,000 folks the last year we were open.

Today the farm is known as Clifford Farms, named after my dad and one of the streets is named Opal Lane.  If you know much about me you know most of my companies are named Lane Legacy or Lane Financial or something similar.

In summary we really never made a lot of money but we made a lot of memories and gave a lot of memories as we plowed all the money back into barns and tractors and more farm equipment and trailers for hay rides and then animals and a lot of hired help.

So what do you learn from the Osage?

• If you build it, they will come
• It is not what you get in life but what you give
• If you take a little manure and mix it with a dream you get a great memory

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

take a look at http://www.lanelegacy.company/

Home on the Range: What do you learn at 13,190 feet

Home on the Range: What do you learn at 13,190 feet

Home on the Range: The Osage created Entrepreneurs and Fullamaneurs, ...

Home on the Range: The Osage created Entrepreneurs and Fullamaneurs, ...: Being from the Osage is a big advantage in life for a lot of reasons.  Over the years folks have called me a lot of things and most of them...

The Osage created Entrepreneurs and Fullamaneurs, I am the latter.

Being from the Osage is a big advantage in life for a lot of reasons.  Over the years folks have called me a lot of things and most of them I probably don't want to know.  But, the most common thing I am called (to my face anyway) is Entrepreneur.  Now, I would have to take exception to that and tell you I am just a Fullamaneur (full of manure).  You can be assured a lot of what you have heard about me is true and probably a lot is not but I thought it might be fun to tell you of a few of my ventures and why living in the Osage, Shidler and Grainola were so extremely valuable to my life and I absolutely would not change it even with some of the pain I have had to go through.

My first story of a true Fullamaneur venture:  Brad Krieger (past president of Arvest Bank in Oklahoma), hope he does not mind me telling this story, and I started a company for our two sons, both named Chase and born about 2 weeks apart.  Now Brad is about the smartest person I have known and he is certainly one of my biggest fans.  Now that I think about it, the reason he is one of my biggest fans is he is about 6 ' 6" and 300 pounds.  He could probably take one hand and grab a person's head and squeeze it like a pimple until it pops but he is about as soft spoken and nice a person you can find.  OK, back to the story.  Brad filed the papers with the State of Oklahoma and named our company 2COK, meaning 2 Chases, Olson and Krieger.  Now you would think a guy as smart as he is and president of a bank would know better.  You see, our boys were about 16 years old at the time and good looking and their business cards would read 2COKs tree planting services.  Do I need to explain what is wrong with this?  If you don't get it just call me and I will explain.  I pointed this situation out to Brad and he thought it wise to change the name to C2OK.  And yes, Brad and I purchased the biggest tree spade you can find attached to the biggest truck you can find so our boys could dig and plant BIG trees.

Headache after headache to keep that thing going and we dug very few trees and thus planted very few.  In fact I think I did almost all the digging and planting for free.  So you see we purchased another story in our lives and have a many a laugh over it.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Think BIG and do something, it is better to fail than to never try
• If you want a good story be willing to spend some money on it
• Smart folks don't always get it right the first time either

Thanks for reading 

gary@thepioneerman.com

TV Antennas and what goes around comes around

Well I don't know about you but when I was living in the Osage on Beaver Creek (yes, beaver creek was a for real place) we had two TV channels to watch 2 and 6 but if you lived on a hill you might get 5 like Eddy Harris and Jon Tanny Olsen (yes, his real name is Tanny and his grandparents were Nanny and Tanny, for real).  Now Jon Tanny not only had 3 stations but his family had a color TV.  The only color we had  on our TV was the wood frame it was in.  Did I mention that the TV was about 25 inches square and about 30 inches deep in the back where there were about a hundred tubes ( a little exaggeration)?  It probably weighed at least 50 pounds.  Now back to the point.  Everyone had an antenna which we called rabbit ears because it had two telescoping metal rods attached which you spread out and pointed until the TV channel was at its clearest.  And yes, you did have to adjust it often especially if there was a cloud cover.  I do remember one of the most annoying parts to this was it seemed the TV picture was like a page in a book and kept flipping over and over again.  It drove me nuts at times but if you could tune things in just right the picture would not flip like pages in a book.  Thank goodness to Mr. Rash (Jerri and Jodi's dad and of course Gene)  he could fix any TV and if he did not Uncle Bill Heath could but he lived in Ponca (short for Ponca City).  Yes, he was Jim Heath's uncle as well but he was much cooler being my uncle, just kidding.  I love Uncle Bill and Aunt Peggy but that is another story or group of stories.  Just ask me about Aunt Peggy making strawberry daiquiris'.

Well, we got trapped again in side stories.  Antennas,  I just read the other day that only about 20% of folks today know that you can still use antennas with your TV.  I am SHOCKED.  The fact is if you get an antenna (they look very different today and you need an HD antenna) you can get about 38 stations and get rid of cable or satellite TV saving close to $100 per month.  You see, the cost of an antenna is about $15 and the 38 channels are FREE.  You do not even need Internet service.

That brings me to the next point.  If you have Internet service you can get a ROKU device (about $30 and you don't need the flashy one which is about $100) which gives the TV access to the Internet and you can get about any channel you want for a small monthly fee and in many cases free.  If you are a movie freak you can get Netflix or better yet Amazon Prime which gives you movies and free delivery of items via Amazon.  Last month almost 1 million people unhooked cable TV or Satellite TV and saved over $100 per month.  Just FYI, don't get the Apple TV as it limits access to a lot of channel options over the internet (sorry folks who are Apple nuts but they are very proprietary).

Back to Antennas!  Who would have ever thought?  Cheap and easy, I like the sound of that.  It reminds me of sitting on the porch on Beaver Creek in the evening listening to the wind going through the trees and the coyotes howling and many times walking across the hill side outside the front porch of the house.  Those are great memories and I don't even need an antenna.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Don't throw away your antenna
• Listening to the wind and coyotes is better than CNBC or Fox and a lot less annoying
• Peace of mind is found in your own heart

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Cable TV

I sit here and laugh about CABLE.  When I was a kid in the Osage cable was something we used to build fence or hang a water gap.  I am sure you have seen cable fencing so I will not explain but you probably don't know what a I mean by a water gap.  We lived on Beaver Creek and where water or the creek ran from our land to Aunt Helen Conner's place or the McConaghy's or from the Harris family or the Kelly's place we had to build something across the creek that could withstand flooding and ultimately keep the cattle and other livestock on our place.  Well I remember hanging cable from one giant oak tree on one side of the creek to another oak on the other side.  We used the tractor and pickup both to pull the cable tight.  I bet that cable weighed 1000 pounds or more so there was not an option.  Then we hung old farm implements in the middle to block the crossing.  The way it worked was that trees that died up the creek would wash into the water gap we built and create a barrier to the animals from getting out of the pasture.  Hopefully that was a clear picture of a water-gap.

Alright, back to CABLE as you know it.  Basically there was NO cable TV or Internet but only a hard wire for telephone and it hung overhead attached to the same poles as the electric line.  We had a TV antenna we called rabbit ears to connect the non-HD TV stations (we had 2 channels)  we had available in Grainola.  Now those Shidler and city kids from Grainola got at least 3 stations with their rabbit ears.  Another cool thing was the TV itself.  It was about 100 pounds and at least 3 feet deep and the face was about 20 inches before it got to be 29.  Also the back was filled with tubes not chips and either Uncle Bill Lane or Uncle Bill Heath or Joe Rash (Shidler TV and Appliance) had to come out and replace a tube on occasion.  The one thing I can say is it was always fun because they would typically come in the evening and it was fun to visit with them and watch the repairs and testing of those tubes.

Somewhere or sometime after I started college we got something really fancy called coax cable.  It was one copper wire inside some kind of shielding material and wrapped in black plastic.  You might still have some today at your house typically installed by Cox or AT&T.  Now we have a satellite called dish which brings it into the house using some of the coax cable but that is now old technology and we are getting our TV channels on an antenna for local stations, about 38 stations and it is HD.  We are in the process of getting rid of the satellite on the roof as we have a ROKU and Apple TV and all kinds of options beyond that.  We were actually paying over $150 per month to watch about 1 hour of TV a week and that was for spring storms/weather.  Come to think of it when I was in college I was paying $60 a month for Shouna and my first apartment rent.  I think that included utilities.


So, we went from paying nothing to almost $150 per month back to nothing.  We do pay $8.50 per month for Netflix and of course Amazon Prime which is $100 per year but includes tens of thousands of movies and other shows and FREE shipping for anything ordered on Amazon which is typically delivered in less than 2 days from anywhere in America.  WOW!!!!!!!  I love these wacky names but here is another which I have not done.  I am looking at SLING so I can get all of ESPN and FOX News for $20 per month.  I have not decided, yet.

I should also mention I still have a home phone number which 38% of Americans have discontinued.  I pay less than $4 per month and get it over the Internet using OOMA which includes all the cool features.

OK, that gets me to the real point of all of this.  Why if technology makes things better and cheaper am I paying $185 per month for two cell phones plus the new IPHONE is going to be $1000 or the Samsung which is about $750?  I think something is screwy when a commodity and a necessity like this is so pricey and it keeps going up.  I think we have a legalized monopoly and I thought that was against the law.  And why does the government GIVE 38,000,000 free phones to folks? At tax payers expense!  In case you did not know it the government does not pay for anything with its money but with yours if you pay your fair share or unfair share of taxes!

CABLE has come and gone just like the land line for telephone and 8 tracks and cassettes and desk top computers and floppy drives (who thought up that name?) and the list goes on and on.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Life is full of change and we have to adapt
• Spending can get out of control so you have to stay on top of it
• Embrace the future and get over the past and enjoy life 

Love ya'll,

gary@thepioneerman.com