Mortality, Might, and Mt. Everest

kellyhui via Compfight cc

kellyhui via Compfight cc

New Zealand mountaineer, Russell Brice, has had his share of mountain top moments. He has reached mountain peaks higher than 8,000 meters (26,247 ft) 14 times, including the famed Mt. Everest twice.russellbrice

And since 1974 he’s been helping other climbers achieve their climbing goals as owner and manager of Himalayan Experience Ltd. Needless to say, fewer people in the world have more expertise on the mountain than Russell.

Yet this is what he says of Mt. Everest: (more…)

John Deere 8640 tractor

How To Maintain Proper Perspective in Hard Times

The summer of 1999 was a special season for me. I got to fulfill a childhood dream of working and living on a farm. (Many thanks to Lee and Barb Miller of Barlee Farms!)

On one particular afternoon, I found myself in an 8640 John Deere 4×4 tractor pulling a 42’ wide field cultivator in a field that was 80 acres.

John-Deere-8640

It is hard to describe the kind of pull that that field cultivator put on the tractor when I dropped those iron teeth into the black Iowa soil.

(more…)