Right on Brian, I thought Damon would jump right on this story. His grandpa Jack C. was the ultimate shovel man. He had his personal shovel and you’d better not touch it. He would give you the shirt of his back, lend you anything he had, jump in and help you or do it for you. But never touch his shovel. I think everyone that tried to use his shovel had Jack tune them up to the point of wetting themselves.

He was a very good farmer and his shovel was his main tool - an extension of his arm. If he wasn’t in his truck or on his tractor he had it ready for work. I saw him cut a weed that was so close to a plant a Japanese Gardner would have had to of been on his knees to accomplish that feat. He was the master of irrigation. He could set a stream of water while I was getting my boots on. Digging headers or pulling furrows through, there was none better. Jack was named farmer of the year once so I can say he had shovel of the year also.

He kept his shovel sharp as a razor and expected everyone to do the same. I can still hear him saying as he checked my shovel “what you doing with that club?” To him a sharp shovel was a shovel a dull one was a club. A sharp shovel will cut so much better than a club, and that means it takes less energy to do the same work.

Nothing I have written is news to a farmer -for that matter any craft is made easier by having good tools that receive good care. So in closing “YES BRIAN YOU ARE A STRONG MAN IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE”