Chapter 5

Day 5 as a Millionaire (Saturday, March 14, 2009)

Life is still great! I had another fantastic night's sleep. Even if the clouds had rolled in and it was stormy outside I still had the feeling it was going to be a great day.

Since this was my Sabbath, I was going to focus my energies in contemplation of my life and the blessings I was receiving. Some meditation and communion with my maker will focus my energy in positive directions. It is easy to let the daily ebb and flow of life distract from a higher purpose in life.

I don't think I have entirely adjusted to the loss of my wife of twenty years. I've been keeping busy so there has not been a lot of time to dwell on my loss. I draw comfort from my confidence that she is sleeping in the care of our Lord until he returns to this world to resurrect his faithful ones to join with those of his followers who are still alive and to take them to his home in heaven. I know that if I continue to live in the faith of his power to save and to cleanse me from sin that I will someday rejoin my wife.

I am feeling surprise at my recent good fortune. I have not really taken hold of the idea that I am now a multi-millionaire. Although I now have the confidence that I can now make pretty much any purchase I might want, I still find myself trying to be frugal in how I spend my money. My purpose in life has now become to share my knowledge as well as my finances in a way that will help people the most. I don't believe in just giving people money. It is much more beneficial to them to teach them how to be responsible and effective on their own behalf.

The sudden potential growth for my communications marketing business is also surprising. Perhaps my financial self-confidence is coming through in my presentations so that I do not seem desperate for new prospects so the people I talk with are able to take confidence in their ability to also become successful. I have great hopes for the success of my new found friends that are joining my organization in The Dalles region.

The turn about in my real estate business has also been amazing. I know my future success will be tied to how well Terry performs as well as the response to my web marketing. In fact, if leads keep coming in we will need to add some additional agents and perhaps some support staff as well. Success and competent people seem to be migrating my way.

Now, I seem to be becoming a savior to Melissa and her ranch. I really enjoy watching her excitement grow as she begins to see hope for the potential of her ranch. I need to be careful to keep this clearly a business friendship. Neither of us is prepared for a romantic involvement at this time. I will also need to be careful that Trudy and Beverly do not develop a romantic attachment to me. If I can become something like a favorite uncle for both of them, that would be perfect.

This business with Tom was another concern. I can see how much hurt he has caused Melissa and Trudy. Even his own father has very little respect for him. I need to encourage them to deal with the situation in a way they will not regret in the future. Although revenge may be Melissa's strongest motivation at this time, she needs to be able to live with herself in the future. I hope I can help her deal with him in a way that will be consistent with the kind of person she is down deep. It was amazing to see how devious, yet how stupid he had been with the livestock his uncle tried to give to Melissa. We will need to walk carefully in dealing with that situation.

It is time to shower and prepare for breakfast now. I just realized that Emma or Adrianne have taken care of my laundry yesterday. My dirty cloths bag (reused Wal-Mart shopping bag) is empty and a dresser drawer contains my freshly laundered clothing. I put on a new pair of jeans and a new western style shirt I brought along with me from home. I even had a pair of civil war boots to wear. After finishing off my shave I go downstairs to the Dining Room where breakfast is being laid out. I filled a mug with coffee and had just sat down when a whirlwind of activity and chatter came down the stairs and into the room. Adrianne's four friends all called out a greeting to her as she brought a large platter of hash brown potatoes into the room. They then greeted me. Amazingly, I was able to greet each of them by name too. Apparently they had visited both of the town's bars last night. They had been judicious in their consumption and none of them seemed to be suffering any ill effects.

As we consumed the delicious breakfast they continued to rehash their activities and the people they met last night. I noticed that Beverly was not here and asked Emma about that. She replied "I took Beverly over to stay with Trudy last night. They're still getting over being separated for a week and wanted to spend the night together. You'll probably be hearing from that household soon this morning"

Caitlyn and Bailey again tried to quiz me some more on the marketing business. I told them that I spend my Sabbath in activities related to building relationships and helping people. I try to leave my business behind for the day and focus on my God and how I can help my fellow man. "I will tell you everything you want to know this evening at Trudy's PBR"

"So, what are you doing to build relationships today" asked Zelda.

"I believe I will be taking a ride up into the hills north of Melissa's ranch. I'm taking my camera along and will see what kind of nature pictures I can add to my collection. Beverly and Trudy promised to show me some beautiful scenic views that are only accessible by foot or horseback."

"Perhaps we'll have some pictures to show you when we get back" I added.

By this time we were all finished our breakfast. I went back upstairs to retrieve my computer and my camera case. As I came back down the stairs and went to the door I was wished well by the five young ladies all gathered in the living room just off the foyer to the left of the entry way.

As I pulled up to Melissa's garage, I could see three horses and riders returning down the lane beyond that goes through the woodlot behind the home place. When they apparently saw me the horses broke into an easy but ground eating lope until the reached the house yard. They all greeted me welcome as they dismounted. They all looked a little damp but at least the rain had stopped. It was a little breezy and it looked like the wind was blowing the rain clouds away.

Melissa explained "We just got back from moving all the horses into the back woodlot. They seem to thoroughly enjoy the new forage and even the new environment. I don't know why we never thought to put them in there before."

"You probably don't recognize these horses we're riding" said Trudy "We needed to give these a little workout to remind them that they are working horses. And we wanted to save our regular horses for our ride today. We need to put these horses up in the barn and pack up some supplies for our outing. It will take us the best part of an hour. You can come wait in the Kitchen if you'd like."

"Would you mind if I wondered around the farm a little with my camera while I'm waiting?" I replied.

"That's fine" Melissa responded. "In fact maybe you'd like to take some pictures of us too."

"Thanks" I said as I stepped back to my car and retrieved my camera case. I removed my camera and asked "Can I get the three of you to stand together with your horses in the background?"

They promptly positioned themselves as I directed. I took several pictures and had them make a few additional poses, then added some more poses with them on their horses. I then followed them back to the barn and took a number of candid shots as they proceeded to remove the tack, rub down, and feed the horses.

When they went back to the house I continued to wonder around the barn pointing my camera at various animals, buildings, and vegetation that appealed to my photographic sense. Before I knew it they were calling to me from the horse barn that it was time to go.

When I got back to the barn they showed me that they had packed a saddle bag for me similar to their own with some emergency rations and survival gear as well as several bottles of water. Trudy explained "We always prepare for an emergency overnight stay whenever we ride up into the hills. Grandpa convinced us that it was important."

"Your Grandpa is a wise man" I reflected.

"Why are there only three horses saddled up for us?" I asked.

"I'm going to stay here and take care of some work around the place this morning" replied Melissa, "I'll meet you at the lake with a picnic lunch around one o'clock. There is a truck trail that I can use to drive up there."

"Sounds good" I replied. "I just hope these young lades take it easy on me. I haven't ridden nearly as much as I'm sure they have."

"Don't worry!" said Beverly "We'll give you the old foggy consideration." they all laughed.

"Well, let's get going!" encouraged Trudy as she mounted her horse.

I saw that they had saddled up Jake for me as I also mounted up.

Beverly was last to get aboard. We all said our goodbyes to Melissa and she encouraged us to "Be Careful! And have a good time"

By this time the sun was shining. Although it was still breezy it looked like it would be a nice day. The temperature was now into the high sixties and it seemed like it would get warmer.

Trudy led us back down the lane they had recently come from saying "We will go back across the cow pasture to Wayne's place where we will cross into the Forest Service land that adjoins it. If we're lucky, we'll see the band of horses that have been running Wayne's place the last couple months. There are some really beautiful horses there. And their stallion is amazing. You can just see the confidence and power oozing out of him. He keeps his entire herd under control. There must be close to 50 horses."

"Oh I hope we can see them" agreed Beverly "It is something inspiring to watch them gallop across the field with that Stallion keeping them all together."

"Sounds like something that would make some great pictures" I noted.

"Oh yeah! If they're still there, you should get some great pictures." Trudy agreed.

As we went along the lane we could see several horses along the edge of the woodlot thoroughly enjoying their new forage. They were really getting hungry for fresh grass in their previous pasture.

"Mom says we'll move the yearlings into the front woodlot tomorrow morning. She doesn't want to put the cows in there because they are due to start calving soon. It will be hard to keep watch on them if they are scattered through the woodlot."

When we reached the gate into the cow pasture Trudy jumped down and handed her reigns to Beverly. She opened the gate, waited for us to move through it, closed the gate, and remounted Sam. We continued to follow a truck track across the pasture.

"Is that your horse Beverly" I asked as we rode across the pasture.

"Yes, this is Fred" she replied. "I keep him at Trudy's because we always ride together and we don't have a place of our own to keep him. The old shed behind the House isn't really a very good barn. I've kept him there a couple times but it just works better to have him out here. He's not as fast as Sam or Jake but he is a really good trail horse. I won second place in the trail riding competition at the county fair last fall. He probably could have got first place but I made some mistakes as it was my first competition.

"He is a really nice looking horse" I responded.

"Thank-you! I like him"

I dropped back a few yards and took some pictures of the girls riding across the pasture. I had them turn and ride past me at a gallop a couple times to get some action shots. I also took some pictures of the cattle spread across the pasture near by. Several of the cows looked really close to calving. We then proceeded along the trail to the gate leaving the pasture. This time Beverly jumped off to open the gate for us.

We entered another trail through a woodlot. "Does anyone maintain this trail? It seems to be quite well kept." I asked

"We usually run up the road with the mower a couple times a year to keep it from becoming overgrown. I think we're the only ones who use this trail." answered Trudy.

I changed my camera lens to the long telephoto in preparation for what we might see when we exited the woodlot into the field I could see ahead.

We came to the edge of the woodlot and all came to a stop together. The scene was striking. There were about 50 horses spread over a 40 acre area all contentedly grazing. I immediately started shooting pictures. At the sound of my shutter, one of the horses lifted his head in alert and looked at us. It immediately stepped out toward us in the smoothest gait I had ever seen a horse move with. It was shortly obvious that this was the Stallion the girls had talked about. He came to a stop about 20 yards away from us as we continued to stand and I continued to shoot pictures. He was a picture of compressed action as he watched us. Every muscle was tensed for action. Suddenly he screamed out his warning and reared in the air his front hooves slowly spinning in action. I just held the shutter down on my camera engaging the auto drive. As he came down he turned and sprang into an instant gallop around the herd of horses that were all on alert at his call. In no time, he had them rounded up and headed to the far end of the pasture to our left about half a mile away.

We all finally released the breath we'd been holding.

"That was incredible!" whispered Beverly.

"Marvelous!" agreed Trudy.

"I've never seen anything like that before" I agreed "It was just like a storybook description of a wild horse herd. I wonder how difficult it would be to capture that herd now that they've gotten used to being here."

Scattered around the field must have been over a hundred head of Black Angus cows each with a small calf trailing nearby. They looked up at the passage of the thundering herd but only a few directly in its path moved away. I took a few more pictures of the herd and the cattle.

"Have you seen this before?" I asked Trudy.

"I've only seen the horses a couple times." She replied "But I've never seen the Stallion round up the herd like that before. The horses have been here since some time in January. I think we first saw them last month.

We made our way across the open field to another gate to a trail that continued into the forest. "This is the edge of the National Forest" Trudy explained "In fact this is the area covered by the grazing lease that mom has been working on. If we get that lease we can run our stock onto the lease right through here. Mom already talked to Wayne to get his permission to move the stock across here.

After we crossed into the forest the trail began to climb. Nothing really steep but we were gaining considerable altitude as the trail wound back and forth through trees and the occasional meadow. Everywhere, but especially in the meadow there were remains from a healthy growth of grass the previous summer. Although the underbrush was light there were signs of regrowth beginning. There were scattered areas where small trees and shrubs had reached almost waste high.

After about three miles we topped a grassy knoll which had a fantastic view of Grass Valley. We could see everything from the Oregon Grass Valley Ranch nearby across to the town of Grass Valley and the farmland across the way. We could see traffic on the highway for several miles each direction as it approached or left the town.

With the earlier rain, and the breeze the area was really clear with almost no haze. By changing to a polarizing filter my camera was able to capture some crystal clear shots of the entire valley. I took a series of adjoining shots with which I could stitch together a very nice panorama shot. I also took a number of shots of Melissa's ranch.

We soon continued on back into the forest for another half an hour when the trail opened to a beautiful blue lake. Where the trail came from the woods there was several hundred yards of meadow with bright green growth coming up through last years dried grass. About a quarter mile to either side, the edges of the lake came up against rocky walls which then graduated to a steep rock wall. On the far side of the lake, a waterfall fell about 50 feet directly into the lake creating a constant series of waves flowing across the lake.

"Beautiful!" I said as I held my camera up to record the scenery. I again took a panorama series of shots as well as using my telephoto lens to get some spectacular shots of the waterfalls.

About that time, off to the left, we could hear the sounds of a vehicle approaching.

"That's probably mom." exclaimed Trudy. "Her timing is great, too. I'm getting really hungry aren't you guys?"

"I am too" announced Beverly.

"I think I could eat a lunch or three" I added.

We headed along the lakes shore in the direction the sounds were coming from. We were careful to stay away from the wetter areas along the lake edge.

Just as we came to where the jeep track came out of the woods, Melissa's truck appeared out of the jeep track. She honked and we waved and dismounted. We watered the horses from a small stream leaving the lake over a rocky stream bed which had obviously been much larger in the recent past. We then hobbled the horses and left them to graze. There was plenty of dry grass as well as new growth to keep them occupied.

Beverly and Trudy excitedly told Melissa about the Stallion as well as the beautiful view of the valley.

After eating an excellent lunch of potato salad, baked beans, green salad, hot dogs, and apple pie we thanked Melissa for meeting us and retrieved our horses. The three of us mounted up and followed the truck along the Jeep trail. The truck was shortly out of sight and then soon out of hearing. The gentle sounds of nature returned.

"I sure love the peace and tranquility of nature. How God must have loved us to create such beauty and variety for us."

"Do you really think there is a Creator God?" asked Beverly.

"Our science teacher says that anyone who believes in the Story of Creation is against science. I don't know what to believe. I never really heard the story of creation so I can't judge for myself" Added Trudy.

"I am a strong believer in Science and I also believe in the Story of Creation as portrayed in the Bible. So your science teacher is mistaken in that statement."

"Could you tell us about creation?" Asked Trudy.

"Well, we have most of an hour before we get back home. I should be able to get through most of it." I responded. "I believe the Bible portrays an accurate description of the creation. I have found the Bible to be consistent in its prediction of historical events. The Bible says about itself "Holy men of God were inspired by God to write about their experience with God"1

In the beginning was God. He was not a created being but existed forever. He is presented to us in three aspects: there is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We won't get into a discussion about the trinity of God right now but for sake of your understanding just take it on face value. Some time in the distant past God began to create things. He created heavenly bodies like the sun, moon, and stars. He created animals and he created intelligent beings with the power of choice .2 Some of these intelligent beings were the angels he created to live in heaven with him. As He created these intelligent beings he also taught them that their continued well-being depended on a continued relationship with him. Separation from him would result in death. Just as separating a leaf from the plant will cause the leaf to die.

One of the beings he created was Lucifer. Now Lucifer was the most attractive of the angels he made. Lucifer was a leader of the angels and had the most beautiful voice in the angel choir. After some time his important position began to go to his head. As he became more proud, he began to resent the fact that he was not included in the council of the Godhead. He began a whispering campaign amongst the other angels questioning whether God really had their best interests at heart. He also questioned God's teaching that separation from God would result in death.

Lucifer became particularly envious when he was not included in the planning for the creation of a new planet to be called Earth. Eventually his rebellious campaign got so disruptive that it was creating disharmony in heaven. It finally became necessary for God to act. Now the easiest thing for Him to do would be to just make Lucifer disappear. But if He did that, the remaining angels would serve Him out of fear that He would do the same to him. That would not be consistent with his desire to have the companionship and honor of free agent beings with the power to choose.

God decided that the rebellion in heaven must be removed but Lucifer must be allowed to demonstrate the natural results of his plan to separate from God and substitute himself as leader. He called a council of all the angels and explained again how he loved each of them as much as himself. He expressed his pain at the division that had come to the peaceful environment of Heaven. He gave them the choice of remaining faithful to his service or to join with Lucifer who would be forced to leave Heaven.

This started a great war in Heaven which finally resulted in Lucifer and a third of the angels being expelled from Heaven .3 They were placed on the new planet called Earth. They were no longer allowed freedom to travel through the universe but needed specific permission from God to leave the planet. God then knew that future intelligent beings he created must be given the chance to choose between allegiance and rebellion in order to maintain their freedom of choice."

I then shared the Daily Creation story as found in Genesis 1.

About that time we came back to the ranch. I finished up with "That is as far as we have time for now. I'm sure you will have some questions that we will have to go into another time.