June 25, 2005 - FW: The farm letter

My dad fell off the roof.

I thought my dad's farm letter (my edited edition) would suffice to update you with my life .. this is the color commentary - for the short facts, skip to the end.

To bring you up to date with his letter ... goats are new on the farm - and they were found in April taking shelter in my dad's airplane hangar! Four goats were spotted, standing on the tail of Dad's plane. My cousin whistled for them, and 25 goats came out of the hangar. The gates were always calf-proof .. now they are goat-proof. The goats had played on every horizontal place of the plane -- and sliding down the windshield, cracked it.

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Jim Becker"
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:10:29 -0500
Subject: Mid-June Farm Letter

Greetings From Rolling Shoals,

Last month the farm letter ended with all the problems getting 3791W to Kennett to get the new windshield installed. By the way, Dianne says the new windshield makes the plane look 10 years younger. This month you get the rest of the story! Patti, Dianne and I drove to Kennett to pick up the plane. Di wanted to make a few touch and go landings. On left downwind Di smelled smoke and decided it was from the field burning close to the airport. Then we both saw smoke coming out the defroster vent. She yelled "Smoke!" and turned to final. "Get the fire extinguisher". I turned the master switch off. I couldn't reach the fire extinguisher because it was under my seat. When the wheels touched down I turned the key off which stopped the prop. Dianne thought it was funny, going down the runway at 60 mph and the prop stopped. She pulled off between the runway lights and we were off the runway. She reached the fire extinguisher and we both jumped out and took off the cowling. Nothing on fire!!! We decided it was a drop of oil in the heater manifold or something that the mechanics dropped in the heater system when they replaced the windshield. After running the plane on the ground for quite a while, we took off and made a couple of more landings. No problem and two days later the three of us flew to Ness City, KS for a couple of days. Good visits with family.

Took a load of soybeans to Cairo, IL early Friday (17th) morning. The plan was to make two loads that day so we could empty the bin and get it ready for wheat. I arrived in Cairo about 7:30. The good news was the price: $7.08 per bushel. The bad news--the elevator was closed for repair. I cried a little and the scalehouse operator let me dump them in their holding pit so I wouldn't have to bring them back home. Got home mid morning and after lunch, the roofer showed up. I have been after them since they installed the roof almost 5 years ago. It continues to leak where the carport joins to the main roof. We went up to inspect the problem  area.........Jim

(Dianne's brother Bob picks up the story):
The phone rang as I was getting up from my noon power nap. Andrea yelled, "That was Grams, Papa has fallen and she needs help". I headed down to their house thinking he might have fallen down the stairs going for his noon nap. When I got close enough to see the roofer's truck I got more concerned. I pulled into the parking area and saw the ladder and Dad on the ground--neither were moving. He was on his left side, near fetal position, blood on his forehead, eyes open but rolled back and non-responsive with ragged breathing. It did not look good.

The roofers had dialed 911 on their cell phone and were trying to give directions to the house. Pretty difficult since we don't have 911 service. They gave me the phone as I was assessing Dad and I started to give them directions to the house and then we were cut off---cell service isn't too hot around here either. Got on the land line and called the fire phone number (only one that came to mind at the moment) They gave me the East Wayne County Ambulance number. It was busy--twice! I then called Lewis, Williamsville's Marshall. I explained Dads condition and asked if he could assist with the ambulance. He said he had already called for the ambulance and was calling for air-evac too because of possible head injury. Dad was still unconsious. I estimate he was out 10 minutes.

Concussion, broken collar bone, 4 broken ribs, broken hip. The brain scan showed only 2 very tiny spots of blood--no immediate cause for alarm. Nothing required surgery or a cast.

Today is Wednesday (22nd). Dianne has been with Mother in Cape since the evening of Dads fall. (She came down from St Louis while I was taking Mother to Cape) She has been doing a fantastic job of learning how to communicate with health care professionals. She has some interesting stories.

Dad continues to improve. He has had a pacemaker installed as we think this will help prevent future falls (he remembers feeling faint on the roof). I look for him to be transferred to rehab by Friday. At that point we will start talking about when he might be able to come home.

Thanks for all your prayers. Hopefully, your next farm letter again will be totally by Jim.

Bob

------ End of Forwarded Message

Dianne writing now:
So, that was the excitement for this week! And yes I have hospital stories!

But to bring you from Florida to the present, I left I-TEC in late May, wrapping up Phase One of Journey into the Amazon. I had great meetings with The Yali Story production team in Atlanta - we are working on a DVD version with different languages. We put a draft DVD together with Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, & Mandarin. We're in production with French, German, Portuguese, Indonesian. And we're adding more bonus material.

Back to the farm to play Aunt Dianne (and daughter & sister) and some time to reconnect in St. Louis. I'm asking tv friends for feedback regarding the Journey into the Amazon programs - and to produce a marketing piece to find out who might be interested in broadcasting the series. God appears around so many corners. It's been  very exciting.

It's kind of fun to be back in Cape Girardeau, where I worked as a reporter/producer 1981-1985. This place has changed a bit - I had dinner last night with the area veteran tv anchor and his wife (Mike & Doris Shain). He says I haven't changed a bit ... and he told the waitress I was the best the tv station had ever seen. I doubt the full truth of the statements, but I loved hearing it!

One more cool thing ... I'm moving my stuff out of storage (it's been there since 1998) and into my brother Bob's geodesic dome home in Williamsville. He moved to a new house several years ago. I figure I'll still be a nomad (and I'm not changing my address quite yet - it might only be temporary) - but I'm excited about getting my stuff under one roof again. The Vonder Bruegge's still let me have the corner bedroom when I'm in St. Louis - they are very good to me.

Love much,
Dianne