Just some thoughts about a good man...

Probably every generation thinks they worked harder than the generation that followed them, and maybe it's true. Machines and technology have served to lighten our load, but there are still a few people out there that just seem thrive on good old-fashioned hard work.

My father-in-law was one of those people. He started out with nearly nothing, but with a determination to prove his father-in-law wrong, and a work ethic that you won't often find in today's world, he raised a hard working family, bought seven farms, and built a reputation as one of the premiere cattlemen in the tri-state area.

You never had to wonder he was thinking, or where you stood with him, because he wasn't shy about expressing himself. Shortly after I married his daughter, 30 some years ago, he told me that the devil must have owed him a debt, and was paying him off with son-in-laws. I was the first installment. He was smiling when he said it, though. I think.

Ralph Walter Shafer passed away Saturday evening, just a month before his 80th birthday. He put in a hard days work, and made plans for the next days work.

He will be missed by a lot of people, including me, and there's a lot of work that somebody else has to do now. He will be a hard act to follow.