A New Song

Artwork by Karla Dornacher

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. - Psalm 98:1

We are singing a new song - and yes, He has done marvelous things for us.  This song has been a while in the process, but we are finally singing.  

Some background:  Dave has been in the grain business for more than 30 years, managing elevators, trading grain, etc. and he was worn out with it.  Changes in the way grain trades on the Board of Trade, combined with other factors, made his job more and more demanding and he was "over it".  Along with our new status as Parents of Adults, we decided it was time for Dave to follow his dream of owning his own business. 

For the past six months, Dave has been working as an "apprentice" of sorts, learning a new business and, as of January 2, we are the proud owners of Wabash Construction.  It has been a loooong transition - one that required a tight budget,  some blood, sweat and tears (Dave's sweat, my tears), and a lot of faith.  But we now have an established business with a bright future - not to mention a steady income again.

Wabash Construction sells and constructs grain bins and other grain-handling equipment.  In case you're not a farm-type person, these are grain bins - in fact, these are grain bins built by the company we purchased: 

I haven't been free to discuss all of this while it was still in the works, but obviously this new venture has been one of the catalysts for my life re-vamp that I have blogged about.  Now that it's final, I can tell you more details of how this has and will change our life - and why "balance and independence" (see Jan. 1 post) are going to be key words for me in this second year of life-changes.  Stay tuned.

I know you're wondering about our choice of names for our new venture.  Naturally, Dave's first choice for names was Wildcat (he's a Kansas State alumni and die-hard fan) but, since we will do business in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, as well as Kansas, we felt that might not be a wise choice.  Wabash has a K-State connection, but more subtle.

The Wabash Railroad ran from Buffalo, NY to Omaha, and Kansas City from the 1830's to the 1960's - and we live between those two cities.  The railroad is best remembered for the Wabash Cannonball, made famous in song.  (The train didn't actually exist at the time the song was written, but Wabash later used the name for one of their trains.  I'll spare you the history lesson and let you look it up.)  

Then, in 1968, this happened:

Now that Wabash Construction is officially in business, we are swamped (and sometimes overwhelmed) with the details. (I've learned more about tax codes in the past few weeks than I ever really wanted to know.)  But we are also walking just a few inches off the ground at the marvelous things the Lord has done for us.  We are truly singing "a new song", and it goes something like this: