My Father-In -Laws Memorial

Saturday at 1:00 is my Father-in-laws memorial and I am Going to say a few words about him

here they are

My introduction to my Father in law was when my Bride to be Invited me to her house for her 17th birthday I had asked her to be my valentine on the 12th of February and that Saturday was her Birthday……. It was a good time we X-C skied and rode horses and met the In-laws to be…well… it could have gone bad but it went fairly smooth. I have always been a firearm enthusiast, but with Steve or Vince or Vincent as I sometimes called him, it became a refined obsession. He showed me the ins and outs of flintlocks and Mausers and Drillings, Oh My. We would go down to the Barn and shoot small bore, or take long shots at the Saw blade gong If you hit it you would hear it and if you didn't it was always "must have shot through the center of the blade", I would watch him at his forge and ask questions I thought were important, (But more than likely not) and he always had a patient answer. He also renewed my faith with my Savior Jesus Christ. After Sherri and I were married on occasion I would help him in his shop, this one memorable time He and I were bending these pivot hinges for some Forest service docks and I was the Muscle swinging the 8lb sledge hammer and he was working the metal in the swage block he would give the command left or right or then center and I would swing the maul with gusto. He had told me Stop and with the Ringing in my ears I heard TOP and I took another swing just as he put his hand on top of the piece of steel and I smacked his hand with the sledge. Nothing broke and years later we would still joke about the words stop and top. Then came Oregon, Steve could not find enough work in Montana to pay the bills, and his Family always was foremost on his mind, He move back to the farm in Oregon and a paycheck. We ended up following him down several years latter, and never missed shoveling and plowing one ounce of snow.

We would work together again at a Company called Celwave in the Maintenance shop and I strived to reach His level of organization but always just falling short
We would hear Steve on a Friday Afternoon “Lets clean up this Mess.” And I would say…. “I have a job going on here” …Steve would say... “Clean up the shop and organize your job”…Me “Alright”, One Morning I was running late and came into the shop to meet Vincent and the shop crew all standing around talking And I see him start to wind up for one of his lectures and I interjected with ”I’m late because I got one of your lectures from My Wife” and everyone busted up laughing. Steve had a Grand sense of humor even as his cancer came on, I had been in the lower Hay field finishing up Baling and I looked up the field to the old Pear tree and there Is Vincent laying on the ground by a hay bale, I stop the baler and start walking over to him, just in time to see him lift his head up and look at a buzzard that was circling over head and Vince Quips “Go on, I ain’t dead yet” and chuckles, you would have had to been there.