When we were playing basketball on the Dublan team we enjoyed the game when the opposition was the strongest. We practiced faithfully so that we could give strong competition to the opposing team. Every year we would go to the State tournaments seeking to play with the strongest teams in the State. We actually went clear to Chihuahua to play against the strongest opposition we could find in the State. In all sports competition the object is to overcome the strongest opposition available. We all need to apply this attitude to overcoming the opposition in our lives.

Now that we are growing old we are encountering greater physical challenges and opposition. After having competed many years in the game of life we have more practice and have become more able to overcome the physical pains and opposition and the physical limitations of the dimming of our faculties. Old age is not for those who are not looking for challenges to overcome. As we become weaker in our physical muscles we can become stronger spiritually if we practice and prepare to overcome spiritual opposition.

When Naoma and I began our married life together we faced life with great enthusiasm and eagerness to work and establish our home together. We took over the job of farming on the land on the flat. We knew that this was a great challenge because of the thin sandy soil and the scarcity of water. Taylor and Bowman had an orchard out there on the land but it was not doing well. There was a good drilled well and a ten inch pump powered by a G.M. motor. The orchard had dwindled to a little patch of trees close to the well. The Juarez Mercantile came soliciting farmers to plant peanuts for them. They were in the business of manufacturing vegetable oils and wanted to make peanut oil. They came with glowing reports of money making opportunities offering good prices for peanuts. They offered to advance the seed and supply the planters and the thrashing machine.

We decided to go into the peanut growing business. We prepared the land and watered the furrows and got them all ready for planting. We received the peanut seed and three one horse planters. We soaked the sacks of little Spanish peanuts over night to speed up the sprouting and reduce breakage of the peanuts in the planter. We planted 80 acres of peanuts. We kept them watered and cultivated and soon had beautiful rows of dark green peanut vines. The light sandy soil was very good for growing peanuts. We kept five one horse cultivators going day after day to cultivate the peanuts and destroy the weeds. Near the end of the summer we noticed that many crows were lighting in the peanut fields. I was curious to know what they were doing. I discovered that they would scratch away the sandy soil under the peanut vines and eat the peanuts that were growing on the roots. I went home and brought my twenty two rifle with plenty of bullets. I began to shooting the crows and hanging them around in the peanut fields. The crows soon got the message and would not come near when some one was there with a rifle. If we did not have a rifle they would pay no attention to our loud yells and rock throwing. So to overcome this new opposition we had to keep a well armed vigil.

We harvested the peanuts by putting a blade on the cultivator and pulling it under the peanut row below the peanuts to loosen them. We gathered the peanut vines with the peanuts on the roots and put them in bunches to dry. We came along with our rubber tired wagon with a hay rack on it. We would pick each pile of dried peanuts with a pitchfork and place them on the wagon. We would load the wagon as high as we could reach and haul each load to the big stacks on each side of the thrasher. We thrashed the peanuts and hauled them in sacks to the railroad. We filled many boxcars and shipped them to the Juarez Mercantile in Cid.Juarez.

When the agent came to settle up for the peanuts he said that the price of peanuts had dropped from one peso a kilo to fifty cents a kilo. He also deducted the price of the planters and the thrasher, and the cost of the seed peanuts at the price they had been when they had shipped them to us. When we finished paying the mill for the money we had borrowed for the cost of labor, and the fuel for irrigation, there was not much left as net prophet. Like all farmers we exclaimed with conviction we did not do very well this year because of different difficulties and opposition, but next year we will do much better.

The next year we worked and overcame all of the opposition of the weeds, the crows, and everything else with same result as the year before. We did however use the big stacks of peanut hay to great advantage by feeding to our milk cows and selling the milk to the dairy. Our horses that we used for planting and cultivating the peanuts and our saddle horses were fat and sleek from that good peanut hay.

The next year we planted wheat and alfalfa. The great opposition of that year was that the price of diesel fuel suddenly went up. Taylor and Bowman decided to do something about the cost of fuel for irrigation. Uncle Harvey Taylor bought two huge Fairbanks Morse diesel motors with generators on them hoping to reduce the cost of pumping. He told me that the motor for the flat farm was on a railroad flat car on the mills siding. He told me to install it out on the farm to pump with. He also said there was a 70 horse electric motor with which to run the pump. I went to look over the problem of unloading and hauling the heavy pieces of that gigantic motor. The flywheel alone weighed over a ton. It was cast iron and about a foot wide and seven feet in diameter. The whole motor was in proportion, everything was big and heavy. We worked diligently loading those heavy pieces a little at a time to haul them out to the farm on our rubber tired wagon pulled by a pair of little mules.

After overcoming that big challenge we were faced with the great task of installing that monstor of a motor and putting it together piece by heavy piece. We started by digging a hole and cementing it for the exhaust and muffler system. The exhaust pipe was 14 inches in diameter and 20 feet long. We also had to include holes in the floor for the flywheel to run in. Also under the motor we had to build in the floor an intake system for the three big pistons. This was capped on one side with an enourmous air intake filter. The base of the motor had to be held down with big bolts set in the cement floor. On the other end the big generator had to be bolted in place with the big bolts set in the cement floor. The exciter which was about two and a half feet in diameter was also bolted to the floor on its base. The crank shaft weighed nearly two tons and had to lowered into place with a chainblock on each end.

The motor was started by compressed air so we installed a compressed air tank, which was four feet in diameter and ten feet high and built with heavy metal to withstand the pressure of the compressed air.

As we progressed in putting together this enormous puzzle I felt a growing enthusiasm and eagerness to finish this project. We overcame every obstacle as we went along. Finally it was all together. We filled the oil deposit with 100 lts. Of lubricating oil. We connected up the diesel fuel line and tested the fuel enjectors. I was disappointed to find that the injectors were the ancient spray kind and not the modern atimizer injector. We borrowed a compressor and filled our compressed air tank up to 30 lbs. From then on we would fill the tank from the compression of the pistons instead of the borrowed compressor. We made sure that our air tank was always up to pressure to be able to start the motor. Finally the great test came. I sprinkled a pint of either into the air intake filter and pulled the lever to open the compressed air and with a hiss the flywheel began to turn. After a few turns there was a deep boom that vibrated the cement floor and whole building. Then boom, boom, boom, as the motor gathered speed. The booming sound became a pleasing purr as the speed leveled off controlled by the governor. The voltage meters began to work and the light we installed came on. I threw the switch for the pump motor and it gathered speed with a growling whirr. After a few a seconds a ten inch stream of water shot out into the cement tank to receive it. Our big project was a total success. I felt a warm feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction at having over come what was at first a seemingly impossible task.

We found that that big old motor purred along effortlessly night and day. I placed a light globe on a board high above the peek of the roof so that it could be seen at night from Dublan. In that I could check at night to see if the motor was still going.

Even in our great success opposition raised its ugly head. That big old motor used three drums of diesel fuel in 24 hours. This was about three times the fuel that we had been using before. The crops were in and growing nicely so we had to continue using that big motor to run the pump for the rest of the season. In the middle of the season we heard a loud knocking sound that came from inside the motor. We stopped the motor and opened it up and discovered that the middle piston arm bearing had gone out and was loose on the crankshaft. I unbolted the big bearing and took it into the mill shop. I cleaned out the bearing by removing the rest of the melted Babbitt. I fired up the furnace and melted a pot of Babbitt and repoured the bearing. I put the bearing in the lathe and turned it out to the exact measurement that it needed to fit on the crankshaft. I then proceeded to make the oil grooves in the bearings with a little chisel. Soon the bearing was good as new. I had worked late into the night but the bearing was ready to put on in the morning. We replaced the bearing and continued with the watering.

About two weeks later another bearing went out. I hurriedly repeated the process of pouring the new bearing. Only missing 24 hours of watering. We continued watering the alfalfa and the wheat. Finally the wheat was ready to harvest and we did not need to water it any more.

We were in the middle of watering the beautiful alfalfa for the third cutting, when one of the men that watered at night got sick and I went out to take his place. I knew that one man could not handle the water in that sandy soil. We used coaloil lanterns with which to see to work. One time about two in the morning we were standing at the head of the field talking. We saw a strange light moving along the bottom of the field. It was not a lantern for it was much brighter. It went across the complete bottom of the field and disappeared. We both were curious and went down to investigate that strange light. On the way down Chelino told me that he had seen a similar light many times while watering at night. He also said that we would not find anything where the light had gone along the Bottom of the field. He was right. There was no sign of any kind that that bright light had traveled along the bottom of the field. I tried to think of an explanation for that bright traveling phenomena, but I could not explain it.

At the end of the season I shut down that big old motor forever. We could not afford the expence of that much diesel fule. After consulting with Dad, we decided to sell that old motor for scrap iron and copper wire. Hector Gonzales Gabaldon was the manager of the bank where I had an account for the business of the farm. He was a very good friend for he had played on the Dorados of Chih. Basketball team for many years. We became good friends when we were playing against him in the State tournaments. When I asked him about a buyer for the scrap of the old motor, he said, that his father in laws family were in the business of buying and selling all kinds of scrap. His brother in law soon came with his trucks to buy the motor. He tore it down, breaking it up for convenience in loading it on the trucks. With the money he paid us for the scrap we bought and installed a Minneapolis Moline stationary motor. We bought it equipped for butane gas. Felix Villanueva had a butane gas business. He was a good friend of mine. He had been In my class in High School. He came and installed a bog tank and connected it up to the motor. We really enjoyed that quite clean motor. We used it for the rest of our years of farming on the flat.

When Dad was killed in the Mission. I went to the Chih. Bank to secure a small loan. The bank manager told me that because my father was dead they could not lend me any money on his line of credit. As I was leaving the bank I met my cousin Ben Taylor who was coming into the bank. He stopped to talk with me. In the course of the conversation told me that he needed a director for the Dublan grade school. He wanted me to accept the job. It came at a time that I was ready to leave the farm and work at something else. After consulting with Naoma I told Ben that I would take the job. Uncle Harvey Taylor came to me and said that he needed the Minneapolis Moline motor for his farm. He said that he would trade me Aunt Ethel's beautiful piano for the motor. We were very glad to make the trade as we needed the piano and not the motor. All of our children got at least a start of music on that piano. It still stands in our home ready to be played. It has a beautiful tone and is still in tune after many years. It is still played occasionally when our children come home or when a visitor is drawn to it.

One year while working the ranch it did not rain at all for over a year. The lake got so empty that the fish died and there was only a few inches of water over the thick mud in the bottom of the lake. The cows were poor because of the drouth. Many of the cows got stuck in the mud. After pulling a few out, we built a cement watering tank which we filled from the well near the house. We fenced out the lake so the cattle could not get in the mud. They soon learned to drink water at the tank. We pumped the water with a small gasoline motor that ran the pumping jack with a V belt. After a time of this even more opposition confronted us. In those dry months the grass was very dry and a long ways from the water. Instead buying hay to feed the cows we rented alfalfa pastures in the irrigated fields of Dublan. We drove all of our cattle slowly into the green irrigated pastures. It was in the time of calving and many calves were born in the green fields of Dublan.

Another problem or opposition was the danger of bloating on the green alfalfa. We had to be constantly on watch and let them eat a little at a time. We could not leave them in the pastures at night. We had to stick a few cows to save their lives. To stick a cow was to stick a sharp knife into her paunch in the left hollow in front of the left hip. This let out the gas along with the smelly ooze of the green alfalfa. In spite of all of the problems and opposition we kept our cattle alive and well until the rains came and the sweet green grass grew on the ranch. Our cows were very glad to get back home on the sweet grass of the ranch.

Since this narrative is getting rather long we will not tell any more of the many problems and opposition that we have encountered in our lives. At the time they occurred we accepted the challenge as a part of life and found ways to over come all of the opposition and continue joyfully on our way.

We hope you are all well and enjoying your lives by overcoming the opposition with eagerness and enthusiasm. Over coming opposition brings progress and joy and happiness.