I once asked Dad about buying lottery tickets when all you could buy was illegal off shore tickets. Dad replied, “well son if you wish in one hand and crap in the other, you can bet on which hand will be full first.” I was never a big fan of buying lottery tickets after that. If a local charity needs a hand give them a donation. Most organized charities are like government, they use a lot for administration.

An old saying is, “if you get handed a lemon, make lemonade out of it.” Unfortunately, we have all seen some real lemons in our day. We can think of a few cars that when rear-ended, blew up because the gas tank was not protected. Most old farmers can name a hay baler that didn’t tie the twine very well and produced many bales without them being tied.

Our first hay baler would go out of time too often and when it did, the twine needles would be in the wrong place when the big bale plunger came back and it would break both needles which were not only expensive but dealers did not keep new ones in stock.

I once bought a new plow that caused broken plow points when it hit an underground stone and the safety trip did not trip which broke other parts. Too many of the newer tractors and other expensive farm machinery are computer controlled and are very expensive to repair and do not seem to be as reliable as machinery that was made fifty years ago. Some of the tractors that were manufactured 50 years ago and well maintained will sell for three times as much as they sold for when they were new.

Many farmers can remember a salesman who swore if you added a little of his miraculous powder to your cow feed, the cows would be “slicker” in the hair and give more milk. I never bought any more than a week’s supply and when we didn’t see more milk in the tank or the salesman didn’t return; we sure didn’t try to find him again either.

Sometimes a fertilizer salesman would try to sell some foo-foo powder to make the crops grow better. When I offered him a side-by-side trial near a busy highway he always backed down and didn’t have any with him and didn’t return either.

I’m sure many of us can remember that guy at the fair with a car with the hood up selling an in-line gadget that when installed between the fuel pump and the carburetor would increase the horsepower and also increase the gas mileage. He didn’t come back to next year’s fair either.

Here is something that does pay. A little garden in your back yard, in a small raised garden close to the kitchen door, or in a couple flower pots on the porch or the balcony. A little soil, a couple dollars worth of seeds and a little water if we miss a weekly rain will not only return ten to one on your investment but give you satisfaction in growing your own garden-fresh veggies.

Grandma used to grow an acre of garden and can enough veggies for next winter. For today’s busy housewife, a smaller garden in a few pots will give the same satisfaction and a little exercise that you don’t have to pay for. While you are picking up a few seeds for the garden, it’s also time to get the lawn mower tuned up. With all the snow outside it’s hard to believe that in only two months it’ll be time to cut the grass.