Mitch and I can see a good opportunity when it comes our way and we knew that this was one we could not pass up.  We met a lady who makes and sells block ice to sno ball stands.  She wanted to sell one of her machines and she was willing to give it to us for a very good price with only $200.00 down and simple interest.  It was obvious to us that this would be a perfect chance to give our kids a hands on course in economics, instill in them the value of hard work and put away some cash to maybe send them to college.  Good plan right?  Not only that but we also had the potential to sell every block of ice we could make to another lady who offers "snow" parties to the people of Baton Rouge.  It was a win-win, no risk opportunity. So we took the plunge!

Well, things don't always turn out the way you think they will.  We struggled through our first sno ball season hardly selling any ice at all.  One thing about Louisiana; people are loyal to their people.  Mr. Turner has been selling ice here for years and no matter what kind of rock bottom prices we offered people were not going to budge.  It's one of the things I like best about Baton Rouge unless of course, you're on the wrong end of the "red stick".  Almost everyday I would talk to the Lord about this.  I would remind Him what a great plan it was.  I would remind Him that He too wanted to my kids to learn how to manage money, run a business, and go to college.  I would remind Him that this would all be working wonderfully if we could only sell the ice.   Surely He could help us!

Then Gustav hit and our subdivison was out of power for 5 days.  Ice was a high commodity.  Neighbors waited in FEMA lines for hours and hours only to find out they were out of ice when they arrived at the front of the lines.  Automatically Mitch started giving out ice to everyone on our street (he's always a jump ahead of me).  Suddenly we were meeting people we had not meet in over 3 years.  Bridges with neighbors needing repair were being mended.  Neighbors were telling other neighbors, "just go see Mitch".  Palmer, Abbey and I were giving ice to and elderly lady when all of a sudden the Lord said to me, "This is why you have an ice business!"  Of cours it is.  I guess I'm a blockhead after all.

Since then we've been able to sell some larger quantities of ice to Mr. Turner himself.  Turns out that he has so much business that he has a hard time keeping up.   We still aren't where we want to be.  There are still times that we have to shut down the machine because our freezers are full and we have no sales pending.  But for the most part I don't worry about how many blocks we sell or don't sell.  I do sometimes still remind the Lord that we don't have a college fund (only 5 more years until Palmer graduates).  I shouldn't remind Him because I know He'll take care of that when the time comes.

All in all we still have big plans for our ice business and I'm sure the Lord still has many lessons to teach us all but as I write, Mitch is out there pulling ice by himself.  Gotta run!

Melissa