Wheat, wheat, wheat, still giving me the occasional nightmares

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Meilingkie
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Wheat, wheat, wheat, still giving me the occasional nightmares

Post by Meilingkie » Sun Jun 09, 2019 11:52 pm

Hello all,

TLDR: I was so TBM I single-handedly organized a shipment of 100.000 poinds of wheat from England to Holland and arranged packing and preserving. Both which never had been done in Continental Europe, and never have been done since.

In Holland we had little in the way of storage and people pined for it.
One multi-stake meeting a guy piped up and asked: why can’t we get our wheat from the Churchfarms in England?
The answer was swift, it’s available for members only. How would you do it?

Well, in the car home my bishop turned to me, a high-counselor and asked how much it would cost to bring a trailerload full to Holland. Which happened to be my field of expertise.

Next monday I made a few calls, pulled in a favor or two and had a rockbottom-quote for the transport of 100.000 pounds of wheat from Cambridgeshire to Holland.

It took meetings with stakepresidents and in the end then-area-70 Hans Boom to get it approved. So with their approval I got in contact with the elder running the Churchfarm and bought 100.000 pounds in name of the 4 Dutch-speaking Stakes. So the Stakes paid and the members paid the stake for what they bought. Each stake had 25.000 pounds to sell.

We got a nevermo-dad of a Local Bishop to grant a space in his meatpacking-plant to organize packing and canning of the stuff.
A welder in Arnhem made packingmachines to facilitate quick and adequate filling of those silver bags we used.

My best friend advised me all about packing and hygiene etc since he runs a wheatmill and a packingplant for wheat and grainmixes.

In the end on D-Day a few hundred people came on a hot summersday to pack and preserve their own wheat and we processed the 100.000 pounds of it within 2 days. 2 full trailerloads in all.
15.000 foilpacks in total.

What drove me mad however, was the incessant meddling of churchbureaucats who felt they knew better than the experts. Experts I knew and trusted.
After it was over my friend and me said: never ever again.
Till the Antwerp-SP asked for one last shot. Which we also did. Still, I saw behind the curtain for the first time how the Church really was. A business first and foremost.
"Getting the Mormon out of the Church is easier than getting the Mormon out of the Ex-Mormon"

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Linked
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Re: Wheat, wheat, wheat, still giving me the occasional nightmares

Post by Linked » Mon Jun 10, 2019 8:45 am

That's a great story! It must be painful to work with church people who think they know everything when you are an actual expert. Sounds like you put together a successful wheat storage weekend.

Now the people of Holland can know the joy of moving homes with a bunch of 40 lb (18kg) buckets of wheat!
"I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order" - Kurt Vonnegut

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græy
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Re: Wheat, wheat, wheat, still giving me the occasional nightmares

Post by græy » Mon Jun 10, 2019 8:52 am

Ha! It took me waaaay longer than it should have to swap the . with a , for US numbering.

US: 100.000 LBS = One hundred pounds 100,000 = One hundred thousand pounds
EURO: 100.000 LBS = One hundred thousand pounds

I was momentarily confused about why you needed a trailer to haul 100 lbs of wheat. :lol:
Well, I'm better than dirt! Ah, well... most kinds of dirt; not that fancy store-bought dirt; that stuff is loaded with nutrients. I can't compete with that stuff. -Moe Sizlack

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Meilingkie
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Re: Wheat, wheat, wheat, still giving me the occasional nightmares

Post by Meilingkie » Mon Jun 10, 2019 10:59 am

græy wrote:
Mon Jun 10, 2019 8:52 am
Ha! It took me waaaay longer than it should have to swap the . with a , for US numbering.

US: 100.000 LBS = One hundred pounds 100,000 = One hundred thousand pounds
EURO: 100.000 LBS = One hundred thousand pounds

I was momentarily confused about why you needed a trailer to haul 100 lbs of wheat
We have this issue every once in a while in our office......
And I see containers manifested with 20-thousand tonnes instead of 20-thousand kilo’s.......

And suddenly our ship has a lot more capacity for our planners.
"Getting the Mormon out of the Church is easier than getting the Mormon out of the Ex-Mormon"

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Corsair
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Re: Wheat, wheat, wheat, still giving me the occasional nightmares

Post by Corsair » Mon Jun 10, 2019 11:25 pm

That is a crazy story. I have been in more than a few stakes that would have found this story to be true inspiration. It would have been a faith promoting story of following the prophet and getting your year supply in place.

I live in an area with small, one or two acre farms. They all gladly accept cast off year supply food for their chickens. Those old cans of potato pearls are particularly appreciated by chickens.

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moksha
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Re: Wheat, wheat, wheat, still giving me the occasional nightmares

Post by moksha » Mon Jun 24, 2019 1:20 pm

When I hear the name Bulgar Wheat, I think of tall swarthy stalks of wheat riding on horseback from the Caucus, hell-bent on swooping down and conquering the Balkans. Maybe not the stuff of a nightmare, but it could make for a good Jimmy Fallon skit.
Good faith does not require evidence, but it also does not turn a blind eye to that evidence. Otherwise, it becomes misplaced faith.
-- Moksha

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