MLICA NewsMich igan Land Improvement Con t rac to rs o f Amer ica

Inside This Issue

President’s Desk..................2

Convention Pictures.............3

Ladies Report.......................4

New Associate......................5

Membership...........................5

From the Editor.....................7

Shop Swap...........................7

Calendar...............................8

January/February 2008

Next board meetingWednesday March 5th

4:30 pmLansing Best Western Midway

Winter Convention Highlights

Bernie Thelen, fromGreenstone Farm Credit

Services, entertains us withhis humorous stories andsome insight to the farm

economy at the annualbanquet.

Chairman of the Board,Will Word, welcomes new

President, Russ Talaski witha LICA President’s pin.

Rob Cook (L) and Steve Cook(R) present Mike Cook with aprototype model of his new

plow.

New Michigan NRCS stateconservationist, Garry Lee

addresses the LICAmembers at the Monday

lunch session.

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Michigan LICA News January/February 2008

President’s Desk

BY: Russ TalaskiPresident

Michigan LICABoard Members

Chairman of the BoardWill Word

(517) 368-5931wconfd@frontiernet.net

PresidentRuss Talaski(989) 479-9340

Vice PresidentTrevor Young

(231)853-5277

Executive DirectorSecretary/Treasurer

Mike Cook(989) 587-3528

swms@power-net.net

Board MembersDavid Dunne

(517) 448-8842Dewey Pennington

(989) 743-5074Ben Foster

(989) 838-2554Rob Cook

(517) 726-0211

Associate Board MembersPerry Strimback

(616) 530-2300

Kevin Holdwick(989) 479-9822

From the President’s Desk

First of all, I would like tointroduce myself for those of you whohave not yet met me. My name is RussTalaski and I will be serving you as your2008 Michigan LICA State President.My wife, Joann and I have been marriedfor over 25 years and we have threechildren: Russell (26), Vicki (24), andHaley (9). Professionally, I have beeninvolved in the soil and drainageindustry since 1978. In 1995, myformer partner, Fred and I startedTalaski Farm Tiling, Inc. and have beenservicing the tri-county area of theThumb of Michigan for 13 years now. I would like to thank everyoneinvolved in the 2008 MLICA StateConvention in Lansing, Michigan. Itwas great and I have had a lot ofpositive feedback from the membersabout the guest speakers throughoutconvention and entertainment in theevenings. Joann and I really enjoyedhosting the Newlywed game. Wethought that there might be four or fivecouples interested in participating, butactually ended up with eight wonderfulcouples. Some of them had beenmarried over 50 years while others hadonly been dating for 10 days. Coupleswere asked questions ranging from“Which way does the toilet paper roll

off?” to “What color was yourbridesmaids’ dresses?” While thegame took longer then we hadexpected; fun was had by all. A special thanks to all of theparticipating couples and ourwonderful judges for making theNewlywed game so exciting. Hereare the top scoring couples:

1st place: Adam Cook andgirlfriend of 10 days, Linsey

2nd place: Chuck & BonnieBragie

3rd place: Jerry & JoannHumpula

4th place: Dave & BonnieAuernhamer

5th place: Jack & Sue Bower

Also at convention, wewelcomed Ralph Krupp and theKellogg brothers as new membersalong with Tom Frank who hadsigned up for membership at ourGPS field day. John Breen,representing AMS Oil, also joinedus as a new associate member. I am looking forward toserving you this upcoming year aspresident. I will however, need somehelp as I adjust to this new position,so please send me any feedback andsuggestions throughout the year so Ican better serve you the members. The outlook for agricultureand supporting businesses for nextyear is great so this is ouropportunity to advance in ourbusinesses by helping each othergrow stronger.

Have a great season,Russell L. Talaski

Michigan LICA News January/February 2008

Convention Scenes

John Carpenter of BJHydraulics, remindsus how importantproper filtration is.

Steve Davis, State Engineer ofthe Michigan NRCS, updatesmembers on a new waste watertreatment project he is workingon with member Ben Foster.

Dr. Larry Brown fromOhio State University dis-cusses some of the pastand present drainage re-search that is ongoing.

Educational seminars were well attendedthis year. Here, Ron Edwards discusses thenewest truck safety rules and regulations.

On Tuesday theassociates treated us to a

huge pizza buffet.

Don’t believe everythingyou hear at that table.

New members Steve andStacy Kellogg chat with RobHall about the Bron plows.

One of the many as-sociate displays thisyear

Nick Staat and others check outsome of the newest technology atSchlatter’s booth.

The associates booths inthe atrium were always abusy place.

Our associates group is really growing.Here is the associates board meeting. Weappreciate all of the help they provide usthroughout the year.

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Michigan LICA News January/February 2008

LADIES PROGRAM

This year we all enjoyed ourselves. Weadventured out to the Wharton Centerto see the 25th Annual Puttman Spell-ing Bee. That took several of us back tomiddle school with the awkwardness oflife at that age, many laughs were hadby all. On Monday Marsha Will onceagain came down to join us with chairmassages and facials. we also tried ourhands at card making. We found a newlove for some of the ladies. Tuesdaywas a day of shopping. There was ajoke in the program that we would beenjoying a male review in the after-noon present by the men of MLICA.So while we were out shopping I foundMike cook the perfect outfit for themale review. Since he keep bring it upall week long. Next time you see Mikeask him how his outfit worked out forhim. Thanks to all who came to enjoythere time with us. Also if you know ofa member whose spouse wasn't theredrop them a line and see if they canmake it next year.

We will also be doing a secretpals/sister/friend through out the rest ofthe year. For those of you who weren'tat the convention please answer thequestions below and mail or emailthem to me so that I can get the infor-mation in the books and get themmailed out to you.

Name:Address:Phone:Date of Birth:Profession:Wedding Anniversary:Spouse name:Number/Names of Children;Number of Grandkids:

Hobbies:Talents:Favorites Color, Food (if you have afood allergy please note that)Season:Collectibles:Hopes and Dreams:Anything else that you would like toshare with us:

This will be a group effort by all.What we will do is once you get yourbook you will find information abouteach of the women. I am asking thatyou drop them a note/call/gift for anyof the special days and informationthat is listed. You can let them knowwho you are or you can keep themguessing until next January. Lets havefun with this trough out the year. Thisway we will be able to learn moreabout each other and can keep intouch more often through out the year.

Once you get this package there willbe a note in there from me with fur-ther detail. If you have any questionsplease give me a call. Have fun! Seeyou all at Field Days in August.

There maybe possible activities forthe ladies at this years venue. We arealso in the works of planning nextyears ladies program. We are lookingat doing a class on clay bead makingat one of the local stores. If there issomething that you are interested indoing or have any suggestions ofthings to do in the area please do nothesitate to let me know. Take Care,God Bless.Sincerely,Jodie Holdwick

Submitted by:Jodie Holdwick

Michigan LICA News January/February 2008

New Associate Member

We would like to welcome our newestassociate member, John Breen, fromJennison, MI . John is a distributor ofAMSOIL lubricants. John has beenwith AMSOIL since 1977. He hasbeen a farmer or in the farming indus-

try all of hislife. John ismechanicallyinclined andbuilt the first 2row self-pro-pelled radishharvester inMichigan. Hestill enjoystruck farming

and often helps the local vegetablegrowers out at harvest time drivingtruck. John has 6 children, 24 grand-children and 13 great-grandchildren.Sadly, he lost his first wife in 2000.He is currently married to Mary, whoalso has family in Michigan and Wis-consin. We are happy to have John andMary on board as new associate mem-bers. If you have any questions aboutany of the AMSOIL products, be sureto give John a call at (616) 243-9757.

New LICA Members

It’s nice to see that the chapter is start-ing to grow! In the past year, we hadseveral new members join. Tom Frank from Water Man-agement Services, in Coloma joinedat the GPS field day. At the conven-tion, we had several new members at-tend. Ralph Krupp from KMRExcavating in Chesaning joined aswell as Stacy ,Steve and Ed Kellogg,from Kellogg Drainage in Edon Ohio.Our newest member is John Iott withCountryside Excavating Services,LLC. in Ottowa Lake. We also had afew guest contractors attend the con-vention like Andy and Louis Lukazcekwith Lukazcek Excavating in Coldwa-ter. We hope they enjoyed the meet-ings and took something back withthem. . We would like to welcome allof the new members and thank themfor showing an interest in our organi-zation!

Congratulations to our own NickStaat for making it in the Land andWater magazine! Check out thearticle on page 59 of the Jan/Feb2008 edition titled “ApplyingBest Management Practices on2,300 Acre Michigan Farm”.

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Michigan LICA News January/February 2008

On The Lighter Side.......

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the com-puter. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all of thatbickering. Finally, fed up, God said, “THAT’S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up atest that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does a better job.” So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away. They moused. Theyfaxed. They e-mailed. They e-mailed with attachments. They downloaded. They did spread-sheets and created charts and graphs. They did some genealogy reports. They did every jobknown to man. Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell. Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky,thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse work know in the under-world. Jesus just sighed. Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted theircomputers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming: “ It’s gone, it’s all GONE! I losteverything when the power went out!” Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of hisfiles from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate. “Wait!” hescreamed. “That’s not fair! He cheated! How come he has all of his work and I don’t haveany?”God just shrugged and said,“Jesus Saves”

Submitted by:Mike Cook

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Michigan LICA News January/February 2008

Sell and Swap Shop

For Sale:Link 250 Plow for HD-21.Holdwick Tile Reel. Bolt on mount forFiat Allis HD-21B. Easily removed fortransport, works with Agri-Drain tilespools.New bottom rollers for HD-21Daycab Kit for Intenational Semi $250 If interested call Will Word (517) 368-5931-----------------------------------For Sale :2 used Novatel RTK GPS Units1 used Ashtech RTK GPS Unit2 used Xplore computersGreat discount to get started In RTKSystemsContact: Mike Cook @ (989) 587-3528

Editors note:This section is freefor members toadvertise equipmentyou have to sell orare looking for.

For Sale JD 544 C End Loader. $27,500 orbest offer. Caterpillar 225 excavator,$18,000 or best offer.Contact Rob Cook (517) 726-1492

for more information. ------------------------------For Sale:3 - Winthrop Welding tile stringingtrailers. 12 volt, batteries less than 1year old, implement tires. Very goodshape. $2,500 ea.Contact Trevor Young for moreinformation @ (231) 853-5277

Editors Note:

Those of you with high speed Internet should havereceived this issue of Michigan LICA News viae-mail. Please let me know if this worked out foryou. Any feedback would be appreciated. If youhave a slower connection, it may take a while todownload. If that is a problem, I can see that youreceive a printed copy. I would still like someideas of what you would like to see in the newslet-ter. So far it hasn’t been to hard to fill it up, and weeven discussed adding a couple more pages, due tonew advertisers and more things going on withinthe chapter. If you look at the calendar, we haveanother busy year planned!

Will Word

Send suggestions and info to WillWord at (517) 368-5931

Ore-mail to wconfd@frontiernet.net

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Michigan LICA News January/February 2008

Event Calendar

4-5 AGPS GPS training seminarLansing Best Western Midway

(contact Mike or Nate Cook)5th MI LICA Board Meeting4:30 pm Lansing Best Western Midway9-10 National LICA Winter Convention

Las Vegas, Nevada11-15 ConExpo/ConAGG

Las Vegas, Nevada17-21 Overholt Drainage School

Agricultural Service Center Findlay, OH

19th MI LICA Board Meeting4:30 pm Lansing Best Western Midway

6-7 MI LICA Field Day Cook Bros. Farms, Vermontville17th MI LICA Summer Picninc10:00 am Board Meeting 12:00 Barbeque Village Park , Sebawaing, MI

8th MI LICA Board Meeting4:30 pm. Lansing Best Western

Midway

(Tentative dates)11 MLICA Annual Board meeting2:30 pm at Lansing Best Western Midway12-13 MLICA Annual Meeting - Lansing Best Western Midway