Lehman’s Country Life

Recently, MMA (a banking services and insurance provider associated with the Mennonite church) asked me to speak with some of their investors about how to read the economy. If you follow my Facebook or Twitter accounts, you already know I’m an amateur economist. Apparently, someone at MMA wondered where I was getting my ideas and decided to call me in to see if I knew what I was talking about. Do I know? Here’s what I told them. You can judge for yourself.

I believe there are two broad forces driving our economy, manufacturing and consumer demand. Let’s talk about how to measure what is happening in manufacturing, first.

A key measure of manufacturing strength is “Capacity Utilization.” It measures how much of our manufacturing capacity is actively being used. It normally falls in the range of 80% to 85%. It’s currently at 67.5%

We have very little demand for manufactured goods.

Manufacturing? It’s as bad as it’s ever been since the 1960’s. Take a close look at the raw data on the Federal Reserve website. It’s too early to tell, but
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This week, with all the ballyhoo about a “jobless recovery,” I’ve been soaking up news about the economy.

One of the things I’ve been hearing a lot about is rising oil prices. The fact that oil prices are rising in the face of weak demand and a surplus of supply looks like a mystery. Supply and demand is like gravity. You can’t fight it indefinitely. When supply is up and demand is down, economist tell us prices always, always must fall.

But oil prices aren’t falling.

Grandpa was an logger back in the day when everyone used horses and crosscut saws,
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This week, I was fascinated by the NY Times story by David Rohde, a reporter who was held prisoner in Afghanistan for over seven months.

The story is a interesting in its own right. But, for those of us who have friends and family risking their lives over there today, it strikes especially close to home.

David was on his way to an interview with a rebel leader when his car was surrounded by armed gunmen…emotionless, dark-eyed men who clearly intended to kill him. The story is starkly frightening.

But, the one thing that stuck with me most from the whole six part series is what he said next.

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This morning I took this photo with my cell phone on the road between Mt. Hope and our store in Kidron. I’m loving life in NE Ohio right now! Bright blue skies, brilliant fall leaves just reaching their peak, farmers in the fields laying up their corn shocks. Life is good!

Galen Lehman, President, Lehman’s


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Most of the risks I’ve taken have ended in failure. Three broken bones, a handful of ugly scars and a trail of wrecked cars are testimony to the physical risks. Some of my failures didn’t leave physical scars, but I sure remember them well. For example, I bought several “sure thing” stocks. Turns out the only sure thing I know about investing in the stock market is that I generally sell stocks for less than I paid.

That said, as I think back over my life I’m realizing that the successes I have had all came from taking a risk. For example, I took a chance by getting married at a very young age, and found a life partner I’ve been able to rely on as a source of happiness and comfort. At work, I took a chance on buying an abandoned warehouse six miles from our store in Kidron, and secured impossibly cheap space for almost unlimited future growth.

So, while taking risks may lead to painful failure, it seems like a fact that taking chances is the only path to success.

I’ve spent my whole working life at Lehman’s, so my work is one place where I can especially see the effects of risk taking. Lehman’s wouldn’t even exist if my Dad hadn’t
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Want to learn what one of our local friends is saying about Lehman’s? Check out the Garden Gate Get-A-Way blog posting. Thinking of visiting? You can stay at the Garden Gate. Now is a great time to visit. Fall leaves are reaching their peak!

Galen Lehman, President, Lehman’s


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We all say that we hate the legal bureaucracy that enmeshes us. That bureaucracy often prevents us doing what we think is important, ethical and correct. This explains why lawyer jokes are so common and so universally understood. But, we all recognize the importance of having a lawyer you can trust.

I’m not very good at memorizing phone numbers. I know my work, home and cell phone numbers. I know my wife’s cell phone number. I also have one other number memorized; that of my lawyer.

This weeks agenda at my peer support group of company executives called for a discussion of how to choose and best use an attorney. The group is run by the local chapter of MEDA. This small group gathering is a source of strength, encouragement and wisdom for me. I look forward to every meeting. This month,
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This week I had the astonishing privilege of sitting down for a one hour, face-to-face conversation with the CEO of one of the largest companies in the world. I lucked into the appointment through a friend of a friend, but I still can’t get over the generosity of a man who has so much on his plate yet was willing to share time with me. It was an incredible gift.

The first thing that hit me, almost from the second I met him, was a wave of restored faith in corporate America. I walked into the interview with a list of questions that I hoped were important enough to prey on the time of a world-class CEO. But, the meeting didn’t open with the question I expected, which was, “What can I do for you?” Instead, I was disarmed by his genuine warmth and interest as he leaned forward in his seat and said, “Tell me about your company.”

I was surprised to realize that he seemed to have come to the meeting with the same excitement and anticipation that I did. It was a gratifying revelation to find someone whose decisions affect the jobs of thousands of people and whose annual sales are about 200 times more than Lehman’s and yet who is just as caring, humble and, well, “human”, as the next guy. But, building up trust in corporate America was not why I came. I came to learn. So, what did I learn?

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When Keith and Donna Green of Lufkin, TX visited our store in Kidron, they kindly wrote about their trip and posted pictures on their blog at Green2GoRV.

If you want to see some great pictures of our store and the surrounding community, check out their blog by clicking here.

Or, just take a look at these pictures, all of which were taken by the Greens:

The Green's found my dad, Jay Lehman, hard at work.

At Lehman's we run regular product demonstration. Here's our butter churn in action!

This time of year is a great time to visit, as our Amish neighbors are out harvesting in the fields.

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At Lehman’s, we believe that old fashioned, proven solutions often work better than the latest fad. Just because something is new doesn’t make it better.

This means that we get to give ourselves a special pat on the back every time we save something from being lost to forgotten memories and lost skills. Some of our proudest moments have crystallized around such events. For example, we saved the 1878 Reading Apple Peeler from extinction. Here it is 130 years later and we are still making it the same way…mostly by hand using the same patterns. (If you have an antique one that’s not working, let us know. We can fix it.)

In another success story, we imitated the design of the old Dazey butter churn
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