’ve been so happy to be out and about meeting new people and talking with new friends about their impact on agriculture.
On page 7 you can read about a couple, Phil and Dawn Hurd, working with goats on their hilltop farm. Goats are making waves in the livestock industry in the Ozarks. There are lots of opportunities to diversify your farm, and seems like now’s the time to do it, and goats might be a good venture. My interest was especially piqued by the Hurds, though, because they live on Nubbin Hill, near Leslie, Ark. My great-grandparents lived on Nubbin Hill. They say it’s called Nubbin Hill because if you tried to grow corn there you’d only get nubbins. That’s what my grandma always told me they said, anyway.
My great-grandpa, Ulis, was the one who carried kittens in his coat pockets. I’ve written of him before. The other day I found an article, maybe 15 years old, written by some big-city writer about the whittlers of Leslie. The men folk would sit around outside the filling stations or cafes whittling their sticks, visiting, solving the world’s problems. I was too young to know my great-grandpa very well, he died when I was in high school, but suffered from Alzheimer’s the last years of his life. I never knew, as an adult, that man who sat around with his friends whittling, talking about the weather, cattle, politics. But I know he was a good man, with strong faith and a determination to make a living on Nubbin Hill. He raised his family there, and left a legacy that included me.
Spend some time remembering where you came from, today. I think it’s a worthwhile effort.
God Bless,
