Editorial / Opinions

A drought in the west and too much rain elsewhere - that’s the story. The January tornado in Cincinnati, Ark., was not that unusual. You can have a tornado about any month of the year. Fort Smith had a bad one back in the 1800s about the third week in January. Army records showed it was warm and then the twister came. With no warning systems, there was lots of lost lives.

It’s been two months, so I’m fairly certain Grizz is gone. The Australian Shepherd that has been my loyal and constant companion for the past several years disappeared one Saturday back in April of this year.

One of the oldest crafts in the Ozarks is basket making. People of the Ozarks wove baskets for countless everyday uses in the home, field and barn. Farming families wove baskets, in spare hours for trade or sale, helping the family’s finances. Families would work together on gathering and preparing natural materials such as grasses, timber or vines needed to weave together a basket that would carry game, grains and other agricultural goods.

I tried to make cowboys out of both my sons. Honestly, I really did.

Tis the season, the farmers market season that is. Anyone that knows me has a pretty good idea where to find me on a Saturday morning – at the farmers market.

A couple of items about Arkansas I want to share with you – number one is the western boundary. Arkansas is the smallest of all the states west of the Mississippi, it would have been larger if the United States government had not lied to the original territory founders. It probably all goes back to Desoto’s trip here through the sixteen hundreds or earlier. This Spainard discoverer, who may have been as far north as Eureka Springs, Ark., brought the kiss of death to the state’s Indian population. He brought with him the germs of the disease Small Pox.

The hay baler I presently own is a little over 2 years old and I’ve just started my third season with it. I can still remember the day it was delivered and since I had never owned this brand of baler before, the salesman spent the entire afternoon with me to explain all the operational differences between it and the one I had burned up the year before.

Tis the season, the farmers market season that is. Anyone that knows me has a pretty good idea where to find me on a Saturday morning – at the farmers market.

The hay baler I presently own is a little over 2 years old and I’ve just started my third season with it. I can still remember the day it was delivered and since I had never owned this brand of baler before, the salesman spent the entire afternoon with me to explain all the operational differences between it and the one I had burned up the year before.

April showers bring May flowers, isn’t that the saying? We are in full bloom here in the Ozarks, the Redbud trees have shown their radiant purple berries for a couple weeks now, and Dogwood trees can be spotted among the forest.