Editorial / Opinions

A couple of years ago we built on to our house and had a sand pile in the front yard. Some of the biggest cat tracks were seen in that sand pile and my brother-in-law who has hunted all his life said he thought I had a cougar passing through. I’ve given you my opinion on why the Arkansas Fish and Game won’t admit there are wild cougars or mountain lions in the state because if they did, they’d have to count and protect them since the eastern cougar is an endangered species. That would cost millions of dollars and they won’t bite on the bait.

   

Missouri Farm Bureau recently celebrated Thank A Farmer Week. Many people across the state saluted farmers that week and joined Missouri Farm Bureau in collecting food for Ronald McDonald House Charities across the state. In light of Thank A Farmer Week, I just want to take a moment to thank all of the farmers who read our paper. Not only do you provide food, shelter and fuel to the world but without you Ozarks Farm & Neighbor wouldn’t exist. Farmers not only read our paper but purchase from our advertisers or even advertise with us themselves.

There have been some changes around our Ozarks Farm & Neighbor office, staff changes that is. After seven wonderful years with OFN our production manager, Melissa Fuller, has said goodbye to our family and started a new journey. It is a little bittersweet. Although, we will all miss Melissa there are great things in store for her.

As I was browsing through some obscure news stories last week, I stumbled across one from San Francisco that both interested and infuriated me. It seems that our government (you and me, the taxpayers) recently spent more than $200,000 of our money to transplant a single shrub from the path of a proposed superhighway to an undisclosed plant sanctuary where, mind you, tens of thousands more dollars will be spent to assure it lives the rest of its life in secret safety.

Can you believe just how much the way we raise cattle, farm and life has changed in the last century?

I met this lady in an airport lobby who was going on about the weather, saying that carbon must be causing it. I shook my head and smiled.

Myron Hartzell, NRCS Grassland Specialist encourages farmers to ask "Where Do I Want To Be In ……?"

A few weekends ago I headed to Arkansas for Decoration. My paternal grandma was born and raised on Nubbin Hill in Leslie, Ark. The old church building there served as both school and church for my great-grandfather, my grandma and all her siblings. It’s easy to forget those days gone by, a simpler time. Grandma fondly remembered walking to and from school, and to and from her girlfriends’ homes as a young girl. Even after a hard day working in the fields, she noted they were never too tired to walk to their friend's home to visit, or perhaps, if they were lucky, catch a ride into town. Today, with the Internet, TV and cell phones we can always have company or entertainment.