Editorial / Opinions

It’s about that time. Spring is here, and I’m sure many of you already have your early spring veggies planted. This is my annual column encouraging you to look into planting a garden this year. If there’s ever a time to consider more self-sustainability, it’s now. Produce from the garden can supplement meals, adding vitamins and nutrients to our diet, and it can be canned for use after the growing season has ended.

Things are going hot and heavy in our nation’s capitol. Laws are being quickly passed and then the details scribbled in just before they vote for them. Most of our elected officials never even read the bills. A new broom deal sweeps clean. Now, I take this economic situation serious – we don’t need a 1930s Depression, and how much they must do to ward it off is important.

A couple of weeks ago, I returned from a speaking engagement at about three in the morning. I would have preferred to “sleep in” the next day, but with calving season still in full swing, I awoke at daylight to feed hay and check the cows. As I drove through the fields at the creek place, I noticed a cow standing off by herself, but with no calf in sight. 

Recently I was down in Arkansas doing some articles for our sister paper, Ozarks Farm & Neighbor-Arkansas. My grandma's family hails from the Ozark Mountains down in Arkansas, and I spent many summers playing at my Grandpa and Grandma Rains' old house, chasing kitties and getting bleach baths at night to clean the chiggers off. My Grandma Rains passed away in I believe 1992, and Grandpa Rains passed in, I think it was 1998. My Grandpa Rains was a special man, quiet, but sincere. He'd farmed on that mountain his entire life, scraping out a living for his family. I remember him waking early to do the chores, feed the chickens and gather eggs for visiting family to eat. After breakfast we kids would be ready to play and he'd amble up to us, presenting a kitten or two from his pockets, for us to play with. He was gentle enough the kittens would let him catch them, then he'd delight us with a new playmate for a few hours. I used to think he just kept the kittens in his pockets for the sake of us girls as kids, but I think he really liked the little barn kitties, and I imagine he kept them with him, even when we weren't down to visit. It brings tears to my eyes, remembering his simple gesture of love. 

Easter – a time to remember

A couple of weeks ago, I returned from a speaking engagement at about three in the morning. I would have preferred to “sleep in” the next day, but with calving season still in full swing, I awoke at daylight to feed hay and check the cows. As I drove through the fields at the creek place, I noticed a cow standing off by herself, but with no calf in sight. 

I had the pleasure of going down to Little Rock a few weeks ago, and I sat in on the House of Representative's Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development committee meeting. Representative Roy Ragland, of Searcy County, invited me down. He said it was the first time in a long time that a cattleman had held the chair position, usually it's the crop guys from down further south. I was pretty excited at this opportunity, I'd never sat in on any kind of official legislative meeting before. With all the big stuff going on in agriculture right now, I knew this would be a learning lesson.

Have you ever looked at a deal as too good to be true, and wondered why it was selling? I’ve been in a few of those wrecks and should have been more suspicious. You know in Washington D.C. that guy selling Rolex watches out of a brief case for $20 ain’t on the up and up. But I knew that, and had lots of fun with a few of them. Got my dad one and a Walmart clerk refused to even touch it when the battery went down; he thought it was real.

About a month ago, one of my cows up at the north place came up lame on her right, rear foot. I got her up and ran her through the chute to check out the problem. I could find no foreign object stuck in the foot, nor was there any swelling to indicate infection.

It’s about that time. Spring is nearly here, and I’m sure many of you already have your early spring veggies planted. This is my annual column encouraging you to look into planting a garden this year. If there’s ever a time to consider more self-sustainability, it’s now. Produce from the garden can supplement meals, adding vitamins and nutrients to our diet, and it can be canned for use after the growing season has ended.