Editorial / Opinions

Twice, during the past year, I have wished for a tool that is no longer available to the average consumer. Last winter, when my farm was infiltrated by a pair of obnoxious beavers that had dammed the creek and created flooded fields, and again this summer when a large corner post broke off and the hole needed to be re-dug in drought-hardened soil, I found myself longing for a mere quarter of a stick of dynamite.

Recently, I was reminded about the significance our Founding Fathers played on agriculture. It’s truly inspiring.

My wife often reminds me that I’m not living in the same world of my childhood. In that world, most everyone I knew was either raised on a farm or no farther removed from farming than one generation. In other words, everyone I came into contact with, on a daily basis, knew what farmers did and how they lived.

Summer traditions. For some, summer traditions may be loading up and going to the lake on Memorial Day or family barbecues on the Fourth, but for me, summer just isn’t summer without the Louisburg Picnic.

In 1960, my partner and I came to the Ozarks, in a pickup truck pulling a Uhaul trailer. And through those years I have seen some good years and bad when it comes to farming. In 1963 after taking a turn at teaching, I went to work for Tyson Food as a field man and continued to farm. That fall and the next year were classified as “dry.” Many shallow wells went dry and poultry famers faced some tough times if they owed on a poultry house.

Because I was born in 1952, I have no recollection of the severe drought and scorching temperatures of that year and the two that followed, but I heard my father talk about them until the day he died. Every time we’d experience a sustained dry spell or a few days of unusually high temperatures, dad would always say, “It’s bad, no doubt, but it’s nothing like the summer of 1954.”

Summer traditions. For some, summer traditions may be loading up and going to the lake on Memorial Day or family barbeques on the Fourth, but for me, summer just isn’t summer without the Louisburg Picnic.

Because I was born in 1952, I have no recollection of the severe drought and scorching temperatures of that year and the two that followed, but I heard my father talk about them until the day he died. Every time we’d experience a sustained dry spell or a few days of unusually high temperatures, dad would always say, “It’s bad, no doubt, but it’s nothing like the summer of 1954.”

It’s interesting how situations in life can change the relationships in your life simultaneously. Uncontrollable circumstances that force life to take a new direction usually have some sort of affect on friendships.

We have seen a wonderful discovery in our country – natural gas. The loosening of our tight supply has made us much less dependent on foreigners for energy and in the future, it will be the salvation of this country. We have more natural gas than any country on the planet. Fields and fields of it exceed Saudi Arabia and any other petroleum producing nation or regions, and we haven’t seen it all yet.