Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Are the persimmon seeds telling the truth?


I have put off reporting on my persimmon seed-reading, because I didn't believe it.
Take a look at the photo at right. The seeds you can actually see to read all are spoons and knives.

I don't trust the seeds any more.

They lied to me for the last couple of years. They were like this year's reading, but the last two winters here were mild. Especially last winter. It was so mild that the municipal utility company's kilowatt-hour sales were down.

Nobody says it is going to be a cold, snowy winter this year, except for my seeds. And everyone else's. Plus the few people I've talked to who have seen woolyworms, or woolybears, say the caterpillars are solid black, no banding, so around here, we read that as a rough winter ahead.

But The Old Farmer's Almanac says it will be a mild winter.

"Winter will be milder than normal, with above-normal precipitation and snowfall. The coldest periods will be from late November into early December, from late December into early January, and in early February. The snowiest periods will be in mid-November, early to mid- and late December, and early February," is what The Old Farmer's Almanac says on Page 229 of the 2018 edition, which I bought last month. I buy it every year, and have for as long as I remember, because that is the almanac Grandpa always bought.

Well, The Old Farmer's Almanac was off this year, for sure. It has been even milder than they predicted, Late November into early December was moderate or warm. Some days I didn't wear a coat or sweater to work, and I get up and arrive before dawn. We got no snow in mid-November, and none in early or mid-December. Here it is in late December, and we finally got the first one of the season.

That is why I opened the seeds, took their picture and then laid them aside. I didn't trust them enough to share them with you, my readers throughout the Heartland and across this great nation.

But now, given recent events, I'm a little concerned. If The Old Farmer's Almanac is this far askew this year, maybe we'll have one of those old-time winters that hit hard on Jan. 1 and blast us all the way through St. Pat's. I remember one of the heaviest snows of my life was on the Ides of March back before I graduated from high school. That was old-timey; maybe we're going to revert to that.  Lord, I hope not.

We got a little bit of snow this past weekend, and it was still cold yesterday, Christmas Day. The National Weather Service says it is going to be below freezing the rest of this week. Maybe on Jan.1, the seeds' prediction will start in. Again, Lord, I hope not.

Well, hunker down and stay warm, folks. Throw another log on the fire.

Monday, December 25, 2017

Merry Cold Christmas

Last night, my wife said, “Is this going to qualify as a White Christmas?”

“Well,” I said, thinking about it. “We didn’t get much snow, so it is not a pretty blanket of snow. With the sky overcast, it looks pretty desolate. Still, though, I guess it would indeed qualify as a White Christmas. It will be your first one.”

She is a Texan and she doesn’t mince words.

“Sure not what it’s cracked up to be,” she said.

She had never had snow on Christmas. In fact, growing up in Houston, she rarely saw snow at all.

I asked her, “Do the radio stations play songs like ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland’ down there? Does Bing sing ‘I’m dreaming of a White Christmas” on Houston radio?

“Well, of course,” she said. “It snows in some places in Texas.”

She told me how when she was a kid, her mom and dad would pack the family up and drive north of Houston some 50 miles to Cut and Shoot whenever there was a little bit of snow at Uncle Bubba’s and Aunt Sissy’s place.

“It’s a little farther north, so they would get snow, a little, when we didn’t,” she said.

I remember a few years ago when her niece emailed some pictures of her kids’ snowman in Austin. A closer look at the snowman showed that it was next to a child’s sand bucket. It was a cute little miniature snowman made from snow that the kids had scraped off cars and scooped off the ground with the bucket. They had managed to get enough snow to make a little snow feller, though.

My wife wants to move back down to that warm place.

I don’t blame her.

God bless America, God bless Dixie and Merry Christmas to all our readers here in the Heartland and across this great nation.

Weather data
Here is the Rolla weather data for the 24-hour period ending at 7:30 a.m. today, Dec. 25, 2017, Christmas Day:

High temperature: 28 degrees F.

Low temperature: 17 degrees F.

Current temperature: 19 degrees F.

Precipitation: 0.01 inch.

Precipitation for the year: 42.87 inches

Precipitation for the month: 1.01 inch

Snowfall/frozen precipitation: 0.2 inch.

Snowfall/frozen precipitation for the 2017-2018 season: 1.9 inches

Snowfall/frozen precipitation for the year: 4.5 inches.

Snowfall/frozen precipitation for the month: 1.9 inches.

Relative humidity: 86 percent.

These figures are courtesy of S.R. Fraley, National Weather Service cooperative observer up on the campus of the Missouri University of Science & Technology.

Saturday, November 25, 2017

Ozarks entrepreneurship: Smokerbuilder.com and The Mid-Mo Smoke Show

This morning I am listening to the Mid-Mo Smoke Show on the local ESPN radio station, and they are talking about what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers.
Right now, they are talking about making gumbo. That is not quite an Ozarkian dish, nor is it made with smoke, but it is the weekend after Thanksgiving, so I an understand why they have set aside the usual agenda of smoking meat.
The description of the dishes they have talked about so far this morning have sounded delicious and the hosts, Frank, Pig Daddy and The Czar, have indicated they will post recipes on their show site later this week.
You can, of course, access that site from anywhere with your computer device, and you can listen to the show live, or on its archives, from anywhere.
The Mid-Mo Smoke Show is the radio voice of Smokerbuilder.com, an Ozarks company based right here in Phelps County.
There was an interesting story about the Smokerbuilder.com Fall Gathering at the Phelps County Focus newspaper website, and it includes quite a bit of history about the company that started when Frank Cox merely wanted to find a good smoker to cook meat for gatherings of family and friends and his home.
He couldn't find one to his liking, so he built one, and now he helps others build their own or modify their current smokers. It's a matter of finding a need, figuring out how to fill it and then provide quality products and service.
That's Ozarks entrepreneurship.

Thursday, November 23, 2017

It is the best holiday of the year

Today is Thanksgiving Day, the best holiday of the year.
Yes, I know some of you, especially children, will say Christmas is the best holiday of the year because you get presents. Plus, it celebrates, for some of us, the birthday of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is one benefit of it; it brings attention to Jesus Christ. People who don’t know him, if they pay attention, will hear the gospel, at least in part, and if they have any curiosity, it might lead to their seeking him. That’s one thing to pray for.
The problem with Christmas is that it has become cluttered for many people. Not for me. I’ve got no problem with Black Friday sales or gift-giving, but for many, maybe most, that kind of activity takes preeminence, instead of Jesus. Never has for me. I guess most people are more prosperous nowadays than my family was. Christmas was a big spendin
Here is the beautifully roasted, golden bird my wife fixed today. Fine, mighty fine.
g season for my family, spending for new socks, underwear, T-shirts, pajamas, bathrobes, maybe shirts for school and a new pair of blue jeans. And maybe one toy.
One time my Grandma gave me a couple jars of dill pickles because I liked them.
Christmas never cluttered for us back in those days, and it is not cluttered for me now. I’m as poor now as we were then. So Christmas is still important to me, especially the church activities, but I think for most people, it’s a big pain, so I put Thanksgiving above it.
And Easter is the best holiday, some would say, because it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is an unnecessary holiday, as far as I am concerned. I don’t need it. At my little country church, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ every Sunday; in fact, we celebrate his birth, life, death, burial and resurrection every Sunday. We talk about Jesus a lot in our little country church. So Easter is unnecessary for us. All of the traditions, like eggs and rabbits and the like, are pagan-oriented, so I wouldn’t care if we ignored the so-called Easter holiday.
Fourth of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, aren’t they more important than Thanksgiving? Well, not in my opinion. The birth of the nation, the veterans who have served, the service members who have died--all of that is important to me. And that is why in my Thanksgiving Day dinner prayer I thanked God for all of that, the nation, our republic, our veterans both living and dead. I thanked God for all of his blessings on our family, our friends and church. I thanked God most of all for Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who offers us eternal life.
There is a lot to celebrate, but there is more to be thankful for, and that’s why I like Thanksgiving Day best of all.
I hope you've had a great day of gratitude.

Monday, November 13, 2017

Are you interested in homesteading? I always was

Growing up on a five-acre homestead in Southwest Missouri, I was eager to get away from the place and the chores. In my junior year at the university, I ran across a publication called Ozarks Access Catalog or something similar. I discovered the "back to the land" movement, and I wanted to be a part of it.
Well, I was, but only in my imagination. After the university, I took a job as a small-town reporter/photographer/editor, and that took a lot of hours every day for seven years. Then I moved to another paper, just a little bigger but not much, and that took as many hours or more. I worked about seven days a week for that paper for 20 years. Then my wife and I started our own little publication and that took a lot of time for three years before it went broke. For the past dozen years or so, I have been working in retail full-time and journalism part-time, plus occasional blogging, so I guess I have three jobs and they take up about 13 hours a day.
As much as I'd like to have a homestead, I can't afford it and I don't have the time to work it.
Oveer the years, I had a huge collectionof Mother Earth News and similar publications. I always dreamed about having five acres  or so to have a small orchard, a big garden, ssome bees, rabbits and chickens, and room to fatten a steer every year.
Alas, none of that has come to pass and likely won't now.
But perhaps you have such a dream. If so, here's an interesting item I ran across from the University of Missouri Extension office in Springfield.
Five acres of land, a small pond and a desire for schedule flexibility does not sound like the typical path to success for cattle producers.
However, land in southwest Missouri can provide a reasonably priced home for a cow compared to other parts of the nation, which is why Missouri ranks number two in beef cows behind Texas according to Andy McCorkill, a livestock specialist with University of Missouri Extension.
Cattle are also a great option for people with small acreages and flexible schedules.
"I would encourage people in that situation to look into running some aged cows that you would buy bred, calve out and then sell as pairs. Another option is to keep them until the calves are ready to wean and sell them separately. Running young growing stock would probably be the best way to get some experience," said McCorkill.
With growing cattle, a producer is hoping to profit from efficient gains of weight. That is doable on small acreages.
"In most years, October and early November mark the softest point of the year in the calf market so it is usually a good time to buy lighter weight calves if you can keep them healthy. You would then sell them at a heavier weight in the spring," said McCorkill.
In this scenario, a person could buy back a set to summer that would be sold in July or August which would give the land some time to rest and stockpile grass until October or November when you would do it all over again.
"It would take good management of the grass for things pan out at that intensive of a level, but it is what many folks do," said McCorkill.
Water is, of course, a very important factor for cattle and for many people it can be a limiting factor. With a small pond, a watering tank is still going to be necessary.
MANAGING EXPECTATIONS
According to Eldon Cole, livestock specialist with MU Extension in Lawrence County, says not expect huge profits from beef operations. A lot depends on what you include in your costs.
"Backgrounding operations rely on buying and selling skills plus market shifts for profits. A $100 per head profit is a goal of many backgrounders," said Cole.
Running beef cattle is viewed by many as a desired lifestyle and a great way to introduce children or grandchildren to cattle so they can grow up with an appreciation for agriculture. Getting them involved with 4-H may be an outgrowth of this lifestyle choice which can mean making a profit is secondary.
"The first consideration before you buy any cattle is to have something for them to eat and drink. The best cattle producers are the best forage managers. One beef cow and her calf require about three acres per year," said Cole.
If southwest Missouri has a comparative advantage over other areas of the country in producing an agriculture product it is probably beef cattle, specifically cows, and calves.
"Even though our land is not overly fertile and seems high priced, we can still provide a reasonably priced home for a cow compared to other parts of the United States. This is the reason Missouri ranks number two in beef cows behind only Texas," said Cole.
MORE INFORMATION
For more information, contact any of the MU Extension livestock specialists in southwest Missouri: Eldon Cole in Lawrence County, (417) 466-3102; Andy McCorkill in Dallas County at (417) 345-7551; Dr. Randy Wiedmeier, in Douglas County at (417) 679-3525; or Dr. Patrick Davis in Cedar County at (417) 276-3313.

 My homesteading today is limited to five 4x8 raised garden beds. I don't have livestock, but we have three poodles and a cat, plus some feral cats that wander in sometimes. I guess that will have to do.

Friday, November 10, 2017

Listening to the Opry, just like Grandpa

For years, we had a great public radio station here in town. The broadcast studios for the station, formerly KUMR and then later KMST to reflect the university’s name, were located in the basement of the campus library. The station played a range of music, folk, blues, classical, big band and bluegrass.
I especially liked the bluegrass programs, Bluegrass for a Saturday Night from 7-10 p.m., Sunday Morning Sounds from 7-9 a.m.
Five hours of bluegrass every weekend from the public radio station were joined with five or six hours on Saturday morning on a commercial station. The host of that show was named Ray Hicks, and when his station sold, he was quickly snatched up by another commercial station, although his program was cut to three hours every Saturday morning. Sadly, Ray had a stroke and was unable to continue; he passed away a couple of years ago.
The public radio host was Wayne Bledsoe, a history professor who had a long involvement with bluegrass going back to his North Carolina childhood. He played a good mix of traditional and contemporary bluegrass tunes on Saturday night and good bluegrass gospel with a dab of Southern gospel on Sunday morning.
I said once or twice or more in my newspaper column that Wayne’s Sunday morning bluegrass show was better than a sermon when it came to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Well, the university got tired of running the station after many decades, I reckon, and they sold it to St. Louis Public Radio, who immediately killed the gospel program, let go all the local folks who worked there and eliminated the local programming, such as the Backyard Birder feature. If Rolla people are interested in what’s going on in St. Louis, though, KMST is the station to turn to.
Before much time elapsed, Wayne announced his retirement and he played his last bluegrass tunes a couple of months ago. Sad time for us bluegrass fans who for years and years had listened on most Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.
Now there is plenty to listen to on the radio these days, especially if you have a Smartphone, I have discovered. I bought one of those Tracfone pay as you go Androids, and I hook iinto our home internet service so I don’t use any minutes. I can listen to just about any radio station in the country, I guess, thanks to apps like Tune-in and I Heart Radio. Plus, I have some Pandora channels that I have created.
So I have plenty to listen to. My favorite stations are KFWR-FM out of Fort Worth, which plays Texas and “Red Dirt” artists; KTXR-FM out of Springfield, which has changed its easy listening format to outlaw country, and several bluegrass outlets, like WAMU, I think, which is from somewhere east. On Pandora, I listen to my Flatt and Scruggs channel and my Don Edwards cowboy music channel.
On Saturday nights, I like to use one of the apps to pick up the Grand Ole Opry on WSM, the legendary station from Nashville.
I heard the Grand Ole Opry quite a bit when I was a kid, for we didn’t have television, and you could hear it well on an AM radio back then because there wasn’t near the clutter on the airwaves there is today. Also, we would drive three hours to central Missouri every 4-6 weeks to see my grandparents, and that is what we usually listened to on the Saturday night drives after my dad closed his barbershop and came home and got us. That was where I got my love of Bill Monroe and Flatt and Scruggs.
When we got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, they’d have the Opry on, too, until they finally got TV some years later.
So on Saturday night, listening to the Grand Ole Opry, I figure I’m turning into my grandpa.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

A present from my Mama in 1972

If my memory is right--and at my age that is doubtful--my Mama gave me this Bible for Christmas 1972.
I was a sophomore at the University of Missouri, and I lived off-campus with a bunch of guys in a two-bedroom apartment. Breaking the rules to cut our rent share, we moved in two or three more guys.
I will not lie to you. I was not leading a Christian life. Now, I wasn’t as wild as many college students, because I worked my way through school. On most nights and every weekend, I was at work washing dishes in the kitchen at the restaurant at Stephens Magnolia Inn, an old motel on the business loop.
But occasionally, when I had a chance, I would cut loose with the other fellows.
My mother has always been a well-grounded Christian, as has my Daddy. Every time I did something I shouldn’t, like cutting loose on a rare weekend off,I worried about disappointing them, not Jesus. She gave me this Bible for Christmas that year, I guess to keep me mindful of my upbringing. For the most part, I think, it worked. As I say, I was not the best Christian in the world, and, to be honest, I still am not.
But I read the Bible as often as possible, and I think about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ a whole lot. Mostly, I think about how unlike him I am.
I’d like to tell you, and Mama would probably like for me to be able to tell you, that this book, The Living Bible paraphrase, changed my life and made me a wonderful Christian.
Well, it probably did change my life. It was so easy to read that I read and reread passages of it for many years later. It did not make me a wonderful Christian. Reading the Bible makes me more curious and more aware of how much I need and rely on Jesus Christ. So I keep stumbling along in life, reading and worshiping and trying to be Christlike (and failing), and I think this Bible had a lot to do with my current state of spirituality. I read it regularly, well, fairly regularly after my mother gave it to me for Christmas, and I have carried it with me everywhere I have lived since she gave it to me. Had she not given it to me, I might have just chucked the whole business of Christ-following.
It was a new edition in 1972, which is the copyright date in it. It is The Living Bible paraphrase, and it has notes at the beginning of each Bible “book” that make the World of God relevant to the early Seventies. I always skipped those parts, and still do, to read the Bible itself.
I always liked the plain paraphrase of The Living Bible. Years later, I heard criticism of it from learned theologians, but I’ve always had a bad attitude toward theologians, so I ignored them, as always.
This Bible was packed away for awhile, then it was laid on a shelf for even longer, for I have a New International Version that I’ve been reading, as well as my good old King James Version.
Now that I’ve taken it off the shelf and paged through it, I think I might try reading through it again in 2018. I will need to get a head start tonight.

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Feed the birds this winter--and year around for fun--Part 4

Seriously, that water is clean, not muddy like it looks in this picture.
One last thing in this birdfeeding series, and this could be the most important thing we tell you:
OK, we’ve discussed where to feed the birds, what feeders to use and what to put in those feeders.
That’s all there is to it, right?
Well, no. When you eat, you like to have something to drink, don’t you? And you like to have something to bathe in, too, right?
We don’t bathe in our drinking water, but some creatures do, and they need a plentiful supply of it.
It’s up to you to provide that necessity, H2O, along with the food.
In fact, my good friend, Mike Doyen, who I believe is the state’s leading birding, for he devised the Great Missouri Birding Trail, told me that providing water at times is more important than providing food. They can usually find a little food in nature, but sometimes, water is so scarce that they can’t find it.
We’re heading into one of those periods, winter. Water turns to ice in winter, and sometimes stays that way for days, weeks, maybe more than a month. Oh, heaven help us, if it gets that cold and stays cold.
Mike showed me his watering trough, an big old skillet out back that he kept filled with water.
My wife had a concrete birdbath when we married, so we use that at The Ozarks Almanac. I even went to The Family Center a few years back when we got real serious about the birds, and I bought a heater that stays warm enough to keep the water thawed in the birdbath.

OK, that does it for our series on bird feeding and watering.
You can buy whatever blend of food you can afford and want to buy. You can do whatever you want about watering. There are all kinds of contraptions to buy, and I’m not opposed to doing so, I just don’t have the money for all that. I’ve seen a mister for hummingbirds. It isn’t expensive, but I’m on city water here, and I don’t want to add on any more gallons that I have to.
You do what you can afford and like to do. Or do nothing. Let the birds fend for themselves this winter. I hope, though, that we’ve created some interest in most of our readers to try caring for the birds. They can use the help, but most of it, it is just fun to have them around to look at.

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Feed the birds this winter--and year around for fun--Part 3

Here is what we've been feeding the birds lately.
Yesterday, we talked about what feeders we use. Now here's what we put into those feeders each week.
For years, we bought and fed black oil sunflower seed only that we got from Sands Farm and Home, but Sands shut down. It was a great little store.
Then we started buying a mix from The Family Center, as well as thistle seed for the finches. We fed that for a few years.
Last year a new farm and home supply store opened here, Dickey Bub, which is a funny name that is combination of family names. It is a good store, and the price is right for wild bird seed. It is a True Value store, and we buy a 40-pound mix that contains cracked corn, milo, white millet, sunflower seed, calcium carbonate, white, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement.
I know you’re going to tell me that is a lot of fillers, and perhaps so, but they eat it. They congregate in here and eat it. I fill the feeders on Saturday or Sunday and have to refill them in the middle of the week.
I told my wife that I thought we needed to go back to the black oil sunflower seed, so we bought a 50-pound bag of it. I put the sunflower seed in the cylindrical feeder and the mix in the red barn/schoolhouse feeder. The birds preferred the mix.
So I added sunflower seed to the rest of the mix, and they liked that. I think I will try to convince my wife to continue buying both, fortifying the mix with several scoops of black oil sunflower seed.
We still buy the thistle seed for the finches at The Family Center, because they sell it by the pound, and we bag it ourselves. My wife prefers that, so I do, too.
You can do a lot of research on what to feed. Go online and you’ll see all kinds of seeds that birds like including something called, of all things, rapeseed. What in the sam hill is that?
For The Ozarks Almanac, it boils down to this: What is available here? What can we afford? So far, we have found affordable seed that the birds eat, so that’s about all we care about.
The suit cakes we buy as we can find them on sale. You can spend a lot of money on suet cakes if you want to. We don’t want do and won’t. The birds eat what we place before them, unlike some children.

Tomorrow: Wrapping it up with the most important thing to do for the birds

Monday, November 6, 2017

Feed the birds this winter--and year around for fun--Part 2

Throw a scoop or two on the ground for the ground-feeders.
Today, we're going to tell you about the feeders we use at The Ozarks Almanac. You can see a picture of three of them in yesterday's post, which was Part 1 of this four-part series.

We want to appeal to the range of birds, so we have a range of feeders. I’m just missing one that I want, but I’ll have to build it, and I haven’t found the time yet.
For the finches, we have tube feeders and sock feeders that dispense the tiny seeds they like.
For the woodpeckers, we have suet feeders that hold the suet cakes.
For the cardinals, blue jays and others, we have a large cylindrical feeder with a perch around the bottom and holes that give access to the seeds. We also have a large feeder shaped like a red barn or a red schoolhouse, I’m not sure which. It has spring-activated perches on both sides that are supposed to keep squirrels out of the food.
We also use the ground to feed birds like large and beautiful mourning doves. They feed on the ground as do some other birds. I usually throw a scoop or two of bird food on the ground when I fill the feeders. Then as the birds feed on the feeders, they move them and knock down more seed to the ground.
What I’m missing is a platform feeder. All I need to do is sink two posts and then nail or screw a 1-by board  across the top. I’m not sure how wide it needs to be, 1x8, 1x10, 1x12. Not sure. Simple to put up, just haven’t got around to doing it, for I work another full-time manual-labor job and a half-time reporting job in addition to my sporadic writing here at The Ozarks Almanac.

Tomorrow: What we put in those feeders






Sunday, November 5, 2017

Feed the birds this winter--and year around for fun--Part 1

Three of the feeders we use at The Ozarks Almanac, located next to a hedge.
We feed birds year-round at The Ozarks Almanac. I don’t know if that is good or bad for the birds. Is it making them dependent on us, raising up a generation of birds expecting handouts from us birdwatchers? I don’t know, but right or wrong, that’s what we do.
If you don’t feed the birds at your place, think about doing it this winter. Get started on it now, in fact. They are fun to watch, and they probably need the food in winter.
I am no expert on birding, but here’s what we do at The Ozarks Almanac.

Location

The bird feeders are on the east side between the house and the neighbor’s hedge that he doesn’t take care of very well. That may be a good thing, for birds like to have a refuge they can fly to after eating. They go back and forth from the hedge to the feeders at feeding time.
If there’s a problem with too much vegetation in the yard, it is probably from our side, not the neighbor’s hedge. We’ve got a big Nine Bark bush. It’s something my wife likes, but it has grown unruly. That and the Golden Currant bushes provide refuge for the birds during feeding, but they also provide shelter for the neighborhood cats.
We’ve got one cat that is ours, Buddy, but there are four feral cats that hang around The Ozarks Almanac, too, because they know they’ll get a free meal from time to time. I’ve found some feathers and twice I’ve seen a feral cat with a dead bird in its mouth, so I guess our bird sanctuary is a banquet hall for the ferals. I’m going to have to get out and trim back the Nine Bark, the Currant and some of the neighbor’s hedge so the birds have a clearer viewing range.
Despite all that, I think the location is good, for it is sunny the biggest part of the day, protected from the prevailing wind and provides good protection, as long as the birds stay out of the range of the cats.

Tomorrow: The feeders we use

Saturday, November 4, 2017

What kind of a construction worker was Jesus?


Sir John Everett Millais' Christ in the house of his parents, 1850
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Just about everything you have read and believed about Christianity has been revised, and I might talk about that from time to time here.
One thing that has changed is Jesus’ occupation. I’m not sure what the truth is now. I grew up hearing that he was a carpenter, and the stories and illustrations that I heard in Sunday School as a child indicated that  Our Lord and Savior grew up working with his earthly father, really step-father, I guess, as his Father was Jehovah, in a woodworking shop. I always imagined them making furniture, like baby cradles and such.
Then I was watching  The History Channel a few years ago and there was a show on there that claimed Jesus was actually something called a “tekton,” which is the Greek word for a laborer, very likely helping the Romans build a new city close to Nazareth, a city called Sepphoris.
The show said he likely was a stone-cutter or a stone carrier or someone doing a lot of work with stones. The show pointed out that there was not a whole lot of wood over there, as there is here, so Jesus probably was not a woodworker, certainly not a carpenter, but probably a stone worker of some sort.
Well, boy howdy, that sure changes the picture.
I thought Jesus grew up quietly in Nazareth, him and Joseph working together sawing and planing and sanding all those baby cradles. Ever now and again, Mother Mary would bring out a cup of coffee or a glass of sweet tea to the workshop and say something like, “How are my boys doing?’ and then give them each a peck on the cheek.
At lunch time, she’d holler out the back door of the house, “Come and get it, but wash your hands first,” and Jesus and Joseph would go to the bucket of water at the back door and pour some in a pan and wash their hands and face and then go into the house and eat themselves a bowl of soup or a grilled cheese sandwich or something. Then they’d thank Mary for lunch and go back to the workshop and spend the afternoon making some more baby cradles before heading back to the house for supper and then an evening of study of the scriptures.
And I figured that went on from the time Jesus was 12 and got left at the Temple until the time he was 30 and headed to Capernaum and beyond to go into business for himself as a rabbi, or teacher, having done all that scriptural study.
But, according to The History Channel, the incarnate Word was actually a construction worker, and he and Joseph probably spent a good many years on a work crew in Sepphoris building the city.
What was Jesus like as a construction worker around all those other construction workers? That can be a rough crowd. They tell dirty jokes, talk about getting drunk and getting laid. When a good-looking woman walks by they stop and stare, maybe make a comment, hoping  she’ll stop and flirt a little while.
What did Our Lord and Savior, who was sinless, do while all that tomfoolery was going on? What is a sinless person supposed to do around that kind of baloney? Ignore it? Say nothing? Say “tut-tut” or “tsk-tsk” and keep on working? Preach about the sins of the flesh? What if someone tells a dirty joke and it is really funny? How does a human, and Jesus was 100 percent human as well as 100 percent divine, not laugh at a funny joke, even if it is off-color?
I got reported at my day job for telling an inappropriate joke in the break room. The HR manager called me into the office and told me a complaint by a female worker had been filed for an inappropriate joke. I said, “The only joke I know I told recently was this one“ and then I told her this joke: Old boy goes into a bar and there is a big, fat girl in Daisy Duke shorts dancing on the table. Guy watches a while and then says, “Great legs.” The fat girl giggles and says, “Really? You think so?” And the guy says, “Sure, most tables would have collapsed under the weight by now.” The HR manager laughed out loud, told me to get out of her office and quit telling jokes in the employee break room.
Jesus would not have told a joke like that, nor would he have laughed. He is probably pissed off at me now for telling it again. No, wait, he doesn’t get pissed off. I get pissed off, because getting pissed off is a sin, and I am a sinner, but Jesus is not.
Wow, it must have been difficult being The Word Made Flesh, Divinity living amongst us sinful humans, and going to the cross to die for us, because we all deserve death, but he wants us to have eternal life.
I guess I don’t care whether he was a woodworker, a rough-in carpenter, a hod carrier or a skilled stone cutter.
I know that he was the Word of God to us, God in the flesh, who came to teach us and to die for us to atone for our sins. Because of him, we can live eternally, if we recognize our inability to save ourselves, recognize that he alone is the way to God, believe he died for us to cleanse us of our sins. He rose from the grave and now he offers us grace, mercy and peace. All we must do is receive him into our daily lives and worship him and follow him as the true expression of the Father.
That is truth that has not changed.



Friday, November 3, 2017

Politics and media haven't changed a bit over the years

It was on this date, Nov. 3, in 1948 that the Chicago Daily Tribute ran a banner headline declaring that "Dewey Defeats Truman."
Talk about fake news.
Well, it was just a mistake, kind of like the declarations a year ago leading up to the election, and even on election night, as the media boldly declared that Hillary Clinton was going to defeat Donald Trump.
"That ain't the way I heard it" is what someone said President Truman said a couple days later at Union Station in St. Louis when he was on his way back to Washington, D.C., from his home in Independence.
Someone handed him a copy of the paper from earlier in the week, so he held it up and the photographers started snapping pictures.
Truman was a Democrat, Thomas Dewey, who was the governor of New York, was a Republican. The Chicago Daily Tribune was a Republican paper, something you don't hear of much these days.
The Tribune had called Truman a "nincompoop," so that goes to show that not much has changed in politics or the media over the years. It's all a bunch of baloney, best ignored if you can do it. It's far more productive to spend time planning your garden, planting your garden, working the soil in your garden, harvesting the produce from your garden and putting up the fruit of your labors for the winter.
That and taking care of your chickens--and any livestock you might have.
And also read your Bible and pray.
The media and the politicians can just go to hell.
This is the 307th day of the year, The Old Farmers Almanac says it is supposed to be rainy and cool.
Tonight after midnight, 23 minutes into Nov. 4, in fact, the moon is supposed to be at its fullest. It is called the Beaver Moon in the almanacs, hearkening back to the colonial days in North America. That's what the early settlers apparently heard that name from the Indians, called Native Americans nowadays, although it seems to me that anyone born in either North America or South America is a native American.

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Two weeks later, the bananas were almost as green as the day she bought them

 These bananas looked much greener in reality.Why did they never ripen?
My wife carefully monitors what I eat, and she buys wholesome food for me. Under her watchful eye and refusal to allow me to eat sweets, I have lost several scores of pounds.
Most important, the doctor says my A1C sugar number (I think that is what it is called) is trending downward instead of upward as it had been.
She encourages me to eat fruit instead of Snickers or Butterfinger or Cherry Mash.
My lunch box usually carries an apple, orange, banana, or sometimes all three.
She does most of the shopping at the local Aldi store, and she usually buys the bananas a little green so they won't go to mush quickly.
About a month ago, she brought home some name-brand bananas that were green, real green, green as goose poo, or greener.
And hard as rocks.
I checked them every day, because I wanted to take one to work
Literally two weeks later, the bananas were still green and rock-hard.
I told her that even if they did ripen, I would not eat them, because there was something mysterious and ungodly about bananas that did not ripen in two weeks.
I accused the banana grower of either injecting them with some strange chemical or genetically modifying them. Or both. Whatever kind of black arts had been practiced on those bananas, I wanted nothing to do with them, so she threw them out.
Later, I got to looking on the internet,and maybe there is another explanation. Some sources say that bananas are picked before they are ripe so they will ship. Then they are ripened in the warehouse using a gas. Without that treatment, they will never ripen.
So I guess it is entirely possible our bananas simply didn't get the gas treatment.
I'm still leery, though, and a bit concerned about genetic modification or some other witchcraft.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Starbucks does not match up to House Blend, in my humble opinion

The House Blend at Motomart in Rolla is a superior cup of coffee.
A Starbucks coffee shop, or restaurant, or whatever you call such an establishment, has opened in our small Missouri city.
Opening day was about a month ago, and I still have not gone in and ordered a cup. Likely, I never will.
From what I have read and heard, to experience Starbucks you must order something exotic called a cappucino or something like that with a Mafia-sounding name. And you must be willing to pay a premium price.
I prefer to make my coffee at home and pour it into a Thermos jug. Or, if I am going to buy a cup, I want black coffee with free refills. Or, if I'm out driving, I am perfectly willing to stop at a convenience store and buy a cup of whatever they have.
When you are in Rolla, Missouri, I recommend you stop at MotoMart (I always stop at the one at the junction of US 63 and Missouri 72, which is close to the house) and pour yourself a cup of the House Blend. Unbeatable.
One Saturday my wife and I had been out running errands when she decided she wanted to stop at the Starbucks counter in the new Price Chopper supermarket, not to be confused with the new Starbucks coffee shop, restaurant or whatever you call such an establishment. She also wanted to shop at the new supermarket and see what it was like. I said, "OK, but first stop at MotoMart, so I canget a cup of better coffee." And so we did.
When we got to the Price Chopper, she got in line at the counter, put her order in and then went over to the pick-up window. I stood off to the side, supping from my Mojo's cup that I got at MotoMart.
People kept asking me if I was in line, which I clearly was not. Finally, a yuppie couple came in and asked me the same question. "No," I said. "I'm waiting for my wife who is over there waiting on her fancy-pants coffee. I'm here drinking superior gas station coffee."
Goodness gracious, how they looked at me with disdain.
Oh, well, the House Blend from MotoMart is a superior cup of joe, and I doubt Starbuck's has anything to beat it. That's the humble opinion of The Ozarks Boy.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Time to see what the persimmons predict for winter

It has been a tradition for me for several years to open up some seeds from the persimmon tree in our yard to find out what they predict the winter weather will be.
Then, I often write a column about the findings. If you root around in here, you might find some of those previous winters' prognostications.
Maybe you will find last year's that predicted a harsh, wet winter. It turned out to be quite mild. No snow accumulation worth mentioning.
As you can see from the picture, I have gathered some fruit, seven of them.
I chose seven because that is the number of days it took Our Almighty Father God to make the universe, and rest up from the effort.
I try to keep my persimmon work biblically based, because s fellow employee at the newspaper where I once worked asked, "Is this witchcraft?" I told her, "No, it is Ozarks folklore." So, to make sure it is not witchcraft, I keep it biblically based.
The seeds have been removed and are in a plastic sandwich bag on the kitchen counter.
I will get around to opening the seeds and reading them this weekend, so check back. And tell your friends.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Get up, look up early every morning

I wish I had a good camera, for I would like to take a picture of the morning sky from time to time.
Today, for instance, when I let the poodles out at 4:45, I wanted to take a picture of the moon and Venus against the eastern sky that was starting to show some blue. Unfortunately, my Tracfone, while good for pictures in bright sunlight, does not do well in the twilight.
Here is a link to Earth and Sky's excellent website.
The sky changes throughout the year, of course, so I use that website frequently, as well as other resources, to keep track of what is going on.
If you get up early, as I do, step outside and take a look upwards.

Monday, June 19, 2017

It takes a lot of scrubbing to get shed of poison ivy

Here is another hillbilly poem based on my real life as an Ozarker.
Despite our poor soil, we grow a lot of brush and that includes a lot of poison ivy. The only thing good I can say about it is that it is colorful when the leaves change in the fall.
In summer, though, it makes me miserable. Usually, when I get a case of it, I go to the doctor and get a shot or a series of pills to take. My wife says those medicines are hard on my insides, so she took over when I got a case of the ivy this summer.
The misery inspired me to versify up this gem, that I hope you enjoy.


IT TAKES A LOT OF SCRUBBING
TO GET SHED OF POISON IVY
Been clearing brush from fence rows over at my place
and now I’ve got poison ivy on my arms, legs and face.
And that stuff makes my skin crawl and itch,
and when I say itch, I mean like a son of, uh--which
brings up the treatment figured out by my wife,
an earth mother-type, who’s loved herbs all her life,
so much that she went to college, you see,
and worked hard enough to earn a master’s degree
in agriculture, with a horticulture focus.
Now she’s working some folk medicine hocus-pocus
on me. She prescribed scrubbing with soap,
yes, Dawn dish soap, and that will work, I hope,
to cut the acid of the ivy oil. Plus, she says, pine tar
soap will also work, so she gave me a bar
of that stuff and another one made from jewel weed,
and, in a bow to modern medicine, Benedryl, with my nightly feed.
She also found in her medicine bag jewel weed spray
that she claimed would soothe my skin night and day.
Well, it all seemed to work, it sure cut down the itching
so maybe there’s something to her herbal treatment witching.
Now the truth has dawned on me like turning on a lamp. It
is clear as day to me now: I married Granny Clampett!

Sunday, June 18, 2017

It is good to spend the morning in Psalms

I spent the morning in Psalms.
This quarter, my Sunday School class is going through that book, studying selected chapters, and today we were in Psalm 23, which may be the most familiar chapter because it is used in funerals frequently, maybe in every Christian funeral.
"The Lord is my Shepherd ..." is the way it starts, and one of the old guys in the class asked if any of us had raised sheep. One ole boy said he had, and the teacher asked him to tell about raising sheep and relate it to the text we were studying.
Marvin, that's his name, said that sheep are docile, gentle -- and stupid.
"They're just like people in a lot of ways," he said. Sheep will not let the shepherd lead them most of the time and they act like they know better. He told about how his barnyard was so muddy that he placed sheets of plywood outside the barn door, trying to cover up the mud. He had enough sheets except for one spot.
He managed to get all the sheep out the door and across the muddy barnyard on the plywood and out to the pasture.
"But there was one old ewe," he said, and that old ewe thought she knew better. She refused to follow Marvin; instead, she head right across the area that was uncovered and sloshed around in the mud.
Marvin said, "Sheep think they know it all. I do not miss sheep."
The guy who asked the original question said, "And it says here that the Lord is OUR shepherd. Think about that while thinking about what Marvin just told u about sheep."
We all got quiet, thinking about how stupid sheep are and how frustrating they are, then we thought about how our Shepherd, Jesus Christ, must see us. Yet, he still loves us and died for us to remove the stain of our sin so we could avoid His wrath toward sin. Pretty mind-boggling. The word awesome is way over-used, but it really describes Him.
In the worship service, the pastor used Psalm 1, which has six verses, to talk about relationships of children and parents. It was a Fathers Day sermon, titled "Love, Spelled T-I-M-E."
He said little children are Trusting, Imitators, Moldable and Energetic.
Pareents are supposed to Treasure, Instruct, Model a life of integrity for and Encourage their children.
This relationship takes time, and the pastor said parents must spend time reading and meditating on the written word of God, learning for themselves so they can instruct, mold and channel the kids' energy in righteous ways, not riotous ways, as described in the sermon text.
For our songs, we sang "The Family of God," which we do every Sunday while walking around the sanctuary/auditorium and shaking hands with folks; "This Is My Father's World" and "Faith of Our Fathres." The invitation hymn was "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus."
We had a responsive reading about love worked in there, too.
It was a good morning of Bible study, worship and praise.

Monday, May 29, 2017

Now that was a strong case of faith

The other day while driving home from work, I saw a case of extreme faith.
It was on old Route 66, coming into Rolla from the west.
I drive to work in St. Robert on Interstate 44 early in the morning when there is little traffic, but I come home in mid-afternoon on Historic Route 66 to avoid the out-of-staters and the locals in the big pick-ups, all of whom are in a hurry.
Historic Route 66 is a nice, peaceful drive. I have to get off it and back on the interstate briefly to get across the Little Piney Creek at Arlington. I get back on the interestate at the exit with a name, Jerome Dixon, and then get off at the exit with another great name, Sugar Tree.
Then I head east on old 66, travel through Doolittle, named for the World War II aviator for some reason that I know not why, and then into Rolla. It was right in there on that portion that they call Martin Spring Drive that I witnessed the extreme faith.
From a distance I saw a figure on the side of the road, my side. As I neared, I saw it was a man walking. At least he was walking on the correct side of the road, although at that point there is a sidewalk, so I don't know why he wasn't on it. There are businesses on this stretch, and many driveways that draw traffic and dump traffic back out onto Old 66. The peaceful old Mother Road becomes pretty hectic up in this stretch.
Then as I got nearer, I noticed his head was down and his arms were up at chest level
As I drove past him, I saw that he was a Millennial Snowflake wearing a backpack and holding a cellphone in his hands and his eyes fixed on the little screen. He wsa obviously thumbing a message, completely unaware of the traffic passing by him.
A young man, likely one of the young scientists in our scientific community that is home to Missouri's technological university that promotes itself as on a par with MIT, he probably does not believe in God and pooh-poohs putting all his trust in anything but science. He might claim to have no faith.
But I believe what I witnessed was pure, unadulterated faith. Faith in the wrong things, himself, me as a safe driver, other motorists following the traffic laws, but faith nonetheless.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Wildlife adapts to extreme weather, so don't worry about the animals

We have really been having some weather in our part of the state this week.I missed a day of work at my day job Monday, because I couldn't get to it. The Gasconade River and the Little Piney Creek had covered the interstate over at Jerome and Arlington, so I couldn't get to my job in Pulaski County.

I work at a big-box home improvement store as a manual laborer, so I worked at the sister store in Rolla, closer to my place, on Tuesday and Wednesday, returning to the St. Robert store today.

One of the cats that hang around here  broke the rain gauge before the big storm started, so I don't know how much rain we got here at our place total. I finally had a chance to put a new gauge up yesterday, and I know that that from 6:30 p.m. Wednesday until it quit raining today, we received 1 5/8 inches. All this water causes problems for humans, but it also can hinder wildlife. Don't worry too much about the animals, though. According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, wildlife is well adapted to the weather, no matter how extreme. Here's some more from MDC:


Regarding wildlife and flooding, MDC Furbearer Biologist Laura Conlee explained most wild animals move to higher ground when areas begin to flood.

“Many species have the ability to move to higher ground and can avoid flooding and high waters,” she said. “Although there are likely to be localized negative impacts, wildlife populations generally recover over time from these types of extreme natural events.”

MDC Deer Biologist Barb Keller echoed the same message.

“Deer and elk are pretty resilient to these types of events because they’re mobile, and in most cases, move to high ground as flood waters rise,” Keller explained. “Deer and elk are also strong swimmers and are occasionally sighted swimming across rivers as large as the Mississippi and Missouri.”

Keller added that deer fawns and elk calves would certainly be more vulnerable to extreme weather events such as flooding, but the peak timing for elk calving and deer fawning is still a few weeks away.

"Anytime we have a big rainfall event during spring, it’s never a good thing for turkey nesting success," said MDC Turkey Biologist Jason Isabelle.

“That being said, this spring’s flooding does not necessarily mean that we’re in for a poor hatch this year,” Isabelle said. “Weather over the next 4-6 weeks will still have a big influence on the success of this year’s hatch.”

Missouri fish are well adapted to flooding and MDC Fisheries Division Chief Brian Canaday noted the state’s fish populations are resilient.

“During floods, some fish move long distances, while others find refuge in local habitat such as root wads, logs, boulders, and flooded back waters,” he said.

Canaday added that fishing in Missouri will continue to be good.

“Your favorite fishing spot may look different after the flood, but the fish are still there and fishing will still be good in Missouri’s lakes, rivers, and streams,” he said.

As waters recede over the next few days, MDC staff will continue to assess impacts of flooding at MDC facilities, conservation areas, hatcheries, and accesses.

Before visiting conservation areas around state, check the MDC website for area closures due to flooding under CHECK FOR CLOSINGS at mdc.mo.gov.
 

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Changing lives out here in flyover country

Out here in the middle of no where, or as we like to say, the middle of everywhere, there is some life-changing science going on.
The Missouri University of Science and Technology is a news-making school, and there is more good news coming out of that campus now.
Here's a recent announcement about a new technology that uses glass to heal wounds. That's right, glass to heal wounds.

A glass-based wound care product that emerged from research by a doctoral student at Missouri University of Science and Technology has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for human use and is now available on the commercial market.
Steve Jung laid the groundwork for the Mirragen Advanced Wound Matrix while earning a master’s degree in ceramic engineering and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at Missouri S&T. Jung is now chief technology officer at Mo-Sci Corp., a Rolla specialty glass manufacturer that continued the product’s development in collaboration with ETS Wound Care, also of Rolla.
“The recent FDA approval is a significant milestone,” says Chad Lewis, president and CEO of ETS Wound Care, a subsidiary of Engineered Tissue Solutions. “We’re opioneering an entirely new therapeutic option for wound care.”
The Mirragen Advanced Wound Matrix is a wound dressing solely composed of microscopic glass fibers and particles that are absorbed by the body. Both flexible and moldable, the wound dressing can be easily customized, while its fiber structure allows Mirragen to absorb fluid from the wound site and facilitate healing.
Keith Strassner, director of the university’s office of technology transfer and economic development, calls the new wound care product a successful example of the real-world benefits of academic research.
“The Mirragen story perfectly illustrates how federal support of university research can translate into broader economic and social benefits,” he says, noting the early support of Jung’s work by a U.S. Department of Defense grant. “Then, we were able to create a strong partnership with Mo-Sci and transfer the technology to allow the company to make the necessary investments in its commercialization and the regulatory approval process.”

The inventor, Steve Jung, is a Rolla City Council member. Mo-Sci was founded by Dr. Delbert Day, the inventor of glass bead technology that has developed into a number of products. His son, Ted Day, is the Mo-Sci CEO who gave the initial seed money for the newly opened Delbert Day Cancer Institute. Ted was also a member of the hospital board and its chairman. Keith Strassner is ending a 15-year run on the Rolla Board of Education.
The point I am making is that not only is S&T changing lives, its people are important servsnt-leaders in our community.
And this blessed life is nestled here in the Ozarks.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Watching a V of geese flying north

When I stepped off the back porch this morning just after 5, I looked up and saw the sky was clear and the stars were shining, at least in the west, my direction of travel for the next 30 minutes or so to get to my day job. The ground was soggy for we had received a heavy rain overnight.
As I set my travel mug of coffee atop my car, I heard a goose in the sky to the South. I head a couple more calls. We have many resident Canada geese here, and I see them year-round at a couple of parks. Consequently, I didn't think much about it as I fumbled for my keys in my pocket with my right hand and hung onto my dinner bucket and Thermos full of coffee in my other.
Then, the goose conversation picked up and was coming in my direction. I looked up and a beautiful big V of geese glided north directly over me. The motion-activated porch light was still on, and the light from the two bulbs lit up the birds' undersides.
They weren't real high, well above the top of the persimmon tree, but not way up there in the darkness.
They made a beautiful sight, and in my morning prayer on the way to work, I thanked the Lord for the opportunity to see the birds, and I thanked Him for the seasons and His creation.
At work, I was telling some co-workers about the geese when Justin, who produces his own outdoors show for local television, said, "Did you notice that one side of the V was longer than the other?"
"Yeah, why is that?" I asked, expecting a semi-scientific answer from a man I consider an outdoors expert.
"Because one side has more geese in it than the other," he said, grinning.
I laughed. We all laughed and shook our heads. And it wasn't even April Fool's Day.

Saturday, March 11, 2017

I look forward to Sunday School

It is Saturday morning, and the temperature is below freezing. Snow and ice are reportedly on the way. It looks like I might miss Sunday School tomorrow. If it is too bad, they will cancel the service, but if it looks the least bit hazadous, I will stay home and read the Bible and listen to bluegrass gospel.
I hope to get to Sunday School and church service, though, for in many ways and for many reasons, my favorite day of the week is Sunday, and Sunday School is about my favorite hour of the week.
"Adult Men" is the name of the Sunday School class. We are all older adult men. At 63, I think I am the youngest. The others are even more wizened. They are farmers who are still farming or ranching, retired mechanics and other men who have worked, and worked hard. One is a retired engineer who was a general in the National Guard. They are all veterans of the military. They are all patriots. They all love and take care of their families. They all love their church.
To my way of thinking, they are the perfect examples of Christian men. I've run across some teaching and preaching on the Internet, though, that would disqualify them from heaven.
They new Christianity is pacificism, and the new teaching is that anyone who has served in the military has put empire before Jesus. That is error, in my opinion.
Men, and now women, who serve in the military do so to protect liberty, so we can continue to serve Jesus, tell others about him, and preach about Him and his principles and share our interpretation of His principles, even when we are wrong.
Because of people who serve in the military, these new-age teachers have the liberty to preach against the military.
The new preachers and teachers apparently believe they are today's best examples of Christ-like living. I prefer the good men who are in my Sunday School class.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Japanese investors buy our town's newspaper

Our town's newspaper is now owned by some rich Japanese.
According to news reports out there in cyberspace, SoftBank, a Tokyo investment company, has bought Fortress Investment Group, a New York private equity firm.
Fortress Investment Group owns Gatehouse Media, which is also called New Media Investment Group (a name that showed up after Gatehouse went bankrupt a few years ago). Gatehouse/New Media Investment Group owns the Rolla Daily News, the Waynesville/St. Robert Daily Guide and the Camdenton Lake Sun. It also owned the St. James Leader Journal, but it closed that paper in 2016.
Here's how the Boston Herald website covered the story: Massachusetts papers in 3.3B deal.
If you open up that link, you'll see how Boston University journalism professor Lou Ureneck assessed the situation for the newpapers:
The value of Gatehouse is a tiny, tiny fraction of the values (of) these companies. My sense is that it’s going to be more of the same: extremely lean news budgets and an emphasis on improving profit margins by reducing the number of reporters and editors.
I would be shocked if there was any reinvestment in these organizations as a consequence of this ownership change. … If Fortress remains in the driver’s seat with Gatehouse Media, we’ll see this continued policy of squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.
Maybe this is why my hours—I work as a part-time local government reporter for the Rolla Daily News—were cut from 20 to 14 per week this week.
As with everything nowadays, this financial transaction has been linked to President Donald Trump by the bigwig, fancy-pants news media. Here's a report on the Boston Business Journals website, Japanese firm to buy Gatehouse parent company for 3.3 billion.
What a hoot!
I came to work full-time for the Rolla Daily News way back in the previous century on Aug. 1, 1984. My title at that time was "assistant city editor" and I worked for Stephen E. Sowers, who was the combination city editor and managing editor. He was in charge of the news/editorial side of the paper. His two brothers handled advertising and business. They and their mother owned the paper, which was started by Edward Sowers, the patriarch of the family. Mr. Sowers had passed away a couple of years before I went to work at the paper.
Then a couple or three years later the Sowers family sold the paper to American Publishing Co., which was part of a Canadian operation called Hollinger, which was owned by Conrad Black, a rich British lord or baron or some other kind of hobknobber.
Over the years, the company changed from American Publishing to Liberty Group Publishing to Gatehouse. Through all of those names, the company has been kind of a dairy operation, I think, more about milking cash from the herd of cash cows across the country than with reporting news.
Back in the days of the Sowers family ownership, some townspeople (not all, of course) complained about the family, especially my boss, Steve. The complainers said the community newspaper needed a new owner. They got a series of new owners, so I hope the townspeople are happy. I suspect, though, that a lot of the old-timers are wishing for the days of Steve and the Sowers family.
When I left my full-time job at the paper in December 2004, I wrote my final column and thanked Steve and the Sowers family. I referred to the then-current owners as a bunch of piss ants. I went back to work part-time in September 2010 and am still hanging on at 14 hours a week. I'll keep my opinions about all this to myself, though you are free to draw your own inferences.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Solemn gratitude for Christ's sacrifice

The front of today's church service bulletin.
Although our pastor died a couple of weeks ago, our church met today and joyfully worshipped our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our associate pastor said that we know by faith our Brother Larry is with Jesus in the heavenly realm, worshipping Him there as we were here.
We had our observance of The Lord's Supper, also known by some churches as Holy Communion. We have that ordinance observation (it is not a sacrament for our congregation) quarterly, and at Easter and Christmas.
Our call to worship was "Grace, Love, and Fellowship." Other hymns we sang were "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" and "The Solid Rock." A women's trio sang "Jesus, at Your Holy Table."
Our associate pastor preached from I Corinthians 11:23-28. It is a passage Paul wrote about the proper observance of The Lord's Supper. The Corinth church members were having rollicking good times for the rich Christians, who brought lavish meals to church and got drunk on the wine, while the poor Christians sat with little or nothing to eat in observance of the Lord's sacrifice of his body and blood.
Paul laid down rules for observing The Lord's Supper with the admonition that you must not do it in an unworthy manner. The whole idea is to do it in remembrance of the Savior, so you must be someone who recognizes your need for His salvation and you have prayed to receive it.
Later, during our actual partaking of the unleavened bread and the grape juice (we are Baptists, so not real wine), the preacher drove home the point that although these are symbols of His body and blood, our partaking of them is serious, and by doing so, we are sharing in His sacrifice for us, somehow. It was a solemn and sobering observance of the Lord's table. We are grateful He has provided a way for us to live with Him for eternity.
We closed by singing "Blest Be the TieThat Binds" and then leaving quietly.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Texas cafe promotes "Peace Through Pancakes"

"Make plenty. They go like hotcakes."
My wife went to visit her people in Texas over Christmas. She came back with gifts, including a box of Kerbey Lane Cafe gingerbread pancake mix. It was minus  one cup of mix, because when nephew Canon, 6, saw her packing the box to bring back home to me he said, "Oh, gingerbread pancakes, that's what I want for breakfast." Of course, he got pancakes the next morning, made by Aunt Dee, who spoils him, and I don't blame her. She knew Uncle R.D. back up in the Missouri Ozarks would not mind sharing.

Those pancakes really hit the spot this morning, the second day of Icemageddon in Southern Missouri. The thermometer with a sensor on my front porch reads 33.9 degrees, so maybe quite a bit of the ice on the power lines will melt and make room for the second wave of freezing rain that is supposedly coming in late tonight to continue until 10 a.m., when my Sunday School class starts. If the weatherman is accurate, I guess I'll be missing church again Sunday. Maybe I'll make up for it with another batch of gingerbread pancakes.

My first gingerbread pancakes ever in my life were served to me for breakfast at the Kerbey Lane Cafe on Kerbey Lane in Austin when I went down to visit Delaine's home state and meet her family. They were fine pancakes, mighty fine.

The story Delaine told was that Kerbey Lane Cafe, located in a renovated old house, was supposedly started years ago by some hippies who grew most of the food themselves on a communal farm outside Austin. I don't know where she heard that story, or maybe she was just pulling my leg, for she is prone to do that. I believed that for years, and I tried from time to time to replicate the gingerbread pancakes here in the kitchen.

Now, I have the official Kerbey Lane Cafe pancake mix, so I can have gingerbread pancakes from time to time until the mix runs out.

As I made the pancakes this morning, I read the package, and it seems to try to promote some kind of hippie ethic on it. "Peace Through Pancakes" is one of the slogans on one side.

What's interesting is that there is a website address on it, and I checked it out. I also found a couple of other articles about Kerbey Lane Cafe, one on The Austin Chronicle site and one on Culture Map Austin.

Here's an article from 2010: The Austin Chronicle.

Here's an article from 2015: Culture Map Austin.

The Austin Chronicle article shows that the restaurant company owners, not hippies and not communal farm dwellers, did indeed try to use locally grown produce and meat for the items on their menu. Reading the newer Culture Map article, I'm not quite sure that is the case with the new management, headed up by the son of the couple that started it.

So those hippies, if ever they were such, have gone all corporate capitalist on us now. Not that I, a far-right conservative, mind that at all, although I hope they still have that commitment to local growers and local food.

The Kerbey Lane empire has grown to seven restaurants in and around Austin, and the goal is to build in other states. They also hope to go national with their pancake mix. It would be nice to be able to go to Aldi, Kroger, Price Chopper or Walmart to find a box of gingerbread pancake mix on cold mornings like we are experiencing this weekend.

"PEACE THROUGH PANCAKES"

Friday, January 13, 2017

"Icemageddon" hits the Ozarks again

This ice-covered feeder was almost empty before I refilled it.
Man, oh man, I hope this ice storm doesn't knock the power out. I've heard it called "Icemageddon," and I'm sure hoping that it doesn't turn out to be as bad as that sounds.

Now, you can read all about the ice storm the National Weather Service has named Jupiter on the internet or in your newspaper. Or you can turn on The Weather Channel or your local TV station. Those sources will tell you a lot more and show you dramatic pictures. I can't add much to that, so I'll just tell you about my day spent watching the ice build up. If you aren't interested, I don't blame you.

My supervisor at my day job called me a little before 6 and told me not to come in because freezing rain was falling, and she worried I might get stranded there in the afternoon. It's 30 miles away in the next county.

Normally, I would have been at work by 6 a.m., but I decided today to wait and go in late after I determined the chances of being stranded. The boss determined that for me.

I've had a full day of doing some of my favorite things: reading, writing, listening to the radio, drinking coffee, talking to my wife, playing with our standard poodles. When you grow up in the hardscrabble Ozarks, it doesn't take much to make you happy.

All morning I would step outside from time to time to check the weather. The rain that started here before 6 a.m. is still falling slowly at 2 p.m., so there is a layer of ice. I went out and replenished the bird feeders, for the birds have been on them all morning. I knocked the ice off the top of one so I could move the latches on the lid.

I measured the thickness of the ice at about 3/8 of an inch. I don't know if that is correct, but it is what I got. Don't consider it official.

I walked around the yard looking at various trees and shurbs. They're all frozen, of course.

I'm just hoping that the ice doesn't do what it did back in January 2007. That knocked our power out here for three nights. Fortunately, we had an office for the magazine we were publishing at that time, so we took an air mattress and spent the nights there, because that building was not affected by the power outage.

After my time outside, my wife and I ate a hot lunch, leftovers from yesterday, a dish of chicken, rice, mushroom soup, peppers, garlic and other tasty vegetables and spices. I added a large side dish of greens seasoned with bacon and a big slap of buttered cornbread. All washed down with strong, hot coffee. Fine, mighty fine.

Not a bad day, and It won't be a bad weekend either, as long as the power doesn't go off.

Look at the ice buildup on our red buckeye bush in the front yard.

Monday, January 9, 2017

Time to start planning your spring, summer and fall gardens

With Christmas over and New Year's Day also past and out of the way, I'm ready to think about gardening.

Well, the truth is I didn't stop thinking about gardening, not even after clearing out my garden beds in the fall.

We've already been getting seed catalogs, so that works to keep me thinking about planting and harvesting, too.

The Ozarks Almanac has a Twitter account (feel free to follow), and one account we follow is Chickens on Camera. (@chickensoncam). That account led us to this page about mapping your summer garden.

That web page is a good starting point to plan your garden. I'd suggest you get a resource from your university extension regarding planting times and days until harvest. Figure out when your last frost date is typically, and you can figure out how to have two, maybe three gardens, a spring garden, summer garden and fall garden.

The Ozarks Almanac had a spring garden that provided us with a lot of fresh greens (see the picture above), followed by a summer garden of tomatoes, beans and a ton of squash and cucumbers.

It was fine, mighty fine eating. We are looking forward to more of the same this year.