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My wife was the eldest daughter in a large family, but never learned to cook as she worked outside the home. The first time I visited her home and folks it was a big occasion for she was to cook chili and I had already said I like chili. It looked OK and I dipped out a big bowl. Pretty tasteless...

I never seen an Amishman or his family at one of the sales with a dog, in the way the "English" carry dogs with them. They do have dogs at home. Most I've seen are mixed breed mutts, even a few house type of the rat dog sort. The Amish seem to want to make everything pay its way. If they do have...

Once you are attacked by a Pit Bull beside your own barn, the memory tends to color almost any discussion about animals or barns.

It seems all the animal control agencies (dog pounds) have been taken over by animal rightists and become "No Kill". This means vicious pit bulls and other untrainable dogs get rotated back into rural areas where they have "room to play" in neighbor's fields. The new owners can not believe their...

Local Amish built our house for us and I have attended their produce and hay sales for over 25 years, both as a seller and a buyer. They are people like anyone else with both good and not so good about them. Early in the morning their school bell rings and kids come out, down the hollows and...

A bump, bruise or scratch, that would not have been noticed 20 years ago, now seems to hurt more and leave a red whelp that lingers for days. Just part of the joy of old age.

I grew up hearing the older folks saying Sa heifer (pronounced with a drawn out short A or Sah) to a cow that did not want to claim her calf or to a cow you were trying to get take another calf. I heard it so often and from so many I began to use the phrase myself. We said it every time the cow...

Its happening all around me. As the older farmers (such as myself) pass on, none of the heirs want to fool with cows. They allow the more level ridges to be cut for hay by someone, but the majority of the farm slowly grows up. It takes about 40 years to return to something that could be...

If I did not have my pants inside my boots for five months of the year, the lower pant legs would be soaked with mud and manure. I would hate to bring them in the house to my wife. I try and stay on her good side.

Back in 2004 we bought an old store building and a little over an acre just down the road. We had dreams of a farm market. It also had an old blacksmith shop, a nice hand dug well and a small barn. It was little changed from the late 1800s, had once been a post office, a grist mill and the...

Here on the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone, we get the full effects of Daylight Savings. Noon on "Sun Time" will now be closer to 3 PM. I tend to waste that extra daylight after supper but am always out at break of day. The Kentucky Legislature is considering a bill to eliminate DST; I...

In 1974, a friend and I drove an old 1964 pick-up to Colorado and Wyoming. Among other things, we wanted to see a real rodeo. We attended one in Estes Park, Colorado and another in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I do not think I ever saw as many arm and leg casts in one place as I did at a bar in...

I raised Duroc Hogs in the late1970s and kept them in with a 6 volt Parmac solar fencer. It worked pretty well except for one thing. We fed ear corn back in this days and the hogs learned to push the cobs into piles and short out the fence with the piles of cobs. A recurring bad dream back then...

487 J When you picked up the phone an operator asked, "Number Please?".

During the 1970s and 1980s I regularly started coming 2 year old gaited horses over the winter. Never was that good of a rider but had a knack for gentling them and getting them bridle wise. Made decent money for my time. My wife and kids were not that interested so I was out of the horse...

I watched Fury and the Lone Ranger as a young kid. As I grew a little older it was Rawhide and the Rifleman. I never could get excited about Bonanza, except it was the first show in "living color". We had to go to a neighbors to watch it in color for it was a long time before we got a color set...

Love my Parmac 12 volt solar chargers. I have two or three in use at all times. My stock are broke to them and I do not worry about a string of cloudy days. In very dry weather you need a good ground, but the cattle rarely challenge them even then. I run a wire about 25 yards back from the...

Welcome to the world we live in in the Upper South. We had a week of below freezing and -10 and -12 degree lows, followed by two inches of rain and near 50. Mud City about describes it. Really hard on pastures. You have to have a sacrifice area for the cows for any sod disappears. It is hard not...

Greybeard, I am going for the Grandpa Jones look (for bluegrass music lovers). I once was a pig farmer, once was enough.

From November through March my footwear is a pair of what we use to call gum boots, heavy wool socks over cotton socks when it is cold. I never wear coveralls, just jeans. My problem is the open tops of the boots collect everything from sawdust to hay. If not cutting firewood, I am packing out...