Thursday, July 31, 2025
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
I call them kamikaze flies, but they are really not on a suicide mission, so the name is a bit off. Although, I must admit, if they spend too much time dive-bombing in our home, they really are on a suicide mission.
Kamikaze flies show up at night. They are just like regular flies except they zoom through the air and never land. They are so irritating if you are reading at night because they roar past and dip down to almost touch you then sceech away. They are loud, they are frenetic, and they are irritating to the nth degree.
I don't like them.
The other night as I was trying to get my jangled nerves settled down, I was sitting up in bed working on a crossword puzzle to get sleepy. I couldn't relax though because the most kamikaze of flies ever was driving me bananas. He was moving so fast that I couldn't even see him. I could hear him though, indeed, I could! Then I had an absolutely brilliant idea. I am sharing it with you in case you ever find need of figuring out a way to outsmart one of these little guys.
I turned on the light in the adjoining bathroom. Then I turned off the light in the room I was in. Then I walked into the bathroom, and, sure enough, Mr. Kami followed me in there. Then I quickly sidled out of the door and slammed it. He was caught. I also stuck my hand back in really quick and turned off the light. Kamis always settle down as soon as it is dark.
I share this with my adoring audience in the hopes of helping someone stay sane when faced with a similar situation.
Sunday, July 13, 2025
The Mayberry Times (which comes out weekly) never disappoints. The following Speak Out was in the July 3rd edition. You may wonder what Speak Out is, but the name itself really gives it away. It is a small section that allows readers to write a comment or opinion in 250 words or less. Sometimes it is signed, but often (as in this case) it is not. Here you go...
Reader Dislikes Fast Food Fry Changes
I was always taught that if it's not broke, don't try to fix it. The only reason I go to fast food restaurants is that I want french fries with my meals, and I am willing to bet I am not the only one who feels this way. Yet, so many of my (previously favorite) eateries are messing with what always worked before. I don't want fries that are waffled or wavy, (which is not so groovy when they don't taste like a real potato). Please, can't we just let fries be fries?
I personally like regular fries also, but I must admit that I would never think to write to the newspaper about it! I was highly amused at this though, and I am very glad the author had the time and energy to write in. Despite like regular fries, the only thing I absolutely demand for them is that they be hot. Cold fries just do not pass muster at all!
And that reminds me of the time that I visited my college roommate's house and family potato chip factory in Fulton, Missouri. We got to snatch a few fries off the assembly line. They were piping hot and sooo delicious. That was when I first realized that hot potato chips are to cold ones what hot fries are to cold fries.
Friday, July 11, 2025
Sunday, June 01, 2025
I have written before about the differences in language between the Big City (just 3 hours away) and this Mayberry-like place where we live...differences like:
"I don't care to" (which I grew up knowing as, "I don't want to") in Mayberry means, "Sure!"
"Let's have a bunking party," means, "Let's have a sleepover."
"She's showing out," is said here rather than, "She's showing off."
But, last week Kent heard a co-worker (Belinda) say, "I have to tilter when I get home."
Naturally he looked confused and asked her what she meant. She looked at him in surprise and put her hands out like she was holding onto something and started moving them up and down. He got the picture, being the bright man he is. "Oh, you mean you are going to till the garden."
"Yes, I am going to tilter."
Kent said to her, "I guarantee that word is not in the dictionary."
Her reply? "It's in the country dictionary."
Now I have to do a survey of old Ozarkians to see if that is true or not.
Meanwhile, in Fernnook we had a tea party for the older women in the area. It was lovely getting to visit with them. We followed it up with a sister-sister-sister-sister-in-law bunking party at Fernnook Lodge. I am happy to report that a fun time was had by all, though there was not a bit of tiltering going on.
Friday, April 11, 2025
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
We had a calf born just after Christmas last year. Kent really likes to castrate his bull calves on the 2nd or 3rd day after birth before they get too big for us Mom and Pop farmers to handle. It never really happens that way, though, and we usually have a big ape of a bull calf before we get to castrate it. Still, hope springs eternal in the small farmer's heart, so we began to try in any way possible to sneak up on that calf to castrate it. We tried for weeks. We tried in the day; we tried at night.
We were convinced it was a bull calf. It's momma is particularly skittish about her babies, and she wasn't having any part of us getting close to either her or the calf. Joel, however, got close enough one day that he said, "It's a bull calf!" And Natalie got close enough one day to say, "I am pretty sure it's a bull calf."
Day after day we tried to get close to the calf. One night, Tyler and Kent tried to sneak up in the dark and use the calf-catcher that Tyler brought with him. Didn't work. We looked at ways to make a homemade calf scooper upper, but they really were beyond what we felt we could finagle.
Finally, I took to feeding hay and calling in the cows. Kent though the momma would be less intimidated by me. She was really resistant to coming into the barnyard to eat at all, and he was worried because there wasn't any grass left in the field for her. It took several days, but finally one day after I fed the hay and walked away, she went in to eat. Progress! Hope began to sparkle again. A few mornings later, just after daylight, I fed hay, and she came in to eat. I snuck around the barn, and ran to shut the gate. We had her, her calf, and the other 2 year old heifer in the lot! So, I called Kent (cell phones have their use!), and he called Billy, and the game was on.
Together we maneuvered the two big cows out and kept the calf in. The guys tackled the calf, and then I went in to help hold one of the front legs. Kent laid out the knife and the iodine. Then he reached down and pulled up her top hind leg and we all gasped. It wasn't a bull calf at all. We have a cute little heifer. And, we have another story in the annals of Fernnook Farm.
On the way to the hay rack tonight a funny thing happened. Well, actually it happened after visiting the hay rack, but, the point is, it happened. Kent left for a meeting after dinner, and just as he was going out the door, he turned and said, "I need someone to give hay to the cows." Well, it just so happens that that particular "someone" is me. So, I went out to give hay to the cows. It is really muddy right now. We have had a lot of rain and snow and freezing and thawing going on around here, and that makes for major mud issues...especially in barnyards.
Today is Tuesday. Tuesday means a lot of folk come over to our house for dinner, and today's meal had most of the usual crowd attending. So there were hundreds of kids and dozens of adults both in the house and running around in the yard when I went to the hay rack. I pulled on my trusty boots, not the ones in the picture above, those were from years gone by, but my nice muck-type boots, and headed out with hopes that I wouldn't get stuck in the mud. And, I didn't get stuck, but something funny did happen. It happened because I am so short and the mud is so deep. I got the hay out of the barn, walked fairly well toward the rack, and then just as I reached it, I sunk in deep. The top of the rack was over my head, so I had to push and shove and heave to get the hay up and in. In the process, a load of hay went down my front on both the outside and inside of my shirt. It was in all the wrong places and immediately began to itch like mad.
I had to go back into the barn to turn off the light, and before turning it out, I had the brilliant idea to take off the offending clothing items and pick out the hay. Immediate relief! However, as I was standing there with my top half in the buff, I heard distinct squelching noises come from right outside the barn. Panic ensued! I yelled, "Don't come in yet!" and I began to get unbuffed as quickly as possible. It may have taken me 30 seconds or more to realize that the squelching I was hearing was the poor cows navigating through the deep mud to get to the rack. What a relief! My hide was saved, and I can give hay in the future with the knowledge that no one is the wiser to what an old woman looks like who is trying to unhay herself in the barn on a muddy day.