Bison Entertainment

We’ve been trying to get our corral reconstructed after building holding pens, but have had difficulties getting it done. Aside from having to take care of some other tasks before rebuilding it, we have also had a lot of rain the past few weeks, which made working in the field with heavy equipment risky. But…

Miami County 2017 Spring Farm Tour

The Miami County Farm Tour is coming up this weekend—May 13 and 14. There was a time I would have enjoyed touring various farming operations: I like to learn about lots of different things. I never, however, thought I’d be a farmer, let alone be a stop on a farm tour. We were visiting the…

The best-laid plans….

The best-laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft agley.—from “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns There’s always work to be done on the farm.  Kevin and I frequently start the day by asking each other, “What do you want to do today?” Recently, the plan of the day included reconstructing the corral that we…

Stonehaven Burning

We don’t have trash pickup. Lots of our neighbors do, but we have never arranged it. When you live in the country, you can burn whenever you like as long as the fire is contained in a trash barrel or something similar. We went through several steel barrels. They’d start out looking nice and painted….

Building Bridges

As I’ve noted before (Construction Zone, Mailboxes, Good Fences), Kevin and I are do-it-yourselfers. As I’ve also noted (Stonehaven), we have a lot of rocks. Every winter, the earth expels more. Some time ago, I got the idea of laying rocks across a particularly mucky area to make it easier to cross in our Ranger….

Buffalo Girl

Buffalo gals, won’t you come out tonight? Come out tonight, Come out tonight? Buffalo gals, won’t you come out tonight, And dance by the light of the moon.—Lyrics by John Hodges, 1844 We were installing cross-fencing in our pastures one weekend, and the day had gotten warm enough that I shed my jacket, leaving it on…

Laundry Day

We get a lot of wind in Kansas. In fact, Kansas is the second windiest state in the United States right after Nebraska. Dodge City, Kan., is the windiest city in the country even though Chicago claims the Windy City title. Our house is situated on the top of a hill. Not only do we…

A Matter of Faith

I grew up in what I would today term a fundamentalist Christian household. The religious tenets were based on literal interpretations of the Bible. I turned my back on those interpretations and on Christianity in my young adulthood until a life-altering event changed my perspective. But even then, I would not say I was truly…

Creativity isn’t just for artists

I used to think that creativity was solely the purview of artists and novelists. As I’ve grown older, I have found that is not the case. Examples of creativity surround us. Everything we see and use every day required someone at some point to have come up with a solution to a perceived problem. That’s…

Deer in the Headlights

Urban Dictionary defines deer in the headlights as “a mental state of high arousal caused by anxiety, fear, panic, surprise and/or confusion, or substance abuse.” Having been in Toastmasters, I’ve seen a lot of people displaying anxiety, fear, and sometimes panic as they prepare to give a speech, bringing the deer in the headlights visual to…