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"Wisdom From the Woods" this time I can only give warnings that it is time to be on the lookout for ticks and snakes. In our neck of the woods we have plenty of copperhead snakes. In our 35 year residence here we have confronted only one water moccasin and one cottonmouth that showed up in a real rainy summer. This summer there have already been copperheads run over by cars and trucks on the highway and a few confrontations by gardeners and squirrel hunters. It is vacation time and most people have their plans made for the summer. We would like to take a trip to Pennsylvania to visit some friends that we haven't seen in a long time.

As we quickly approach the solstice on June 21st, it seems like the time is flying by.  Most of my garden is out, a third of my corn is planted (thank you Mother Nature for the rain, but I'm good really...), and now it is time to hurry up and wait for everything to produce the produce. While eagerly anticipating your tomatoes and cukes, there are a few tasks to be done.  Thin out seedlings and fertilize the plants you keep for a more vigorous garden. My garden and raised beds are all enriched with a locally sourced organic fertilizer, courtesy of my daughter's pony, Rusty.  If anything still needs an added boost, I use a line of organic fertilizers from Canada

During the funeral service for my brother Richard last Saturday, I had a lot of memories flash back through my mind about hunting, fishing, and even canoe racing. This time I will write about a rabbit hunt that Richard always talked about with a big grin on his face. He and Jerry Leach, one of his buddies that he grew up with on the East side of Poplar Bluff, took off for a hunt, walking out the Frisco Railroad tracks. After a while, they had reached the levee east of town and were hunting down the levee toward the old "Cat Tracks" of the Mo-Pac Railroad. The dogs were hunting along the ditch beside the levee and after a while,

As a child and certainly as a teenager, I used to bristle when I heard an older person talk about how easy "kids these days" had it.  At the time I was absolutely certain that they didn't have a clue about what having it hard was (extra homework, hour long bus ride, doing the dishes and bringing in firewood, et cetera). Brother was I wrong.  Becoming an adult and all the responsibilities entailed taught me that; having children added a whole extra dimension.  Add to that a farm where the animals health and well being is squarely on your shoulders and it's a full plate. Since moving to the farm, I now feel a sense of admiration and respect for

Wisdom from the Woods is going to take off in a different direction this holiday season. My dad was a veteran of what was named as the war to end wars, but it turned out to be World War I. Dad served in the Army and fought in France after that country was invaded to liberate it from the German army. I was my dad's buddy, being the youngest son to survive. I was followed in the birth line by a brother that died right after birth. Then came five girls so that left me as dad's buddy. I went with him almost everywhere except when he went to work. Dad never talked much about the war and his time