Editorial / Opinions

The western writers of the America Annual Conference were in Bismarck, S.D., this past June. I was hoping to sneak off and fish for some walleye, but that never happened. Days before I left, I was on the phone talking about road conditions with a nice lady in Missouri’s road department. “You better take I-35 E to Des Moines,” she warned. “The rest of the country is flooded.”

The first time my wife ever set foot on a working farm was when we first started dating. Needless to say, she has learned a lot about farming in the first 28 years of our marriage. I guess I have too, but it sure hurts an old country boy’s pride when a city girl does the teaching.

We all reach that point in our life when we look back and recall what made us – us. I’ve done a lot of soul searching recently after turning 30 years old. I thought that number was so far away, but somehow it snuck up on me. And, as I evaluate my life at 30 I’ve come to realize a few things…

It has begun.

Summers are typically filled with a lot of long hours in the hay fields, and this summer has provided many Ozarks farmers with good hay cuttings. A lot of the folks I’ve talked to are looking at about 3-4 round bales per acre, however others a little less, all depending on what county you reside.

My primary vocation these days is writing western novels. When I was in Lubbock, Texas last year at the Cowboy Symposium, I found an interesting historical book for sale.

I had the occasion to drive by the farm of an old friend last week. Since I very seldom drive that road, I was surprised to see a field full of round bales that were terribly misshapen. A little farther up the road, on the same farm, I was even more shocked to see his pasture grown up with musk thistles. While most people would probably not have given those two facts a second thought, I became worried about my friend’s health.

Summers are typically filled with a lot of long hours in the hay fields, and this summer has provided many Ozarks farmers with good hay cuttings. A lot of the folks I’ve talked to are looking at about 3-4 round bales per acre, however others a little less, all depending on what county you reside.

I had the occasion to drive by the farm of an old friend last week. Since I very seldom drive that road, I was surprised to see a field full of round bales that were terribly misshapen. A little farther up the road, on the same farm, I was even more shocked to see his pasture grown up with musk thistles. While most people would probably not have given those two facts a second thought, I became worried about my friend’s health.

One of the oldest crafts in the Ozarks is basket making. People of the Ozarks wove baskets for countless everyday uses in the home, field and barn. Farming families wove baskets, in spare hours for trade or sale, helping the family’s finances. Families would work together on gathering and preparing natural materials such as grasses, timber or vines needed to weave together a basket that would carry game, grains and other agricultural goods.