Country Lifestyles
Norris Dalton Bucking Bulls
By contributing writer Judy Wade
Norris Dalton raises bucking bull and operates heavy equipment. He could be described as modest, soft-spoken, successful, talented, and, most of all, unique. What makes him so unique? He is a paraplegic, conducts his business from a wheelchair, but that does not slow him down. Born and raised in Scottsville, Kentucky, where his dad was a horse trader and dozer operator, he is the only son with five sisters. He left home while a teenager and began working on a pipeline in Wyoming but eventually traveled all over the United States operating a back hoe and dozer.
May 31, 1991, his world changed dramatically. While in California he was running a dozer too small for the job he was given. The dozer tipped over and rolled over 600 feet down a hill with Dalton strapped inside. Airlifted to a local hospital, the diagnosis was broken ribs, punctured lung, broken collar bone, broken arm, head injuries, and spinal cord injury, resulting in paralysis of his legs. Eventually he was transferred home to Kentucky where he spent a year in hospital rehab.
When he was released, he acquired a truck specially equipped with hand controls and headed for Texas. He settled first in Ft. Worth but eventually made his way to Petrolia in 1999 where he purchased land and began buying bulls at sale barns, bulls with the potential to become bucking bulls. To read more pick up the June issue of North Texas Farm & Ranch.
Country Lifestyles
A Mountain Out of a Molehill
By Nicholas Waters
As winter plods along – come Spring and gopher mounds – homeowners and farmers find themselves playing a familiar song – fiddling while Rome is burning.
Let’s make a mountain out of a molehill. Those mounds on your lawn and pasture could be moles, but they’re more than likely gophers; Plains Pocket Gophers to be pragmatic – Geomys bursarius to be scientific.
These rodents dig and chew, and the damage they can do goes beyond the mounds we mow over. Iowa State University cited a study in Nebraska showing a 35 percent loss in irrigated alfalfa fields due to the presence of pocket gophers; the number jumped to 46 percent in decreased production of non-irrigated alfalfa fields.
The internet is replete with academic research from coast-to-coast on how to curtail gopher populations, or at least control them. Kansas State University – then called Kansas State Agricultural College – also published a book [Bulletin 152] in February 1908 focused exclusively on the pocket gopher.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
Country Lifestyles
When A City Girl Goes Country
By Annette Bridges
Everyone needs a room with a view that makes their heart happy. My honest favorite panorama would be either the mountains or the ocean. I have yet to convince my hubby to make permanent moves to either, although he does enjoy the visits as much as I do.
The location of our house on our ranch does not provide the expansive field of vision of our land that I would enjoy. So, I have created a room decorated and furnished in a way that gives me smiles, giggles, and a wonderful peace-filled feeling when I am hanging out in it. I am in that place right now writing this column. I am in a lounging position with my computer in my lap on the chaise that was once my sweet mama’s. I had it reupholstered this year to give it a fresh look.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
Country Lifestyles
On the Road with Dave Alexander
Local celebrity dancers of the greater Gainesville area brought the house down recently at the second annual “Dancing With Our Stars” contest in Lindsay. The event raised more than $200,000 as the sponsored dance teams did their best to take home the grand prize.
The money raised will go to the “Heart of NTMC” Campaign for the purchase of a cardiac capable CT machine for the Gainesville hospital. Rodolfo “Rudy” Martinez and Sherry Sherriden took home the Mirror Ball Trophy.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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