Country Lifestyles
Profile on: Jerry Craft
By staff writer Jessica Bartel
“As old as I am, I better have done something in my life.” said Jerry Craft. The Jacksboro native, Craft was born April 17, 1937, to J.D. and Louise Craft. There was no hospital at the time, so Craft was born in Graham. He was raised in the country until school events and activities lead the family to move to town. Craft recalls walking to school, “Many parents had cars, but we didn’t so you relied on others with cars or you just walked.”
Very few people know much or as much as Craft does about his family’s lineage. His father J.D. was born into ranching and continued that path throughout his life. On his father’s side, his ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. They traveled from Virginia, down through Tennessee and across the Mississippi River all the way into East Texas. As one can imagine, the path was long and hard. Craft recalled his great-great-grandmother saying they started with horse-drawn wagons, but they proved to be unreliable. That is when the wagon train of three families switched to oxen-drawn wagons. She also mentioned the trip was slowed down due to delivering babies and stopping to raise crops to feed the growing families.
Once in East Texas, his family settled in Denton County and established Lewisville, TX. To read more pick up the June issue of North Texas Farm & Ranch.
By Martha Crump
That old adage, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.,” may have some basis in truth when applied to minor situations. However, when what you don’t know is presented in the form of a “Trojan Horse” and is what amounts to an incredible attempt to fleece American property rights, it becomes a different story altogether.
To put this unbelievable tale together, we need to step back to Joe Biden’s 2021 Executive Order which pledged commitment to help restore balance on public lands and waters, to create jobs, and to provide a path to align the management of America’s public lands and waters with our nation’s climate, conservation, and clean energy goals.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Lacey Vilhauer
Ingredients:
1 whole lemon, seeded and roughly chopped
2 cups sugar
2 pounds strawberries, hulled
Juice of 1 to 2 lemons
¼ cup water
Directions:
Place the chopped lemon and sugar in a food processor and pulse until combined. Transfer to a large bowl. Puree the strawberries in a food processor and add to the lemon mixture along with juice of one lemon and water. Taste and add more juice as desired.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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.
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