Country Lifestyles
From story…to sculpture
By Judy Wade
In the spring of 1976, an eight-year-old girl was helping her dad gather some wheat pasture steers that had gotten into a neighbor’s field. She was no stranger to horses, having ridden as long as she could remember. On this particular day she was riding an older mare named Lil that had been used as a cutting horse in her younger days.
Everything was going fine until a steer suddenly cut back right, and the mare made a big swoop to head it. The girl was caught completely off guard, and she went left. Her right foot hung in the stirrup, and the left foot hung on the saddle horn as she went flying off, suspended on the side of the horse, like a trick rider at a rodeo. Fortunately, Lil had stopped.
She yelled, “Dad, come help me!”
His reply was, “Either fall off or get back on.”
“I can’t do either one!” she yelled.
After getting her righted in the saddle, they continued the drive with no more unexpected incidents and the steers were returned to the Langford L7 Ranch north of Byers where her dad was a ranch hand.
That little girl grew up, became Clay County Pioneer Rodeo queen, went off to college and began her career.
To read more pick up the March 2015 issue of North Texas Farm & Ranch.
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.
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.
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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