Country Lifestyles
Dying is easy; it’s living that’s hard- Profile on Freddy Vest
(Video: CBN showcased Vest’s story in 2012. The piece was entitled, Life beyond the Gave.)
By Jessica Crabtree
Freddy Vest was born in Celina, Texas, in 1950. His parents, Bud and Bessie were farmers who raised their 18 kids picking and hoeing cotton. Being the 17th child, Vest’s family was made up of nine boys and nine girls. As Vest said, “Momma and Daddy raised their own help. We would work the rows and the older ones would always finish before me. They would come catch me up. We always helped one another.” It was a welcomed gesture with such back-breaking work like picking cotton.
Vest grew up as some would label poor, but to him and the other 17 kids, they didn’t know it. Their mother put three square meals on the table daily all while canning and doing chores. Where some people had two to 10 foot gardens, she had two acre gardens. Her garden was full of beans, tomatoes and fruit trees. When Vest was eight, his father took a job with Wells Bros. Seed and Grain and moved the family to Plano. Shortly after, Vest’s father began his own sharecropping and relocated them to Frisco where Vest graduated high school.
With dreams of being a rodeo cowboy, Vest and best friend, Scotty Cobb related on their upbringing and dreams. His driving desire was to one day be a calf roper like his uncle, Vest started with the least expensive, bull riding. He remembers well going and buying a $15 rope and $5 pair of spurs, for at the time, calf roping was the most expensive. By the age of 25, Vest had single-handedly taught himself and horses how to calf rope and be competitive at it. To read more pick up the July 2015 issue of NTFR.
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.
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.
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