Country Lifestyles
October 2016 Profile – George Seals: “Those Seals Boys— They were Cowboys all their Life”
By Jessica Crabtree
When asked his full name, he replied “Billy George Seals, outa’ chute number 1,” he smiles. Born August 16, 1931, to George Thomas “Bud” Seals and Willie Mae Pennington Seals, he was the older of two boys. Bobby Leon came 14 months later. The two would grow to fight, argue and fuss, but be life-long friends and brothers.
Seals has been a Denton Countian all his life. Born, raised and lived out his 85 years on the very place his father and mother settled on. Bud was born in Sanger and Willie Mae was born in Denton County but raised on a ranch in Palo Pinto County. “I’ve lived here all my life,” Seals said. “One of my first memories in the ’30s was the dirt roads that ran through here got real muddy. There were stuck cars and my daddy took his team of horses and pulled the cars out,” Seals reminisced. Seals’ fondest memories are learning to swim in Oliver Creek, riding horseback to watch rail cars be loaded with cattle, hogs or sheep and summer rodeos.
Bud was a farmer and trained horses to pull together as a team. Seals recalls the “broncs” well. Even one in particular named Queen. “My daddy had a saddle with a square skirt. Bobby and I saw a saddle somewhere that had round skirts and cut our saddle to look just like it. I still have a picture of me on Queen riding that saddle.” Seals’ father was a trader by nature. “Milk cows, horses, cows, whatever it was Daddy would trade on it. Anything to make a dollar,” Seals said. “He had an old Model-T. He’d go all over Mansfield, Bowie and McKinney area. He’d leave with a load of stuff and come back with even more,” Seals laughed. “He knew so much about knives and guns. He was just a natural born trader,” Seals said about his father.
To read more pick up a copy of the October 2016 NTFR issue.
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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