Country Lifestyles
Baking Dreams Come True – Sweet Mother of Pies
By Jessica Crabtree
Hebrews 13:2 reads, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” That is the favorite verse of pie-maker, mother, grandmother, sister, wife, daughter, believer and owner of “Sweet Mother of Pies,” Betti Jo Weber. Sweet Mother of Pies is a dream come true for its owner. Weber describes her pie business as being a “crazy blessing.”
Weber is a native Texas, born in Midland and raised in Carlsbad, N.M. Attending Texas Tech University brought her back to her roots and led her to a summer camp for special need kids where she met her husband Joe. The two married in 1986, officially making Weber a Texas girl. The couple moved various places, Lewisville then Denton, before relocating and settling in 1994 in the community once known as Hood. Much like other towns that dwindled with time, Hood had a store, cotton gin, Methodist and Baptist churches and Hood cemetery, a some-what town marker for locals. Fun fact being Hollywood movie moguls shot a couple scenes from the popular movie “Armageddon” in Hood.
A teacher, Joe began teaching at Era school in 2000. Weber also taught for eight years, as well as occupied various jobs until 2016 when a new slice of life appeared. When she and her family moved to Hood, the yellow house she calls home was not her first choice. “We were looking for a fixer-upper and two acres. We passed by this place several times and on the third time we stopped. It was once the Hood grocery store before becoming a home,” Weber explained.
As the Weber family of six began to flourish, Weber busied herself making the house a home. “It was an old house and run down. It just needed some elbow grease,” Weber said. That is the way she wanted it, being a self-proclaimed lover of restoring things to their former glory. Always loving crafting, Weber was all too happy to paint and recreate her space. “I knew I wanted country and not new. I love a home with character, to make something from nothing,” Weber concluded. The family combined adjoining pieces of property, acres at a time, even their neighbors’ home, Mr. and Mrs. Pledger. After their passing the home sat vacant, awaiting its next breath of life. “Everyone asked me, ‘What will you do with it?’ I thought about a Bed & Breakfast or place for crafting.”
To read more pick up a copy of the April 2018 issue. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
Pie maker and owner of “Sweet Mother of Pies,” Betti Jo Weber. (Photo by Jessica Crabtree)
Weber inside “The Pie House” surrounded by signs custom-made for “The Pie and Sign” parties. (Photo by Jessica Crabtree)
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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