Country Lifestyles
Cowboy Culture — Cowboy Forts and Wagon Races
By Clay Reid
Not so long ago, kids did not have the luxury of having these fancy games and phones everybody has these days. Xbox, PlayStation and such were unheard of during my day. So we had to make our own PlayStations and come up with our own brand of entertainment with a deal called “imagination.” The good thing was my imagination was awesome.
Sometimes it was a little too awesome as my mama would say. In 1979 my mama had had enough of my imagination, I suppose, and kicked me and my siblings out at my dad’s house in Wichita Falls.
I guess she needed a break from dealing with us hoodlum children, and I can’t say that I blame her. We weren’t no easy raising, I can assure you. (I painted her hair orange with a can of spray paint one time while she slept).
Anyway, shortly after she kicked us out, a tornado came through and wiped out half of Wichita Falls. I promise I had nothing to do with it. You can get me on a lot of things, but you can’t pin that one on me. When that tornado came through there, I saw it do some things that just can’t be explained, and it put the fear of God in me. The next day I went to building me a place to hide just in case it showed up again.
Out behind our house there was a bit of a hill and about 10 acres of scattered mesquite pasture. It was at the top of this hill where I started digging. I dug, I dug and I dug some more, until finally I had a six-foot by six-foot hole in the ground. Then I went and drug up some old lumber and put a roof on it and shazam! I now had a redneck cellar built for ol’ Johnny Clay.
I was so proud of that hole until about a week later a big ol’ rain came through and it turned my cellar into a swimming pool. Some of the neighborhood rugrats laughed, but I told them that if another one of them big giant tornados came through, I didn’t care how much water that hole had in it, I would be jumping in and taking my chances with drowning. I am a vey good swimmer.
To read more pick up a copy of the July 2018 NTFR issue. To subscribe 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.
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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