Country Lifestyles
Cowboy Culture – Poaching #2
By Clay Reid
Last month I wrote about how I was accidentally led into the poacher life. Today I will tell of another time I was led astray as a dumb kid.
Actually I wrote this story a few days ago, and about half-way through I hit the dang ESC button and erased the whole dang deal. I was too disturbed to carry on and just walked away and soon forgot about doing it altogether, and this explains why once again I am late with my deadline. Sorry, Mrs. Crabtree.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my story starts as I am walking down the highway in front of my aunt’s house in Iowa Park, Texas. I was headed down to the Armadillo Arcade to watch everybody else play video games.
Most of the time I didn’t have the money to play the games, but enjoyed watching just the same. Except for the one time I ate some glass for a dollar and got to play.
As I was headed down the road, that same old crooked uncle hollered and asked if I wanted to go frog hunting. “You bet,” I replied and hauled my butt to the house to get my trusty .22 magnum rifle that my dad had given me after we had won the Top of Texas kid football championship a few months before.
This same crazy uncle later shattered that .22 on his driveway after I had requested he return it to me.
After getting the gun, we loaded up and headed west and were soon killing frogs at a pretty good pace. After about the fourth tank, we came to a place south of Electra, Texas. It was a tank where they had busted the dam on the original tank and dug another out in front of it.
To read more pick up a copy of the November 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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