Country Lifestyles
When Life Gives You Lemons
By Annette Bridges
Probably most of us are familiar with the proverbial phrase, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Wikipedia explains the phrase is used to encourage optimism and a positive can-do attitude in the face of adversity or misfortune. Lemons represent difficulty in life. Making lemonade is turning those darn lemons into something positive or desirable.
My husband is a master of making the most of unexpected, unwanted events around the ranch. This also can translate into the repurposing of something too old or worn out for its original usage into finding a new way to use it that makes it still functional and helpful. He doesn’t realize his own creative genius.
Such a day happened recently. Our pecan tree limbs are so full and heavy that some have broken. Of course, we also have plenty of dead limbs that just haven’t reached the top of our priority to-do list.
To read more pick up a copy of the April 2020 NTFR issue. To subscribe 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.
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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