Country Lifestyles
August 2017 Profile: A Shared Vision – Chrystal Hall
By Jessica Crabtree
Have you ever made a life altering change? You may have not experienced one, but know someone who has. Did it bring them stress and discomfort, as well as freedom, happiness and fulfillment? To change the course of a life takes courage. Chrystal Hall is a testament to life altering change, one she says wasn’t even by her doing, but God’s.
Hall was born and raised in the rural Oklahoma town of Ada. Her father worked as a cop, raising his family on a small farm with cattle. “My dad hated horses, even called them ‘hay burners,”‘ Hall laughed. She was brought up with a small town raising where everyone knew everyone. She attended the rural school of Latta and graduated with 33 in her class. Hall’s father Don Henderson was in a band, playing at the local legion or just in the family’s living room for entertainment. “I can remember, as a kid, mom and dad played old 45’s and 33’s of Conway and Loretta. I can remember singing those songs to the top of my lungs,” Hall reminisced. The Henderson family was complete with Hall, her mother Sherill, father Don and two brothers and one sister.
As small towns have, Ada was no different with a rivalry between the schools of Byng and Latta. “I went to Latta and my husband Dewayne went to Byng,” Hall said. Oddly enough, there were several bumps in the road almost pushing Dewayne and Hall together. “My first car wreck was with Dewayne’s grandpa and I bought my first car from Dewayne,” Hall giggled.
The two dated and married in 1981. Hall developed a love for horses prior to meeting Dewayne, “When I met [Chrystal] she was riding an old horse and roping saddle. I broke her to ride a barrel saddle from the rope saddle,” he explained. Furthermore, Dewayne increased the level of horses Hall was riding, “I would get horses straight off the track, have [Chrystal] ride them 60 days then sell them.” Hall admitted it took her two or three years to learn the proper ways to ride such horses.
As the couple grew together, so did Hall’s ambition to compete in the arena. Placing all her, experience in running barrels, Hall’s resume grew as well as her barn of horses. Having had stumbled upon her “one” named “Wild Thing,” aka “WT,” Hall struggled to find the next “one” after selling WT. “He was automatic! A horse that anyone would want,” Hall said. Dewayne adding, “He was a freak of nature.” Setting the standard for all horses after very high, Hall even stated, “He lit a fire in me.”
Thereafter, Hall spent years trying to replace what she had in WT. Working in the oilfield and running various horses at jackpots, Hall was content. That was until an opportunity arose with a horse in Texas.
To read more pick up a copy of the August 2017 NTFR issue. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
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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