Time marches on whether I like it or not
"Look not to the follies and pleasures of earth if you would inherit pure, heavenly mirth; but travel in righteousness, meekness and truth, and...
We all need a good dose of laughter
Some of the best jokes are those played out in real life. Many years ago, my father had an uncle who had married into...
Country living is surrounded by blessings
"I have no Latin, but as I began to botanize, to learn to call the plants around me up here on my hill by...
We all wish for simplicity in life
Life is filled with choices -- some of them minor, some major -- and some that just seem to put everyone in a quandary.I...
Virginia Myers Patterson will be missed
For those of you who have read this column for a number of years, stories of my great-grandpa Charlie are familiar fodder. It is...
The seed catalogs are a sign of spring
"The snow holds for what seems to be forever in the valley and in the far pasture. As I plan my garden once again,...
Whatever happened to red Jell-O (and the mealtimes of my youth)?
One of the single biggest differences I have observed between the childhood of the older generation and the youth of today has to do...
Emily Brown was a unique individual
In rare moments over the course of a lifetime, we cross paths on our journey with incredibly unique individuals. There are those who are...
An unwelcome guest on the farm
"Winter in Missouri. The coyotes are singing almost every night now down in the hollow, the creek bed that runs below my southern boundary....
Itching for spring, new baseball season
"We weren't really alone, of course. Each square mile of farmland, bordered on all sides by those perfectly straight Iowa roads, was called a...
