At a recent meal at the Fair Grove Senior Center, my tablemates talked about my column. One fellow, who lives in Buffalo, said he always reads Jim Hamilton’s and my columns, in the Reflex. I told him thanks, and I hoped he enjoyed them. more

After we had children, I worked part time at a print shop or baby-sat other children for a few years while caring for our toddlers. Then, when they were ready to enter preschool, I landed a job as a full-time graphic artist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital at the in-house printing plant. more

“When we build, let us think that we build forever.” more

This is a story about an old Buzzard. Life was beating him up. Everything seemed chaotic. Family members taking advantage financially in the court room; bad business dealings; Rino’s in the senate; girls wanting to be boys and boy’s wanting to be girls. Kids thinking they are cats and need a litter box at the school. Satan is in the White House with his two sisters. Can it get any worse the old Buzzard cries out. He’s one step away from a game of Russian roulette when he calls to the Lord “please help me, I think I’m going crazy.” more

Like I said last week, the mill was built for Joseph W. Hine and John Frederick Boegel, in 1883. Then Joseph Roland Hine took over his father’s involvement with the mill in the late 1890s. John Boegel was 35 years old when he and Joseph Hine founded the mill. Joseph Hine passed away in 1928. John Boegel was also a successful farmer, but kept working at the mill until he retired. more

Do you have a set of keys that are a mystery? Over the past few years, I’ve kept finding stray keys.  more

My dad taught me just about everything I ever needed to know about fishing, from starting me early with a riverbank sapling and length of fishing line to teaching me the finesse of handling his classic bamboo fly rod. Under Dad’s diligent tutelage I grew up an avid fisherman. more

Happy new year! Hopefully everyone made it through the “bomb cyclone” without any frozen water pipes and with furnaces and woodstoves still running. We all have been cleaning up lots of wrapping paper, many of us listening to our children play with all their new toys (including a goose call …) and trying to get rid of or at least stay out of the leftover holiday candy. The new year is a time for us all to do a quick reflection of the past year and then look forward and plan for a new and prosperous year. U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development is no different, and we are ready to take a tried-and-true program into the new year with more funds available than usual to help agribusiness and producers. more

Without fail, every time I put my brand-new Farm Bureau calendar up on the wall, I get a few butterflies in my stomach. With every page turn comes a set of experiences, covering everything incredibly familiar and routine to moments that come completely out of left field. Although starting a new year might bring about some jitters, I try to see every page as a challenge to make both my life and the lives of those around me better at every opportunity. more

Though I’ve not heated with wood for 15 years or so, this time of year I really miss backing up to a woodstove, toasting on one side and then the other, just like in the old days. more