Tornados

With all this tornado stuff going on I am inclined to remember a few myself.  If you look back you will find one of my stories about the tornado we saw while on the Custer land and while our school bus had a flat.  I am not sure buy it was over close to Joy Frank's house and she may have been on the bus as well that day.

Anyway, I only remember one time when a tornado hit and really made a mess of things.  It was at Tanny Olsen's house (grandparent of Jay, Jon and Jamie Olsen then Eddie, Janis, Bob and David Harris plus Tanny and Levi) and the tornado came down the creek from the west and took one barn and picked it up and smashed it across the creek to a pile of rubble.  Then it came to the next barn and picked it up and then sat it back down on the foundation but turned about two feet.  The next barn it came to it sucked a barn full of corn out and there was not even a rat left.  Then there was the grain bin which is a round metal bin that looks like a giant tin can setting on a cement foundation.  The tornado sucked all the wheat out of it then came straight at the house where Tanny and Nanny were sitting.

Now they were typical ranchers and farmers they just pulled up their chairs and sat in the garage which was an underground garage built into the side of the hill under the house.  It faced the west and you could sit there safely and watch the goings on.  I cannot say whether they were scared but my suspicion is they were.  Tanny was taking us around showing the damage.  He told us the tornado was coming right at them then suddenly jumped up and went over the house an on to the cattle pens on top of the hill where it did some limited damage.

I know this sounds crazy and my dad got mad at me one time when I said I wanted to see a tornado but I did.  I really enjoyed watching those tornadoes crawling across the wheat and grass fields in the spring.  There was no apparent damage but just a site to behold.  Dad taught us how to look in the sky for those fingers or circulating clouds that could become a tornado.  It was always amazing how you could just sit in the open prairies and watch the clouds move across the sky so majestically with the dark black and sometimes green but mostly giant white clouds shooting up in the air thousands of feet.  If you could separate yourself from any danger it was absolutely gorgeous to watch.  I should note to you that when you saw green and other shades of colors it typically meant there was ice or hail in the storm.  Of course it was easiest to see the beauty of a storm when it was coming and before a large blanket of dark clouds and rain was on top of you.
I guess as a kid I was probably not scared enough and Mom and Dad always protected us especially when things were getting too close.  I do remember one time in the cellar we could hear the roar of the tornado and that was the only time it was just a little too close for comfort.

I should also mention that thanks to my sister and her wonderful mothering nature (she gets all the credit) raised a son Richard Crow who builds, owns and runs Groundzero Storm Shelters www.groundzeroshelters.com which is the largest maker of tornado shelters in the country.  Somehow those Osage roots make a difference.  If you want one give me a call and I will put you in touch with Debbie.  In fact if you look it up on the Internet and make the call you can ask for Debbie.  There are others there but she is the best and she is my favorite sister.

One last thing and that is something my brother, Larry, told me two days ago on the phone.  He said that when you are laying in the wheat fields watching the clouds that you should be careful of green piles of cow manure as that can make a good time bad.  This is referring to one of my stories a few days back.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• look for the beauty in things 
• remember there is always danger in good looks, that reminds me of a girl I dated, HUMMMM
• Without the rains and storms in life there would be no water and no tornadoes, so be careful what you pray for

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Osage vs. England Part II

What else is different about England from the Osage?-

No. 1 - We have Mollie Bivins and they don't.  We are blessed she moved to the Osage and built her gardens.  Go visit Bivin's Gardens in Shidler.

Breakfast - They make pretty good jellies and they have this lemon curd which is pretty exciting but they cannot beat Mom's home made jellies.  They do seem to use real butter which I really like and we use to have that all the time but when someone invented STICK butter from the store and then Margarine I don't believe we ever made HOME MADE BUTTER again.  Besides if you have never done it you should try it.  Here are a few methods:
1) just find some whole milk and let it sit for a day until the butter fat rises to the top and then dip it off and put it in a Ball Jar with a lid on it.  Shake it until you can shake it no more then shake it some more and you will get butter.  2) get an old fashioned butter churn and there are several models and put the same whole milk combination as above in it and get after the cranking.  Yes, it is a manual crank and your arms do get tired unless you use the churn where you pump it up and down and then your arms will still get tired.

I would also have to say that they do a nice job with the potatoes but the tomato which they cook just has no appeal to me at all.  Their toast is store bought and when we lived in the the Osage Mom made the bread and it was excellent especially with real butter and home made jam or jelly.

Now here is something that has changed over time about breakfast and that is coffee.  It hard to believe but I think coffee has made more change than anything over the years.  First when I was a kid you would grind up the coffee beans and put them in boiling water after which you would strain the coffee through what we called a cheese cloth to get the grounds out.  Some folks did not strain the grounds out but just let them settle to the bottom of the cup.  I would have to say that was one of my favorite ways of coffee even with the grit in the bottom of the cup and on occasion having a little coffee grounds stuck in your teeth.  The second and way that folks prepared and drank their coffee and which was my Grandpa Olaf Olson's way of drinking coffee was to pour you a cup of coffee made like the first method but then he would pour the coffee out of the cup and into the coffee saucer from which he would tip the saucer toward his mouth and kind of suck it in.  I think the idea was the coffee was too hot (remember it was boiling) and by pouring it in the saucer it cooled faster.  Third was was the new fangled percolator coffee pots.  There were really two styles here and one of them you plugged in to an electric socket and turned it on and the second was you would set the coffee pot on the burner.  The real difference on these is that there was long aluminum tube in the middle of the pot with an aluminum attachment on the top of the stick which held the coffee grounds.  The idea was to keep the coffee grounds contained.  Mom used a new fangled type of pot which came about because of the space industry, Corning Ware.  It was a pretty pot that sat on the burner and it made great coffee.  This was my favorite.

But then something else came from the space industry, INSTANT COFFEE, Folgers instant coffee crystals.  Nice idea but it just ruined coffee for years and Mom liked it and it was easy and convenient. I don't know how long that lasted but I was out of high school before real coffee came back into play.

OK, back to England.  Their coffee was outstanding as they made it the old fashioned way and they brewed it.  Now one problem they do have over there is they load it up with a LOT of milk and sugar. The funny thing is some of you probably agree with it since Starbucks has transformed folks into spending $4 and $5 for some fancy coffee desert and even if you are old fashioned they still got you paying $2 for a cup of coffee WITHOUT free refills.  In fact if you are in London or some of the big cities they are over run with Starbucks.  Are we stupid or what?

Here you can see a typical breakfast except they NEVER cook eggs over hard unless you ask for it.  They were shocked I asked for it.  That black piece of stuff is Pigs blood and I refused to try it.  It cannot be good for you.  And bacon is ham not bacon as we know it and sausage is very good but not sausage like we know it either.

Now here is one last thing about coffee and that is they take a break every day in the afternoon and have coffee or tea and scones with jelly, strawberry jelly and curdled milk which is really just cooked cream but it was pretty good.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Coffee is best the old fashioned way, HOT and black - try drinking it from a saucer
• Tomatoes are to be cold and sliced not cooked
• No matter how special anywhere else is, HOME is where the heart is

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com

England vs. the Osage

The Osage, Oklahoma and England, what is the difference?

We just finished 11 days traveling England and we visited about 20 gardens and 12 castles or homes, 8 bed and breakfasts, The Tower of London, Big Ben, the home of Lizzy as one person called the Queen, and the list goes on and on.

Here are a few comparisons:

The People - exceptionally friendly and proud of their homeland and very helpful to strangers.  Am I talking about the Okies or English folks?  BOTH, absolutely amazing how nice and friendly every single person was.

The Roads - their roads are for the most part all black topped and very or extremely narrow with no shoulders and in fact generally have a hedge and mound of dirt preventing you from getting out of the way.  They have very minimal pot holes, we have very little roads without pot holes.  They are very courteous drivers and don't use sign language when you mess up.  This is an area we could learn to do better at.  The picture shows basically a two way street made of cobblestone and folks just drive and park on the sidewalk to either let you buy or they just park to get into their house.

Breakfast - they eat way too much for breakfast in that they have cereal, yogurt, fruit, juice, coffee or tea, then they eat an English breakfast with small potatoes, mushrooms, cooked tomatoes, eggs always sunny side up and toast plus unless you stop it they have this black thing which is pigs blood and it looks like toast.  We never ate that, not even close.

They have no idea what a real drought is and they have no idea what hot weather is.  It rains a little to a lot every day and it stays fairly cool every day even into August.  

They think a castle is for the rich but we think a castle is where you live and ours is surrounded by creeks and rivers but they have motes.  I have to admit it would be nice to have one of theirs but a newer modern version.

They like fancy hats and we like baseball and cowboy hats.  They have stores just for hats.

Gardens - their gardens have trees older than Oklahoma is a state and older than the USA is a country.  Their gardens are like a story book as they include statues and older buildings which all have stories around them.  Many of the gardens are 200 to 300 years old and then older and the oldest building was in Bath which was built just before the time of Christ.

They get into statues a little more than we do.  Sir Winston Churchill takes the cake for most statues and most of his statues were placed where he was either born or the house he lived in for most of his life after retiring from politics.  

They have a little more detail in their woodwork.  absurd!  They have an extreme amount of detail in the woodwork.  

They are excessive compulsive about gardening and cutting grass.

Our churches have bigger hearts and theirs are in design and they bury dead folks in the floor.  Most of the ones buried in the floor are famous, at least to them.  The churches are incredible designs.  Actually a lot of fun to visit and very interesting historically and spiritually.

Well I have had fun with this so here goes.  

What do you learn in the Osage?

• We have trees just like they do but maybe a little smaller
• We have taller grass thanks to the bluestem
• There are great folks everywhere, you just have to look for the good in people.

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Building Fence

I was visiting with a father of a young man who was getting ready to play football in Edmond, Oklahoma.  He was sharing with me how his son had to train almost year-round.  During the off times it was expected that a son would get special training in weight lifting and quickness skills.  Other times he was expected to attend training camps and then of course spring practice and fall practice.  In fact I remember when our oldest son was playing football for Deer Creek High School and he was expected to do all of these things if he wanted a chance to play.  Well that is not how it worked in the Osage.

In the Osage if you lived on a farm or ranch you hauled hay as soon as the weather permitted putting up hay.  That means after school in the spring until after dark and there was NO spring practice.  In fat SPRING BREAK was not at all what it is today.  It was only an opportunity to work full time building fences, hauling hay and more.  During the summer you hauled hay from daylight until dark and only stopped for lunch.  And that was only if you did not have time to eat it while in the hay truck between loading and unloading.  If that does not make sense to you then you need to learn about how to be more efficient and save time.  It was also seven days a week unless it rained.  That was the only excuse for not hauling hay.  Even the city kids helped hauling hay.  Steve Chrisco always talked about hauling hay for the Jacques and working with AJ.  I think every guy had the opportunity to haul hay.  

If that was not available there was fence building which really was a year-round sport.  Don’t assume this is the only things we did because we still had to do our normal chores of feeding cattle or taking care of the show animals we had for 4-H livestock shows or even feeding chickens and everything else. 

I do believe building fence was the hardest of the jobs on the farm.  It seemed like it took forever and basically before automation it was even harder.  Let me explain automation.  Automation was having a post hole digger on the back of a tractor to dig holes for wooden posts.  In case you did not know it there were several types of posts.  The new ones which are still used today are called T-posts.  When they came about it was a life saver but it was still back breaking work.  Let me tell you how that worked.  Basically you had about a 16 pound hunk of steal that you pounded the top of the post with and drove it into the ground.  It was called a sledge hammer.  Then someone got real smart and welded a piece of steel pipe where one end was closed and there were handles on each side.  It only weighed about 20 pounds but once it slid over the top of the post all you had to do was lift it up and drive it down on the post until the post was deep enough in the ground to satisfy Dad.   No easy task either.  After driving one post your arms weighed more than the piece of steel and you had to lift it off and get ready for the next post.   This may not sound like that hard of a deal but when you do it for 12 or 14 hours a day your ass is dragging and you can hardly lift your arms.  The good thing is after a few weeks it was not near so hard.  I will put any young farm boy up against the greatest weight lifter and the farm boy can wear the weight lifter out.

Now the second way to build fence which was the old fashioned way  and before the tractor with the post hole digger was to take a manual set of post whole diggers and dig a whole about 3 feet deep to put an oak post into.  Sometimes they were cedar posts.  There is a type of oak tree we called a post oak which is a narley oak tree that does not grow very tall but makes a very stout post.  You would think that is not so hard but there are several issues with this.  First off Dad had a set of steel post whole diggers that weighted over 20 pounds and maybe even 35 pounds.  And picking them up and down was difficult enough much less trying to drive them into the hard ground and twisting and squeezing until you got a load of dirt to dip out of the hole.  The second issue is once you got the post in the hole you had to put dirt back into the hole and then tamp with a steel piece of iron that Dad got from the railroad which was made to move railroad tracks.  I think it weighted at least 20 pounds as well.    The point is to get the dirt packed around the wood post tight enough that the post would not move easily.  And then no matter what type of post you put in the ground Dad expected every post to be the same height sticking out of the ground and in an extremely straight line.  I should mention that I am not talking about building a fence around your house but around a field or pasture.  These fences could be a mile or more.  Can you imagine keeping posts the same height and in a straight line and perfectly aligned for hundreds and thousands of yards.  Each post had to be the same distance apart.  Farmers take pride in their fences and their property and Dad was no exception.  I would also have to say that Mom reinforced the same values in everything she did as well. 

Next time you drive down the road I want you to take a look at the fences and fence posts and appreciate the work that went into it.  And remember that farm boys got in shape for football by building fences and hauling hay.  In fact I would have to tell you that every year I started football practice in the fall I gained weight and I appeared much faster the first couple of weeks.  If you can’t figure it out that means the faster kids were not in shape in the beginning but as they caught up they were faster than me. 

So what do you learn in the Osage?

·       You teach values to your children by building fences

·       High expectations are to be admired and achieved no matter how many times it takes to get it right
·       Building fences and doing it right is more important than football

• Building fences and mending fences is like a good marriage - it takes time and it is hard work but the straighter and more consistent you are the better you feel about yourself and your marriage and people admire you for your efforts

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Building our house

When I was about 5 or 6 and before I started the first grade Dad and Mom decided to build a new house.  I don't know what was wrong with the old one but we started building one about 2 or 3 feet from the old one.  All I can remember is it was so close to the other one it was a challenge getting up on a ladder. 

 After we moved into the new house they loaded our old house and moved it to Grainola where Mrs. Heath would live and build onto it a post office.

Just as a side note which I am prone to do we did not have pre-K or kindergarten and it seemed that everyone turned out ok and in fact I would say better than what I am seeing today.  Now I am just a country boy but do we really need all of this since the country is broke?  Don't get PO'ed but it is something to think about.  I just think a little more parenting might do our kids some good.  In fact I had a healthy fear of being punished at home if I miss-behaved at school.

Back to the house.  I think it was about 30 feet by 40 feet and yes it was a rectangle with one roof line.  That means we had 3 bedrooms and about 1200 square feet with 2 adults and 3 kids.  Larry and I shared a bedroom.  We turned out ok as far as I can tell but you might want to ask some of my friends.  Debbie got her own room and it was kind of girlie if you know what I mean.  There was one bathroom and no shower but the great thing was there was an old time stove in the bathroom which served multiple purposes.  First of course it would warm the room so when you got out of the shower it was warm or if you were on the toilet it kept you warm.  The other advantage was when there was a smell generated by someone taking a dump it burned up the gas if you know what I mean (do I need to explain and I don't know why we did not say leaving a dump vs. taking a dump).  That little stove was an open flame with grates and it was a delight.  I am certain that some activist group got those outlawed because you never see them anymore.  The rest of the house was heated by an old brown furnace with grates in it set in the hallway.   The living area, dining area and kitchen were heated by the fireplace which was huge.  I bet the limestone seat was at least 10 or 12 feet long.  We moved up in the world as we now had linoleum floors NOT that old fashioned oak floors.  Things have changed again.  The dining room table was made by dad out of a new door and it was pretty cool.  Mom had copper tone appliances in the kitchen and there were no microwaves back then.  Like most houses we had multiple entrances and the main one was never used as it faced the south and the north entrance was most often used by company while we used what we called the back porch.  The back porch which was inside the house is where the washer and dryer and a freezer big enough to hold at least a quarter of a calf and I remember having a hog in there plus all the frozen vegetables from the garden.  I bet the freezer was 8 to 10 feet long and it was a chest freezer so it stood about four feet tall.

What I remember was I carried nails and anything Dad wanted as I loved being there to help him.  If he needed boards I insisted on carrying them.   He would not let me get on the roof when he did the shingling but I carried shingles up the ladder and handed them to him.  The entire process took several months because Dad had to take care of the farm and carry the mail as a rural mail carrier each day then work on the house in between all the chores and work.  Larry and Debbie were at school so I was the main help.  Bill Head helped do the finalelectrical wiring as Dad and I ran the wires but Bill wired all the connections.  Yes that is Bill as in Mrs. Head, my English teacher, and their Barbeque sauce son Danny who runs Head Country.  Dad wound up becoming the builder for about everyone around Grainola and a bunch in Shidler and he always used Bill Head for the electric work. 

That house was pretty spiffy and it was about the only house I remember that was totally landscaped.  Mom and Dad loved landscaping and gardening and they went to a lot of effort to learn about landscaping from the county agent which I remember being Mr. Dowell who lived in Fairfax.  The last few things I thought were really special is that the house was built between a few really big trees, one which became my tree house tree and you could not put your arms around the trunk it was so big and then in the front yard there were originally 3 really big cedars but one was split by lightening and we had to cut it down.  The front porch faced the east and we would sit out there in those old metal lawn chairs for hours watching the evening activities of coyotes running across the hill side and listening to the crickets and frogs making racket plus literally thousands of fire flies flashing their yellow lights on and off.  Usually the dog was sitting there with us and a few cats.  At one time I had 23 cats.  Of course NO animals were allowed in the house.

I guess I should correct that.  Once the dog was allowed in the house because it was so cold and we have a picture of the dog lying on the couch and DAD sleeping on the floor.  Another time I brought my show steer which weighed about 1200 lbs. into the house at which MOM started telling me to get him out of there.  I thought it was pretty funny myself.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Kids learn a lot from watching their parents
• A new house is not a home unless the family is together
• Don't you wish it was your choice how you want to heat your house rather than the government?
• If you hold on to something long enough it will be in style again, kind of like wood floors

Thanks for your time,

Gary@thepioneerman.com

The first warm day of spring

What happens on that first warm spring day right after that last cold snap?  Life bursts forth!  The new calves are running and the mother cows (obviously that is redundant but city folks say it that way or at least they understand it better) are trying to keep up with them.  Just in case you did not know it cows are females and bulls are males and calves are babies, steers are castrated and females and heifers are young females that have not been bread, and all together they are cattle.  It is especially refreshing to watch the young calves and their moms in the wheat fields along the creek side lined with trees which are popping with new life and plush green.  If you get lucky you will even see a deer or now days a turkey eating in the wheat fields.  The air is fresh with spring clouds and a few rains coupled with the new heat from the spring sun making things grow really fast.  The oaks are beginning to bloom and wild flowers are everywhere.  The best of times are spring.

One of my favorite things is when its starts warming up is to go out in the wheat fields and lay down in the cool green wheat grass.  If you try it just watch out for those cow piles but it doesn't getting any better.  Another thing I use to do in the spring wheat fields was take out my bow and arrows and set up a few targets while it was still easy to find the arrows that missed the mark.  Now I never promised I was the sharpest arrow in the quiver but I thought it was a lot of fun seeing how far up I could shoot those arrows and see how close they came down to where I was standing.  On occasion it was scary but not too often as the wind would drift the arrow over.  Another fun thing we did was build kites and attach them to a Zebco rod and reel and see how long and how far we could get it to go.  We use to buy our kites for 10 cents at the Otasco store in Shidler or sometimes at the grocery store.  Back in those days at the check out at Lawrence Dehl's grocery store there would be displays of kites and not those trashy magazines of sexual encounters of the rich and famous. At least that is what I remember.

Spring was my time of year because I could plant flowers and other garden items.  I thought it was pretty cool watching the potatoes we had planted about a month earlier popping out of the ground plus the rhubarb was coming up pretty good at that time.  Fresh green beans picked and snapped plus   those small new potatoes put in a pot with a little water, salt and pepper then cooked until the potatoes are soft to the fork then add a LOT of butter (real not fake) and you had a meal that you will never forget.  OK, back to the flowers, Zenia's and marigolds were the most common back then and the colors would just burst out at you.  Flags, commonly known as irises, were in every yard, along the roadside and around the trees or the propane tank.  The old fashioned rose bushes climbed up the fences and hung over the wires and there were those bushes covered with white blooms that I literally never knew what they were but every yard had at least one.

If you have never seen or experienced what I am talking about just go to a small town right now and drive up and down the streets.  And when you are done find out where all the small cemeteries are and go drive through them.  Every cemetery had those same flowers planted by loved ones to honor those who went before us.

I know this sounds crazy but I have a friend who I don't see very often but he suggested if i wanted to know history I should visit old cemeteries   He was right.  At an old cemetery you will see all the old plants and flowers but you will also see that there were a lot of children that died early and many times you will find entire families who died from a disease and you will find a lot of folks who fought for our freedom long before WW I and WW II.  The ornate statues and the writing on the stones will amaze you.

OK, will I have meandered a lot here but warm days of spring are a delight so GO and enjoy the outdoors and get a little exercise.

What do you learn in the Osage?

• There is no way this happened by chance.  I  feel sorry for those who believe it was totally by a BIG Bang.  Now that I think about it why would they believe in the big bang theory and not believe in using guns that go BANG?  I never was good at humor.
• Honor those who worked to preserve our freedom, not those who restrict it(politicians).
• Do your part and plant some flowers!

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Storms

I don't remember storms like we have today when I was growing up but we did have some interesting weather.  They say when a farmer hears there is a tornado coming, he goes outside to see it rather than hide.  Well the fact is we did go out on the porch and as long as it was not raining where we would get wet, we watched the storm and the tornadoes.  Now we did have a "fraidie hole" which is a storm cellar which we used on occasion when it got really bad.  It was a good thing we did not have much light in the storm cellar as that is where we stored the jars of food for winter and the potatoes which I have written about many times.  Now I know that is confusing but the sentence just got a little long and what I wanted to say is that there were other things in the storm cellar like snakes and mice or spiders.

Dad would always stand at the opening and watch for what was going on outside.  Only one time did I think there was a real danger and that was when dad shut the door like in the Wizard of Oz and the wind was so strong it would hardly close and dad was struggling to keep it closed when it was down.  Also the wind sounded like a freight train which was supposed to mean a tornado was overhead.  We never lost a roof or barn but we had plenty of storms.  Fact is we saw plenty of tornadoes but they were generally on the plains and not down by the creek where we lived.

Ford F150 Supper dented cab

2013 Hail storm April 

My favorite was watching those giant clouds before sun down where the sun shown on the tops and the black bottoms seemed imminently close.  The lightening was snapping all around and the sound was sooooo close.  We use to say that once you saw the lightening strike you could could count seconds and for each second the lightening was 1/10th mile away.  I don't know if that is right but it was fun and kept us watching and counting.  It was absolutely beautiful to watch.

This weekend was one of those storms that we did not know was coming and it was on us before we could put the pickup in hiding.  We got hail and rain like I have not seen before, at least not this big and hard.  Our roof was totaled and my pickup was destroyed.

Every tree was stripped

 The hail was about 3 inches across for the biggest and it did crack the window of my pickup.  Every flower was leveled.  I was amazed at the iris collection that was just destroyed.  But Shouna said it best, "it all belongs to HIM and HE can take it in an instant".  I do believe that it will be for the best as it always comes back better than before.

The trees were stripped of all their new leaves and there were not hardly any large limbs but thousands of small sticks everywhere.  Just Amazing!

This entire experience reminded me of when we burnt off the prairie grass.  It would kill the weeds and allow the new fresh growth to pop out of the black charred ground.  The underbrush in the trees would be gone and again new life would emerge better than before.  I think it is pretty easy to see God has a good plan and it is much better than mine.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Don't get your underwear in a wad it just makes you uncomfortable
• A little pruning or burning is good for the land and trees and the soul.  It keeps your priorities and thinking right.
• Adversity is what you make of it not what it makes you

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Have things really changed?

• 
  Today we hear about bombings in Boston against innocent folks and disasters in West, Texas and killings in Baghdad over elections and I just cannot help but think back about the "good old days" but were they really different?
  
  The names and faces and topics change but there is still problems and they are always from the same place, THE HEART OF MAN and the lack of respect for THE RULE OF LAW.  Sure we had discipline and a common purpose in the Osage of raising children to be God fearing adults and we had lots of differences of opinion and just in case you don't remember let me remind you of a few things that got folks really angry.
  
  
  
  • Politics - I remember family getting so angry about their opinion they would shake with anger. In particular I remember my dad getting really angry because Aunt Gladys Snyder (teacher - Miss Snyder) was not being paid as much as male teachers because men had to support their families.  Dad was never a confrontation orientated person but this one got him in an uproar.   In the good old days Democrats outnumbered republicans and probably rightfully so based on the past prejudices toward women and blacks.  Even in the Osage folks thought women should make less than men for the same job.  Before my time people even thought women should not vote.  Lots of folks thought blacks were not equal.  Unions were needed to get things made to be fair.  But guess what happened over time.  Free enterprise and common sense made some changes and it did take some government intervention like civil rights and equal pay legislation to get some corrections made.  But extreme measures were needed and over time they were not needed and I would have to say some folks did not adjust well to those changes.  In other words those extreme views needed modified as well.
  • LONG HAIR - I don't think any one thing brought more frustration for old folks than long hair.  Of course it was more of a symbol for rejection of standards that had been set in stone for years.  I remember when Mr. Treadway (Shidler High Principal) suggested I should either get my side burns cut or get to miss school.  Of course that was back when it was dishonorable to miss school or  be kicked out.  Although I do remember there were a certain set of girls in my class who thought it was a badge of honor to get kicked out of school.  During this adjustment time there were those who would give you  a hair cut for free without you volunteering.  We use to say that Don of Don's barber shop only gave two haircuts, burr or flat top.  
  • Short skirts - Now I would have to say this did not bother me in the least but it sure got the adults in a wad.  As I recall Terry Hustead and a bazillion girls tried to push this issue as far up (get it, UP as in shorter) as possible.  Either the girls in the 60's and 70's had longer legs or the skirts were shorter and they did not wear 6 INCH heels like today.
  • Short Shorts - There was no way that we ever got to see short shorts on high school campuses but at college it was amazing.  We had girls burning their bra's and wearing shorts so short that their butts were hanging out.  At that time I have to say I did enjoy the situation and I certainly was not a Christian at the time.  I would also say after I accepted Christ as my personal savior I still enjoyed seeing the girls on campus at Weatherford, Oklahoma, SWOSU.  Anyway, short shorts were too short and honestly just did not look that good especially on the girl you were dating at the time and wanted to take home to visit the folks, get it?
  Of course these issues are not that big of a deal but folks can get pretty wound up about them.  We get so caught up in single events that we pass laws because of 1 in a million who is an idiot or terrorist.  
  
  
  An easy example of politics and common sense that don't mix is gun control.  Obviously criminals are not going to register their guns and quit frankly are going to steel them or buy them on the black market.  Obviously we should have back ground checks on folks buying guns at stores and gun shows which are stores.  And obviously there are problems with how do you keep guns from getting in the hands of a nut like in the Connecticut shooting or Columbine or the movie theatre in Colorado.  Keeping politics out of this, is there really any law that will stop a nut or criminal from getting their hands on guns or explosives or knives?  
  
  
  One last thing, how long does it take to prosecute a killer caught on film and who admits guilt when in the US court system?  Tim McVeigh took about four years and MILLIONS of dollars.  The Boston boys is a split decision.  The first one was cheap and he is dead.  The second one will cost millions and even though he told the cab driver he was responsible may get away with the murders on technical problems and for sure it will take years and millions of dollars to prosecute.  In the Osage before so many federal and state laws got in the way there were quicker remedies.  Even if you are not for the death penalty what about having all those inmates walking along the roads in chains cleaning up the trash?  I really like that one.
  
  
  Well I best stop as I could go for a while on this one.  
  
  
  What do you learn in the Osage?
  • Common sense prevails and there will never be enough laws to fix everything 
  • Sometimes we need more democrats and sometimes we need more republicans and right now we need more republicans.  I could not pass that one up.
  • Killers who are repeat offenders NEVER repeat offending if taken behind the wood shed and don't return.

  Thanks for spending a little time with me,
  gary@thepioneerman.com
  
  

Pond Scum

Normally I would have to tell you that lawyers are pond scum but there are a few that are not, only a few.   Nothing much better than a good lawyer joke keeps me satisfied.  So what about pond scum that resonates a memory of the Osage?

Well if you were a fisherman and I see that Shidler is now the bass fishing capital of Oklahoma you would know that a good pond has lots of pond scum along the edges.  Growing up in the country we had lots of ponds scattered across every farm and ranch and any pond worth fishing had pond scum along the edges.  Now most of the time we called it pond moss but it is more fun calling it pond scum since lawyers need something to identify with.  You see just about the time a pond is ready to fish in the spring and the sun starts to stay up a little longer meaning the days are longer the MOSS starts coming to the top and it plays havoc with the fishing.  You see the fish and especially the bass like to hang out right along the edge where the pond scum ends.  Generally speaking there was also about a foot from the shore before the scum would start then it could go out as far as about 20 to 30 feet.  If it was early spring and momma bass was setting her eggs she would be hanging out close to the shore where the water was shallow.  The reason for this is so the  eggs would stay warmer from the heat of the sun and of course they would incubate there until they hatched.  Once that happened there were literally thousands of baby fish and they would hide in the weeds and moss to keep other fish from eating them.  A smart fisherman knew that you would not have to cast (meaning throw your lure) out past the moss but simply watch for  movement in the water along the edge then sneak up and toss the lure right along the edge of the water before the moss.  If that did not work the only choice was to cast  the line and lure  out past the moss which was pretty hard when you only had a cane pole.

But I remember when Mr. Curnutt who owned the local Otasco store in Shidler started carrying Zebco rod and reels which would allow you to cast out past the moss.  Now before Zebco (made in Tulsa) came around there were Johnson reels (green like John Deere) and other brands I don't remember which were open reels.  You may not know it but those reels were next to impossible for me to cast without getting what was called a 'back lash'.  For a long time I did not know it was called a back lash because when dad or Larry (my brother who has a birthday today the 19th) would experience one they would not say 'back lash'  rather they would call it 'shit' or 'damn'.  For years I thought a lot of things were 'damn' or 'shit'.  I guess I was just a slow learner but those were two of my first words.  Anyway I never did get the hang of those so Zebco was one of the greatest inventions for me.  Funny but as I look back those original reels were even better than the ones you get today.  Well fishing was just a lot more fun with a Zebco.  Strangely enough my brother is still an avid fisherman and has multiple open faced reels which cost a heck of a lot more money than a good old Zebco.  I will have to admit he catches more fish and bigger fish than I do but I don't think it has anything to do with the expensive equipment he buys.

One last thing about pond scum and that is if you just don't want to fight it there are two solutions.  The first is to get a boat, which we never had, and get out in the middle of the pond and fish back to the edge of the moss.  The second solution which was my favorite is to go fish in the creek which never had a pond scum problem.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Not all lawyers are as bad as pond scum, but most
• If you want to catch fish you have to adapt to the pond scum
• Shit and Damn are not nouns in most cases when they are used, ask Helen Head (the mother of HEAD COUNTRY BAR-B-QUE Sauce)
• Head Country is not from Ponca City, it was born in Grainola by Tom Head and raised in Shidler by Danny

Thanks for your time and Damn those were good points!

gary@thepioneerman.com

Responsibility

When a kid grows up there is always (hopefully) an event that changes their actions forever.  I remember one year about this time of year when the cows were calving (that means they were having babies) and we had a cow that was having some trouble calving.  Dad sent me out to check on her and she was across the creek and about 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the house.  He gave me a pretty good description of where she was I was supposed to make sure she did not need any help.

Well you may not know it but it seemed that every year there were a few cows that just struggled having a calf and we needed to assist.  Let me explain how it is a little different than being in a hospital with a doctor and a staff of nurses and everyone knows the nurses do the work and the doctor gets paid.  That is another story.  Anyway there were many a time where the calf was being born and the cow just could not get it done on her own.  So we would tie a rope around the calf legs and feet and tie that to a fence puller or wench, see picture.

Then we would either have the wench attached to the pickup or the cattle pens/shut.  At that time we would start cranking and pretty soon the calf would pop out.  Now there were other times when the calf was in backwards (breach) and you would have to put your arm, I mean ALL of it, inside the cow to grab the calf's head and turn them around.  I considered that a little gross but it was necessary and it worked.  Anyway back to the cow who was calving.



I went off reluctantly not really wanting to look for that cow and not committed fully to finding her.  It was late and about to get dark so I needed to move quickly.  I ran across the creek and through the woods (like the song) looking for the cow to no avail.  I don't remember for sure but I was probably worried about missing one of my favorite shows like the Beverly Hillbillies or Green Acres.  Did you know that Zeb of Green Acres was from PaulsValley, Oklahoma?  Well not only did I not look thoroughly but when I got back to the house I told dad I found her and she was OK.

The next day Dad went to check on her just to find that the calf had died and the cow was crippled from giving birth.  He confronted me and I lied again.  Dad was sick about it as when you lost a calf you not only lost the income off the cow for the year but you also had to feed the cow for another year and not get paid.  This sounds like free enterprise doesn't it unless you let the government get involved and then they guarantee you income and no risk.  Dad never did like the government getting involved in farming, ranching and dairying.  He always said it made good farmers become lazy and not good farmers.

Well I wish I could tell you that I felt so bad that I went and corrected y error but that never happened.  I did feel bad about it and still do about 50 years later.

Well what do you learn in the Osage?

• lying never feels good
• lying never goes away
• everyone suffers when you lie
• Depending on the government creates dependency on others to bail you out
• The counter to that is a government that depends on your taxes and not on being a good steward with discipline is a government out of control

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Easter Egg hunting

Grainola Methodist Church

I have to tell you I loved Easter Egg hunting and everything around it.  Every year mom and probably Debbie, my sister, made a big effort to make Easter special.  Dad always thought Debbie was the prettiest little girl and use to tell me how he loved to see her in a pretty Easter dress.  Mom would always make sure we had an Easter basket filled with all kinds of goodies and there was always a chocolate bunny  in the basket.  I think Easter was more special than Christmas at our house.  On Easter morning the baskets filled with green plastic grass were set on the fireplace which was now cold because the winter cold was gone and spring was here.

You knew it was spring and almost Easter evidenced by the yellow daffodils strung around the yard. As a little side note the dandelion were in full bloom with their yellow tops throughout the yard, fields and around the barns.  I personally loved them and of course when they matured we liked to pick them and blow the seeds into the air to float off for another spring bloom.

Mom and Dad always made sure we were shined up for Easter services at the Grainola Methodist Church.  That meant we had to polish our shoes and many times if not every time we had some new clothes we got at Newman's department store in Ark City (Arkansas City for the non-locals)  and that was in Kansas north of the state line.  Mom always dressed up on Sundays but on Easter Mom and dad were spit-shined.  Mom always looked so pretty and her hair was black back then.  In fact she sure did maintain it as black for a long long time.  Dad would wear a tie and felt hat.

Sometimes we would have a sunrise service on a hill where there generally were three crosses planted.  I hated getting up early enough to make it but once I was there I thought it was fantastic.  After the services there were Easter egg hunts and food on the grounds of the church.  Sometimes the day before Easter we would have large gatherings at the school for a celebration  of Easter.  All the men would gather up the eggs which had been colored over the last several days and they would make us kids hide while they hid the eggs.  Back then they would tape a penny or nickle or even a dime to an egg for something special.  I always wanted to get the most.  It was a real competition and just about everyone in town would come to the festivities.

Well, what else did I love about Easter?  It was all about new beginnings and I really think that is why the celebration of Jesus and His Resurrection was in the spring.   Think about it, the grass starts turning green again, the wheat starts thickening, the calves start gaining weight, new calves and pigs and lambs are being born and even the chickens start producing more as the days are getting longer.  The cellar where all the winter food was stored is starting to get bare and it is time to clean it and get ready for another canning season.  The cattle get less interested in coming in to the pickup loaded with hay because there is fresh grass to be eaten.  That is also when the fishing starts to get going and we start going to the creek on a regular basis to drop in a line.

One last thing today and that is if you have never smelled the fresh turned soil just before planting or the fresh rain in spring with that really clean smell you are not spending enough time outside.  GO right now and experience the joy of spring.

What do you learn in the Osage?

• Spring is full of joy if you look for it
• Exercise and being outdoors is a privilege, take advantage, NOW
• Jesus is the real reason for the season

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Mendachurch

I am going to start out by telling you I am struggling with how to tell you about an exciting journey we are on.  The reason I struggle is that I do not want you to think I am doing this for my personal benefit or to get attention from you or anyone else.  I have tried several times to write about this but just could not figure out how to tell you. In fact I had not planned to write about it at all except there were a few folks asking me to keep them informed using my blog and that seemed like a good place to provide the updates and in the end I might just use Facebook.  We will see how that goes.  So here it goes.

Starting a few months ago a couple, Chris and Suzzette, proposed a question which made it to the church bulletin.  The question was, ".. would you consider being part of a group who would work with churches needing help.....".  The name of the group is Mendachurch and if that does not make sense let me tell you how I have cleared up the meaning for folks, Fixachurch.  If you still don't get it here is my last shot, Fix A Church.  They had identified a need for many older churches  where the population was growing older and the attendance was dropping and they just needed some help making some changes to keep the church from dying.  From what I understand The Cowboy Church has effectively done the same.  So here we go.

Well the planning, praying, visiting with folks, studying demographics, organizing and just plain getting ready is over.  Next Sunday we, five couples and their families, are going to Kentucky Avenue Baptist Church in Oklahoma City to help facilitate a reshaping of a church where almost everything has changed around the church besides the church itself.  The church is still alive and a living breathing Christ centered organization with folks who want to do God's will but demographics have changed.  This church has about 62 average attendance each Sunday but at one time was almost 700.  The community has changed and the leadership at this church still works hard but more change is necessary to reach those that live around it.  Almost 75% of the population is Hispanic within 1 mile of the building.  The average age at this church is (guessing) over 70 and perhaps close to 80.  The primary leadership of the church is 80 to 92 years of age.  They are great folks with great hearts who want to serve the Lord but need some help.  They have invited us to help.  

I wish I could say we have a detailed plan but we don't.  We have some ideas and concepts that should be helpful and we have worked to identify things which should change to reach the community but next Sunday, Easter Sunday, we will be joining in their fellowship.  You may ask yourself what are we going to do this first few weeks and I would tell you we are going to show up and become part of their fellowship.  

Now let me step back a few steps and give you some things we have thought about.  Sure we need to reach out to the Hispanic community but we are not experts on that and we will have to figure out how.  Yes, we do not speak Spanish and it will be difficult.  We love football with an oblong ball not soccer which is their passion.  We do like Mexican food but I am not sure if what we like is what they like so how will we ever have a potluck?  We are white and they are brown, will they trust us?  If we want to include them should we change a few things that might make it more inviting like having a sign in Spanish?  The music they listen to is different than what is on our radios and certainly in our church service.  Our style is just different so do we change or change them?  I suggest we have to modify our thinking if we want to get to know them.  We don't have answers other than one thing, we are available.  My family is excited about this opportunity to do something different and hopefully make a difference.  If you are visiting in the area feel free to come and join in on Sunday mornings about 9 a.m. for Sunday School and around 10:45 for church.

We have decided to create a Mendachurch Facebook so I suggest that is where we will keep our updates and occasionally I will write about our experiences here at The Pioneer Man.

Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com

Spring!!!!!!

Spring and especially March is one of my fondest times of the year.  It was always time for the Osage County Spring Livestock Show which was normally starting about March 8th each year and it was also time to plant potatoes and onions and to prepare the garden.  Great times.

The garden changed over the years but when I was younger the garden was north of the house and about 1 to 2 acres.  It was huge.  Dad loved to plant potatoes as he grew up on potato farming.  He was especially fond of sweet potatoes but we primarily planted white potatoes or Idaho potatoes as a lot of folks referred to them.  We would take about 100 pounds of seed potatoes and cut them into fourths making sure there were eyes on each forth.  An eye on a potato is where a sprout would start and a sprout was the beginning of a vine and leaves.  The potato would follow that by starting to root once in the ground.  When we planted you had to make sure the eyes were pointed up.  We used a small Allis Chalmers narrow front tractor and a plow to create the ditches where we planted the potatoes.  Basically you would load up all  you could carry and start walking down those long rows with a gunny sack of potatoes and drop one about every 18 inches.   Then you would step on it to make sure it was firmly in the ground an no air was around the potato before you covered it up.  If there was someone helping they would be covering up the potatoes as you planted else you got to go back and cover them up yourself.  Debbie and Larry always seemed to be there helping and frankly I loved it.

Another great sign of spring was the rhubarb beginning to peak out of the ground with its leaves tightly wadded up and getting ready to unfold as the spring warming began.  The rhubarb was planted under the eve or next to the chicken house on the east side to protect it from summer heat and to allow snow to gather on top of the plants during winter to harden the roots.  Later on  we down sized the garden to about 1/2 an acre which is still huge by most folks standards and moved it to just east of the chicken house which was south of the house and east of the round barn (see the picture).  It was this move that allowed the successful growing of the rhubarb which is still about my most favorite pie. Luckily my sweet sister will make me one on occasion and yes I am making this plug so she will remember to make another one.  The other advantage of moving the garden not including just making it smaller to reduce the amount of work is that it was close to stock pins where we worked cattle and wintered a few steers for eating and prior to that it is where the dairy cows would wait to be milked.  Now if it is still not obvious what that is reflecting is that there was a lot of manure that piled up over the years there and as it composted it made great fertilizer for the garden.  That stuff was so hot that weeds had trouble growing in it but when you added it to the soil in the garden it was just right.  Kinda like the porridge in the three bears story.

It was this combination of manure and soil that made for some of the greatest gardens you ever saw.  We put up literally thousands of pounds of potatoes every year in the cellar for winter eating.  It also made for a fantastic crop of fresh green beans.  Now you may not know it but the best eat'n is when you take fresh new potatoes and especially the small ones and cook them up with fresh green beans and a little bacon and salt and pepper, WOW!  Making me hungry.

Well I might have to continue this one later so what do you learn in the Osage?

• The rewards of hard work are great eat'n
• A little crap can go a long way in making a good garden
• Some folks are entrepreneurs and some folks are full of manure

Thanks for your time and let me know if this brings back a few memories or drives you to the garden,

gary@thepioneerman.com