Greetings from the Ronald McDonald House of the Ozarks, near Cox South Hospital. I have been staying here off and on for several days with daughter Julie as she was released from the PCU in the hospital but referred here to be close to the hospital. On the afternoon of…
We didn’t get much snow in the latest snowstorm, but it did snow off and on for those few days. I saw a news clip on TV that showed somebody’s hummingbird feeder covered in snow with the hummers zipping around in the falling snow, feeding as usual. It didn’t seem…
The weather is so topsy-turvy I wondered if I would see a hummingbird before June, but of course they know when to come back and don’t pay attention to my calendar. I wonder if any of you are seeing hummingbirds yet. I finally saw one Monday morning and had to…
It was a good day at church Sunday with a good-sized crowd. I had missed the last two Sundays and it was so good to be back. The first Sunday I was in Texas with Julie to see Scott and last Sunday I was at the hospital with Julie. Julie…
I got twenty-five strawberry plants set out over the weekend. As usual I had put the cart before the horse and ordered the plants before I had anywhere prepared to plant them. I rounded up several old tin washtubs that I have used for flower planters and got some good…
One week closer to spring on the calendar. I have been cutting brush and piling and burning it when the wind quits blowing long enough. I waited and burned one pile during the rain we got on Sunday. I was afraid it wouldn’t burn in the rain but that particular…
Typical late winter weather here, freezing cold one day, beautiful spring-like weather the next. Daffodils and crocus blooming, then a little bit of sleet, snow and then maybe a thunderstorm. The good rains we have been getting have filled the creeks for now. Wind, wind, and more wind. Nice weather…
There is not a more lonesome sound than the wind howling around the side of the house. If you like wind, this is surely your kind of weather. I like a cool breeze on a warm day, but this far exceeds a breeze. It was quite a shock to walk…
I’m beginning to think the groundhog didn’t know beans about whether he saw his shadow or not. He might need glasses. It sure has been awfully wintry weather to be an early spring. Of course, I guess if it is even a few days before the calendar says it is…
We woke up last Saturday morning to a dusting of snow on the ground. I think there was maybe half an inch that had fallen. I got up around 4 o’clock that morning to holler at our dog that was barking her head off and there wasn’t anything going on…
Such a busy time of year with the basketball season winding down. Two and three games a week adds up to a lot of miles. I blame ballgames for staying busy but it is always a busy time with something or the other. We went to watch the kids play…
Hope your team won the Super Bowl, if you are a fan. I didn’t watch it. I’m not at all interested in football so I wasn’t even sure when the Super Bowl was taking place until I saw people talking about it on facebook the last few days. I guess…
I am loving this mild weather for a few days. I plan to use one of these mild days to do some yard work, of which my yard needs badly. Leaves that were waiting for a mild winter day to be raked, and goodness, the holes all over the yard…
Normal weather, cold, not so cold, warm, freezing, like the old saying, if you don’t like the weather stick around for a day or two, it will change. Son David lives on Maui, and if I ever ask him what the weather is like, he answers the same, wonderful .…
Snowbirds, robins and redbirds are sitting all over my backyard, but no snow has fallen yet and I hope it stays that way. No snow, but the frost was so thick this morning it almost looked like snow. Then it clouded up, and the old wisdom says that clouding up…
Fair weather in the forecast, but everyone knows it can change so fast around here. Some want snow in the worst way, I am in the group that doesn’t want snow at all, and would be happy if it was sixty degrees all winter. Of course, I’m looking forward to…
More balmy weather for December, the weekend was so nice. I am not a fan of cold weather so I loved it. I would love for the weather to stay that warm all winter. I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked, I had a…
The almost balmy weather we have been experiencing this fall has disappeared and real winter weather has arrived for a while. It was hard to get the house warm so I opened the fireplace back up and built a fire. There is nothing that beats a wood fire for throwing…
The wind has blown so hard the last few days all the leaves are finally gone off my maples in the backyard. Now the oak trees are a different story, as everybody knows, because a lot of those leaves won’t come off the trees until new ones start budding out…
Hope everybody has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. We expect to have all of our kids and grandkids home except for David, and we will try to talk to him on Skype sometime during the day. He always has a houseful of friends at his house for…
The night before deer season Bob remarked that this would be the first season in twenty-one years that he hadn’t taken a kid or grandkid with him. I told him he wouldn’t know how to act out there all by himself, and it seems I was right. He came in…
I don’t have any excuse for all the mistakes I have been making, only an explanation. I try to write the news at the last minute before the deadline and then I am in a hurry trying to get everything in, seems like I’m not a good multi-tasker. My birthday…
I still have a hummingbird once in a while, I guess just passing through on their way south. I spied one on Friday evening and again on Sunday morning. I still have one feeder hanging outside with a tiny amount of sugar water in it and I have plenty of…
The jackets and sweaters and even Bob’s insulated coveralls came out over the weekend with the cooler temperatures. I am never ready to bundle up against the cold, but it was either put on a sweater or shiver, so I gave in to fall. I brought some of my flowers…
I thought all my hummingbirds had already left or migrated through and I hadn’t seen any for days, then Sunday morning I saw just one lone hummingbird zipping around, sipping a little from first one feeder then the other, then flying over to take a taste from my morning glories.…
So thankful for all the good rain that has fallen to refresh our yards, gardens and creeks. I love rainy weather although it makes it difficult for Bob to work in the timber. The cooler temperatures have also been a relief to all those working outside. I admit I like…
Thirty days hath September, April, June and November. All the rest have thirty-one, saving February which alone has twenty-eight. Do any of you remember this little rhyme? I learned it sometime in grade school. I think of it every year when September arrives. I have been looking forward to September…
Thankful again for the good rain showers we have been getting. Would love a lot more rain, but of course will take what we get. The fields and yards are looking a lot better, and a lot greener. I am in charge of mowing the Bradleyville Cemetery and it sure…
My hummingbirds have been swarming in extra large numbers and I wondered if maybe they were getting tanked up to leave for the season. It seems like everything this year has been a month ahead of where it usually is, but a friend told me she had heard on the…
We are so thankful for the good rains we received the past week. We got over 3 inches of rain here and it was wonderful. I couldn’t stop from standing at the window or in the open door and just watching the rain fall. Now I won’t have to drag…
Well, July has come and gone and was probably the hottest time I can ever remember. It has been this hot before, but to stay so hot for so long is surely a record. I know some can remember the drought years in the 50′s and from what I hear…
I hope I speak for everyone in the Bradleyville area when I say we are so thankful for all the firefighters and others that fought the wildfires in the area the past week. It was such an unbearably hot, dangerous job and they did their job and were successful in…
Wow, if you don’t have air conditioning or are working outside in this hot weather I feel for you. After I go out to water all my plants I am so hot I just want to collapse in front of a fan. The swimming hole in Brushy Creek where we…
We are so thankful for the good rain we got last week. I think we got about an inch and a half here. I would love for it to rain that much more this week. My flowers and vegetables loved the rain. I think every green bean seed I planted…
My yard snaps, crackles and pops when I walk across it, except for one small area where all the water runs from my leaky outdoor faucet when I am watering my flowers. I finally got some green beans planted right beside my back porch in a little bed I made…
Bob and I spent most of the day Sunday at our family reunion. Some of us only see each other a few times a year, so we always have lots of catching up to do. Those present at the Sloan family reunion last Sunday included the head of our “Sloan”…
My hummingbirds seem few and far between this year so far. I see three or four hummers for a little while of the morning and maybe that many again late in the evening. I know it is early and there are usually lots more as the summer goes on, but…
Is it just me or isn’t this turning out to be a strange spring? Seems like everything is a month ahead and I even have trouble remembering that it isn’t a month later than it is. We have even seen several tarantulas crossing the road, and while I know they…
Beautiful weather continues this week which is nice because I really need to get out to work in the yard some. Grass is growing like crazy, which it always does this time of year, and my flower beds need some tending also. My daughters got me some flowers for Mother’s…
Somehow, last week my e-mail got lost between here and there and never got to the paper. It may still be floating around in cyber-space. Sorry for any inconvenience it caused. Several students from Bradleyville Elementary competed in the Mark Twain Spelling Bee recently. Taylor McHaffie represented the 4th grade…
Hope everybody has been enjoying the beautiful weather we have been having. We have had the heat on in the mornings for an hour or so but it isn’t long before we are turning it off and opening the windows or even turning the air on. I have a couple…
Trees and grass and all growing plants are filling my part of the world with green. I love the cooler temperatures that have moved in, making it feel more like spring instead of a premature summer. It rained a lot here over the weekend. I’m not sure how much because…
The weather is so beautiful, I can hardly believe it is just barely April and not June. The trees have leaves already, the Dogwood has bloomed, but no, I still don’t have my garden plowed. I did notice our neighbor, Delbert Johnson has his plowed and probably planted by now.…
What beautiful weather we’ve had the last week. It got so warm I was tempted to turn on the air conditioner a time or two, but made myself turn on a fan instead and enjoyed the nice breezes coming through the house from the open windows. The violets and wild…
The Bradleyville students have a week of spring break this week and I know they are all enjoying it a lot. The weather is supposed to be pretty this week and that will help, although the past few years it has been cold and rainy on spring break. I doubt…
Bob and I have gone all winter without getting any of the nasty bugs that have been going around, but they finally caught us. We both had fever, chills, coughing, and Bob had a bad headache and backache. Needless to say, we didn’t enjoy any of the beautiful weather over…
Last weekend was so exciting for me to watch the bald eagles near our place on Brushy Creek. They had a huge nest in the top of a Sycamore tree near the creek for many years but last spring it got blown down during a storm. Anyway, that’s what we…
Last Saturday we left at 11:30 a.m. and drove 96.9 miles to Koshkonong to watch the grandkids play basketball. We have grandchildren on the boys’ varsity, girls’ varsity and girl’s junior varsity teams, so we watched the whole thing, from start to finish, along with Koshkonong’s Homecoming, which they held…
I have daffodils that are getting ready to bloom, and I’m afraid they are going to get nipped in the bud! The weather forecast shows some really cold nights later this week. It would take a pretty hard freeze to do that, but gee, it is February, isn’t it? This…
Sometimes in the past few days it has been hard for me and the birds in my yard to not believe that spring is here. I go outside and it’s wonderful, the birds are singing and I expect to hear the peepers any night now. I know, I know, there…
I feel like we’ve been blown into Kansas with the way the wind continues to blow. Maybe it will be all blown out by March, who knows? It sure dries out the ground and I know Bob and the rest of the guys that work outdoors probably like that. Being…
It is still pretty nice weather for January; it was so pleasant a few days I could almost imagine it was spring. I don’t think I was alone because the smell of burning leaves was strong in the air. We used to burn leaves but not anymore I just rake…
Sorry I haven’t gotten any news in the paper for a couple of weeks. I was just plain lazy and busy at the same time if that is possible, and didn’t make the time to sit down and write anything. Maybe it had to do with priorities. It got extremely…
We enjoyed a good Christmas program at New Mansion Church last Sunday night. Several skits were performed along with the Nativity and some special songs. “Happy Birthday Jesus” was sung by a beautiful little angel in the form of Heidi Todd, and “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem” was performed bluegrass style…
The white dog with large, light brown spots on his hind quarters that I mentioned last week that was on DD Highway has migrated northeast a mile or so and is now at Julie and Scott’s house. He just showed up there one morning last week and growled a little…
Sure has turned cold. Who’d a thunk it? It’s time, but I do dread the cold and will be happy for every mild day we have. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with our family, and lots of good food. We all ate a lot and had a great time…
Another deer season has come and gone and I hope all you deer hunters out there got what you wanted. I think most deer hunters want that big buck and it seems like several nice bucks were harvested this year, but from the conversations I overheard I don’t think the…
Did anybody feel the earthquake last Saturday night? I saw on Facebook that several around here felt it, my granddaughter Danielle said she woke up and the mirror on her dresser was shaking and making a little noise. Bob and I were coming home from Mountain Grove and were probably…
The fall colors of the timber have been absolutely spectacular this year. There was one or two days when they were at the peak of color. I was driving home from work last Wednesday and they were just so brightly colored and beautiful it was hard to concentrate on driving…
We had a busy and great time over the weekend, starting with the Fall Festival at church. The weather was gorgeous, simply a perfect fall day to enjoy all the activities. There was lots of singing, visiting, and a hayride to the pumpkin patch. In the evening we all gathered…
We had most of our kids and grandkids here last Saturday evening to help celebrate Bob’s birthday with a chili and potato soup supper and cherry chip cake for dessert. Bob’s mom also came out and spent the evening with us, telling some good stories of when Bob was little…
The biggest news around Bradleyville is the bridge is finally open. It actually opened Oct. 4th around 7 pm, right on schedule. It got a lot of traffic that first night since there was a ballgame at Bradleyville and several had to go home that way. I suspect that even…
It has been so pleasant the past week, the kind of weather that makes me want to sit outside in the morning with a cup of coffee and just enjoy all the sights, sounds and activities of the outdoors. I haven’t been able to do that this fall but it…
Fall has arrived once again, faithful as ever to show up right when it’s supposed to. It’s just about time to switch the thermostat from cool to heat and leave it. Actually, this time of year we have been guilty of switching it to heat to cool and back to…
Last Weeks News – I hope everybody is enjoying the cooler temperatures lately. I heard that a few people around had a light frost one morning. It has been really pleasant to get outside in the cooler weather and work in the yard some. Greg and Lisa Potter walked in…
I hope everybody is enjoying the cooler temperatures lately. I heard that a few people around had a light frost one morning. It has been really pleasant to get outside in the cooler weather and work in the yard some. Greg and Lisa Potter walked in a lupus fundraiser in…
The hummingbirds are swarming my feeders, tanking up and getting ready for their big fall migration. I counted around 32 hummingbirds around my four feeders, but there could have been 10 more or less than that, it is pretty hard to keep track of them when they are zipping back…
I really appreciate Ethel West writing the Bradleyville news for the past couple of weeks. It really helped while David was here visiting. David hasn’t been here when our regular family reunion happens in June, so we all gathered again at our home to eat and visit the Sunday after…
Beautiful weather and frequent showers promise to make the last month of summer wonderful. I really enjoy this time of year, when it is still officially summer, not yet autumn, and I can let up some on watering my flowers. My flowers are showing their appreciation of the cooler temps…
We are thankful for the rain showers we have been getting. Randy Wyman said they got around two inches of rain at their place and I heard several say they got almost an inch. I think we got considerably less than that here at our house but I was grateful…
Tiger lilies, impatiens, zinnias, wave petunias, rose of sharon, hollyhocks and knockout roses, all blooming right now in my yard. Flowers that are easy to grow and have pretty foliage and/or beautiful blooms. That is my style of gardening. I don’t have my ancestors green thumb, it has to be…
Hope all the fathers had a good Father’s Day last Sunday. At church they had a big selection of candy bars at the door and each father got to choose which kind he wanted. Bob came home with peanut butter cups. I think he likes them because he knows I…
My tomatoes and peppers are looking good even without the rain showers others have been getting. I think I can almost see them growing. I got them put out late, but since that is normal for me I know they’ll produce, just later than my neighbors. I planted some zucchini…
Lots of hay being baled in this hot and sun-shiney weather. I saw that Walter Rogers got his hay baled in the bottom fields beside his house and not a drop of rain fell on it this time. That might be a record of some sort for it seems whenever…
Brrr…somebody forgot and left the refrigerator door open last weekend! I have cleaned my fireplace out three times this spring thinking that would be the last fire for the season but we had it going again over the weekend, and it felt nice. Bob and I went to the Beacon…
It has been a little bit more busy than usual at our house the past week, with our son David coming home for a week to visit and turkey season winding down. It seems we might have met ourselves coming and going a few times. It is always that way…
Sorry I missed getting any news items in the paper for the past few weeks. No excuse except being busy and forgetfulness a week or two and then lightning ran in on my computer and phone and ruined them, so I had to rethink how I was doing things. I…
Congratulations to Bub and Kayla Blair on the birth of their son, Noah Gene. Noah was born March 31 and weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20 ½ in. long. He sure is a cute little guy and I know everyone is excited he is finally here. Congratulations also…
Did you get to see the supermoon as they were calling it on the TV news? I mistakenly thought it was Friday night, and then forgot to go out and look, so thought I had missed it. When a friend brought it to my attention that it was instead on…
Congratulations to Scott and Julie Lawson on the birth of their new baby son on March 22. Garrett Scott Lawson weighed 6 lbs. even and was 20 inches long, and has lots of beautiful black hair. Almost our whole family was at the hospital awaiting his birth, and as we…
Spring break is this week and I hope everyone is enjoying being out of school. I hope the weather cooperates a little and is nice most of the week so they can enjoy some outdoor time. We attended church at Lone Star last Sunday morning and got to see and…
There was lots of friends and family gathered together last Sunday for the baby shower for Julie and Scott Lawson. They got so many nice things for their baby and said they were thrilled and appreciated everything they got. Baby Lawson is due sometime the first two weeks of April…
Things that happen each year, but they never fail to thrill me. Crocus blooming! One little bunch of crocus is blooming in my front yard. They are a bright yellow and look so cheery against the brown grass and leaves around them. This certain bunch has been here for at…
The peepers have started their annual spring concert and I love to hear them. A week of spring weather is always welcome even if we have to give it up again for awhile. I do realize it is still winter. I have lived long enough that I do realize that…
Has everyone got their bluebird houses cleaned out and ready for occupants? I read the other day that the bluebirds would start checking out housing in late February or early March, and start nesting in March. I love bluebirds and need to get busy and make a few more houses.…
I still haven’t made any snow ice cream and since I’m not a big fan of ice cream, snow or otherwise, I haven’t missed it. We do have plenty of snow left if the grandkids decide they want some so everything is good. After church Sunday we joined our daughter,…
I hope all the forecasts were wrong and there is not a foot of snow on the ground, but if there is, I’m sure the kids are having a great time being out of school. And I am going to be sure to make some snow ice cream this time!…
Hope everyone enjoyed the snow and got to eat some snow ice cream. My grandkids joined hundreds of other kids and enjoyed the snow by staying home from school for a couple of days. They finally got enough snow to go sledding a little while. We didn’t have any snow…
Sorry I didn’t get any news in the paper last week. I usually write it late Sunday night and e-mail it in, and there just wasn’t much besides the birthdays and anniversaries to put in. I decided to wait until the next day and try to get it in before…
