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The very first Thanksgiving was held after life had been so difficult the year before. Thanksgiving is a time to strengthen our attitudes, or maybe alter our emotions. We can finds ways to be thankful even during extremely difficult times. It was 1609, and on the coast of Massachusetts was a native tribe called the Patuxets. In that tribe, there was a boy about 12 years old called Tisquantum, or Squanto. A big ship of men from a different world sailed into the bay. Squanto and his friends didn’t fear them, so they ran to see who they were. At f...
For 7 years, my husband worked away from home in road construction: Sunday afternoon through Friday evening, from April to November, he was gone. It was an adjustment when he left for a job and an equally big adjustment when he returned, but it was doable for us, until we had our second child. Once we had two, I discovered how much I wanted a partner in raising our kids. Last year, we put a double wide out on the family farm and moved out to the farm. I never specifically wanted to be a “farmer’s wife” and it has not all been roses, but here ar...
With Thanksgiving weekend upon us, Big Sandy prepares for a short week followed by visits with family, sleepy afternoons after eating turkey, pumpkin pie, and ideally a day of grateful hearts for the gifts and blessings God has provided to us in the past year. Growing up, I remember learning about the Puritans, though they were always called Pilgrims, having their first harvest meal with the natives in the new world while making “hand turkey” crafts for my mom to hang on the fridge. When I got older, I heard all manner of other tales, myt...
Think Twice About Spreading Manure on Your Garden During my tenure as your Agricultural Extension Agent, I have observed five gardens in Chouteau County where gardens produced no vegetables. Plants that did emerge were stunted and did not produce. The cause of these devastated gardens is usually one of two things. Either pesticide contaminated manure has been applied to the garden, or too much manure has been added to the garden. One issue that can result from a manure application is pesticide contamination. Do not use manure from animals that...
Is Thanksgiving even still a holiday? There’s so much controversy around it. There’s a genuine concern, lately, that Thanksgiving perpetuates racism, colonization, and oppression. And then there’s the superficial aspect that no one celebrates because they love Christmas. And why wouldn’t they? Every store known to man has Christmas stuff up before Halloween! So again…is Thanksgiving still a holiday? I will be honest: I was one of those people who had to wait until Thanksgiving was over before we decorated for Christmas. But I have a daughter...
