What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
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Many years ago I attended a small, two room school about four miles from our ranch house. We didn’t have many neighbors so two rooms was enough for the eight or 10 kids spread out over four or five grades. Since I entered on the young end of the age groups I cannot tell you how many girls were in the school. Hadn’t even come close to being interested in them. In fact I was excited that my younger sister was attending an entirely different school miles away! There were, however, six boys. Iro...
Heavy snows and cloudy skies highlighted a rather difficult week of getting out and about. Driving was an exercise in caution regarding the drifting and blowing snow. The whites and grays of consecutive snowfalls and dismal skies blended to form a monochromatic and featureless landscape. It always helps to see the edge of the road while driving, but even that became difficult due to lack of contrast. Polarized sunglasses were somewhat helpful but could not solve the dilemma entirely. Blowing...
You have no doubt noticed that I write about the funny things that happen to me. It’s easy to do because I don’t have to make anything up and who would know more about it than me? I was there. Every once in a while, something happens that may be funny to the world but I find it embarrassing, annoying or down right infuriating. Those events take time before they get funny for me. The following event, as close friends and neighbors will quickly recognize, took place several years ago. It has tak...
Shelves in religious book sections (virtual or otherwise) are overflowing these days with enticing titles on how to fix Protestantism and the state of the overall church. Few arguments remain untried that offer clear solutions to failing memberships, declining seminary enrollments and the diminishing relevance of traditional Christianity, most openly expressed in the lives of younger generations. Like climate change naysayers in recent times, mainstream Christianity can no longer deny the...
Here are the new introductions that you can purchase for your gardens in 2023. These are the plants that did well during their trial period and were chosen to be a Plant Select Plant. Ultra Violet Salvia or Salvia ‘Ultra Violet’ PP 21,411 is more cold hardy and more compact than most Salvia greggii. It has iridescent, deep purple flowers that bloom in late summer. This is a xeric plant that establishes easily in the garden. It is rabbit and deer resistant. Better Homes and Gardens magazine lists it as a top perennial for dry sites. TIDY lit...
Everywhere I turn, I have heard a lot about the wonder of technology. It has worked itself into our lives, like it or not. Ironically, agriculture, usually one of the last bastions to resist change, seems to have embraced it completely. GPS, I guess, now allows tractors to drive a straight row while the operator reads a magazine, at least that is what my son-in-law used to do. My tractors don’t have it and there is no place to hang a monitor on my horse. Nevertheless, I recently discovered h...
Every few months or so a rather government-ish looking letter fueled with urgency arrives in the mailbox. The wording and appearance of this and similar letters mimics something more insidious, something filled with apparent officiousness but totally lacking in substance. It is quite simple. The goal is to separate you from your pocket book while manipulating your good will and common sense. How to convince you to believe something from nothing without bumping into legal prohibitions? Use...
Wheat stem sawfly is a native insect that feeds on grasses in Colorado. The insect was first identified by entomologists in Colorado around the late 1800’s and primarily fed on range grasses. However, wheat stem sawfly emerged as a Colorado wheat pest in 2010 and damage from this insect has been expanding and increasing since. Today, this pest is estimated to cause $30 million in damage, according to Brad Erker, Executive Director of the Colorado Wheat Research Foundation. As a result, Colorado State University is focused on addressing c...
Well, Thanksgiving is over, didn’t get around to writing about it, mostly because I ate too much and slept through most of it. I’m sure you didn’t have that same problem. However, with that behind me, the next holiday, Christmas, looms ahead. For the past 39 years, have never missed a Christmas edition of “Under The Wire.” Am not about to miss number 40. Christmas is definitely my favorite because it lasts so long. “One day?” you say. Not for me. Sue and I will put up our tree. It’s artifici...
Valorous and noble, our dogs crested the tops of the largest snowdrifts in their quest for adventure. Peak after peak, formed of biting wind and snow, brought them unrelenting joy. Their relatively lighter frames made it a breeze for them to move in and out and over the top of the wind-hardened surface. What a rare and altogether wonderful opportunity to explore drifts in excess of fifteen feet high. Desperate for moisture, the locals’ coffee shop mantra was that precipitation in any form would be welcomed. When the storm knocked at our d...
I guess you could say I have been “flipped off.” Now, depending on how your mind works, you may think Sue popped the clutch on the pickup while I was feeding off the flatbed. Some might assume this is a story about another of my horse mishaps. Probably a couple readers will have the old single finger salute in mind. The truth of the matter is, you are all wrong. I am talking about, of all things, a cell phone. Here is the story. Sue and I may be some of the earliest cell phone users in the cou...
It was time for something to change regarding a worn and splintery edge-grain fir floor. Options were rather simple but limited: tear out and replace, sand and refinish or lay new prefinished flooring over the old. Sensible arguments could be made for any of the choices. Tearing out would likely expose any flaws that might be of concern regarding the current floor and allow for a more thorough inspection that might discover particular problems since the house was built in 1917. On the other...
Why does a walnut produce a chemical, juglone or hydrox juglone? This is a naturally occurring chemical that is a defense mechanism protecting the walnut tree from surrounding plants. What happens to the surrounding plants? It stunts the growth of surrounding plants. Juglone inhibits plant respiration. If there are sensitive plants under a walnut, the juglone will deprive these plants of water and nutrient uptake. Symptoms such as wilting or yellowing leaves occur. Juglone is not soluble in water. Consequently, it does not move very far in the...
Well, winter is here. I said I could hardly wait for it to get here. Boy, was that a stupid thing to say. I have to wonder just what was I thinking of. I do, however know what I was not thinking of. I was not thinking about frozen water tanks, even those very expensive heated waterers. In my limited and not very convincing defense, it was probably July or August when I voiced my eager anticipation of -15 degree weather. Nothing like 95 degrees and 85 percent humidity to make you crave cooler tem...
This Advent season finds our social fabric a bit tested and threadbare. That reflects neither complaint nor critique, but rather a shared consensus view that things are not all they could be. Is that so different than previous seasons or is there something novel, a new wilderness in the mix? John the Baptist would likely suggest that wilderness is wilderness and lostness is lostness and to acknowledge either one is to know truth. To broach the wilds is about bringing a knowing attitude that is...
I just realized Fall and Winter are when I truly enjoy rodeoing the most. “What’s that?” you say. How can I enjoy rodeoing in our region in the fall and winter? There are no rodeos then. You’re right. There aren’t any. Am I nuts or am I saying I don’t like rodeo? Neither. Confused? Let me explain. I love rodeo. Rodeo was a big part of my life for a very long time and I would have been lost without it. When there was a rodeo to go to, my heart picked up a beat, my step became more lively, in...
It is not easy some days to stay above the fray and avoid being consumed by events immediately surrounding us, particularly when they include current politics, economic realities and a cultural malaise that has been with us for some time. At street level, it can be draining to recognize and fend off what is debilitating in our everyday lives. Even when we recognize dysfunction for what it is, doing something about it is a whole ‘nother matter. A better perspective is not always possible nor a...
“Democracy,” wrote H.L. Mencken, “is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.” A majority of Colorado voters have made it clear that they want to be governed by Democrats. With Democrats presiding over a struggling economy, widespread crime and social disorder, this result is dumbfounding. Surely, Coloradans were ready to restore some measure of political balance? Instead, voters soundly rejected Republican candidates across the board. Democra...
Once again Thanksgiving is upon us before most of us are ready. This year has felt more last minute, in part due to inflationary food and travel expenses. And it sounds as if ‘over the river and through the woods’ is descriptive of either drought conditions or northeast lake effect snow measured in feet. We are in a time of unpredictability in many areas of our lives. It is why finding ways to enjoy our time together is critical for our mental, physical. And spiritual health. One thing is cer...
On Sunday, Nov. 13, I attended the Phillips County Election Integrity Symposium. The speakers were fascinating. From Tina Peters, Dr. Douglas Frank, Ron Hanks, Jeffrey O’Donnell and Jeff Young to several other patriots and even a Zoom appearance by Sharona Bishop (America’s Mom). Phillips County is a relatively small county in northeast Colorado. When we think of election fraud it is probably not the type of county that would typically come to mind. Most of us realize election fraud exists but we picture it happening in the large met...
Thanksgiving is coming up soon. I’m not sure if it is a national tradition to use the occasion to stop for a moment and think of the things we are thankful for or not. At our house, however, that’s what we do. In case that’s not how you honor the event, I thought I would share my own list with you. Maybe it will encourage you to make your own, even better, list. In these troubled financial times I am thankful to already be poor. While others mourn the loss of their villa in France, a major...
Partnerships. I will be the first to admit this is a strange title for an “Under The Wire.” Truth of the matter is, for some reason this morning while driving across our Sandhills pasture this subject popped into my mind. The more I thought about it, the more it demanded to be written. While it’s meaning really doesn’t need much explanation, I did decide to take down my dusty “New World Dictionary of The American Language” and see what it had to say. Surprisingly, the official definition...
A wild-tending world view is described by nativist author Randy Woodley as “one that maintains a careful watch on the whole community of creation, assuring everything stays in balance for generations to come.” (Becoming Rooted, 2022) We could use a little bit of that world view now about now, in home, at home, even far from home. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to open our doors to the possibility of possibility, to breathe mirthful breezes of hope and encouragement to merge onto broad avenues of li...
Letter to the Editor Each year, during the holiday season, you may have noticed a Christmas tree in the lobby of the Points West Bank. On the tree each ornament honors a special person. Those we love who have passed away are closer to our thoughts and hearts at this special time of year and an ornament celebrating their memory, no matter when they passed, is a way to honor their lives and celebrate the promise brought by the babe born in the manger. Hospice of the Plains has served this area for 26 years and is a wonderful resource for those...
This story is very hard to write because I am, in a way, having to retract a statement I have made quite often the past few months. Even worse I must “throw in the towel," “wave the white flag” and any other saying that describes defeat. This past summer I have complained about flies. Living with feedlots, large dairies and our own contribution to fly habit with horse and cattle pens near by, we must live in fly nirvana. “I can’t wait for the first freeze to kill these pesky flies," had come...
