Saturday, May 17, 2008
Beautiful Ozarks Day
I REplanted my corn today. Something sneaky and lightweight took each and every sprouted seed out the other day. neat little holes with the sprouts left behind and kernals gone. Also found a crow feather, so he's my top suspect. After that I suspect the blue jay and chipmunks. No tracks, so it couldn't be something too heavy because the ground was soft and freshly tilled.Also planted plenty of bell peppers and tomatoes. Tomorrow I hope to get out there and plant the squash and okra. It was a great day in the Ozarks here today!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
A Little Publicity
Last Saturday my picture was in the paper, along with an article written by Mark Minton, a reporter from the Arkansas Democratic Gazette. The article wasn't about me, it was about ginseng, but my name was used along with the picture. Since then, we've been getting a lot of phone calls and inquiries about ginseng. I hope anyone who is interested but wonders how to get in touch with me will just try to google my name - it will send folks right to my websites and blog. Some people just went straight to my little home town to try and find out how to get in touch, lol. The girls at the Cafe have been helpful in directing at least one inquirer :) So the ginseng business is getting off to a good start this year. Now I just need to plant a lot more! If you're interested in getting some, there are still plants to reserve. They can't be shipped or picked up until September, though I am taking orders. Just send me an email: roxann at ozarkginseng dot com. If you want to read the article, the title words on this post should be a link. But just in case it doesn't show up that way on your computer, here's the URL:
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/225367/
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/225367/
Friday, May 09, 2008
Guest Blogger: Gene GeRue
Introduction: Gene GeRue is the author of How To Find Your Ideal Country Home. He lives 'somewhere in the middle of the Ozarks'.
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Morning Entertainment, Country Style
From the kitchen sink window a terrapin undulates downhill over the mulch of the back garden. It appears to be heading toward the baby lettuce. Pauses with head stretched high like a periscope--the head reminds me of Spielberg's ET. Is it a girl sniffing the air for a boyfriend, or a boy inhaling for the irresistible perfume of a girl? Lettuce spared, it changes direction and goes back up the slope to the sod. Across the sod behind the hibiscus that is pushing up new shoots. Now back down into the garden, perhaps that is where the breeze comes from, angling across through the young pepper and tomato plants to the excavation where a hydrant was installed yesterday. Threads its way between the hole and the new hose bib manifold out onto the top of the stone wall. Peers over the edge like a child looking at a dropped toy on the floor below its crib. Decides against a dive. The garden rejected, it moves along and off the end of the wall and onto the sod, goes around the corner and disappears, still searching.
One could learn a lot from a terrapin.
The three-toed box turtle, also called terrapin, known to biologists as Terrapene Carolina triunguis, has been reported to live as long as 138 years in the wild. I want to know who kept track. It is also said that an age of eighty to a hundred years is normal. Common life stoppers are vehicles and collectors. Three-toed box turtles prefer wooded areas, but are also found in lawns and pastures. In Missouri, courtship--this I have not seen, and mating, this I have photographed-- takes place from late April well into summer. Most egg-laying takes place from mid-May to early July. A female digs a three- to four-inch hole in a patch of loose soil. Three to eight elongated white eggs are laid, covered with dirt and abandoned. I have occasionally happened onto one of these nests, typically in leaf litter near an oak tree. As is the case with all turtles, the eggs and the young are on their own. It is noteworthy that this parenting style has been successful for thousands of years.Now the next time a city friend asks what on earth do you country folk do for entertainment you will have turtle watching as an additional answer.
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Morning Entertainment, Country Style
From the kitchen sink window a terrapin undulates downhill over the mulch of the back garden. It appears to be heading toward the baby lettuce. Pauses with head stretched high like a periscope--the head reminds me of Spielberg's ET. Is it a girl sniffing the air for a boyfriend, or a boy inhaling for the irresistible perfume of a girl? Lettuce spared, it changes direction and goes back up the slope to the sod. Across the sod behind the hibiscus that is pushing up new shoots. Now back down into the garden, perhaps that is where the breeze comes from, angling across through the young pepper and tomato plants to the excavation where a hydrant was installed yesterday. Threads its way between the hole and the new hose bib manifold out onto the top of the stone wall. Peers over the edge like a child looking at a dropped toy on the floor below its crib. Decides against a dive. The garden rejected, it moves along and off the end of the wall and onto the sod, goes around the corner and disappears, still searching.
One could learn a lot from a terrapin.
The three-toed box turtle, also called terrapin, known to biologists as Terrapene Carolina triunguis, has been reported to live as long as 138 years in the wild. I want to know who kept track. It is also said that an age of eighty to a hundred years is normal. Common life stoppers are vehicles and collectors. Three-toed box turtles prefer wooded areas, but are also found in lawns and pastures. In Missouri, courtship--this I have not seen, and mating, this I have photographed-- takes place from late April well into summer. Most egg-laying takes place from mid-May to early July. A female digs a three- to four-inch hole in a patch of loose soil. Three to eight elongated white eggs are laid, covered with dirt and abandoned. I have occasionally happened onto one of these nests, typically in leaf litter near an oak tree. As is the case with all turtles, the eggs and the young are on their own. It is noteworthy that this parenting style has been successful for thousands of years.Now the next time a city friend asks what on earth do you country folk do for entertainment you will have turtle watching as an additional answer.
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