How serious is the late planting? Depends upon the source of the opinion. (Hint, the trade is not all that concerned.)

Hello Again! Is your corn in the ground? Is your wheat ready for the bin? Are you prepping for beans yet? Are you just a bit busy right now? With all this sunshine and the days getting longer you’re still not done? You know there’s hay to mow, hogs to slop, eggs to gather, a [...]

In the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case Jacobellis v. Ohio, Justice Potter Stewart wrote a concurring opinion he hoped would establish a legal standard that protected every American’s right to free speech yet guarded “community standards” against “hard core pornography.” That competing interest, Stewart wrote, was difficult to balance because it was difficult to define [...]

Blue for first, red for second, third is white, fourth is yellow and fifth is green. By the time they blow past the primary colors and into the decorator shades of award ribbons, it’s fair to say you probably didn’t exactly excel at whatever it is that you’ve done. Burgundy may, in fact, be the [...]

Sometimes the most impressive lives bear unspeakable sorrow but the story is told with a glow of perseverance, or simply never told at all. — Margaret Allenwood, 1902   Part II (See Part I) Anna Chloe spent her life with a steely determination to accomplish farm and house work. Her somber presence stood in stark [...]

During spring migration, warblers get lots of attention. Most are brightly colored and sing loud distinctive songs. Yellow warblers, for example, are common, beautiful, and easy to find. But other, less spectacular groups are equally interesting. Vireos, for example, are less brightly colored and usually more difficult to see. Often they are heard before they [...]

On an crisp autumn day in the year 1813, Admiral Oliver Hazard Perry, in just his late 20s, altered national history and spawned a coming international peace when he launched his just-completed small fleet of tall ships from Put-in-Bay to attack an English fleet of war ships in what has become known as the Battle [...]

I wasn’t going to write about it. I truly wasn’t. I was going to let last week’s news story by reporter Kristy Seachrist stand on its own, and let readers read between the lines for themselves about how the Humane Society of the United States was creating a new agriculture advisory council in Ohio “to [...]

Hello Again! It took a while, but I think winter has finally lost its tenuous grip on us. The smells of spring are fully upon us now. Newly mown grass, lilacs in bloom and, yes, that favorite scent of spring for a farmer, the smell of newly worked soils. Planting in the area is well [...]

“She would gather the eggs in her apron, studying each one, deciding whether this one was a keeper egg or one she would take to town to sell for pennies. Her husband, fortunately, was blessed with the patience of Job, remaining quiet as his wife pinched a nickel until it turned in to a dime.” [...]