On My Mind

Respect: Key aspect of Memorial Day

Even though Memorial Day is not quite here, this column is better enjoyed before than after the fact. I have kept a letter from Juanita Deal of Athens, Ohio, for a year because it paints such a tender picture of what were such sweet times, before “Decoration Day” became just another holiday — an “off” [...]

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Barn swallows return and lilacs fade

“Welcome! Welcome home!” I cheered as the barn swallows swooped in the back door, circled a quick reconnaissance and whirled back out to gather the rest of the troops. It was April 25, the same date on which they have arrived the past two years, so I was really expecting them. Which means, of course, [...]

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Spring brings joy of mowing the lawn

Why is it that the first mowing after the long winter is such a pleasure — and how is it that by the end of summer the last mowing can’t come too soon? Climbing aboard the dear old John Deere was such a familiar activity yesterday but I didn’t remember being quite so stiff! Winter [...]

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Spring miracles arrive as winter ends

No matter how many Easters, each with The Promise, no matter how many springs, each with its moment-to-moment magic, one never fails to be overwhelmed by every big or small miracle. None of our sophisticated technological gizmos can duplicate the overnight creation of tiny green leaves on hedges that only yesterday were bare. Or set [...]

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Winter is sneaking out the back door

How exciting! A chipmunk on the back porch! And six red-winged blackbirds! And snowdrops pushing through the snow! And robins galore splashing through the mini-lakes left by the melting ice! And a pair of geese establishing their territory, first in a swale in the pasture, then in a coppice where volunteer apple trees provide a [...]

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We’ve come a long way, or have we?

Is anyone else old enough to remember when the worst epithet you could scream to someone on the playground who was bullying you was, “You think you’re smart!” and that would send the chastened bully slinking to the other side of the playground? Today there is just as apt to be a shooting or a [...]

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Hornet’s nest tells the true story of snowfall

Remember that high hornets’ nest I wrote about in the Jan. 21 column? Old-timers believed the higher the hornets built their nests, the deeper the snow. Well, that nest tells the true story about snowfall here, and every day there are a few more inches wiping out the creature glyphs in the now unblemished surface. [...]

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Do you know where Remi might be?

If you are not a “dog person” you might as well turn the page. But if you are one of those who consider your dog, be he or she a purebred or mixed breed, an important member of your family, you’ll understand the ongoing heartache of Tom Brugnaux of Poland/Boardman and Cindi Hamrock of Austintown [...]

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Where is the predicted mild winter?

As Punxsutawney Phil, sensing that his winter’s snooze is about to be interrupted, begins to twitch in his cozy man-made burrow, I implore you to pay no attention whatsoever to his publicity stunt Feb. 2. He no more knows what he’s talking about than do any other of Mother Nature’s purported prognosticators, with only one [...]

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Take time to read your holiday cards

Now is the time to gather up all the beautiful, humorous, thoughtful, pictorial, etc. etc. greeting cards you’ve received since the holiday season began. Put them in a neat pile, pour a cup of coffee, select a few of the yummy cookies you’ve been given, and look at each card and read each note. Marvel [...]

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Experience Christmas Eve in 1959

Once again I’m sharing with you my mother’s thoughts of Christmas and even though you receive this week’s Farm and Dairy on Christmas Eve, most folks are certainly too busy at the moment to read all the interesting material it contains. But perhaps after everyone has gone to bed, after everyone is taking a breather [...]

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Mother’s words convey joy of season

It’s been quite a while since I shared with you one of my columns written for Farm and Dairy by my mother, Berenice T. Steinfeld, who used the pen name “Aunt Teek” for her weekly columns form 1952 to 1965, the year of her death. But going through the box in which she kept her [...]

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Try to be a little Pollyanna-ish

Oh how my sister and I hated Pollyanna. Pollyanna — the heroine of a long-ago children’s book — was a symbol of relentless cheerfulness. No matter how dire the circumstance, the “little glad girl” managed to find something cheerful about it. The author who gave her birth — Eleanor H. Porter — in 1913 created [...]

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Did you blink? It is indeed all gone

Somebody — was it you? — really, really blinked from the time you were warned that if you did it would all be gone! — because since I issued that warning just two weeks ago it is indeed totally all gone! And now that daylight saving time has also gone, the amount of light diffused [...]

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Blink and it will all be long gone

Don’t even blink, or everything will be gone. That fire-red inferno of a maple tree now ablaze in the front yard will be naked. That birch tree whose fallen foliage will have already made a golden circular skirt on the still-green grass and its bared white arms will plead for a blanket of snow. Blinding [...]

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The history of the Arrel family

In August of 1976, Elizabeth Arrel Thompson and I strolled across her historic 200-year-old Arrel Farm on Arrel Road in Poland. As we walked, bluebirds flitted around us, perching on fence posts, and we listened to them and to the quiet conversation of her royally bred Hereford cattle that grazed in lush pastures. She quoted [...]

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Does anyone remember Who?

Who remembers Who? And although I didn’t plan to write about Who — the list on the kitchen table on which I jot notes about maybe column-fodder has a number of entries — a telephone call has made it necessary for those thoughts to wait. I first wrote about Who in the Feb. 14, 2008, [...]

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Yes, I did make it to Canfield Fair

Happy Halloween! In case you hadn’t noticed, even before Labor Day Halloween decorations were on shelves in stores and at even some houses. Maybe we should just say Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year now to save time. As if time didn’t overrun us in its headlong rush — to where? — [...]

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Barn swallows’ exit is right on time

In the barn this morning, the silence was deafening. Since May 25, barn swallows have kept the rafters ringing with their cheerful chatter and impromptu squadron flights. Accustomed to my presence and Winnie’s, they seemed to respond to my “Pretty birds!” greetings, and I could stand quite near — at a safe distance, if you [...]

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Find comfort in Farm and Dairy

Isn’t it reassuring, in this scary world, to open the pages of Farm and Dairy especially in fair time and to see pictures of the young people with their 4-H animals or their prize winning vegetables or blue-ribbon school projects and to know that one day, if they live up to their potential, the world [...]

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