On My Mind

Notice

In the process of transferring the Farm and Dairy archives to our new Web site, some articles were not completely uploaded. If you find an article that is incomplete, please contact us with the title and date of that article and we will fix it. Thank you for your patience.

Enjoying two- and four-legged friends

Thursday, July 17, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

“A funny thing happened on the way to …” and it should continue “the Forum”, but in this case, it was the recycling center.
Happily, the center is only about a block from me, and I recycle everything possible, so I make the trip about once a week. (And I am always appalled at the terrible […]

House guests provide inspiration

Thursday, July 3, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

If there is one thing that will get you off your duff, whether or not you feel like it, it is the impending arrival of out-of-town guests.
Suddenly, your reasonably clean house and reasonably tidy barn look filthy, your just-mowed lawn seems to have turned into a hay field, your adequate supply of food and beverage […]

Finding sanctuary in these 8 acres

Thursday, June 19, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

These 8-1/2 acres I have managed to save from almost wall-to-wall development represent such a small refuge, but refuge it is, and I constantly marvel at the variety of wildlife that has found it.
Here I can blink back at the fireflies over the pasture at dusk so it resembles a trackless city. Here I can […]

Childhood memories swirl in spring

Thursday, June 5, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

Like a breaking floral wave, the locust blossoms frothed and foamed in the breeze, their inimitable fragrance beckoning bees whose humming was an audible drone.
In our back yard at home, when the grass stretched down the little grade to Yellow Creek, there were maybe six towering locust trees and when they were in flower, we […]

Good grammar is never out of style

Thursday, May 22, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

The extremely heavy book in my lap as I write this column is titled National Encyclopedia of Business and Social Forms and Embracing the Laws of Etiquette and Good Society.
Written by James D. McCabe and printed by the Home Publishing Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1882, it contains 838 pages. This particular copy, according to […]

Flowers and birds are a bit mixed up

Thursday, May 8, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

No matter your opinion of the late but unmourned winter — since this is a family publication we’ll not offer our thoughts — it would seem that every flowering shrub, tree, bush and even traditional spring flowers believed it was the best ever.
Maybe we’re mistaken, since the winter seemed so endless, but didn’t everything […]

It’s about time: Spring finally here

Thursday, April 24, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

Every spring, this column is committed to bring you in poetry the scent of hyacinths as you read once again the advice of an old saying:
If thou of fortune be bereft
And in thy store there be but left
Two loaves: sell one,
And with the dole,
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul …
Now spring can really begin! And […]

Waste not want not in ‘hard times’

Thursday, April 10, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

Whatever happened to the March lamb? Did the ferocious March lion have lamb for lunch before slinking back to his lair, growling and lashing his tail as he went?
Do you remember my warning after January’s benign presence that somewhere down the road Mother Nature’s payback would take place, and I was right on the money. […]

Searching for sights and sounds of spring

Thursday, March 27, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

Before launching a paean to spring — surely it is here by now — I must express fervent thanks to readers and friends who took the time and trouble to send me condolences about the Feb. 26 death of my sister, Barbara.

On My Mind: The animals know spring is near

Thursday, March 13, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

If ice storms weren’t so frightening and dangerous (please, God, don’t let the electricity go off, don’t let the trees and wires fall down, etc.!) they’d be beautiful. I’m sure the folks in northern Trumbull County saw nothing beautiful in their damaging storm this week, but our area was spared the problems and had no […]