Sunday, May 10, 2026

These days, everyone wants a say in how you manage the natural resources of your land. Your water, your soil, your manure, your air - you're bombarded from all sides with input.

The Congressional battle to approve the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) began in earnest with the usual suspects mouthing the usual platitudes to the usual inside-the-Beltway audiences.

This past weekend was a big event, and a memorable one, for certain. The parents of my good friend Cindy celebrated 50 years of marriage, and there was a party big enough to mark it.

Hold on to your barn boots: A federal judge has ruled that phosphorus from cow manure is a hazardous substance.

Ancient people cleaned their clothes by pounding them on rocks or rubbing them with abrasive sands and washing the dirt away in local streams.

A catchy name for a chair shop, the words Pull Up a Chair once graced the sign on a small building in Columbiana that has housed several businesses over the years.

What might be considered cutting edge, different, or a niche market product here is just another day at the farm somewhere else in the world.

Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care? Since daylight-saving time began anew last weekend, I can't say that I do.

"Should we rent the marquee at the cinema or a lettered sign on a trailer?" "Let's compare prices." Later, after we checked, "The marquee is almost a hundred dollars for one week.

Had I known my professional life would center on chronicling the takeover of global ag business by global ag business, I would have listened more closely to Professor Lyle P.