Dogwood Acres, 03/21/11

DOGWOOD ACRES, 03/21/11, ELANE CRUM
Hello friends. This spring weather is spoiling us for sure. Rick talks about fishing but has been raking and burning leaves. This is the earliest that our yard has gotten such tender loving care. I guess when he gets the yard done, he can then fish all he wants without me nagging about the yard.

Last fall he carried our big potted plants into the basement and has taken good care of them all winter. Now he is anxious to bring them out, but I have told him we need to wait until May or we will lose them in the last killing frost. I bought some Johnny JumpUps and Pansies today on a clearance rack, so I am just as anxious as he is.

LeaAnn has had the girls picking up rocks which seemed to multiply and grow in their yard this winter. Their thick lawn will soon need mowing and she wants to set the mower deck low and give it a good cut that will last awhile.

The first weekend of spring brought a special gift to Neal and LeaAnn’s goat pen as their Billy and Nanny goats had a sweet baby kid. The little girl weighed 5 lbs, 1 oz. and is 18 in. long. We saw her Sunday afternoon, they brought her over to Bill and Mary Lou’s for just a little while and we took pictures. With a yellow flower around her neck, she for sure looked like a spring baby.

Rick invited the neighbor fellows over for coffee last Monday and had special guests from Mo. Dept. of Conservation. The agent had quite a presentation about the black bear population and their efforts to track and count the bears and their activities. He had slick glossy handouts with information and a nice picture of a local black bear. I know it is local because I took the picture from my deck several years ago. Apparently it made the email rounds and ended up at the Conservation office and on their slide shows and literature.
I should have more news, especially since missing last week, but am running late so will save it for next time. Bye for now.

Dogwood Acres, 03/07/11

DOGWOOD ACRES, 03/07/11, ELANE CRUM
Hello friends. Rose bushes, children’s wading pools and winter clearance racks…these things on a local sidewalk display give me a warm fuzzy feeling. You know, that feeling that spring is almost here.

Justin and Kasie went on their first Swan Creek float this weekend. I cannot imagine there was enough sunlight reflecting off the water to give anyone a warm fuzzy feeling.

Rick and I went to the Taneyville Tournament several nights last week. Our granddaughter, Erin, played hard, although she was not feeling good. The final championship game on Friday night was rained out when the gym roof sprang a leak. It was raining awfully hard, but who would expect a basketball game to be rained out?

Rick and Roger had another birthday on March 3. I started to say they celebrated another birthday but Roger does not get that excited about them. Rick always calls to make sure he does not forget. I gave Rick the new Glen Beck book and a photo album for his Vietnam pictures which we had rescued from old magnetic albums.

Removing those old pictures was no small task. Only a few peeled out easily and I froze the rest of them out. After looking on the internet and trying several suggested techniques, the freezer worked best. I stuck a few pages at a time in the freezer, then using a spatula was able to separate the pictures from the old glue. It was a tedious, but rewarding project.

Sue Jenkins will be addressing the County Commission on March 14 @ 10 a.m. and asked me to invite interested voters to attend. This is of particular concern to voters in the Mark Twain & Bryant Ridge areas whose polling places have been changed for the April elections. Another issue is that married people living in the same household are directed to separate polling places.
Don’t forget to Spring Forward Saturday night and get your clocks all set for Daylight Savings Time…another one of those warm fuzzy feeling spring things. Bye for now.
　
　
　
　

OAK RIDGE STORE

OAK RIDGE STORE

Davis kids, Wanetta, Zoe, Bruce, Roma

& good friend, Rita Reynolds

Summer of 1939

Dogwood Acres, 02/29/11

DOGWOOD ACRES, 02/18/11, ELANE CRUM
Hello friends. Do stormy nights keep you awake? I usually stay up as late as possible on storm watch, but Sunday night Rick had just called his mom when lightning began to flash. I unplugged the computer and TV and encouraged him to get off the phone as it is susceptible to lightning strikes. It did not take him long to tell Mom good bye, then he went downstairs to turn off our well pump. That is our general storm routine, the only thing missing this time was a trip to the basement as things leveled out and we went to sleep.

Rick and Jeff Dalton went to Branson today and came home across Goodnight Hollow slab. Jeff pointed out a driveway near Bull Creek where he and Daddy had gone grabbing for Hog Suckers. He told Rick that Daddy said the man who lived down there really liked Hog Suckers and allowed them to go through his gate to the creek. I know it must have been Charlie Glover. Grabbin’ had to have been good that day as Jeff said they must have given him 40 Suckers on their way out. Charlie was a good friend.

Spring fever is moving among us. Walking the dogs this evening I stopped to take a good long look at our Forsythia bush. There are tiny green leaf tips pushing out all over, but no yellow in sight. Bill and Christie transplanted some wild blackberry vines Saturday. That will be a nice addition to the fruit orchard and perhaps attract another bear or two into the neighborhood. Ron Bilyeu, who lives on the banks of Bull Creek, spotted Witch Hazel blooms a couple of weeks ago. Witch Hazel is typically a winter bloomer, but still encourages us to think that spring is on its way.

On Sunday afternoon I went through a trunk containing old pictures, letters and family Bibles. Not the first time I had seen these things, but I read everything as though it were. Loved going through the pages of Granny’s Bible just to see what pictures and funeral notices were tucked away. Also found an old faded picture of barrels scattered across the ground. On the back it said “Moonshine Distill destroyed by the law on Pine Ridge, 1924”. I don’t know where it was or any more about it.

I found page 2 of a typewritten letter from unknown person with three interesting stories on it. Here is a good one about rabbit trapping. “Do you remember what trappers that us boys in my family use to be; As the youngest boy got old enough he would be given some rabbit traps of his own, Rabbit meat was about all the fresh meat that we would get at winter time; My Brother Bill became old enough to have traps so he took them out and set them in Rabbit holes. The first morning that he went to check his traps he came back with a Rabbit’s foot, second and third morning he had a foot each time. But on the fourth day he had caught the rabbit and it had three feet missing!” That story was at the bottom of page, so if there was more it was on page three which I do not have.

Later in the day I made a digital Facebook album with pictures of Mother’s family back in the day when young people gathered around the Oak Ridge Store for soda pop and fellowship. It was a good day filled with shared memories.

This is the last week for Erin’s basketball games at the Taneyville Tournament. Last week we were at the last night of the Plainview Tournament. There was a packed out gym as parents and grandparents turned out in full force. I was surprised to see one of my Forsyth classmates, Carol Ingenthron Lee. She and Ken had come to watch their twin granddaughters who played on the Mark Twain team. Forty-four years ago Carol and I graduated from high school. Oh my Word!! Where have the years gone? Bye for now.

Vanessa's 18th birthday party

COUSINS ~ ASHTON, VANESSA, ERIN, MAKAYLEE

VANESSA
celebrating 18th birthday

Dogwood Acres, 02/21/11

DOGWOOD ACRES, 02/21/11, ELANE CRUM

Hello friends. The big winter coat felt real good today with rain pouring down and putting a chill in the air. We expected to go to Erin’s ballgame tonight, but it was canceled due to sickness. The other team only had 6 players and 3 of them were sick. There are already several makeup games due to those that were snowed out.
Last week we watched Plainview play at Taneyville. It’s always fun to go there as we see a lot of hometown folks that we know.
Neal and LeaAnn brought the girls over Friday night and stayed to eat with us. Supper was nuthin’ fancy, just venison spaghetti, bread, brownies and a salad, but we filled up on it. They had a busy week on the farm, helping Bill and Mary Lou with the new spring calves.
The girls and I went to Vanessa Bilyeu’s 18th birthday party Saturday afternoon at the Oakmont Community Center near Big Cedar. There was a big crowd of cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, good food, lots of presents and then a little pool time for the younger ones.
It hardly seems possible that the first great-granddaughter of Cliff and Zoe Bilyeu is 18 now. She will be graduating from Blue Eye in May and looking forward to college at C of O.
There was a birthday party at the log house Sunday afternoon as Justin Fisher was celebrating the big 30. He traded his jeep off today and got a nice looking little car, so I guess his mud slinging days are over.
I don’t purposely go mudding, but crossed a lot of creeks in a day of house showing last week. Early one morning I went to Bradleyville and stopped to take pictures at Beaver Creek. Later that same day I was in Walnut Shade and decided to take the back road home. When I got to the Goodnight Hollow Slab, I was surprised to find a few inches of water running over it; guess it was from snow melting up stream. The water was a pretty green color where it comes out on the low side of the bridge so I took pictures there. The road up towards Meadows was muddier than I expected, but my car was already dirty, so it didn’t matter. I put that picture of the slab on Facebook and was amazed at the number of comments. So many people have memories of fun times there.
Ken and Nita Puchta had coffee at their house Saturday morning. With busy days of Christmas and weeks of bad weather, it had been awhile since the coffee club had met.
It has been a big week for new babies. At Sandy church, Makinna Humbyrd is the newest “big sister“. She had pictures of McCoy Doyle at church Sunday and made sure we all got to see them. The big boy weighed 9 lbs, 9 oz. and has already gained another ounce.
Dallas Bilyeu is finally an uncle, as Sam and Latasha Swindle are new parents to Gabriel Michael, born on Sunday morning.
Jeff and Janet Dalton have a new granddaughter, Baylee. She is a cutie and sure to be spoiled by big sis, Kiley.
Rick fired up his 4-wheeler last week and took Zoey to see her family at Jay and Brenda Gideon’s. Rick said she looks just like the mama dog and the other babies were all excited to see her. Brenda picked her up to cuddle and in all the excitement Zoey peed on her. The little dog has grown a lot since Christmas, but she is still just a little weenie dog and not going to be very big.
Make no mistake, Zoey is Rick’s dog, although he tells everyone he got her for me for Christmas. He says every old man needs a dog because they’re not judgmental, they are forgiving and they don’t talk back. Bye for now.

Neal's 10th Anniversary @ Sandy Church

Tommy Smith (old friend from Marshfield) & Neal

Neal & Jason Rust (groomsman)
Shayna & DJ Warren, John (J R) Warren (Best Man) & his little girl
These are old friends from Marshfield & Conway


Family, LeaAnn on Right, my sister, Christie next to her, my brother, Jim and his family further down the table. Rick 2nd from end on left next to Jason Grant.
Jason Grant (left side) he was a groomsman in Neal & LeaAnn's wedding over 16 yrs ago!
Jason was also with Neal the first time Neal & LeaAnn saw one another in front of Dicks 5 & dime in Branson....Such Memories!!

Neal with Uncle Jim and family

Dogwood Acres, 02/14/11

DOGWOOD ACRES, 02/14/11, ELANE CRUM
Hello friends. Valentine’s Day is almost over. Rick did good; he bought me a heart shaped box of chocolates. Now, he is almost counting the pieces to see if I try to eat it all in one day. I don’t know that it would make much difference one way or the other, but I will try to make it last all week just so he can’t say I ate it all at once! He and Jeff Dalton did their Valentine shopping together and joined the crowd of other men carrying out candy and flowers.
It is so good to see blue skies and bare ground, although there are still large snowy patches in the shadier areas of our yard. My heavy winter coat has been put aside for lighter jackets and I plan to enjoy every warm day until “old man winter” strikes again.
Little Fox has such a heavy coat that the cold and snow did not bother her. On the other hand, Zoey has fine hair and a bare belly and she got chilled very quickly on necessary potty trips. I got her a cute little sweater which helped some.
We had a big day at church Sunday with surprises for Neal on the occasion of his tenth anniversary as Pastor at Sandy Church. LeaAnn invited my family and several of Neal’s old friends for church and the fellowship dinner which followed. The whole church was in on the secret and Neal was completely surprised when all these people from different parts of his life showed up for church. He said he was almost as nervous as when he preached his first sermon.
Bessie Rossner Gideon celebrated her 91st birthday with her son Gary and other family members. They said she acted more like a 19 year old than her 91 years. Bessie is looking forward to the next nine years and is determined to best her father, Ed Rossner, who lived to be 100 yrs, 2 months and a few days.
Bessie’s little brother, Herman, enjoyed a card and pictures from Jack and Daisy Davidson. They sent pictures from the wildlife club back in the day when Herman was instrumental in restocking wild turkey in our Missouri Ozarks.
Gary and Barb Casey celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary same day as Aunt Bessie’s birthday. Barb is younger than I; surely she is not old enough to have been married 40 years! Barb, Carolyn and I used to run up and down these hollows when we were young….really young. There was no TV or video games, so we hiked in our Pine woods and the fields of the Rossner Ranch. I love technology now as much as anybody, but kids miss so much.
Another trip to the funeral home last week for Byron David’s visitation put me in touch with more old friends and classmates. I don’t mean to say they are “old”, but you know what I mean.
Ashton and Nathan had a good time at Bradleyville Homecoming on Saturday. It was a long day with games starting at 2:00 and a dance after the last game was over. PaPa Rick said they are young and have lots of energy.
Erin called to tell me she has a ballgame at Taneyville on Tuesday night. After missing 2 or 3 weeks of games due to snow, it will be fun to get back in the swing of things. Bye for now.

Snowy Days

Rick & Zoey taking a walk in the snow. See the snow on her nose? She likes to root in the snow.

There was ice fog this morning. None when I left home, but just a few miles down the road it was heavy on the trees and grass @ Herman's house.

Dogwood Acres, 02/07/11

DOGWOOD ACRES, 02/07/11, ELANE CRUM
Hello friends. I began last week’s columns musing whether or not it would snow and did it ever! Just as we were recovering from the short end of “The Blizzard” we were hit with a “dusting” of 5” on Friday night. There was a lot more of that than the first round and most of it is still hanging on in our yard and driveway.
For the first three days of snow, the only tracks in our driveway were Ken Puchta’s boot prints. He was out walking and brought our mail to the house. We felt fortunate to have a mail carrier who delivered mail to our box every day, so to have Ken bring it to our door was an extra blessing.
We like to never got out of our driveway for church on Sunday evening. The afternoon had been warm enough to let the icy crunchy snow soften and the tires on my car just went round and round. After 10 minutes or so we finally inched our way out and made it to bare ground on the highway.
Rick has kept busy on potty duty with the puppy. The snow is very inconvenient for her so they have had to find bare ground. She didn’t like the cold at first but I got her a sweater and she soon was running circles in the snow.
I spent one of my snow days scanning old pictures into digital files. One has to wonder if digital pictures will last a lifetime or be as much fun as going through an old picture box. Probably not, but it seems to be the thing to do.
Our electricity never went off but I did manage to read a book and take a nap or two. We ate on that Venison Roast that Rick put in the crockpot, I also made a pot of Venison Chili and Snow Ice Cream. There seems to be an unspoken rule that one must cook lots and eat often when snowed in.
Uncle Roscoe Keithley showed up on Facebook this week, bouncing great-grandson Brody on his knee. They both had big smiles, couldn’t tell which was having the most fun.
I was out the door for work early this morning and will hit the ground running again tomorrow….just in case there are more snow days this week. Bye for now.