Columns/Opinions

By Sue Ransom

What a great spring break. I know the kids are all groaning because they have to get up tomorrow and go to school. I could be wrong, but I think I hear a few teachers groaning as well. I know I am, but it is because of this silly time saving. I’m back to getting up in the dark and going to school at first light. That just isn’t appealing to me. I am a daylight person. Perhaps if we send thousands of emails to the Texas legislature, they would do away with daylight savings? I suppose when I was younger having more daylight after I returned from work was good. Now that I am ancient; I don’t need extra hours to work. I want to wake up with the sun then go to work. Congratulations by the way, to Flora Appleton and her win at the Houston fair. She’s bringing home a hefty sum for her future college costs.

By Sue Ransom

Saturday, I emerged from my self-imposed retreat and set out to do some serious outside work. I kept telling myself I also needed to do some work on the old house. I have a quilt to finish.

Today I have returned to my self-imposed house arrest because I do not want to be blown away and shiver like the leaves that are left on the oak trees. Which means I am left to flights of fancy watching the leaves skitter and jump across the pasture. It’s amazing what you can do when you’ve been raised in the generation that went outside to keep from being bored. Too many of our modern kids wait for someone else to come up with creative ideas. It’s easier to push a button and watch a screen than to think of something, anything to do. I think parents need to take away the phones and get the kids back outside.

By Nancy Bannister

Reading Recommendations: Born Fighting, How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, James Webb -

More than 27 million Americans today can trace their lineage to the Scots, whose bloodline was stained by centuries of continuous warfare along the border between England and Scotland, and later in the bitter settlements of England's Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland. Between 250,000 and 400,000 Scots-Irish migrated to America in the 18th century, traveling in groups of families and bringing with them not only long experience as rebels and outcasts but also unparalleled skills as frontiersmen and guerrilla fighters. Their cultural identity reflected acute individualism, as well as a dislike of aristocracy and a strong military tradition, and, over time, the Scots-Irish defined the attitudes and values of the military, of workingclass America, and even of the peculiarly populist form of American democracy itself.

By Sue Ransom

Thank heavens Tuesday has come and gone. My mailbox has been flooded with political post cards. I will say it again. I believe political ads should only be allowed to speak the truth the whole truth and no half-truths. I get one piece of material saying JD is an upstanding pro-lifer, and the next says he voted for third term abortions. I receive yet another political poster that gives the voting records of all and Sheffield is cleared, only to be followed by another report that leaves his name off. We need some consistency with this nonsense. I want to be an informed voter, but I have to wade through a ton of misinformation. Never-the-less, I don’t stay home.

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By Jo Price

March came in with lots of rain for everyone which was so badly needed. Some of the tanks even received some much needed water.

Everything is so green it kind of hurts your eyeballs, but it is a good “hurt.” The apricot trees and wild plum are already blooming and just hope they are not hit with a frost. Would be nice to be able to pick apricots and wild plums for some really good jelly.

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By Sue Ransom

Good grief, February is done and March has arrived.

Will it arrive like a lion or a lamb? I’m not sure, but I am shocked that we are already down to the third month of the year. I’m hoping we will have a splendid display of spring flowers now that we have been blessed with magnificent rains. We had five inches here at the house. I hope it doesn’t warm up too quickly or the fruit trees will bloom out, and we will lose them to a late frost. I think I can count on having pears. They seem to survive all types of weather. The peaches, plumcots and plums are a different story. Life is such an adventure.

Bro Russ of the First Baptist Church is in Cambodia this week.

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By Jo Price

The rain did fall this past week with some getting more and some getting less. Around the Bend reports of around two and half inches.

The tanks didn’t receive any much needed water, but the Colorado river did get a nice rise which brought in enough needed water to flush it out. More rain is needed and just maybe this week more will come. I f you can believe the weather reports the weather is going to be much warmer, which will be nice. March is knocking at the door.

It will be interesting to see how it comes in. Lets hope it comes in like a lamb and goes out the same way.

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By Jo Price 

Still no rain, but it seems everyone around is getting some of the good wet stuff. We can be thankful for the nice warm weather for this past week and hopefully rain will be coming to us around the Bend before too long. The wind blew out of the South just about all day long Monday taking with it what little moisture there was.

Jane Clark reported that Boyd Clark came for the weekend and they had a Valentine dinner Sunday after church before he left for Lubbock.

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Biodiversity: More Complicated, and Perhaps More Important Than We Thought 

Regular readers of these columns have probably read something along the lines of: “One of the most important characteristics of a healthy, sustainable, productive native habitat is that it is biodiverse.”

And there is certainly nothing wrong with that statement, as far as it goes.

When most people think about biodiversity, they think in terms of the number of plant and/or animal species that can be found on any given property or natural area—the more different species, the more biodiverse. But there is no single number of species that above that number is good biodiversity and below that number is not.

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By D. Harkey