Archive for July, 2009

Posted on July 31, 2009 - by Hubba

Jack Gravatt, Child at Heart

This afternoon in Elm Springs Jack Gravatt will be laid to rest after several years of declining health.  He will be buried in the Elm Springs sod he loved so much.  Although Jack grew up near Ft. Thompson, throughout the rest of his life he called Elm Springs home and hearth.

And my brother Al will help carry Jack to his grave, which is very fitting.

I have written here about my/our first year of home school, which was horrible indeed.  After that first year, Mom could see that she had better find a different course of study of home school would be hell for everyone involved.  And Mom did a much better job of picking the second year’s curriculum.  The course she settled on was a decidedly different approach, and one we kids quickly warmed to.  For instance the first two weeks of school were devoted to the study of camping, complete with a “test” at the end.  Yes, camping for school.

Another rather unorthodox tenet of the program was the suggestion of a mentoring program.  Each student was asked to name a hobby or discipline and find a mentor who would be willing to spend around three hours a week with them helping them learn the hobby. (more…)

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Posted on July 30, 2009 - by Hubba

Yes I (Was) a Redneck

This charming little post from Whoa My Horses! recollected me of a similar experience in my own life.  (If you don’t have time to visit the site, she had a rattlesnake under her porch.

In the summer of, well who cares really, me and the boys had a “fallin’ out with the ol’ man,” so we set off with Nick and Al’s pickup, a borrowed trailer and a rented skid steer (which we rented and borrowed from the “ol’ man”) to become custom fencers.  In hindsight it wasn’t the greatest idea we ever had.

We found a fencing job on the Cheyenne River near Wasta, complete with living quarters.  The living quarters was the oldest trailer house in the world, suffering from a five year neglect, but it kept the rain off.  After a week or two of no air conditioning and candle light baloney sandwich suppers with the mice, we got the electricity on, kicked the air conditioner, and even got a water heater.  The place was becoming somewhat livable.  And really we didn’t spend much time there.  Between the fenceline and the Wasta Bar, we didn’t have time to. (more…)

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Posted on July 29, 2009 - by Hubba

HH Vcast Program; John Timmons

Does Ft Worth ever cross your mind?

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Posted on July 28, 2009 - by Hubba

Vehicle Safety Learned the Hard Way

This was almost precisely one week after I learned not to shoot holes in the doors of our pickups.

Dad had been combining (or harvesting, as some of you prefer to call it) grass seed on the river bottom.  This was western wheat grass, which grows naturally in our area, and which in a good wet year a guy can get a good seed crop from, virtually free.

So Dad had combed quite a bit of the river bottom and had a hopper full of western wheat grass seed.  And the next morning, it looked like it was going to rain.  So “Ben” and Dad and I went to the river.

You see, there was the combine and a grain truck half full of seed, in addition to the vehicle we were riding in, to drive home.  Dad drove the combine, Ben drove the truck, and it was my job to drive the third vehicle, which was a gigantic ’70’s Ford pickup.

We got to the combine, Dad and Ben climbed on their respective machines and we started off, with me in the rear and with Ben given orders to see that I was keeping up. (more…)

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Posted on July 27, 2009 - by Hubba

The ESN; No Rain

The kind citizens enjoyed a week of weather without precipitation, and used it to put up hay and to venture into the wheat fields with their combines.

Consequently there wasn’t a lot of news.

The kind citizens would like to thank everyone who came to help mow the Elm Springs Cemetery on Monday afternoon. The date was rather hastily arranged and so there wasn’t time to put the announcement in the ESN.

Several of the kind citizens attended the appreciation lunch in Union Center on Thursday. (more…)

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