Tulip Talk
Rob Perez sits across from a vibrant, solid blue potted perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophyte, more commonly known as a tulip. ROB: Well, this is very unusual.
Opinion
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Wild Gobblers, Now, Yesterday and Tomorrow
There is only one answer to bringing wild turkeys back to the numbers seen many years ago! Hunters will have to do it! The Missouri Department of Conservation is too inept now to do much of anything but cut timber. And cutting back on turkey seasons and bag limits and eliminating the senseless “youth season” will cost them money. They will do nothing to cost themselves money. But if we can organize a large number of turkey hunters, we can make them do some things to help the numbers increase, which would be the first time that has happened in more than ten years.
A Day for Mother
Mother’s Day is the one day a year when Mother gets to put her feet up and is waited on hand and foot by her minion. Father brings her an iced coffee, just the way she likes it. The children deliver the remote control, blankets, and a snack. Uninterrupted, Mother watches an entire episode of BBC-produced British period piece on PBS. It is pure bliss.
Increase Your Perennial Garden’s Beauty this Spring
Give your perennials a boost this spring with a topdressing of compost, aged manure, or other organic matter. It’s a great way to revive tired gardens, improve a garden’s overall health, and keep vibrant perennials healthy and blooming.
Interesting things about the Blue Jay
Blue Jays are a beautiful bird, they are a large, crested songbird with broad, rounded tail. Blue Jays are smaller than crows, larger than robins. The Blue Jay Color pattern is white or light gray underneath, various shades of blue, black, and white above. The size of the male and female Blue Jay range in this range; Length: 9.8-11.8 in, Weight: 2.5-3.5 oz, and Wingspan: 13.4-16.9 in.
Amid plenty, the grumbling endures
These are the times in which we live. People take food, one of life’s essentials, and fashion it into art – a rose bush, the Eiffel Tower, Tom Selleck, whatever.
The faces of Democracy . . .
Last week the Courier and some of our sister newspapers owned by CherryRoad Media in Arkansas had a visit from the new Vice President of Growth and Development, Lee Bachlet. I proudly discussed the Courier and our community. I explained that we strive to cover local news, and our people, all while fulfilling our role of watchdog for the community. It’s a delicate balance. The newspaper must have the backs of residents and support the school, local governments and businesses. I like to think of the newspaper as a vehicle to help people in the community. The role of the newspaper should be about doing what you can to help solve problems in the town and county where it resides. It’s about supporting the community by shining a light on what is right and what needs to be fixed. It’s challenging work, especially if an entity tries to throw up a roadblock to transparency that is a right given to the public.
Can Twitter be fixed? The answer matters
I’m all for Elon Musk kicking the numerous and annoying ads off Twitter, though how he makes the business continue to work without them is unclear. The bigger issue is running off the fake accounts and streams of disinformation.
Shawneetown
With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the area now known as Marion County, Arkansas, became a part of the United States. In 1810 Marion County was a part of the New Madrid district of Louisiana Territory and in 1812 was a part of Missouri Territory. Arkansas Territory was created in 1819. In 1820 a small portion of Marion County was in Lawrence County, while most of it was within the Cherokee Indian Tract. It wasn’t until November 1835 that Arkansas was recognized as a state. During this transitional period, the first white settlers came - some to trade with the Indians, some to find a new way of life. Mostly these people were hunters, trappers, and fishermen; none were farmers.
How Low Can They Go?
You have no idea how it hurts an old-time outdoorsman like me to roam the Ozarks and witness what is happening to the wild turkey. What hurts most is to know it is likely to be this way for years and years, maybe for good, like what happened to the bobwhite quail. The reasons for the decline of the wild turkey are many, but the situation we create with too much hunting is a big part of it. They have begun, over the decades to breed later and later in the spring, and the harvest of gobblers before they ever mate, is significant. Many southern states have begun to recognize that problem… too many toms being killed too early in the spring, by a great increase in hunters. And those states, at least eight of them, are trying to ease the hunting pressure and the harvest of spring gobblers.