A Mouse in the House

by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved.

Among the most common sounds of autumn in the country, along with rustling leaves and crackling fires, is the scratching and scurrying that can be heard inside walls and rafters of almost every rural dwelling.

These are the sounds of the house mouse, mus musculus, one of the least welcome of guests and most difficult to dissuade. This uninvited visitor will eat, or chew on, almost anything and defecate everywhere. He contaminates food, causes damage to structures and property, and  carries dangerous diseases.

Continued at... A Mouse in the House.

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Farm Fresh
The Nature Pages
Artwork: House Mouse

Where Oliver Found His Place

by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved.

Oliver Wendell Douglas finds the Haney Place advertised in The Farm Gazette, which he picks up from a news stand while on a business trip to Chicago. Compelled by a deep-rooted urge, he decides to go have a look. To get there, he changes planes twice, takes a bus from the county seat to Pixley, then hops on a train known as "The Cannonball" for the last leg of his journey. When he gets off in the town of Hooterville, he breaks into song:

Green acres is the place to be,
Farm living is the life for me.

Continued at... Where Oliver Found His Place.

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See the Movie, Read the Book
Farm Fresh
Artwork: Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor

Give Eggs a Break

by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 2000. All rights reserved.

When I was growing up eggs were often called "the perfect food" -- a massive dose of protein packed into a small container with all the essential nutrients for making strong bodies. Everyone endorsed them. We all ate them at almost every meal.

Then some egghead discovered cholesterol and everything got scrambled.

Eggs contain more cholesterol than almost any food source, a whopping 212 milligrams or so per yolk. So when doctors started prescribing less cholesterol in the diet, eggs were the first to go.

That decision may have been a little too hard-boiled.

Continued at... Give Eggs a Break.

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Kitchen Supply
Farm Kitchen
Artwork: Eggs at a Farmers Market

Passing Clouds

by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 2005. All rights reserved.

"Each day, each hour, clouds reinvent the sky, serene as silk, big as hippos, loud as choo choo trains," writes author John Nichols. "Their Greatest Show on Earth can create a brand new postcard shot faster than I can whistle for help backward."

This time of year the clouds in our sky tend to race across the heavens in thin wisps like sleek airliners, or they come rolling in low and dark and heavy like a freight train. Either way, they seem to be in a great hurry to get somewhere else, or to get away from whatever is coming behind them.

March rushes in as a blustery lion, his mane a changeable mass of water vapors: fog, drizzle, mist and downpour. And, then, just as swiftly as his approach, he slinks back into the jungle across the horizon and the skies clear.

Continued at... Passing Clouds.

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The Nature Pages
Out There
Artwork: Passing Clouds by Georgia Inness

Beware of Bambi

Lions and tigers and deer, oh my!

Danger lurks in our forests and other wild places. Grizzly bears and alligators and mountain lions have been mauling humans for ages, and fear of their claws and jaws bites deep into our consciousness. Somewhere inside, we all remember cave bears.

But while most of us retain a healthy respect for wolves and cougar, the urbanization of humankind has diminished our awareness of vicious raccoons, angry squirrels and the mostly deadly critter of them all -- deer.

Continued at... Beware of Bambi.
by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 1999. All rights reserved.

Rural Delivery
The Nature Pages
Out There
Artwork: Trophy Buck Deer with Big Rack

Home for the Holidays

by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 2005. All rights reserved.

We came to her table, friends and family, sons and daughters, grandchildren and neighbor kids; we laughed, we cried, we teased and joked, complained and worried, grew older, changed shape, and eventually, moved on.

She’s gone now and it has been many years since I actually sat down at that table, but I’m always there at Christmas and Thanksgiving and every other day worth remembering.

Continued at... Home for the Holidays.

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Holidays and Notable Events
Out of the Past
Amelia: An Oral History
Artwork: Home for the Holidays

Midwinter Delusions.

by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved.

Why is it that the coldest and stormiest days of winter seem to fall sometime after the solstice, in January or February when daylight is growing? Is it a build-up of cold arctic air in those long December nights that finally gets loose and spills southward into higher latitudes?

Correspondingly, the hottest days of summer seem to come in early August, which is well past the summer solstice of June 21.

Midwinter is an expecially difficult time -- an end time, the passing of a season and a year. Left alone in these dark times, it is hard not to reflect on losses and failures, vanished dreams and extinguished lives. What went wrong? How did things get so bad?

Continued at... Midwinter Delusions.

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The Nature Pages
Winter Solstice
Artwork: Mid-Winter Moonlight - by Marie-Francois-Regis Gignoux