Dear Cousin,
Hope you had a great Memorial Day and decorated all your hero’s graves, those men who died in wars, served their country, keeping us and often the world free.
Well here on the farm, Memorial Day has passed and the kids are now out of school and the days are growing hot! So, it’s that time of year again, hay time, and this coming up Saturday we hope to put the first cutting in the barn, with the help of kids and grandkids.
We had that very predictable week of hot and humid weather at the end of May. There was finally enough rain to get the creek that comes down from Cliff Springs flowing again.
When our kids were little they had an annual field day at school the last week of May and it was always so hot and humid. But the rain and warm weather has really got the hay growing after a strange dry spring and now the local farmers all about are cutting hay.
While waiting for the hay to grow, the grandkids have been helping cut weeds on the farm; now that the ground is wet, the weeds really are growing.
Finally, the grass has grown enough that the cows don’t ball at us when we go up the hill to check on the calves. We are still feeding “Baby Bear” who is quite a big calf now. Baby number thirteen, a little black and white girl was born to “Cherith” and we called her “Tipper” because when she runs she holds her white tipped tail in the air.
The last seven or eight inches of it is pure white and it looks like she is waving a flag as she flies around the hills. We have one more baby calf to go and were through for spring calf season. Lois, an Angus/Brahma cross is the cow’s tail this year.
And cuz, we have been running into a fluffy fat bear up on the farm near the old Smith cabin. I can’t figure out what he or she finds so interesting on that one hill there but it had better stay away from the baby calves and goats or it’s liable to get its butt filled with rock salt. ( Is that legal cuz?
You never know these days!) Isn’t there something in the law about a farmer protecting their livestock? I heard; don’t know if it’s true, that it’s against the law in Tennessee to kill any snake. Now if that’s so, then the state of Tennessee (which means the taxpayers who voted in these idiots) should have to pay all the hospital bills for folks, little children and farmers, who get bit by copperheads and rattle snakes.
Sorry Tennessee, but I’m going to kill things that can kill my grandkids and farm animals. You won’t be there to save them. Keep the good snakes that kill rats and mice, but not the ones who kill people and other good snakes.
God gave you a brain, USE IT! The snake in the garden (used by Satan) has brought death to billions and billions of people across the world for centuries. Adam should have strangled that snake instead of blaming his wife for his failure.
Instead of blaming God for “that woman“(he must have been kin to Bill Clinton), He gave him. God said he would put “enmity” that means- hatred, hostility, ill willbetween the woman and the snake.
So woman’s punishment for listening to that snake was the pain of childbirth, and she knew the snake would forever be about, biting her children’s heel, but one day her child would finally crush the serpents head!
So women out there, kill that bad snake and stomp on its head, for it brings death to your children. I pray cuz that I still have the freedom to write these words.
People are getting sick and tired of government over reach! They want to make the laws from their comfortable nice air-conditioned offices, while never once have to be out on a farm clearing rocks and brush off farmland while worrying about being bit by some deadly snake.
They’re not there walking a hot hay patch picking up hay bales and having to worry about being bitten on the ankle by a copperhead. They don’t have to worry about a massive hospital bill from a snakebite that would wipe out all the yearly profits (if there was any) from the farm. Lawmakers are worried more about snakes than their voters.
Then don’t even get me started about bringing back the bears just so the logs in the woods get ripped up! Bears are smarter than that, why rip up a log for a few grubs when you can go rip up people’s garbage and spread it all over town and down to the river!
People would get arrested for doing that, but not bears! People try to clean up trash and the trash pandas return to spread it about everywhere!
Of course, the people who brought the bears in don’t live here and don’t care (apparently) and they don’t clean up the trash or replace people’s freezers what get torn apart. They expect the people here who are mostly poor (average yearly income of a person living in Cleveland Virginia is less than $12,000) to buy expensive bear proof trashcans.
Tons of work hours are put in to clean up after these bears. And is the government going to pay for the folks freezers and their food that was stolen, that they worked so hard to put up, NO? Don’t hold your breath waiting for a check to arrive.
These bears pull folks freezers right off their back porches! And don’t say put them inside, them and your trash, some folks just don’t have the room and trash kept inside your house is a health hazard worse than the bears!
They apparently don’t care about all the grannies and grandpas, city workers, trash collectors that have to go out and clean up the trash spread all about their yards.
Well that’s my rant for this week cuz. Don’t even get me started on how we, the taxpayers paid for the kayak launch at Artrip and now they want folks to pay to use it! Just go the Cleveland site; you don’t have to pay there. Or just park on the other side of the river by the road and go down the hill. (Hope that’s not illegal)
Well cuz if you don’t hear from me for a while, just know I’m probably in the hay patch, watching out for copperheads, thankfully the tractor usually runs over them and kills them first! (Wonder if Tennessee is going to monitor tractors and arrest them?)
Until next week, hang in there and don’t let the crazy laws get you down!
RJ Kennedy
