Those of us who call this little valley home have a unique blessing in the form of Perry, our dentist. Yes, when we go to get the fangs fixed up at O’Dontall Dental, down in the old brick building near the office of the Valley Weekly Miracle, the grinding and scraping and numbing and lip [...]
Emily’s dilemma was obvious: how do you sell manure? Since she fell in love with Dewey Decker, she could think of nothing less than spending her life with him and embracing the fertilizer business whole hog, so to speak. Emily Stickles has never done anything halfway. In her job with the county, she has kept [...]
“I don’t know about all this, Honey,” Dewey said. “It sounds pretty complicated. The way it is now, I go shovel manure into my pickup, drive to someone’s garden, and … safely … use the dump bed of the truck to put it on the ground. I get paid by the feed lot to clean [...]
The Bahdziewicz clan trooped into the Mule Barn for lunch the other day, happily and noisily as only eight Americans totally in love with spring can do. The patriarch of the clan, Abraham Lincoln Bahdziewicz, led the way to a large round table and seated his wife, Sally, before pointing to which chairs the kids [...]
We were a bit perplexed … stunned, really … when we poured into the Mule Barn truck stop coffee shop at the crack of dawn and saw our fertilizer mogul, Dewey Decker, in earnest conversation at a booth with his girlfriend, Emily Stickles, and they had papers on the table wedged between the coffee cups [...]
Irma has it figured out. She’s a bona fide, egg-laying member of the “Production Red” hen sorority and she knows her rights. This is really remarkable when you consider the braincase of your average barnyard chicken is wedged between some feathers and those big expressionless eyes and has about the same capacity for rational thought [...]
We buried Marshall Sprack last Saturday, and we will miss him. Ol’ Marsh was the cheerful old-timer who could be seen each day walking his two tiny dogs around the neighborhood. He always had a smile and wave for everyone. He was a very private guy, however. We all knew him, but didn’t really know [...]
It occurred to me the other day just what a blessing it is to be a grandfather. The children think we’re all powerful, a fount of knowledge and wisdom. Then they turn three … We could all use coot lessons. Yes, the enigmatic old coot in every small town like ours has wisdom corralled, knowledge [...]
