Opinion

I learned something about skunks recently. I drove from my home to Bull Shoals Lake in North Arkansas last week, then up to Texas County and eventually back home to Lightnin’ Ridge here about 40 miles to the north of Springfield.

This week’s memory actually starts slightly before the 1960s and in Springfield, Missouri rather than Flippin. As I’ve mentioned previously, I was born during the years my family lived in Springfield and we moved back to Flippin when I was five years old.

The relationship between public notices and newspapers goes hand-in hand to protect and inform citizens about changes in their communities and inform them of government actions. Publishing legals in newspapers that are delivered to subscribers and available around cities in news racks makes important information readily available. There are some who would like to end that practice and lessen the likelihood that the public will be notified of important information.

A real-life naturalist is a man who has lived his life in the woods knows and sees and feels things that he knows the modern world will not understand Men who call themselves ‘Master Naturalists’ in this day and time are to be laughed at. There are lots of those. But real naturalists from an early time, like Muir and Miner and Burroughs, seem to be those who will never be again. They were taken seriously once, but not now. The ones I knew are either very old or dead. Henry David Thoreau once wrote “In wildness was the saving of mankind.” He was right!

I bought a Keurig coffee maker at the Walmart store in Houston, Mo in December and it quit working a little more than a month later. Got to where it wouldn’t make more than 2 ounces at a time. I took it back to the store in Houston, where I grew up, to ask if they would replace it. I was told I couldn’t get it replaced unless I had a receipt and the box it came in. Thank you and goodbye!

Hello, I hope this week finds everyone in good health and happy spirits. I can’t believe that January is gone, and we are going into February.

During very cold and vicious winter weather, wild creatures need much more food than they need during the mild stretches that we love to see. The acorns that were as thick as I have seen them in a long time, become scarce in February and March, so we are coming upon the lean time of the year, the bottleneck that wildlife species must pass through before the arrival of spring, when there is replenishment and abundance once again.