Possumhaw: When loss is a good thing

The telescope stands poised at the window, aimed at the deer feeder. At dawn and twilight a Bardwell can be seen standing with eye pressed to the scope, but on this morning I swung the scope toward the lake. A flock of geese had descended and there was Leah, the domestic duck, amongst them.

Possumhaw: Just do your best

“Can you take care of the chickens?” Carolyn asked. “It’s just overnight.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding. I don’t know anything about chickens.”

“All you have to do is put them in the chicken house. Open the door and they’ll go in.”

“But what if they don’t?” I asked.

“They will,” she explained. “Haven’t you ever heard ‘going to bed with the chickens?'”

Possumhaw: Can you imagine it?

Tonight you may be sitting in a bar or alone in a hotel room, you may be confined to a hospital bed or you may be kneeling at a Communion altar. You may be with family or only dreaming of a family far away, wherever you are right now the Christmas Eve story is for you.

Possumhaw: A brave Christmas story

Once at MUW I shared my fear with Professor David Smith that I was not brave. Looking up from his desk with horn-rimmed glasses on the tip of his nose and disheveled graying hair on his head he said, “Bravery is not bravado. It’s being afraid and doing it anyway.”

Possumhaw: Rest for the preacher man

The cabin was barely finished when the need arose. The preacher man was exhausted and full of sorrows. “Come to the quiet,” I offered.

Possumhaw: A mountain out of a molehill

Down by the Prairie ponds sits a tiny cabin. For the last few years it has been the receptacle of old lawn chairs, extra fishing poles, a boogie board, a torn fishing net, an assortment of tackle, a half-used bag of fish food and various and sundry items.

Possumhaw: Not worth a dam

I know I’m going to hear from the beaver lady, but if she could have seen Sam’s face, she would have understood. Six years ago

Possumhaw: Tucking it all in

Nighttime temperatures dropped into the 30s and the first day of frost is precariously close.

Possumhaw: The best Sunday ever

At 90 years old, Ms. Fannie declared, “This is my best day at church yet!”

‘Tis the season for homecomings and that Sunday was homecoming at Shaeffer’s Chapel. People who have never been to Shaeffer’s Chapel come to the reunion, but Ms. Fannie Gerhart has never been anywhere else.

Possumhaw: Fall weekends in the Prairie

Sam started his list of “honey-dos” and was soon dangling on the roof of the greenhouse. “Stay right there,” I hollered; I ran to the house, leaving him hanging.

Ask Rufus: Not your typical morning joe

There is an ornamental shrub often used in our region for landscaping that is much more than just another ornamental. Its name is Ilex vomitoria, but it is better known as Yaupon Holly.

Possumhaw: Why leaves change colors

Outside the window it was raining leaves. From the kitchen window the leaves of the black cherry tree looked red, but up close they were the colors of leaping flames, red, yellow and orange. I gathered leaves and returned to the kitchen.

Possumhaw: Season of spiders

Hanging between the cedar post and the gardenia bush is the web of a garden spider.

Possumhaw: Time to get checked

Last year Carole found out she had a mass. Carole is one of those people who does everything right. She eats right, exercises and gets annual mammograms. So when the doctor said he saw something suspicious, Carole wasn’t worried. If it was cancer it had to be small. Right?

Possumhaw: The woman and the snake

It was my strangest encounter with nature yet. I walked toward the greenhouse, rounding the compost pile. On the opposite side of the compost I saw about eight inches of a snake.

Possumhaw: It’s not about me

A friend showed me an email she received from her daughter. Her daughter is a full-time college student and has a full-time job at an attorney’s firm. The email said that the attorney had called the office workers together and said, “Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better and it is going to happen soon.”

Possumhaw: Waiting and watching …

Last night just as we sat down to eat Sam pointed and said, “Three deer just stepped out from the trees.”

Possumhaw: Bodock and horse apples

In the deep ditches beside the road are several large green balls. They look like bowling balls in a gutter lane of a bowling alley.

Possumhaw: Learning to see

Morning brought a cotton tail bunny. He didn’t stay long but hopped away into a thicket while, nearby, a green heron perched on the dock.

Possumhaw: Bye-bye, my wrens

Wrens have been flying in and out of the airplane plant, the airplane plant Nick Hairston gave me. It’s a “pass-along” plant, having belonged to Nick’s mother. I like the easy airplane plant because it makes me feel successful. I’ve made eight more plants from the mother plant.