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.

Possumhaw: Ants in the Prairie

Across the back porch scooted a carpenter ant. You have to wonder how they navigate because they stop, turn left, turn right, back up and then file forward again. Carpenter ants are plentiful right now. Sometimes, if I’m feeling so inclined, I get up and step on them. From the road I look like I’m doing the porch Watusi.

Possumhaw: Down at the farmers’ market

If there’s anything I hate to kill it’s time, but there I was, tooling around waiting for the farmers’ market to open so I could buy some of those “sweet-tasting, ugly cantaloupes” advertised by Black Creek Farms.

Possumhaw: Where is the Prairie?

A few times I’ve been asked where the Prairie is, so I’ll share how I found out and how you can find out for yourself.

Possumhaw: Living off the grid

You’ve probably been waiting to see what the Lehman’s Non-Electric catalog, mentioned in my last column, has to offer.

Possumhaw: Seeking the simple life

Picking up the phone, I dialed the 800 number. I knew, even as I did it, I was headed down that slippery slope.

Possumhaw: The loss of a pet

You know, mommas are always the ones to do all the work for the pets and you always wonder why they don’t want any, or any more, pets.

Possumhaw: Bass fishing reveries

I pointed my fishing pole toward Sam. “Look!”

As we faced each other in the fishing boat, he quickly looked behind him. “What?”

“My pole!” There between us was my new fishing pole with a good two feet dangling off the end.

“You scared me,” he said, “I thought you saw a snake or an alligator. We’ll go back and get your old one.”

Possumhaw: Sierra Club tote bag

“Do you think they kill cows just for the leather?” “I don’t think so. Maybe they used to like in pioneer times,” my walking buddy

Possumhaw: In praise of homegrown tomatoes

Picking up one tomato, I slid the blade of the Pampered Chef knife easily across its rosy skin. The tomato yielded four thick slices. The tomato plants in the greenhouse are producing an ice cream-bucket full every other day.

Possumhaw: Back in business

Shoving the can of “whitefish pate” into the trap, I closed the door. Sam came outside, “You’re not going to use a whole can are you?”

“Yes, I am,” I answered, “I want to be sure to get him.”

I was trapping again; this time a feral cat. I can’t even count the number of feral cats that have shown up at the Prairie house. I’m thinking it’s because of our regular feeding habit. At the Bardwell’s, the cats and everybody else get a regular feeding, including snacks.

Possumhaw: Ducks on the pond

“Can you take the ducks in?”

“Well, what are neighbors for if they can’t take the ducks in?”

Possumhaw: Birds and their feathers

There’s no mistaking the indigo bunting, his sleek small body and that screaming teal color.

Possumhaw: The grab bag family

You don’t get to choose your children. You can choose to have them or adopt them, but you don’t get to choose who they are.