A Small Fetish

I have a fascination with buttons. Buttons in a jar. Just love 'em. Don't know why. I'm not much of a collecting type person (although you might think my real fetish was for dust if you saw my house), but if I were, I would have row upon row of shelves filled with buttons in mason jars.

I found a small cache this morning in an old sewing basket. It's funny what gets mixed in with button collections. Other button sized things. A bullet. An old token. Jetsam and flotsam.

I've collected other things for no good reason. Egg shells. Paper trash. These were recycling projects gone awry, actually. I don't know how to recycle without becoming a hoarder.

I am ashamed of my little collecting manias. Then, of course, I see someone on television or in the paper who went whole hog on their toothpick or eraser collection, and now it's worth millions.

Just think, I could have a fortune in eggshells, if only I would have persevered.

Big Fire

- Owens Compound -

Some friends of mine happened to live in the middle of the 2500+ acre fire that was in Fisher County this week. The fire burned right up to the foundation of one of the houses.

Word is that the county commissioners lifted the burn ban on Monday and a rural resident burning trash let the fire get out of control. The fire flared back up on Tuesday and ran a course which included jumping SH 70 just north of the Palava bridge.

Tuesday night I could see the rolling smoke from here at Hobbs and could see orange glowing light from the flames once the sun had set.

I was at the fire location on Wednesday, and the Parks and Wildlife plane was circling overhead while a big yellow helicopter with a hose hanging from the bottom came out, sucked up water from a stock tank and dumped it on flaring hotspots.

The worst damage was the loss of fencing and firewood.

You can read more about the fire on Big Country Home Page.

Barn Razing

- Templeton barn demolished -

The big ol' chicken house has bit the dust. Anyone who has been by my place out here at Hobbs knows the long, rambling barn where my grandpa had an egg laying operation, and later on, my dad and uncle had a hog outfit. My grandma used to say "Let's go down to the farrowing barn" but I thought she was saying fire barn, so I always imagined it being full of flames.

I was a little weepy when I saw it being torn down. It's been there my whole life and I've spent a lot of time in the barn. I was flogged by a hen in there when I was three, I spent the night in there with my grandma and uncle one cold night when we had to keep a close eye on the pigs, and my and my grandma's names were written in the cement in 1966, when the concrete was poured.

Now that it's gone, though, I see that it had out-stood it's time. I was unaware of what an eyesore it was, and it's refreshing to see the trees that were behind. It had also become unsafe, with one side drooping, pulling the other side toward it. I can't wait to see the property once spring comes.

Joe Duncan, my Norway connection via Roscoe, has been telling me about the Arrowheadology website. You can go on the site and talk about your experiences and share pictures with other arrowhead enthusiasts. Joe has posted his own very old Paleo-Indian find under Gallery. It's estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 years old. He found it north of Roscoe, near Cottonwood Creek.

Ricky Niell sent me a link to a page on his website Razzle Dazzle Art, which is a tribute to beloved Rotan citizen Norma Gibson, who recently died. Should you be in Rotan, be sure to go into the Thriftway grocery store and see how she used her talent to capture the essence of Fisher County in large murals that are displayed along the inside perimeter of the store.