Rural Delivery
Essays on the Rural Experience
Contents
Chapter 1: Country Living
In the Morning – Born to be Rural – Eating Out ~ If You Live in the Country, Wave – 'Tis A Gift To Be Simple – The Tree Swing – Skipping Stones – Getting Out of Line – Country Hardball – Read the News Backwards – Sunday Drive -- New Neighbors – These Boots That Do The Talkin' – Who’s Whistling? – View From The Trees – Green Acres – Incidents in a Small Town – Ground Truthing Crop Circles ~ Fall Back~ The Practice of Country Politics ~ Rural America on 9/11 ~ A Fist Full of Memories ~ Riding The Ditches ~ This Year In History ~ Where Are You? ~ Out Walking ~ Listen ~ Harvest Moon Eclipse ~ Risk Assessment ~ Barn Dance ~ Silent Sentinel of Crop Protection –In the Quiet – If It's Thursday Night, It's Bullseyes – Winter Lights – Midwinter Delusions – All Lit Up — An Eclipse Of The Harvest Moon — Gone Fishing – Not Far Removed – Montana Mountain Men – A Winter's Sleep – Family Values
Chapter 2: Animals
Uninvited Guests – Stay at Home Geese – Perils of Life With Pets – Animal Talk – A Man and His Dog – Flown the Coop – Playing Ball – Canine Alter Ego – Bird Wars – Beware of Bambi – Strays – Night Life – As Good As We Get – Winter Visitors – Harnessing an Instinct – Rare Breeds – Down Home Country Music – Roadkill – Livestock Getaways – The Animals Within – A Wing and a Prayer – A Mouse in the House – Cow Tipping – Where Did Dogs Come From? – A Bite Most Deadly – Small Souls
Chapter 3: Weather
Windbreak — Midwinter’s Night Lights — Spring Forward — Passing Clouds -- Keeping a Tornado Watch -- In the Hailstreak – A Change in the Weather – Man in the Moon –The Dog Days of Summer – Signs of the Weather – Weather Modification – Lightning Strikes – Equinox – Some Summer Days – An End To Drought – How To Snow -- Cold Hardening – When The Sun Stands Still – Dark of Winter – What the Snow Reveals – A Chance of Showers – Rhymes With Weather ~ How the Mole Digs Its Hole ~ When Rabbits Are Fat
Chapter 4: Tools
In Praise of Older Trucks – Confessions of a Latter-Day Luddite – On the Block – Old Iron Disease – The Cast Iron Skillet – The Tools Of The Carpenter – Witching Water – What Logs to Burn – Pushing Progress – Good Fences, Bad Neighbors – Privy to Privies – For The Love of Tractors – Real Cowboy Hats – Solar Reflections – Hitched to History– Getting Down on the Electronic Farm ~ Scanning for News
Chapter 5: Growth
Spring’s Wild Blooms — From Waste To Wonderful —- No Mere Coincidence – Parasites – Give Eggs a Break – The Natural – The Northern Spy and Other Edible Antiques – Say It With Flowers – Know Your Oats – Yellow and Ripe with Autumn – An Herbal Renaissance — A Remembrance of Trees —The Gardener’s Redemption – Lilac Cues – Sacrificial Cells – Raspberry Rhapsody – Blossoms – Full Bloom – Harvest Song – Touching Discovery – Grandfather Seed – Sowing the Seeds of Tomorrow ~ December Exposure
Chapter 6: Self-Reliance
Rural Economics – My Own Stories – Campgrounds of the Dispossessed – Any Given Name – Sweet Spot– The World in Hattie's Jars – Following the Calf Path – Who’s Whistling? – Against All Odds – Hippie Hoedads – Sold On Country Auctions – Quondam Mechanics – Ascent of Man – Signs of Trouble – To Market, To Market – So God Made A Farmer – Rural Connectivity – A Place of Our Own – Folks – Christmas Letter – Country Doctor - October Leaves - Rural Survival in a New Economy – How to Make a Jack-o-Lantern – Marking Our Boundaries – The Stories We Tell – What To Do At 20 Below – Our Place — Paradise – When Cowgirls Rode the Broncs – Moving Away – A Carol's Tale – A Fruitful Year – The Purpose of the Porch – Home for the Holidays – Rural America on the Downside - Final Harvest
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