Planting Cotton and building "Eudora" The Joggling board. At my Nebraska home "Mississippi on the Plains"

Hinds County News

June 2017

Me in my brand new bibs!  my Spring gardening uniform

I, Gloria Christiansen, living at my home, “Mississippi On the Plains” in Holdrege Nebraska, soon will be a cotton grower!  Yes, I will!!!  Of course, my planting of cotton will not be of the magnitude of lets say, a Mississippi Delta plantation or of a Gaddis Farms in Hinds county…. doubt you would even describe mine as patch of cotton…I am suspecting my cotton growing will be more in the manner of a large galvanized tub from the farm store in size.

Y’all, at Garden Club Monday evening (April 17), our speaker was a Nebraska Master Gardener, toward the end of the meeting he held up beautiful fluffy boll of cotton, he vowed and declared he grew it right here in Holdrege.  Well, you know I light up like a Christmas tree! I was so excited!  I had to know where I could get seed.   lo and behold he had cotton seed with him and he gave me a package!   Now it is just a matter of waiting for the ground temperatures to come up to between 65 and 70 degrees.  Wish me luck! Because I do not even live on the south side of town.

 There is not a cotton gin close by….so to get my cotton ginned, I may have to box it up, send it priority mail, to the Gaddis McLaurin Hardware store, Main Street, Bolton, Mississippi, and ask Joyce if she would mind stepping it across to the Bolton Gin.

"Eudora"
The Joggling Board

I told you last month I had lumber delivered so I could construct a Joggling Board, like the one Eudora Welty mentioned in her book “The Delta Wedding”.   It is finished!  And It is Grand addition to the back yard! Some of those who have seen my joggling board, have speculated it is perhaps the only one in Phelps County…. Maybe even the whole state of Nebraska!    Wouldn’t that be wonderful!   I have never been first at anything…ever. 

“The Delta Wedding” Joggling Board and the tub of cotton will be the focal point of my Mississippi Garden.  In addition, to the Joggling board and cotton there will be okra and collard greens.

Love to all,

 stop by if you get this way!

The Swing project

  There was a time a three year old boy was my best friend

With much help from our friends, Whit and my swing project is complete! We wrapped it up Friday.  But not, without, over the course of the project, innumerable trips to Gaddis McLaurin and to Doug Turner’s wood scrap pile. 

 The place in the yard,  Whit always heads to when I open the back gate is the front yard, to the left of the house, under the pecan trees, so that is where we placed the swing frame. ….it is made from five, 8 foot, 4X4 posts, Doug and Kay came and helped set the swing up, it is a good thing they came.  I had a picture of the swing from a web page selling the plans to build it.  I did not want to pay the $12 for the plans, so constructed it from the picture.  Well when we got it set up…It looked just like the picture!  Yes it did!  But there was just one little thing…it would not stand on its own, it wanted to fold.

  Kay and I had to hold it up while Doug scrambled around and found some lumber to make temporary braces. After much measuring…Doug wanted it to be square…Kay and I didn’t care so much about square…we just wanted to be able to let go.  But way on after while… Doug got it like he wanted and nailed in the temporary supports and it held on his own! 

 Then Doug went to his shop and cut permanent braces, when I went to pick them up he gave me very careful and detailed instructions on how to attach them. I hope it suits him….he has not been by yet for final inspection of the braces and ropes.

I wanted a porch swing to place in newly constructed frame; because the intended purpose of the build was a comfortable relaxing place for me to sit while watching Whit play.  So I went swing shopping… but did not find a swing like I wanted, in the short time I had to look. (I did learn one thing though while out looking for a swing…I could have bought a swing set for what this one cost.  That is… if ever all things were taken in to account…gas alone back and forth to Bolton would figure to be a substantial outlay.)

So anyway, Friday Whit was coming back and I knew he would be expecting something to be happening with the project. Bless Whit’s heart, he worked hard on that swing frame, he learned real fast how screw in the lag bolts with the ratchet wrench, I think he liked the sound it makes.  And he can use the drill to make the pilot holes for the bolts…But I do have to hold up the back of the drill… that battery is heavy.

Doug Turner inspecting our build

So anyway, not wanting to disappoint Whit, I wondered “What to do? What to do?” You all, I felt like a genius when the solution finally came to me!   An old time rope and board swing! We went old school! John was a bit of a rope aficionado, so had plenty of rope in the shop and there was a board in my very own scrap pile just the right length. 

Whit calling himself tying a knot

Whit enjoys the old timey board swing so much….I may never get another swing….Until he grows up….which will be way to soon, Whit will be three years old next month.

  While working on this project with Whit… I came to believe my children were no doubt  just as smart and clever at three years old… as my grand children were and Whit is, if I had had taken the time and had patience with them…. as I have had with the Grands and Whit. 

Love to all

Call if you need me

 Christiansen Comments
First Published in
Hinds County Gazette April 18 2013

Christiansen's Comments, Hinds county Gazette April 7 2011

I stay in trouble.


Whit…remember Whit? The little 8 month old boy that I take care of sometimes. Now I am being scolded because of the way I am feeding him. No! No! not by his mother Angie. Whit’s mommy is very laid back and easy going. Whit doesn’t come with a lot of instructions…no rules about nap times etc. And Jacqueline did warn Angie that free baby sitting does not come with out a price. Spoilage Mostly. So Angie leaves Whit and I alone to do pretty much as we please.



It was daughter Angela, who was questioning what I was letting Whit eat “Mother you are not feeding Whit food that his mommy doesn’t know about are you?” That was her reaction to Whit’s first out of the norm culinary venture at my house…..I believe it was when I told her I let him taste the icing when he and I were making valentine cookies for his grandmother Kay Kay. When Angela begins a sentence with “Mother” I know I am in trouble. I don’t even try to defend myself…. I just listen. ….

Whit making cookies for Kay Kay

I do tell Angie what I feed Whit…but often it is after the fact….because we don’t always know what we might be having for our lunch that day. I do not give Whit the foods that can cause dangerous allergic reactions…chocolate, peanut butter, eggs, strawberries all such as that.



Whit weaned himself from the bottle two or three weeks ago. Well, the other day, Whit was kind of fussy…he was sleepy….but would not close his eyes….I filled a bottle with sweet tea…he took the bottle as I rocked him to sleep. Well, apparently you are not suppose to let babies have sweet tea….Did you know that? I was quite surprised….and even more surprised to find out everybody seem to know it but me.



Told you all that to say this…I am trying very hard to do better….Have you been to the baby food isle? My word there is a lot of baby food out there…Whit is coming tomorrow…we are having a baked sweet potato, from a real potato, and plums from the baby food isle, and yogurt for lunch….for our afternoon treat we will be having watermelon….one of those little seedless ones.



Whit and I have been getting out and about more now that Spring is here….first outing was to H&M to see Ms. Becky. While we were out we took a stroll over the Railroad bridge, and back down Main Street.



Last week we went to Bolton to the Hardware Store, to get keys made and see Jack, the Hardware Cat. Whit got to watch Joe make a key. ….Whit was fascinated with the key making process… Then we crossed the street to the library and visited with the librarian Alfenette Robinson. Alfenette wanted me to tell everybody in Edwards “Hello” She use to be the librarian over here.

Whit and Joe at the Hardware store In Bolton Mississippi

By the way, The snake man will be at the library this summer…Whit and I are going!

Love to all

Hinds County Gazette, Christiansen's Comments

Charles Rather Alderman at large


Gaddis McLaurin Hardware Store
Bolton Mississippi



Jack the Hardware Cat

It is calm around Edwards. The heat and humidity are on the rise, so life here in mid Mississippi has changed, it is still proceeding, but the tempo is a bit slower…and the rains have stopped. The rains stopping that is disquieting.

We do have new aldermen, Charles Rather, is our alderman at large, Leon Goldsberry won the race in ward 3 and Marty Green will be taking the seat for ward 2.

Our Mayor RL Perkins, will be serving another term, as will Ira L Thompson and Wilson Larry Jones, aldermen wards 1 and 4, all were unopposed. I understand the swearing in ceremony for the board will be Monday July 6.

Thank you, all of you who ran, I am grateful there are those who are willing give up their time and sanity in the effort to make our town, Edwards, Mississippi a quality place to live.

Last week, I was in the Gaddis McLaurin… the day Jack, the hardware cat, was having to get his flea medicine on his back….it was quite a show, Joyce was slipping around trying to keep Jack from knowing what was fixing to happen…there were a couple of false starts…Joyce had a bit of trouble getting the container open, then she had to go back and read the directions one more time. Of course us on lookers were captivated by the drama, causing us to be very quiet…Jack not being a stupid cat, he knew something was up, when it went to silence at the Gaddis McLaurin…If there are folks in the store, it is not quiet at the Gaddis McLaurin….

Jack was laying in his drawer, but when he became suspicious, he got up, turned around , sat down and looked straight at Joyce, and calm as anything, watched Joyce fumbling and bumbling with that tube of medicine.

Nettie shook a few cat treats on to the counter…in an attempt to distract Jack. It worked he turned around and commenced to eating….when Joyce finally got it all together, she came over to the drawer, put the medicine between Jacks shoulder blades….Jack did not care…granted he was momentary preoccupied by the treats…but he really did not seem to give a hoot. My cats after they get their meds…they scatter, and any bits and pieces in their way get tossed Up, Down, East and west….leaving a path of fallen and up tipped objects in their wake, and I don’t see the cats again until they get hungry…Real hungry….My cats hold a grudge. Jack just kept on eating.

Saturday, I was back at the Gaddis and the folks standing around the west counter were studying on growing pineapples…wondering if when you cut that green top off , if you set it down in dirt would it root? I wasn’t there when the discussion began, apparently it had been going on awhile…they had computer print outs of pineapple plants spread out in front of them…I really didn’t get the feeling anybody was going to go home and try it….I don’t know what it was all about…Maybe just keeping a conversation going …allowing them to stay out of the heat a bit longer.

I gotta go now….I was in the Gaddis buying stuff to work on my back porch…caulk and a caulk gun. well….I have caulk strung all over the back yard and on the back steps…I tried to wipe it off the steps…I just smeared it and made it worse…so I am going out now, to see if can I cover the smears with potted plants…like in those beautiful photographs of places in Italy….…..we’ll see.

Call if you need me

I am always conflicted when it comes to praying for rain….Just because I want rain…doesn’t mean that everybody needs rain…I commence to wonder…. is there some old person with a hole in the roof and the repair man can’t get there right now?…or a single mother who has to wait until her next paycheck to her roof fixed? A farmer trying to get a crop in the bin. Or a job, a project that would be ruined by rain?Prayer is a duty and obligation and a privilege and a great comfort…..but still not without it’s struggles. Not that God would do what I asked…. Against His will or the prayers of others…but he might want me to be more mindful of the consequences, if he did answer every one of my long list of whinny prayers ……