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!

Hinds County News

March 2017

The older I get the more conscious I am of the fact, I will die at some point.  I am well past middle age now, unless I should live to be 144.  I am certainly not afraid of death. To quote my mother at age 92, “we cannot live forever just because our kids want us to, we are tired and want to go live with Jesus.”

Mind you, I am not wanting to go anytime soon, because I have BIG PLANS for the coming spring and summer.   But I am ready when ever my time comes.

I do not often dwell on my demise but, what got me contemplating it recently is this; I walk Emma Dog downtown Holdrege, Nebraska, I live one block from the courthouse and the down town area.  

 On the next block from my house is the Methodist Church
 across the street from the church is the court house. 

This is picture on up my street, West Avenue, from the Courthouse,

Miss Emma

The downtown area is about 5 blocks long and 3 blocks wide.  We enjoy strolling past the shops, window shopping, and seeing what is new and exciting going on downtown.

I walk her downtown because, when we walked around our residential area…we were unable to enjoy the walk, for dogs barking, from inside their homes and behind fences…early on over on Garfield street, I thought this big dog might come through the large picture window, ….he was jumping against the window…barking, growling and slobbering, he was so annoyed by our passing. I was not afraid of the dog particularly…but what if it had gotten through the window…was injured by the broken glass, I would have felt obligated to try and catch him.

  We had several incidents before, dogs climbing their fence to come out and smell Emma.  But the dog behind the picture window was what made me decide to begin exclusively taking our walks down town…where we seldom encounter another dog. 

I had come to believe my death might very well be the result of drugs….No! No! not illegal drugs! But some brand spanking new miracle drug, I would be given by a well-intentioned doctor, to treat some minor ailment….then find out from, from an attorney's  TV commercial, that the drug had horrifying side effects, sometimes even death.  (does it seem to you prescription drugs may be more deadly then street drugs?  Me too.)

coming up on corner of East Avenue and 4th Avenue

Well…. last week Emma and I were walking down town, beautiful day, we were waiting in the sunshine, for the light to turn green at the corner of East Avenue and 4^th Avenue, across from The Hotel Dale….the light turned green,  we stepped into 4^th avenue,  at the same time, waiting for the light to turn green was a car, as Emma and I began crossing the street, the car went to making a right hand turn, in to our path and was barely able to brake and get stopped before hitting us….I looked through the windshield at her, she was horrified, still had phone in hand, I felt a bit sorry for her….

Said all of that, to say this, it may not be a new miracle drug that kills me…. I may die in the middle of a street, from car crash wounds.

Love to all

"Mississippi on the Plains"

Come see me if you get this way

Hinds county news for march 2016

Written February 20, 2016
 at Mississippi on the plains, Holdrege Nebraska

 The Great Ground Hog Day Blizzard 2016

 Yesterday was a beautiful warm day here, the pups and I spent a good part of the day, on the front porch, watching the last of the snow melt from “The Great Ground Hog Day Blizzard 2016”.    The snow in this yard measured 23 inches on the flat, drifts along the fence and the side of the house were a good bit deeper. Watching snow melt is slightly more exciting than watching paint dry…and slightly less exciting than watching grass grow….That said,  any one of three activities can be extremely therapeutic.

I was rather surprised to learn blizzards are not as common as I thought…As a kid growing up in Nebraska I thought blizzards were a common. But for a big snow storm to be officially called a blizzard, there has to be large amounts of falling snow or blowing snow, and winds must exceed 35 miles an hour for at least three hours.

The weather people warned us it was going to “BIG”, I have in the past been rather skeptical of dire warnings from enthusiastic weather folks.  But after being caught by hurricane Katrina miserably unprepared.  I had no real money, no gas in anything I drove, not even the lawn mower. Thankfully John had a tank full of gas and money.  Money was not much use however, because the electricity was out over much of the state, so could not buy anything.   So anyway, I said all of that to say this; before the storm I went to ATM and got real money, (to pay someone to scoop the sidewalks for me).  I went to the grocery bought lots of canned goods and water, you all I was prepared.  even had batteries! And gas in my car!

So the blizzard begins, first thing snow drifts up on the back door to where I could not get it open.  So I was diligent keep snow from building up on the front door. Because I had to be able to get outside to measure snow and take pictures to post on Facebook.  Not everybody was excited about the blizzard, but for me, “The Great Ground Hog Day Blizzard 2016” was grand fun.

When it was finally over, it went on for two days, I looked out, the sun was shining bright, I thought to myself, “let me see if I can clear the sidewalk just to the front gate.”  So I got dressed in the recommended layers, my yoga pants, jeans, overalls, threes shirts and John’s hunting coat and gloves.  (I have yoga pants because my doctor urged me to take yoga to improve my balance and get limber.   Well, one look at myself in those yoga pants, I knew I would not be taking a class!

Then as an afterthought, before going out, I went to the computer, then to YouTube and watched several videos on how to scoop snow.  Even though I grew up in Nebraska, doubt I ever scooped any snow before…I had brothers so I feel sure that the snow scooping job fell to them. ( Heads up…if you do not want to be snickered at do not mention the fact to Mid westerners, that you went to the computer to learn how to scoop snow.)   So anyway, when snow is very deep you take it off in layers.  It worked beautifully! So well in fact I went on to scoop the sidewalk in front of the house, then on to free up the back door…. still going strong I scooped from back door to the back gate.  I was first on my block to get the sidewalk scooped! I was sooooo enormously proud of myself!

Picture taken from alley

Picture taken from back door

Swing area early on in the storm

Backdoor to gate

Miss Shelby loved the snow!

 Decided to stop and continue the next day, scooping from back gate, to the garage and alley.  Big Mistake! Still puffed up with pride…  I went to take trash to alley…there was no pathway,  I fell… as I was tumbling… I recalled the verse from Proverbs “Pride goeth before a fall”    I was not hurt, because the snow was so deep…in fact, deeper than my arms are long, so could not lever myself up.  You all I had to roll over to picnic table and grab on to it and pull myself up!  Remember that movie The Christmas story? When Ralphie’s mother bundled him up in that puffy snow suit, he fell and could not get up?  I know how he felt….

Then! I did not learn my lesson form the fall in the snow! Later in the week, I was in the grocery store! In the pickle isle! I Struck up a conversation with a sweet lady, about the blizzard!  Boasted to her about me scooping myself out at 71!   She gently informed me she shoveled her own snow too and she was 81!   When will I learn!?

Love to all

Come see if you get this way