Indholdsfortegnelse for February - March 2017 i Country

The promise of spring gets me through the last weeks of winter. The amazing photos and stories in Country help, too. For instance, take a look at Ryan Jones’ story on page 38. His office is the open range of Montana. If his and the other stories in this issue inspire you, then you’ll want to check out Country Extra. It’s much like Country, with a little something more of the features you already love. Starting with Extra’s March issue, we’re giving you added heartfelt reader stories and amazing images from some of America’s best photographers. We’re also making a change you’ve been asking for—fewer ads! That means more uninterrupted pages of God’s Country and America the Beautiful. Plus, we’ve created content exclusively available in Extra and designed a new…

“My son, Reed, who is 21 months old, and his grandfather tap some sugar maple trees in northern New York, preparing for the upcoming season,” writes Natasha Brewer of Canton, New York. “I’m so happy that we can pass on to the next generation the family tradition of making maple sugar the old-fashioned way.” COUNTRY WISDOM: In real life and in fiction, revise the story if you want a better ending. CARE TO SHARE? Who are the heroes in your neck of the woods? Tell us all about them! Just send us a story and photo. Get more details on page 70.…

SEALED WITH A KISS “Brooklyn, my grandniece, loves all of the animals on her grandparents’ farm, but Skipper is her favorite,” says Lester Byrd of Centralia, Illinois. THREE ADORABLE KIDS “My granddaughter, Joie, was overjoyed to make friends with the newest babies on the farm, Mario and Luigi,” says Gail Holm of Athens, Georgia. PLAY OUTSIDE “Fresh air, a bucket of corn and a curious deer seemed way more entertaining than toys to my 16-month-old son, Hunter,” says Andrea Holloway of Casselberry, Florida. LEARNING TO SHARE “Our 3-year-old son, Caleb, is a natural with farm animals. He had our chicks eating out of his hand,” says Colleen Schwenger of Egg Harbor City, New Jersey.…

THIS BRILLIANT DOUBLE rainbow appeared over our 3-acre property after a spring storm. I have photographed storms for more than 30 years now, but this is by far the most intense rainbow I have seen. We counted three or four layers of violet and purple. The red barn is actually my mother-in-law’s house. We had it built for Ola in 2015 so that it looks like a barn. When she moved to Arkansas with us, one of the first things on our to-do list was to take Ola to the town of Ola. We spent the day there exploring and taking as many photos that we could find with the name “Ola” in it for Mom. We had a fun time together as a family that day. We are blessed…

I think it all started when I was staying at my mom’s house in North Carolina. A tiny white lilac shrub bloomed along the grassy space separating Mom’s driveway from her neighbor’s. I remember seeing that shrub and realizing just how long it had been since I last saw one. I walked over to it and breathed deeply. A hidden longing came over me. As a youngster growing up in New York, I knew two lilacs. One grew right outside our house; it was a mixture of purple and white branches. I’m told Dad had planted one of each, and they had grown intertwined over the years. The other was more maroon-colored, growing next to an old house that was falling down beside the barn where we milked cows. Isn’t…

It was huge, made of heavy, thick, dark oak. The seat was covered with some ratty ripped fabric over rusty broken springs. The seemingly inaccessible loft in our barn held many treasures. A metal bed frame, old pots, dusty barrels and baskets, all sorts of good junk that three sisters between 6 and 10 years old could play with. But my sisters and I puzzled over how to get up there, until one morning, climbing the big open stairs to the haymow, I figured it out. I climbed onto the top of a heavy door next to the stairs, balanced on top, and swung into the loft. Janice and Debbie followed my lead. We discovered the loft’s treasures were covered with pigeon droppings and dust. But the greatest find of…

Mechanical Kid When my grandson, Jimmy, was 4 or 5, we asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. “I want to be a machine,” he said without hesitation. When we asked him why, he explained, “Well, you can replace the parts in a machine when they wear out.” Mary Jane Haley KITTRELL, NORTH CAROLINA Rejected Recipe We were sitting at the table for a meal and my wife and sister were discussing recipes. When a dump cake was suggested, my 4-year-old daughter, Hannah, announced, “Yuck! That has trash in it!” Gary Wiebel ARVADA, COLORADO Birthday Surprise My granddaughter was discussing the expected arrival of a new brother for her 4-year-old son, Matthew. She told Matthew that you can’t predict the exact date of birth. “You were…

When my older sister Judy was in college, a nice young man named Leonard invited her on a date to a dinner theater. Judy was smitten with Leonard and spent a long time searching her closet for the perfect outfit to wear on Saturday evening. She finally decided on a red dress and held it up for my approval. “Do you think Leonard will like it if I wear this?” she asked. “Of course, Judy,” I assured my sister. “You’ll look very pretty on your date night.” On Friday evening, our family was just sitting down to dinner when the doorbell rang. “I can’t imagine who that would be,” our father said as he got up from the table to find out. A minute later, he asked Judy to come…

Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, spent his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River, where he became familiar with the riverboat passengers and crews. While growing up, he rode on rafts and hid in a nearby cave. His pen name comes from river lingo meaning two fathoms (or 12 feet) deep, a depth that generally indicates safe passage for riverboats. Twain’s childhood home, which is now open to the public for tours, is a charming two-story cottage with shuttered windows. The white garden fence along its side yard was likely a source of inspiration for the character Tom Sawyer conniving to have his friends whitewash the fence boards for him. Across from the Clemens place is the former home of Twain’s childhood friend Laura,…

Chocolate Lovers’ Strawberry Shortcakes PREP: 20 min. • BAKE: 15 min. • YIELD: 8 shortcakes 1/ 4 cup confectioners’ sugar 1 tablespoon baking cocoa 1 tube (16.3 ounces) large refrigerated buttermilk biscuits 2 cups sliced fresh strawberries or frozen sliced strawberries, thawed and drained 1 tablespoon sugar 1 cup heavy whipping cream 2 tablespoons baking cocoa 1/ 3 cup confectioners’ sugar Hot fudge ice cream topping, warmed DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat oven to 350°. In a shallow bowl, mix confectioners’ sugar and cocoa until blended. Dip biscuits in cocoa mixture to coat; shake off excess. 2. Place biscuits 2 in. apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool slightly. 3. In a small bowl, toss berries…

Spring fever. Only your kids have it, right? If you long to garden in March, consider planting herbs that love cool weather, such as parsley, cilantro, chives, dill or chervil. About a week before the last frost, plant them in good soil, in a spot where they’ll get full or partial sun. Cover them with a clear sheet of plastic to encourage fast-track seed germination. They’ll need good drainage, too. If you can’t get into the garden just yet, start the seeds in pots and then transplant them to a frost-free outdoor garden soon after they germinate. Either way, you’ll cure that case of spring fever. When the frost returns in fall, be sure you have enough dried herbs to last through the winter. Dried herbs retain their taste longer…

Sometimes you’ve got to deal with the elements, and that can get real tough here in eastern Montana. It’s day in and day out—somebody’s got to go feed the cattle and check on the water during winter. You’ve got to be committed to this way of life. My family and I have worked this piece of land south of Miles City for more than four decades. The Jones Family Ranch kind of borders the Tongue River. For the most part, this country is open and fairly rough. It’s more like the Badlands of South Dakota than the Rocky Mountains of western Montana. When the sun comes out, you see lots of colors in the heavy clay soil—whites, browns and purples. I’d never noticed the colors until my mother-in-law, who is…

Weaving hammocks is an art that takes a sharp eye, a skilled hand and lots of patience. But in Lenwood Haddock’s case, being blind works to his advantage. His trained, sensitive hands are acutely aware of every step of the intricate process. Since beginning his craft in 1986, Lenwood has woven about 145,000 perfect hammocks. Now 61, Lenwood lost his sight in 1973, at age 18, during a hunting accident. “My whole working career has been blind,” he says. He first found a job as a woodworker, but when that organization closed, the North Carolina Division of Services for the Blind connected him with Hatteras Hammocks. On his first day of work, “I did a total of one hammock,” Lenwood recalls, laughing. “And then I came home and laid on…

I first saw the Miraculous Staircase in 1963. I was on my way to California and stopped in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the Loretto Chapel, where the staircase stands. The spiral staircase features 33 steps built into two complete 360-degree turns to the top. The steps are so perfectly balanced. On my visit I couldn’t see any visible means of support or a single nail holding them together—only dowels. The handrails reach down from the choir loft in two unbroken lengths of finely turned and highly polished wood. The construction of the chapel took about five years. For some reason, the builders left the staircase up to the choir loft for last. By then, the Sisters of Loretto had run out of funds, and the architect was physically unable…

My mother was a quiet, beautiful woman who loved God more than anything. She taught us about love, kindness, giving to others and sharing. All 12 of us kids attended the little Methodist church down the road every time its doors were open. When I was 13, my sister took me in to live with her and her husband. She told me that I didn’t have to go to church anymore, and at the time I thought that was great. Not many months had passed, however, before I knew in my heart I needed to go to church. So I asked my friend Janice if I could go with her family. She said yes, and I started attending Highview Baptist in 1951. About a year went by. My Sunday school…

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For two weeks, we searched with no luck. We finally resigned ourselves to the fact that we weren’t going to find them. One Sunday morning, when I came in from milking the cows, my wife, Donna, was searching for something all over the house. “What are you looking for?” I asked her. Frustrated, she replied, “I can’t find my keys anywhere.” I helped her look for a while, and eventually the rest of the family joined in, but it was all to no avail. Donna had to be at church early, so I loaned her a car key from my set and kept the rest so I could drive over to church later. When we returned from church, the whole family searched again, but we still couldn’t find her keys.…