Forgive and smile; it makes life more pleasant

That taste of summer we have been blessed with is about all I need. I love the green grass and all the wonders of the season but the heat is hard on me, Snip and Dog!

I wanted to call the weather man and order up some kind of polar express, but my close relative was rather rude and said I was being inordinately stupid. Took me a good while to find that word in Webster's.

I am surely enjoying this morning. I rode old Snip around the home pastures and checked the fences, the heifers and the old herd. The bulls were grazing peacefully and I hinted to them that the time of work was slowly creeping up. I am amazed at the flight of time. I saw my reflection in the window of the coffee emporium and thought it was my grandpappy.

The ride on a good horse in the cool morning air is as good as it gets for some of us old codgers. I sure do enjoy the time I spend in the company of Snip and Dog, especially looking at the cattle. Didn't find any problems and it is a good thing because the bank roll is about to dwindle into nothingness.

I knew we had to lime and fertilize some of the place this year and so we did. Bite the bullet and do it was my thought. Now my thought is that we made the Sheik of Arabia a richer man due to the price of the fertilizer, and the lime was almost as costly. What is a feller to do except just keep on keeping on?

The grocery bill is a little less than through the winter because I am eating home-grown tomatoes. My close relative is providing some tasty vittles from her garden and I am a grateful diner. We ate bacon and tomato sandwiches for lunch today. I ate two of them and finished with a bowl of fresh peach cobbler decorated with a couple scoops of ice cream. And that brings to mind another little item.

I sure hope I don't have to start raising hogs to get the pork we enjoy. I want you to know the pork producers are right proud of their piggies according to the price in the grocery store. I think I need bacon or sausage for the start of my day every sunup. I can eat light if necessary for the other two meals, but breakfast is the main fuel for the day and I want some pork along with the other stuff. Oatmeal is good if you have enough bacon to go along with it, and hot biscuits. Well, I know how to raise hogs, just don't want to.

It is my opinion, and everyone has one, kill off all the purple mint weed you can before they go to seed, dig thistles with a vengeance, keep your fences tight and your powder dry. Your neighbors are so easy to get along with if it is their old sorry bull in your pasture instead of your bull on their place! They appreciate your diligence of thistle extermination, so keep it up and look the other way when you pass their place. Forgive and smile; it makes life more pleasant.

Bill is the pen name used by the Gravette author of this weekly column. Opinions expressed are those of the author.