It's been an unusual year, as usual!

I have often heard Arkansas people remark about the Arkansas weather, that if you don't like the weather today, just wait 'til tomorrow, and it'll be different. I have often said that in Arkansas, we seem never to have normal weather, just unusual or weird weather. I thought earlier in the year, in the Spring and early Summer, that rather than very changeable weather, we were having unusually wet weather, and consistently so. Even in August this year the lush lawn grass was growing and growing and needing mowing every week or 10 days. I remember that in so many years past August has been a brown month, and Otter Creek, which runs through our farm, would go dry during much of August. I came to expect the fall rains to start in September or October. This year, after the wet Spring and early Summer, we had a drought in September and October. It's been an unusual year; but to have an unusual year is not unusual in Arkansas!

Apparently, this year, as unusual as it has been, has not been a bad year for our area farmers. The cattle have prospered, the prices at the stockyards are strong, the pastures have held up through the seasons, and I think most farmers have had a good hay crop this year. The moisture early in the season meant that farmers could get several cuttings of hay. One of my farmer friends said he had put up all the hay he thought he could use, and had turned to bush hogging his hay fields rather than baling any more hay this year.

Speaking of cows, I saw a right curious thing yesterday with the cows and calves on our farm. Our daughter is building a new house there on the farm and yesterday John Nichols was digging the trench to bring water lines to the house. I think the whole herd of cows and calves were lined up along the trench to watch him work. They are curious creatures. I guess they were checking to see if he was doing it right, or maybe they were just curious about the ditch and freshly stirred soil that had suddenly showed up across their paths. They were sniffing at the upturned red dirt, and seemed to be impressed with its aroma as they discussed it among themselves. Even the little ones had to get a look for themselves and to poke their noses into the fresh piles of dirt. I'm not sure John was enjoying his audience. I'll have to ask him when I see him at the Blackhawk Grill.

One of the things I used to notice about farmers when I was growing up was that when they meet up with one another, they'll first ask, "How're ye doin'?" Next, they'll say something like "Do you think it'll ever rain?" And the answer will go like, "Well, don't know -- sure ain't seen much lately have we?" They might get in just a tad of gossip, too, (eventually), but the weather is the first thing that gets talked over! Cattle prices will also get a good goin' over, especially if they're low. My Dad used to say, speaking of his cattle, "I'm thinkin' I might need to get a less expensive hobby!" But he never did get another hobby to take the place of his cattle. He was a farmer and a cattleman. He enjoyed taking care of his cows and calves, even during the years when they were kind of more expense than income, and he kept at it until he was 90 years old.

I didn't get a garden put in this year, but my daughter has had a good garden on the farm. Even here in late October, her flowers and tomatoes and green peppers and banana peppers are still growing. Her cantaloupes have yielded a bumper crop, more than we all could eat and give away, but they are about done for the year now. We have also had a humongous crop of sticker weeds.

I notice that even the fall drought hasn't affected the fall colors too much. I am enjoying the reds of the maples and of the sumac bushes along the fence rows. I think it's curious how the sassafras tree leaves make their change. It seems that the outer leaves start turning yellow and red and shades of brown, while the inner leaves stay green longer. It makes for an interesting combination.

Have you noticed the poor walnut trees and pecans and hickories? The bag worms must love walnut trees, and this year there must be at least 40 jillion bag worms out there. Many of the walnut trees don't have a single leaf left, the bag worms have chomped them all. Lot's of people are asking why there are so many bag worms this year? Some say it is because we had a mild winter last year, and whole passels of the worms survived to eat the scrumptious leaves this fall. The poor trees look dead after the bag worms eat all the leaves, but I'm hearing the experts reassure us that most of the trees were pretty much done with the work of their leaves for the year, and that most should come back strong next year. Some people are asking what does it indicate, that we have all these bag worms? Does it mean a bad winter ahead? I used to hear that the big black woolly worms were a sign of a bad winter coming, but the bag worms aren't all that woolly!

I think I'll just wait and see if we have a bad winter. The bag worms may not know! Do spoons in the persimmons indicate a bad winter coming?

•••

Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.