A New Year a Coming

As The World Turns
As everyone knows, or should, we mark time by the turning of Earth on its axis. It helps that we have four seasons. Man above all creatures; have since the beginning of time began making their days and the seasons and so history was born.
And now it is time to draw the last mark for 2009 and history will reveal much strife around the world, but look close and you will find that humanity still prevails and although it may seem fragile there is enough morals left, kindness, compassion and true faith that is held tightly by many people. We celebrate the New Year with much fanfare and rightly so, but I feel sorry for those who awaken with a horrible hangover for they will never truly appreciate that wonderful first day of a new year. I wish all a very great and happy New Year. Adios

A Christmas Greeting

Simply Christmas
There have many a Christmas day since I was born and I look back on them and always find a pleasant memory. Christmas day for many years was to awaken with anticipation of what I would find under the tree, although I knew it would not be much. Christmas day was a time to hurry along with the chores and return to the house to savor the aroma of Turkey or chicken in the oven, molasses cake, biscuits and fruit pies. Later around diner time, (lunch) company would arrive, Uncles aunts, Grandmother Carrie and Lula and cousins, some bearing gifts that were very inexpensive, compared today. Nuts, dried fruits and berries and homemade candy were set out with orders not to be greedy.

To put Christmas in perspective the days before Christmas were also very important. I always delighted in accompanying Mother out into the woods to find that perfect tree and then with painstaking care begin the trimming process. There were very few store bought decorations, most were hand made, but that didn’t matter, for we didn’t know any better. Christmas Eve was a time to attend Liberty church and enjoy a simple biblical play relating to the birth of Christ. Afterward a small brown paper sack was handed out to each child containing an apple and a handful of hard candy. It was a time to reflect on the Christ Child. Little was said of Santa; however he was something most children loved to hear about.

It was unheard of to receive a bad gift and of course no exchange was even thought of. Clothing was very important, or perhaps a pocket knife or a small colloid toy. Now all of this may seem humdrum to some people, but that’s alright. Christmas was for me a very special day and still is. Simply Christmas was without the Hullabaloo that seems prevalent today with flashing lights, loud noises and huskers trying desperately to take as much money from us as they can.
Christmas is not about you or me, but a child that became a savior who brought hope to man and paid a dreadful price for that. The spirit of Christmas is a gift to mankind and should not be lost or misplaced. A very Merry Christmas to all. Adios

As Time Goes By

Hey Pilgrim, It's Great To Look Back

A Fragment Of The Infamous Berlin Wall That Is Now Scattered To The Four Corners of Earth

An Ancient Niagua River Fossel Stone Found Within The River Basin, Left there When Sea Water Receded From The Ozarks, Many Millions Of Years Ago.

From An Ancient Sea bed In Western U.S., Many Millions Of years Ago

It Looks As If Time Has left Alf Behind, But He is still Waiting

As Time Goes By

Completed Cabin

Me preparing to fry some eggs in front of cabin near completion

Dousinberry Creek, a Painting of Mine

A Cabin on the Dousinberry
Approximately 60 years ago Jessie, (childhood friend) and I decided to construct a log cabin. It would not be n easy task of this we were certain, for many of the logs, (or poles) would have to be felled below the bluff and carried up to the site. We began in early spring, armed with a double bit axe each and the slow daunting mission began. We possessed little knowledge on how to raise such a structure, but like men before us we were determined to build the cabin. After several days of felling and cutting them to desired length the arduous journey up the bluff began. Each of us with a log balanced on one shoulder and staggering under the weight we carried them to the site. Mind you we had our chores and other farm duties and often many days would pass before we could work again on the cabin. Neither of us ever became discouraged and worked diligently for the time when the building was completed.

When at last we had enough logs cut and carried up the bluff we began preparing the spot where the cabin would stand, about ten feet from the edge of the bluff. We dug away all the soil down to bare rock and after trial and error of placing the foundation logs on the stone floor, squaring them as best we could and then we stood back, more confidant than ever we would complete the project.

The days of spring merged into summer and ever so slowly the cabin took shape and by mid summer it was near completion. Unbeknownst to my mother I snuck an old wood burning stove out of the well house and took it to the cabin. The stove had belonged to her father. (Years later it was stolen from the cabin). Jessie and I constructed bunk beds from cedar poles and a table and a chair from the same material. The door was made from scrap lumber and the roof from rusty tin roofing.

The cabin was a beautiful sight to behold, setting on the edge of the bluff and offered a spectacular view of the Dousinberry creek. It was a place of solitude where we could stay and cook an iron skillet of eggs, bacon and potatoes. It was a place where raccoons came often in the night in search of food. Other humans we learned also came to admire the building and enjoy the view.

The cabin that Jessie and I built stood for several years, long after we were grown and more or less abandoned our building. After father passed away and the farm was sold, I returned one day to find that the cabin had been bulldozed to the ground. Adios.

As Time goes By

One of My early Woodcarvings, The Sentry, Still Overlooking My Garden

One of My Early Paintings, An Ozark Barn Scene

As Time goes By

Howdy

The Road That Led Me Away From My Childhood

Thirty dollars would have bought this Joslyn saddle new in 1898.

Heidi and Me, our Journey Continues

A Beautiful Heidi Jade

Enjoying the Sun

Heidi Stalking a Grass Hopper

Heidi Waiting for a Walk

Beautiful Heidi
Last night Heidi got her first dose of winter. She remained outside until 9 p.m. but was ready to go to her cabin. After we ate our peanut butter mini sandwiches, she yawned and laid down on her bed, curled up and went to sleep. I covered her up from head to toe and she snuggled deeper into the blanket. The wind rattled around outside, but it was quite comfortable inside the cabin. At that time is was 25 degrees above zero, but would drop to around 8 degrees above zero. I remained with her for about an hour, but during that time she had one of nightmares and awakened and cowered against the wall. But I soon had her calmed down and gave her another treat of cheese and she laid down again. This morning she was up and ready for another day. I wish somehow I could find out what it is that troubles her now and then. There are days when she seems to be frightened of me. She is going to be alright for I can see it in her eyes. I guess eventually most of her past will fade from her memory. She loves to play with a basketball we bought her and digs little holes in the yard. She likes our walks together. She does not like for me to wear my glasses and I take them off in the evening when we are together in the cabin. She does still tear holes in her blanket once in a while, but that is alright. Adios

A particle of Dust

Our Port into Infinity

A Time to Remember
A particle of Dust
By Ronnie Powell
Man and all related aspects of Earth are a bit overrated I believe. We inhabit a planet when compared to the universe is nothing more than a speck of dust hurtling around a ball of fire. It is remarkable Earth and its inhabitants have survived so long, considering the fragility of our existence, but of course it was and is a miraculous journey to nowhere, caught in the gravitational pull of our source of life. Man alone is probably of the least importance and most destructive, yet seemingly superior in intelligence, but lacking I believe in old fashioned common sense for we are surely and methodically destroying our only environmental haven, at least as of the present. If not for the seemingly natural order of things Earth would surely not survive another day.
A fellow I know, a friend of great insight while walking with me one day along a bank of the Niangua River stooped and picked up a handful of sand. He handed me a tiny single grain of sand no lager than a flea and a moment later a large pebble about the size of a marble.
“You have in your hand a comparison of the Sun and the Earth to the universe out there,” he said. Yet when you think about it, the Earth as small as it is has creatures on it that have begun to venture out and away from the planet, the beginning I believe of Earth’s human migration into space. I believe somewhere out there are other mortals with equal intelligence or possibly more than we humans can comprehend. It is an exciting concept.
My friend is not alone in his belief that intelligent beings are somewhere beyond our planet, how close is a matter of opinion. During the many years of my exploration of caves, overhangs and village sites of Prehistory humans I have often wondered what they saw in the skies over Earth especially after observing images left behind on walls, or clay and stone figures representing much more than we give credit to those Prehistoric people. Many details have been exposed, much too numerous to mention that in part inspired those people to begin worshipping the many gods that came and went over the ages., changing forever man’s perceived ideals to which nations were built and destroyed.
The night skies are a panoramic view into the infinity of the Universe, a taunting reality that has inspired many possibilities from the practical to the absurd. It could be both definitions are the same for we cannot say with certainty what exists out there among the stars.
It has been at least thirty odd years and perhaps more when near midnight while walking my beat at the Bennett Spring Trout Hatchery I experienced a bizarre event that I cannot explain to this day. I was walking along the service road on my way to the hatchery building when I noticed a bright light appearing above a prevailing ridge top. Naturally curious I stopped and watched as it drew closer, a blinding light moving rather quickly from south to north. Only seconds had passed when I observed a huge craft, which appeared to be about the size of a semi tractor and trailer. I heard no sound as it swept across the sky at tree top level. The entire valley around me was bathed in its light and when reaching the approximant area above the spring it ascended rapidly and simply disappeared from view.
I hurried to the hatchery building, astounded by what I had just witnessed and as I entered the office the phone rang and I discovered the caller to be the hatchery assistant manager. “Ronnie,” he said to me with great excitement, “what was that. It lit up the entire hill top and never made a sound. I didn’t even get a look at it?”
We both were rebuked for telling about the encounter the next day. The matter was dropped from conversation during work hours.
The S.E. T. I., the world’s most powerful telescope is probing the universe or at least a small part of it, searching for new planets similar to our own. It is possible that today or years from now an inhabited planet will be revealed. Perhaps it will be thousands of light years away and virtually impossible to reach. But the discovery alone of such a planet would be nothing short of monumental and would create a storm of controversy among Earth’s human inhabitants.
If we could build a vehicle that would travel through the light years to far off galaxies it would change mankind beyond comprehension. If I were young without the responsibility of family and was allowed to do so, I would without hesitation step aboard, knowing I would probably never return to Earth, for I would be nothing more than a microscopic organism in a vast, wonderful expanse of space witnessing for the first time unimaginable discoveries and perhaps die among the stars.
I will not be boarding a ship bound for the stars and beyond, but it will happen I am certain. The men and women who are chosen to go will cease to be earthlings after lift off. There may even be children born on that infinite journey and they truly will be children of the universe, wanderers among the stars.
There are no limits to what man can and perhaps will accomplish in the distant future, but he must first learn to take care of the tiny speck of dust we call home, a beautiful fragile jewel swinging along in space. Adios

A Dude

I think it best not to call the fellow in the above photo a dude. He was probably barefoot at the time the photos were taken. He was not a city feller of this I am certain, but a country boy fresh from an Ozark farm and enjoying himself. Adios