-
1 week ago | 
craigdailypress.com | Diane Prather
My dining room table is big enough for eight people, more if we don’t mind being really crowded. It’s rectangular with a dark brown finish and scarred in places where drinks have been spilled, causing the finish to peel off. No matter. The table is always covered (or partially-covered) with a tablecloth and placemats anyway and a basket of yellow daisies or other flowers in the center.
-
2 weeks ago | 
craigdailypress.com | Diane Prather
Editor’s note: This column originally appeared in the April 21, 2023 edition of the Craig Press. This past winter, persons wanting to check on the weather forecast need not to have relied on their computer or cell phone apps. All they would have needed to do is call me and find out when I had scheduled a hair appointment because I cancelled every single one from around the first of December until about three weeks ago — all because of the weather.
-
3 weeks ago | 
craigdailypress.com | Diane Prather
At this writing, Easter Sunday is just the blink of an eye away, and I’m starting to think about an Easter egg hunt here at Pipi’s Pasture. Since Lyle and I moved here over twenty years ago, just about every Easter (or a date close to Easter) could find some or all of our sons’ families here to take part in an Easter egg hunt. Sometimes I have to look at Easter family photos to remind myself how the years have flown by.
-
1 month ago | 
craigdailypress.com | Diane Prather
I was talking with my brother Duane (Osborn) on the phone Tuesday morning. We chatted about the four or five inches snow that fell the night before and the wind that was predicted that day. Duane was getting ready to feed his cows in the next thirty minutes or so, and he was wondering what kind of mood the cows might be in when they came up on the feedlot, considering the snow and all. “Weather” and “mood” triggered a memory for me. I was a teacher at Eaton High School some years ago.
-
1 month ago | 
craigdailypress.com | Diane Prather
The equinox storm has passed, as of last Tuesday, with the blizzard causing such “white outs” that at times I couldn’t even see the corral from the house. Remarkably, at the end of the day, there weren’t foot-deep drifts of snow in the lane leading to the house. Now the snow has mostly melted so that the pasture and lawns here at Pipi’s Pasture are bare.
-
1 month ago | 
craigdailypress.com | Diane Prather
Recently, while I was hunting through a file for some class information, I came across a “good health” handout with tips a person might follow in taking care of herself/himself. One of them was to spend at least fifteen minutes a day doing something enjoyable. The importance of positives isn’t exactly new to me; I’ve written about it before. However, the “at least fifteen minutes” struck a note with me. I got to thinking about my routine.
-
2 months ago | 
craigdailypress.com | Diane Prather
I have just turned my new “Baby Moo Moos” calendar, a Christmas gift, over to March and will enjoy looking at a photo of an adorable newborn calf for the month. It seemed odd to have a short week the end of February. I didn’t notice until I was paying bills. Each year I remember the month of March for Saint Patrick’s Day, Easter (some years), a change to Daylight Saving Time, and a preview of spring — with an emphasis on “preview”.
-
2 months ago | 
craigdailypress.com | Diane Prather
During those days that my children and their families lived nearby, our home was always bustling with activity. Among others, there were holidays, cow-working days (such as brandings and moving cows from one place to another), harvesting produce from the garden, just “hanging out,” and much more. Grandkids often stayed overnight at all ages, but when they were teens, friends often joined them, spending the night so they could go hunting or snowmobiling early the next morning.
-
2 months ago | 
craigdailypress.com | Diane Prather
Corrals full of cows — that’s what you might notice if driving past ranches in the area right now. Calving season is underway at present, although some ranchers choose to start closer to spring, hoping for warmer weather. I don’t remember many particulars about February when I was growing up on the ranch except that there was always a lot of snow piled up — for months and months.
-
2 months ago | 
craigdailypress.com | Diane Prather
Lyle and I and the boys raised our little herd of cattle at a couple of other places before moving to Pipi’s Pasture, but most memories of calving season are from out here. The recent warm days remind me of calving season at Pipi’s Pasture because while we strived to calve in March or April, sometimes we got February calves. Often the pasture was bare in February; other times snow covered the ground.
