The More Things Change. . .

In 2009 when my first book, The Double Cousins and the Mystery of the Missing Watch was going through the editorial process I was asked regarding the cutting of muskthistles. Wouldn’t ranchers today just spray for the weeds?

 

So, wanting to do due diligence, I called some of my experts (family who just happen to be ranchers) and found that they do spray a lot now. However, they do still dig some out by hand. So, because I was determined cutting muskthistles was to be in my book, I left it. I also put a sentence or two about how Grandpa didn’t want to put all of those pesticides on his property.

 

Imagine my delight this morning when I went to Facebook and saw a post by the daughter of my oldest cousin. She included this photo of her daughter delivering a treat to her daddy who was laboring intently to rid his ranch property in Nebraska of the dreaded weed. The photo itself charmed me. It reminded me immediately of the photo I have from when we were at the ranch preparing to go cut muskthistles.

 

But what made me laugh out loud was what she said. She lamented that if their neighbors would take care of the muskthistles across the line, my cousin wouldn’t have such a problem.

 

That’s funny?

 

Yes, it is. Because it instantly conjured up in my mind the image of my Grandpa standing in his pasture with a disgusted look on his face and these words coming out of his mouth. “If the neighbors would just take care of their thistles I wouldn’t have these here.”

 

Lesson # 1- The more it changes, the more it stays the same.

 

Lesson # 2- If we all take care of our responsibilities we have happier neighbors and less work.

 

The end.

 

P.S. If you want to read the section from my book that correlates to today’s blog you can find the book either in paperback or on Kindle at Amazon.com.

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Tags: Double Cousins, Miriam Jones Bradley, muskthistles, neighbors