Charlie is 7. Part Basset and part Beagle; he was placed in an animal shelter. Not once, but twice. That means he went through three different homes.

I can’t imagine.

Whoever had him first took him to the pound. Two families fostered Charlie from the shelter, but brought him back.

There are many reasons that people take in an animal and then change their mind, but to me, none of the reasons ever hold water.

If you commit to one of God’s living creatures, ...

Writers do what we do because we are unable to not do it. In spite of our efforts, most who write for a living can best be described with one word: broke.

But every now and then, a writer succeeds in such a large way that their work affects millions. They connect with an audience and make a great living doing it.

Paul Henning was such a writer. Never heard of Paul Henning? Even though he had unparalleled success, he remained in ...

Photo from the Facebook group: Memories of Crystal Springs Beach Maud Texas / Todd Prather. Date of photo is unknown.

In the summer, all of the kids went swimming.

We didn’t have video games or movies on demand. We had a bathing suit, a designated towel, a supervising adult, and a destination.

For those of us who grew up in southwest Arkansas, northeast Texas or northwest Louisiana, that 1970s destination was often Crystal Springs Beach.

Crystal Springs, as most of us called it, was a large lake located on Highway 67 near Maud, Texas. For decades, ...

It seemed at the time that my senior year in high school was busy – and tumultuous.

That’s because it was.

When some of my fellow 1980 classmates and I began working on plans to get together for the 40th anniversary of our graduation, memories came flooding in. Memories that had been filed away.

I pulled a stack from the grey matter file cabinet, blew off the dust, and poured over a few.

The year 1980 was the first year in my life that ...

The great thing about growing a lot of your own food is the ability to walk out the back door and pick it.

It doesn’t get much fresher than that.

If there’s a downside to growing a garden (we had seven garden areas this year), it’s that it seems that most of the produce comes off the vine about the same time.

So, you have a few choices.

1)   Eat a lot as fast as you can.

2)   Share with your neighbors.

3)   Share with your ...

When I was a kid, things didn’t break as often as they do now. If you bought something at Sears Lawn and Garden, you needed to run over it with an 18-wheeler to render it nonfunctional.

(Insert the sound of Tim Allen here)

Such used to be the case with lawn sprinklers. Made of steel or cast iron, the lawn sprinklers of the 50s and 60s were solid for watering your yard, and for making you dance when you stepped on one ...