A Tight Fit at Fat Man's Squeeze

Mmm! It is a beautiful September day. The nip in the air is pleasant, the leaves on the trees are beginning to hint at wearing their showiest gown, and the morning is fresh, free, and open for an adventure. This is indeed the perfect day for a hike. Perfect day for a hike, yes, and unbeknownst to us at the beginning of our trek, a tight squeeze.

Giant City- September 2020

Drive down south for about an hour and you will come to the Shawnee Hills, the foothills of the Ozarks. Giant City State Park consists of 4,000 acres of forest, fields, creeks, bluffs, and crevices all nestled into the hills. It is the crevice locally known as Fat Man's Squeeze that we had the gumption to venture through.

Should you happen to be a passerby, upon nearing the mouth of the crevice, you would see a family and could hear among the jumble of eight voices…

“Last time I went through there I was a foot and a half shorter and fifty pounds lighter! I was just a little kid,” I exclaimed.

“I will go if you go, Samuel,” someone plucked up the courage to say.

“There is NO WAY I am going through there,” said one who was soon to eat his words.

“Who is going first,” asked another.

“The one most likely to chicken out needs to go last,” said one who was thinking a few steps ahead.

These were a few of the many comments of the six of us before entering the cave. Even while entering the gaping mouth of darkness, the thought of the actuality of going the whole way through was not in the forefront of my mind.

The opening into Fat Man's Squeeze 

A few minutes later I could not see the speakers, but amidst all the grunting and groanings of six people, it could now be heard…

“What in the world was I thinking?”

“C’mon guys! We can do this!”

“Why did all six of us decide to go in at the same time?”

“Keep your head turned to your left shoulder up here, because there is no room to turn your head back around to see where you are going once you get past this point.”

“I am turning back!”

“You can’t do that! You are only the third in line!”

The first twenty feet into the fissure was a cinch! Yes, but cinches are made to tighten!

About halfway through, we came upon a ninety-degree turn, concurrent with a step-up. Though we were travelling uphill, this was the downhill of our courage. Each one in line, upon arriving at this difficulty, took the hand of the person in front of them to conquer this additional obstacle. As soon as we made the turn, we saw the sun’s effulgent rays at the end of the tunnel! Hurrah!

“Just think! When we get through, we will be six of the few people who have gone through Fat Man's Squeeze,” I said, attempting to build my own courage as much as everybody else’s. It takes considerable determination indeed to continue, when the person in front is smaller than me and he says it is getting tight for him. I was only second in line!

Our optimism grew at the thought of getting closer to freedom. At the same time though, fear of the crevice’s walls becoming too tight for us to achieve the goal, thus developed an equilibrium of the two. Silence ensued, with us speaking neither good nor bad until we were out. 

On their way out!

Finally, the first in line made it into the sunshine! Standing in a narrow space about waist high, he received a hand up and out by Dad and Mama who were standing by to congratulate our brave efforts as we emerged from the damp, smelly, darkness. 

Next I was out, and oh, the sunshine never looked so pretty, and the air never smelled so clean! Freedom!!! 

As each became a victor, they became an encourager for the next. 

We made it!

With hugs, high-fives, and cheers, some even shed joyful tears at their success!

We are proud to say that we conquered Fat Man's Squeeze. It was an adventure that these six trekkers will not forget any time soon. What started out as a simple hike turned into a victorious conquest! It was a tight fit at Fat Man's Squeeze!

~Jayla

As Slick as Can Be

The snow fell lightly in slow small flakes. It was not enough to sled ride in because it would melt as soon as it touched the driveway. “That is very disappointing,” I thought as I looked outside the window from where I was sitting on our couch.

The days just got colder and colder. The hoses began to freeze up and not work. That meant carrying water from the ponds we have. The boys would go and unhook the faucet every night. Everything was icy and slick.

When it was about four degrees and no snow was around, Samuel and I went to check the Frog Pond. It is a pond that is not very deep. It’s perfect for ice skating. We went and checked it, and it was not ready yet because the ice let out loud cracking noises, like it was groaning.

As we walked back down, I had a great idea. “The creek is smaller, and it is probably frozen by now. That might be a good spot,” I said. The house was now in plain sight.

I pulled on my rubber boots and took another long walk to the creek with Isaac, and we went scouting for a good spot to skate. We strolled along some of the thinner ice, and it cracked. We kept moving up the creek for a better spot.

We were near the top of the creek and there in front of us was a decent sized ice patch. It had a little snow on it, and we slid around to make it slick. Soon it was as slick as can be.

We ran a little way on top of the frozen water, then slid as far as we could, and it was slick. It was the iciest thing I have seen this year so far. We slid around for a while till it was time to go in and eat dinner.

Finally, the Frog Pond was frozen enough to be able to be skated on. We skated for a long time and played a lot of ice hockey. We only had two pairs of skates. Jayla and Halayah used them and the rest of us skated in our boots. I was glad I didn’t use the skates because Jayla fell a whole bunch and hurt her knee, bruising it up. She has been limping ever since.

The fun hours I had up on the ice is an unreplaceable memory I will always treasure. We had a bunch of fun with all games we played all over Providence Prairie. It was as slick as can be.

~Unique

Our Fascinating Bird Of Prey

For the past three weeks there has been a red-tailed hawk that has been sitting down by the horse pen. The first time I saw him, I was doing my chores. It did not seem unusual, until he came back the next day, and the next day and the next.

We have seen lots of hawks fly or land around, but this hawk has been acting very strangely. He flies down before noon every day and lands on the t-post. Every time I try to take a picture, he flies away.

The red-tailed hawk is a bird of prey known as a raptor. They have two long wings and a short wide tail. They are a reddish brownish color. There are more than 250 species of hawks. All hawks use their feet to catch and grip their prey. This also allows them to capture and carry their meals while they are flying.

We all thought that he might be down there to try to catch the new chicks that we recently bought. So, we wanted to scare him away. We would chase him away, and the next thing you know he would be back again. He never seemed interested in the chicks, so, we left him alone.

Samuel saw the hawk fly down to the ground and catch something, but he did not know what it might have been. Then the next day, we saw him fly to the ground and grab something, and then he flew away. It looked like a mouse. The hawk is being helpful by decreasing the rodent population in our barnyard.

It is always cool to look down and see the hawk sitting there on the t-post. He is probably thinking of what he is going to eat for dinner. It is amazing how God designed this fascinating bird of prey.

~Isaac

One Ring for Thirteen

On our birthday when turning thirteen, every girl in our family has gotten a birthstone ring. All my older sisters already have theirs, so I was especially excited to get mine. This year it was my turn to get one!

It came in a small little blue box, and I knew what it was and was excited to open it up. I pulled off the pretty colored paper carefully and saw my special ring. Mine is a garnet with white stones surrounding it and the color of the ring’s stone is red. I think that is a pretty color. It sparkles while holding it under the light. A garnet is a crystal that comes in many different colors. The most well-known color of this silicate mineral is red. I slipped the ring on my finger, and it fit perfectly! It’s lovely and exactly what I wanted.

Rings have been around for almost five thousand years. Egyptian kings wore them, and the garnet was even discovered in the art of their times. The word garnet comes from an old word that means pomegranate. It is thought that it is the color of the seed. The garnet has inspired many legends that talk about love, friendship, light, and vitality.

Now the hard part for me will be having it stay on my finger. Amanda told me how she lost her stone while she was working in the garden. Rachel had lost her ring too. Jayla once lost her stone from her ring, and later Jonah found it under the couch. Halayah has gotten a whole new ring, because her ring got lost from her finger. My plan is to keep it tightly on my finger and so far, that’s exactly what I’ve done.

So having a ring is a big responsibility for everyone. That’s why I’m going to take the best care of it I can and see how long I can keep it. I really enjoy gazing at it on my finger while I’m having fun doing all kinds of things. I got a ring for thirteen, and I like it extremely well. I had a great birthday.

-Unique 

Radical Radicles

Last year, when the last of the produce had been gathered from our garden, instead of letting the boxes lay empty and bare, Dad decided to plant some late fall/winter plants. We scattered a few boxes with spinach seeds and worked up others to hold some late lettuce. Dad had already informed us that we would plant some turnips, but everyone was surprised when we found that six of our garden boxes had been prepared and planted with the globular radicles.

We recently had not planted nor harvested many turnips. However, we all watched and waited to see what would come to fruition from this year’s enterprise. All throughout the year, the garden had been in my charge and still was so when we decided to try late planting.

In the beginning of the colder season, the boxes did not call for visits from me every day, like they had in the summer. Nevertheless, I kept an occasional eye on the progress of the newly planted seedlings. The spinach and the lettuce grew sparsely, but we were able to have a few salads from them. The turnips, however, grew and grew and grew some more until those six boxes in the garden were probably the greenest vegetation on our farm.

Turnip greens store tons of vitamins A and C. The vitamin A from the turnip is great for vision improvement and also for strengthening the immune system. The vitamin C it provides is used by our body in building blood vessels, bone, and cartilage. Since our turnip greens grew so profusely and suddenly, we chose not to eat any of them and waited instead for the purple and white topped globes to form. The turnip bulbs contain lesser amounts of the same vitamins.

Before we knew it, the turnips were ready for harvesting. All throughout December we were able to enjoy the fruit of our labor in a couple of different ways. Mashed turnips ended up being our favorite way to fix and eat these root stock. When the cold weather set in, the turnips still lived on. Now in the first month of the new year, we are still harvesting produce from these radical radicles!

~Halayah

Bungs For Years to Come

Not too long ago, we received a gift of bungs from Granny and Papaw! Bungs are the plugs for wooden barrels. The round wooden pieces are fun to play with, as they are great for building towers and making castles. Another thing they are good for, is playing a game kind of like Jenga.

On Mom’s side of the family, they would play a game that they called bungs. Mom’s cousins worked at the bung factory and would bring the damaged bungs back for kindling. After a while, the wooden bungs began being played and used for making towers on the pool table where it could be better seen. You would build a circle shaped tower with the bungs, then you would try to remove one of the lower layered bungs from the tower and place it on the top of the tower. After a while, the tower would get weak at the bottom from the lack of support. If the castle fell on your turn, then you were out. Not too long after Mom’s family made up the game, a game came out called Jenga.

Bungs were originally made as plugs for wine barrels. The round shaped wooden bungs are made mostly out of poplar wood, which expand in the barrel’s hole making a watertight seal. The chipped or damaged bungs were sold or given away as kindling, as they were good for starting fires.

While the family was here for Christmas, I played a game of bungs with a few of my nieces and nephews! We had a little trouble trying to keep the tower from being knocked down by some of the younger members of the family, but finally managed to complete our structure. Then the game started, and although the rules weren’t followed to the letter, we still had lots of fun.

On Isaac’s birthday, we had a big game of bungs! We built our tower on the kitchen table so that everyone could easily get around to play. We carefully moved around the table, trying not to bump into it. Each time a bung was removed, the tower shifted. 

The birthday boy had the tower fall on his turn two times and Halayah had it fall on her once. As the third tower fell, I managed to catch it on slow motion video! It was amazing to see the whole tower fall very slowly. I love seeing the reaction on everyone’s faces. We had a lot of fun. The biggest official Jenga tower had a count of 1,840 Jenga pieces! Our bung towers are big, but not that big.

I love the game we play with bungs; I am glad Granny and Pawpaw gave them to us. I am sure that they will last a long time and that we will enjoy playing with them for many years to come.

- Samuel 

To the Moon and Part Way Back

What does 120,000 laps at the Daytona Speedway, traveling coast to coast 100 times, making 75 round trips across the Atlantic Ocean, navigating 12 journeys around the world, or going to the moon and partway back have in common with my 2002 Chevy Suburban? They are all distances our automobile could have traveled up to now in its lifetime.

This month marked the 300,000th mile of my trustworthy mode of transportation. While many of the miles were put on the SUV by a previous owner, nearly a third of its life has been spent as my traveling partner. The Bureau of Transportation says that most cars today can be expected to run up to 200,000 miles. That is a far cry better than cars from years gone by, when 100,000 miles meant it may be time to look for a trade in. The Model T from the 1920’s would rarely make it to 100,000 miles and had to be overhauled every 20,000. So, this milestone of my Suburban is a significant feat!

Terry Hunt's Ice Cream Can Celebrate Anything!

While in its day, my Suburban was probably quite the gem. Today, time has definitely taken its toll. A collision with a couple of rogue deer, a little rust on the side panels, and a few dings here and there show signs of its age. A little smoke from the exhaust, a new transmission, and some cracks in the seats also bear testimony of better days. Yet, it keeps rolling along as my trustworthy transport on our old dusty roads, rarely giving me any grief.

The day will come when the life of the vehicle will come to an end, but today is not that day. Every mile that I currently drive is pretty inexpensive as long as no major repairs are needed. They say the car you drive reflects a little about your personality. I think thrifty would be the trait that would come to mind with my work vehicle. It gets me where I’m going and brings me back home in a safe, reliable, and economical way. While the new car smell is long gone, I am still grateful for each mile the car continues to traverse in getting me to my intended destination. 400,000?

~Mark