We went to Destin for a short family vacation August 2-6, 2012. My oldest nephew, Dakota, wanted us to go as the entire Wilson family had never all been on a vacation together. It just so happened the previous week, that my brother-in-law (my wife’s sister’s husband, Bob) had discovered a cannot turn down deal on a 2006 Sea Fox 2360 Center Console boat. Bob and I, along with my wife’s cousin Ken, went in together to purchase this boat. Since my trip was already planned, I got to take the boat on its maiden voyage. Lucky me!

When I think about it, I still have to shake my head.

Many people called my papaw by his initials: E.O. Years ago, there was a little neighbor boy who called Papaw “Eeyore” instead of E.O. While we all thought it was so cute, it really didn’t fit Papaw. He was nothing like the Eeyore of A. A. Milne’s creation in “Winnie the Pooh.” Papaw didn’t go around grumbling and he didn’t have floppy ears or a tail that that kept falling off. Instead, he had a positive attitude and a heart of gold, but he was also very accident prone.

I remember growing up on the farm. It was a boring time for me. That is until I discovered my escape in reading. I read most anything that had words I could understand, and I especially liked to read funny stories. When I heard the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, the gears of my bored mind began spinning. What fun I could have with that scenario:

Thanksgiving is a time of family fellowship, thankfulness, and tradition. Spending time building memories with family and friends should be priority. The thankfulness of the holiday seems to be taken lightly by some as they are already preparing for the Christmas season. A season that should be of similar nature, geared around happiness, giving, and togetherness, now seems to have progressed into a more common time of stress, rushing and shopping. As the years pass, it seems as though festive stress is the commonality that comes with the Christmas season rather than the spreading of cheer.

Why does fruitcake get such a bad rap? They aren't all hard and tasteless. I like mince pie and I like fruitcake. To me they are in the same class of food. To prove it, I have a recipe to share with you for a Mincemeat Fruitcake.

Acceptance letters will soon be sent out with information about Distribution Day. We have listed the child’s name and claim number which are needed to claim your child’s pre-made bag.

Raising beef is a very complex business. Knowing how to safely and sustainably run a beef cattle operation is key to profit and success. More Tennesseans are involved in beef production than any other agricultural enterprise. There are 79,000 farms in Tennessee and beef cattle are found on fifty-three percent of those. Tennessee is one of the top beef-producing states in the nation. Our great state ranks ninth in the nation in beef cow numbers and fifteenth in total cattle.

Part 2 of the Series: "Now That's Why You Don't Have Any Friends"
Matthew 23:14 KJV
[14] Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

"Oh boy!" One sure fire way to make people mad is to tell someone who is in denial the cold hard truth. Matthew 23 is not the first time Jesus told someone the truth, and it's certainly not the first time He told His Jewish kinsmen, known as the scribes and Pharisees, the truth. The fact of the matter is Jesus was rougher on His Jewish religious kinsmen than He was on anyone else. Why? Because the Pharisees where Hypocrites!

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-Five

My church had a revival last week. It began on Sunday morning and continued Sunday through Wednesday nights. My wife was ill, so I sat next to Ms. Dot Johnson each evening. On Sunday evening, Ms. Dot offered me a cough drop just as the preaching began, not that either of us had coughs.

We sold my dad's farm to some folks from Chicago. I shouldn't say that these Chicago people were different, but they were. They had never farmed before. This was to be an adventure. Yeah right, adventure! It was hilarious watching those city dudes adjust to country living. They stood out on a goat farm in a county that didn't do goats. We couldn't give them any advice on how to raise goats. We recognized a picture of a goat when we saw one. That was about it. Fortunately, for the goats, their enterprise thrived.