Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-Six

As I was thinking of what to write for this week, I remembered an assignment I did for my Introduction to Education class at Lincoln Memorial University. I have many of my college papers in a file cabinet in my lawnmower shed.

One of the more popular Christmas carols is “The Christmas Song”, sometimes called “Chestnuts Roasting”. The first line goes (sing it with me): “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”. It occurred to me that most folks sing it with only a vague idea of what it means, so allow me to illuminate.

Brandon Drury plays baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays, having been traded in July 2018 from the New York Yankees. Prior to his stint with the Yankees, he had been afflicted for years with migraines and blurred vision. He finally told the Yankees and their medical team identified the issue—a nerve between the back of Drury’s head and neck—and established a plan to manage it.

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.