I don’t know about you, but I have been experiencing some odd changes as I grow older. For one, my clothes seem to be shrinking. Maybe I should switch laundry detergent. For another, I no longer trust elevators.

Daniel Monday, from Slamdot, addressed the Union County Business & Professional Association on the topic of “Building Your Brand” at the regular September meeting last month. Monday related that the most important aspects of branding a business is reflecting your mission and core values to the target audience. A business needs to choose a strong brand including a logo with color tones that reflect the core values. Repetition and consistency are also key to building the brand.

The Union County Veterans celebrated Labor Day together with an American cook-out on September 9. Our Veterans and their spouses observed the end of summer by gathering to share the traditional hamburgers and hot dogs with all the trimmings. This was complimented with potato salad and baked beans, all courtesy of the Veteran Volunteers,. The meal was topped off with a delicious homemade cobbler. As always, the monthly meal was free to our Veterans to thank them for all that they have done for our country.

Because of the relocating of 1100 families in Union County, the building of Norris Dam and the flooding during the building, the 4-H programs had to be put on hold. In 1936 Agent C.B. Barnes started the programs back up with 77 boys in Luttrell, Big Sinks and Rush Strong. The boys had “Pig” Clubs and performed well in competition. The Sears and Roebuck Company sponsored an essay contest .

Anticonvulsant drugs are increasingly being used to treat low back pain, but a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) finds they are ineffective and can have adverse effects. Clinically, the prescription of anticonvulsants for back and neck pain, including radicular pain in primary care, has increased by 535% in the last 10 years. Low back pain affects millions of people and is the number one cause of disability.

A word we have seen a lot lately in the local and national news is champions. The 2024 Summer Olympics just came to a close and we have seen or heard numerous stories about the US medal winners and Olympic athletes that attended the University of Tennessee. We have spent the last few months celebrating the Tennessee Vols baseball team winning their first ever national championship.

Playing hide and seek was one of my favorite childhood games. I’m not sure why since I wasn’t very good at it. Not at all. First, I struggled to find my hidden friends. Most of the time, they would make it back to home base before I could tag or find them. I wasn’t any more successful at finding a place to hide in that I was usually found before anybody else. But there was an instance in my childhood where I couldn’t be found. To beat it all, I wasn’t even playing Hide ‘N seek.

I have subscribed to the magazine Farm Show off and on for many years. It is full of inventive ideas farmers do to solve their everyday problems. It shows how creative farmers can be. Of course, you learn to “make do” with homemade things when money is tight. For a farmer, that is almost always. He probably had to borrow from the bank for seed in the spring, hoping to pay it back when he harvested in the fall. A farmer is always looking for ways to save money. Isn’t that the definition of invention, looking for a cheaper or easier ways to do something?

When it comes to wildflowers that show up in August and September, two things stand out: yellow is by far the dominant color you’ll see, and many of the flowers have a complex flower structure termed a composite, made up of many flowers. You have to look close to actually see what’s going on here, so let me dive in.

We were on a mission. When Tim and I walked into the back bedroom in our daughter
Sara’s house, we were ready to help turn it into a nursery. Unfortunately, we weren’t prepared for the damage we saw.