The Rock Wall

I’ve heard about the January Thaw since I was a kid and it’s here again right on schedule. Dad timed farrowing of pigs for this time so it wouldn’t be so cold on the vulnerable babies. Heat lamps help, but it’s OK to assist the heat lamps keep the tiny pigs from getting under the 300 lb. mommas.

– I had a conversation the other day with Gil Baker, local Concealed Carry instructor, about Concealed Carry vs. Constitutional Carry of firearms. The same day, I had a similar conversation with Prosecutor Ty Gaither. I talked to Sheriff James McCrary and Deputy Kenny Turner after the Ambulance Board meeting Monday night. I decided I needed to do an article to clear up any misunderstandings. The results are on this front page. But I’m going to have to revisit it next week for a final solution. After Mary True proofed the article Tuesday, she said, “It’s as clear as mud.” I said, “That’s the point.”

Bottom line – If you don’t have a concealed carry permit, don’t carry one concealed until we get the final word for you. You could be charged with a felony and never get to even own a gun again.

– Carl Schuchman told me his wife,  the former Delores Darnell, told him she remembers that she and I had  our tonsils taken out about the same time. That was in the second grade when Mrs. Elizabeth Kirbey was our teacher at Liston. As I went out from breathing the ether, I remember a giant chasing me and the rings created when I threw rocks at him. When I came to, I had the world’s worst sore throat and couldn’t stand to smell rubbing alcohol for years. But I got to eat ice cream. And while I wasn’t supposed to do much, I recovered to where Mom and Dad would let me jump over a milk can in the front yard.

And the tonsillectomy got me over being a sick, skinny little kid – boy, did it.

Good memory, Delores.

– Kimball has a mystery grave robber in our back yard. Our American Exotic cat, Bellevue, succumbed to old age at 12 years a while back. Kimball bundled her up and put her in a nice box in the deep freeze so we could bury her at a more convenient time. That turned out to be last Saturday. I used posthole diggers to make a square sided hole more than 13×8 inches wide and long by more than 7 inches deep. Kimball even enclosed the box in a plastic bag and covered it with several inches of mounded up dirt.

When Kimball checked Sunday morning, something had dug down to the box tearing through the plastic bag and removing all the loose dirt from the hole, but didn’t open the casket.

Sunday night the critter again dug out all the loose dirt and tilted the heavy dirt filled pot Kimball had in place on top of the dirt mound.

Monday night it wasn’t as much fun. The critter dug out the loose dirt on one end but didn’t tear the plastic bag.

Wonder if I’d have to buy a trapping license to set one for the grave robber?

Mary and Kimball think it is an armadillo. Good possibility, or a coon or a coyote.

– Adrian came up with a new day of the week when Bella got on Kimball’s lap while they were talking on the phone. If your cat sits on your lap all day, it’s Caturday. KL