Blizzards!!

The January 22 headline says "Blizzard blasts Gulf Coast paralyzing communities from Texas to Florida to Carolinas with record-breaking snow". People have suffered many hardships in this storm.

According to the National Weather Service one of the greatest snowstorms in Southeastern United States history occurred February 9-11, 1973. This storm droped one to two feet of snow across a region that typically sees only an inch or two of snow per year. 

I remember the 1973 snow very well. I was on a college field trip to view game bird habitat in Alabama when 11 inches of snow hit. The secondary highways were unplowed. In every little town there was a snowman in every yard. Our field trip turned into an indoor lecture.

We had a late snow in March 1960 in My Corner of the Ozarks. About 30 inches fell that season. St. Louis recorded the lowest ever March temperature on March 5 at 5 below zero. I remember snow piles all through April. 

According to Lou Wehmer in the Howell County News (14 Jan. 2025) the worst winter blast in the Ozarks came in 1863-64 during the Civil War. On Christmas Day 1863 it was unseasonably warm at 60 degrees. On January 2 it was 22 degrees below zero. It snowed 7 inches on New Year's Day. Snow continued and by January 8 it was over a foot deep. Pictured below is a soldier on picket duty from Harper's Magazine 1864.  

The average annual snowfall in My Corner of the Ozarks is about 10 inches. Of course the range is something like 1-30. Usually our snows are very "pleasant". It looks nice. It is easily removed from streets and driveways. It  goes away quickly (usually). Ice is a different story. We can be paralyzed by ice. Travel is treacherous. Power outages are common. Fallen tree limbs are everywhere. Yuk! 

Our 6-inch snow on January 10 has been gone for several days. It was nice to have for a few days. We even had sledders on our hill. (Not Larry or Linda.)

My Cousin Linda lives in Michigan in the land of "perpetual" snow. When we are greening up in My Corner of the Ozarks she will still have a white landscape. Sorry Linda. 

Two Weeks of Christmas with Brad

Every other year our family gathers for Christmas. 

2024 was our family's year to "skip" the Christmas get-together. We missed them all, but Brad blessed us with a two week visit in My Corner of the Ozarks.

Brad flew into Springfield, MO where we picked him up December 22.  We celebrated Christmas day at home until evening when we joined Depee cousins at Aunt Donna's house.

At Donna's we practiced a Depee tradition of making taffy. There Brad visited a bunch of first cousins and first cousins-once-removed.      

Aunt Janet and Uncle Dwight hosted us at Branson where we saw a bluegrass group, the Petersens, perform. Brad plays and sings in two bluegrass bands in Kenya and has a special interest in bluegrass. 

 

Next was a post-Christmas concert at the Willow Springs Star Theatre by the Southern Ozarks Community Orchestra. Very fine music. Not bluegrass.

Our next adventure was a trip to hike to Greer Spring, the second largest spring in Missouri. Brad likes to hike and we like to take leisurly walks. But we made it down the hill to the spring, and most importantly, we made it back up the hill. 

Then we traveled to Lake Ozark to see the Brent Depee family and watch Dayne play basketball. Good fun!

Before taking Brad back to Springfield to catch his plane on January 5, we heard one more bluegrass concert. The Willow Springs Star Theatre hosted two groups, one from Mountain View, Arkansas, and one from Silver Dollar City at Branson. In Kenya when Brad (born and raised in Illinois) plays in his bluegrass bands, he claims to be "from the Ozarks". Brad's activities this past Christmas season surely boosted his bona fide claim to being an Ozarker. 

Camp David 2024

 Our first "Camp David" was in 2011 when granddaughters Karis was 9 and Olivia was 6. We have tried to keep up the annual tradition since. We added Emily in 2012 when she was 3. In 2013 Jackson (3) and Cami (1) came to Camp David. Cami may have been too little to be away from parents for a week as she continually clung to "Mimi". 

Our Corner of the Ozarks is much brighter when our grandchildren are able to visit.

Imaan (Mariam) first joined her cousins for Camp David in 2018 at age 2. Since her family lives in Africa it isn't simple to arrange for her to attend. Beginning in 2018 the parents have usually joined all of us for Camp David. This year all of us were together at one of our favorite Corners of the Ozarks, Bunker Hill Retreat in June. 

They have sure grown up. Ruwadah (3) attended Camp David for the first time. She was a trooper, even when her mother was called away for a conference. 

Having the three dads (our three sons) at Camp David adds a lot of unusual Ozark humor. Matt, Lance, and Brad revived the Bunker Hill Chickens. 

Brad and his girls from Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa.

Lance and his girls from Annapolis, Maryland.

Fun on the beach with our three sons, Brad, Lance, and Matt. 

Our seven grandchildren. They all like to play games and, more importantly, they all like each other. 

Below: Waiting for the supper bell: Larry, Lance, Matt, Brad, Jackson(standing), Emily, Olivia,  Karis, Grace. Cami was waiting to ring the bell. 

Mimi and Ruwaydah mastering the Jack's Fork.

We love Camp David in Our Corner of the Ozarks. 

Our Ozarks Christmas, 2023

 Okay. So we didn't actually celebrate Christmas in My Corner of the Ozarks. But our son, Brad, who was born in Illinois, attended school in Illinois, and lives in Africa claims to be "from the Missouri Ozarks". So I will claim that our family gathering west of Chicago was an "Ozarks Christmas".  

Above: Jackson, Linda, Olivia, Karis, Emily, Lance, Brad, Matt. Bottom row: Cami and Larry. 

Grace took the picture

Matt lives only an hour away from our "Christmas House". Lance drove from Maryland. Brad flew from Kenya, East Africa. We missed Faty, Imaan, and Ruwaydah. 

Jackson had a hockey game so some of us were able to see it. 

Many games of various kinds were played.  

These "kids" can light up a room.

The weather was cool but suitable for some outdoor walks. 

A pillow gift with a "dog" face allowed Bailey to attend while kenneled in Maryland. 

A gift of Bunker Hill sweatshirts brought back summertime memories.  

It was the most wonderful time of the year with much laughter, music, and giving. And everyone made it back home safely. 

Our Weather

 If you don't like our weather, just wait until tomorrow...

We were traveling in January when we heard that My Corner of the Ozarks got eleven inches of snow. This is Cousin Nina's photo: 

When we got home, we found that many tree limbs were broken by the heavy snow.

                                                                        March rains caused flooding in our back yard....

And in the streams, lakes, and ponds.

This is the flooded bridge at the Prongs of the Jack's Fork River on March 3.

On March 31 strong winds caused damage in town. 

But there is hope! Spring is right around the corner. There are signs already.

Easter is only a week away. That is when we celebrate true hope, our only hope: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Christ's sacrifice on the cross took away my sins and His resurrection portends my life in eternity with Him. 

From a Family of Poachers

 I'm a retired wildlife biologist and an ethical hunter, but I descended from a family of poachers.

I presented this information to the 15th Annual Ozarks Studies Symposium on September 24, 2022. 

I confess that my paternal grandfather, Grandpa Ed (1882-1976) told me that he thought hunting wild turkeys was easy. He said he shot six on a pond bank with a rifle while on horseback. "Nothing to it", he said. That was probably in the 1920's. Grandpa Ed had a hunting license only because Uncle Al bought him one every Christmas. 

My maternal grandfather, Grandpa Frank (1901-1976) was a law-abiding sportsman. He was one of the lucky 400 Missouri hunters who legally killed a deer in 1937, the last year the season was open for deer until 1945. He shot it with a borrowed rifle that his in-laws had used for market hunting many years before. He told me it had 70 notches in the stock representing the number of deer killed with it. 

Grandpa Frank's in-laws were from Carter County where he shot that 1937 buck. News about his Carter County in-laws hit the newspapers in 1996 when two of them were arrested for poaching, including taking game in a national park (Southeast Missourian 1996). 

With that heritage, I'm glad my own father was an ethical hunter who passed on his values to me. It is often common for the poaching tradition to be transmitted within a family from generation to generation. 

Charles Callison wrote about this phenomenon: 

"...there is a segment of the public, becoming a majority in some Ozark counties that for reasons explicable only in sociology, opposed any regulations of hunting and fishing. Some of the hill people had depended for generation upon wildlife a source of food." (Callison, C. 1953. Man and Wildlife in Missouri)

For our family to make the transition to law-abiding ethical hunters may possibly be a rare exception.

I

I grew up hunting. Before I was allowed to carry a gun, I followed my dad and my uncles hunting quail and rabbits. I shot my first rabbit at about age 10 with a borrowed shotgun as it was being chased by a borrowed beagle. Hunting with my dad and uncles was a rite of passage as a young boy. I learned about firearm safety, license requirements, daily and season bag limits, hunting season dates, and legal methods. I had my own 20 gauge shotgun at age 14. Pictured above are me, Uncle Robert, my dad, and English Setters Lady, and Sam.

So... what is poaching? What is ethical hunting?

According to Aldo Leopold in A Sand County Almanac, "Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching - even when doing the wrong thing is legal."

From the International Hunter Safety curriculum these are some elements of a Hunter's Ethical Code:

- Respect other hunters; handle firearms safely.

- Respect landowners; ask for permission.

- Abide by game laws and regulations.

- Adhere to fair chase principles.

- Know you personal limitations as a marksman.

- Do not waste meat or usable parts of game.

- Report game violations.

Personal ethics are very personal, so this list may be longer for some. 

Pictured above are my two primary hunting mentors, Uncle Al and my dad. They were both avid quail hunters during the 1950s and 1960s. But both took up wild turkey hunting in the 1970s. Here they enjoyed an Illinois goose hunting trip.

So why? Why did our family "advance" from poachers to ethical hunters? Why didn't all nine of my dad's siblings follow in their father's poaching footsteps? I hunted quail with almost all of my uncles. Dad always had good bird dogs and his brothers and brothers-in-law were attracted to him and his hunts. Of course, I don't know the answer for certain, but I think it had a lot to do with my grandmother's honesty and her Christian faith. I know that influenced my father and he certainly influenced me. There may have been other factors. I realize the world in Grandpa Ed's day was different. He wasn't the only poacher in the community. All his neighbors probably were also. Many Ozarkers lived off the land and survived on wild game.  

Whatever the reasons for that ethical conversion, I'm very glad for it. I benefited from that change. It led me to a satisfying career in wildlife management. 

(In 2013 I posted about "Poaching and the Ten Commandments". I will repost that blog as a companion to this post.)

Poaching and the Ten Commandments - reposted

 Here’s a challenge for you:  how many of the Ten Commandments are violated when a person poaches a deer? 

I was taught when I was growing up that poaching was not only illegal, but it was also unethical and immoral.  That was my dad’s view, but not all our extended family members agreed with that position. 

A distant relative lived a life of poaching in Missouri and elsewhere, including Yellowstone National Park.  He taught his son to poach.  Often such behavior is passed from generation to generation.  But in 1997 his crimes caught up with him to the tune of a $20,000 fine and a lifetime hunting ban. 

In 2010 right down the road at Birch Tree, a conservation law enforcement sting found 425 wildlife violations in seven Ozarks counties: Oregon, Howell, Shannon, Dent, Miller, Crawford and Iron. 

In the Ozarks, poaching is common.  For some it is a way of life. 

So, how about my question?  Does poaching violate any of the Ten Commandments?

I believe poaching violates Commandment Number 8:  You shall not steal.  The game a person takes illegally does not belong to him. 

The wildlife of the land belongs to all the people, not to the landowner.  That was confirmed early in American history by the U. S. Supreme Court.  Non-migratory animals are the responsibility of the state in which they reside.  Migratory species come under the responsibility of the federal government.  But the people are the owners. 

The primary purpose of game laws is to protect the wildlife population from over-exploitation.  The secondary purpose is to fairly distribute the harvest among the hunters. The poacher is stealing from the people of the United States in general, and in particular from his neighbor or friend who will never have a chance to harvest or even to see the game he has stolen.

Poaching violates Commandment Number 9 also:  You shall not give false testimony.  The poacher probably will.  I doubt if any poacher can keep quiet about his actions among other outlaws.  But when he is among law-abiding citizens and law enforcers, the poacher must lie. 

Poaching violates Commandment Number 10:  You shall not covet.  Coveting seems to be the basis for all the commandments.  Covetousness is based on selfishness, self-centeredness, and desiring to have someone else’s property, such as their game animals, and their recreation. 

What else does the Bible say that might relate to the behavior of a poacher?  Keep in mind that the first game law was written in the Old Testament.  Deuteronomy 22:6-7 says:  “If a bird's nest happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young;   you shall surely let the mother go, and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.”  God expresses concern for his creation in many places in Scripture. 

How about the Golden Rule, which says “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”(Matthew 7:12).  The poacher should consider others. 

Christians are commanded to submit to human government.  (Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-14, Matthew 22:15-22)  The only exception for a Christian is found in the example of Peter and John in the book of Acts.  When confronted by religious opposition, Peter replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.” (Acts 4:19)

Much has been written about the Christian justification for civil disobedience.  In my opinion, game laws do not rise to the level to justify civil disobedience for a Christian.   Joe Poacher is not Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 

Why would I write about this subject?  Probably because it has always bothered me that my Sunday School teacher when I was a young teenager was a known poacher.  And he liked to brag about it.