Jack Mccall

Thanksgiving Day is almost here (and will be here before you know it) – a time to stop and reflect on the past year, and years - a time once again to recount our blessings. I’m writing this column a bit early so the “Day” doesn’t take you by surprise. (Personally, I wish things would slow down a bit.) I […]

Well, the first frost of the fall showed itself last week. To be perfectly honest, I enjoyed breathing in the air on that first frosty morning. As I observed a few farmers huddled in the warmth of their pickup truck cabs, I was reminded of some of the cold mornings of my youth. When cold spells came one right […]

Another Veterans Day in the books. I had the good pleasure of participating in two Veterans Day celebrations this year – one in Macon County, the other in Trousdale. Both had all the elements of the best of Americana – children singing patriotic songs and reading poems and reciting lines to honor those who have served our country, proud parents […]

Every year as Thanksgiving Day rolls around I spend quite a bit of time in reflection. And I mostly think about the people I have known throughout the years. In real estate they say the three most important things are location, location, location. In life I think the three most important things are relationships, relationships, relationships. I have known some […]

Last fall, while on a hike in the Brim Hollow, I picked up a bucket-full of green walnuts. My first thought was to dump them on my concrete driveway and run over them with the car for a few days. That’s the way we de-hulled them back in my boyhood days, but we had gravel driveways back then. Eventually, I […]

Jack McCall I was cleaning out a fence row over the weekend. I say I was “cleaning,” when I was just beginning. It's not like the fence row was in bad shape.

Jack McCall I suppose Jan. 9 and 15 will come and go without much fanfare this year. Of course, that depends on one's perspective.

A week from Sunday is Mother’s Day. And I must admit, my thoughts of Mother’s Day have changed over the years. For the 15th time, my mother will be absent when our family gets together to celebrate her day. In my earliest years, I called her “Mama.” In later years, when my brothers, my sister and I thought we had […]

Mother’s Day was different at our house this year. As most of my readers know, my wife of 43 years, Kathy, passed away just after Mother’s Day two years ago. She complained of a headache on a Wednesday and slipped away just after midnight a week later. The year which followed left my family and me in a fog. I […]

This recent dry spell did some serious damage to pastures and the spring hay crop. On the day temperatures reached 90 degrees accompanied by a brutally dry wind, I was pained to witness the results. Local reports say the spring hay crop has been cut to one-third. Fortunately, the rain finally arrived in Middle Tennessee, saving pastures in the short […]