Rennie Phillips

The other day I was visiting with a friend about tractors, and tractor cabs came up. They are really nice, but they aren't for me. Cabs do cost a good deal of money and that's part of why I don't have a cab. But honestly money alone isn't why I choose not to. Cabs make life easier! When it's hot outside you can simply turn the AC on in the cab and it's cool. When it's cold outside, simply turn the heat on in the cab and it's warm. If it's raining, then it's dry. Cabs make life too easy...

One of the topics I find interesting pertains to how human history is passed down orally. Since time began, history has been passed from generation to generation orally. Writing most likely originated about 5,000 years ago so before that all historical events that we know about were passed down orally. Many were told as stories or events, while others were memorized word for word story by story...

My brother in Nebraska and I both have these new cell phones. I've been texting for a good while, and my brother is new to texting. This Christmas morning we texted back and forth for a while and then we called and just visited. We talked about his weather and odds and ends and finally talked about the Christmases that we remembered when we were kids...

I usually save all my articles from each year in a different folder like Newspaper Articles 2023. I opened a brand new file titled Newspaper Articles 2024. This is the first article of the year. It's kind of exciting starting a brand new year with a blank slate but at the same time hauling along a ton of memories and good experiences. Probably a few that aren't the greatest but these I'll refer to as learning experiences...

There are numerous ways to learn how to garden, and Marge and I've tried many of them. The ones we learn the most from seem to be the absolute failures and the huge successes. We've had both. One failure was growing onions from seed. I got this brilliant idea to plant onion seeds and grow my own transplants. Now transplants are usually about $3 to $4 per 50 to 60 transplants, so I wasn't going to save a ton of money. I just wanted to see if I could...

I recently drove Marge around Cape while she was delivering some odds and ends to friends of hers, so I spent some time on campus watching the students. This may sound weird, but I enjoy watching people when they aren't aware of it. One thing I wasn't surprised about was that everyone was packing a bottle or jug of something to drink. ...

Time as we know it seems to just zoom along. Here it is the end of January and first part of February. Just months away, we'll be planting tomatoes and cucumbers. And as time goes by, people as we know them change. The people today are different from when I was a boy (1950s) or when my Dad was a boy (1900s). ...

I was sitting in my easy chair the other day as was Marge in hers. I believe she was napping but then I probably just woke up. Grace, our dog, was laying on the floor sound asleep. Grace must have heard something, probably BB our cat, so she had to jump and investigate. ...

I was born in Ogallala, Nebraska, which was the end of the old Texas Cattle Trail. Hundreds of thousands of cattle were driven from Texas to Ogallala. Some went up into the Sandhills, while many were driven on west into the mountains. When I was born, Ogallala had a population of about 3,000 to 4,000 people, which is about the same today. ...

Back when I was a kid, I'd help Dad in the garden, or at least thought I was. I kind of remember Dad planting tomatoes that were Sioux tomatoes, which Mick tried but he wasn't impressed. I just may buy a few seeds and give them a try this summer. I don't know if Dad started his own seed or bought transplants. I don't think Dad put his tomatoes in a cage, so they just spread out on the ground...