Paul Marchant

I grew up in a rural area. There were six little towns in the south end of the county. The kids who lived in those six towns all attended the same schools. Kindergarten through sixth grade attended the elementary school, and seventh through 12 grade attended the high school.

There are a lot of things I love about fall. I could go all cliché on you and talk about the changing of the seasons, the chill in the air and the beautiful colors of the fall foliage. And, to be honest, those things all play a role in how I feel about the season.

I hold some allegiances to various creeds, ideologies, people and sports teams. The strength of my allegiance varies according to the cause. I know plenty of guys who live or die by the color of their tractors and their cows or the letters on the tailgate of their pickups.

Given my weak resistance to any sort of peer pressure, it truly is a wonder that I haven’t ended up as a strung-out junkie spending his days in and out of county jail.

Several years ago, we moved our beginning calving date from the first of February to the first of March. There are merits and drawbacks to either program.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite treats was a chunk of sugar and sour something-or-other with a Sweet-Tart label, if I remember right. It was the exact size and shape of a big old sulfa bolus.