The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
I am enjoying the warmer weather after the sub-zero temperatures, but you never know from day to day what the good Lord has in store for us. Since it was so cold, I cooked up a large pot of vegetable soup to warm me and the children who stop in, to provide them with warmth and nourishment, but changed the menu after the temperatures rose to 59 degrees. I fixed a fresh crisp green salad, white baked fish that the neighbor brought by, ending with a scoop of refreshing orange sherbert. The weather will likely see-saw all the way to spring. But the soup is ready to warm anytime I need it!
Saturday, I plan on attending the Soup Supper advertised in The Quill and enjoy some of my favorites and dessert while visiting with many folks I don't see often.
Did you notice the big full moon Sunday evening. It was so white and low to the ground that the Farkwads' neighbor in Kirkwood thought it was the Chinese balloon spying on them and was about to call the National Guard. Luckily they checked with Alexa and she explained on Monday, February 6th was a full moon. Cornelius was pretty wound up still until Alexa told him that the Chinese balloon had been shot down on Sunday by the U.S. military after it drifted over the ocean.
My friend "Marry-O-NO!" (as the kids call her) gave me something to think long and hard about. It seems her husband wrote a letter to the US Secretary of Agriculture after his friend Ed over in Iowa received a check for $1,000 from the government for "not raising hogs". He decided he wanted to go into the "not raising hogs" business next year, too. So, he wrote to the Honorable Secretary of Agriculture in Washington D.C. and inquired: "What is the best kind of farm not to raise hogs on and what is the best breed of hogs not to raise saying he wanted to keep with all governmental policies. He said he preferred not to raise razor-backs but if that is not a good breed not to raise, he would gladly not raise Yorkshires or Durocs!
"The hardest part of this program will be keeping accurate inventory on how many hogs I haven't raised! If I get $1,000 for not raising 50 hogs will I get $2,000 for not raising 100?" I can start out with a small scale of not raising 4,000 which should mean about $80,000 for the first year...and I can afford an airplane!
She said Ed went on asking if he would get paid for not feeding the hogs, for not raising corn, and not raising soybeans too! Then he asked for info on the "Not Milking Cows business, and one more thing: "Will I qualify for unemployment and food stamps, too?" he wrote. "If so, you have my vote election day."
Marry-O-No was fit to be tied. I told her, we'd talk later at the soup supper.
-Love, Aunt Polly
P.S. Hope to see you and your folks in church Sunday.