Rural Ramblings • Preventing Lost Wrenches • Home Made Mustard

Rural Ramblings • Old Harrow Discs Made a Tool Rack • Cheese Waffles with Grilled Tomatoes

Rural Ramblings • Cork Extractor • Filbert Drops

Rural Ramblings • Barn Door Lock • Homemade Granola

Rural Ramblings • Drilling a Hole in Proper Alignment • Beef Carnitas • Grandma Lydia’s Salsa

Rural Ramblings • Concrete Step Form • Potato Bread

Rural Ramblings • Corner Closet • Molasses Mocha Cookies

Rural Ramblings • Replacing Bushings • Clam Chowder

Rural Ramblings • Filling Milk Bottles • Potato Pancakes

Rural Ramblings • Squeegee for the Car • Erin Cookies

Rural Ramblings • Screw-Driver Bit • Plum Rolls • Plum Sauce

Rural Ramblings • Oil Can Holder • Marinated Pork Kabobs

Rural Ramblings • Screen Door Kink • Juliet’s Goat Cheese Truffles

Rural Ramblings • Lawn Mower Kink • Potato Biscuit

Rural Ramblings • Barn Door Bolt • College Fudge Bars • Bittersweet Chocolate Coating

Rural Ramblings • Pump Jack Pin • Cranberry Pudding

Rural Ramblings • Scoop Shovel Repair • Green Chicken Chili

Rural Ramblings • Rabbet Plane • Homemade Hummus

Rural Ramblings • Pail Repair • Lord Baltimore Cake • Lord Baltimore Filling • Boiled Frosting

Rural Ramblings • Log Chain Repair • Apple Dumpling with Sauce

Rural Ramblings • Bench Stop • Hurricane Apple Bread

Schaff mat Päerd Online Horsepower Symposium • Rural Ramblings • Water Tank Repair • Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Pie

Rural Ramblings • Wood Vise Jaws • Cream Cheese Turnovers with Mushroom Filling

Rural Ramblings • Pulling Up a Pump • Fresh Cherry Pie

Rural Ramblings • Handy Ladder • Rhubarb Pie

Rural Ramblings • Chicken Hatcher • Sour-Cream Corn Bread

Rural Ramblings • Hen’s Nests • Banana Chocolate Cake

Rural Ramblings • Mash Feeder • Fruit Fritters • Lemon Mint Sauce

Rural Ramblings • Rose Trellis • Biscuit Birds

Rural Ramblings • Metal Corners • Individual Chicken Shortcakes with Dill Sauce

Rural Ramblings • Making an Iron Gate • Ham and Corn Fritters

Rural Ramblings • Garage Cupboard • Meat Loaf

I happened to be pouring over some material in the back of an old Atlas. Any Atlas gives the names of states; this one had a list of nicknames as well – an ‘old’ list. I’m a Beaver now, I guess, being from Oregon – the Beaver State. I was born a Badger, have been variously a Jayhawk, a Pelican, a Volunteer, a Hoosier, a Tarheel and a resident of the Golden State (did that make me a nugget?). All of those handles as listed, showed up that way in the old Atlas, except that they called Kansas the Sunflower State, which I guess is the official nickname, although we Kansans preferred Jayhawks. To the followers of the college football scene, Nebraska is surely the ‘Cornhusker’ State, however according to my list that large land mass in mid America is officially the ‘Tree Planter’s State.’ That sent me wheeling down one of those mental back roads I mentioned.