Some Observations from the Hill
by H. H. "Hub" Brown

 The weatherman sure showed me how little I really knew about gardening. I had thought I kept right up to date with my weeding but had lost some expensive new seeds from lack of rain or from my inability to water those seeds at the right time. We got a (was going to say shower) but it was really a downpour. Two days later when I next went to the garden, I didn't recognize it. Weeds had sprung up everywhere. Now once I get it cleaned up again maybe everything will grow.

 All the activity at the new track at Nichols reminds me of a story my granddaughter told me. A girl, whose father ran a livery stable, had let her boyfriend take her for a drive in one of her father's rigs. They came to a nice open spot and stopped. The boy who liked to stargaze said, "Oh, look at all the stars, let's see if we can find the Big Dipper." The girl who was more down to earth minded was keeping her eye on the horse. In the stable when a horse comes back from a drive, a groom gets a long handled copper dipper and holds it so the horse can urinate. This keeps the bedding from getting wet and saves labor in keeping the horse dry and clean. The horse had taken a couple short steps with his front feet but kept his hind feet still. She knew what that meant so she said, "Oh, let's not bother with the dipper. Let him go right on the ground!"

 After each horse race a designated worker gets a sample of the winner's urine which is then tested for any drugs.

 Interest in and love of horses runs quite strongly in several of my family. My wife, Ag, always, from a little kid up, always wanted to have horses to work with. When Pat, the eldest daughter, first went to work she bought a riding horse which she and Jim used to share. Karen, Norma's second girl, when she was 2 1/2 years old, picked him for her favorite. Jim's son Kevin always worked with race horses. Monica, from the time she got out of school, except for the time she came home to help me take care of Gram til she passed away, never has worked at anything else.

 When Fritz hauls a load of cattle to Wyalusing to the packing plant, I usually go 
with him and we stop at a little diner with a sign over that says Piphers and has lots of parking space for trucks and trailers. Sometimes there is a truck there with the logo on the side that says "Always Ready." The driver was a big friendly man that we addressed as Always Ready till we found his first name was Chet, still don't know his last name. Maybe because Fritz is small in stature, he used to tell people how lucky Fritz was to have his father-in-law to ride with and work for him. He would have everyone in the place laughing and then to make up for it he might buy our breakfast. 

 I was telling him the other day about the ground being so dry in the spring that I had quite a few onion sets dry up on me. It seems he is not only Always Ready with his work but is also ready with advice to gardeners He said if you alternate a row of onions with a row of potatoes the onion scent will cause the potatoes eyes to water so it will be enough for both rows. And now that it has started raining I won't be able to try that out till next year.