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

 This has been a strange spring and summer. First when we could have used a lot more rain we went for 21 days between showers. That was when a lot of my onion sets didn't get started. It seemed that the red onions didn't have as strong a root system for I harvested a lot of white onions but very few red ones.

 This was a very good season for red potatoes. I bought 5# of seed from Stoughton Farm and Tom put more than 3 1/2 bu. down cellar for me. I had 5 rows across my garden and I had planted, weeded, hilled, and dug them all with a tool Bob had made me by heating and bending a big 12 inch file. In fact outside of Tom cultivating some corn and John digging up the ground where the potatoes had been, that was the only tool used in the garden.

 Did you ever notice that it seems to be the plan of the Lord or Mother Nature, sometimes I get the two mixed up. I don't know whether to give credit to one or the other. Any way, the plan seems to be to grow something to cover any bare ground so if you don't plant something, they will cover the ground with weeds. 

 They say the definition of a weed is a plant they haven't found a use for yet. Some time ago some one wrote in a newspaper that some people in the Old Country eat and relish some plants that we call weeds. For instance, a weed we call Lamb's Quarters has everything needed for a healthy diet. Animals prefer it. I saw a good example of this one morning as I went to my garden. I saw tracks of a small deer along the side of the garden. Probably of a deer too young to have been educated by its mother. The tops of the Lamb's Quarters that grew along the edge of the garden had been cropped off and beets, beans, and peas had been apparently overlooked. I can remember Billy Welch telling me one time that in some of the Old Countries a weed the farmers called Pusley. I think the real name was persilane was called Miner's Lettuce.

 For several years now I've had trouble sleeping all night. I usually go to bed at about 9:30 and unless I'm really tired, I'll wake up at 2:00 or 3:00 and I'm wide awake and can't get back to sleep. I met my oldest brother's granddaughter who is an MD in Washington, D.C. and I asked if there was anything I could do to help in that situation. She said if I could find a dull, uninteresting book, read some of that then lie down again. The only book in my room at the time was an English version of a Good News Bible that Jim's wife had given me some time ago. There are parts where some of those old timers got carried away like telling of the different tribes and the numbers of men in each tribe fulfills the dull part but then a little further on where the Lord opens the Sea for the Israelis and then when the Egyptians pursue them and the Lord brings the water back on them it gets quite exciting. The Lord didn't believe in halfway measures. If someone sinned against Him or if He wanted to move His chosen people into another part of the country He would tell Moses to destroy the inhabitants, down to the women and children. This seems as harsh treatment but he was the Lord their God and He demanded strict obedience. I wonder what the people today would do if they were confronted with such strict laws?