Past, Present and Future

In 1972 I drove to Memphis Tennessee to go to the Memphis Memorial Stadium to see my first outdoor concert ever.  It was a Three Dog Night concert with Buddy Miles starting the show off.  After that, the crowd was electrified by Black Oak Arkansas.  This morning I am listening to Jim Dandy and Black Oak Arkansas on Spotify as I write this blog post.  A little about that concert and then I will continue with the country blog.

Jim Dandy
Black Oak Arkansas

I had just graduated from high school and was going to be starting college in the fall where I would be studying journalism a field my parents supported but one my father told me I would not be able to make a good living in.  The concert was on June 21st if I remember correctly and me and my girlfriend at the time drove up to Memphis early that afternoon to see one of the top bands of the time and be a part of Rock and Roll.  I remember that Three Dog Night was every bit as good as we thought they would be.  They played some of the songs from their new LP and the concert was fantastic.  There was a big screen jumbo tron of some type and it was the first time I had ever seen anything like that.  As good as Three Dog Night was the two performances before them were that much better.  Buddy Miles came out to the center of the filed wearing a flowing cape.  It was the first day of summer in Memphis and already steaming hot.  The cape was not something we expected.  After striding out and mounting the stage he made his way to his drums and spread his arms like an eagle, flaring the cape to its maximum extent.  The cape looked like beautiful butterfly wings, brightly colored and flapping in the west Tennessee breeze.  The crowd went wild and that set the stage for the event.  I don't think we sat down the whole concert.  After Miles brought the house to its feet, Black Oak Arkansas took the stage and brought the house down.  Jim Dandy walked out taking long strides in his buckskin moccasin boots that came up to his knees, white, skin-tight pants wearing no shirt. His long, chest length hair flowed in the same wind that lifted Buddy Miles' cape in the stirring start of this rock and roll event.  He was using a long walking stick that was taller than he was to make his way across the field as he charged the stage and performed in a way that I had not seen any other band ever perform.  If I remember he started the set with Jim Dandy to the Rescue and from there it only got better.  By the time they finished their performance Three Dog Night was playing to an audience in a frenzy.  Music pretty much makes me feel that same way to this day.  I can tell you music what was playing in the background of my life through every stage of my life.  Music of all genre has and always will be an integral part of my enjoyment of life.  Now as I am writing this blog I am still listening to Black Oak Arkansas from the 1970s. Still fantastic Southern Rock.

Now on to the country life.  Last night I pulled up the poultry sites on the web and began researching my chicken decisions for the spring.  I have not raised hens since I was a little boy in Madison, Mississippi and at that time we were raising them for eggs and meat.  As we enter into this venture we will be raising them only for eggs and the enjoyment of having them around our house.  I have done a good deal of thinking an planning and even checked with local sources to see when their young chicks would be arriving and going on sale.

Hens are pretty weather hardy and very tolerable of both heat and cold but chicks as do all babies, need a lot of care for the first few weeks. The chicks will start arriving in the feed and seed stores and co-ops around here the end of this month.  Depending on the weather at the time I hope to start purchasing them at that time.  I am going to purchase some hens that are already laying along with some chicks.  I have some work to do to get our place "chicken" ready but I don't think that will be that difficult or expensive.  It is my intent to take photos of all that I am doing so I can share them with you here on this blog

I have found a number of great documents from Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas and Mississippi about raising an egg flock.  Some of the best documents come from The 4-H Club. This is the link to MSU (Mississippi State University) 4-H poultry doc. http://msucares.com/4h_Youth/4hindex.html and another from Maryland http://extension.umd.edu/publications/PDFs/MEP300.pdf .

I am about to leave and go watch the State 4-A Girls' Mississippi Soccer Championship so I have to stop writing for a now. The whole family will be going to cheer on the Florence High School Girls Soccer team to their second straight State Championship.

Oh, by the way.  Punxsutawney Phil, the famous groundhog did not see his shadow. He predicts there will be an early spring.  :-)

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Until next time...John