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Just load the wagon

Lead Summary
By
Rory Ryan-hcpress@cinci.rr.com
Leaving downtown Needfull (sic) on a recent Friday morning, it occurred to me that our fall firewood season is right around the corner.

With the help of my son-in-law and HCP sports editor Stephen Forsha, I found a new pull cart/trailer for this fall and winter at Hillsboro's Rural King.

For many years, I've surveyed our standing dead trees and fallen timbers with one main proviso: The firewood would be accessible with our 4-wheel drive pickup. Last year, Colin and I began to realize that we have cherry-picked the easy-access stuff for far too long. This year, we will have to bring the logs up from the 40-acre bottom woods. Oh, joy, as Pam might say.

With the help of "Luna's Trail" – blazed by Colin for our dog, Luna, we are hoping the pull cart will serve its intended purpose.

Another realization crossed my mind this past week as I drove by my previous (late 1960s early '70s) home at the corner of Crooked & Whiskey in Concord Township.

I have been burning coal or firewood for the better part of 50 years. I've got a carbon footprint that would make a woke college freshman soil his carbon-neutral dungarees right down to his carbon-neutral sandals.

Heck, my carbon footprint is as big as Bob Lanier's basketball sneakers. (For you youngsters, Bob Lanier was the greatest Detroit Piston of them all.)

That's OK, though. I like to be warm in the winter months. I also like to have a backup source of energy when winter storms interrupt service from AEP.

* * *

Speaking of college freshmen, has anyone heard those chants at college football games directed against Joe Biden? Who'd a thunk it? Liberal college kids protesting against the imbecilic actions of a liberal Democrat president? The horror.

Or maybe it is the hope. Maybe there are a few 20-somethings out there who know the difference between spit and Shinola. Let's hope.

Seriously, does JoeBama (Biden) have any single, solitary positive accomplishment in his first nine months as president? Moreover, does he have any single, solitary positive accomplishment in his half-century on the government teat? The answers are no and no.

Biden is a withering example of the Peter Principle – the principle that a member of a hierarchy has been promoted until he reaches the level at which he is no longer competent. Biden exemplified the Peter Principle as a U.S. senator. At least in the Senate, it could be shrouded in collective secrecy. As president, it is sadly all too obvious. The world is watching – both our allies and our enemies.

From the disaster in Kabul to the Del Rio (i.e. Northern Haiti) Debacle, this is all on Biden. It's encouraging to see that a few youngsters in college are realizing it.

* * *

Back to the wagon headline. I doubt if too many readers (other than Herb Day, perhaps) are familiar with the song "Just Load the Wagon."

My earlier memory of the song was one recorded by Roy Acuff. Recently, I heard a Junior Sisk version that is even better.

Here are a few lines from the song:

Don't you worry 'bout the mule, now you just load the wagon
Pile it on 'till you can see them old springs a-saggin'
I ain't seen a load we couldn't pull, and I ain't braggin'
Don't you worry 'bout the mule, now you just load the wagon.

With that in mind, I just can't wait to gas up the old Husqvarna chainsaw and load the wagon one more time. It's an autumn state of mind for me. No worries. Unless you speak to my sore and aging back.

As it is written in Matthew 6:27: "And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?"

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press, Highland County's only locally owned and operated newspaper.

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