Our Place

While the nation and Arkansas celebrated Martin Luther King day with Parades and closed federal agencies, there was another, quieter state holiday here in the natural state. The third Monday in January is also Robert E. Lee day here. An interesting contrast to say the least.

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Here is a shot of the new clan at feeding time. I put out three bowls but they all like to crowd into one. Apparently their new job is to keep the pond safe from cows, and they are quite diligent about it.

A few weeks ago our dog Snarky got out on the highway and was killed. I have now finished installing fence, gates and a substantial doghouse for the Grand kids puppies and dachshund that are coming to stay. There was 4 foot welded wire fence around half the yard with barbed wire fencing in the rest. I get to keep two of the puppies, some sort of lab/mutt mix, I will take photos of the mob tomorrow. My father used to say that if you build it and it looks like it was always there you did a good job. I think the new doghouse passes that test as it blends right in with the old tool shed.

After 47 years living in Los Angeles with a population density of over 7,500 souls per square mile, then 6 years in the Portland, Oregon metro area with 1500 people per square mile I have arrived in Montgomery county, Arkansas, an area with a whopping 12 people per square mile. Needless to say most people know most everyone else here and although there is a strong sense of live and let live, the gossip mill does run. It is best exemplified by the local paper. In L.A. there are so many people and so much crime that unless shots were fired, a bank robbery will go unreported. In Gresham, Oregon, the police blog ran a list of arrests and property crimes. Here the paper will print your name if you get a $45 ticket for not buckling your seat belt. Not only that but 90% of the county is either related to each other by blood or marriage, or are former school mates, or old friends or neighbors, or all of the above, and they will know that you were ticketed even before the weekly rag is published.

I realize that modern social networking over the internet has vastly increased the amount and speed of information available, no matter how trite or boring, but that is just a mere shadow of how a small county grapevine operates.

For the record I have not received any tickets, nor been pulled over, but I am very cautious. Trust me if I were to wink at a women while walking out of the store, news of the indiscretion would reach home before I did.

There is a silver lining to this however. Any crimes that are committed are solved pretty fast, and although driveways are a half mile apart here, there is a sort of neighborhood watch. That watch includes the mailman, delivery guys, as well as anyone who knows your place and vehicles. Combine that with an almost certainty that the residences of any of these rural places have guns and dogs and burglarizing one of the houses out here is not such a great idea. As I like to say I have 15 acres a shotgun and a shovel.

…Right on his head!

LITTLE ROCK — A Pulaski County circuit judge came to the rescue of his bailiff Monday, using his gavel to help subdue a jail inmate fleeing from his courtroom.

The inmate was struggling with bailiff Ronnie Smith, two attorneys and at least one courtroom spectator just outside the courtroom, Judge Barry Sims said. The judge said he wanted to use his stun gun to subdue James Davis, but when he realized he’d left the stun gun in his chambers, he struck the man with the only thing he had left, his gavel.

“I ran out there to see if I could help,” Sims said. “He would not go to the ground. He would not go down. I grabbed my gavel and I tapped him on the head and he went down.”