If the ranch calendar were compared to a single day, then early Spring at Medicine Spirit Ranch is like that sleepy part of the early morning when we groggily awaken but are far from alert or fully functioning. Finally it appears that the icy fingers of Winter have passed us by, but the fields and hills remain brown, dormant, and thirsty.
For the next several weeks and until the grass greens and grows, we will continue to haul giant bales of hay for the cattle and horses to eat. I’m often asked when do we discontinue feeding hay to our animals. The answer is easy, its when the animals stop eating the hay, as they always prefer green grass and will suddenly begin to ignore the hay.
Those of us living in central Texas remain in drought conditions. Until meaningful rain occurs, the brown grass will remain. So far no rain has crept into our forecast. As the wise, old owner of the feed store I frequent says when asked about expected rain, “Today we are one day closer to a good rain.”
Regrettably, tending my blog has flagged of late. This lack of attention results from two sources. First, my new book on Hitler’s health and its impact on World War II has been accepted and is finally in press. Covid greatly delayed the process of reviewing and publishing the work, as it has just about everything else in our lives. Still considerable works exists for me to redo small portions of the book, chase down print ready copies of photos, and laboriously provide an index. All of these items takes time and effort. Also discussions are ongoing with the publisher over the title. Whether or not my working title, Hitler: Prescription for Defeat, is descriptive enough remains under study.
My second distraction from my blog relates to weekly assignments received via my daughter and son. They have contracted with StoryWorth.com to email Trudy and me questions dealing with our growing up and our family recollections. Admittedly, I’ve found writing these stories enjoyable, time consuming, and have found that the effort prompts surprising recall.
I suppose Trudy and I are at that stage in life when we begin to sum up our lives. Now this is not to say that we don’t have plenty of kick left, just that we wish to leave a written legacy for those who will follow. Re-enforcement of our commitment to the project comes from the difficulty I’ve had discovering much about my great grandparents. Going back three generations in the family history exhausts our paltry memory banks. We hope the subsequent book published at the conclusion of this writing year will provide substantially more information for our offspring than we currently have about ours.
Great grandparents Thad Hutton and his wife Betty. He was a cowboy living on the Great Western Trail near Seymour, TX that led to Dodge City, Kansas. How we wished to know his adventures in the 1870s and 1880s and his possible interaction with such historical figures of the time as Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Wild Bill Hickok
So the good news is that another book for a popular audience of uncertain title should appear at the end of the year. The title may be different from the working title, but the information should prove novel and a different take on Hitler and his actions. The book despite his poor health describes Hitler as totally culpable for his terrible misdeeds and demonstrates how his poor health impacted his prosecution of the war but not the cause of his immorality.
In the meantime, if you haven’t had a chance to read my prior book, Carrying the Black Bag: A Neurologist’s Bedside Tales, I hope you will pick up a copy. The book has been well reviewed and provides humorous and poignant descriptions of people dealing with challenging health issues. All of us are likely to find ourselves in similar straits one day, and the book provides insights as to how to negotiate these inevitable occurrences while still maintaining self-dignity and feelings of worth.
Views From Medicine Spirit Ranch 