Custer County Chronicle

Growing up on our family farm and ranch, there were two time periods that were busiest: calving season in the spring and harvest in the fall. The time has come for farmers to harvest most of their crops. It’s the fruit of their labor after a long growing season.

If you weren’t at the Custer VFW the evening of Sept. 11, you didn’t hear my debut as a Bingo caller. As of the four Custer Rotary club members who volunteered at our new Bingo game, I was selected to be the one to call the numbers.
I have always enjoyed playing Bingo, and the game brings back a lot of fun memories for me, because it was something that for years I did with my sister, my mother and my grandparents.

My kitchen disappeared weeks ago. The countertops are there, somewhere, underneath the mounds of scallop squash and zucchini and baskets of eggs. I’m the unfortunate breed of gardener who assumes that if one plant is good, 15 is better and, oh, I reap the rewards. If I have doubts about how something will produce, I figure I’ll cover my bases and plant a dozen, or a few dozen of them, just to see what happens, just in case.

Yet another Black Hills summer has come and is nearly gone. The temperatures are still pushing the mercury high on the thermometer, but the ground is starting to collect the yellow and brown leaves which have already begun to drop. Usually, this is a depressing time of year for me. I enjoy the changing of the seasons and excitement that comes with it, but I always seem to mourn the departure of summer, my favorite season.