Columns

DeSoto Parish has had a long and happy relationship with its sister parish to the south, Sabine Parish. DeSoto has shared citizens, politics and even land with Sabine. Sabine Parish was organized in 1843 only a couple of months before DeSoto. Actually DeSoto’s southern border was originally a creek but a short time later a land swap between the two parishes created a straight line that followed a state section line.

Let’s get shakin!!!

Some will say gas is convenient, I would agree, but it can be about what you are cooking. I prefer to have both but now I have used a pellet grill but that will have to be a “Tips and Tales” of its own.

A true southerner will tell you there’s nothing like charcoal and if you are using gas, you aren’t country or just lazy. My ole dad instilled that in me till I was out of high school, at which point he went and bought a gas grill. I cherish our times grilling together and I also know learning on charcoal or open flame doesn’t have the forgiveness of a controlled gas grill and I probably learned much more. Getting that gas grill ole Benwood (my dad) admitted, he was aging, sometimes if we want a steak or veggies we want it without the work, this I can also relate to.

By Jann Franklin My Mom Doesn’t Mind-She Tells Me So All The Time

I think as parents it’s hard sometimes for us to determine when our kids are old enough to make their beds, tie their shoes, clean their rooms, etc. I’ve seen a lot of kids unleashed on the world not knowing how to make a budget, shop for groceries, do their laundry. I’ve also seen kids in Elementary School that don’t seem to be able to do much either.

Nathan’s best friend Kyle came over to play with him and Cameron. The boys took cans of soda in the dining room and started to build a master planned maze of highways for their cars on the table. I believe they were about eight years old.

with Chef Hunter Lee Let’s get shakin!!!

I will admit I’ve never been that big into Football and that might make me a bad Southerner BUT I do love LSU and I keep up with our teams here in the parish.

Football season in the south has and will always be the perfect time of year, even for me. It signifies fall, cooler weather, hunting season, holidays, and family and friends.

Going to a football party? Having people out to the camp for a fire? What ya bringin? For campfire get togethers or in the accidental event that someone forces me to go to a football party, one of my favorite “go-to’s” is the country slider. It’s easy, inexpensive, and tasty.

DeSoto Extension Agent

Plant Ornamental Peppers for Spicy Fall Flair

The South has no reason for fall foliage envy. The traditional colors of autumn can be found in ornamental peppers — which can be planted into any sunny landscape to add spice and fall flair.

The typical fall colors are inspired by the seasonal changing of leaves as temperatures cool and days become shorter. The South never seems to get the dramatic color changes that more northern climates enjoy. But look closely when you see ornamental pepper plants, and you will find the traditional colors of orange, yellow, red and purple.

Ornamental peppers (Capsicum annuum) are grown for their colorful, and sometimes edible, peppers. They can be grown both outdoors as a cool-season annual in Louisiana and in containers that can brought indoors to overwinter.

(Originally Ran in March 2020)

With the interest in the preserving of the Nabors Trailers Sign headed up by David Calhoun it appears appropriate for a historical article to be written about W.C. Nabors, the owner and founder of the Nabors Trailers Company. W.C. (Will) Nabors was born in Naborton, La. on Dec. 16, 1977. There aren’t many people living today that knew Mr. Nabors personally. This writer knew him but not on a social level.

The Deserving Teacher

Let’s get shakin!!! Let me start by saying as an adult I realize any teacher that had the misfortune of having me in his or her class deserves a medal and an apology, not a cupcake or dessert. I was a more a nightmare than teacher’s pet. Luckily it was a phase (or I think it was). For some reason most of them like me now and I have a unique respect for them.

Anyway, if you have a child like I was you should probably start now trying to make up for it. But even if you are one of the few that has a good child it’s always nice to show your gratitude. Going out of your way for our teachers is something special, southern, polite, and in my opinion not done often enough. Thank those teachers with these homemade treats you put atop your favorite (or store bought) cupcakes are a perfect way to say thank you.

Apple Cupcake toppers

• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) brick cream cheese, softened

• 36 OREO Cookies, finely crushed (about 3 cups)

By Josh Salley, DeSoto Extension Agent

Monarch mayday: Send in the Natives

The monarch butterfly has been listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature on its Red List of Threatened Species. Habitat loss from devastating weather patterns and the use of pesticides have been cited as reasons leading to a severe decline in both the monarch and its host plant, milkweed.

Each year, the monarch population migrates from Canada and northern U.S. to Southern California and Mexico, where they overwinter. According to the Xerces Society, there has been a steep decline of 70% to upward of 95% of the migrating populations.

with Chef Hunter Lee Labor Day Relief

Let’s get shakin!!!

As I see the kiddos returning to school, my social media is flooded with first day back to school pictures; I reminisce. I don’t have children but most of my friends do.

I remember back to when I was young when their parents were young. Back to school shopping, moms and dads exhausted from the summer heat and let’s be honest, THE KIDS.

I remember Labor Day weekend, I remember it was the last hoorah, it meant the long hot days of our southern summer were coming slowly to an end. I remember growing up we never started school before Labor Day.

Grove Hill Community, very important in early DeSoto Parish history, is now known by most people as “Double Churches” and has a very rich history. Through the years, as with many communities, most of the citizens move away to cities and forget about the their original communities.

By the mid-1800’s settlers from the southeastern states in America homesteaded the area about ten miles southeast of Mansfield. The most prominent things in the community were Grove Hill Baptist Church, Bethel Methodist Church, a store, a one-room school and a post office. The area had been a part of the Spanish Land Grant of Pierre Dolet during the late 1700’s. Pierre Dolet was the largest cattleman in North Louisiana with several thousand cows spread over the entire southern portion of present-day DeSoto Parish. He drove his cattle all the way to Opelousas, LA to the market there.