A first time for everything

by Mati Abner

Hundreds of youth exhibitors from across the state gather at the State Fair of Texas to show their livestock projects Many exhibitors come from a place where raising livestock has been in the family for years However, Howe High School sophomore, Molly Wilson, showed a pig for the first time during the Youth Market Barrow Show Before she became involved with FFA she was involved more with sports and academics and never had an interest for agriculture After enrolling in a freshman agricultural science class, she became more involved from her Ag teacher, Tracy Blum Last year Wilson competed in Wool Evaluation, FFA Junior Prepared Public Speaking, and was a member of the state qualifying FFA Agricultural Advocacy Team and she currently serves as the Howe FFA Treasurer Her involvement in these activities is what Wilson said sparked her interest for agriculture

Wilson’s priorities changed this past May as she received her first State Fair pig “I told my friends who didn’t understand what I was doing that I had a responsibility first before I could come hang out,” she said For six months Wilson faced many challenges while also learning life lessons along the way “It is a time commitment,” Wilson added “It is a lot to handle and I am a perfectionist so I had to learn how to be patient with my pig but I learned responsibility for all aspects of life ” After the hard months of hard work leading up to the show, Wilson arrived to the Fair with her pig “Monday night we did all of the

Wilson showing her crossbred barrow at the State Fair of Texas on Tuesday October 3, 2017. Submitted photo prepping for show day, going over how to show and what to expect,” she said Despite the stress that came along with show day, Wilson added that her family was able to enjoy time together at the fair Forgetting all of the nerves once she stepped into the show ring Wilson was able to embrace the moment Even though the outcome was not quite what she had hoped for, Wilson said that it has been a great learning experience and was happy that she was pushed out of her comfort zone Wilson plans to continue showing pigs at the Texoma Exposition and Livestock Show and possibly more Texas majors in the future She plans on attending Texas A&M University after graduation

Submitted photo

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It may seem insensitive, but the idea of stress being an issue we can control is worth considering Many within the medical world agree that stress is not a monster that forces us to be afraid but rather our worries originate as a response from within our own mind Thus, if we can learn how to re-wire the way we think, we can begin to walk in victory over the stress which we blame for ruining our happiness In some way or another, we have heard about going to our “happy place” a seemingly magical location where we can take shelter from whatever is threatening our security But just what is this well-intentioned advice really talking about? It can mean different things to different people but to many, it’s a place in the deepest part of our conscience where we can commune with God and embrace the safety and joy of His presence I remember a movie where a young girl was experiencing severe anxiety and panic attacks whenever a stressful situation would present itself Her family would lovingly remind her to go to her happy place, and she would close her eyes and begin to control her breathing As she blocked out what was happening around her and focused on comforting thoughts, she would eventually calm down and return to a peaceful state of being As Christians, we are reminded that Jesus is a type of strong tower where those who are afraid can run into Him and be safe Psalm 91:1 says, “They who dwell in the

Monday, October 16, 2017

Choosing to give our stress to God

secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God in Him will I trust.” If we stop and think, we realize that everyone has a choice to either emotionally wrestle with their problems or immediately give them over to God and let Him take care of them If you notice when we become entangled with these external circumstances and allow them to hold us in the bondage of stress, we are consumed with hopelessness and can hardly focus on anything else However, when we embrace God’s truth by faith and allow Him to carry them for us, our confidence is renewed as we press forward in the freedom of His peace which passes all understanding

God’s promise that no weapon formed against us can prosper, is another confirmation how the mountains and giants may try to intimidate us but if we listen and obey His instructions they cannot defeat us! Anxiety, fear, tension, stress, and worry are caused by thinking too much about the future, while guilt, regret, resentment, sadness and all types of unforgiveness are established by concentrating too much on the past I was listening to a sports commentator the other day as he was explaining how a positive mental state is a crucial factor when it comes to success. He mentioned a particular football team that had recently lost a game by barely missing a field goal with no time left on the clock The intensity of this gut-wrenching defeat was multiplied by the fact they had been defeated by this opposing team 30 years in a row He was sympathetic yet making the point that if they could not get past this heart-breaking agony, this discouragement could possibly cause them to lose their next game Living in the present means not allowing the disappointments from our past to prevent us from accomplishing the victories that are waiting for us in the future How critical it is to remember that God never intended for us to carry the heavy weight of our burdens but rather to know and trust God, surrender our will and give everything we have and all that we are to Him Yes, there will be difficulties but He is here now to put His arms around you and fill you with hope and faith Consider this wonderful passage of inspiration found in II Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed ”

Dr Holland lives in Central Kentucky where he is a Christian minister, community chaplain and author of the book, “A lifestyle of Worship ” Discover more at: billyhollandministries com

Learn about antiques and collectibles with Dr. Georgia Caraway

dancing, bonfires, and feasting

Families honored their ancestors by preparing food and drink to make sure their “spiritual relatives (ghosts)” who walked among them that night were content and did not cause any harm Some Celts donned costumes and masks to disguise themselves from evilminded creatures

Invading Roman armies brought their own harvest festival and fused their celebration with Samhain

The British brought their beliefs to American in the form of All Saints’ (All Hallows) Day on November 1 and began to celebrate the day before as Hallows’ Eve or Even With time this changed to October 31 and came to be known as Halloween funky skeleton and owl posters and the cutest bottle brush trees that are selling out before they hit the door

All of these decorative items can carry over through Thanksgiving until you are ready to decorate for Christmas Yikes is it really only 70 days until Christmas?

Plan to dress up and bring your costume-clad children and grandchildren to downtown for Howe-lloween There will be vendors giving out candy and other treats, entertainment, FUMC’s trunk or treat, and Howe Mercantile will be open with some special sales to start the Holiday season off right

A special feature will be Bucky (Wayne Carlisle) and his Howemade goat milk soap from Bucky’s

Goat Farm and two of the “girls” that produce the milk for this amazing product

Dr Georgia Caraway, former director of the Denton County Museums for 14 years, and her friends opened the Howe Mercantile at 107 East Haning Store hours are Thursday through Saturday noon until 8 p m She has written five Denton history books She hopes her next book will be the history of Howe If anyone has photos that she can copy, please bring them to Howe Mercantile

Downtown Howe has two gift and antique shops Howe Mercantile and Stark Farms Gifts SHOP LOCAL We can show you Howe!

Home school students build robot for upcoming competition

Howe Mercantile is ready for Fall and especially for the Howelloween season I love the name that the Chamber has given to the October 28 event in Downtown Howe. I have found in the last 3 years that Howe acknowledges this holiday in ways that allow children and adults to have fun with this spooky night and promotes safety for everyone. How smart for the Chamber to choose October 28 instead of the school night of the 31st for the city event

Although there are pagan connotations and religious opposition to Halloween, those issues evolved from customs dating back to the Celts, a tribal people who lived more than 2 millennia ago The Celts held a Harvest Festival on October 31, Samhain, their most important religious holiday Celts celebrated with

It is fun to decorate your home with Halloween and Fall décor Howe Mercantile brought some really great concrete pumpkins from Pennsylvania that can be decorated or left plain if you like the shabby look We also have Amish-made cloth orange pumpkins that look so cute stacked in a bowl Smitten has

A group of home school students are preparing yet again for the robotics competition coming up Oct 21

The competition is entirely different from a year ago The theme is "Cross Fire" which is a burning industrial complex The officers of the group demonstrated their new robot which will proceed near an area representing a burning structure The robot will remove "toxic waste drums" to a contained area and also rescue a "person" from near the burning structure The robot will also shoot ping pong balls (representing water) at plastic cups (representing fire) and contain the blaze

The shooting mechanism was not in place as of Wednesday afternoon, but was to be permanently placed on Wednesday evening.

"We've tested it before on the prototype, but we haven't actually got it on the final robot yet," said Joshua Williams "We were shooting the ping pong balls all the way across the shop

The leaders of the team are Nicholas Williams, presentation leader, Nicholas Plumlee, exhibit leader, Joshua Williams, production leader, and Jacob Williams, CEO

The team won first place at hub competition and qualified for regionals a year ago as Kingdom Country Academy (KCA), but now are with Texoma Home Educators (THE) which has a long legacy

They also won an award in the notebook category a year ago

Dr. Ken Bridges

Dr Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor He can be reached at drkenbridges@gmail com

Murder came to the darkened neighborhoods of the capital city on New Years Eve 1884 Mollie Smith, a young cook, was murdered with an axe, her body dragged outside and left in the yard Her employer was also injured This was the first of a series of eight deaths in Austin over the course of a year In what became one of the earliest serial murder cases in the United States, the deaths left a bustling city used to political scandal and stories of death on the frontier gripped in terror

On March 19, 1885, two young servant girls were hit with an axe while they slept Though they survived, they could not identify their attacker Another young woman, Eliza Shelley, a cook, was killed by an axe two months later while she slept This was followed by another murder two weeks later and an 11-year-old girl in August Police had no suspects Modern investigative techniques did not exist at the time

Texas writer and Austin resident William Sydney Porter, also called O Henry, offhandedly called the murderer the “Servant Girl Annihilator” in a letter in 1885, and the name has since stuck with individuals studying the case The Servant Girl Murders, as they were typically called at the time, sent the growing city into a panic

The attacks were brazen, the acts of a madman filled with some undefined and maniacal rage Age, race, and social class made no difference In each case, the acts were committed while the victims slept and performed with either an axe or knife Sometimes the axe was left behind In many cases, the murderer took his boots off and wandered into the houses barefoot Police noted a missing toe on one foot But police were understaffed with only 12 undertrained officers, many of whom were known for visiting local saloons while on duty

Survivors were never able to identify their assailant One other witnessed that talked to police gave