Howl
The Coyote-Human crisis threatens to erupt into full-scale warfare
Savage interlopers bite children, horses; they sense our fear
One man rises up and chokes his rabid foe to death with his bare hands. But will others summon the courage to follow his example?
Our nation is under siege.
For months now, Americans young and old from every region have faced a series of terrible assaults from savage interlopers, attacks that have no parallel in recent memory. So frequent have these incidents become that it’s impossible to list them all, let alone give account of their troubling specifics. But lest we grow numb to the threat that they present to our families and communities, County Highway believes it’s incumbent upon us to offer a sample of these recent stories, sparing no detail.
Arlington, Texas. The caller to 9-11 was frantic, possibly in shock. She pleaded with the dispatcher to send an ambulance, but couldn’t at first identify her location, only that she was in a public park. “Two big coyotes,” she managed to report while holding back tears, had bitten her small daughter and attempted to drag her into the woods — an attempt which was …
Turner's Diner, Tire, and Lube
Where they’ve burned the ‘No Smoking’ signs, but never the toast
Bill Evans has taken to stealing radiators for liquor money
A cathead biscuit smothered in hot gravy and the company of strangers like us can make waking up in the morning almost tolerable
It’s 7:43 AM. Merle is on the radio making empty promises. “Someday when things are good / I’m going to leave you,” he sings. But we know better. I am sitting in a corner booth, surrounded by the rising tufts of Marlboros, and still trying to wake up good. Coffee stouter than napalm is dripping, slow and thick, into a pot purchased when Bill Clinton was still attorney general of our fair state. Breakfast is on its way. It’s the only reason I got out of bed before the sun had a chance to warp my feet.
I am not a morning person. If the Good Lord had intended for me to see the sun rise, he would have scheduled that for the middle of the day. I rise early because I ought to, sometimes because I have to, but never because I want to. I can’t recall one good thing in my life ever happening before noon. It’s never good news when the phone rings at 5 AM. It’s either people in the hospital, folks dead or dying, or …
Agricultural Digest
According to the latest USDA census, conducted in 2022 and released just last month, total US farm acreage decreased by almost 20 million acres between 2017 and 2022. The United States lost 142,000 farms during that period. The data also showed that there are 300,000 farm producers (defined as “a person who is involved with making decisions for the farm operation”) younger than 35; 1.78 million between ages 35–64; and 1.29 million over 65. The average age of farm producers is increasing, now sitting at 58.1 years, up from 57.5 in 2017. The producers are oldest in the South and West and youngest in the upper Midwest.
The bottom line: America’s farming industry is aging out, and fewer and fewer family farms are being passed on. Part of that is due to just how hard it is to compete with large industrial farms that produce at scale, and the crushing burdens of paper work and regulation that small producers are …
