Springfield, Missouri - Hosted by Congressman Blunt, the 7th Annual Southwest Missouri Agriculture Tour will inspect thirteen of the region’s best farms, ranches and agri-businesses on August 20 and 21.

"With 13 stops, this will be one of the busiest tours we have ever undertaken. Past tours have proven to be learning experiences about the leadership and innovation Southwest Missouri agricultural producers bring to the region’s economy," Blunt said.

The House Majority Whip said, "We’ll watch goats that are used to eat and control brush at the Wilson Creek National Battlefield and visit a one-acre pond north of Strafford that is home to the nation’s largest breeder and broker for alligator snapping turtles. The tour will inspect an egg farm north of Monett where 6,000 roosters watch over 66,000 hens that produce an estimated 55,000 eggs a day and see a chick hatchery in Springfield that markets a million chicks a year through the U.S. mail."

"Ed Pinegar’s championship Limousin cattle and Greg Estes’ champion border collies are on the two-day tour," Blunt said, "along with a demonstration by young equestrians at Sac River Stables. A Springfield company that uses fish to fertilize vegetables and a tree nut farm near Joplin are included too. The tour will make stops at agri-businesses that specialize in animal nutrition products and bovine artificial insemination along with a hog processing plant, currently under renovation in Pleasant Hope."

Blunt’s annual Southwest Missouri Agriculture Tour will maintain an international flavor as trade representatives from Japan and Taipei participate for the fourth consecutive year. The new Director-General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Kansas City, Jo-chin Wang will be on her first Southwest Missouri Ag Tour. Japanese Consul General Takao Shibata and his wife, Mieko, who has a background in agriculture, will be making their second tour; Vice Consul Osamu Kawai will be on his first tour. Southwest Missouri State University President John Keiser, Crowder College President Kent Farnsworth and Ozarks Community Technical College President Norman Myer are listed among the 60-plus tour goers.

California Congressman Devin Nunes (R-Bakersfield) will attend the second day of the tour. "As representative from a heavy agricultural district myself, I think it’s important to compare farming issues around the country," Nunes said. "Together, we can help strengthen and maintain a healthy and productive environment for our hardworking farmers. I look forward to becoming more acquainted with the successes and challenges of Missouri agriculture."

Blunt said, "People in agriculture pride themselves on being good stewards of the land. They seek to use the best practices and new technologies available to maximize resources and increase production while protecting the environment. The Agriculture Tour emphasizes that stewardship. The people in agriculture deal daily with the new environmental challenges and changing market conditions that influence the strength of the agricultural economy so vital to the overall good health of the region."

When we were small enough, my brother and I used ta share a number 10 wash tub on hot summer days. We’d fill it with the water hose and splash it all out. ‘Course divin’ was discourage.

Sometime down the road we acquired a lawn sprinkler to "run through" which was eventually replaced with "squirtin’ each other" with the water hose nozzle.

Sometimes the neighbor kids would join in and ever’one would act like they didn’t wanna be the one squirted.

As the subtleties of the game developed, pinchin’ off the hose and gettin’ someone to look down the nozzle was usually effective with the resultin’ spray as the pinch was released.

Playin’ in the water always caused laughter, but I guess summer is a funny time.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

McCune- Brooks Hospital

TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH


By Paul G. Donohue, M.D.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: For 60 years I had no trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Now when I lie down, my legs feel like they are getting a series of shocks. I have to get out of bed and move around, and then the shocks stop. What is this, and what can I do for it? It makes me tired all day. — M.S.

ANSWER: The thief stealing your sleep is restless leg syndrome, and you wouldn’t believe how many people it victimizes. Three percent of those from 18 to 25 have it, but with age the numbers increase. By age 80, 18 percent to 25 percent suffer from it.

Affected people complain of peculiar sensations in their legs when they lie down to sleep. Some have the trouble when they sit in a chair. They describe the sensations as feeling like something is crawling under the skin of their legs, as an itchiness, as a series of shocks or as outright pain.

To put an end to the disruptive sensations, these unfortunates have to get up and move around.

The problem does not come from the legs. It comes from the brain generating errant impulses that are responsible for the irksome sensations.

Sometimes restless leg syndrome results from an iron deficiency, and restoring iron to the body cures the problem. That, however, is limited only to a small percentage of patients. For most, no cause can be found.