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by C.J. Mouser After growing up in Texas, C.J. Mouser and her husband, Fred, eventually found home on a small farm in west central Florida, where they and children Jenny, Jillian and Jake grow oranges and raise swine. A collection of goats, cats and dogs also call the farm home, along with the occasional rattlesnake, alligator or "marauding wild hog intent on a little romance" in the sow pasture. Other articles focus on family. "Sometimes the threads that hold the family together are as fragile as spider silk, and as convoluted and complex as the main switchboard at the IRS." Their farm spans thirty acres in Hardee County, where they raise livestock, oranges, and the occasional few acres of some type of cash crop. Although her husband had some background in animal husbandry and livestock management, life on the farm was a new experience for C J and their three children. Her readers have learned to expect to laugh and occasionally cry, as she describes her joys, trials, and tribulations in such tales as Ricardo Ropes a Pig, The Maternal Instinct, Memories on the Hoof, and Never Take a Duck to Bed. Mouser, who is also a freelance writer and columnist for several different Florida newspapers, followed her own path to become a writer. "I have no formal education. In fact, I'm 45 years old and haven't finished high school," she says. "I am a prime example of 'don't let this happen to you'." Faithful readers who can't wait for her next story, however, would say she's done just fine. |
Near the border of New Mexico is a Texas town called Marfa. If you've ever seen the movie "Giant" with Rock Hudson, then you know what Marfa looks like. That's where it was filmed in 1956. The name is unusual, and is reputed to come from a Russian character in "The Brothers Karamazov;" the book being read by the wife of a railroad executive as they passed through the region. Marfa in Russian simply means "Martha." I have a different theory. I often wonder where the names for some towns come from, and I can't help thinking that the town is misnamed after some poor little girl named Martha, with a bad lisp; the only surviving female in a rugged wagon train some hundred and twenty years ago. "Well, we made it to, uh - this here place, and we ain't goin' no further. We're gonna name it after you, 'cuz yer the only female. What do they call you, darlin'?" "Marfa!" Followed by a grin exposing teeth that could bite an apple between two fence pickets. But Marfa is not famous for the movie, or its name. It's famous for the mysterious lights that dance and flicker across Mitchell Flat near the Chinati Mountains. What is significant about these lights is that they have been appearing for over a century. Back before there were headlights or lights from passing aircraft. Back in the 1800s, cowboys and pioneers first noticed the lights and spent many a sleepless night thinking they were the lights from Apache campfires. It is such a popular attraction that the Texas Department of Transportation has built a rest stop dubbed the "Marfa Mystery Lights Viewing Area" to accommodate the people who travel from miles away to view the phenomenon. Two scientists, one in Houston, and the other in Brisbane, Australia, claim that similar "Min Min" lights in outback Queensland are caused by freak weather conditions creating an inverted mirage. The study says that The Marfa Lights are in fact car headlights reflected off white soils that cover the sloping surfaces of mesas and ridges along the northern flank of the Chinati Mountains. The study concluded that car headlights can be miles from the reflecting surface - that light reflected along curved surfaces tends to form distorted images. Okay, fine. But try explaining that to Robert Ellison, one of the first settlers in the area who supposedly witnessed these mysterious glowing orbs way back in 1883. Like any true unexplained phenomenon, the best way to decide for yourself is to go see them and make up your own mind - assuming you've got the time to devote to the drive, not to mention getting back. I don't have to go. I've already made up my mind that the lights are simply a reflection of the moonlight bouncing back off of poor old "Marfa's" teeth |
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