By Rennie Phillips

On a weekly basis, I write an article for the Southeast Missourian newspaper. Many of these articles deal with gardening, or more specifically, growing vegetables.

I took the Master Gardener class a number of years ago, and we did a little studying on flowers and such, but I honestly know very, very little about flowers. I know more about vegetables.

Am I an expert on vegetables? I don't believe so. It seems like the more I learn, the more I realize how little I really do know. I probably know more than the average gardener but can't hold a candle to guys like Paul Schnare.

When we were growing up, it was kind of the norm to correct the little ones with everything from a talking to up to a good spanking. But little by little, some have advised new parents spanking will cause problems with the children's inner person, so they shouldn't be physically spanked. One should correct them by talking to them in a normal voice.

This might work for some children. It won't work for others. I believe there are some kids that one could beat to death, and it wouldn't change anything. But there are some kids where all it takes is a word or two. Some would profit from a darn good butt warming as well.

Who's the expert? I don't believe it's the writer or publisher who has all the degrees and clinical data. I would say it's the grandparents who have raised their own as well as the neighbors' and are now dealing with grandkids.

Mom and Dad raised two girls and two boys. And then they had the privilege of being blessed with a bunch of grandkids. It seemed like there was always a grandkid or two staying at Mom and Dad's. Mom and Dad and my grandparents knew how to raise good kids.

If I wanted to talk to an expert on milking cows, I'd find someone who had actually milked a cow or two.

I watched a video of a dairy the other day that had 35,000 cows. They said on the video that at any given time, they would be milking 33,000 cows. This dairy milked cows around the clock.

Now, if you wanted information on automated milking, this is where you would find an expert.

But if you wanted to find out about hand milking, then look for some old geezer who grew up on a farm or ranch and grew up poor. Most likely, they paid their bills by selling milk and cream and probably eggs.

Mom and Dad milked 10 to 20 cows morning and night by hand year 'round. This sounds like a lot, and it was.

Marge and I milked the cows for Mom and Dad for some reason. Marge has commented many times she didn't think we would ever get them milked. We knew what it was like to milk when the temperature was below zero and there was snow on the ground. But we also knew what it was like to milk the cows in the heat of the summer.

Once you had all the cows milked, you needed to separate the milk. Way back when, this was with a hand-cranked milk separator. Eventually, Dad got an electric one, which was uptown.

Once the milk was separated, we'd put the cream in the ice box and take most of the milk out to the hogs. If we had bucket calves, we fed them. We may have kept some to drink. It was work.

Today, we have experts on everything, and I mean everything. But I would tend to call them self-proclaimed experts. They may know a little about the topic, but not enough to amount to anything.

Experts in gardening and growing vegetables. Experts in politics. Experts in cooking. Experts in travel. Experts in religion. Experts who try to tell the police how to police. Experts in canning and food preservation. Experts at telling the news groups how to report the news. Experts in everything.

But that little voice inside me keeps asking: "Do they really know what they are talking about? Are they as good as they are letting on?" So I take most everything with a grain of salt.

About a week ago, I was reading about a tomato grower who wrote this one particular heirloom tomato plant had produced close to 80 tomatoes, with each one weighing between 1 and 2 pounds.

If this is indeed true, then it was a miracle. And this would not just be a normal run-of-the-mill miracle but a whopper of a miracle. Most tomato plants will produce from 8 to 12 pounds of tomatoes per vine and not 80 to 100 pounds. Big difference.

So when I boil it down, don't expect me to take what you say at face value. Don't expect me to take what I read or hear and believe it's the gospel truth. I'm suspicious, to say the least. And if you ask me if I believe you, I'll either not answer, or I'll tell you what I believe and not what you want to hear.

I believe all of us need to be more careful about what we share with others. Is it the absolute truth or does it only contain half-truths? To me, a half-truth is nothing but gossip if we share it.

Our news agencies need to be more responsible on who they interview and make sure they actually have knowledge of the topic. And if a topic is covered, then the topic needs to be covered like it's news and not for the shock or wow effect.

Just my two cents' worth.

Until next time.