March Issue is up online!

You can click on the current issue tab or go here: Newest Issue to see the latest edition of the OCG-IL.

We have been working hard to get paper copies out to all our locations, add new locations, and continue to expand and grow.

Some of our locations didn't get February issues because my family was sick with the virus and we were stuck at home for almost all of February, so those locations should find double issues (February and March together).

Some of our newer locations received triple issues (January, February, and March all together) because I thought that might give those locations a better idea of what the OCG-IL is all about.

ALTAMONT: Altamont Public Library, The Cookie Jar, Wolf Creek Antique Mall;

ARTHUR: Yoder's Kitchen; Arthur Sale Barn

ASHMORE: I&I Deli and Gas;

BENLD: Frank Bertetti Benld Public Library; 

BREESE: Plant Land Garden Center; Moto Mart, Shell, Dairy King, Wally’s Burger Joint;

BROWNSTOWN: Brownstown Public Library;

CARLINVILLE: Nick's Pizza; Carlinville Public Library

CARLYLE: Case-Halstead Library, IGA, and Ten Pin Antique Mall; 

CASEY: Casey Township Library; Richards Farm Restaurant; Whitling Whimsy;

CENTRALIA: Buchheit, Centralia Public Library; 

CHARLESTON: Carpenter's Table/Standing Stones, Charleston Food Pantry; Rural King,

DONNELSON: JR's Mini Mart;

EFFINGHAM: Effingham Library, Equity Farm Store, Joe Sippers, and Rural King; 

GILLESPIE: Miner's Restaurant; Gillespie Public Library;

GREENVILLE: 4th Street BBQ, Buchheit, Capri IGA, Casey's General Store (Beaumont),  Espressions Coffee House, Joe’s Pizza, Moto Mart, True Value, and Wayne's Market; Will-O-Th-Wind;

HAMEL: DK Market, 

HIGHLAND: Blue Springs Cafe, Bull Dog Barber Shop, Jerry’s Tackle and Gun Shop, Lee’s Loans Jewelry and More, Korte Recreation Center, Rural King, The Tibbett House: Bed, Breakfast and Books, and TruBuy;  

HILLSBORO: Hillsboro Library, Salvation Army, Fast Flo Oil-N-Go, and Zumwalt Hillsboro Chiropractic; 

HOFFMAN: Meier Auto Sales and Gas Station;

KANSAS: Country Junction;

LITCHFIELD: Jubelt’s Bakery, Kamper Kompanion RV Park, Litchfield Public Library;

MATTOON: Joe Tuley's Family Barber Shop

MARSHALL: Whipperwill Antiques 

MT. OLIVE: Sunset Restaurant (now called Route 138 Cafe),

NASHVILLE: Bakery Nook, Country Mart, Krogers, Lee’s Variety Store, Nashville Public Library, Meier’s Deli; 

PARIS: Rural King (outside by the exit door)

POCAHONTAS: Fainting Goat Bar & Grill, Funderburk's Restaurant, Pocahontas Antique Mall, Rampart Range; 

SALEM: Bryan Bennett Library, Deuel Veterinary Services, Five Brothers Cafe, Hunting Stuff, and Strong Arms Crafts and Creations; 

SHELBYVILLE: Ace Hardware,

SULLIVAN: Ace Hardware,

ST. ELMO: Driftstone Pueblo, Mary Ann's Restaurant;

TRENTON: Trenton Public Library

VANDALIA: County Market, Kaskaskia Supply, Rural King, Sunshine House Health Food Store; 

January Issue is moved to Archives tab and February Issue in Current Issue Tab!

 January has been so full of twists, turns, changes, and unexpected situations. Some of these things have been good, others have been heartbreaking.

As we were working on the Feb issue, Don Stover, my sweet friend and mentor, started to grow weaker and weaker. Jan, his sweet and devoted wife, rushed him to the hospital in the middle of the night. From there he was transferred to two other hospitals, eventually ending up at Barne's in St Louis. Sadly, on Jan 21st 2021, Don passed away with Jan and their 2 sons at his bedside.

There has been a Go Fund Me page set up to help pay medical and final expenses. If you can help in any way, please consider helping out.  https://gofund.me/a0dcc848

We have gotten the February issue out to several places, but weather turned slippery and dangerous on us, so I had to cut one of my deliver routes short the other day. I still have to go back over to Litchfield, Carlinville, Hillsboro area, and places in Christian, Shelby, Moultrie, Douglas, Coles, Cumberland, Jasper, Edger, Clark, and Crawford counties.  I had hoped to get those places done by this weekend, but after a little mishap on an icy hill this past Wed, being stuck out in the cold, damp snow for an hour, trying to dig my car our of a snowy ditch, I have been dealing with a sore throat and no voice. So just to be on the safe side, I have stayed at home away from people. Hopefully Monday I will be back out making deliveries, taking precautions, and staying well away from people.

If you are in the Gillespie area, Miner's Restaurant does have about 40 copies. I know they would also very much appreciate the business, as they are open for indoor dining as well as curbside pick up. You can call ahead and request a copy of the Owl Creek Gazette with your take-out order! What a great way to support a local business owner, and grab your favorite reading material all at the same time!

For a list of other places you can find the Owl Creek Gazette-IL this month you can check out our facebook page as well as the list on page 15 of the online gazette. Just go to the Current Issue Tab to find the Feb PDF.

A Meeting Of The Minds!

Today we had a gathering of friends of the Owl Creek Gazette and the NEW Owl Creek Gazette - Illinois. Bill and I (Shanan) gathered at Espressions Coffee Roasting Co in Greenville, IL today to organize the delivery of the OCG-IL January 2021 issue. These friends (along with a few others not pictured here) will graciously be serving as a volunteer delivering team of sorts, helping to bring the publication to locations (and readers) far and wide!

We mapped out delivery routes, loaded up cars, trucks, and Jeeps and headed out to many former locations to see which locations are still open for business. We started in Bond County and worked our way out. 

A few former locations (mostly our Metro East locations) do not yet have volunteers to help with distribution, but we are working on it, and hope to find new volunteers soon.

Bill and I deeply appreciate these sweet souls willing to help us get the January issue out to folks.

Bill and I dropped off copies to a volunteer in Litchfield on our way back home, and he will be getting his bundles delivered over the next few days.

You can find copies at Yoder's Kitchen in Arthur, IL and I will be dropping off copies at Country Salvage in Arcola as soon as my new magazine racks are made.

 

The January issue is hot off the press!!

 

My car is still full to the brim of the January issue, as I begin the process of distribution. 

I have several towns/businesses that are brand new locations for the Gazette, so this is really exciting!

If you are not local, and want a hard copy mailed to you, you can order hard copy subscriptions, or grab a gift subscriptions for someone you know!

The online version will be available after Christmas.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!!!

Happy December 1st!

Welcome to December in Illinois!

I have been working hard on content for the January issue, trying to learn all the ins and outs of paypal business accounts, this website, formatting the January issue to fit the printer's needs, and all the normal day to day things that go along with being a wife, homeschooling mom, caregiver for my mother and special needs brother, and homesteader. 

I just got a subscription page put up on the website here yesterday, so if you want to be sure to never miss an issue of the OCG-IL, you can now subscribe and start getting paper issues delivered right to your door starting with the January 2021 issue.  You can pay through paypal, or contact us through our Contact Us link in the upper right hand column on this page for instructions on paying with a check.

We are also offering Gift Subscriptions! Give the gift of the OCG-IL to people on your Christmas list this year. We will send them a personalized card with their first issue and they will get a paper copy of each issue mailed to their home. You can choose a 1 yr or 2 yr subscription. Check out our Gift Subscription page for more details.

We are still looking for advertisers who would like to share about their small business or services. Do you know musicians looking for places to play? Do you have a business in the renewable energy field? Do you drill water wells, own a feed store, have a nursery, landscaping business, butcher shop, or run a bait shop? 

We have authors, artists, blacksmiths, musicians, bed and breakfast owners, and numerous other entrepreneurs and business owners in Illinois. Our goal is to help readers connect with businesses and services that can help our readers become more self-sufficient, independent, and successful at reaching their goals, whatever that looks like to them. We are printing 6,000 copies of the January issue, and I have room for several more ad spots. We would love to get the word out about your business, or connect with a business you love!

Morning Musings

Saturday was an incredibly beautiful day outside, quite different from today! Saturday morning we had frost, and a thin layer of ice on the water tanks in the horse pasture, but it quickly warmed up. The air was so still, the water on Mom's pond looked like a mirror, perfectly reflecting the deep blue of the sky. Even the walnut trees had a perfect mirror image in the water. I found this little cedar tree growing on the bank of the pond, and there is another growing up from underneath Mom's propane tank. I'm going to ask Bill to dig them both up and move them to better spots on the farm to grow. We have a lot of volunteer willows and mulberries starting to grow all along the banks of the pond. They are becoming a nuisance and make it difficult to fish, or look out over the pond and enjoy the pretty view. I guess we will need to spend some time this winter cutting out trees so they don't come back in the spring. We also need to plant a couple new pine trees up on the bank to keep the soil in place, as two big pines died last summer and had to be cut down. When I was a little girl, we had dairy goats, calves, horses, and a pony out in the pasture across the pond. The goats ate down all the blackberry bushes, mulberry saplings, and young willow trees. The horses, pony, and calves kept the grass well trimmed. Everything looked so neat and tidy. Grandpa, who lived across the pond from us, kept things trimmed with his weed eater and his weed hook. He also kept the pond well stocked with catfish, large mouth bass, sunfish, and bluegills. We used to have some really great family fish frys. My great grandma (dad's grandma) would drive up to help with all the cooking. She was an excellent cook, and loved a good fish fry. Grandma, my aunt, and mom would make so many good things to eat. Dad, grandpa, and my uncle would clean the fish and fry up whatever they caught that day, as well as whatever they had been stocking up all summer in the deep freeze in the shed outside. Sometimes Mom's side of the family joined us, and sometimes my Grandma's and Great Grandma's siblings joined us. I loved having such a big extended family to spend the day with. Today the wind and snowflakes are blowing against my window and there is a bite to the air. There is ice on the porch, and a mug of hot tea in my hand. I plan to stay inside today and continue editing articles for the January issue so we can get it printed and distributed after Christmas. Bill is out trucking, and the boys are all working at the farm store today. I feel bad that they are all out in the wind and cold, but very thankful they have jobs that seem to not be affected by the craziness of 2020. Factories, stores, and homes still need goods shipped out and delivered, and ag related businesses are always going to be deemed essential, no matter what our governor might think. People should never be told garden supplies, plants, seeds, and such are non-essential! They are absolutely essential to keeping families fed during difficult times when supply chains may become disrupted! I'm so thankful that people chose to take a stand, demand the right to agricultural products, and common sense prevailed. Nurseries were able to open and people could get their plants and seeds to grow gardens this spring. I put extra seeds into air tight containers to make sure we have seeds in the future, should this insanity continue.

Warm Memories

 I'm over at Mom's this morning, waiting for her new refrigerator to be delivered. As I sit here in her kitchen, I'm reminded of all the wonderful winter meals made on top this old wooden burning stove, and the countless newborn baby goats that were warmed and dried in a box beside the great old stove.

I absolutely love this old stove, and have already made it abundantly clear I have dibs on it whenever Mom decides she no longer wants it.

Growing up, the power often went out during winter storms, and this woodburner not only kept us warm, but also fed us great meals like biscuits and gravy, bacon, sausage, eggs, hamburgers, soup, or anything else that could be made on a baking sheet, or in a cook pot, or skillet. 

Up until 7 years ago when Dad passed away, this old cast iron woodburner was the main source of heat for this 3 bedroom ranch house. Mom, and my disabled brother who lives with her, uses it as emergency heat. Mom is afraid of chimney fires, so she doesn't feel comfortable using the old stove anymore. Dad was a professional, career firefighter for the nearby town, so while he was still here, she was fine using the old stove, but now it is just here in case the power goes out.

I remember keeping my bedroom window open all winter long to cool my room off so I could sleep at might, lol. I don't know what it is about wood heat, but it warms everything in the house from the inside out. Even the walls feel warm. It’s soooo different from propane or electric furnace heat.

I have plans one day to put this stove in my dinning room and vent it up my fireplace chimney. Our fireplace never puts out much heat. I suspect the majority of the heat goes up the chimney. With this old stove, most of the heat would stay in the center of the house, keeping us very comfortable.