The peaceful river town of Guntersville, Alabama, (pre-TVA, imagine Guntersville without the lake) was shaken in the summer of 1890 by the killing of well-known doctor Buck May by perhaps the most well-known political figure of Marshall County, James L. Sheffield.

If you aren’t going to use it very often, there’s no reason to pay an arm and a leg for it. I hear that so often from friends, especially when I was looking for a bed for my guest room. I don’t have many guests.

Several homeowners have recently had a concern about disorders on their tomatoes. Tomatoes are subject to a number of diseases and disorders. Tomato plants can develop disorders that distort plants and blemish the fruit.

(Earlier this summer, educators Whitney Snow and her mother Barbara Snow of Snow Point near Union Grove traveled to Ireland. This is Whitney's account of that trip.)

(This is the first in a series of stories of a boyhood spent on Lake Guntersville. Welcome to Legends of the Cove.)

Born at Summit, Alabama, on March 2, 1894, Ernest Montgomery was the son of John and Eunice Horton Montgomery.

‪Here we are at mid year and tomorrow is the 4th of July. Where has this year gone? To me, when it’s fireworks time, Christmas is just around the corner. ‬

Moving the people and materials into place to open the HydroFest boat races is a Herculean effort with a lot of moving parts. Primarily, it takes a mechanized army of golf carts and drivers to get volunteers and their assorted items to their duty stations.

As I drove back and forth from Arab to Grant last week I couldn’t help but notice something – a big event has come to Guntersville.

I have seen powdery mildew on crape myrtles as I travel throughout the county. Powdery mildew is a common disease on crape myrtles and other ornamental plants.

I’ve always been one to suggest ideas on how to make life a little more interesting….especially to seniors like myself. Inevitably, I get the answer of ….

Friday, June 14, was a rare and exceeding gift.

I took a trip to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada recently. It was on my “bucket list,” and my son decided to make it happen for me. It was great!

The Thornton family of Guntersville is made up of outdoorsmen. The patriarch, the late Robert Thornton, hunted all over the world in his career in the military.

(Whitney Snow and her mother Barbara Snow of Snow Point near Union Grove are world travelers. They visited Ireland earlier this month. This is Part 2 of Whitney's account of that trip.)

I’m a worrier. My daughter says I’m also an over-thinker.

The snakes were crawling on Georgia Mountain over the weekend. But some of them didn’t crawl for long.

Mother Nature takes care of its own. Everywhere you look you can see an interconnectedness of relationships.

Teachers, students and classrooms make up the basics of education. But the running of a school system is so very much more than that.

The vegetable gardener should inspect the garden vegetables to determine if there are pests. The plants should be thoroughly inspected; this includes the undersides of leaves, tops of leaves, stems and developing fruit.

If anyone had ever told me I would one day travel to New York City, I would have said they were crazy.

My son has a very smart dog. Her name is Shadow and she's a beautiful border collie.

The beginning of the summer is always a great time for the whole family to enjoy different indoor and outdoor activities.

The Selective Service Act of 1917 officially became law on May 18, 1917. The law gave the United States federal government the authority to raise an army for service in World War I.

It’s hard to exercise without aches and pains. I’m working out twice a week and it takes the days in between to feel revived. I should have started an exercise program when my muscles and bones were younger.

(Editor's note: This column about a chicken that showed up on the Courthouse lawn last June won first place for humorous column in the Alabama Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest.)

With measles showing up in states across the U.S., local hospitals are taking precautions to prevent an outbreak locally.

We are hearing today in some circles about the greatness of America. Some are saying "Let's make America great again."

The Southern Catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides) is a truly Southern tree native to the Southeastern United States that makes an attractive addition to your backyard or landscape.

I just got done painting a canvas for my daughter, and the place looks like a tornado went through. I have paint all over me and my drawing table, easel and paint tubes. I’m not very neat at being an artist.

“Shrek the Musical” opens with a wonderful song.

“I might look okay to everyone but my sock is sliding into my shoe.” My friend Katie always has a one-liner to share. It was funny to me because I’m always struggling with my socks.

It has become a cliche when you talk about "happy campers," but there truly were happy campers in abundance at the recent Wings, Rallies & Friends campout at Honeycomb Campground.

Known for her love of wearing hats, Mollie Edward Reed (1885-1946) was a woman after my own heart. Mrs. Reed could always be seen in one of her signature wide-brimmed hats—cotton or straw for summer and wool for winter. Her contemporaries labeled the collection as “Miss Mollie Reed’s hats.”

Wayyyy back when I was in the 4th grade, I, like most everyone else, rode the bus to school.

The weather has taken a turn for the better lately. Warm summer days and hot sunshine are just around the corner. But I don’t think about the summer to come, I think about the summer that WAS.

A familiar bird in spring and summer to almost anyone who goes out on Alabama’s many reservoirs and rivers is the osprey. This large raptor, which is a resident or long distance migrant here in the U.S., is missing from most of Alabama in the winter, preferring to fly south to Central or Sou…

Fire ant mounds are plentiful and that is a common problem, especially after a rain. Several people from throughout the county have asked about control measures for fire ants.

On Saturday, May 11, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., Lake Guntersville State Park will host a Butterflies of Alabama Workshop featuring Ms. Paulette Haywood Ogard of Birmingham and David Dodd of Boaz.

Daniel Scheinert, the film director whose parents Ken and Becky Scheinert live in Guntersville, was in town last week. He called me up and asked if I’d like to get together.