One Shelf Farms

10/16/2026

10/05/2026

Nicole Brown

The pattern is unmistakable and has held steady for years. The women lost to homicide are almost always killed by men from the same community, not by strangers or by members of other groups. That fact alone dismantles the claim that the danger arrives from outside.

What remains is a crisis of behavior and family structure that political slogans refuse to name. Fatherless homes, retaliation treated as status, and a refusal to police the worst actors inside the neighborhood produce the same body count year after year. Outside blame changes none of it.

Solutions start with telling the truth about who is pulling the trigger. Anything less leaves the next generation of daughters exposed to the same predictable violence.

09/25/2026

What is this picture telling you?

09/24/2026

WHAT is with the spiders lately?! 🕷️😳

I don’t know what happened over the last few days, but apparently every spider on Serenity Hill has decided it is time for us to become acquainted.

It started in the barn.

We were doing chores when I looked down at my shirt and saw one of those scary, black, furry, jumpy spiders CRAWLING INSIDE MY SHIRT toward my bra.

Let me tell you, it took approximately one second for me to become fully undressed.

Standing in the barn.

In my underwear.

Clothes scattered across the floor.

My husband laughing hysterically.

Thank goodness that overhead barn door was closed because otherwise the neighbors would have gotten quite the morning show. 😂

Moving on…

For a couple of days I had noticed a little black speck on the ceiling in our bathroom. I told myself it was dirt.

Because sometimes denial is peaceful.

Then the speck moved.

And moved again.

And moved AGAIN.

Yesterday morning while I was getting ready for work, it was directly above my head. Our bathroom ceiling is slightly vaulted, so there wasn’t an easy way to reach it. I reluctantly went to work and left the spider to live its little spider life.

Fast-forward a few hours.

Ron is home. I’m washing my hands when I notice something peeking out from BEHIND THE MIRROR.

That same damn spider.

Now it’s tucked perfectly between the mirror and the wall where I can’t reach it without risking it disappearing behind the mirror forever and forcing me to live with the knowledge that it is somewhere…waiting.

Absolutely not.

I summoned Ron.

Vacuum cleaner.

Extension hose.

Spider successfully removed.

Crisis over.

Or so I thought.

Day three.

I throw on my flannel shirt, head down to the barn, do chores, come back inside and WHAT comes crawling out of the front pocket of my flannel shirt?

ANOTHER BLACK FURRY JUMPY SPIDER.

This one apparently planning to launch itself from my pocket directly toward my face.

I remained surprisingly calm.

Gently flicked it onto the floor…

…and then smashed it three times very heavily with my foot.

Peace restored.

Until this morning.

Ron and I are sitting quietly having coffee. My coffee cup in front of me. My daily devotional beside it.

And suddenly a monstrous, approximately multimillion-legged spider SCURRIES ACROSS THE TABLE BETWEEN MY COFFEE AND JESUS.

I sat straight up.

“SPIDER.”

Ron sits up.

Spider disappears underneath the tray holding our lamp.

He tries to find it.

Nothing.

So I announce, “Well, we’re just going to sit here until it shows itself again.”

And we continue drinking our coffee while maintaining spider surveillance.

A few minutes later Ron suddenly launches out of his chair.

The spider had left the table, crawled down to the floor, gone underneath his chair and started making a run across the room.

But Ron was ready.

Spider eliminated.

So for the moment…

We are safe.

Until the next one. 😂🕷️

And apparently there actually IS a reason for this sudden influx of spiders. Late summer and early fall is prime spider season. Many of them are fully grown, the males are wandering around looking for mates, and cooler nights start sending them—and the bugs they eat—toward barns, garages and houses.

So yes, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for why they seem to be everywhere right now.

That does NOT mean I have to like it. 😂

And for the record, I do not kill every spider I see. If you are outside minding your own business, living your little spider life, we are probably just fine.

But if you are aggressively entering my personal space, crawling into my bra, launching yourself out of my shirt pocket toward my face, hiding behind my bathroom mirror or sprinting between my coffee and Jesus…

Sorry, friend.

Big people win. 😂🕷️