There is nothing like a little canning to make a person feel useful. The birds haven't discovered the concord grapes yet and we sterilized jars, measured sugar and juice, boiled, poured, and sealed almost three gallons of jelly today. I wonder if only the old and retired can today? I think the prairie berry jelly provided a lot of little homestead children their vitamin C.

1959

Fred Kaplan, one of the writers for slate.com, has written a book, titled what the New York Times calls an extravagant, impossible declaration, 1959: The Year Everything Changed.

"Was this just coincidence, or was it part of a pattern? Was there something more broadly significant about that time? The more I looked into it, the more it struck me that 1959 really was a pivotal year—not only in culture but also in politics, society, science, sex: everything."

I watched Kaplan being interviewed on CSPAN's "Washington Journal yesterday. The year, 1959 was a part of my own imprint and as I listened to the different events, discoveries, and people he listed as a changing our society I came to this conclusion.

As everything was changing I got stuck with my Sony Walkman while the whole world is stepping to an IPOD.

The Mighty Mighty Trapper

Another masked bandit has been captured under the pear tree. Racoons have a natural instinct to dig up the soil and vegetation around and under the trap and pack it into the trap, making their own environment in their little cage.

This one will be taken to the Humane Society only to be released; hopefully far enough from here to take a year to make his way back to the pear tree. A friend suggested we tag our catches to make sure we are not trapping the same old pear thief.

Jazz on the Green

Ressurected Swing is setting up for the pleasure of this crowd. A click or two on a photo enlarges it.










A shaded/sunny crowd is not the best picture. He Who is the center of interest. Jazz on the Green is a program that Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum offers to the public in July. This is the first of the July Thursdays that we attended. We enjoy bringing a snack, the crowd of many colors, and of course the Glenn Miller and Big Band music that we courted to was very enjoyable.

The Rattler Has No Companion!

I hear complaints about the news gatherers getting things wrong. It is nothing new. In Sundance Times, Aug 6, 2009 column, 75 Years Ago, August 2, 1934, Ranger T.R. Cochran of the Bear Lodge Forest recently recieved a letter fro the editor of Outdoor Life in regard to the story about the interbreeding of rattlesnakes and bull snakes. The letter follows:

"There is absolutely no basis for the stories about rattlesnakes and bull snakes interbreeding. There are no snakes which are deadly enemies and which fight when they meet just to be fighting.

Several species are cannibals and eat other snakes, but it 's only when one of the cannibals decides to eat another snake that trouble begins and bull snakes are never cannibals. Bull snakes and rattlesnakes live together peacefully both in cages and in the wild.

The whole story is crazy and you might suggest to the editors of your local papers that some responsibility goes with their jobs and merely wielding shears is not editing."

So much for believing what you read. A little skepticism is good.

The Grands with a Fourth Generation

Some Sun Fun

A fourth generation explorer. Our back yard was his world for a few days.

Do babies come from under cabbage leaves?

Maybe there is more under a rock than one knows.