No gym membership!

      A few days ago while I was cutting cedars out of the pasture fence when a neighbor stopped to chat. "Cedars and pocket gophers, never ending." he said. I replied "Yes, and I'd add rocks to that."  With the tree swallows nesting in the boxes by the pasture fence, not wanting to disturb them, I've move on.

     That moving on is to cedars in a different venue. Now it's cedars in open grassland. With something like 300 acres in grass there is a lot of ground to cover. Tuesday a heavy Carhart jacket was swell, and even wearing leather gloves, my hands got cold. Today, I quickly shed the light jacket, and then the outer shirt, wearing no gloves, I still got warm. 

   There was frost here last night. The low registered on my thermometer was 34. Brookings, 15 miles away, announced 28. The dry pond across the street was very frosty this morning. Corn is probably OK but soybeans are a question.

Takk for alt,

Al

I have extra pruning shears if anyone wants to volunteer to accompany me searching for cedars.

Another Day, Another Book!

      Looking for something to read one day, I opened Kindle. There I found an unread book. Much of it I then read, and, since it is short stories, I put it aside to read Lighthouse Keepers. Returning to it yesterday I discovered there was only one story left.

    It's by a Thai author and it's set in Thailand. Sightseeing by Rattawat Lapcharoensap often references places in Thailand that are familiar to me. Also, the lives and situations described match the experiences of my time teaching and living with a Thai family. 

     Thai names are typically multisyllabic (note the author's). Thai mothers give their child a short nickname at birth. Some of my acquaintance's nicknames with their meanings are; Gai=chicken, Max=stapler and Poo=crab. Nicknames were very helpful when I was teaching. The first day with a new class I'd write each student's nickname on a 3X5 card. Then I could quickly memorize them and I used the cards for roll call at the beginning of class. It was very helpful to call students by name.

    The book is a good read that you'd likely enjoy if you can find it.

Takk for alt,

Al

Good Book!

       A subscription to WNBA League Pass brings myriad WNBA games to my computer. Games that are not available live can be replayed. Replay has the advantage of speed. Games are seldom less than two hours and with fouls, timeouts, etc., can go much longer. Replaying games takes about an hour as timeouts, free throws, etc., are skipped. The down side of access to all these games is that it cuts into my reading time.

     The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter, Hazel Gaynor, is a historical novel, which I didn't realize until finishing it. It's a retelling of the heroic rescue of survivors of a shipwreck on the coast of Scotland in 1838.  Grace Darling became famous for accompanying her father, in the gale that wrecked the ship, to reach the survivors clinging to rocks. Never had a woman participated in such a dangerous rescue. She helped row into the wind and controlled the boat while her father brought the survivors on board. When her courageous efforts became known she achieved fame far and wide. This part of story is historical.

   Gaynor creates the novel as she imagines Darling's negative reaction to her fame. It makes good reading. She also creates a fictious descendant of Sarah Dawson, one of the persons rescued from the shipwreck. This, Matilda, is placed in a lighthouse with a relative, in Newport, R.I. She was sent from her home in Ireland to America in 1938. While not historical, except for a hurricane that devastated the East Coast, it makes a good novel.

    It's a tale well told and I recommend it.

Takk for alt,

Al  

Birds!

       While I was sitting on my steps enjoying a nice day, birds were serenading me. So, turning on my Merlin app, I recorded them. This is the variety singing to me: Chipping Sparrow, Eurasian Collard-Dove, American Redstart, Song Sparrow, Pheasant, Chimney Swift, Brown-headed Cowbird, Tree Swallow, American Goldfinch, Robin, Starling, House Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Grackle, and Baltimore Oriole.  The Grackles get very nervous when Kaia approaches the Lilac bush. Likely there nest with fledglings.

Takk for alt,

Al

Plans Change, again...

         Sometimes old stories stick in my mind. This one is decades old, and it's brought to mind by something current. A solitary Indian man lived in a teepee by a white settlement. Sam, a white man would visit the Indian every day to get the weather forecast, which was often accurate. One day Sam asked for the forecast and the Indian said no forecast today. Sam "Why no forecast today?"  Indian "My radio's broken."

       Seldom have I changed plans based on a weather forecast. Today's events are a reminder of why. Yesterday's forecast was for a day of rain today totaling 1". It was predicted that the rain would begin at 9:00 am and continue through the day. This morning that forecast was changed to rain beginning at noon. Now it's predicted at 5:00pm with a total of .35".  Perhaps we'll get a sprinkle if we're lucky.

      Looking at the forecast yesterday I planned a day inside today! Ya, then...I should have known better! So, I'll post random picture and call it good.

Takk for alt,

Al

For over ten years I volunteered in a Hmong Charter school. This is one of my students in her traditional dress.

Plans change...

       Working diligently, or perhaps more accurately, sporadically, to remove the cedars from the pasture fence, that was today's plan. Strung along this fence are seven nesting boxes. Most years they fill quickly with tree swallows, though not last year. Last year a wren filled most of them with twigs. No twigs this year but still several boxes are unoccupied. The last cedar cut from the fence was close to an unoccupied box. Today, returning to that site to remove another tree, I saw swallows by that box. Late arrivals? 

    Not wanting to disturb the nesters, the small area unfinished will wait until the birds have migrated and the cattle gone home. With the fence not available I repaired to a grassland to look for invasive cedars. There were a few to be found. That's good news because last year there were many in this area. With many acres of grass there's no lack of hunting ground for cedars.  

Takk for alt,

Al

There is much grass in which to search for cedars.

Better to try...

     Better to try and fail than to not try at all. With the news that there will be no goose fencing of my corn I made my own effort. Water borders the entire long side of the rectangle field. Last year the predatory geese used a single path to invade. Too lazy to attempt a long fence, I fenced off the path today. Tall stakes with bottles and cans on top to rattle and swing in the wind augment the fencing. If it will work remains to be seen. But, I tried...

Takk for alt,

Al

The grass is green in the field that was burned a month ago.