This is why...

I save the goldenrod all summer.  When the monarchs migrate from here the last thing standing is the goldenrod, and this is what they prefer, on their way down the road, and out to wherever they go.
All summer they feed on milkweed which apparently makes them taste just awful--and their caterpillars       as well--but in the fall they need the sugar that the goldenrod  has, apparently, to sustain them to the next resting place.  I leave stands of this stuff wherever it comes up, and my reward is seeing this.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

     There's nothing like looking out your front door and seeing 25 turkeys looking back...

Duck Season! Wabbit Season!

Hunting season is in full bang.  Some of our 'Posted" signs have been quietly removed, there are now three tree stands just beyond  the edge of our property, all facing our way.  We have called the police about someone hunting in our woods (wow is that gun loud),  and I have had our first verbal scuffle with a very defensive Fish and Game person. 

Looks to be an interesting November.

Things no one says any more

"Oh, damn, I just ran out of film"

"Oh, what a good shot, but I've only got two pictures left on the roll"

"Will my typewriter keep you awake?"

"Looks like I need a new ribbon"

"Where's the carbon paper?"

"Dont'cha just hate those encyclopedia salesmen"

"Our tv antenna blew down"

Comfort food for the weary soul

 my mantra at this time of year is, only six weeks more and then, by jingo, the days start getting longer.  My long kitchen has a window on the west, and some time in January the sun has moved around just enough that the light comes in obliquely, leaving a sunny patch on the north wall.  This  year Im planning on seeing that happen,  and take note of it. 

Little things, perhaps, but there's a lot of good eatin' in them sometimes.

War as the great leveler

if you look closely at the range on that chart between, say, 1920 and 1945, you can see that the population of the world had virtually leveled off.  Between the two World Wars, the depression, the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918 and Hiroshima,  we, as a collective "we" had managed to lower the population of the world to almost an even  birth/death ratio.   Men on a battlefield are a double problem, arent they.  One, they die, and two, they don't go home to produce the next generation.