The Fence Post

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The fence along the lane is covered in vines. They are flowering, but when I get outside to walk in the cooler evening, they have already begun to close up for the night. It won't be long before I begin to see the birds flock--they will sit on the power lines and fences in large numbers; they will cover the ground and all lift off into flight as I drive down the road, and I will know that they have finished raising their young and that they are enjoying this carefree time which comes before they need to begin their flight to their winter homes.

Summer is here, but it is fleeting.

Silly Donkey

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Hm. She is calling me. Oh, I don't know. I went last time she called. Maybe I should ignore her this time. Certainly wouldn't want her to think I'm at her beck and call.

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Is that a carrot?

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I'll eat your shirt if you don't give me more.

Moonset

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Crescent moon July 4th, 2008

The last two days were a whirlwind of activity. Hubby and I left home Thursday morning; he had a business meeting in Cedar Rapids, so I had a chance to buy an astronomy book, Binocular Highlights, at Barnes and Noble while I waited. I've been looking for a binocular astronomy book, and this really looks good.

In the evening we were invited to a homeschooling internet-friend's home, and I was able to visit in-real-life with Sheila and Cheryl and also meet Stacy. It was a lovely night of great food (those salads were so good--I suppose I ought to get those recipes!) and delightful conversations. Thank you, Sheila, for opening your home to us!

Early Friday morning we rose and traveled the rest of the way to Des Moines, and my hubby dropped me off at the Marriott for a day at the Astronomical League's convention. I wandered through the vendor's hall and, of course, bought another book, The Year-Round Messier Marathon. While I stood there leafing through this book, every single person who walked by me exclaimed, "Oh, that is the BEST book! If you don't already have it, you MUST buy it!" No kidding!  How can one go home without the BEST book? I also spent my mother-in-law's birthday money on a light wedge, and I received a demonstration about a new telescope kit The Night Sky Network is putting together (so interesting!).

In the afternoon I attended the workshop, In Search of the Perfect Club, lead by John Goss, secretary of the Astronomical League. He got the group discussing all the activities that had been a success in their astronomy club, and I have come home with a large number of ideas that I am excited to implement! John was a wonderful presenter, and we all benefited by the way he facilitated the discussion.

The road was twice as long coming home as it was going, and an accident on the interstate gave us an extra 45 minutes of 2-mile-an-hour traffic, but we are home, safe and well, ready for the weekend.

May your skies be clear and your nights long!
Jean

Early Morning

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Anyone going to the Astronomy League's conference in Des Moines this weekend? I'm going to be able to catch a ride down and attend on Friday! There are programs on building a successful astronomy club that I want to attend.

I don't know if I will be posting tomorrow--I'm not sure if I will have computer access or not. If not, I'll see you when I get back!

Wordless Wednesday

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` Girls

This Is Wisconsin

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Come pile into my van with me and the kids. We'll slowly drive down our lane, not wanting to take any chances of hitting a cat who is hunting in the tall grasses. Turning left, we'll climb three hills before we get to the county road heading into our little town.

It's just a two-hitch village with a post office the size of a postage stamp. When I first moved to the farm, I called the postmistress to tell her to hold our mail a couple of days. After I got off the phone, I realized I had never given her my address. Later, I saw that there was a cubbyhole for each person on the mail route hanging on the wall in that little building, and the whole thing couldn't have measured more than six feet long by two feet high. This sleepy wide-spot in the road is so small, it is unincorporated, although we do have a restaurant (no doubt smaller than anything you've seen) and a water tower.

If we would go straight rather than following one of the county roads heading out of town (two county roads cross paths in the center of town--you have to head down the pike a ways to get to a state road), we'd get to an area of beautiful hills and stretches of scenic farm land. I took the photo above while traveling that road.

In the foreground, there are some tall yellowish-green plants sticking up higher than the other plants--those are Wild Parsnip. They are nasty. They are not native, and they are taking over the road sides at an alarming rate. I highly recommend you become acquainted with them if you plan to walk along the sides of the road at all--if the juice of the plant gets on your skin while the sun is shining, you painfully blister up. The good part is that you have to break the stem of the plant to get to the juice--simply brushing up against it should do no harm.

The corn growing behind the Wild Parsnip looks shiny and healthy. A lot of corn was flooded out with all the rain we had earlier, and other fields were hit with hail. This one survived. It looks like they planted wheat last fall, and the strips of gold will soon be ready to harvest. And down there in the valley are their cows, contentedly feeding along a small strip of pasture.

The woods, the sunshine, the soft blue sky: this is Wisconsin. Come visit.

Early Morning Bask

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Weekends--a mixture of business and rest: 4-H, family reunions, teen parties, star parties, Sunday afternoon naps.

But the weekend is over and the week is here.

We need to make jam, jello and pies from the cherries, mulberries, and black caps we've been picking. My cherry bushes have been loaded with Nanking Cherries--those little cherries that take an hour to pit out four cups for one pie. I had the boys help. I used a recipe that my mother-in-law gave me; I have no idea where it originated. It can be used for any fruit pie you'd like to try, and an uncooked, refrigerated fruit pie seems especially good in the heat of the summer:

Fresh Fruit Pie
Stir and pat these ingredients into a pie tin:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oil
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons milk
salt (I always love it when it just says salt. I add a couple of shakes with the salt shaker and make it do. I suppose this is comparable to the "pinch of salt" in the old cookbooks.)

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Slice fruit into cooled crust (peaches, cherries, strawberries, berries...)--it takes something close to 4 cups for a 9", 3 cups for an 8".

Stir together:
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Add 1 cup water and cook until thick; remove from heat. Stir in 3 tablespoons of Jello (the powder) that matches the fruit. Cool and then poor this mixture over the fruit in the pie tin. Refrigerate until set.


Enjoy :).

The garden needs hoeing, I need to pay the bills, I have letters to write and trips to make.

Sometimes I long for the lazy days of summer that I had as a kid.

While picking cherries the other day, I realized that I probably still have them in many ways; how many people get to pick cherries for an hour, listening to the birds, smelling the fresh mowed lawn, watching the donkey protect her herd nearby?

Go in search of beauty in the world that surrounds you...