ARE WE SLOWING DOWN ON BLOGGING ?

            Last week Mr Pudding from Yorkshire Pudding lamented that blogging seemed to have slowed down. I have  a similar feeling. People don't seem to be posting as often or commenting as often.

           So this post is an opportunity for me to admit that I'm one of the guilty people who are not posting as often as I used to. I've been running on empty when it comes to topics.  If I don't have anything worth while to say I should say nothing. At least, that's what my Mom used to tell us.

         Summer is a busy time and that interferes with blogging.

        So  I will take Mr Puddings comments to heart and try to pay a little more attention to my blog.

       Some times we have to look at our blog list. I think we would be surprised to see how many people are not blogging anymore.

SOLSTICE AND EQUINOX

      I usually write about the solstice and equinox. I am fascinated   about the position of the sun and length of day. This year  I said ,"I'll skip it."

    Well you may ask why  you're posting now.

    We had a very rainy dark solstice. The usual long evening was  very dark and dull. The sun sets around 10 PM. But this year is was not a pleasant sunny evening at  all.

    We had rain and the cloud above us  would probably have been ten thousand feet.

    So I will take advantage of all the long evenings left . Tonight I went on a three Km walk in pleasant sunshine.

THAT'LL TEACH YA

      Two topics are common on this blog. One topic is everything jack rabbit. The other is the micro Manager.

     Today  both topics are in one.

     I have many blogs and photos of various jack rabbits who visit and reside in my yard. Jack rabbits are active all night and look for a safe place to spend the day. About 50% of the time I have a Jack rabbit in my yard all day so they are easy to watch. 

     Now the Micro Manager is in my house day and night so I see and hear her in action day and night.

     On many topics and issues the micro manager disagrees with me and makes no apology for telling me.

    From time to time the odd jack rabbit misbehaves  and eats some of my plants. They particularly like new plants. Recently I set out tomatoes and corn. So one day I noticed the little corn plants had been given a severe trim.

    So when I reported this to the Micro Manager her reply was, "That'll teach you for encouraging them to be in the yard!"

   This has happened before and the plants survive. Before this I was able to close the back yard. This year I've lost some of the fencing so I can't keep the critters out.

SOME GOOD SOME BAD

       We have  been extremely dry for the last three summers. Because of modern farming practices, farmers were able to grow crops.

      However, when it comes to ornamentals there was a challenge. Many of these plants have not been developed for dry conditions. Most people stopped  watering grass. If you walked over my  grass for the last three years it was crunchy.

     So seven days ago it rained...lots of rain. the first day we had 3 and 3/4 inches of in. It rained

 more until we  had about 5 in. of rain. Rain like this benefits the whole system.

     Well, wouldn't you know it, there's a down  side to the rain. Mosquito eggs have been sitting there waiting for moisture so that they could hatch. So seven days after the rain we have mosquitoes. I wear hearing aides  so when mosquitoes land on the hearing aides or come close to them the buzz  is amplified.

    So tonight on my walk I had many mosquitoes land on the hearing aides.

THE RETARDED SQUIRRIL

       I told the retarded squirrel story in the seventies. Today you would never use a term like retarded , but at that time we did use retarded.

      On a wintery day I noticed a squirrel that was apparently trying to cross the alley by jumping from one tree to the other.

     The squirrel would run up one branch and then another looking for which branch was the closest to his target across the alley.

    Finally he chose a branch and went as far as possible to the end which would still support him. He rocked back and forth three times trying to find the best jumping off place. He tried this a few times and then gave it his best push.

    He missed. He didn't get to the branch in the other tree. Instead he fell about 10 feet and landed in a soft snow bank. He was stunned for a moment . Then shook some snow of and jumped through the snow until he got to the fence.

     Only middle school kids would think this is funny. They seemed to like the squirrel falling in the deep snow.They kept asking about my squirrel,   but I did not see more  squirrel  incidents.

   It was  odd as we think of squirrels  running through the trees with little effort..

SHUT UP

      When I went to teacher's college in 1957 we were told to be very strict with students. There was to be no fooling around . If kids were being noisy  according to the definition of rowdy in those days they were to be dealt with severely. There was a tremendous change during the 40 years I was involved in education. We tried to make school enjoyable so kids would like to come to school.

     There were times when very funny things happened. Two of them involve the term "Shut up"

     I did not give much homework. I thought it gave kids a reason to not like school. One day it was close the end of the class and I heard. Shut up. He's telling another story. They were hoping to make the class last to the end and it would be too late to assign home work.

    I learned that yelling at kids was the wrong thing to do but it did happen from time to time. So one time I yelled and I heard "We better shut up because he never yells.

    Needless to say that there was much more noise in most classrooms. We had much group work. This work was highly organized but there was noise. I taught science for a few years and we used a lab approach. There were four kids at each lab table and they had to do experiments and come up with answers.

    These incidents were brought to mind when I met a 43 year old woman who had been at my school. I got the feeling that she really didn't like school. 

MORE RABBIT

       Can you stand another jack rabbit story? Well you're going to get one.

       Jack rabbits are very often in my yard. Sometimes one will visit my   yard daily for six weeks in a row. Jack rabbits are mainly nocturnal so they find a safe place to hang out in the daytime. They  doze, groom, nibble and take short walks. They also have an instinctive way of positioning themselves for safety. They make sure that their back end is up against something like a rock , fence or brush. This protects them from a predator attacking from the rear.

      The other hot evening a rabbit was peacefully laying on the loose soil in my garden. Two magpies showed up and were picking up food. The rabbit sort of watched them but when one magpie got too  close the rabbit got up  and the magpie moved away. The magpie came back again and this time the rabbit got up and moved a few feet. The rabbit leisurely stretched and the magpie saw the opportunity to line up behind the rabbit in the blind spot. As quick as lightning the magpie moved to peck the rabbit on his behind. That got the rabbit's attention and he made haste to leave my yard.

    I have never heard about any incidents such as this.