DRONE ENCOUNTER

      The other evening when I was on my walk I had an encounter with a drone.

      I'm always interested in model airplanes and now drones although I don't have one and have only see one drone in action.

     The other night I noticed this little fellow off to my right about 50 m away and 15 to 20 m up. It was coming in my direction. It dropped elevation and came closer and closer. In fact, it was less than 5 m away. I was talking to two friends

     Now this encounter was spooky.  There was no noise. I felt as if someone was looking at me. I felt like talking to the creature.

    It was going to go between us when suddenly it veered up and away. Then I heard someone say, "Sorry about that " and I noticed two people on the school yard. 

    I'm sure this was the first time flying for this guy. He was learning and experimenting. 

    Now I know there are rules about where you can fly drones. This guy was a way off being legal. 

     Many people have fun with their drones and I can see why. They just have to learn the rules before they go out.

     My friend Tony got a drone for Christmas. He went out to try it and lost it. They looked for days to find his drone. A few weeks later someone came to the door with a drone and asked if this was his. Yes, it was and he had his Christmas present back.

MORE MUSIC

       I like listening to music. I'm not musical. I can't sing. I don't play an instrument. But I like listening to a wide variety of music. 

      So everybody knows that I spend time on You tube and sometimes find some interesting things to listen to.

     Somehow I hit a spot on Austrian folk music. There's also a little Swiss thrown in the mix. There are hundreds of videos with folk music.

    It appears that most of these folks are amateur. It also appears that the bands are made in a haphazard way when friends get together to play. So whatever instruments the friends have, that's what the band is made up of. Almost all have an accordion or two. After that all bets are off. There's a variety of brass . Throw in a few saxophones and clarinets. There are instruments that I've never seen. Many bands have a guitar. Harps! Yes harps. The very odd violin. So you see that there are a wide variety of bands and thus sound. 

       I am familiar with the piano accordion and have heard of the button accordion. I had no idea there were  many types of accordions. You rarely see a piano accordion. There are very small accordions but they can make lots of music.

And most of all singing. Singing with energy and joy. Now all the singing is in German. I don't understand German but it's still fun to listen the the singing. 

     then there are the colorful costumes. The men have short pants with huge suspenders. the women have long dresses . Sometime the hair is done in a country or old style. 

     So take a look at some of these bands .

     Go to Youtube and look for Austrian folk music. 

WILL WE LEARN ANYTHING BY GOING THROUGH THIS PANDEMIC?

     As a society , are we going to learn anything by going through the covid pandemic? Will our behavior change in anyway? Will we make a permanent change in something that will influence society in other areas? 

     There is much happening because of covid. We've had to learn about sanitizing . We've had to learn about protection. We've had to be concerned about safety. We've had to learn about responsibility to others. Some of these things have to become a habit. I found the sanitizing a hard habit to learn. I've got it now. Are businesses going to keep sanitizing materials at the entrances as they do now? 

     Will any of these things stick with us once covid is over? 

     Then we have the anti mask people and anti vaxxers. These ideas are mixed up with ideas of freedom and not doing what the government proposes for the good of all of us. Will these people learn anything by going through covid. I think an opportunity has been lost because of political philosophy which supports such lunacy. 

    However, I will not be getting the first vaccines that come out. I think they need a much longer time to be proven safe. I have always got a flu shot since I retired.

     Much has been learned in science by having to study this disease on how to treat it, prevent it, and find antibodies that we can use. I think the scientific developments will pay off  for a long time  in the future. 

   So what I'm thinking tonight is will our behavior change because of covid. I know my hand washing technique has improved. My hand washing used to be more or less wetting my fingers. The thumbs and palms weren't washed. 20 seconds is a long time to wash. I still can't wash for 20 seconds. 

INEPT HOUSE WATCHERS

      Yesterday morning , the next door neighbor kids dropped in and asked if we'd keep an eye on their house as they were going away for a week. Well, yes, sure I'll watch your house. 

      About 2:00 Am a big wind got up as some bad weather was coming our way. 

      So the micro manager was awake ..listening to the wind I guess, She said, "Do you hear the banging? I didn't hear any special banging.  It sounds like a door being blown open and shut. You should check the sheds to see if the doors are closed. Well, it's easier to get up and look at the doors rather than listen to, "Are you sure those doors are closed?" So I got up and checked the shed doors to find out that they were secure.

     Then she said, "There is a sceeching just before the bang and sometimes right after. Did I hear the screeching? "Well, no." Then I got a lecture about my poor hearing. I'm not sure what good a lecture would do to a guy's hearing.

     So after a while the wind died down and the banging and screeching came less but I still couldn't hear them. I even put my hearing aids in to see If I could hear the noises.

     Now I'm not one for staying awake to listen to noises in the night.

    So the next day after the rain stopped we went out to investigate. We thought that the neighbor had a gate that didn't have a latch. We checked and yes the gate was not latched.I moved close to examine the gate and I set off an alarm! Oops that scared me in a hurry. So now I knew what the screech was. Well, it really wasn't a screech or that loud. 

      I know that some people are disturbed by noises in the night and become more concerned as time goes by. I'm not bothered by noises.

     So yes we were inept as we didn't find out what was going on. However , no harm done.

THERE'S MORE OVER HERE

      Picking gooseberries the other day reminded me of my Dad. In Far Sides  last post she mentioned picking chokecherries and that brought back a lot of memories.

      My Dad was a fanatic about a few things. One thing he was nuts about was picking berries.

     Now let me set this up. I was a kid through the 1940's . Where I lived only about 50% if the land had been developed. So there was much native habitat left. Where I lived at Esk, Sask there was much brush but not many trees. Berries made up much of the shrubbery. One of the main berries was something called Saskatoons, Amelanchier alnifolia. There are many other names for this shrub.

     Now saskatoon berries were my Dad's favorite. He loved to get a groups of friends and neighbors together and go for a day of berry picking. People would bring sandwiches, cakes, cookies and sealers of tea. At some time they would stop for a picnic lunch.

     Now my Dad picked berries like there was no tomorrow. There had to be lots of berries around him. So Dad was constantly on the move and you would hear, "There's lots of berries over here." He was great for getting back in the car and going to another berry patch.

    Now I was a little guy and because slave labor was in force I had to pick berries. I hated it. I would ask Dad if I'd picked enough to stop. He would say,"No, pick until your pail is this full." I would pick some more and go crying back to Dad to see if  could quit. Finally ,I'd give up and just pick berries. 

    So we'd get home around 4 or 5 oclock and poor old  Mom would have to sort and clean the berries. Most of the berries were canned. One year she canned 98 quarts. Pies are excellent but you have to use fresh berries.

    Now my Dad had four daughter in laws. He insisted that they go picking berries with him. They all went with him at least once. Now my Dad had very little tact and sometimes none. He would look in the daughter in law's pails and loudly proclaim who had picked the most. He was a poor influence as he did not get one daughter in law to pick berries.

    Dad  was not only a berry picking fanatic but he was a fanatic about fishing. You heard the same cry, "There's more over here!" 

    Sadly most of that land has been developed and there's very little natural habitat left. Saskatoons have been domesticated and they are raised in your garden . 

SUMMER PROJECT

     This summer I had a small project which ended up being a summer project. The project started on one fine day at the end of April and lasted until one  hot day at the end of July. 

     My project was to paint 3/4 of my fence. A few good days should have been enough to complete the project. The piece of fence was 86 feet long and done both sides, It is 6 feet high. Painting fences isn't  high tech job. 

    However, weather and many other issues got in the way. When it was a good day I had something else to do. When you clean off a fence and get it ready for painting and then have to wait, you end up cleaning the fence off again. So preparation of the fence took a long time.

    I even thought of Tom Sawyer and the story Tom Sawyer and the fence. Could I talk someone into helping me? 

   So you see one project turned into a long project. 

   So here's the result.

GOOSEBERRY

     Last Sunday afternoon the Micro Manager and I began talking about our gooseberry bush. The gooseberry bush that I said that I would never pick any more gooseberries. The micro manager talked about the nice gooseberry jam she used to make . And yes, gooseberry pies? 

Gooseberry bushes are rather sprawly things with lots of very sharp thorns.

       The Micro Manager's gooseberry jam.

     Well, it didn't take very long and my cold heart melted and I was picking gooseberries. Did I say I hated picking gooseberries? Well, you would hate picking gooseberries too. Gooseberry bushes are liberally covered with thorns. The foliage is thick and you have to part it to get the berries.

     So it was agreed that I would pick a few cupfuls. I think I picked six cups. Then comes more work with gooseberries. You have to "top and tail them" So there you sit taking off the stem and flower end. So I even melted and agreed to clean up the gooseberries. The Micro Manager was in a hurry to make jam so we had jam made before supper time.

     Now the gooseberry bush has been there since we moved to the place. In the past I picked everyone of those little berries and had my hands ripped to shreds.

    We had some slave labor in those days. The kids were set up to get the berries ready for cooking. One of the slaves wasn't keen about his job so he would clean up one berry and throw two over the fence until the micro manager became suspicious of something and found the berries that were thrown over the fence. ( This is one of those family stories that won't go away but now everybody laughs,

     So how many of you like gooseberry jam? How many of you have had the pleasure of  picking gooseberries?

    So there you have it. We have gooseberry jam one more time.