MY EXPLANATION.

    My last two posts were a disaster.  As hard as I tried I couldn't get the font or size of print I wanted. I couldn't indent paragraphs. I thought I couldn't get photos but then I found them.

     I knew something was wrong but not what or how to correct it. There were red , green and blue words. there was code between the words.  I tried everything and searched as hard as I could search. 

    So go to young people for a solution. I checked with my kids. They couldn't come up with anything. They're not kids any more...48 and 50. They're too old to help me.

    My daughter did give me one hint that it sounded like html. 

    So I looked to see where I may have accidentally clicked on a html icon. I accidentally found it. It's in the upper left hand corner of the blog. There is compose and html. I had accidentally clicked on html. So I clicked on compose and I was back in business.

    I did much cussing and search to find a solution. I won't forget that for a while. 

   So my apologies for some very poor posts.

     So there it is. The pencil stands for compose and the triangle is html

THE EDUCATION OF A PRAIRIE BOY PART II

     When I did my first prairie boy post I thought I had said everything. When I contemplated the post and looked at your comments I knew I had something else to say. 

     There was more education before starting my education in an institution. 

     In my preschool years I had contact with grandparents. Yes, all of you grandparents know how much you influence and teach your grandkids. My paternal grandparents lived about 8 or nine miles from us. We visited then about 6 or 7 times a year. 8 or 9 miles in the early 40's was a long trip for us. With horses we could not make the trip both ways. Okay, my paternal grandparents were German immigrants who came from Russia. Apparently they spoke very little English but that didn't matter to a little boy who didn't speak German. We chattered to each other all day to the extent that I had to be told later in life that they didn't talk English. Grandma was a great story teller and told stories of wolves and foxes that chased people. The people always got away in her stories. So we were exposed to a different culture. I remember staying with Grandma a few times. The food was different. They were independent for almost everything. They produced most of their own food and it was different. They received support from the Mennonites in Manitoba , Canada when they first came here.   

     My maternal grandparents were English and came here for the same reason as the paternal grandparent...economics. The maternal grandparent could not make a living in England. My grandfather was a butcher and went to farms when they wanted something butchered. My maternal grandparents lived about 500 miles away so we saw them only once a year. I remember visiting them twice. They lived in a town of 10000 and I thought it as a city. This was a huge place with all kinds of shops. These grandparents were supported by the church for a few years until they became established. So my Grandparents were like most grandparents and taught their grandkids about a different way of life. They also urged us to practice good behavior. 

      Children learn from other children. We had children living close to our farm so played with other kids all the time. Kids have to play with others to learn how to get along. Sometimes kids have a very effective way of getting their point across...they sometimes use hitting. 

     Many of the things you learn as a preschooler pop up later in your life to add meaning to what is going on. The stories my parents and grandparents told made things have more sense as life went on. I was my grandparents first grandson so there was a special photo . My paternal grandparents in front of their retirement home. My maternal grandparents are on the left. I'm on the far right .
  

BIRDING ON A WINDY MORNING

I've started birding with my regular Saturday morning again. It feelds great to get out. This saturday we went to a desserted farm that has been taken over by the city. A project on urbn agriculture is taking place there. A creek runs through the propety butthere was a cattle operation on the location and much of the land damaged. they are trying to restore the creek by plabnting trees . However, I birded arounf the farm stead. The area is being used to let people rent plots to greo gardens. There is a 600 meter lane to enter the property. One side of the lane has natural habitat and the other a thick old shelterbelt. I thought I would see many birds in the lane but I was skunked . A pair of red tail hawks and Swainson's hawks kept screaming at me so no birds broke their cover.

THE EDUCATION OF A PRAIRIE BOY

     I was a small child in the 40's and grew up in the 50's. These are dates you have to remember. I think only one of my follower was running around before me.

     I grew upon the prairies of Western Canada. In one of my last posts I told you that I was born at Esk, Saskatchewan Canada. Because of the wide open spaces the main part of the education system was the one room country school. School areas were set up so that kids rarely had more than 3 miles to go to school. Transportation was mostly walking and sometimes by horse. I was lucky. Our farm was one mile away from the school.

     However , education does not only consist of formal classroom activities. We learn many things when we are away from school. A young prairie boy could find many things around him that taught him things.

    So here goes for my education before entering  a formal education system. I was fortunate enough to have a younger brother who was less than  year younger than me. That seemed to accelerate the learning. 

    We lived on a small farm that was still suffering from the effects of the depression. As a result there was quite a selection of very old machinery. So as little boys we clambered over every piece of machinery in the yard. We tried every lever on every machine. We climbed everything we could climb trees, haystacks, straw stacks wood piles, barn structure and tried to climb many of the old wooden telephone poles.

    One activity was to whack everything we could with a hammer and see what sound it made and how strong it was. One time we whacked a spark plug on an engine and were greatly dismayed when the spark plug broke. We knew we were in trouble but we didn't tell Dad preferring to wait as long as possible for the punishment. 

     There were many other children in the other area to play with. Kids learn from each other.

     Our house was small so most of the time were played outside. We wandered through fields and brushy and treed areas. I remember seeing a yellow warbler for the first time as I was crawling on my hands and knees through the willows. There were many birds in the yard and nearby area,

     There were many animals on the farm. 

    Mom read  to us almost every night. The four of us would get in bed to listen to Mom read. I remember the Thornton Burgess books. She read them over and over. There was also a religious set of books called the Sugar Creek Gang. 

     Each day started with reading a portion from the bible and prayer. In the winter this ritual was added after supper (the evening meal).

     And then of course there was Sunday school. We listened to bible stories and memorized numerous bible passages. I memorized the 23rd Psalm and probably 23 more Psalms. I don't think I memorized the one with 119 verses. Now in Sunday School we were told that some activities were sin. Since something was sin like smoking we had to try it as soon as possible.

     As a  preschool kid there were many useful and interesting things to learn . Next I'll try school bust I will continue to learn things out of the school setting.

EVENING CLOUDS

     I walk every evening. A few days ago as I was leaving for my walk I noticed some interesting cloud formation and light. I thought should I go back the house for my camera? Well, I didn't.

     However , when I got back after my walk there were still some interesting things in the sky.

    So here's an August evening.

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BIRD WATCHING

       I went bird watching with a group for the first time in 2020. As you know I lead a local birdwatching group here. I make up a schedule and publicize the activity. I made up a schedule in May and found somebody to lead in the field. There was no one to lead in the field yesterday so I went out.

      It was a real treat to get out. I didn't know that I missed it so much.

      I took photos of the area we visited. My camera isn't good enough for birds.  We saw 25 species yesterday in 2 hours.

     So here's where we found the birds.

REMINDED OF MORE DRONES

      Some of your comments on drones reminded me of a poor and boring video made of my home village. For every good drone video there are many that are extremely poor.

      I was born at Esk, Saskatchewan, Canada. To be more precise I was born about 3 miles southwest of Esk on the farm. From about ages birth to ten. Esk was our village where we got mail and the few groceries we needed. We also sold our farm produce there. At the highest point of Esk's existence there were about 15 houses and 50 people. Many years ago Esk faded into history and became a ghost town.

     Someone decided to use his drone and make a video of Esk. I was interested in the video but I'm sure very few people are interested in the video. 

     You can go to the site on youtube but I doubt that few people will watch it,

    The two large farmyards shown were once on the edge of the village. As the village became abandoned , the land was rezoned and taken by the farmers. My grandparents retired to this village.