July 25

Today, the kids and their Mama with Papa's help are moving down their RV down to Grandma's house. Grandma is glad they will be right here. Papa hauled red clay to make a base to park the RV. Grandma said they could not play in the red clay and the babies did exactly as she said not to. Daddy is working way off in Idaho, but the babies have to stay here so Robert can go to school.

So, all in all, Grandpa Powell's birthday was a good day down on dry creek.

The top of Robert's head is very orange from rust inside his bucket. He has rusty bucket head.

Boys playing

The boy helped Papa move trees.



They both really love the tractor.





Hannah, seeing the tree down in the way said, "Papa fix it with his tractor." But she did not like that she did not get a turn to ride on the tractor. Papa had to take her on the 4 wheeler afterwards. Robert does not get as excited as Hannah about riding the 4 wheeler. She always has to have her turn.

Monday thoughts, bees, being and to be...

The bumble bees are working my flowers. Until this last week, I have not had nearly as many bumble bees on the flowers as in previous years. I am thinking it has something to do with the bee die out. Now, at least we have a few.

I spent the weekend reading.

The Jefferson book, I really enjoyed this one. It was an examination of did Jefferson have a slave Mistress. It was written like a debate. There was not much about the 'story' so Helen would not like this one. I read almost every word. Only skipped a few pages.

A primate’s Memory by Robert M. Sapolsky. I really enjoyed this one. It was about a researchers experiences in Africa researching baboons. It covered a period of about 20 years. He lived there long enough to get to know a lot about the regular people and his writing about both the baboons and people was interesting. Not sentimental. I read all the parts about the baboons and about half the parts about the people. I especially skipped the parts about the awful killing wars. I do not like to read things that leave me feeling bad and books about the terrible lives some people live, make me feel bad. They need help, and I can not help.

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat. This was a very good book. I read about 75% of it. It was about a Canadian hired by the Canadian government to go to the 'barrens' and research the wolf problem about 1969 or somewhere along there (I forgot). It was funny. He made fun of himself and his ideas throughout the book. He got to know an Eskimo that helped him and told things about the man's life that were interesting. It was not sentimental. I do not like sentimental.

The Lost, a search for six of six million by Daniel Mendelsohn. I liked this book. It is a very big book and I guess I read about half of it. It was about Daniel searching for death dates for his great uncle and the uncle's wife and children during WWII. They were in Poland. He spent years researching this and traveled all over the world interviewing people that either were there or had been there and heard what happened to some of the people in this little Polish town his Uncle was from. He recorded the interviews and then transcribed most of them word for word. Some of that was hard to read. The last 2 or 3 chapters were the most interesting, but much of the book was hard to get into and if something in a book does not interest me, I skip ahead to try to find something that does interest me. He recorded one story of a man from this same Polish town that left the town a few days before the German's showed up and walked all the way to inland China, then joined a Russian military unit, went back to Germany and was there when the Russians entered Berlin. I read every word of that story.

None of the other books were worth bothering with. The Larry kidney book, I read 4 or 5 pages at the beginning of the book, 3 pages at the end, about 2 pages in the next to last chapter and threw it in the trash. Well, not really, I have to take it back to the library, but if it was my book, I would throw it in the burn barrel. It was a stupid book about stupid people. The others were just boring.

Now you know. Helen, run out and get the Jefferson book so you can go get a burn barrel to burn it in.

Sunday, July 19?????

This morning at 6:30 it was 55 degrees. In mid JULY! I went for a walk out to Dan's and wore a jacket. In mid JULY!




I do have blooms on my morning glory vines. It is just that I was a morning glory off so early in the am before sunup and was not seeing them.

Today, I pulled up some of the gourd vines that were overpowering the other vines by my front deck. The clemtis is even blooming again.

Books for the weekend

I went to the Berryville library and got these books.
A primate’s Memory by Robert M. Sapolsky, some thing about life among the baboons

Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, an American Controversy by Annette Gordon-Reed

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat about wolfs in Alaska, I think

Larry’s Kidney by Daniel Asa Rose, a true story about going to china to get a kidney, I think

The Lost, a search for six of six million by Daniel Mendelsohn, about trying to find out what happened to his Jewish family during WWII, I think

Harry S. Truman by Robert Dallek, about a Missouri Democrat, I think

Dangerous Beauty, by Mark C. Ross, life and death in Africa, true stories from a safari guide

The private world of Tasha Tudor, about an old woman in Vermont or Conn., I think but I like her photo on the front.

I am going to read this weekend. I am starting with the Jefferson book. I got one by this author last week named The Hemings of Monticello. I enjoyed reading it. I hope there is at least two of these I will like. I bet Helen would like to read some of these. I will let you know about the good, bad and ugly.

Many Colors

I have flowers of many colors in my yard, mostly thanks to Patsy and her Zinnia seeds. I have them growing all over. I like them so much because they are no trouble and they are so colorful. And, I now have a dozen or so sun flowers that came up under the bird feeders. Just the same, my many vines are still just green vines with almost no blooms and the rose of Sharon bushes are still not blooming, but thanks to the Zinnias, I have blooms of many colors.