PUSSYCATS, PEDESTRIANS, PRESERVATION AND POLITICS

Things to do on a sunny Sunday on a three-day weekend.

The weather is cool enough now that the cats enjoy hanging out wherever they can find a nice patch of sun. Lucky especially enjoys baking her bones as long as possible. See above.  She’s just a big wuss who likes to hold “hands” and pat your face. She also likes short, just washed hair. That is she likes to play with it. You know, pat it, poke it, and generally make you wince.

Took our “not working this morning “walk down to the local park. Far more ducks and geese on hand than people,  We have the mallards and Canadas. There are also some domestic type geese who’ve probably never seen a farm yard. A couple of them really started squawking, A couple of minutes later a new flock flew in and joined the locals. There were a few minutes of excited conversation while every body caught up with the “gossip.”

Good new entry in Hippies in Yuppiedom regarding the upcoming campaign. I did not watch the Republican Convention. I briefly considered catching the president’s speech. Right up until I listened to ABC’s analysis of Zell Miller’s speech. That did not help my blood pressure. I think we said the heck with it and hauled out Living Planet. This is an excellent set of documentaries from the eighties. It's an eco-system by eco-system survey of the life on Earth. That really didn’t help either. Except to remind us what’s at stake here. Humans are still outnumbered by the other critters on the planet. Unfortunately, we're the only ones with access to a ballot box

I can’t say this often enough. I don’t care how hopeless you think in is VOTE. Repeat after me. “I will vote. I will vote every chance I get.” It may help and it can’t hurt. For those who support Ralph Nader, write in his name, no one is stopping you. If you like McCain write in his name. Heck, if you miss Bill Clinton write in his name.

We still do some canning every summer. We concentrate on things that taste better home canned than the commercial products. Green beans, Blue Lakes if we can get them. Improved  Elbertas for peaches and Bartlett’s for pears. Gravenstein  apples make great sauce. We generally get late fall apples for the winter and store them in the garage. It stays nice and cool out there.  One thing we don’t do anymore is corn. It’s a lot of work when there are only two people working on the pantry.

We have jars out there that we’ve had for years. Mom noticed one theother day with patent date of 1915 on it. If that jar really is that old, I wonder how may times its been filled over the years. Many of them came out of my grandmother’s pantries.  In fact, my dad’s mother taught my mom how to can. Needless to say she taught the three of us. It can be messy  (as in peach juice running down your arm and finding petrified corn kernels under the cabinets) but it’s nice to find those jars in the winter.