How to write

This whole thing is so funny and true I can hardly excerpt. But I’ll try: “Find that single cartoon frame from “Peanuts” that you keep in a box somewhere, the one in which Snoopy is reading a publisher’s rejection letter for his novel that goes, “Has it ever occurred to you that you may be …

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Big Ag Blues

I might be less skeptical about the Obama Rhetoric below were it not for developments in the real world. This article from the San Francisco Chronicle may be the most horrifying yet: despite the so- called “Green” attitudes of California voters, apparently perceptions of what is “sanitary” trumps all sense of what is good for …

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Dog/sheep days of summer

It’s 65 degrees this mid-morning, and the herd at the house has been complaining about the heat and mosquitoes. Here are old ewe, Friendly, with some of the orphan lambs, and Rant the Aziat, all trying to enjoy the shade.

Things to smile about

After depressing myself with yesterday’s post about eagles, I decided I’d better share some better news. Remember the seven pronghorn antelope fawns I photographed a few weeks ago? They are really growing. Here are five babies from the same meadow, taken earlier this week. That same morning, I saw this cottontail at a gravel pit …

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Such an unnecessary loss

Press accounts tell us this week that PacifiCorp, which does business locally as Rocky Mountain Power, has agreed to cough up $10 million for the killing of golden eagles in Wyoming through electrocution. Although the federal court case against the company was for 34 violations of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, according to the …

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The President on Independence, Freedom, and Food Security

Last week President Obama addressed the people of Ghana, west Africa, at the end of an extended overseas tour. I was pleased to hear and later read his address, which focused on the importance of independence and democracy among Africa’s nations. Pointedly, Obama encouraged the Ghanaians to pursue self-sufficiency in food and fuel, while pledging …

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Lane Batot on Trailhounds

Part 1, Trailhound tales In relating some of my experiences with my canine family members, I will start with my two trailhounds, as mention of them has been made on comments in past discussionsons this blog. I prefer the term “trailhounds” to “coonhounds”, which is how most people identify these scent hounds, if they can …

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In Defense of Pets

This post is ill-considered. I mean, it responds to only one part of what’s probably an important, interesting and maddening discussion that I didn’t read. By the time I found the thread, it had come around to whether it’s OK to eat your pets. Caleb Stegall of the Front Porch Republic bloggers responds to the …

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Revolutionary Update

The latest monthly garden report reveals troop-strength at historical summer lows. The legions of tomatoes, once proudly at attention, are now “at ease” and nearly falling out of formation. In fact, two recently went AWOL. The sunflower looks to have enjoyed a little too much R&R. And the beans are just plain going to seed. …

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Unreachable

The South is a land of near horizons. Everything sits in the foreground. Trees, rivers, buildings, and people are always in sight. More of the same lies behind, but you can’t see it from here. So distance is skewed; places merely out of sight seem very far away. Southern heat compounds the phenomenon. Our sun …

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