Serious stuff tomorrow

There is plenty of serious stuff to blog about...and I intend to resume doing so. Tomorrow.

For tonight, at least it's nice to live in a world where cats and dogs, occasionally, lie down in peace together.

At Goat Rope Farm, it's been a tough week for guinea babies. Out of 11, only two survived. We're not sure whether the temperature or the food was wrong. The remainders seem to be thriving now on something like the Atkins diet, which requires some of us to go out and dig grubs and such with some regularity.

Finally, after going to Ohio last week to attend a Paw Paw Festival, we learned enough to spot this native fruit on our own land, where it turns out we have several hundred little trees.

Win some, lose some, start again. So it goes.

The great paw paw hunt

This weekend, the Spousal Unit and I, along with some friends, went to the Paw Paw Festival in Albany, Ohio. Paw paws are a native American fruit tree that grows all over the eastern United States and thrives in Appalachia. I vaguely remember having a paw paw tree at the house I grew up in but forgot what it looked like.

After the trip, the Spousal Unit was all fired up to go find some trees near our farm. We were drawing a blank until Edith, above, left her duck toy behind on a walk.

We headed back to find it and--behold--where the duck toy was left there was a paw paw tree, fruit and all. Was Edith trying to tell us something? OK, probably not. Still, it was a cool coincidence.

Then we saw another.

And another. In fact, once you see one, you start seeing them all over the place.

We even had a nice stand or two in the goat pasture. I guess you can learn something every day.

I'm thinking paw paw ice cream...













FUNDING THE FUTURE. Here's more coverage about an idea that's gaining momentum in West Virginia.

HEALTHY KIDS. West Virginia is making some progress in child nutrition and is trying to do the same with more physical activity. Here are some more suggestions.

URGENT SCARY 10 FOOT LONG PREDATORY OCEAN WORM UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED