Pratt, Kansas also has a pair of Hot and Cold water towers. I drove past them on Hwy. 281 for many years and lived a few blocks from them until we moved to Oregon in 1970. They were first painted as a prank in the 50s and the city has chosen to keep them that way ever since. They bring back many memories because as a grade-schooler we shopped at a market right under the towers and we rented locker (freezer) space from the store. It was always an adventure going into the freezer room — especially when it was 100+ degrees outside.

If I remember right, they were pictured in Truman Capote's film In Cold Blood. It's the story of two killers who traveled from Topeka to Dodge City where they ended up killing an entire family because they had erroneous information that there was money kept at the farm home. Pratt is on Hwy. 54, one of the highways they followed on their trip and the water towers are visible to the north as you cross Hwy. 281.

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2XEH_Pratt_Hot_Cold_Water_Towers_Kansas

I was surprised to see a large sign for "Quaker Oats" high up on the side of one of the taller buildings. The milling company started in Ohio in 1850 and selected the Quaker trademark name in 1877 as an indication of quality and honest value. Quakers were some of the first in England to post firm but reasonable prices on the goods they had for sale.

Last fall when we were unpacking our order of custom kitchen cabinets. Everything had a beautiful walnut stain -- except for one door that was light oak.

Yup, I grew up in a small town with a block-long "downtown." Everyone knew everyone else and if you did something wrong in the absence of your parents, some other adult would "take care of it." And you parents would be advised of the infraction long before you could make the dreaded long walk home to give your side of the story -- which really didn't matter because you usually got worse that what the original adult dolled out! Even worse was when that adult loaded you in their car and TOOK you home. Then you got it double for inconveniencing a neighbor!

Very few scientists deny that the climate is changing . . . again.

There is a reason that it's called Greenland and there are ancient maps of Antarctica without the ice and North America without the Mississippi delta and South America without the Amazon Delta.

The real unanswered question is if man is really causing it and the probable futile belief that we can do anything to stop it.

Two of our local "big box" stores have problems with birds. They usually enter through the open bays of the garden centers. It's mostly sparrows who could not wish for a better place for nesting up in the rafters -- heated, no rain, and no cats -- and racks of candy bars and other treats to feed on. Some of them get pretty bold even when the store is occupied. Management doesn't like to talk about it but rifles with bird-shot are effective and they use high-lifts to clean out the nests periodically. You just gotta do what you gotta do at times.

When our kids were little we also had a cat -- multiple causes for the same result. I'm not sure where I got the idea but the suggestion was to turn the holder 90 degrees -- yes, with the roller vertical! We tried it and it worked perfectly. The end was still out where you could grab it quickly and just pull sideways. But if the kids or cat tried it in the usual downward motion, a couple of sheets would just tear off and that was the end of it.

When it was no longer a problem, I just removed the screw holding the holder in the wall and turned it back to horizontal with the paper coming over top -- unless the roll gets replaced by someone other than my wife and I.

The Navajo Divorce
(not a joke, just an interesting cultural viewpoint)

Traditionally the Navajos are a matriarchal society with the women holding the land rights. Not so much so today, but in years past when a couple was married, the man traditionally moved into the camp (family group) of the wife's family. That was all well and good, but if a man came home and his saddle was outside the door of the hogan, he was considered divorced.

A lot has changed with time, but the Navajo Nation's Family Court still leans toward traditional Navajo values.

"Seeded" in the recipe means to REMOVE the seeds.

Cowboy Caviar has been a family favorite for several years. So much so that it now comes in two versions. My uncle doesn't like avocados so my aunt makes a version with sour cream in the dressing. Not sure what other changes she made to the dressing but I like both about equally well.

I grew up with Clydesdales and can attest to them being "gentle giants." My grandfather trained them for pulling at horse shows. When I and my siblings were very young, we got to "ride" them while the milking was being done. Dad or grandpa would lift us up on their backs and our "ride" consisted of just being on board as they, unconcerned with our presence on their back, ambled around the barn lot. One day my younger sister and I were on Ed when my aunt came into the barn and realizing that the horses hadn't been fed their morning grain, and not knowing we were on Ed, proceeded to dispense the grain into the feed boxes. All six horses heard the feed cans banging together and calmly headed for the barn for their morning treat. We started hollering but there was nothing we could do, and Thelma had no way of getting to the barn door before the horses arrived. The problem was that the top of the door jam didn't clear the backs of the horses by much and we knew full well that Ed would just duck his head as he entered the barn and we were going to end up on the ground. But there was also another problem. We had had more than the usual amount of rain and the runoff from the roof and barn lot had created a big puddle right at the door. I was in front and my sister behind me, so she was the first to slide off the back and land in the pungent brown water and mud, and then I landed on top of her, really pushing her down into the muck! We weren't hurt, but our dignity was severely damaged! Mom wouldn't even let us get near the house. She took us to where we washed the show animals and gave us a good hosing off. To this day, 60-plus-years later, my sister's version is that I pushed her off the horse and it was all my fault because if she had been in front, she would have just ducked and gone through the door with the horse. I know that wasn't possible, but that's her story and she is sticking with it!

Thanks for the info — it passes right over us in Oregon. The last time it happened our kids were in grade school. We scouted out a parking place on the side of Chehalem Mountain where we could see the valley and watch the shadow come across. We kept the kids out of school for the first part of the morning so that they could see it for themselves. Now those kids have kids of their own that are older than they were at the time. There were chickens on a farm just below us and we watched them return to the roost as it got darker. I have always taken a lot of pictures, but don't remember taking any that day — I wonder why.

I live in the middle of Christmas tree and nursery stock growing country. Many tree farms are on terrain that is too steep for truck access and this time of year in Oregon you would usually encounter a lot of mud. I've actually watched some pilots drop the loads directly into trucks for transport to the processing site to prepare the trees for shipment. It's always fun to watch for the first semi load of trees each season. By that ime, many containers of trees are already aboard ship heading for ports across the Pacific. Weeks before, there were swarms of workers selecting and trimming the trees to be cut this season.

I've heard that there may be a shortage of trees this year and prices will go up. There was a glut a few years ago and growers cut back a little too much on how many trees were planted.

My grandfather named all of the dairy animals (most were registered) and the bull I described was named "Peter" and it was part of his name on his papers -- I think it was something like "Peter the Great of . . ." I doubt that grandpa ever thought about the double entendre but I got a chuckle out of it. Peter's docile nature probably was influenced by him being my brother's 4-H project for the first two years of his life and being trained for the show ring.

I grew up on a farm/dairy/ranch and am very familiar with Holsteins. That was years ago before artificial insemination became common, so we always had at least two bulls -- a Holstein for dairy and a Herford or Black Angus for beef. Because they were with the herds, you always had to be aware of them and not get yourself in a dangerous situation. As they aged, most became aggressive and as a result wore blinders and other safety devices. The one exception was a Holstein bull that even at five-years-old would follow us around like a calf wanting attention and want to come into the milking parlor because he knew feed he liked was in there. The only danger was his sheer size if he happened to step on your foot or shove you against a wall when he moved. He was a little over six-foot at the shoulder and weighed over 2400 pounds, but you could just reach up, put a hand behind his ear and lead him anywhere.

The final fun was when we took him to the livestock auction to be sold and we backed the truck up to the chute. The guys on horses in the receiving pen took one look inside the truck at what they were receiving and promptly got out of the pen -- being on a horse in an enclosed area with an angry bull weighing nearly twice as much as a horse, is not a place to be! They tried to get him out of the truck using their whips but he just stood there and looked at them. I told them to just take him by the ear and lead him out, but they wouldn't believe me. So I climbed over the side and lead him down the chute to the pen. Not sure how they handled him from there, but I do know for sure that was a lot of hamburger on the hoof.

Just check the "under carriage"?

Technically the movie title is incorrect -- The correct term bovine is seldom used, and kids learn horse, cow, pig, goat, dog, lion, etc. as animal species. But "cow" actually means a female bovine. Bull is the term for a male, and steer is the correct term for a sterilized male. "Cattle" describes a group or herd of bovine.