Many years ago, I had to take a foster child to a specialist in a nearby county, and I took her mother as well, for morale because I thought it would be best for both of them to be together for a procedure. As you do in my area, you passed through the countryside to get there and this lady saw a cow in the flesh for the very first time. I was dumbfounded. She lives in a county with just 80 thousand residents. We are a rural community. Never saw a cow? What I think is happening is that since factories took over so much of the farming, most people don't think any more about how food is produced than how a television is produced. Many of them don't even know how it's prepared anymore, letting somebody else do that as well. We are a society of letting somebody else be responsible for almost everything we need and accepting it with no questions. Shelter, food, clothing are simple things and learning how to maintain them, make them, use them wisely isn't rocket surgery (LOL, what one of my professors used to say). They should be basic life skills and most people should know at least "something" about them. I don't talk about my gardening or life to be self righteous, I just talk about it because it is so much a part of who we are. I talk about it to encourage other people to try their hands at a home garden, or making their life simpler, because I really believe that we make our lives entirely too complicated and impersonal. I am busy, yes, but it's a good busy and an enjoyable busy, at at one time of my life a very necessary busy. I feel good that most everything we put in our mouths is pure, fresh, and I know what it contains. The added benefit is that a little work during the summer provides us with nearly 100 percent of all the fruits and vegetables we consume in a year. It's convenient, it's healthy, and it just tastes better. During WWII victory gardens provided American people with 40% of their food supply. That's an impressive amount. I really shudder when I think of communities banning things like hanging out laundry, composting, having a few chickens or putting in food gardens. These are not ugly things.

I had totally forgotten the Perseid s were coming up. Thanks for the reminder school. I thought the few I had seen over the last couple of nights were tricks of light with my new eyes and the city lights in the distance. Just my good luck I saw this reminder. Tonight DH and I had some friends come over for dinner on the patio. Afterward we just stayed out talking and enjoying the night. When I mentioned the Perseid Meteors they stayed and we all watched together. They were expecting, as most people are, long sky crossing blazing lights. Not in this case. Most of them are very sudden short streaks of light, ranging from orangery to yellow to white. After I saw a few and they didn't the DH explained what the Perseid meteor shower is and what to look for. They enjoyed the watching so much. It was a first time for them. We saw a quite a few of them tonight. Every few minutes one of us was saying "there's one" or "another one" I lost count. Then the cloud cover moved in 1/2 hr ago. We didn't realize how late it had gotten. Since every one has to get up for work tomorrow we said goodnight. It was so enjoyable being able to share the experience with these friends. Money couldn't buy the pleasure we had tonight. LIL

On a recent camping trip, the RV a few spots down had a big screen TV mounted to the outside of his RV. The light pollution from it was incredibly annoying. I hear ya. I've been dismayed on more than one camping outing when, having selected the perfect campsite for our tents and setting up, along comes a ginormous "house on wheels" and parks right next door, generator cranking away all night long and destroying the peaceful vibe. Tent campers can be pretty opinionated and snobby when it comes to how RVers are viewed (and vice versa, I've discovered). My folks recently bought an Airstream and are loving it. Dad always loved tent camping, but now that he's older he does enjoy the creature comforts. My mom certainly wants to be comfortable and never enjoyed sleeping in a tent. I can understand why one might want a travel trailer, but I personally can't see the appeal of going anywhere in one of those RV buses that's absolutely huge. They look like they'd be nerve-wracking to drive, to say the least, and most of them I see are towing a car as well. I'd rather just stay in a very nice hotel, and no doubt come out money ahead. BUT - to each her own. There's really no "wrong way" to get out there and experience this country.

This is a confirmed meteor sighting, which fell over Ontario (in Dec. 2017) and was captured on the dashboard cameras of many drivers. It was also seen by countless people who happened to be outside and reported that something very bright, just fell from the sky. I never would have thought that a falling meteor would be so visible, on such a sunny day. It would have been even more amazing to see, if it had fallen at night in a rural area! https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=357415