Farm News 06-08-08

Sunday morning, after chores, 80°

Weight: 204 – Two weeks in a row at 204!

I have been experiencing a major attack of laziness and not writing much. Next week I will be attending a memorial for Dave and there will be no Farm News. After that, I hope to become productive, again.

Barn News

This place is becoming overrun by cats. Shotgun is about to wean a litter of four, of which one already has a new home; two more cats are visibly pregnant; and Martha Minor is coming in heat. Kittens are great fun and I enjoy them, but I wish they would arrive one or two at a time instead of four to eight.

Several of the cats have taken to hiding below a low-hanging bird feeder and then leaping up to catch birds. The cats are seldom successful, but I moved the feeder up a couple of feet, anyway. The birds sing and dance for the dinners, which is more than the cats do.

Books

To Begin the World Anew by Bernard Bailyn

To Begin the World Anew, subtitled The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders, doesn't seem to make a point. Bailyn discusses the political lives of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, and then looks at The Federalist Papers. With Jefferson, he gives a cursory overview of some of the seeming conflicts in Jefferson's thought. Most of the section on Franklin is devoted to remarks about the paintings made of Franklin while he was in Paris. The section on The Federalist Papers was the most interesting, but it didn't provide any brilliant insights.

I was looking forward to reading about Franklin, who is something of a paper cutout figure in most history textbooks, but I wasn't interested in Bailyn's commentary on paintings of Franklin.

The Second Gun by James Clifton Cobb

This is a good western, suitable for young adult readers. The hero is a plucky teen, an orphan who makes his way from cleaning spittoons in a bar to owning a mining company. In the process he kills only one man, and that act bothers him for the rest of his life. Recommended.

Pecos Crossing by Elmer Kelton

A story of two young cowboys, one grows up and the other doesn't. Kelton always tells a good tale.

Death and Honor by W. E. B. Griffin

Honor Bound is set in Argentina during the Second World War, where the Nazi SS, the US OSS, and the Argentine BIS engaged each other in three-way spy games. It is the fourth novel in the Honor Bound series, which begins with Honor Bound. I recommend reading them in sequence.