Our prairie (where the sheriff stopped you) is gone. It was pushed over and plowed under for new rubber-stamp houses that will go on the land. It's a sad sight. They didn't take the woods closest to the creek so we still have about 40 acres (flood plain, can't build in it).

We still see birds and wildlife, but not as much or as often, as would be expected. It has been a dry and hot summer here this year, hard on everything.

On the up-side, I have gotten out and harvested some of the wild bounty. I even took my now-16-year-old son (a major source of ennui) with me one day to pick wild mustang grapes. The vines drape a cluster of tall hackberry and elm trees. Some are reachable from the ground, most from a ladder with a pruner to reach the clusters which are most easily collected when a paint tarp is laid on the ground under the ladder.

My son is a picky eater so this summer I proposed making hims some strawberry jelly--it would eliminate the seeds and pulp that he objects to. When I decided to harvest grapes I added grape jelly to the list, and a friend who does a lot of canning helped me make the batches. The grape is a lovely deep read and has a strong sweet-tart flavor (his dad compares it to tamarindo). He actually likes the mustang grape even better than his strawberry jelly--I suspect having helped collect it seasoned his appreciation of the end product. I love the "eat locally" aspect of using jelly from vines a couple of hundred feet from the front door. (This week I've been freezing and canning from my vegetable garden.)

Are you planning for a garden this year, and will you continue to foster baby birds? That is one of the most difficult things I encounter when planning travel--it has to be in a season when my regular activities won't suffer with my absence. I think it must be the same for you.

SRS