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Too much protection plays into the law of unintended consequences. Just today, we read that the ever increasing allergy to peanuts might stem from---not eating enough peanuts in the formative years, therefore not developing proper immunities to this allergy. So says the article written by . "Too much protection"  stories abound today.  When society offers and sometimes forces protection on the individual, the result is oftentimes that the people begin to lose their ability to avoid danger. It even happens with domestic cattle.  Many breeds of cattle are so domesticated that cows will not object to a predator attacking and carrying away a newborn calf.  Yet the Longhorn cow, not nearly as domesticated as, say, a Holstein cow, will not only "babysit" calves in a small group for other cows, but will get rather nasty if a predator shows up. Advocates of expanding breadth of  government need to pay heed to the risk of weakening society as a result of overly prote...

It appears from all the 5 years of experience of warfare with mice in the attic, a couple of things come to light. 1.  Mice, in there frantic effort to store food in a warm place for the winter, must carry the food in their mouths.  So, a baited trap on their path is sometimes ineffective---they pass right by it on their way to store their food at a preselected place.  Solution, should you know their path is to use a glue board. When they attempt to run over the glue board, they are finished. 2.  They need water, but not a lot of water. Often the small bit of water in their stored food is enough for a short time.  This means that they can live in an attic for some days without having to return to the outdoors for water---and to get more food to bring to the storage area. 3.  They are extreme in their habits. Once one finds a path to a good spot for wintering or nesting, the others are sure to follow.  For example, merely look at the pathways in deep...

In the 1930's the cost to educate one child was around $400 per year.  Now, its around $8000 per year.  Ya ya, times have changed, we all know that.  But that doesn't deter us from asking if school consolidation has really returned good benefits, or if there might have been a different approach to educating children. Recent studies on school consolidation--its been happening since the 1920's---have suggested that the drivers for school consolidation were two:  efficiency and quality of education.  So, how have each faired.  This report goes on to say that at first, efficiency was gained by consolidation, but then lost as large districts got to be more bureaucratic and government loaded them up with new requirements.  So far, that does not intersect with the quality of education---get to that later. Efficiency improvement might have been achieved by a different route: Some parts can be consolidated into central management, like purchasing, but that wo...

Today was an interesting day.  At the invitation of some friends, we joined them at their farm for a bit of Christmas good time.  There were about 30 people at this party---maybe get-together would be a bit more descriptive---and we knew only 3 or 4 of the total.  We got to talk to a number of interesting people, young and old, not sure of rich and poor. The family that invited us have doing this get-together for many many years--like 40 or so; and it is one of those deals that seems to be handed down from generation to generation.  The second generation was in charge, but the third generation was certainly in attendance and acting all the part of apprentices.  So, you can see where it is going. There was the host and hostess who own the Farm, there were their children and their friends.  There were friends who run other businesses in the area, and on and on.  No one was dull and lacking an opinion on local politics and the direction things are heade...

No more mice in the attic for the last month. What did it?  Many steps taken, but the one that may have done it was to block all the weep holes in the stonework of the outside walls.  The next best step was to block all the access to the attic of the garage, because once in the garage attic it was anyones guess as to the route through the breezeway attic and into the house. Plus, we probably ended entry and then had to trap about three mice that had taken up permanent residence in the attic, getting their food from the stored stuff they brought in, plus the water from the air conditioning traps that are open and hold water.

You know the old saying about the signal for the end of the opera.  It's when the fat lady comes onstage to sing. You can bet then that it is the end of the opera.  Well, regarding mus musculus, maybe the fat lady (lady mouse that is) has sung. Every possible hole into the attic is now closed, and glue traps placed at strategic locations to prevent mice from even getting into the garage, where they might know of a hole into the attic of the garage.  Thats critical, because once the mice get into the garage attic, there is some uncertainty about access through the breezeway attic into the house attic-----since all those possible routes are difficult to find and close off. To guard against the possibility of a colony living in the attic, their only possible water supply---the drain traps on the air conditioning equipment has been surrounded by glue traps.  Impractical to keep their food away from them as I am sure they have it stored in various places in the attic....

Lockhart is only 30 miles to the east.  Its an old town in central Texas and is quite modest in its definition of a good time.  This trip was to visit young artists' work on the theme of Day of the Dead, see what craft booths have to offer, and to renew some memories of earlier visits. It did not take us long to remember a place for good breakfast tacos.  All kinds, but egg and potato is our favorite.  And only $1.25 each, so lunch was very economical.  We had lunch of breakfast tacos a few years back and today was just as good.  Reyna's is the place to go to. There wasn't very much to see in the craft booths and the only vegetable seller was Clem who had a whole variety of canned vegetables and jellies---plus some fresh vegetables.  We bought a patty pan squash, and some other squash from him.  Clem is an enterprising farmer who seems to do all the preserving by himself----although he said his wife put the labels on the jars. We stumbled ont...