"I spilled spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone." - Steven Wright

The "internet of things" is the big deal. You can now do crazy stuff remotely, like unlock your front door, look in your fridge, turn on the lights, open the garage door, and control your thermostat, all from a smart phone.

Our internet comes through a satellite dish at the end of our driveway. Unless it doesn't. Like when we got a few inches of wet snow that stuck to the dish, or if it rains hard, or if a tree branch grows into the satellite/dish line of sight. This morning I had to reset the modem/router because one or the other stopped working for some unknown reason. Not uncommon.

What does someone do if the internet of things stops working?

The '89 Kia Pam drives has electronic fuel injection and mini computers to do everything from adjust idle speed to how long the dome light stays lit after you get in the car. My '66 Mustang has screws and buttons for everything. Yesterday I turned two screws in and out to get the right idle speed and fuel/air mixture, going back and forth until (I think) everything is set for maximum performance. I'm headed into Eugene today (it's 5:30 a.m. now) and will take a screwdriver with me just in case it gives me trouble and needs more tweaking. Pam's having lunch with a gal from church. If she were to call me at 1:30 and say the Kia's bucking and hesitating I'd tell her to call AAA.

I prefer old school, thank you very much. A key to get me in my house, opening the door to see what's in the fridge, and an on/off switch on the thermostat. Besides being more reliable and user-repairable, you can't hack into my place and steal my bologna or turn down my heat (which is turned off anyway).

Remember journalism? Whatever happened to it?

This pic reminded me of something from when we lived in Moreno Valley while I was a pastor in Riverside. The builders were required to put in a fence between lots in the back yards and installed the cheapest they could get away with - cedar boards full of knot holes. I was painting ours while the neighbor's yappy dachshund was barking at me. But he barked pretty much all day long at anything and everything. He stuck his nose through one of those holes just when I happened to be painting that area of the fence. Yup, I did. The neighbor never said anything about his dog's cream colored nose and I didn't volunteer any information.

Friend Sue and I had an email conversation today about how bad...OK, maybe lame is a better word...most contemporary Christian music is. After awhile it all sounds the same. Turns out there's a reason for that: the same 3 or 4 chords are used in the same order in WAY to many of them. Change the tempo, change the rhythm, and you've got the same song, just "new."

Here's a You Tube video she sent me showing that it's not just Christian music. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.
Another reason I like classical music.

This morning I drove Sally into central Eugene to the home of Rick Brown, a guy who is ALL about Mason bees. I came home with everything we need to have our own community of the little wonders. They are slightly bigger than a house fly, don't make honey, they don't sting except when they feel extremely threatened, don't make hives, and require almost no attention.

They're called Mason bees because they build their houses in tubes using mud which reminded somebody of the way a mason uses mud to make bricks. Rick has what he calls a starter kit he makes for guys like me. Their "house" is a 4" diameter piece of PVC pipe closed at one end. Inside you pack these special tubes the bees use to build their houses. The queen lays an egg at the end of the tube and then seals it off with a plug of mud. Then she lays another egg, another plug, and so on out to the end of the tube. She lays female eggs first with males at the outer end.

In the spring when temps rise the males hatch first and break through their mud plug. Shortly after that the females emerge and meet the males who lie in wait. They breed, the males die, and the females go find a tube to start the whole process all over. By October they're all done for the year and await the warm temps of next spring.

In between emerging and dying / nesting they fly around pollinating fruit trees, veggies, berries, and whatever else they can find with pollen, which is their food. Apparently they have bodies covered with little hairs on the underside that make them the most efficient pollinators of all the bee varieties, and the gardener's best friend. I read that yields will increase up to 20% if there are Mason bees present.

The PVC tube is attached to the south facing side of the goat barn so it gets the warm sun for most of the day. Rick said I should see activity in a week or two.

The farm continues to expand!