We have a raccoon situation at my house.  They were coming onto our deck foraging through my birdseed, and I was largely okay with that.  Amused, mostly.


Yesterday I discovered one of my newly-planted tomatoes completely uprooted from the deck container.  I suppose I could be one of the squirrels which regularly visits, but I have my suspicions and IT'S ABOUT TO GET REAL IN THIS WHOLE FOODS PARKING LOT.  I mean, ON MY DECK.

Going back to Cali

Next week I'm headed back to the place where my profile photo was taken:  Sinskey Vineyards in CA.   It's not just Sinskey I'm going to; we're hitting several places in Napa and ending up in one of my other familiar CA stomping grounds, Sacramento.

I love wine country, but not because I'm that much of a wine drinker (I lack a sophisticated palate).  The thing I like about the Napa area is that there is a real sense of how the land has guided development and human interaction with the geography.  People grow grapes there.  Sure, they also drive around and drink wine, so its touristy, but it's very agricultural.  And it's extremely specific:  It's good for grapes, so grapes are grown there.   While it looks nothing like my home on the Great Plains, it reminds me a lot of Nebraska.  All that farmland, all those crops, dominating the landscape:  the corn, the soybeans, the alfalfa.   And the attention to weather, the awareness of commodity prices--it's agriculture!  THESE ARE MY PEOPLE, even if they are far less likely to wear overalls.