Another One Bites the Dust

I'm glad we don't have solar panels here.  I can barely remember the last time we had enough sun to power them.  It's been rain, rain, rain, and now it's rain, wind, wind, wind. 

Earlier this afternoon, Barry heard a loud "thump".  Down by the Salt River, he saw this...

It's not on our property, but close enough to have heard it.  This tree was probably a twig when Sterling Coulter was killed by Indians right near this very spot in 1790.

The ground gets super-saturated, then all it takes is a bit of wind (and we've had howling winds today) and down they go.  The tree has probably been dead for 20 years.  Luckily, none of the neighbor's cows were in the way though they DID investigate the break in the fence!

Now, this IS one of Kentucky's major rivers, the Salt River, about 1/2 mile from its headwaters.  It's seldom more than 3 feet wide and 6 inches deep here.  But with all the rain, it's been running high for months now.

We walk down to the river to get water, which we boil, for our aquarium and house plants.  Since we've been doing this, rather than using city water, we have only lost one fish, and the plants both in the aquarium and around the house LOVE it.  It's just pure rain water, filtered through rocks and springs, and lightly flavored by the cows that live in the pastures near it.

OK, on to serious stuff -- I'm coming up with a list of societal features that were brought to us by "socialists."  When people say they hate socialism, they need to define WHICH socialism they hate.  So, time for an essay.

But not today.

I'm going back to working on the genealogies of Oakland area families, for a bit more.

Later.