Greetings from Johnson Canyon. The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of good and bad, happy and sad. Summer is truly here, now that the thermometer has passed 100°F (37.8°C). Nancy's garden is blooming, attracting a variety of butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. I am still working on my sprout journal, and it should be very helpful next year when things start to sprout.
The good news is that I just finalized a deal with Richardson Publishing in Mexico. They are licensing some of my videos to help Mexican students learn English. It is fun to think of all those students picking up a little of my Tennessee accent as they watch "el Científico Feliz."
The sad news is that Ethylene, who appeared in quite a few videos, died this week. A neighbor found her up the canyon, and brought her body home to us. When she first wandered up, we tried keeping her in the house, but she was miserable. We finally gave in, and let her play outside. She had a very happy life, scampering up the cliff, climbing to the top of every tree, and following me every time I headed out with the video camera. She will be sorely missed.
I did a little extra work this week, farm sitting for some friends for a few days. It mostly involved putting the goats and chickens to bed every night, letting them out EARLY the next morning, and making sure they had food and water. The goats are fun to watch, and are very playful.
As part of my "goat sitting", I also wound up doing some rattlesnake relocation. This Mojave Rattlesnake wandered into the goat yard, which upset them tremendously. I carefully scooped him up, and relocated him, which made the goats very happy.
The website has been a mix of good and bad news. Recent browser updates have introduced new compatibility problems, causing hours of wrestling with code to get things working. As a result, I am in the process of updating and rebuilding the entire site.
The good part is that the rebuild will let me add some of the features I have been thinking about. Once I get the basics set up, I will give you the option to switch back and forth between the old setup and the new one. Hopefully you will be able to help me track down any problems, and get the site working for everyone. In the process, I will be adding some new features to the site, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.