[Douglas G. Brown]

Anne,

A techie friend of mine told me that there is a website that can turn what you see while running Windows 10 to look just like what you were so at home with on Windows 7. You'll have to ask around with your techie pals (or your children's techie pals), but it is out there. I'm still running a vintage Dell that I bought secondhand from a private high school. It had a fresh installation of Windows 7, but I still miss Windows XP. I think Windows 10 was invented for people who can't spell, but can look at pictures; but don't quote me on this. That is my inner Luddite speaking.

Speaking of being a Luddite, I've been out in my woodlot 3 days in the last week (between rainstorms) cutting balsam fir trees that have blown down across my woods road. Cutting them with a good old hand powered bucksaw, into 12 foot logs. Then, I limbed them out, and peeled the bark with an axe. Good exercise, and I better appreciate how my grandfather frequently did this for work in the 1920 - 1950 era. I do have a chainsaw, but lugging it and a full gas can down 3/4 miles of wood road (plus, getting the cussed thing to start) is less work than lugging a saw and an axe. Also, a few days in the spring hand sawing logs does a feller good. (I've noticed that all of that rain has my little trout stream full, so I've got to get my fishing gear out.)

A friend of mine who built a sawmill will pick up the logs and keep half of them got cutting my half into 4 by 6 beams for a garage I'll build this summer for my 1936 Plymouth.

Well, now for the good news. Each day in the woods, a juvenile Bald Eagle slowly circles about 15 feet above the treetops (which are about 45 feet tall). I enjoy watching him (or her?) as much as he does watching me. I don't know if it's the hunter's orange cap I'm wearing, or the swoosh - swoosh of the bucksaw that attracts his attention, but the eagle puts on a good airshow.

By the way, Anne, did you write a book about small scale sheep farming? I read it 2 winters ago, but had forgotten to ask.