School plays have never been this good.

Going to your child's school performance has two ways of going. It will either a test of your love for that child, meaning you will lie to her afterwards.  The other is that you will really laugh, enjoy it, and put it on YouTube.

We've all been there. Wishing Starbucks was nearby, hoping that this will end soon. Or, instead of that agony, you will start laughing.

And this one:

Or this one:

The YouTube selections of kids in school plays are long and hilarious. Go for it.

This one! This is the one!

All are welcome.

Each season in the Midwest has its celebrations and events where there are glorious reflections of community and its people. Traditions date back decades or even centuries where ancestors and their following generations can hold hands across years.

The Midwest, along with the rest of the world, has an event approaching in the first days of November: Pumpkin Chunkin'. I have to believe this event arose from leftover Halloween pumpkins to Medieval ages. Maybe or maybe not, Pumpkin Chunkin' has evolved from simple to complicated.

Here is an official statement from the WCPCA:

The World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association (WCPCA) is a trademark nonprofit that raises money for scholarships, as well as organizations that benefit youth and the local community. 

We host a signature pumpkin-launching event each year, fueling innovative engineering and science-based ideas that draw spectators from all over. 

We believe that Punkin Chunkin cultivates the odd, challenging, and competitive quest for distance that inspires creativity, ingenuity, teamwork, and passion. 

It is this very dedication that drives teams to compete using science and engineering skills and brings spectators to the gate which allows us  to continue our never ending thirst to support our scholarship and charitable programs.

YouTube, about 3 minutes long

There are several divisions from historically accurate to serious military grade.

The passion is the same, love for the event is palpable, and enthusiasm seeps through the attendees.

The above YouTube shows the divisions and constructions. The one below sticks to traditionally accurate 1,000 years ago trebuchet:

About 6 minutes long, skip ahead.

Despite all the mechanics that can overshadow the joy of finding a pumpkin in the field, we look at those faces and hear "Over there! That's the one I want!"

This one!

Being Trashy is not a fashion statement.

garbage irks motorists

We talk about recycling. All need to talk about it. But the real question is if we do the talk, do we do the walk?

Recycling is absolutely a necessity now even more than before. Probably all of us bloggers have seen the massive islands of trash floating in the Pacific, Atlantic, and is moving into waterways.  It is its own island in many ways, only it is toxic.

size of France?

What happens when we recycle and it is collected? What is done to it?

preparing piles of recycling for sorting

What is next?

What plastics can be recycled?


This what China does.

Europe has be proactive for many years in recycling. 

America has as well, but not everyone has recognized how utterly vital recycling is.

On our farm, we handled garbage in several ways. Edibles were dumped 

in the hog lots. They loved it. 

We burned papers and paper waste.  

What about tin cans, etc? 

Some townspeople dumped that 

in the local creek that fed into the 

Mississippi. We took this trash to 

unfarmable empty land and dumped it.

                                                   It was the times, 1950s. 

What to do with plastic straws?

"Some examples of type 5 plastic containers that straws can be placed into include plastic take-out containers, microwavable plastic containers, and margarine tubs or other similar containers. Straws, damn them. Go to this site above.

To check if your container is the proper type, just check for the recycling label. Type 5 plastic (polypropylene) will be marked with a number 5 inside the recycling symbol. The image below illustrates this symbol:"

  

Medicine bottles are perfect.

Straws, damn them. Go to this site: Straws

 The paper straw option shown above can be found here: readily available in Target and other stores