Stewed Prunes

Yesterday (July 28, 2007) at your Grandma Gail’s birthday party, I saw your Mommy feed you solid food. It was some kind of baby food (yellow yucky stuff).

Instead, you should have stewed prunes because we love you.

Prunes are not only fun to eat but they are also highly nutritious. They have all kinds of vitamins, minerals and other stuff that is good for you.

Some mean people make fun of prunes like there is something bad or funny or silly about them. Stewed prunes are good and make you healthy and nice.

I make the stewed prunes with raisins, dried apricot and a dollop of blackberry brandy and Triple Sec. I soak the prunes, raisins and apricots for an hour. Then I stew the mixture for about two hours adding the booze slowly.



Prunes are shriveled up plums, raisins are shriveled up grapes and dried out apricots are dried out apricots. (A lot of people don’t know that.)


Prunes and raisins were invented by an ancient Greek Philosopher named Murray Prune. Murray discovered them by watching things shrivel up. (Some religious people claim that God created prunes as a matter of “Intelligent Design” instead of shriveling.)

When you soak the prunes, they swell and renew themselves. It is like a resurrection which is also used as proof of something and can be biblical.

Maybe, when you grow up you can be a Scientist and discover all kinds of wonderful things by watching them shrivel up.

Raisins are also good in oatmeal cookies. Chocolate chips help.

When your Mommy starts to feed you real food, insist on stewed prunes.

New Tires

Dear Henry Albert,

Today I got tires. I had tires but they were old and started making strange sounds. When people are very young or get old, they also may make strange sounds. But when a tires starts to make strange sounds, it may be signs of a problem.

The tires I got are black. I had a choice of black or black. Why don’t they make tires in different colors? Like red? Or blue? Or why not a color to match your car? I chose black.

Tires are like wheels with rubber. Wheels are good. The convert sliding motion to rolling motion. Imagine try to drag a car along the road with all the metal stuff scraping on the pavement. Wheels reduce friction. Rolling is better than sliding and scraping. Some people believe the wheel was invented by an ancient Greek whose name was Murray Wheel.

Would it be a good thing if people had wheels instead of legs and feet? If we had wheels we could roll instead walking. We could get tires instead of shoes and sox and our feet probably wouldn’t smell so bad. (Kids shoes) (Purple shoes)

But what if there was some “stuff” in the street? There could be some “stuff” like “poop”. It could be from a doggie or an elephant. With legs and feet, we can step over the “stuff”. With wheels we would probably just roll over the “stuff” and our wheels would really smell bad.

Getting new tires is not very exciting.

Tree Climbers

Dear Henry Albert

I saw a whole bunch of people climbing a tree. A real BIG TREE! They use ropes.

These were real people, not monkeys or even marsupials. Sometimes it is not easy to know which is a monkey and which is a people. Also ... Not all marsupials climb trees.

The people were climbing in the Lake Claire Land Trust. It is one block away from Mike’s house in Atlanta.

The Lake Claire Community Land Trust (LCCLT) is a non-profit incorporation of neighbors who are developing land between Nelms and Arizona Avenues, resulting in a “green space” for community use and enhancement. The people of the Land Trust like Peace and Love. Peace and Love is good.

When your Mommy was a little girl, I built a tree house in the big Weeping Willow Tree in our backyard.

Tree houses are fun. Your Mommy and Mike and Adam and other kids used to sit in the tree.

The only one who ever fell out of the tree house was Dennis (Adam’s father.) He fell out of the tree house one night when we were celebrating the full moon. Fortunately, Dennis was very relaxed when he fell, so he didn’t get hurt.

Mommy Marsupials have pouches. The word Marsupial has the sound “soup” but should not be confused with soup. Soup cannot climb trees.

Blackie, Vegas and Wolfie (Mike’s doggies) like to make doo-doo in the Land Trust.

Where did our brain come from?

Dear Henry Albert,

An article “Evolutionary Biology” in the Economist (4/23/07) implies that the anscestor of our brain was Urbilateria or a prehistoric worm. What does this mean?

It means they (some scientists) suspect our brain evolved from a worm. Evolved means changed or transformed over a period of time. This is not inspiring happy news. Especially if you are a little boy.

Worms are squiggly slimy things.


(this is not a real worm)
(this is a real worm. Yuch!)

A lot of people don’t like the idea of evolution. Some religious people like to think that God woke up one morning and went “poof” and made our brain. They call this theory “Intelligent Design”.

Politicians use Evolution and “Intelligent Design” to get votes and money. Politicians have squiggly slimy brains.

Why couldn’t our brain have evolved from the wise old owl? Or Albert Einstein?


Why did God make worms anyway?

Toes don't talk.

Dear Henry Albert,

It rains a lot in the mountains in Brevard. Yesterday (7/10/07), it rained so much that where I park turned to mud. So I took my shoes off and ran from my car to the porch. And when I got to the porch and washed the mud off my feet what do you think I saw? I saw my toes. So I said, “Hello toes.” My toes didn’t answer.

It is good to know the parts of your body. Your should know what is a spoon and what is a door knob and what is your nose and Daddy’s nose or Mommy’s nose and what is your toes.

It is important to learn where you end and where the world begins and what parts belong to you and what parts belong to somebody else. (Or something else like the cat.)

Talking to your toes is OK. Talking to the cat or a doorknob or your Grandpa or the ceiling is OK. Some of them may answer but don’t expect your toes to answer.

Toes aren’t stupid or anything. Toes are very important. Your Mommy and Daddy are very smart and have a lot of education. They wil tell you why toes are important.

And just because toes don’t talk, it doesn’t mean toes don’t listen.

So be careful what you say.

That’s a good lesson to learn!

Fish in the Pond.

Dear Henry Albert,

It is a warm summer day. George and I are sitting on the porch looking at the pond.

There are fish in the pond. The pond looks muddy.

It rained a lot for two days. When it rains a lot the water rushes down the streams and picks up little bits of dirt and stuff which is called silt.

That’s why the pond looks muddy and when the pond is muddy, you can’t see the fish. It also means the fish can’t see you.

If you can’t see the fish in the pond, how do we know there are fish in the pond?

George says there are fish in the pond. George is smart and knows a lot. He says, “If we believe there are fish, there are fish”. He says it is a matter of faith. Do fish close their eyes when they sleep? Let’s ask George. George says, “We will look at the fish when they are sleeping. But, we won’t be able to see them if the water is muddy”.
What does this mean? It means that on a warm summer day it is good to take a nap.

Mike and the snake.

Dear Henry Albert,

On July 1st 2007, Mike killed a snake. Yes, your Uncle Mike killed a snake. As a matter of fact, he killed one and a half snakes.

Mike spotted a copperhead at the edge of the big pond in the compound in North Carolina. Copperheads are poisonous nasty snakes. Last year a copperhead bit Rufus. Rufus is Dave’s Mother’s dog. Rufus got real sick and almost died.

Mike keeps a shotgun in the garage/storage building/workshop at the edge of the pond. He got the shotgun, sneaked up on the snake and “kerpow!” blew its head off. Then he spotted another snake. It was trying to cowardly escape into a hole when Mike, blasted it in half. The rear part of the snake was clearly dead. The front of the snake was in the hole and we didn’t want to explore.

Agkistrodon contortrix is a venomous pit viper species found in North America.

Blackie, Vegas, Wolffie, Maddie and Rufus cheered. (All are Mike’s and Dave’s and Dave’s Mommies’ doggies.) It is good not to be a poisonous nasty snake when Mike is around.

July the seventh.

Saturday was July the seventh of the year 2007. Some people think 7 is a lucky number. July seven 2007 can be written 7/07/07. This gets some people real excited. Whoopee! A lot of people got married and did other stuff.

I am in the woods in the mountains in North Carolina. I am surrounded by trees (I guess that's why they call them woods because trees got wood.)




I am also surrounded by bears and racoons and snakes and squirrels and frogs and a lot of bugs. Animals don't care very much about numbers. Especially the bugs. Bugs like biting and making you itch.


Say hello to the bug. (Caution! Bugs can go into cereal.)




When you get older, you can pick your favorite number. First, you must learn to count. A good place to start is with your toes. Jason (your Daddy) can help because he is very good with numbers. Mommy can help with your toes.


I like 3 and 9 and 18.