Spooks adopted Upakrik Farm on the evening of All Souls Day in 1996. Our black cocker spaniel Dixie and I both saw a cat in our driveway. I thought it was our cat Pumpkin, a Maine coon cat, but Dixie gave chase and the cat jumped into the shrubbery. When I found Pumpkin in her basket, I concluded we had a visiting cat....

A Bay Weekly reader called complaining that the weed killer Roundup was not killing the weeds he was spraying. Matter of fact, he said, “ I might just as well have been spraying the weeds with water.”

If you read the Roundup label carefully, you’ll see that it “should be applied only on actively growing weeds.”

Perhaps you thought you were living in the age of technology? Yes, humans with our tools and machines have had a tremendous impact on earth. Evidence of human impact goes back thousands of years, and the pace is rapidly accelerating. But a few thousand years is just a moment in the history of the earth. It might be easier to argue that we are living in the age of the beetle.

In the deepening twilight, Venus, Saturn and Mars blink into view above the west horizon. Thursday the waxing crescent moon joins the fray, with none farther than seven degrees from any other. The planets set around 10pm at week’s end, and while Mars and Venus remain just a few degrees apart through most of the month, Saturn drops from sight over the next few days.

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