Blood in the Prairie

The Man is still alive - barely. And our marriage is too - sort of. We have just finished putting together another edition of the Land Letter, a newsletter of the land trust for which we act as volunteer director (me) and volunteer bookkeeper (The Computer Geek and Engineer Who Shares My House). Yes, he is more vital to the organization than I am. Yes, his skills would cost REAL money to replace. But, dang it, I am the president of the board of directors. I am in charge. Except I can’t lay out the danged newsletter without him and I don’t know how to put it into Quark, the program the printer uses. But The Man should still obey my every wish because he doesn’t write one word of it.

The real problem is that he doesn’t read it. Any of it. So when I try to say, “Do you think we should put this picture after the paragraph about the knapweed in the prairie,” he has no opinion except that The Picture Should Be 3.56" by 1.732" and It Fits Better On Page 2. Good grief! What if our press operated on this principle? There would be photos of barns burning on the page with the mayor’s speech. Which may actually be appropriate in some circumstances. But anyway. Did I ever tell you about the time a newsletter on which we were working had an article about the results of some election and what the new politicians were proposing to do? This issue of the newsletter was coming out in November. The Man With The Engineering Degree Who Can’t (Or Won’t) Read had found a swell picture of a Thanksgiving turkey that he wanted to insert in a convenient space in the newsletter. That space was within the article about the politicians. Again, that may actually be appropriate, but still NOT a good idea.

The good thing about working on this issue of the Land Letter was that I needed photos of the prairie which was featured in this edition. So on Saturday The Man and I spent 3 hours doing a Lit Drop (we are the ones who put those flyers in your mailboxes) for a Steve Schmuki, a candidate for State Assembly who we are supporting, and then we actually took a hike in the Eagle Centre Prairie. What a treat! Almost as exciting as going to downtown Milwaukee to a cool restaurant or bar with views of The Lake.

The goldenrods and asters in the prairie were blooming spectacularly. The scattered red sumac just glowed among the dry prairie grasses. I took a ton of photos with my little digital camera. Aren’t those things amazing toys? By taking oodles of shots, every amateur can narrow down to a few great pictures while not spending a fortune having film developed. If I can remember how to put a picture in this blog, I’ll show you what the amazing Eagle Centre Prairie looked like last Saturday.

So The Man and I had lots of photos to fight over. I have to admit The Man has a better sense of proportion than I do. And color. Oh, well. But as a friend once told me, "I never let lack of knowledge stand in the way of having an opinion." Besides, I actually know what the article about the prairie says. I wrote it.

The newsletter is at the printer. If you are a member of the Waukesha County Land Conservancy, you’ll be getting a copy soon. The red of the sumac represents The Man’s blood on the page.

Stirring the Pot