GRANNY'S NOTES
Some people choose farm homes for entire lifetimes
By SUE GERARD
At age 14, I was punching wires at the hay baler - an old-time implement farmers used to harvest hay for feeding to farm animals in winter. Dad mowed the hay fields with a sickle mower and left it flat on the ground to "cure" in the sun for a day or two.

THE THIRD AGE
Elderly disaster victims require extra planning
By ANN GOWANS
Hurricane season is almost upon us once again, and we need to start thinking about how we can help our elders who live close to storm centers avoid the horrific problems experienced by hundreds of older people last year. Those who have homes in these areas, or who have family members living close to possible storm sites, must start to plan right now for the possible aftermath of the upcoming hurricane season.

NOTES FROM BOOMERANG CREEK
Language reaches over politics, ocean’s width
By CATHY SALTER
In a biography of John Adams, I came across a quote by Thomas Jefferson: "The Earth belongs in usufruct to the living." A reader with any modicum of curiosity could not sail through such a sentence without backing up to chew awhile on the odd, antiquated, mouthful of a word that holds the key to Jefferson’s meaning. Us-u-fruct. And so I did.