The quote above was from a music review of the Boston based string band Jaded Mandolin.  I like to think homeschoolers can follow the same notion.  That kid of ours in the picture to the left would likely not have discovered the banjo if not for home education.
We are huge fans of good bluegrass/folk music.  Right now, the boys are at String Camp learning some neat tricks for mandolin, banjo, fiddle and cello.  (The fiddle magically turns into a violin on a more classical occasion.)

I caught the information about the talented group Jaded Mandolin on Worldschooler Eli Gerzon’s blog, in his list of Successful Unschoolers.  I like that term: Worldschooler.  It seems very appropriate relating to home education.

From the Boston Globe review of Jaded Mandolin:

"Jaded Mandolin is already among the most promising local neotrad string bands. On its debut eponymous album, the quartet treats traditional songs with just the right balance of respect and invention. But the real wonder is the precociously heart-wise songwriting. Their originals occupy the same brooding ground that urban songwriters love to wander, but they always turn toward some useful, brighter purpose." –Scott Alarik, Boston Globe

Hereabouts, one of our favorite bands plays a wonderful rendition of Cluck Old Hen, just as Jaded Mandolin does.  Oberon, the Possom King’s Sally in the Garden and all others are purty good too.  (Possum King band members know how to teach a lick or two to interested parties too.) 

Speaking of old hens clucking, I should mention that our sweet, little Japanese Bantam hen Ani-Me won grand champion hen at our 4-H Fair.  Better yet, she wasn’t the only hen there. 
We knew she was special,  since we spotted our cat Deuchars running around the corner of our house giving Ani-Me a free ride in his mouth.  She survived.  So did the cat, but his ears were probably burning.
Super Mom Ani-Me is weaning her adopted chicks now by climbing up on the chicken house wall ledge to roost.  Literally climbing the walls.

The great Indiana smokeout
Attorney general crafty in snuffing out ‘illegal’ cigarettes

Government press releases are usually quite entertaining, so when Indiana’s attorney general used the word contraband in a headline concerning a business in Sellersburg, I knew I was in for a treat.

The word contraband just sounds so amazingly sinister doesn’t it? It conjures up images of sneaky people gathering in dark corners doing very scary stuff. But in this case the reality didn’t exactly match the hype.

The contraband was cigarettes. Of course, cigarettes in the general sense are not illegal in Indiana, but certain brands not on the state government’s approved list are. If the brand is on the list, all is well, but if not, then cigarettes suddenly transform into evil contraband.

Read on.  It’s very entertaining and enlightening about that greed factor.  I’m just not a big government fan.