4TH OF JULY IN THE ROGUE VALLEY

 Huge freeway reader boards have been set up at the main roads into our mountainous residential area. You can't read it due to the reflection but it says, "NO FIREWORKS EXTREME FIRE DANGER." Now this has always been the case up here in the hills but folks still felt compelled to light off a few flying objects and rattle our windows on the 4th (it's their God-given right after all). So this year the fire department, Medford PD, the State Police and anybody else they can round up are out patrolling. We also have a phone number to call specifically for reporting any fireworks we might hear or see. We're no different from the Oakland Hills except that instead of Eucalyptus trees we have big cedar & pine. They all go up like torches. So we're really hoping for a quiet night. 
Already we've had injuries and a fatality due to stupidity...like a guy who shot off his assault rifle into his ceiling, forgetting that he was on the 1st floor of a 2-story building. He killed a 5 year old girl upstairs and severely wounded her mother(we're told that she'll lose the use of her right arm). Then a teen aged boy lost 2 fingers and part of his hand when a firework exploded. He said, "Oh it's not so bad...I only lost a couple of fingers...!" OYE! Both of these incidents happened in Grants Pass....

 Well, on to better things. Here at Angel Crest Manor we're just starting to pick our crop of green beans, enough so that I could make my famous "4th of July Beans." Now these aren't the al dente, politically correct bright green beans but the old fashioned, well cooked, kinda soft green beans with bacon & onion. I added some white beans and some fully cooked smoked sausage and served 'em up with my famous honey cheddar corn bread. Yummm!