Found some old mason jars

And there are about three different batches.  One batch has two very plain jars that say Kerr Mason. 
One batch of several has a 'fruit in a car-touche' design on the back.  The other batch is a bunch of "mama's mason jar".

The neighbor's wife (original owner of the jars) died recently.  She'd been sick for several years and you can tell these have been sitting in the garage since she lost the energy to can stuff.  I soaked them all in a bleachy bath and washed them out.

Some of them still need some more washing, though.  While I had them out in the sun, I noticed some residue of dirt left behind.

First, the "Fruitopia" mason jars 

Next, the "Mama's Mason Jar" jars.

And the plain Kerr mason jars

Link to the album on photobucket here, because the pictures are bigger there.

This link is supposed to do a 'slideshow'.
http://s210.photobucket.com/user/Bugeyedmonster2/slideshow/mason%20jars


If anyone has any knowledge about old mason jars, feel free to drop me a line.  I will be using the newest jars for mason jar salads.  I'm not sure about whether or not I want to sell the older ones on Etsy.

Helping GBLT People in Russia

Helping GBLT People in Russia

Apparently there is some really homophobic crapula going on right now in Russia. 

Coming Out St. Petersburg is trying to raise funds to pay a fine levied by the Russian Government.  The Russian Government is calling them foreign agents and trying to shut them down. 
http://www.comingoutspb.ru/en/en-news/donations-to-pay-the-fine

Spreading the word would be greatly appreciated.

What I liked about the new "Lone Ranger & Tonto" Disney movie

When I was a kid, I tried watching the older LR & T series.  It was pretty cool to see a Native American in a positive role on TV. 

But what always confused me was why they trusted each other.

In class we heard about how Custer died for our sins, Wounded Knee, the Trail of Tears, Cynthia Ann Parker, Kit Carson, Geronimo, and Philip Sheridan.

There's also the bit of Texas history that those outside of Texas might not know about the Texas Rangers. 

In the early days, the Texas Rangers were a bunch of racists thugs. One became a Texas Ranger through who one knew, rather than because one wanted to keep the public safe.  

In the new Disney movie, Dan Reid deputizes his brother, so brother John is now a Ranger.  Which is how becoming a Ranger often happened.  One didn't need any special training or psych eval to become a Ranger.

"Walker, Texas Ranger" they weren't. 

They were brutal to adversaries, often employing torture during interrogation.  Go do a google search and you'll find lots of info on the behavior of the Texas Rangers in the 1800s.

There was this wonderful investigation in 1919 of the Texas Rangers, which found that they were responsible for the deaths of nearly 5,000 Hispanics in the past decade.  The agency of the Texas Rangers was reformed, and a sort of Internal Affairs department instituted. (They didn't call it IA, and right now I don't remember what it was called.)

It's just that when I would attempt to watch it as a kid, I always wondered how Tonto could trust the Lone Ranger, or why the Ranger trusted Tonto.  Why would two men from opposing groups end up working together.  No one ever gave me an answer to that question as a kid. 

In the movie, Tonto and the Ranger definitely have their squabbles.  But by the last 15 minutes of the movie, they are working together in sync, keeping watch over each others' back, and just fantastic together.

What I liked about the new movie was that it answered the question my kid self had years ago.  John Reid (the Lone Ranger) and Tonto  ended up together due to need and circumstances, and somewhere along the way they became best of friends.  

I so want Disney to do a new TV series now, except without all the fancy special effects they used in this movie.  There were a few times I was thinking that they would have been seriously hurt in that stunt in RL.  Especially with that rolling train.