Marshall Grain Co.

Even now, when shopping in one, big American city is the same as shopping in another, there are still locally owned retail stores. Not as many as there used to be, but there a few -- fortunately.

Fort Worth's, Marshall Grain Co. is one such store.

About this time each year my wife and I pay a visit to Marshall Grain and pick up a variety of organic fertilizers, and bug and weed killers. This year we bought diatomaceous earth as a bug killer. It works, I think, the bugs are gone, anyway. In the past we have purchased everything from chickens to gardening tools at Marshall.

If you haven't been to a Marshall Grain, it is worth a visit. Stop by and check out their assortment of farm and garden products.The staff is friendly and helpful.  And you might even leave with a couple of chickens.

Marshall Grain is on Lancaster Blvd., just east of downtown, and now in Grapevine.

How many people are moving in and out of the Fort Worth area?

For those of us who can't get enough of Almanac-type statistics, Forbes Magazine ran a fascinating visual data report. I came across it reading D Magazine online.

The report maps IRS migration data to and from counties in the USA with a line drawn to indicate the movement.

Does your home county have any lines to Tarrant County? It could be you.

Note: it requires 10 or more IRS-filed movements for the lines to draw. The data is for 2008.

Other observations:

-- Check out Detroit, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
-- Most of Tarrant County's red lines (movement away) are into Texas.
-- Austin is interesting.
-- Californians are moving out.

Here's the link: Forbes data for Tarrant County
D Magazine's link.

I'd like to hear any thoughts on the report. Please comment.

Netbook Time?

I like the Mac laptop.

But it is expensive compared to a netbook made by HP, Asus, Dell, Toshiba, or Acer.  I like the portability factor and long battery life of the new netbooks. I can live with the 10.1" screen. I have no idea what "Windows 7 Starter" means. I think it means, "we're not charging full price for the operating system so we're starting you on something inadequate that will require an upgrade later." For a fee, of course.

I'm not ready for the iPad leap. I am just not hip enough to tote one of those around a Starbucks. Besides I'm not sure it isn't the Apple product-phallus.

Should I upgrade from 1 gig of ram to 2 gigs? 1 gig of ram. How 90's of them. Should I get the DVD external drive? And is the little sleeve they sell with them too much of a man-purse? I think it is.

Any thoughts?