18 Aug 2004
Fighting Purple Loosestrife

Well, OK. Purple loosestrife is a serious problem: it was choking lakes in Minnesota when we lived there at an alarming rate, and nothing seemed to even so much as slow it down. But fighting fire with fire can be a dangerous sport, and note well the last comment from Tim Smith, a wetlands scientist at the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management:

"From what we know, there's no downside," Smith said.

An invasive species is an invasive species: and we've been getting lots of trouble from them of late. Once this genie's out of the bottle, there is no effective way to put it back. We'd better hope that Mr. Smith was correct.

They burned it, mowed it, sprayed it and flooded it. But nothing killed the purple loosestrife weed, which has become a regional plague, until officials at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge set a European beetle loose on it.

(link) [MSNBC]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Snowed Under

I've been busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest. Harvest season is in full swing: we put up forty quarts of frozen corn last weekend - this weekend it's tomatoes (with any luck) and beans. That was in addition to going to the markets, where we actually sold more, dollar wise, at our local market Saturday morning than we did at the one in Indy on Friday evening.

No new chicks yet: McMurray rescheduled my order to ship the first week of September, and I've been frantically trying to find birds sooner, as that will put us into the first week of November before we can take them to processing. I really can't cancel the order: I've already bought and mixed the feed!

Hammerstead website sales are picking up, too. That's encouraging. Plus some special orders: I cleaned, sanded and shipped two drinking horns over the weekend - made $40 for about an hours work. It's real important to us to use all of the animals we take to slaughter: I can't say it's a religious imperative, but it's close. I guess I just hate waste.

To top it all off, I cleaned out the "medical stall" in the big barn today, in preparation for running the winter chickens. We'd turn it into an extension to the indoor "coop" if required, and we hadn't cleaned it out since last fall. I took three pickup truck loads to the compost pile, and it was heavy stuff too. Then I delivered some corn to Indy, and on the way back the beater truck broke a radiator hose. What a pain in the ass!

So, forgive me, but I'm off to play some Doom (just Doom II - no cash for the new one - yet!) before bed. Vent a few frustrations!

I should resume my "normal" schedule of blogging tomorrow: lot's has been going on, indeed, I've just not had time or energy to sit at the keyboard and sort it for comment.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Scary Security

A mere four years ago a tale such as this would have been unbelieveable, if not all but unthinkable. We've come a long way since then ...

This morning, they're doing bag searches again to get on the ferry. And the guy doing the searches pulls me aside and says, "Sir, I feel that I need to confiscate this book."

(link) [Sea and Sky and Land]

via Pagan Prattle

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Fred Nold's Legacy

A somewhat unusual topic for a Cringely column, but an amazing piece of writing, with a true zinger at the end. Having watched with some interest myself the functioning of sentencing "guidelines", it's all too believeable.

Why We Send So Many Americans to Prison and Probably Shouldn't

(link) [I,Cringely]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Inspired

This project could serve as an inspiration to all of us trying to revive a small town economy. But getting it past the town council might be a problem...

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link