Next Week

The next week I was on the road delivering milkweeds to the Balcones national wildlife refuge. I spent the night in San Antonio where the following morning I drove to the hills with my nephews and their father to repatriate a species of sedum that for now is only known from a small rocky outcropping. I found this species several years ago and for years grew it at home. So far no one can identify it to species so I’m taking the initiative and start the procedure to submit it as either a new species or one that is not known to grow in Texas.

It was good to get my nephews (Nick and Tim) into the bush, get some dirt in their fingernails and introduce them to a number of plants they’ve never heard of. My bother-in-law - Mike, and I wore shorts and were subjected to repeated stings from stinging nettle. After a while the sensation on the legs is that of numbness. These species are minor nuisances when compared to bull nettle (which is in a different plant family). The hairs on the nettle act like hypodermic needles, injecting chemicals such as histamines and acids that cause a reaction on the skin. Nettles are high in vitamin A and protein and lose their stings after soaking in water. With very little substrate on the outcropping we had to use soil from the trail to cover the sedums to protect their roots until they rooted into the rocks. Developers have built up to the very edge of the outcroppings where I use to find solitude as a kid. The recession seems to have slow down their destruction for now.

On the road here there and everywhere

On occasion I get into cycles where for a few weeks I am pressed for time from sun up to sun down. These last few weeks were particularly daunting albeit very fulfilling. It started with meetings that require no less than four presentations from prescribe burning invasive weed control. It never fails – I spend dozens of hours on presentation and each is presented within thirty minutes. Josh, my 15 year old buddy from Lubbock, flew down for spring break and somehow I fit time in for him. He’s an avid fisherman and I’m not so for the most part I’m either the driver or paddler. Throw in bushwhacking in the bottomlands and slaughtering Zombies on the Left4dead 2 video game and we managed to fulfill a spring break that otherwise would have been spent languishing in dreary Lubbock, TX।

The visit ended at Padre Island where we and Joshua’s’ grandmother spent a Saturday morning picking up garbage at the Padre Island National Seashore. From there Josh and his grandmother drove back to Lubbock.

A hassle? One person at a time

http://organicconsumers.org/Politics/palmoil100305.cfm


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/11/205249/850/242/494014

Blizzards and Teabaggers and too much Powder

Recently I was in northern West Virginia for a government workshop on implications of climate change to refuge management. I was snowed in for 3 days due to the second of a major blizzard within two weeks. It's been a while since I've seen this much snow.I found it amusing if not sad that FOX News (FAUX News) had catered to the ignorance of its audience but implying that those who say the temperature of the earth is rising are wrong and this recent weather pattern proves it. First a definition of weather and climate:

Weather- The state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity, and barometric pressure.

Climate- the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorological elements in a given region over long periods of time.

One could be freezing his butt off right now and cursing the work it'll take to shovel himself out of his yard and then dismiss the warming of the earth. And another denier would say that the trend of temperatures over the last five years is towards cooling. But climatologists don't deal with trends so short as five or ten years. They study trends over a century or more.

When I hear FOX News or a Republican congressman use short term data for short term gain I am dismayed that a large percentage of this country is still living in denial. What's more there are powerful factions in this country that exploit fear, ignorance and denial for profit. Take the recent Tea Party convention.

The opening speaker was Tom Tancredo; an ultra-conservative anti-immigration zealot. In his speech he ridiculed Hispanic voters; implying that they couldn't spell the word "vote" much less say it. In a thinly veiled use of President Obama's full name - Barack Hussein Obama - he whipped up the frenzied audience who for the most part believed our president was born in Kenya. The Tea Party (or angry white people party) closed it's convention with Sarah Palin. Why this person hasn't used up her fifteen minutes of fame is beyond me. It seems all one has to do to woo teabaggers is rail against the government with vague buzzwords and tired, failed policies. Again, exploiting the classic fears of this audience she bookended Tankrado speech with a sarcastic rap on Obama's Ivy League credentials. This is classic, playing the crowd like a violin the way George Bush did to stay in power for eight years. What is it about so many middle age and senior white Americans that they are scared of intellectuals? Is it a self-esteem thing? Why did so many people feel good about themselves when they had a leader who acted like a good ol' boy buffoon while his policies destroyed America's middle class? Read the book "The Problem with Kansas" and you may get some answers. This ends my soapbox rant for today.

My Gay Dog Kahn

Nine years ago Kahn showed up at the door of my apartment. I forgot the reason I took him in but stayed he did. He was a puppy of about 4 months and early on he exhibited extreme bouts of separation anxiety when I would leave him. Near as I can figure he's half boxer, half Catahoola.  Kahn is a special needs dog and extremely docile. I have seen children as young as two years old approach to pet him and he would remain very still or give them a good licking on the face. Kahn is also gay but he's accepted and loved for who he is. Kahn is extremely fit and strong and at nine years old will jump five foot fences and disregards the shock collar setting at the highest level. He'll also dig under the fence after the ground is softened by rain.  I have to give him doggy Valium during thunderstorms if I leave the house. If you think it's cruel to medicate and shock Kahn then you can bury him when he is ran over by a car.

Muy Caliente

It's been "cold" here on the coast (persisten low 30's); not as cold as that hard freeze earlier this month but enough to burn off the last of the leaves except for the magnolia and winter adapted plants in my yard. I noticed on my walks that non-native species such as Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) and Sow Thistle (Sonchus oleraceu)seem to not be affected by the cold temperatures. My South Texas species dropped their leaves soon after the hard freeze. Henbit and Sow Thistle have a competative advantage over many natives in that they can keep their cells from totally freezing. Why? Maybe production of anti-freeze chemicals or managing to keep the cells' surface only frozen, thus providing an insulating barrier for the interior cell. The spring native are also unaffected: spiderworts, blue curls, clasping leaf coneflowers and skullcaps.

My chili pequin bush (the Texas state pepper) is going dormant but not before I picked about 200 peppers and put them in used Tobassco bottles with vinagar and a little salt. This was based on a tip from Eric a few years back. What I don't know is how long I should let them soak. According to the Scoville rating the pequin is about 30,000 - 50,000 Scovilles. That's my limit.

15,000,000–16,000,000 Pure capsaicin
8,600,000–9,100,000 Various capsaicinoids
5,000,000–5,300,000 Law Enforcement Grade pepper spray
855,000–1,050,000 Naga Jolokia (a.k.a. Ghost pepper)
350,000–580,000 Red Savina Habanero
100,000–350,000 Guntur Chilli, Habanero chili, Scotch Bonnet Pepper, Datil pepper, Rocoto, African Birdseye, Madame Jeanette, Jamaican Hot Pepper
50,000–100,000 Thai Pepper/Indian Pepper,Chiltepin Pepper, Pequin Pepper
30,000–50,000 Cayenne Pepper, Ají pepper, Tabasco pepper, Chipotle peppers

Rant for Today

On the weekends I take the boys for a walk around the local school grounds. Kahn can’t come because of his knee injury. Walking around the grounds I pick up plastics for recycling – think that this time they won’t end up in the gut of an albatross or turtle. Standard junk – candy wrapper, colas and on occasion chocolate milk bottles. If you think it’s none of the government’s business to tax sugar laden junk food then you’re oblivious to the obesity epidemic of our nation. Texas is one of the leaders in obesity. With little concern for school funding the state leaves the school district with little choice but to make deals with food companies to fill their pantries with sugars, chemicals and high fructose corn syrup. I picked up a Borden 8 fluid oz. bottle of chocolate milk. “Fat Free” it says on the front label. No doubt to placate a parents concern. On the back label the sugar content is 28 grams or one teaspoon. Doesn’t sound like much but why put it in the milk at all?
For your reading: Sugar Blues – recommended by Chelsea Adams.

Automation

An automaton.  Day in and day out scraping wall paper, painting, plastering, scrubbing.  When I question the other side of me says “shut up” and keep focused on the Mission.  A mission that is non-existent for now but gives me purpose.  You let the current of fate sweep you along then you might as well sit in a rocker and wait for death. 

Motor Head is tolerant of the bedroom remodeling; sleeping on the bed with the Houston Grand Opera playing in the background.  The wall is on its second of three coats of paint; fumes warp my brain and chemical reactions access the databanks from 1972.  Vesti la giubba is twisted and bastardized to “No more Rice Krispies, we have run out of Rice Kispies.  My tears will not stop until I hear Snap, Crackle, Pop.”.  I relive it over and over in my head.  My curse – cataloging every ridiculous factoid of Americana. 
1968 - 1972: the impressionable years. 

Motor can’t take it - he has his standards. He begs to be let outside where I follow him. When approached he flops into epileptic-like convulsions. Sort of like those goats that go into a narcoleptic seizure when they hear a loud sound.