I find myself spending more of my time outside than I am used to. Yes, it’s hot out…And dry. It almost reminds me of my summer in south Texas back in the early 1970’s. Unusually dry heat for Southeast Texas at this time of the year.
Walking the trail I’ve laid out around the backyard and [...]

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This morning as the sun comes up, the day starts out foggy. The woods behind the house are hazy through the gray, cloaking moisture. The morning is still, but nowhere near quite. Birds, lots of birds are singing their welcome to the mornings light.
The back doors are wide, letting in the morning cool before the [...]

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Good article on the food safety issue from The Ethicurean Blog.
Down on the farm
Here’s a quick backgrounder: After the E. coli/spinach episode in 2006, big leafy greens producers in California (where the toxic spinach was grown) got together and drafted guidelines to reduce the risk of contamination on farms. These guidelines had some issues: they [...]

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Image via Wikipedia
The weather here has been very dry…at least until the past week or so. We have been having a spring-like amount of rain. After complaining for so long about the lack, it seems almost sacrilegious to say anything about the water we needed so bad.
After months of not having to mow on [...]

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Wouldn’t it make a great birthday present to the country if we could get serious about Energy Independence?
Yale Environment 360: As Energy Prices Rise, the Pressure to Drill Builds
Perhaps we should be amazed that America’s largest protected area — the 19.2 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) — has remained inviolate this long. Politicians from [...]

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This has been a “wild” year around our house. So far this spring we have been blessed with four identical little armadillos, a litter of four raccoons, and a couple of opposiums.
Down in this part of Texas most of the older homes are built up on blocks so that they float above the ground. Basements [...]

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Shifting winds: A victory for island development | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle
Weather forecasters and climatologists have long warned that unbridled development of the vulnerable Gulf Coast is setting the stage for a disaster that might dwarf the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Coming hard on Katrina’s heels was Rita, which bypassed the Houston-Galveston area but revealed just [...]

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Summer’s back…Both the temperature and the humidity are back. No wanting to spend the morning in the backyard today.
Though I must admit the birds seem to like the weather just fine. Loud greetings to the day were heard even through the closed doors and windows.
Over the weekend we had a hummingbird playing around the Mimosa [...]

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