Tag Archives: nature

Now Is The Time

29 Saturday Nov 2025

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In an usual twist of this blog I would like to talk about great places we have been and encourage readers to get in their vehicles and see them while they can. The “while they can” is two fold. One is Climate Change is in the process of destroying the sites and biodiversity. The other is mobility although I must say we were never the hikers that would have exposed us to greater views.

As a geographer and historian I recommend Civil War Battlefields. The best would be those around Chattanooga, Tennessee, Antietam, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg. I would like to go back to Gettysburg to ask the experts what would have happened if Meade had let Lee have the Ridge and then surrounded him without food, water, and ammunition. The war could have been over much earlier saving tens of thousands of lives. Go see the aquarium and butterfly collection in Chattanooga.

We have been in most of the National Parks in the lower forty-eight states so I recommend Yellowstone, Everglades, Big Bend, Zion, Arches, Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Death Valley, Mount Rushmore (better before the modernizations were added.),Mesa Verde, and Carlsbad and Mammoth Caves. Those are the “Do Not Miss!

Other places are the Pink Coral State Park in Colorado (dust sized pink sand dunes), Roosevelt National Park for Buffalo (although the Elk and Buffalo Refuge in Kentucky’s Land Between the Lakes is often better for real eye ball to eyeball viewing.) Great Sand Dune National Park, Pike’s Peak, Florida Keys, Rocket Launch, Museums in Washington DC, Williamsburg, House Tours in Natchez, Mississippi, Meter Crater in Arizona, the Real London Bridge at Lake Havasu, Okefenokee Swamp, Yosemite, Kings Mountain, Bad Lands, Monument Valley and the Air Force Museum in Dayton, and of course Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. You can go under the Falls in Tunnels.

We have never done a Bed and Breakfast because it is uncomfortable to be in someone else’s home, or staying even in a relative’s home much less a total stranger’s. Of the couple hundred of places we have stayed, we recommend the duplexes overlooking the Ohio River on the cliff in Cave-In-Rock Illinois State Park with a cafe across the lane, the Malanga in Mobile (Great story), Cabins in the Keys, in North Cabins of Fort Stock, Texas, The View in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in Oljato-Monument Valley, Utah (second and third floors have terraces and Navajo Food Restaurant owned by the tribe).

We liked Zoos in Milwaukee, San Diego, Atlanta and Washington DC but seeing “caged”
animals became a turn off. A safari in Africa would have been nice. Oh, Yes, I forgot the Australia Zoo North of Brisbane (Allowed to pet the creatures).

Never wanted to be on a ship with a few thousand of my best friends so we have rafted the Yellowstone River during a very white water, boated the Bayous in Louisianan and the Okefenokee Swamp in a small guided tour boats. We have ferried the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, Puget Sound, Long Island to Groton, and most exciting was Swash Inlet to Ocracoke Island (we were the center car, with the rocking five feet up and down and four feet bow to stern – we were hugely lucky in our position), we took a small boat fishing Florida Bay for sharks (great jaws story), and whale sightseeing tour in Monterey Bay in California. Additionally a small ship to the Great Barrier Reef and a submarine in the reefs.

I like to drive in real mountains on exciting roads and we have been on big roads with several thousand foot drop offs with wrecked cars below. We were the first one through and early heavy snow was on one side of a mountain and dry on the other. We drove Pike’s Peak with 75 curves up and 75 down with a ranger checking flatlanders who rode their hot brakes, and hundreds of other miles that flatlanders would creep on. My million plus miles go from -270 feet to +14,110 feet in elevation.

My advice to all Americans is put down all your devices and go see America. Go to the Smokey Mountains before seeing the Rockies and Sierra Mountains. See our volcanoes and Western National and State Parks. Meet the locals in little cafes and over breakfast at your hotel. People love to talk about their home area. Stay away from franchise food and experience local cuisines. Ask the Hotel staff for ideas and not your device. Drive through big cities and stay in the small ones and towns. Look out the car windows and see life. Maybe be only inches from a bison or see a cougar running across the road, or stop for a herd of deer, elk, or antelope standing in the road. Maybe you might be lucky enough to see a black or grizzly bear or a moose. We did motor a small boat through alligators and shark infested water.

Memories and pictures will be enjoyed for the rest of your life. It is disappearing fast so spend the time and money now. Experience Real Life!

Another Extinction Coming

21 Monday Apr 2025

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        Many years ago, in fact, about 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian Period, a crack opened up in what is now Siberia. Lava poured out covering millions of square miles to a depth of several thousand feet. Millions of metric tons of heat generating lava heated the ground under it. In that ground was multiple layers of coal, oil, and natural gas which caught fire and burned releasing vast amount of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. The air temperature rose, algae and bacteria bloomed killing off creatures living in the seas, and fresh water lakes, and streams. The creatures drinking the poisoned water died, too.

            This was the fourth and largest great extinction on the planet. It took millions of years for earth to recover from the few seeds, plants, and creatures that managed to survive. Since then the surface land has split apart forming mountains. Another extinction hit about 65 million years ago, wiping most of life when an asteroid hit the Gulf of Mexico just off the Yucatan Peninsula.

            Today, we are continuing to burn coal, oil, and gas in massive amounts putting those same gases in the air that caused the mass extinction. We may be doing it slower but the result could be the same. Those who are denying we are heading for disaster will be cursed by their progeny. The rest of humanity doesn’t believe in global warming we know is happening!

            Are we going to be the cause of the Sixth Great Extinction?

Think Before Buying

30 Thursday Jan 2025

Posted by in Building a House, Climate Change, Moving, Real Estate Planning

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        I bought the lot I built my house on in 1977 when I was thirty years old. It was the last rural lot we could find in our county of about 32,000. At that time I knew the lot would require a well and a septic system. With houses all around me it didn’t occur to me to check on anything else.

            We are about thirty feet above the Illinois River thanks to the glaciers melting and dropping their load of sand and gravel. We are located on forty-seven feet of sand and gravel. The house across the street, to the southeast, and next door to the south (end of the block) is not on the sand and gravel and those wells are over 300 feet deep verses my forty-five. After a heavy rain the lot to the south holds water on their North side next to mine. It flows over to the front of my lot and in an hour has dropped into my sand and gravel.

            As I have gotten older and more aware of where not to locate I have put together a list of check points and with today’s climate change they are even more important.

  1. Check with the local insurance companies about the potential to flood with a six inch rain. How prone is the area and especially access roads?
  2. Elevation above sea level because the ocean’s are rising and pushing rivers higher. Even areas tens of miles inland could be affected. Charleston, South Carolina is going to build a New Orleans style levee. Lots of homes will be outside it. It’s illegal to say a listed house is subject to global warming in North Carolina.
  3. Check with local taxing departments for what tax you will pay plus any other charges you might incur. Developers sometimes put costs onto the buyer who doesn’t know until the tax bill arrives. It isn’t called a tax.
  4. Check with the local Police Department for crime statistics.
  5. Check distance to nearest medical facility and its level.
  6. Check for any specialist you might need now and in the future.
  7. Is the area known for high winds that damage a roof? Hurricanes damage roofs far from the coast. Lower angle roofs are more susceptible to damage.
  8. As you get older exterior and interior steps become a greater inconvenience and hazard. In tornado prone areas, a lower level or basement is a necessary inconvenience. Tornadoes are getting stronger and more common.
  9. Look at distance to shopping, grocery stores, and restaurants.
  10. Outside maintenance should be a major consideration as one gets older.
  11. How dependable are the utilities? If power is a problem very often or in an area with frequent storms a generator might be an additional cost. A generator costs several thousand dollars.
  12. House and car insurance may be much higher than you currently pay if available from a reputable company or from the state like in Florida.
  13. What are the local electric and water rates? Especially if the property is all electric. Is internet and phone service available?
  14. An area with low or no real estate taxes and or income taxes get their operating money from somewhere and is the amount dependable for the future? (My real estate tax jumped when the huge power plant closed. The tax increase pusher said the plant would pay the increase.)
  15. Check on what churches, clubs, and organizations are in the area to assist in making friends.

These are just the first questions you should ask and many more should be on your list.

Birds of a Feather

03 Monday Jun 2024

Posted by in Personalities

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        I have a bird bath, a suet block feeder, a hummingbird feeder, and I throw seeds out on the driveway for birds, squirrels, and rabbits. I put peanuts on the window ledge for the squirrels so my dog Tina can bark at them. I put orange marmalade on a little dish attached to the hummingbird feeder. A few minutes of work each day provides hours of fun.

            One thing I have noticed is that some species dominate different spots. Robins scare away all other birds so they can drink and bathe by themselves. One Robin runs the other Robins away. Doves are larger but, true to their name, the robins dominate them.

            The suet block is controlled by the Downy woodpeckers. They are new this year to the suet block basket. They have been physical in their conquest. Several other species eat the suet when the Downy woodpeckers are not there but leave as soon as they return.

            The seeds on the driveway are fairly neutral ground because the birds and squirrels like different seeds so competition isn’t required. Oh, the rabbits are out of bed before the rest arrive and leave when the others come.

            I often thought about naming some of them after political figures. The Robins would be the Republican Party and former President Donald Trump, the dominant one constantly squawks at the others. The squirrels eat together but on the ledge, most run off when Tina barks at them. One has figured out Tina cannot do any harm through the window. That squirrel would be President Joe Biden because it ignores Tina’s whining and barking. The rest of the species of birds and creatures, rabbits, and 13 strip ground squirrels, are voters and Independent Party members. It is fun to compare personalities isn’t it?