Category: Places

What I’m Reading – Dec 29 2024

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date December 29, 2023

Razor wire, like that being placed by Texas at the southern border.

The Endangered Species Act turns 50. There’s good news, and bad, about the law.

The good news is, it works. The bad news is, Republicans and some industries such as the fossil fuel, timber, mineral extraction, and cattle industries, don’t like that it’s working. And you can toss in a few states among those who have declared themselves just peachy keen to let species go extinct.

High Country New: The epic history of the Endangered Species Act

Sierra Club: Two Stoneflies Lead the Way for Conserving Other Uncharismatic Species

Vox: The ridiculously stupid reason the US is letting animals spiral toward oblivion

PBS: Architects of the Endangered Species Act reflect on 50th anniversary of groundbreaking measure

***

Our country has completely recovered from the COVID slowdown, inflation is under control, unemployment is down, and wages have risen—this despite a desperate effort by US corporations to milk the people of this country for as many profits as possible.

Yet, nary a peep from the media giving Biden any kudos for, at a minimum, staying out of the way and letting federal agencies do their job to control a post-COVID economy.

Public Notice: Biden doesn’t get enough credit for his economic record

***

I’ve been following the antics of Texas governor and legislature in court documents for some time. Without firing a shot, the state has unilaterally declared itself independent of the United States.

(Well, except when it holds its hand out for federal funds.)

The Texas government has triggered acrimony between the US and Mexico at a time when we need Mexico’s help to handle mass migrations. It undermines the federal effort to control migration, and then turns around and tells the press the southern border is ‘wide open’. And Texas creates havoc and hardship for citizen and migrant alike by shipping poor migrants to northern cities, without giving the cities a heads up, and without the migrants even having the clothing they would need to survive.

Worse, other than independent publications like the Texas Tribune, the media has done an appallingly bad job documenting the damage Texas is causing. Instead it plays into the Republican talking points of “Oh, Biden is in trouble! Migration at the border is out of control!”

I’ll have more on the Texas efforts, migration, and the legal cases associated with the efforts, in separate posts. As for the media, all I can do with it is focus on sharing stores from decent media sources, like the Texas Tribune.

Texas Tribune: U.S. Department of Justice says it’ll sue if Texas enforces new law punishing illegal border crossing

outdoors Savannah

Backyard dilemma and the ever-present nasty Chinaberry trees

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date December 9, 2022

We don’t have the largest backyard, but it’s a good size for us. After our place in O’Fallon, with the steep hill in the back, we were excited about a nice flat backyard when we bought the place.

We spent considerable time yanking out the pampas grass that had been allowed to spread until it knocked down fences. We also gave the backyard shed to our neighbors. We used weed fabric and edging to carve out garden areas for fall planting. We planted six Nellie Stevens holly trees, three to each corner, and stunning Black Diamond red crape myrtles, one on each side. We then covered the dirt areas with about 20 bales of pine straw.

We bought the place in summer. It was the next Spring when we discovered the chinaberry trees. One day we woke up with thousands of small yellow berries littering the ground. We’d clean them up only for them to rain down again during the next breezy day.

Behind us a buffer zone between HOA property and a small church. When the area was cleared, the HOA did not do a proper job of controlling the growth in a stand of trees, which allowed invasive chinaberry trees to take over. Chinaberry trees grow quickly and the ones next to our property are now about 30 feet tall. Their branches extend over our yard, and all of the branches were filled with berries.

We had pruned the smaller trees ourselves, but the problem with chinaberry trees is when you cut one branch, a dozen grow in its place.

Chinaberry trees are toxic. The berries are toxic, the bark is toxic, and the leaves are toxic. Worse, they can alter the chemical makeup of the dirt, which can kill off any species that is not a chinaberry. They do have some pretty flowers in the spring, but these don’t compensate for the messy berry droppings.

These are nasty things. If you step on them, they form a gluey mess on your shoes that is almost impossible to remove. And where there’s a berry, there will be a chinaberry tree. Worse, they got into the pine straw mulch and the only way to get rid of them was to get rid of the mulch. Twenty bales of straw, gone.

This last year we planted sunflowers, zinnias, and marigolds in all of that exposed dirt and had some success with the zinnias, marigolds, and Mexican sunflowers, but the rest was a bust. So, lots of weeds. Lots and lots of weeds.

We asked the HOA to clean up the chinaberry trees, but they blew us off. They’re ‘healthy’ trees they claim, though in this city and county chinaberry trees don’t fall into the ‘keep the trees’ laws. We can prune the trees ourselves, but as I noted above: cut one branch, get a dozen in its place.

Now our plan is to convert the carved out garden areas back to grass—not to make it back into a lawn, but grass can form a good ground cover and it’s relatively simple to clean up the berries off of grass. Then we’re going to uncover patches for new bushes and trees, and use raised beds for any areas we want to reserve for annuals.

We can cover the raised beds with plastic during berry falling season, and use a shop-vac to vacuum up the berries on the grass. We’ll still be able to have the plants and flowers we want, without the weeds from bare ground and the chinaberry dilemma.

In the meantime, I found a terrific writing on the history of Savannah and the part it played bringing these nasty trees to the US.

Places

Growth isn’t always good

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date March 30, 2022

I moved to Savannah from Missouri a couple of years ago. The city I moved from, O’Fallon, is the fastest growing city in Missouri. It shows, and not in a positive way.

We had little in the way of parks, few sidewalks, no bus system, and wall-to-wall stores and shopping centers (and offices). The roads are a mess, and the water/sewer utilities are a disaster.

One of the more famous parks, the Katy Trail which uses the old railroad system to create a walking and biking trail that crosses the state, was damaged when the county decided that heck yes, a developer can build mega-priced homes on the cliffs overlooking the trail.

It’s not a pleasant place to be solely because the county and the city value growth over quality of life.

So take it to heart when I warn you that growth isn’t always a positive thing.

Housing is an issue already in Savannah, as is strains on the necessary utilities to support a growing community. Savannah is already constrained by being bordered by an immovable object, Fort Stewart—not to mention the rivers, flood plains, and marshes. And I’ve heard many folks complain of too much development around already overcrowded roads and freeways. Big big houses on tiny matchbook sized lots, and all of it too expensive for the average citizen.

Savannah is not considered a good place to retire because of lack of adequate medical care.

The real question is: what does Savannah want to be when it grows up?

Does it want to be a major port with lot after lot full of containers and warehouses? Does it want to be an industry hub? Or does it want to be a quaint tourist town with lovely homes and parks and waterfront activities? How about being a new Hollywood or artsy academic center with SCAD?

All of these aren’t mutually exclusive…but it takes care and caution and planning to do it right. What I’m seeing now is less careful planning, and more of what happened to O’Fallon in Missouri. And once you’ve done the damage, there’s no going back.

Places Political

On my way to writing there was a pandemic. And we moved to Georgia. And Trump.

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date October 24, 2020

I had such good intentions at the start of the year. I was going to lose weight, get in shape, and most of all, return to writing on a regular basis. And then the rest of 2020 hit.

It started with COVID and it ends with COVID and a parade of masks and hand washes and furtive outdoor trips. We made it worse on ourselves by deciding come hell, high water, or pandemic, we were still going to follow through on our decision to sell our home in Missouri and move to Savannah. And we did make the thousand mile move, though it’s not something I would recommend to anyone else during a pandemic.

Moving truck about to leave Missouri

Tags Biden, Georgia, Savannah

Places

Old home vs New home

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date August 1, 2020

Now that the house purchase is a done deal (I don’t expect problems with loan), time to explore the differences between homes in Savannah, versus homes in Missouri.

TL;DR it’s like they’re on different planets.

Almost every home in Missouri has a basement. You get so used to it that home sizes such as 1270 don’t bug you, because you know you’ll have a basement of almost equal size.

Coastal Georgia homes do not have basements. Ever. Forever and ever. If you go to dig a basement, you’ll strike water.

Because there are no basements, do you know where hot water heaters are frequently located?

In the attic. In the friggen attic. Our home has both heat pump innards and hot water heater in the attic. Well, until we either replace it with a tankless hot water heater, or relocate that puppy to the garage.

In Missouri, every home has gutters and every Missourian constantly frets about their gutters. Why? Missourians live in constant dread of water around the house. The reason for this is Missouri is primarily clay and limestone. And clay. A drop of water is grabbed by the soil and held until next July. And all of it wants your basement.

In Savannah, few homes have gutters. If they have anything, it’s these wing things that direct water away from doors to the side, but no one gives a damn if there’s a swimming pool right next to the house. And the reason for this is the soil here is sand. In Savannah, we’re living on the world’s largest beach. Two inches of rain can fall in three seconds, and five seconds later, it’s all wicked away.
(Or evaporated into the air, so that every time you walk outside, your glasses fog over.)

In Missouri, homes don’t tend to have a lot of geegaws and frufrus, especially middle income homes. What you see, is what you get: typically a ranch, with a porch, and a deck. And maybe a flat lawn.

In Savannah, a significant number of homes have faux gables. These are little roof peaks with fake windows that are supposed to add curb appeal. Our new home actually has one, but thankfully it’s hidden by a good, honest tree.

And all the homes we’ve seen in Georgia have some variation of popcorn ceiling. Every single one. The home we bought is the only one that didn’t have a popcorn ceiling. I don’t know if that was a leading reason why it appealed to me, but it didn’t hurt. I don’t know why homes in this area rarely have smooth drywall. I suspect it must be something to do with the weather. In Missouri, popcorn ceilings will be the death of your home sale.

Trey ceilings. Georgians love their trey ceilings. True, many Missouri homes have trey ceilings, but here in Georgia, I’ve seen rooms that have trey ceilings stacked three levels high. Can you imagine painting the thing?

Lastly, grass. Missourians obsess over their lawns. They’ll stand at their property line and jaw about the mixture of seed making up their lawn until you’re ready to chew your own ear off to get away.

In Savannah, the grass is a tough old bastard that laughs at the sun. And you.

Oh, and azaleas can bloom at Christmas.