Category: environment

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Our Pond

In our backyard, we have a pond. It’s a cement pond, as Jed Clampets from the Beverly Hillbillies would say, but it’s as good as any regular pond. As I grew up near the water, I always enjoy it. There is a fountain in the middle of the pond which sprays the water up in the air all day long. It cuts off sometime in the night and then it seems really quiet.

I always enjoy the pond and it seems to calm me down. There is something about water that makes me feel at home. I enjoy the animals that make their home in the water and they seem to get along together. The ducks stay together and the turtles float around with their heads stuck out of the water. You may see a snake once in a while, but don’t be alarmed as they usually go on their way. I am going to try a little fishing this year; I’ll let you know how that works out.

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The Debate

Being as that I care about our earth and its environment, I tend to keep track of many issues related to energy, pollution, and our atmosphere. One of the big debates in our world is the making and use of ethanol. Ethanol is a corn based product that is turned into a gasoline additive. While many people agree it’s a good thing to reduce our use of fossil fuels, this may not be the best solution.

One of the problems associated with ethanol is that there are many negative effects. The use of farmland to grow the corn needed reduces the production of food. This in turn raises the price of food and has a great effect on the poorer people in the world. Another problem is the destruction of woodland to increase the farming area. This wholesale destruction of our forests has an unknown impact on our climate.

While I am glad that people are finally starting to realize the problems we face in the energy field, I think we need to further investigate our solutions. There are many aspects to everything we do and each thing needs to be considered carefully. I do not have the answers to our problems myself, but I would join with anyone who wants to sit down and try to figure them out.

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Cans, Cans, Cans!

One thing that many people do not know about me is that I collect aluminum cans. I will tell you how it started. I have been known to drink a beer or two in my time and one day I noticed how many empty cans I had lying around. I knew about the scrap yard as I had been there many times. The idea hit me that I should take my cans in for money. That idea has paid off!

I am lucky to have enough room in my garage to store the cans until I have enough to take in. my buddy Richie drinks a lot and he saves his cans for me. Between my beer cans, Richie’s cans, and all the soda cans from the kids, I have collected up a lot of cans! I bag them up and take them to the scrap yard every couple of months. The last time I went I received $38 dollars for my trouble. That’s not a lot, but it is enough to buy a few more cases of beer! I think I’ll keep on collecting and making those few extra dollars!

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Amazing!!!

Mom said they got about 6 inches of snow and there was no school Monday or Tuesday.  They had a 2 hour delay on Wednesday.  All we got was about an inch, maybe two but nothing like they got at home.  I think that is too funny.  They got more snow in that one night than they got added all together all winter long.  Amazing.

We have had a whole much more snow here and there than they have but this time we dodged the bullet and it hit them.  Mom said cars were in ditches everywhere.  That’s the good thing about living up here.  People actually know how to drive in snow unlike back home.  Heck they have more accidents when it rains there than we do when it snows up here.  No they can’t drive very well back home.

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Snow again!!!

Wanna hear something funny?  They are calling for snow tomorrow night but the funny part is they’re calling for more snow at home than they are up here in the mountains.  You would think that March would stop the snow but Mom said she remembers a snow storm about 15 years ago that left about a foot of snow in March at home.  I don’t remember that at all.  I guess I was too little to realize that it wasn’t supposed to be that much snow in March.  I can’t wait to see how much snow we get and how much snow they get at home.

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Goodness it’s cold

Man is it ever cold up here on this mountain.  It’s even too cold to go skiing if you ask me.  I was going to go home for the weekend but decided against it because I was afraid the weather would turn bad up here like they were saying it might and then I would have to drive back up here in lousy weather.  Today is a good day to just stay inside, play my Nintendo Wii and chill out inside instead of freeze your rear end off chilling to the bone outside.  Besides, I can get a lot of exercise playing my Nintendo Wii.  That’s one of the things I love about it.  It gets you up off of the couch and makes you move.  Way cool game system!!!

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Slipped and fell and broke my cell phone

Up here, there’s the chance of snow and or ice somewhere.  Well I was in a hurry to get to class, slipped and busted my a$$.  Of course I landed on my back side and rolled over on the side that had my cell phone on it without thinking.  My cell phone fell out of the case and when I got up, I stepped on it and broke the darn thing.  Now I have to go to Verizon and get another one.

I think I have the insurance that will give me a new phone.  I hope I do anyway because if I don’t, then every bit of the good tips I got the other night will go to getting a new phone.  Such is my luck!!!!

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Stupid groundhog!!!

Well according to that stupid groundhog, there’s going to be six more weeks of winter.  That’s about the dumbest thing I ever heard of, a groundhog seeing his shadow determining if it will be an early spring or not.  The critter has to be pulled out of his hole anyway so what makes them think pulling a groundhog out of his den while he’s sleeping to see if he will cast a shadow or not is a way to tell the weather?

If I was that groundhog, I’d bite them so they would leave me alone so I could go back to sleep.  I can be grumpy if I don’t get enough sleep and if they have to make him come out of his den, then he needs more sleep.  I could see if he comes out on his own early that would be a sign of an early spring or if he comes out late then winter is still around.  But then we wouldn’t know until we already knew.  The way I see it is if it’s still cold, then it’s still winter but if it gets warm then spring is coming early.  What do you think?

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Have you heard of WorldVision.org?

Have you ever heard of an organization called WorldVision.org?   I just found out about it and honestly haven’t had time to really check them out but as with most organizations that promise to help, you really should see just how much what ever you donate actually goes to the people it’s supposed to help.

From what I understand, this organization will help children and or families in the country of your choice, even here in the United States.  You can choose if you want to purchase a gift like a goat for $75 to help a family have milk, cheese and yogurt.  Or you can donate $35 to provide $490 worth of clothing for children.  Just $25 will give help to sexually exploited young girls.

They offer a ‘Sponsor a child’ option too with what ever amount you can pay each month.  You can choose if you want to sponsor a boy or girl, what country, affected by HIV/AIDS or not and even what month and day they were born if you like.  Or if you would rather, you can just donate money.  They will show you what your donation can purchase for the needy and the hungry.

Like I said in the beginning, I have not fully checked them out but I thought maybe you might be interested in helping others and if I at least get you to check into this site, it might make you check into others too.  As I learn more about this organization, I’ll let you know, Okay?  If you know something about them or find out something, drop me a comment so I can let others know if they are as good as they sound or if they need to look elsewhere.

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Ponder this

Scientist have told everyone that global warming is happening and yet there are some that don’t believe it.  If you check back through history, sure there are warming periods and there are colder periods.  Perhaps this is just a warming period, but what if it isn’t?  What if we’re causing it just like scientist are telling us we are doing?

I don’t think this is just a warming period or warming cycle if you rather because of several reasons.  First of all, there are so many people on earth now that are using cars, motorcycles, RV’s, boats, lawn mowers and all sorts of other things that use fossil fuels.  They used natural things in a warming cycle before like their feet or a horse to get around, canoe’s with paddles, or goats and sheep to mow the grass.  None of those threw harmful gasses into the atmosphere like the ones of today do.

Then there’s all of the rain forests and natural habitats that are being destroyed all in the name of progress.  Progress of what?  Killing trees and habitats so we can have more apartments, condo’s and houses.  There are enough empty housing around that I bet everyone could have a place to live without building a new housing unit at all most anywhere.

As far as all the empty buildings that used to be department stores or factories, why tear them down only to build something else there?  Why not take these buildings and breathe new life back into them with homeless shelters, studio apartments that young adults trying to get out on their own for the first time could afford or elderly people could afford?  We are such a wasteful people that it drives me crazy sometimes.