Gotta Share Gotta Share!!!!!!!!!!

I gotta share this one! I'M ON THE HOME OWNERS BOARD!!!!!!!! Yes I am!!!!! For those of you who know, I've been fighting this organization for ever. Finally I'm in the position to do some good when it comes to those of us who belive in sustainable gardening and the 21st century. Just think, we may be able to get rid of the poisons they spread all over our common areas that get washed into the "Bay".

congratulations!!!

WOW! WAY TO WORK IT FROM THE INSIDE!!!

This is like so cool! There were four people running for the position and I got it! All those days working out in the yard and talking to people walking their dogs paid off. You wouldn't believe how many people have come to me already whose dogs have died of cancer from walking on the sprayed areas (my Bonnie included). They don't even put up signs orn the st flags alerting us to the fact that they've sprayed. And just think of the little kids who are rolling around in the stuff! I'm also going to push to get some of the community areas converted from grass to community gardens. Even though we have expensive houses here, we have a lot of people on the edge and I don't see the point of spending fortunes on lawn care when we could use the money to help eliviate hunger. OOOOOOO I'm so HAPPY!
,

Very cool! Congratulations! My little Tinker died of stomach cancer. When we lived in town, I used to walk him in the morning and he would scamper along in the grass with his head down and tongue out licking up the dew. Many of those yards were strayed and I always crossed the street when I saw the "just sprayed" signs out. But you are right. Many of the companies don't put out signs or say they are organic (many are not) so they don't need signs. An acquaintance I used to talk to on these morning walks lost their cocker spaniel to the same thing. He stopped having his lawn strayed. I'm glad you are now in a position to help with this.

yehudith - I'm so happy for you! When I try to tell people that the poisons they spray on grass causes cancer in dogs, they just look at me as though I'm from Mars!

When I brought it up at the last meeting the Mgmt guy said "everything they use is EPA approved" my response "so was Agent Orange". I don't think they get that even if it is OSHA and EPA approved it can still cause problems. I remember a study they did concerning the high rate of miscarriages among nurses. Turns out the highest rates were among OR nurses. They eventually tracked it down to the anesthetics they were using. One of the main adhesives we used in the OR was found to cause cancer. EPA and OSHA approved. What they don't get is that something as inocuous as salt or water if taken in large enough amounts can kill and those amounts don't have to be very high, infact they can be relatively low. Thing is most people here are behind me, they just need someone to give them a voice. I'm willing.

Kudos yehudith. The cancer rate among children in East Helena is probably the highest anywhere in the country. It just amazes me how people can stick there head in the sand and act like there isn't a problem. I think most people are like lemmings. Just tell them what they want to hear and they will follow you anywhere. Remember when Rush Limbaugh said global warming didn't exist ten years ago? That's about the time I lost faith in our leadership and just quit listening to the news or reading news papers. I know I'm a skeptic, but its sure nice to hear a success story. FWI yehudith, EPA means backwards ape men.

I hope you don't believe that extremists like Rush speak for the vast majority of conservative voters. Please don't be fooled by the media - they are trying to sell ads to stay in business, and they run what they think people want to watch. There is way too much attention paid to the talking heads IMO. I've been against Big Government and wasteful spending by Washington for many years (inherited from my Dad, no doubt) but I hardly agree with anything Rush has to say.

BTW, it's no longer "Global Warming" - it's now officially "Climate Change", not that it matters in any practical sense. Science and Politics don't mix well. Scientists understand that what we accept as "Truth" today may well be overturned by this time next year because of new data. It has happened hundreds if not thousands of times already, as any student of history will tell you. In my life, we have gone from Gradualism (the belief that extinct animals were replaced by gradual evolution) through extinction by epidemics, to a cataclysmic cosmic view of extinctions by sudden violent events that was ridiculed for years after it was first proposed. There is strong and growing evidence that the creation of the ancient Egyption civilization was the result of dramatic climate change, as was it's eventual demise - something that should be of special interest to us, because it directly involved the success or failure of growing food crops. In our relatively recent history, climate change has already caused wars and famines - but that occurred most famously in the 17th century, long before SUV's or factories, when the world's total population was only around 600 million.

And lest you think that our "modern technology" has somehow overcome the eternal tendency to change our minds about the workings of the world: I worked for years as a Systems Analyst, and the standard joke was that computers mostly allowed you to make larger mistakes, and to do it faster than ever before.

True change is inconvenient for politicians, who want to take "strong stands" lest the be accused of "flip-flopping". They tend to dig in around a stated position as if the underlying "facts" (really our perceptions of them via the available data and theories) can never change. And this is seen as a virtue! As far as predicting what will happen in ten years or fifty or one hundred - well, no one has ever been able to do it successfully yet, and I see no reason for that to change. Look at the weather forecast over a period of a few weeks, and then tell me you believe that anyone can tell you what the weather will be like in a year, or 10, or 100.

It's laughable to say things will change. As any student of history will tell you, things have ALWAYS changed! If they stayed the same, now THAT would be cause for concern.

-Rich

I know it doesn't address the problem of surface contamination by the smelter, but it's always amazed me that people will move into an area with a KNOWN high level of lead or arsenic or some other toxic element in the bedrock (high enough to be worth mining it), sink wells to tap aquifers far deeper than anything the ancient inhabitants and animals had been able to reach, and then look for someone to blame when they discover that their well water is "contaminated".

Yeah, I know I'm in a contrary mood. I do seasonal work in pyrotechnics and have been reading articles in well-known and respected newspapers that state categorically that modern fireworks are responsible for high levels of mercury - an element that hasn't been used in fireworks since the 1800's - and another that named several others (rubidium and cadmium) that have NEVER been used in fireworks at all. One of the articles spent a lot of space advocating the replacement of older poisonous "lift charges", even though the old-fashioned lift charge used in display fireworks is composed of potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal, materials well-known to anyone trained in horticulture as common fertilizers and soil amendments.

It is so easy to be ignorant (or lying) and be heard if your "news" is dire enough, and so hard to counter with simple facts, because the latter don't sell airspace or newspapers.

-Rich

Well put Rich, but I have something to add to this business of predicting the weather. My wife watches the evening news, and I check the 5-day forecast on the net. Neither ever seem to agree on the next day or even five days out. What is worse is they are both generally wrong on extended forcasts. So how is it the Farmer's Almanac can predict segments of weather for a given area a year in advance, using some sun spot formula, and be so right on!???

Another long range forecast for winter is based on changes in the temperature of the Pacific Ocean current. Since we are affected by these changes it looks like this winter could be a nasty one. Our past seven winters have been relatively mild, but a drop of five degrees in the Pacific can affect winters for a long period of time. Gardening is enough of a challenge here, so I can only imagine what the next few years will be like.