Hard Choices: How to Decide What Stays and What Goes in a Green World

Example:

Prairie Dogs are considered a nuisance because they carry a type of plague, make holes digging their tunnels that cattle and horses stumble in breaking bones.

It's legal to shoot prairie dogs and many land owners advertise and organize trips for people to come and stay and target shoot using the dogs as their targets.

I can't condone this activity as an animal lover but I can understand why their population needs to be controlled. Like deer.

But, unlike deer, they cannot be eaten, their skins are not used for anything. Their value doesn't lie in death or life.

I understand the need for control but I do not like the eradication methods legally employed.

The idea of using them as a recreational target makes me cringe.

I believe in rodent and pest and weed control. I don't like metal clip mouse traps. If someone was shooting mice I would want them to stop.

But what is the answer? It's not moving the creatures elsewhere. Like a garbage ship, it has to land somewhere and who would want it?

Perhaps the only humane answer is mass eradication using a painless method.

How many need to go? To stay? How do you know which ones are elderly and which are the young? How to decide which ones are to go and why? What makes one more valuable to stay and one of lesser value to go?

If they live up to 5 years, would a 3 year old be the one to go so the 1 year old can stay a while, have his chance at existence? Make more so they can die early?

What do they do besides dig holes? Well, on the food chain, they are food for an endangered species of ferrets. If the prairie dogs go the ferrets go. What will happen if the ferrets go?

Where does it end?

I am of the belief that the earth is ours and all that is in it. Just follow the food chain...it's very clear. We are in charge. We hunt and plant and harvest. We work so we can eat.

We learn better ways to take care of the earth, of using it to our advantage.

We just don't like to see there are no guarantees.

Like abortion. Of the millions of little ones that have died before their time, how many would have made the best president of the United States? Or an inventor of a better space ship? Or a scientist discovering a cure for cancer?

And speaking of painless death for the critters...what's with treating them better than humans?

Save the whale, but kill the human? No....save the human and the human will save the whale, right?

Be Fruitful and Multiply After Your Own Kind

Small fig tree produces three fruits.
Only one survives.
But not for long.
I did take photos of it before it's consumption.


Hybrid pear-apples are almost finished. Nice fruit.

Waiting on the scuppernongs, persimmons, pears and pecans.

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season for earthquakes and tornadoes.
Frogs and flowers.
Pollen and sneezes.
Tiger and Woods.

There is a season for everything.

The cough due to cold season.
Hurricane season.
Golf season.
Hunting, fishing, kiting, biking, boating, skiing and sports season.

There's even a season for aging.
Seasoned they call it.

Scuppernongs are Almost Ready

We've enjoyed several already but the main crop will be ready in about a week.

Ant-ic-i-pa-tion

Our puppy follows us around the vine waiting for juicy ones to fall at her feet and then she pounces!

Beneficial Snake in the Grass

This Hog Nose snake was gliding through the back yard when my husband saw it and went to get a long dowel to direct it away from the house and into the nearby woods which caused the snake to move into its' protective stance - trying to look like a cobra. Good job.

Introducing Sophie

Hi, I am a female Yorkshire Terrier and I love my new people and they love me. I like to run, play with my toys, cuddle on laps and nap on the sofa. Oh yes...and eat.

One of my favorite things to do is to drag all of my toys out and make a big pile in the living room .

I am learning to go potty outdoors and to sit quietly in my kennel but when I bark my people say I sound like one of my squeak toys. That's not so bad.

Beyond the Sea

The Savannah River, which is the border between Georgia and South Carolina, ends near the beaches of Tybee Island, Georgia.

The massive cargo ships coming and going into the city of Savannah are fun to watch, wondering which seaport in the world they are headed for.

Rescue Me

I am a male fawn less than a week old and I'm on my way to live with some very nice people who are licensed to rescue and/or rehabilitate young ones like me until they can make it on their own.

Notice the Bulge in His Belly in the Upper Left

I felt sorry for whatever the snake had eaten even though I know it's the way of things.
Clicking on the photo will give an excellent point of view.