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.

The Green Earth's Food Chain Is Working Well

The day after the Grapevine post, on Mother's Day to be exact, we checked the grape arbor and there he or she was. In the scuppernong arbor with a large lump halfway down his body.

The snake moved away from us and curled up in an empty bird nest.

I Heard it Through the Grapevine

That a snake in the grass had crawled up into this scuppernong arbor to seek refuge from a husband showering it with a hosepipe.

When I braved up to go see and take a picture...it was gone.

Or was it?

Masters Week is Coming

Blooming azaleas are the groundhog of the Masters Golf Tournament. If they're blooming it means Masters Week is almost here.

If they are blooming, they will come.

In the South, especially around Augusta, Georgia and Aiken, South Carolina, we look to the buds to tell the golf season the way we look to the groundhog to tell the end of Winter.

It's been a mild winter and we've had a lot of rainy Spring days bringing out the best in our Dogwoods and Azaleas.


We get to enjoy this beauty all year round and we are proud that you all get to see it at it's best.

Loaves and Fishes

Presenting Bailey

Hi, my name is Bailey and I am a 4 month old mixed breed female puppy.

I am a friendly, cuddly, squishy and sometimes mischievously entertaining ball of fluff.

My people love me very much and I allow them to take care of all my needs.

Sunset on Silver Bluff

A view that never will be taken for granted.

Sunsets are beautiful.

The stars and the moon light the earth.

Meteors flash their showy colors.

The Desert Blooms

Even Sin City has green beauty. Not all is concrete and desert although this beautiful flower was blooming right next to the eight and ten lane boulevard known as The Strip in Las Vegas.

Tourism may be down and money may be tighter but the world keeps spinning, for now, and the seasons keep changing and God keeps feeding the birds, counting my hairs and dressing the flowers in greater splendor than a king.

Fire and Rain on My Green Earth

Autumnal fire meets cool rain and creates a really nice photo op. This season is transitioning right on schedule.

Oops! I Did It Again or All Things In Moderation

This unfortunate bee went head first into the fermenting scuppernong grape and was unable to retreat or either he passed out from drinking the scuppernong wine. Goes to show that even green, organics should be taken in moderation. Greed hurts everyone.
The other bee seems oblivious to the demise of his buddy and keeps searching for his own tap.

Growing Bronze Scuppernongs on Elle's Green Earth

These are the best scuppernongs I've eaten in a long time and they are mine and ripe for the picking.
One of the best things about growing fruit is the ability to go out the back door any time of day and have a snack fresh off of the vine.
Doesn't get more green or organic than that.
The benefits keep adding up for us too.
We get more fresh air and exercise and now with the experts saying the sun is our friend again maybe we'll get the Vitamin D they say we need after all.

Curiouser and Curiouser

Mushrooms are blooming and I'm not sure that's a good thing. I will be doing research to see if our yard is missing certain nutrients or has an imbalance causing the eruption of our Fungal Jungle.