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By Ted Dunlap, on July 29th, 2011 Oh my aching back, wrist, knee and sweaty body, but I got IT done! My blueberry patch is finally properly irrigated with a row of sprinklers pretty much all their own. Thus their ecosystem can be adjusted to suit their needs without waiting for everything else in the garden to want a cool drink of water. 95 in the shade, but I didn’t have the luxury of working in the shade. When I’d start feeling sorry for myself, I’d look at the 6 baby blueberry plants who have been hanging onto life waiting for me to improve their lot. I’d sit down, drink another quart of water and go back to THE JOB I was determined to finish today. I […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 15th, 2011 Ah the Tinytown City Council again provides fodder for thought. Now it is “grappling with an issue of subdivisions abandoning common lots and pocket parks.” They discussed: 1. disallowing them in the future, 2. developing a fee mechanism chargeable to the individual lots and associated with the water bill, 3. accepting the lots into the city’s park inventory, and 4. transferring as many lots as possible to the ownership of the adjacent properties. […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 9th, 2011 The local collectivist weekly editorial is dedicated to “the dilemma” facing Kuna city’s Planning & Zoning department. “The city” (oh and how I hate it when decisions of elected officials are referred to as if everybody and everything within a geographical area is perfectly, harmoniously in agreement)… anyway, “The City” has laid off one of two building inspectors, put the other on part-time status, put two planners on half-time status. Still the department’s outgo exceeds its income. Why there’s virtually no room left for further cost reductions…. The poor planning director (annual salary: $72,858.24 plus benefits) has only one full time planner II (annual salary: $49,337.18 plus benefits) and cannot see how to save another nickel. With almost no building […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 8th, 2011 Headline from Der Spiegel: Democratization Can’t Save Europe The Need for a Centralization of Power Further down in the article: “Despite all mistakes and ineptitudes, it is the elites who are keeping Europe together. Rather than thinking about democratization, then, should we not be looking at ways to improve the capabilities of the elites instead?” Liberty, freedom, the pursuit of happiness, individual wealth and well-being is all directly related to DE-centralized government or absence of central government. OF COURSE it is the elites who are keeping Europe together. They LOVE central power as long as they are in the center. They LOVE redistribution of wealth as long as they get to pass out the wealth (for a modest cut in […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 2nd, 2011 The devotees of The Global Warming mythology scurry about, screaming and yelling all sorts of things, but some of what they have to say is correct. Their anti-burning crusades have accidental bits of merit, but to make the most sense of it you must understand the carbon cycle. […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 1st, 2011 We are continuing to see more vacancies in our 10-year-old subdivision (nice, new homes to my way of thinking). Across the street the renters noticed online that their landlord was approaching foreclosure and moved out (back to So. Calif!!!). I contacted the realtor with a maintenance offer while my little Honda mower could still get the lawn back down, but they did not reply. Yesterday my wife and I hacked down their two-foot-tall tall weeds that were going to seed. I used a semi-commercial string trimmer while she used pruning shears on volunteer trees and heavy-stalked weeds, and weed killer on the walkways and parking areas. Today I’m going to rake up the weed straw and wheelbarrow it into our […]
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