Category: slabtown

Irene


Lighter than air craft headed for calmer skies, bearing west. This was August 26, above the Mattaponi Bridge on Rt. 360, near Aylett, VA.


Friday was a sultry day, high humidity. I didn’t irrigate the trees, the weather forecast claims that won’t be necessary.


Irene’s rainy self arrived around dawn on Town Creek. At high tide (1000hrs), this boat which usually hangs four feet above the water was floating. Everything is getting power-washed. Steady winds from the northeast. Reminds me of Solaris and Water World. Hoping that Irene will stay good tempered.

quercus alba


Received a box of bare root oak trees middle of last week from Musser Forests. Traveled to Slabtown to plant. The threat above the ground is from deer, it’s hard to establish an oak forest where there hasn’t been one for 200 years. The threat below the ground is from voles. Saplings get up to 3 feet tall and fall over, all their roots chewed off.
I planted 22 trees, slow going on account of armoring them against critters. Mostly I planted white oaks. Hoping they get six feet above the ground before I get six feet under.
The Virginia Department of Forestry was out of white oak seedlings by the time I called.


Today wouldn’t be as good a day for planting, snowed in CHO

quercus macrocarpa

minimal


In Slabtown, with our mother. No traffic, no noise, no people, no TV, no restaurants, no super bowl. Have dog, books, some food, heat. Wondering what she thinks of a place so quiet, being a city girl. This slab purchased in 1886 for $24.88 by James Masdon, subdivided out of the Millenbeck Farm. In the Woolen Mills a similar sized lot, purchased same year, cost $400.

I want to be able to see my feet

Comment Staley EPA


The MP3 above was recorded at the EPA’s public hearing on the Chesapeake Bay TMDL in Richmond, Wednesday October 6, 2010.
Public comments at these hearings are great, but they are not entered into the formal record as the EPA and the Commonwealth of Virginia work toward finalizing the Chesapeake Bay watershed “pollution diet”.

Public comment is being received, evaluated and recorded by the EPA. Please write them and tell them what you think. Hopefully we will live long enough to see our feet.
While you are at it, save a copy of your comments and email them to Virginia’s Governor Bob McDonnell.