Monday Just Snuck Up on Me

The work week comes way too soon!

I hope you all have the best Monday ever!

Thanks for reading.

Spring Comes to the Smokey Mountains

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the upper 60s, so I celebrated by getting out on the river in the middle of the afternoon. What's really amazing about the Mountain Gorges of Western North Carolina is the way that spring comes to the mountains.

Down here at the bottom of the gorge, at 1600 feet, the crocuses were out in February. The Daffodils were out in March. The Tulips and the Forsythia bushes flowered at the end of March, beginning of April. And just a week or two ago, the trees started budding in the valley and slowly moved up the mountain sides.

Last week, in the middle of the afternoon, the red buds of trees on a ridge line at 3500 feet were backlit by the sun. Yesterday, with leaves emerging from their buds in the valley, the sun backlit splotches of green moving up the mountainsides towards 5000 feet.

If you can imagine a line of hikers climbing on the snowy white flank of Mt. Everest, and if you can, in your mind's eye, turn the snow of Everest into the leafless hardwood trees of the Smokey Mountains, and if you can turn those hikers into trees with their leaf shoots out in yellow-green splotches backlit by the sun, that's what the mountainsides looked like yesterday.


Down in the gorge on the river in my Ducky, the forest green water ran clear cold. On the banks Rhodendron were about to burst into flower. Purple dogwoods colored the banks. Mallard Ducks, both male and female, gazed at me as I floated by and woodpeckers flew overhead. Trees were alive with greenish-yellow shoots--even the tree that fell over in the winter and blocked the river, which had to be whittled away with a chain saw--even it's branches that remained were alive and young leaves were unfolding. You have to admire such a tree's strong desire to live and refusal to die.

And on every mountainside, splotches of green like paint from an artist's pallette, colored the side of the Smokeys like climbers on Everest, up to about 3500 or 4000 feet. As inexorably as a climber's summit bid on Everest, Spring is coming to the Smokey's.

Thanks for reading.

MonDak: It SHOULD be a Household Name!

Yesterday I was shocked when a sample copy of new magazine appeared in my mailbox. Nothing was shocking about the magazine showing up, I subscribed to it. But when I started thumbing through it, I came across an article titled: "Our Saudi Sized Reserve: What happens when an oil field as big as any in the Middle East is discovered in the desolate border towns of Montana and North Dakota?" my jaw just dropped.

"Could this be true,?"I thought, as I quickly read the article. I didn't believe it. My magazine was a new publication. I needed corroboration. I googled MonDak. I got one article, published January 17th online from the Missoula News to corroborate MonDak. The Missoula News? Are you kidding me? For a story like this? More oil in Montana and North Dakota than in Saudi Arabia?

I went to technorati and searched the blogosphere. Almost nothing. Only ONE BLOG is writing about this immense oil field, not in our backyards, but ON OUR OWN SOIL!

How is this possible? How can this be? What is wrong with this picture?

I don't have the answers yet, but this is what I know:

Formed during the Jurassic Period, there is anywhere between 100 and 500 billion barrels of oil in the border country between Williston, North Dakota and Sidney, Montana, near where the Yellowstone River flows into the Missouri.

• The oil lies in a formation known as the "Bakken Formation."


• The Bakken Formation is the biggest inland oil find in the United States in 50 years.


• It MIGHT contain 200 billion barrels of oil.


• Last year, Montana pumped about 3 million barrels a month out of its side of the Bakken--about 45 times more than the field produced in 2002.

So if all this oil is there, or could be there, how come we haven't heard of it and how come nobody is going after it?

Well, we are. Kind of. Apparently there's some difficulty. First off, the oil is two miles down. Secondly, the extent of the formation has not been substantiated yet--at least that's what the reports say. I say hogwash!

Sidney, MT is now an oil boom town and Williston, ND is close behind. Sidney has negative unemployment. All those who used to work in downtown stores and restaurants are leaving to work in a $50+/hour oil job. Owners of the land where the drilling has taken place have already received $1.1 million royalty checks. You don't pay out that kind of money is nothing there. Haliburton and Conaco are on site, along with some local drilling outfits. Montana and North Dakota are the only states that have increased oil production in the last five years.


Oil Well in Sidney, Montana
So my questions are: If the oil companies are there, if the towns are booming and there aren't enough laborers for the jobs, if an oil supply as large as Saudi Arabia's is suspected,

1. WHY DON'T WE HAVE ALL OUR NATION'S RESOURCES DEPLOYED TO VERIFY THE EXTENT OF THE BAKKEN FORMATION, AND

2. WHY IS THIS NOT INTERNATIONAL NEWS?

Something just doesn't quite add up. I can speculate until the cows come home, but that would hurt my credibility, so I'll just post what I know and ask questions. And I encourage you to do the same. Google "MonDak". Google "Bakken Formation". And publish what you find.

Thanks for reading.

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I Should Be In Bed...

Do you know what friends are for? I don't have the answer to that question, but I know they can get you into trouble. I just visited my friend Roxiticus Desperate Housewives and she is daring her readers to take a quiz. So I did. Here's the result:

Powered By Sexy Store

What more is there to say? Who would like to book an hour? ;-)

On other Roxiticus Desperate Housewives news, check out the new entrecard I created for her. She hasn't said if she likes it yet, but I'm hoping. What are your thoughts?
And speaking of Desperate Housewives, Susan and Mike, Bree, Edie and all the rest return tonight at 8:00 pm in a 2 hour special on ABC prior to the first new episode since the writer's strike this Sunday at 9:00. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've had a crush on Teri Hatcher since her Dance Routine in Tango and Cash many moons ago. She was hot as Lois Lane on Lois & Clark, and she still looks amazing. Don't call me on Sunday night, I'll be tuning in.

Thanks Rox!

And thanks for reading.

Take One Minute to Help Protect the Tuolumne River

Friends,

Please take one minute to help protect the Tuolumne River.

The Tuolumne River is one of the Jewels of Yosemite National Park, but back in the early 1920s, the Tuolumne River was dammed to provide drinking water for the growing metropolis of San Francisco, and so much of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne in Yosemite was flooded and a valley every bit as beautiful and dramatic as Yosemite Valley was destroyed. Ever since, it's been a battle to to preserve the Tuolumne, one of the United State's Wild and Scenic Rivers, from increasing water usage demands from the city of San Francisco.


Would you mind taking just one minute to help protect the Tuolumne River by encouraging sustainable use of the water supply in San Francisco?

Here's how:

Yesterday the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) voted to increase its water conservation budget from $1.8 to 2.8 million per year, a 64% increase! This is great news, because every gallon saved stays in the Tuolumne.

Please take one minute to send an email to the SFPUC Commissioners thanking them for their vote. It's important for them to see that hundreds, if not thousands, of people are paying attention to their actions. This will help us when it comes time for them to vote on the Water System Improvement Program. If you're associated with an organization, please mention that too.

Your message could be as simple as this:

Dear Commissioners,

Thank you for voting to increase the SFPUC's water conservation budget by $1 million per year. This will help make San Francisco a more sustainable city while protecting the Tuolumne River.

Sincerely,
(Your Name)

Of course, if you want to say more, that would be great, just don't let it get in the way of sending something. There's all sorts of great information available at http://www.tuolumne.org/content/index.php?topic=programs_bayarea

Here are the Commissioners email addresses:

acaen@sfwater.org
dhochschild@sfwater.org
rsklar@sfwater.org
LPatricio@sfwater.org
mhoush@sfwater.org

Thank you for helping to protect the Tuolumne!

P.S. The Tuolumne River Trust could always use your support. To make a donation online, please visit http://www.tuolumne.org/content/article.php/donate

For more information, please contact:
Peter Drekmeier
Bay Area Program Director
Tuolumne River Trust
Fort Mason Center, Building C
San Francisco, CA 94123
415) 292-3531 x301
peter@tuolumne.org
http://www.tuolumne.org

Thanks for reading.

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