Category: Ecology

Fawning Over Falling Flora

Posted on by chappyshi

We lost a few trees in the apartment complex due to the heavy snows last winter.  I have been watching this one tree that was at the side of my building…just waiting for it to come down ever since early winter.  Today we had some heavy rains with very strong winds.  I had been at my sister Julie’s working on my job search when it all started.  I commented to her that I was worried about the tree.  I did not think it would take anything out if and when it came down but I was concerned.

By the time the storm abated and I headed home, I had totally forgotten about my concerns.  I walked to my building, checked my mail, gave some  packages to my neighbor that I had secured for him,  and settled into my apartment.  Then while grabbing Hamlet’s bowl to get ready to feed him I caught something odd out of the corner of my eye.  It was the top of the tree that someone had cut off.  The tree itself was down baring the few roots it had.  Considering the lack of significant root ball, it is amazing the tree stayed erect as long as it did!

I am sad to see the tree go.  It did block the view of the condos across from me in the winter.  More importantly, it provided  shelter for birds, particularly in the winter.   Finally, it was a tree and trees are good.  I did not even get the chance to see or hear it fall…  Damn it Jim!

Trash On My Door Knob

Posted on by chappyshi

Who is responsible for cleaning up all the trash that local businesses hang on my door knob?  I live in an apartment complex with open walkways so any maggot can come through and hang restaurant menus or solicitations on my door.

I hate those things.  They go right into my recycling bin though many other people might just trash them.  Lately, as a form of protest, I just leave them on the hall floor.  It speaks to the cleanliness of the complex in that the trash stays in the hallway for weeks without anyone cleaning up.

Can I, can anyone be they a renter or an owner, be responsible for cleaning up the trash that vendors and solicitors leave at their doorstep?  Can I save all the crap up for a year and send it back to the deliverer COD?

It Just Isn’t Natural

Posted on by chappyshi

I hate Tuesdays in the summer at my apartment complex because that is normally when the landscaping company comes in.  The lawn mowers and blowers are so loud it is ridiculous.  To make things worse, the company milks the situation often by mowing and blowing the same plot twice.  There is no apartment management representative around to observe what is going on.  Of course, were I working, I wouldn’t be present to observe the shenanigans myself…

Last Tuesday, I watched three guys, two with man portable gas powered blowers on their backs and another guy with a wheeled gas powered blower clearing the debris out of the parking lot, onto the dog walking/pooping area below my balcony, and then into the tree line.  The blowers are so powerful that they flatten out the grass for about a 1 x 2 foot area.

In truth, I bet the three guys manning these gas powered tools could have raked all the debris to the tree line sans noise and petroleum burnt pollution in the same time it took them to blow the debris away.  Meanwhile they stirred up a dust and pollen storm that forced me to close my balcony door and apartment windows.

Is it time to get back to the basics of yard work and employ some college kids for the summer?  I don’t want to put any “immigrants”  out of work but WTF?

Waste Not Want Not

Posted on by chappyshi

In the process of buying food, I wind up with more reusable bags and containers than I can possibly use.  I am admittedly not a regular dishwasher which is not to say that I leave a mess of dishes in my sink or all over the counters.  I carefully rinse everything and set things aside  to wait for a good washing.

As such,  I often find myself washing a combination of more than 30 reusable (in my estimation) containers and plastic bags.  It is a pain in the ass drying out the bags and ensuring that they are sanitary.  Is it worth it in the big scheme of things?  Is it a waste of water?  I don’t  know but it is worth it to me.

I am also terrible about the use of tissues, paper napkins and paper towels…and when I say terrible I mean I keep and use them until they are totally useless.  I go through lots of tissues due to allergies and such but not nearly as many as most people might.  I think that in the 4.5 years I have lived in this apartment  I haven’t had to buy any napkins and might have bought one additional roll of paper towels due to that which I had already on hand.

Watershed Cleanup Followup

Posted on by chappyshi

Twas a gorgeous day for the cleanup…hardly a cloud in the sky with temperatures in the mid-60’s.  I would call our effort at Bull Run and Route 28  in Manassas, sponsored by REI of Fairfax, both a success and a disappointment.  It was my fourth or fifth cleanup including a couple on the Potomac River in Point of Rocks and one off Walney Road in Chantilly.  We picked up less trash, with a turnout of about 40 people, than I had on previous cleanups with 25 to 50 percent of the participants.

Apparently a local Boy Scout troop recently adopted that stretch of Bull Run so it seems like our efforts would have been better utilized elsewhere.  I see plenty of trash in creeks that I pass by on walks around my neighborhood!  Additionally, we suspected that much of the trash had been washed further downstream by the wicked runoff we had from more than 70 inches of snow this winter.

You can see the results at the Alice Ferguson Foundation web site which says we collected nearly 113 tons of trash from 214 reporting sites in the Potomac River Water.  One of my pictures below tells  the tale of how much we collected…pretty weak but the trash just wasn’t there.

22d Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup

Posted on by chappyshi

The 22d Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup takes place from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM on April 10, 2010.  My brother-in-law, Ed, and I are going to meet up with a group, at Bull Run on Rt. 28 about 2 miles south of Rt. 29,  sponsored by REI in Fairfax, VA, (21 people have signed up) to pull trash and garbage out of the river and surrounding areas.

Get more information here.  Please sign up and come help us out!  Green Day, Green Earth, Green Thumb, and all that.  They are short of gloves because of an inordinately large turnout this year so bring some gardening gloves, or even better, oyster shucking gloves.  They protect your hands against sharp objects and drain the water from your gloved hand much better than other types of gloves do.

Secondhand Smoke Sucks!

Posted on by chappyshi

Spring is in the air which is great but…  I get to open up my apartment, air out the cat dander, and freshen things up a bit.  Sadly, my downstairs neighbors, who are friends, regularly go out on their porch and smoke.  My balcony is right over their porch and if my sliding glass doors are open,  which they are likely to be in this fine weather, the cigarette smoke wafts into my apartment all the way to my back  bedroom where I sleep.

Now, it is not a huge issue, the smell doesn’t seem to  linger, and I cannot really do anything about it but the other night it was annoying.  I was tossing and turning at 1:30 AM, had the doors open to cool down my apartment and had to deal with the secondhand smoke.  I was not a happy camper!