Wednesday, May 11, 2022

The Way It Is Today


Here we have a picture of Lloyd Creek where it goes under the railroad track. Now before you shake your head and wonder what in hell has polluted that creek so badly, I rush to assure you that the color comes from all of the tannins in the water from fallen leaves. 

Here's another picture upstream just a bit. 


It's sort of a pretty little creek in its own wild-Florida way. When Hank and May were very young I used to take them to cool off in it. It looked the same then. Supposedly there's a huge alligator around that area but I've never seen it. I would not be surprised though. 

I wanted a different walk today and so I headed east on Old Lloyd Road, specifically to walk on Lloyd Creek Road but that's a mile from my house so I really only walked about half a mile on Lloyd Creek but it was pretty. Hardly any traffic on that road and lots of trees to provide shade. When I had just moved in here, I injured my knee and couldn't walk for awhile so I found a crapped-out bicycle amongst our belongings and started riding that for awhile and LCR was my go-to. It spans the distance between Old Lloyd Road and Highway 27 which is a pretty good ride for someone on a crapped-out bike. It is hilly in some parts and goes past farm fields and cattle, through woods and through little communities, past paths that lead to houses deep in those woods. 

On my way home, I finally met the woman who has moved in next door. She was on her porch and I called out to her. We talked for a good while and I like her. She reminds me in looks of what I used to look like when I was much younger. She loves Lloyd. She loves the train, she loves my rooster, she likes the neighbors. I told her that I hope she is as charmed by it all in five years. I mean- eighteen years after moving here I'm still charmed but Lloyd's not for everybody. She offered to walk with me sometime and I told her thank-you but that I like walking alone, which I very much do. I like to listen to my books or podcasts and I don't like to match my pace to anyone else's. When I am in my walking groove, I just want to WALK fast enough that I don't have enough breath to chit-chat. She said she understood. I feel like now that I am older I can get away with these truths and not have to feel bad about them. I am a grumpy old lady who doesn't socialize much and I deserve, at this point, to be able to just say it out loud. 

It's still rather cool here. In fact, Mr. Moon got cold last night in our bed under the open window. The weather is just delightful and we have decided to wait until next week when the temperatures go back up to the 90's to go to the Blue Spring when it will be hot enough to truly enjoy them. I am so looking forward to that. 

My across-the-street neighbor got in touch with me and we have figured out more people to call about the FDG. She actually spoke to the project manager who of course reassured her that all is being done properly to protect the land. 
Haha.
She said he was very polite and listened to her concerns but of course, nothing has changed. She also discovered that the place where they're going to put the septic system is the exact place where standing water is present. This enraged me so much that by a long twisting path I ended up talking to a man named Cameron with the Jefferson County environmental health department who was also exceedingly polite. He is new in the office and at first he reassured ME that there had been at least two, maybe three inspections of the site. But he kept listening to me as I told that there was a culvert less than a hundred feet away which indicates that at least the transportation department recognized the water-flow problem and also, that a nearby resident (Abraham) who was born and raised in Lloyd and who is eighty years old, told me that there has always been water on that lot. He said that he would go see it and that if I'd like to email him pictures, that would be good. 
He also told me that he does not get final say in a project like that and thus, I am sure that even if he does go to the site himself and inspects it and deems it an unsuitable place for a septic system, it may not make a difference. 
Sigh. 
But at least he sounded sincere. And he thanked me. 
So of course I sent pictures and who knows if anything, anything at all will come of that. 
Probably not. 

And that's what's happened in Lloyd today from my tiny perspective. Not much, in other words. But it has been beautiful and, oh, yes- I threw away Violet's other eggs. Here's a picture of her and her child out scratching. 




Not a good picture but this little one is very shy. 
I just love the way the hen-moms scratch and then step back to see what they have uncovered and if it's something to eat, they make a sort of chittering chirrup that alerts the biddies that there's another dish on the endless daily buffet. 


Darla is blurry here but you can see how the chicks rush to snap up whatever it is that she has found. 
And here they are looking about on their own. 


Every day she lets them get a little farther away from her until she calls them back. Today they were venturing perhaps a few feet away. I am constantly amazed at the instinctual knowledge of the hen when it comes to chick-rearing. It's a very slow and determined process wherein the goals are not only to keep the babies safe but to raise them to be independent of any help from her. 
It fascinates me. 

Love...Ms. Moon


26 comments:

  1. Before you're done with us, we could all go raise chickens.

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  2. It's amazing to watch a good animal mom. Such wisdom and knowledge, well, maybe instinct, but I think that's a word for wisdom and knowledge.

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    1. I agree, Liz. Evolved wisdom and knowledge. And people can say "instinct" but by golly, there is a lot of thinking involved in these actions.

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  3. Those chickens and chicks are all so sweet. Don't give up fighting the dollar store.

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    1. I haven't given up fighting but I've given up all hope that it's going to do any good.

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  4. Local environmental stewardship is the best, as is being able to speak frankly of the simple preference to walk alone, and a neighbor who
    gets it.

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    1. You are so right about the neighbor. And yes, local stewardship is something we should all do.

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  5. Hello Mary McChicken! I am back and thrilled to see your posts and the fluff balls.
    The creek looks just fine, a little amber color which is better than grey green, our hometown creek...raw sewage- the city named it "Sugar Creek" and there were folks found dead in it. Third world Wyoming.

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    1. Not just Wyoming- google "Sugar Ditch," Mississippi.

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    2. Also- I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE BACK!

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  6. I love hearing about the chicks and their caring mothers. Such cute photos. I hope that you get some good result from your concern about the building plot, but if it is anything like UK I doubt it. Once they have made their minds up it is all systems go!!

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    1. And their minds are made up and they've already probably got many, many tens of thousands of dollars invested in this.

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  7. Baby chicks are so clever, learning to scratch and pick up so early in life, the mama hens do a good job keeping them safe too. Sad to hear about that septic kerfuffle though and knowing not much will be done apart fro yet another inspection.

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    1. I'm wondering if there's ever been any real inspections. I mean- feet on the ground, eyes on the site. I sort of doubt it.

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  8. It's so cute to see Violet with her chick. I hope your efforts regarding the FDG pay off, but even if they don't, I think it's important for both people in government and developers to know that someone is watching these things. I love that second photo of Lloyd Creek. So Florida!

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    1. My efforts will 99.9999...% all be for naught but perhaps some changes can be made for the future.
      Isn't that a Florida picture? I love it.

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  9. Amazing how Violet just knows what to do with her chicks! I remember being so frantic with my first born! Even tho, it turned out all right! :)

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    1. I felt so confident as a young mother and I look back and wonder why. I'm sure that part of the reason is that I was twelve and then thirteen when my two youngest brothers were born and I did a lot of their care. Also, I was surrounded by beautiful hippie women whose skills as mothers were so reassuring.

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  10. I have learned so much about the society of chickens from visiting here. And a pleasant and understanding neighbor is a wonderful thing. I have made dear friends, two in particular, who I first met as neighbors.

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    1. Well, I sort of doubt this woman and I will be really good friends but I do get a good feeling from her.

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  11. It's hot here. So hot and dry. No rain this month and less than ½" in April. And yes it's fun watching the chicks grow up.And also, money has changed hands i'm sure and nothing will change about the DGS. I just wonder what the result will be putting the septic in a place that's often underwater.

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    1. Oh, Ellen! I just hate that for you! It's the worst!

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  12. The Chick pixs offset the difficult part of the post nicely, about confronting The System about unsuitable development that is just being pushed thru regardless of what evidence is presented that it never should occupy that location.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.