Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Some Mysteries Solved, Others Grow Deeper


There's one of Ellen's roses. There are more blooms on it, some open, some still budded up, some coming out like debutants at a ball, slow with shyness. 

My local county commissioner called me this morning. She is NOT one to shy away from talking to the people she represents. She is very upset about this whole Dollar General debacle but at this point, until they can change the land planning rules, her hands are tied. She said she went to the person who does the site okaying and said, "Those are wetlands," and the woman said, "No, they are not." Then Betsy said, "Well then, that's a flood plain." Again, the woman said, "No, it's not."
According to Betsy some of the people in the local government (rich old white men) are retiring and they were of the opinion that your land is your land and you can do whatever you want to with it. And their definition, I suppose, of what a wetland or flood plain is is pretty darn loose. And Betsy knows full well that that property has always got water on it. She grew up in Lloyd and said that even as a child she could not walk across that piece of woods and she is also very aware that the land south of the Dollar General lot is even lower and wetter and the land across the road is also always wet. 
"How are they going to put a septic tank in there?" she asked me. 
Well, fuck if I know. Lloyd does have municipal water but not sewer lines. 
It is a cluster fuck in all ways. 
She says there's nothing we can do now but she is going to fight for better zoning laws and definitions. And I believe her. She told me she doesn't even like Dollar General stores and in fact, will not shop at any big box stores including Walmart. Especially Walmart. 

So there was that. We shall now see what happens and I have a strong feeling it's going to include a lot of fill dirt. 

I took my walk today. No Man Lord had three guys there today, hanging out with him, talking. They all waved at me and I waved back. Once again, there is some project going on in the yard that I do not understand. It would appear that they're ripping one of the campers on the property apart. What they're going to use the materials for I do not know. All will be revealed, I guess. I think of his place as sort of a continuing work of art and housing. There appear to be many random pieces of...stuff? on the property right now as well as many aluminum cans which I know he must collect and sell. It is all in constant flux. There is an entire culture in Lloyd that I am completely mystified by. And that is fine. I can't even imagine what is thought of me. If indeed they even think about me. 

I spent the rest of the day doing little things. I potted up some plants that I have rooted and found homes for those pots on porches. I even put my beloved pineapple plant that I started from a pineapple top that had mostly frozen and may be dead, in a pot with more dirt in it and I'm going to give it the old ignore-it-and-maybe-it-will-come-back treatment. I also made a lemon buttermilk cake for Easter that we will eat with berries and whipped cream. 


I think it will be very nice. 

We've figured out what got my little barred rock. Mr. Moon did set up the trail cam where he's been seeing the scat and it's a fox. I am not surprised. A dog would have snapped her neck and then gone after more hens and the wounds were more profound than what a hawk or feral cat could have given her. So that explains that. Hopefully, the fight that she put up will deter the fox from taking on another chicken but if it's hungry enough, it may try again. It could be a mama fox with kits. I'm sure that the fox does not feel comfortable in the least attacking a hen in the area where it sees humans come and go all day long. I am somehow comforted that it was a wild predator and not someone's pet dog. 

Today is Jessie and Vergil's ninth wedding anniversary. Can you believe that?
Here they were, nine years ago today. 


Lon and Lis were playing music, Jessie and Vergil were dancing. We will be talking about that wedding for the rest of our lives. 
This weekend they are going to go to Apalachicola to celebrate and August and Levon will spend Friday night here, and Saturday night with Aunt Lily so they can wake up with all the cousins on Easter for Easter basket fun. 

And that is that in Lloyd today. For whatever reason, Blogger is not letting me answer comments on yesterday's blog. It keeps telling me that it can't access the captcha function and never, ever before has that function ever been a part of my replying to comments. I shall try later. I am grateful that I got to reply to our Dianne's comment last night about the day she'd had which involved her husband getting multiple biopsies to see what the progression was for her husband's recent cancer diagnosis. Many of you replied to her comment and that only gives me more proof of what a beautiful little community we are. Dianne- keep us updated. We are here for you. 

Love...Ms. Moon

35 comments:

  1. Lovely happy wedding picture!

    I'm glad that at least the county commissioner is not part of the fill it and build it persuasion. But it seems there need to be better laws on what is buildable and what isn't. Bit late for this one though.
    This year Easter Passover and Ramadan are all happening together. All the People of the Book partying together!

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    1. Betsy promised she's going to be working on the laws and says that the county is getting new attorneys, too. This is such a poor county that people will do anything (including cheat and lie) to make money. Not that I'm accusing anyone but...
      I do think Betsy is one of the good ones.

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  2. Well, Ramadan isn't exactly a party, but they're all major events on the respective calendars.

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    1. I know pathetically little about Ramadan. I should educate myself.

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  3. that wedding photo is a charmer. Made me the happiest I have been since before the fox killed your little hen, I didn't think fox lived in Florida! I know nothing.
    Easter is just another day here.

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    1. You would not have believed how gorgeous that wedding was. It was ridiculously perfect. Martha Stewart would have been jealous. And all handmade, done with love.
      My kids have always gotten together with me on Easter. We just like to dye eggs and eat tasty foods.

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    2. Also yes, we certainly do have foxes. Did you know they sometimes sleep in trees?

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  4. oh my, the proverbial fox in the henhouse. Darned him! They are pretty reclusive.....I hope he/she doesn't surface again. Glad you spoke with the Commissioner......I'm sure her hands are tied, but that she is battling those old white farts with all her might. Jessie ad Vergils wedding pic....I recall it well...to die for! And yes to Dianne and her sweetheart husband and their travails. We may not all *know* each other well? But your blog has always been a haven for love and support......and that is priceless in a current world where human kindness and love have often taken a back seat. I could go on, but won't.
    Susan M

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    1. Thank you, Susan. I sure do appreciate your being here this long and commenting and being a part of this community and of my life.

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  5. Your Dollar General reminds me of the time we had to update our zoning or be rolled over by unscrupulous developers. We hired a professional. We are all wetlands here. You can barely move a wheelbarrow o dirt here without a permit.
    For what it's worth, this statement is at the end of the comments section: This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

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    1. Yes. I'm getting that message too, Joanne. I took the captcha option off in settings but it still says this. I don't know what the hell's going on.
      Dollar General had SEVEN stores planned for Jefferson County. Excuse me but FUCK THEM!

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  6. Replies
    1. Beautiful bride and groom surrounded by love.

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  7. Foxes, chickens, weddings, grandbabies, seasons...it ain't always pretty, but sometimes it is so beautiful there are not enough words: the circle of life.

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    1. Yes m'am. Absolutely. The pragmatic miracles, I call them.

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  8. The entire Culture of Lloyd sure does make for interesting Blog Fodder. Every place really does have it's particular Culture, doesn't it? Happy Anniversary to the Couple, that's a lovely Wedding Picture. Well, at least now there's no mystery on what got your Hen. Our Neighbor has Chickens and Coyotes really do want to dine on them, but our Pit Bull keeps them skittish about coming around, they don't know how far Tyson can go and our Property backs on that Neighbor's Property... so it's a nice Barrier from our direction anyway. We're pretty sure the Coyote were displaced from the Commercial Farmland now being cleared for a Subdivision Hell. Much like your Dollar General displacing Wetlands and not being suitable to built upon, sometimes who makes the decisions or changes Zoning isn't on the Up and Up. That Subdivision was not originally Zoned for Residential, but some Greedy Developer clearly lined someone's pockets to change it in their favor. We all fought against it for the last couple years, but they never listen to Residents when Money is Talking and being pocketed.

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    1. You are exactly correct about money doing the talking. The law here now is that only residents within five hundred feet of a proposed development have to be notified. Which means no one knows until it's a done deal.
      We suspected a coyote too but I think a coyote would have indeed killed the hen to begin with. A fox makes more sense.

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  9. The chicken photo at the top of your page made me so happy. Just such beautiful critters. Home from a birth and that baby shat meconium all over himself and I mean all over and on his mama too. XXX

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    1. Babies will do that sometimes, won't they! And is there anything stickier than meconium? Well, probably, but not much.

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  10. A lot of fill dirt may become a LOT of fill dirt. You'd think the people doing the building would have enough sense to say this land can't be built on unless you put everything up on stilts. I do hope that fox finds another source of food if it has kits to care for. The wedding photo is lovely.

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    1. Yeah- and how are they going to block all the water coming in from the south? I mean, it's underwater right now and we've only had normal rain. Wait until there's a hurricane.
      Glen found a dead possum today out near where that fox lives but it sure wasn't eaten. The vultures are working on it now. Did the fox kill it and then decide it was too nasty to eat?

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  11. I am not a developer, a builder or even an environmentalist but it seems to me that if the land on which The Dollar General is to be built is naturally wet then the displaced water will have to go some place else - maybe onto other people's properties. Sounds like the issue has not been properly investigated but hey, Dollar General need their profits.

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    1. Well, as dearly beloved and departed friend B-Boy used to say...no. I won't write that. But it involves a vulgarity I would love to direct at Dollar General. I will, however, say- Fuck them.

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  12. Thank you for all the support. I appreciate it very much.

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  13. Well, your comment 'box' (not a box at the moment) is different. I noticed that yesterday so that may be part of it. Old white men who have been king of the mountain getting to do whatever the fuck they want and fuck anyone who doesn't like it don't care if a wetland is destroyed or how many problems arise from having built on said wetland cause somebody is getting money out of this somewhere and isn't that what's really important?

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    1. Well of course that's what's really important. The whole deal just sucks a big one. And of course the people who owned the land don't live in Lloyd. I'm not sure about the history of the situation but it goes back a long way, I think.
      I have no idea what's going on with my comments.

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  14. Well, Happy Anniversary to Jessie and Vergil! Wishing them many, many years of love and fun adventures!
    Family will be here on Sunday for ham, etc. I better go vacuum!

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    1. Thanks for the anniversary wishes!
      Vacuum? I doubt I'd vacuum if the Pope was coming for Easter.

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  15. Reading about the dollar store made me think of The Pelican Brief (John Grisham). It was a brilliant book (and movie but then anything with a young Denzel Washington does it for me). Interesting stuff to follow! And congratulations to Jessie and Vergil!

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    1. That was a good book and a good movie, wasn't it? Grisham sure knew what he was doing when he quit lawyering and started writing.

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  16. Congratulations to Jessie and Vergil on their 9th! It makes me see red when greedy stupid companies build on unsuitable sites and wreck nature. Good for Betsy keeping up the fight. She must be a strong lady.

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    1. It's the history of humans, isn't it? To take perfectly beautiful pristine natural places and tear them up for the profits. We are a greedy, short-sighted species and we are paying for it now and will pay for it even more as time passes.

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  17. 37paddington here. I remember Jessie and Virgil’s wedding. I was so moved by all of it. Was that really nine years ago??

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  18. The proverbial fox in the henhouse! I wonder if an environmental agency would intervene in the Dollar General situation. The Fla Dept of Natural Resources or something like that? It seems like there ought to be some way for Betsy or someone else to appeal that decision.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.