It’s harmless, except to small rodents that live in corn fields. Elaphe guttata is a constrictor. This one was 3 or 4 feet long. They’re native to the U.S. southeast from New Jersey to Texas. I did not know until that day that corn snakes can climb trees.
Here he is stretched out: Continue reading
a high-climbing, woody vine that is known by several names, including Carolina jessamine, poor man’s rope, or yellow jasmin.It smells good. It’s native to the U.S. southeast.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 February 2011.
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About Longleaf (Pinus palustris), wiregrass (Aristida stricta), and gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) by the Longleaf Alliance:
We believe that longleaf in any form is better than a cotton field; that longleaf and native ground cover (like wiregrass) is better than longleaf alone; that longleaf, wiregrass, and gopher tortoises are better than longleaf and wiregrass alone.
Picture of Pinus palustris and Aristida stricta by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 February 2011.
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It’s probably this gopher.
The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) is named for its burrowing skills. Its shovel-shaped forefeet dig burrows up to 40 feet long that shelter and house not only tortoises, but a virtual zoo. By one count, an astonishing 362 animals take refuge in these burrows, from gopher frogs and burrowing owls to an array of snakes and invertebrates, some species depend entirely on them. If we lacked the scientific concept of a keystone species–one with an impact far beyond that expected from its numbers–we’d need to create it for the gopher tortoise, given its importance in the longleaf forest ecosystem.
Picture of Gopherus polyphemus front porch by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 February 2011.
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Picture of red maple blooming by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 February 2011.
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Quantum physicist and environmental activist Vandana Shiva
foresees The Future of Food, in three parts.
There are only two applications that have been commercialized in these twenty years of genetic engineering. One is to make seeds more resilient to herbicides, which means you get to spread more Roundup, you get to spread more Glysophate, and you get to spread more poison. Not a very desirable trait in farming systems. Especially since what Monsanto will call weeds are ultimately sources of food.It gets even better from there.
These are illusions that are being marketed in order for people to hand over the power to decide what we eat to a handful of corporations.Vandana Shiva is the keynote speaker at the Georgia Organics conference in Savannah, 11-12 March 2011. There’s still time to sign up!
Here’s Part 1: Continue reading
Gretchen buys meat, fresh vegetables, ginger, cereal, chicken, sausage, and
bacon at Whisk Organic Market in Valdosta.
Also Newman ginger cookies.
She says Gracie says people who come in often don’t understand
organic fruits and vegetables aren’t always the most beautiful ones.
But they’re tasty!
Here’s a playlist of videos of proprietor Gracie Crane Douglas talking about her store.
More pictures of
Whisk Organic Market
in a flickr set.
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Waiting, boarding, and watching it go after the return:
the train at Jesup.
Gretchen Quarterman at the Amtrak Station, Jesup, Georgia, 17 and 25 Feb 2011, along with a bunch of women from Brunswick on their annual outing to NYC, and around a dozen other passengers. Videos by John S. Quarterman.
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Dr. Stanley Culpepper of UGA Tifton says 52 counties have the mutant pigweed.
He says they’re looking at cover crops and deep turning.
(You may know that as plowing.)
He hastily adds that they’re looking at other herbicides.
But he wraps up by saying we have to look at other methods
than herbicides: tillage and cover crops.
He frames it as diversity and integration.
What it really means is spraying poisons eventually
breeds weeds that refuse to be poisoned.
People, of course,
are not so lucky.
This is the same Dr. Culpepper whose extensive slides on this subject I reviewed last summer.
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