Cocoposts

Weed Ranch Cotton

It is all about the cottonwood cotton and fallen cottonwoods and cottonwood limbs. And weeds. The old female tree I decided not to build under - thereby moving the i-house's bright orange flex unit into a neighbor's view of the Sandias, a source of no small amount of ill-will - is busting with cotton this year and sending huge cotton chunks airborne in what will be an ultimately unfruitful attempt to multiply after sprouting in horse water buckets and mudholes.

Before the green pellet-like balls burst open, the weight makes the soft wood prone to cracking even on not so windy days. I lost an entire tree in a recent wind gust and two other trees shed huge branches recently - making magnificent crashing sounds like T-Rex in the bosque.

Hard Town for a Dog That Hates Balloons

And Big does so hate balloons of the large hot air variety. He is also not fond of large birds and low flying planes. But bright large, round and silent-until-they're-not things are much much worse. Especially that unexpected noise, the horrible "PHHHAAAHHHPT!" 

Big dog otherwise qualifies as a very mellow dog. But in any photo where he appears to be calmly surveying the Weed Ranch pasture he is actually scanning the eastern horizon in the direction of the Balloon Fiesta Park for any sign of horrible floaty colored things that roar (or "Balloons" in Dog speak.) Evidence is met with fresh emotional distress - a new discovery of hot air ballooning every sighting. And multiple balloons cause amplified spasms of anxiety -  tail-tucking and whining and pacing. It is like some dogs get on thunder. Except thunder doesn't bother him at all. Thunder is nature. He can tell when thunder is coming. Horrible floaty colored things sneak up on you and go: "PHHHAAAHHHPT!" And that is so so much worse. Apparently.

I mock him for this, his only weakness. I make the burner roaring noise with my arms up and glide across the floor. He looks at me with a very sad face and sighs and I immediately feel guilty.

Weed Ranch Portrait

But Mostly, Chickenwire

Trees don't weep for the death of newspapers. Or beavers, for that matter.  We should read our print on hemp. But hey, we may also skip ahead to not reading at all, if you want to get all sad about it. 

It would completely revitalize our economy to retool American agriculture for hemp production.*  Maybe it scares Big Agriculture, but probably not. Maybe my tinfoil hat's talking, but if they can genetically modify and patent the weed seeds and corner markets for hemp products they're all for it.  I'd be a little surprised and disappointed if they're not doing that already. But first, you gotta #legalize.

And then, beavers. Easy to assume they are avenging slaughter of their ancestors for early 19th century top hat fashion. But they're just being beaver - murdering huge beautiful valley cottonwoods like they've always done.  On far edges of bosque places they girdle entire huge trunks in one night, inner bark for winter dinner. Cottonwoods bent by the last big valley floods a hundred years ago are doomed. Things that live in dead trees enjoy housing boom.

Painstakingly encircling the trunks with chickenwire stops their mighty teeth.  That, and maybe pepperspray.**  (On the tree bark, not the beaver himself.) 

Mr. Coyote has no doubt made a play for Mr. Bigtooth.  While contemplating a slingshot or airgun attack on this bold coyote (as an alternative to chasing him with a broom, which apparently just amuses him) I am paradoxically cheering him on in what I imagine to be his daily pursuit of that beaver, especially now that he has wiped out the neighborhood guinea fowl. I'm working on zen acceptance of his sandhill crane hunt.

 That's undoubtedly the answer to the beaver question as well.  Afterall, there are still many trees.  Especially from the viewpoint of the one holding a roll of chickenwire.

 

*It would revitalize our local economies and truly revolutionalize our culture to not just retool but also rescale agricultural production for hemp. But, alas, that's perhaps too bold a dream.

**There is such a thing a Comprehensive Beaver Management Planning but I have no comment on that.

Largest Landowners

The names apparently include a New Mexican. Here's the Land Report 100 - Largest Landlowners list.* This is not by weight.

A person with same name as one of them, Number 72, is presently requesting public funds through a LEDA grant from the Bernalillo County Commission to build another set of big boxes in an alfalfa field he owns at Coors and Rio Bravo Boulevards.

The zoning for the site was approved years ago when Teresa Cordova, stalwart protectress of valley values, was in office. As I recall, one of the arguments at the time was how the County needed its own retail development.  That huge Walmart right next door was in the evil City. (Say it with a hissss.)  So Wal-Mart didn't count except as a "changed community condition" that bolstered the argument for the conversion of more prime farmland into yet another speculative real estate venture. Sad but true.

 

 

* In spite of my much coveted position as primary steward of Whitelodge and Weed Ranch, I'm not on the list.

 

Step Into The Light

Bernalillo County Commissioner Wayne Johnson opines in the Albuquerque Journal about the county's  new openness and transparency moves, which appear to rely somewhat heavily on website access to previously obscure information.

Particularly unsettling is how good Commissioner Johnson says he thinks the most important provision of the new ethics resolution is the part where everyone will get to know how much money everyone else makes. 

In every job that I've ever had, my boss knew exactly what I earned and how much it actually cost to pay for my services. That boss was charged with determining whether or not my productivity warranted the cost to the company and my continued service. Governments are no different. 
     

In his view apparently we're direct supervisors.  Thanks, but no thanks.  I'm retired.  I don't want to be the judge of whether every single person in the bureaucracy is worth a paycheck.  That's a supervisor's job in a professionally managed government.  Although I would be interested in disclosure of commissioners' investments, not just their income.  That information would be relevant to my vote, and to their votes.  Otherwise, who gets hired and fired is not my job. 

Stepping into the light, reminds me of Poltergeist and little Carol Anne who was told, do NOT go into the light. Don't even look at it, then told something completely different, run to the light, baby. Mommy is in the light. This was a lie, of course, intended to trick ghosts.  But what got them into this dilemma of light or no light was that the developer moved the cemetery but left the bodies.  It was enough, they thought, to put up the headstones for people to see.  Everything else was left below the surface.  Yeah, the county is a little like that. 

Just shoving information toward the light without context or responsibility isn't ethics.

 

County Sticker News

Big and little changes to Bernalillo County government the Albuquerque Journal notes.They've fired the jail boss and economic development officer.  And they're also getting rid of the in-your-face ugly-ass DWI stickers put on all cars last year because they chip the paint.  Scary acronyms do that. 

The challenges of new county management are sort of mythic, like thinning sacred deadwood of various dragons and priests.  There are lot of different ways of going about this, Commissioner Fair Maid Maggie Hart Stebbins told those assembled at the media breakfast.*  She stands at the entrance of the manager employment search maze.

The newsy Journal story mentioned jail overtime too:  The average corrections officer is working three double shifts a week, according to Tom Swisstack, who took over just last year as the deputy county manager for public safety.

Swisstack himself was coming off super-dooper-triple-back-flip-shifts during which he has mastered all aspects of local government.  He could be county manager too. And they could stick him to cars while they're at it.  He wouldn't chip the paint.

* Is that where you eat the media?  Mmmm.  Is it a buffet?

What Color is Your Parachute Thaddeus?

Looks like Bernalillo County Manager, Thaddeus Lucero, will profitably parachute out of that job.  He deserves it.  He did a good job managing multiple gigantic egos on the Bernalillo County Commission for over a decade.  And that clown act takes some skillful juggling. 

His primary management tools are warmth and humor - boatloads of humor.  And he sincerely cares about  people who work for him which seems rare in an administrator.  Whatever the shortcomings of his administration, he'll be difficult to replace in that regard.  There are others well-qualified to run the county but it's a cinch they won't be as well-loved by employees.  Not for long time, if ever. 

County Economic Development Movida

Your tax dollars at work on a new intersection to benefit speculative real estate development on an alfalfa field in the South Valley.  The Albuquerque Journal story smells so bad I need a face mask.

County administrators asked commissioners to tap $1 million in economic-development funds for the Coors and Las Estancias intersection for traffic signals, road improvements, turn lanes, curbs and gutters.    ... It's not clear whether that would cover the full cost of the intersection or if landowners would be asked to chip in.

Chip in? The developers should pay for these improvements as part of a Subdivision Improvement Agreement (SIA) required when the plat was approved. 

(T)he South Valley is home to enough residents to comprise one of New Mexico's largest cities, yet it still lacks bookstores, coffee shops and other businesses.

But it is a regular valhalla for tire shops.

"I'd like to see some significant development in the valley," De La Cruz said.

Hey, what do you call that enormous Wal-Mart next door?   In the City.  

The wisdom of constructing more commercial space in an overbuilt market next to a super Wal-Mart is highly questionable.  Calling it economic development and subsidizing it with tax dollars is outrageous.  

Does Bernalillo County use economic development as a kind of slush fund for favorite projects of Commissioners?  Inquiring minds already know.

 

       

Pissing Match with a Troll

One of the newest of my New Year resolutions is not to feed them, but I got drawn into it and am heartily sorry.  I'm taking a long cold walk with Big to the Cathedral garden to say some Hail Marys -  just to stay away from God Damn Duke City Fix where, in a cruel twist of fate, I am the troll.  

A well-meaning discussion group about the west side of Albuquerque versus the rest side east side of Albuquerque* miraculously turned into Rail Runner bashing and pronouncements about discovered aquifers and water desalanization (sic) being more cost effective than rain barrels.  I've overused the word ridiculous and am now banning myself.  You can find the link for yourself.

 * Could such a thing really be well-meaning?  Was this a set-up or what?