Month: July 2011

  • New YouTube Video

    We put up another YouTube video yesterday, titled Natural Gas: Blunders and Numbers.

    The state was not able to pass new regulations for the oil and gas industry in the most recent session earlier this winter. That’s not really a huge surprise, considering how much pressure the industry was putting on both the legislative and executive branches to do nothing. It’s always putting pressure so that nothing is done which is why things are in the shape they are now: contaminated streams and rivers, contaminated ground water, well site accidents, and more.

    Our newest video is about what we’ve seen in our area in respect to industry’s compliance to the state’s laws. It’s not a pretty picture, especially when the numbers get totaled and compared to the 55,000 producing wells in this state. West Virginia has a serious problem.

    Attempts now are being made to pass new regulations during an interim session. Our fears are that whatever happens it will be more of the same.

    More soon!

  • Song of the Wood Thrush

    We have birds singing in our yard and the surrounding woods year-round, though it is awfully quiet in the winter in comparison to late spring and early summer when migratory songbirds fill our woods.

    The slowly changing song of the wood thrush is enchanting. They’ve been singing for about a month now. For a week or two, one would serenade me from a tree close by while I worked in the shop. Usually they’re more reclusive and not that readily seen.

    I’ve used our video camera to record a wood thrush singing in early evening. This one was high in a tree in the woods just west of our home. It was windy when I recorded this and it’s impossible to hear other wood thrushes responding, frogs at the small “pond” between our home and the new vegetable garden, or other singing birds.

    The segment here is about 90 seconds long (2.3 MB file size).

    More soon!