memfree

You are correct, but I mow kinda high and my lawn has lots of low flowering weeds and flowering shrubs. In the spring, there is patch of ... probably purslane? and daffodils on the border. Then the comfrey has its first bloom, then the clover and dandelions. Right now there's more dandelions and comfrey's second bloom. Next comes the invasive morning glorys and rose of sharon. There are a bunch of other things that flower, like wild strawberries, wild violets, and yarrow that is stanted by getting chopped down every week or two -- but there's more and I don't know all their names.

We also have some type of carpenter/bumble bee trying hard to destroy the edge of the porch overhang. I'm just letting them do their thing and plan on repairing it if/when it becomes a structural issue.

While I tend to agree, I want to point out that it's a very modern view point.

American pet stores these days are pet supply stores. Way back when (1970s and before), they were stocked with all kinds of creatures; some that were probably illegally imported as well as a mix of cats, dogs, rabbits, mice, canaries, and the like that were partially from people whose pets gave birth. You fancy canaries and some of hatch chicks? A nice side hustle was to sell the excess offspring back to the store. Same for mice. Stores were offered enough rabbits, guinea pigs, and kittens that they'd be overstocked if they took them all -- especially kittens.

Spaying/Neutering was not common. Cats and dogs roamed off-leash and got pregnant. When you went to the grocery store, there was a fair chance someone was out front with a box of "Free Puppies!" filled with mongrels that pet stores did not want because they weren't pure. The same was true for "Free Kittens!" but that, again, was because no store wanted as many kittens as the supply. That's also why there were so many kill shelters: supply far exceeded demand.

I like it better now that most pets are NOT allowed to uncontrollably breed, but I do miss the chance to find some adorable mutt that isn't half pit bull.

My lawn isn't totally natural because I mow it, but I don't use any chemicals. Despite some trees and shrubs, my yard doesn't have ticks. We have grubs, mice, shrews, squirrels, birds, and occasional poison ivy that we pull up, but no ticks. They are in the park (with forest) a couple blocks away, but not in the trimmed lawns in my chunk of suburbia.

from Wikipedia:

Ticks like shady, moist leaf litter with an overstory of trees or shrubs and, in the spring, they deposit their eggs into such places allowing larvae to emerge in the fall and crawl into low-lying vegetation. The 3 meter boundary closest to the lawn's edge are a tick migration zone, where 82% of tick nymphs in lawns are found.

I agree wirth you, but since I'm not a hydrologist nor any other type of expert, I included that contrary piece as an opposing view on whether better planning could have helped. Since we now know that there's been a plan to have warning sirens in the works for years, I think it obvious that the area is a known flood risk and at least that much COULD have been done.

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?" -- George Orwell (book link)

Oh there;s lots of new experiences in getting old: going through social security rigmarole, turning grey (or bald), finding yourself unable to do stuff you used to do, arthritis, gout, bone loss, needing a cane, getting up several times a night for the sake of your bladder...

Kerrville is too small to get cited as an example in a big national report on Texas flood issues, so my citations are meant to show this is a problem for the whole state rather than a particular town. If you go to USGS, you'll see they don't even have a flow gauge upstream of Camp Mystic. The closest is downstream at gauge:hntt2(click dot on map to see readings). Simple link without map: https://water.noaa.gov/gauges/HNTT2

We've known for decades that Texas has loose regulations allowing development to ignore flooding concerns. "Texas shoulders the most urban stormwater runoff of any state in the country ". After Hurricane Harvey flooded Houston in 2017, everyone was talking about the development issue, but alas, mostly just about Houston instead the state as a whole.

Post Harvey, The Atlantic had a big piece on how, "The combination of climate change and aggressive development made an event like this almost inevitable."

Also from that 2017 disaster, The Washington Post concluded:

Thus, to ensure acceptable stormwater-system performance, jurisdictional agencies and officials must ensure that the type, timing and amount of real estate development are in sync with the capacity and configuration of the jurisdiction’s storm system. Many communities are at risk because of overbuilding or for allowing building in areas with inadequate infrastructure.

Some argued that "Houston isn't flooded because of its land use planning" ... but while the author there is an expert in urban planning, he is not an expert in hydrology.

Of course the recent tragedy was no where near Houston. It was closer to Austin and San Antonio. On Austin: "Flash flooding is a pressing concern for Austin, so much so that it has been labeled the "Flash Flood Alley" of Texas." On San Santonio:

San Antonio is a populated area in one of the most flash-flood prone regions in North America. SARA manages a series of structural controls (dams and drainage systems) to help prevent and/or reduce flood problems. For example, the San Antonio River Tunnels (see illustration) proved invaluable as they diverted water safely underneath downtown during the 1998 and 2002 floods.

I don't want to hear "No warning at all." This was a risk known for decades where the state and municipalities decided they'd rather allow an eventual catastrophe than spend the money needed to prevent one.

That doesn't work for me because part of the issue is the number of servings I get at the end and the size of the cooking container. Example: random veggie casserole calls for 1 pound frozen broccoli, 1 pound frozen caulflower, 1 medium onion, 3 stalks celery, and a bunch of other stuff (rice, cheese, spices, breadcrumbs, etc.).

Frozen veg is now mostly bagged at 3/4 of a pound instead of a full pound (same with certain pasta). While I can theoretically use 1.5 bags or reduce other measures by 25%, I don't want a bunch of half-bags in the freezer -- and if I make a casserole that's 75% the size... well, I don't have a 75% sized casserole dish so it still has to bake in the dish I've used to decades, but now as a sad thin version of what it ought to be -- and it typically dries out while cooking (if I don't try to fix it).

I don't know if we're all in different places, but I agree with @[email protected]. In particular, every bag of onions and potatoes I've bought in the last couple years have had at least one bad veg so damaged that I couldn't use it -- like rotting on the inside kinds of bad. Lettuce seems smaller and more dirty, and everything generally seems older by the time it gets to the store. The only way I can get fruit with any flavor is by going to local farm standsand paying top dollar.

The article does not got into specifics. It only states the percentage of breeders in each sector that have had violations in the last five years, and the whole thing is basically a reprint from this source . The time spans feel wonky. For the last five years, 41% of the licenced breeders they tracked had a violation. For the last three years, the violation rates of tracked licensed breeders have been: Breeders to stores: 36%, Puppy stores: 63%. Rather than any number of years they only say 'currently' for these rates: Breeders to brokers: 34%, Online sales: 42%.

Sure, you're getting worked up about her misrepresenting the number of illegals, but I'm over here all incensed that she's saying a person is just ONE meal for an alligator? As if gators wouldn't join in and make a party of it? How dare she! An adult alligator will eat 20 pounds of food a week during warm weather but can go for weeks without eating during the winter. That means a generic 100 pound human should feed at least 3-4 gators (or up to 5 if we don't count bones as food). Suggesting a person is only one alligator meal is like suggesting a person isn't unemployed once they're run out of unemployment benefits -- and who'd be stupid enough to suggest that?