Dogfennel

Contrary to popular belief, I have not abandoned my blog.  I’ve simply found that more of my time these days is spent reading, writing papers and working on community and personal projects.  That doesn’t mean I don’t have material to blog about, I most certainly do.  For instance, the youngin’ is “individuating”, as my dear friend Cynthia likes to say.  That means my only child has moved out of the house, somewhat prematurely.  Another for instance, the mead has been racked and was a big hit at a couple gatherings.  One more, in my move toward a more abundant life, we now have a papaya, a granny smith, red banana and a fig tree planted in the yard. Albeit, a bit crowded in the space I planted, though they are in and seem happy for the moment.  Well, they aren’t ALL planted but that’s on my list of things to do today.

I still need to follow-up on my house studies.  The beach front home that had it’s porch ripped off during one of the hurricanes has been successfully moved with only a minor snag from DEP.  The cool mid-century modern SIP’s house is up and dried in with some alterations to the exterior and what else?  The permaculture garden I designed for the Seaside Neighborhood School is getting ready to break ground and hopefully in a few months, the video project I’m working on with the TDC will have come to fruition.  That’s just a sampling of the various projects underway.

All that aside, this brings me to the topic of dogfennel, or depending on your perspective, pernicious weeds.  I’m taking an Ecological Economics course which entails looking at our natural resources and their value.  I also have a rather unruly yard (by my neighbors standards) that I have been ever so carefully hand sculpting.  Really, it’s hand sculpted or plain wild, which ever your perspective.  Nothing gets ripped out unless I know what it is and if there is a higher use determined for that space.  Tying all this together, as I was making room for the fruit trees, I was determined to figure out the purpose of the dogfennel that had cropped up thereabouts.  The other plants were easy enough, gallberry-birds love the berries and bees love the flowers, goldenrod-beautiful showy flowers and can be made into a tea for seasonal allergy, sinus and colds, passion flower-edible leaves and fruits, even the devil’s vine can be eaten like asparagus when it is young.  The dogfennel was alluding me, in fact, I couldn’t even figure out what it was until the fellow that delivered our trees told us it was dogfennel and we should eradicate it immediately.  He also pointed out a volunteer baby sand myrtle that will be a nice specimen.  Who knew?

To be certain, the dogfennel is perfectly appropriate for the scale of a roadside, but entirely too large and somewhat invasive for a small yard.  I seem to have more than my fair share of it.  Doing some research on the Internet, I found out that it has a “noxious smell”, which I found amusing because I kind of like it - it smells like fennel.  I found all sorts of ways to quickly eliminate it from my garden and finally, I found what I was looking for, medicinal uses.  It’s not mentioned in Medicinal Plants of the Southern Appalachians, though one website claims it has been used for “reptile and insect bites”.  What I found beyond that was even more interesting.  It’s scientific name is Eupatorium capillifolium and it’s a member of the Aster family.  The oil from the leaves are antifungal and research is being done to understand its antimycotic properties.  Here’s what I found from one site:

New spectrum of opportunistic human mycotic infection are increasing day-to-day due to increase in number of AIDS and cancer patients. Such fungal pathogens form new combination with immunocompromised or immunosuppressed hosts…

E. cappilifolium

The leaves yielded 1 per cent oil which was fungistatic to various fungi at 1000 ppm (1.0 x 103 µl/ l) doze (Chandra et al., 1982b). They further reported that the fungitoxicity of the oil was enhanced at pH 7 and pH 9. Rao et al. (1992) observed antifungal activity in the leaf oil against Colletotrichum falcatum, Curvularia pallescens, and Periconia atro-purpurea.

One can get lost in the Internet for sure, you see where i’m going here… This is from another site about Curvularia pallescens:

Curvularia spp. are among the causative agents of phaeohyphomycosis. Wound infections, mycetoma, onychomycosis, keratitis, allergic sinusitis, cerebral abscess, cerebritis, pneumonia, allergic bronchopulmonary disease, endocarditis, dialysis-associated peritonitis, and disseminated infections may develop due to Curvularia spp. Curvularia lunata is the most commonly encountered species. Importantly, the infections may develop in patients with intact immune system. However, similar to several other fungal genera, Curvularia has recently emerged also as an opportunistic pathogen that infects immunocompromised hosts…

Now, I make no claims to be versed in biology or medicine, the point of all this is that, I believe the planet is trying to tell us something and/or heal itself and therefore us.  If we would only pay attention.  In Ecology, we know that trees like oaks and pines seem to have devised ways to ensure their survival, like masting or producing a super abundance of nuts or seeds in response to resources and nut predators.  We also know that plants like dogfennel, goldenrod, poison ivy and passion flower thrive in disturbed areas.  They are opportunists living on the edge and we are constantly trying to eradicate them.  If we look at a plant like poison ivy, often it’s anecdote, jewel weed is growing near by.  It’s all instinctual on my part, but it would be interesting to see more scientific research indicating these perceived useless plants to be exactly what we need as a species to survive.  All I know for certain is that the tree guy sells small buckets of goldenrod for $5 a piece and with all the goldenrod I relocated, I figure I saved myself several hundred dollars…and my neighbors think I’m just growing weeds over here.

I like to pretend that I know what my neighbors think but truthfully, they probably are too busy with their sprayers and lawnmowers to have time to contemplate the state of my hand sculpted yard.      

Ah, the Emerald Coast

I just couldn’t help myself.  I saw this article and I was hysterical.  I was instantly inspired to write about it.  Upon further reflection, I thought JHK would do it better justice.  I ripped off an e-mail to JHK and was delighted this morning to see a reply.  Not that I didn’t think he read his e-mail, but I certainly had the impression he had quite a bit of it to wade through.  Because I read JHK every day, hope to see him in person at some point in my life and love his satirical, punchy and descriptive prose, I had to post our short correspondence…for the archives.

Dear Jim,
I am an avid reader of Cluster*uck Nation and thought you’d be interested in this article.  Well, not really interested, or surprised really, it’s just another absurdity of our times.  “Realtors Pray for Better Times” http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/6725, just a few short miles from Seaside, FL.  Huh??  I guess they haven’t read The Long Emergency or don’t connect the real estate bust with maybe someone upstairs is trying to tell us something.  Maybe instead of praying for a resurgance of house sales and well, let’s face it, more destruction of the planet, they should be praying for another way to feed themselves.  Hey, I’m in this growth industry as well and you better believe I’m working on some other skills to survive the long emergency.  The world and especially the Emerald Coast has too many realtors and designers (myself included) as it is.  The lull in the housing market isn’t hurting my feelings, Im spending more time in the garden and getting acquanted with my neighbors both human and otherwise.  When will these people get a clue and how can that preacher seriously lead a prayer asking God to allow these realtors to continue their profession by exploiting this planet some more.  It’s simply mind boggling.  Ta-ta and I hope you get to Seaside some day again soon.  I’ll be there!

His reply:

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/6725

Hey, thanks for this.  I just posted it on “The Daily Grunt” http://www.kunstler.com/ That part of Florida has just exploded beyond all limits. Seaside and Rosemary Beach were great things.  But all the wannabes and copycats maye have come to the party too late.I hope they don’t get whacked by storms on top of this.

Jim
“It’s All Good”
(”Va Tutto Bene“)

Fun stuff.

Ross’ Gull & Congestion Pricing

No, they have nothing to do with each other or maybe they do.

First the Gull, no one mentioned global warming, but isn’t everyone thinking it?  I suppose we’ve all just become immune to those words.  Anyhow, this rare Arctic bird made it’s way down to CA, where hundreds of birdwatchers flocked to catch a glimpse. 

Next, congestion pricing.  I think this is a great idea once they hammer out the details as they affect the residents of other boroughs.  Basically, transportation and urban planners would like to reduce traffic in Manhattan by imposing a fee to anyone that drives their car below 60th street.  All kinds of groups are jumping on board with this proposed policy in hopes of reducing the growing congestion downtown.  Of course, keeping in mind there are people that live outside the convenience of the subway, they would need to address this issue in order not to create undue hardship for those Manhattan workers.  Apparently, this charging concept has been implemented in London and has been shown to work.  They are expecting the population in Manhattan to increase by another 1 million people by 2025.

This is an example of some of the tough decisions that policy makers and citizens alike are going to have to make in order to change our course toward a more sustainable future. 

PCB Airport vs Ivory Billed Woodpecker

http://www.sowal.com/bb/showthread.php?t=9426

Now, ain’t that a fine How’d'e do this morning?  In the eleventh hour, 2 environmental groups based in D.C. no less and a local pilot’s association have filed a law suit in NY aimed to stop the Bay County Airport from being relocated to West Bay.  If this doesn’t cause a major upheaval in our area in the months to come, I don’t know what will.  Of course, this could just as quietly and quickly disappear as swiftly as it was brought to the table with little fanfare, news coverage or local awareness like we so often see here in nepotism/good ol’ boy/St. Joe land.  I’ll be following this one for sure.

More thoughts to come on the subject….have some work to tend to.

I don’t really have a solid opinion on the new airport, but one thing for certain is that it’s become the shining star for many a contractor, subcontractor, county official, retailer and property owner in Bay and Walton Counties.  Our area has experienced the luxury of being exempt from the fall out of the dot com bubble and 9/11, though NOT from the housing market slow down that’s currently rippling across the country.  In an area that relies predominantly on tourism and second home construction, the airport NOT opening would be a potential cause for alarm as to the sustainablity of our local economy.  On the other hand, just because “they” build it, doesn’t mean “they” will come.  No matter what anyone argues, the numbers say we are swimming in a sea of housing glut, two to three years of inventory.  A lot can happen in 2-3 years.  The new international airport claims to bring people from far and wide to our little piece of paradise often affectionately referred to as the “Redneck Riviera”.  Nice, huh?  And supposedly, all those people who travel from the corners of New York, California and Europe will buy up that housing supply and will demand even more.  You might think I sound a bit cynical for someone who is in the field of designing houses and should be fighting tooth and nail for the arrival of this great airport.  Maybe, maybe not.

Now, what of this Ivory Billed Woodpecker?  Well, there is a local man by the name of MC Davis that has declared over 53,000 acres of his property to be set aside for private conservation.  The land, Nokuse Plantation is a critical piece to a larger tract of connecting land rich in biodiversity that include wetlands, uplands and fresh water communities.  These communities of swamp bottomland happen to be the natural habitat for the ivory billed woodpecker, though the woodpecker is believed to have become extinct, logged out of existence since the 1930’s.  Over the last year, there have been claims of sitings of the great woodpecker and further research by Auburn University has indicated that there may indeed be an Ivory Billed Woodpecker in ‘dem dare woods’.  This is excellent news for Northwest Florida.  Birders from all over the country are traveling to the area in hopes of spotting this wonderful treasure.

Back to the airport.  The environmental groups claim that the FAA may have violated the federal Endangered Species Act due to the spotting of the woodpecker.  Also, they contend the environmental impact is too great and the current location is the best environmental choice.  Wouldn’t you know it, one of those SoWalers says, “It’s just a bird…”  That was probably the same SoWaler that declared (s)he had the right to build whatever beach armament necessary to protect their property from storm surge regardless of sea turtles lives because sea turtles don’t pay taxes.  Nice, huh?  And you wonder why it’s called the Redneck Riviera…

All this, right in my back yard.  Oh, speaking of woodpeckers and the back yard, once again recall my pine trees infested with pine bark beetles.  Well, those trees have attracted a few red bellied woodpeckers that come to feast on the beetles.  It’s almost sad to think that the pine trees will have to go soon.              

Epiphany

I had an epiphany.  Not the ‘manifestation of Christ’ kind of epiphany, but a ‘moment of sudden revelation’ kind of epiphany.  This MAY seem totally radical to some of you, like maybe I fell and bumped my head kind of radical.  To others, it may seem foolish and still others may see this as a natural progression towards creating a new economy built on value.  A quick disclaimer, I have done no research on this topic other than reading the books I have listed on my blog and reading other blogs.  This epiphany is driven on instinct alone at the moment and the results thereof may play out completely different in reality.  Here it goes.

I just e-mailed a client of mine with the proposal that he pay me, what he thinks my services are worth to him.

I’ve never done this before and I may never do it again but here’s a little background.  I’m a residential designer.  I don’t claim to be an architect, though according to the definition, architect best describes my profession.  I charge my clients by the hour or square footage depending on the circumstances.  One of the biggest challenge I often face is creating proposals.  Basically I put together a set of numbers that I think is a fair and marketable price for my services taking into consideration the parameters of the project and the client.  That seems very straight forward until other things creep onto the scene and somehow interrupt this process, for instance: 

• I really connect with the client, though  realize they have greatly under estimated construction costs and my fee.
• I realize the client is someone I have no respect for and therefore no desire to work with.
• I realize the project may be beyond my capabilities, though I’m eager to give it a whirl.
• (for women) I know my male counterparts may be charging twice as much, though I’m concerned with alienating my loyal clients by charging more.
• (for degree-less professionals) I have 12 years experience in my field, yet no paper to “prove” my worth.
• I like to think I have a conscience and natural desire to do what I believe is right for the environment and humankind, e.g. design homes that strive for sustainability including home structures for folks with limited means.
• I have a business to run and a family to support.

Needless to say, writing the proposal can be a daunting task.  Recently, our area is experiencing a shift in real estate sales and therefore labor costs, etc.  Once again I am rethinking what my fees are or will be in response to this shift.  Many clients have been late to pay, with a few not paying at all.  There have been a few remarks as to the rate being high or prices seem to have doubled.  Then there is always the blank stare response that says, “I had no idea it was going to cost that much.”  Of course there are the clients that don’t bat an eye and just roll with the program and are full of praises.

All of this brought me to where I am today.  Even in lean times, the universe has always provided for my family and I feel that I am a fair and equitable person with a healthy work ethic.  So, what if I decide to go against this economy that only values the GDP and work toward creating an economy that values people, relationships, the envionment and defineable products and services?  What if I only attract clients that I want to form a relationship with and I ask those clients to pay what they feel my services are worth to them?  What will happen?  I don’t know what’s going to happen but I had this overwhelming feeling to “put it out there”.  So, I did.  

Foolish?  Maybe.  De-valuing?  Maybe.  Risky?  Maybe.

Maybe another world will reveal itself to me.  I know one thing for certain, the anxiety of placing a price tag on my design capabilities has in this instance been removed and replaced with renewed enthusiasm for the project at hand.  I’ll keep you posted on how this approach plays out.