Rural Interlude

General Discussion
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I’m increasingly repelled by urban settings and attracted to rural ones. Yesterday I cycled to Starkey Farm in Pasco County, FL to pick some blueberries. And, boy, were they ever delicious off the vine. We’d picked blackberries a couple of weeks before. These are essentially weeds; I used to pick them in random areas around the house as a kid. Still, it’s nice to have them all in one place. Blueberry fields forever.

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Some of the cows at Starkey were catching some shade on this rather (but not excessively) warm day.

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Nearby, the Brooker Creek Preserve also has grazing livestock and wide, open spaces.

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Last February, rangers were conducting a controlled burn in Starkey Wilderness Park. I had a rather extensive discussion with the ranger in charge of the burn about forest management and, incidentally, I got quite an earful about how terrible California’s forest management is and the resulting wildfires.
February 15:

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I went back a couple of weeks later to see how the forest was recovering.
March 5:

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Gavin Newsom said forest fires were caused by climate change PERIOD.

Smokey the bear taught me fires were caused by cigarettes

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Aha! But there aren’t enough smokers left to bear the blame heaped upon them, alas.

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Smokers makes me think of these instead of people puffing on tobacco.
https://www.bbqguys.com/a/12678/top-rated/bbq/smokers

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Something’s not right.

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Starkey doesn’t grow strawberries. When I stopped by yesterday, they informed me there may not be blueberries this year either.

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Martinez was charged in federal court on October 7, 2004 with setting the wildfire and lying about its cause to investigators. In November 2005, as part of a plea deal a federal judge sentenced Martinez to six months in a work-furlough program and ordered him to complete 960 hours (40 days) of community service

By the time the fire was fully contained on November 4, it had destroyed 2,820 buildings (including 2,232 homes) and killed 15 people, including one firefighter.
The fire remains one of the largest wildfires in California history and, as of January 2022, the ninth-largest wildfire in the state’s modern history. According to CALFIRE, it is also the sixth-deadliest and fourth-most destructive wildfire in state history, causing just over $1.3 billion in damages.

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Check out Van Wagner’s song “North of 80”, and come visit me on the Pocono Plateau.

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