Young Couple Fights Fort Worth City Hall & Wins The Right To Have A Yard Requiring No Watering

Young Couple On Criminal Yard

This afternoon I read an article in this week's Fort Worth Weekly, titled As Long as the Grass Should Grow, about the young couple you see in the picture and their 5 year battle with the Corrupt City of Fort Worth, a battle which the young couple won.

For now.

The battle with the city was over this young couple's landscaping.

The young couple's house sits across the street from the Tandy Hills Natural Area. So, they landscaped their yard with the same natural plants that grow in the natural area.

Including native grasses.

The yard has never been an overgrown jungle. The edges are trimmed, and part of the yard is conventionally grassed.

I have seen this particular yard many times whilst driving by on my way to hike the Tandy Hills. I have long made note of how nice this yard looks, how natural it looks and how well it fits in with its setting.

5 years ago an anonymous neighbor anonymously complained to the city that the young couple's grass was too tall.

I really am starting to develop a dislike for all the anonymous complainers out there in the world anonymously complaining about matters that really are none of their anonymous business.

The young couple got a ticket for having grass taller than a foot. The ticket was contested, with the judge siding with the city and the anonymous complainer, with the young couple fined $315.

After years of court time, on December 7, 2011 a Tarrant County Criminal Court Judge reversed the original judgment.

The city is now working towards re-working the inept wording of its codes as they pertain to property owner's landscaping.

Now, where this really bugs me is this is a city which employs someone to look like Sherlock Holmes who calls himself the Lawn Whisperer, to encourage people to conserve water used on their landscaping.

The yard of the young couple, who got fined, is Xeriscaped to a fine tuned level, requiring no watering.

One would think a city, with even a little common sense, would ally this young couple with the Lawn Whisperer to show other yard owners in Fort Worth how to replicate their water saving success.

This is a city, with a government which turns a blind eye to all the various depredations the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Industry foists upon the landscape of Fort Worth.

Gas Drillers in Fort Worth can put up a roadblock on a Fort Worth road, forcing motorists to detour, with no threat of a fine possible.

I daily see a giant, ugly brown wall, that I call Fort Chesapeake, that hovers over my neighborhood like a metaphor for a city gone mad. $315 fine because someone has some tall grass. A blind eye to multiple ugly brown wall eyesores.

Gas Drillers in Fort Worth suck copious amounts of water out of the Trinity River, with nary a peep from the Lawn Whisperer. And with the shills in charge making ridiculous claims that the millions of gallons sucked by the gas drillers are just a teeny fraction of what all those lawn watering water wasters waste.

And then this corrupt town has a young couple, trying to be good citizens, setting a good example, doing a good thing.

Using no precious water to water their yard.

And they get fined.

I'm surprised they didn't get tasered and taken to jail.

The nerve.

Growing a natural yard across from a natural area.

Another Tire Has Arrived On The Tandy Hills Which Were Not Being Flash Flooded With A Broken Fort Worth Water Main Today

Tandy Tire # 3

I, and I am sure the Lawn Whisperer, also, was pleased to see, today, that Tandy Creek is no longer being flash flooded by a broken Fort Worth Water Main.

And that Tandy Falls is no longer roaring and has returned to being Dry Tandy Falls.

Yesterday the water that was flash flooding was quite clear, like water flowing in a creek in a pristine mountain zone. Today the water that remained was a murky shade of bluish gray.

I was surprised today to discover, just slightly south of Tandy Falls, on the Tandy Highway, another Tandy Tire. This one is not a GIANT tire. It is more of a regular size. This tire was mated with what I assume is fiberglass from the inner part of the tire.

Dry Tandy Falls

Is Tandy Tire #3 part of the continuing work of the Tandy Hills Guerrilla Artist? I have no idea. Did this tire come from Don Young's Engulfed Death Car? Or maybe the Death Van associated with the Witchey Tree?

Is the person hauling all these heavy tires on the Tandy Hills acting alone? Or is there an accomplice?

I think an accomplice would definitely be required to help with the GIANT Tandy Tires.

It was near perfect conditions on the Tandy Hills today. I was back in short pants, again, after being in long pants yesterday. It was in the mid 60s today, with a good wind blowing.

I did not last too long in the pool today. It seemed cold.

Flooding Tandy Creek Roars Over Tandy Falls Bringing Tears To The Fort Worth Water Whisperer's Eyes

GIANT Tandy Tire Surviving Latest Tandy Creek Flood

On my way to the Tandy Hills today, a location I had not been to for several days, I came upon a road construction detour on Meadowbrook Drive. The detour pointed me to take a left on to Sargent Street.

On the road ahead of me I saw water. By the time I got to the next detour sign, telling me to take a right to head back to Meadowbrook, I was seeing a lot of water.

As in a flood of water was rushing down the road. A Fort Worth water crew appeared to be working near the McDonald's on Lancaster and Sargent. I don't know if that was from whence the gusher flooded.

As I continued on to View Street, to park to hike the Tandy Hills, I saw many scenes of water backing up. In one house's driveway the water was so deep I don't know if it was possible to get to the car parked in the driveway.

I got to my parking location on View Street and proceeded to walk in to the Natural Area on the main trail that runs from View Street. For today's hiking I'd planned to walk to the end of the entry trail, then head down the hill to Tandy Falls, cross the falls, then walk Tandy Highway and take the right turn that heads back up the hills.

Well.

I could not get across Tandy Falls today. I'd never seen so much water roaring over the falls. Usually I am at this location days after a rain, with the falls greatly diminished.

So, I took some pictures and video and heading back up the trail I had just come down. I decided my flood altered route would take me back to the Tandy Highway from another direction, to see how bad Tandy Creek was flooding across the Tandy Highway.

That particular creek crossing is where the GIANT Tandy Tire #1 currently rests. As you can see in the above picture and the below video, today's flood has not move the Tandy Tire or the baseball cap that sits upon it.

Fort Worth's Lawn Whisperer must be in a very foul mood this Saturday what with all the water being wasted  today, being flushed through the Tandy Hills. How many Barnett Shale Natural Gas wells could have been fracked with the water being wasted today? Appalling.

Checking Out The Watering Schedule At The Tandy Hills Today While Not Picking Any Good Strawberries

Lawn Whisperer Water Schedule Sign

The past couple weeks I've noticed signs popping up on lawns in various locations. I knew the signs had the Lawn Whisperer on them, but I'd not had a chance to see one of the Lawn Whisperer's signs up close til today when I parked on View Street to hike into the Tandy Hills hoping some sanatorium time would help mitigate some of what ails me.

Does anyone actually take this Stage 1 Watering Schedule serious? Is there some Water Gestapo monitoring people's water use?

Chesapeake Energy got into trouble with the City of Arlington due to some bad water behavior involving the fracking of one of their gas wells.

Methinks a lot of people distrust the water info the local official water info purveyors purvey, with the percentage of total consumption the Tarrant Regional Water District claims is used for fracking, just does not seem to be reasonable to most reasonable people. Claiming something like 68% of water goes to keeping lawns green while the millions upon millions of gallons of water used for fracking only amounts to a couple percent of total water used.

Anyway, hiking the Tandy Hills made me feel a little better, with the aerobic activity causing some endorphins to enter my blood stream and slightly alleviate the pain in my aching joints. Doing some heavy breathing also seems to have slightly improved this allergy/asthma thing I've got going on.

I got strawberries today at Town Talk. When am I ever going to learn that the strawberries with the name Driscoll's on the box, from California, do not taste like what I expect a strawberry to taste like? I have not had a real strawberry since July of 2008, when I was in Washington.

The Fort Worth Lawn Whisperer Needs To Talk To Fosdic Creek

You are looking at Fosdic Creek in the picture. With water flowing. This is the second time in recent weeks that milky water has been seen flowing through Fosdic Creek into Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park.

Water is supposedly very precious in these drought parched parts of the planet. We get a lot of admonishments not to waste water, with messages often delivered by a man calling himself the Lawn Whisperer.

I have no idea how many lawns could have been watered by the water leaking into Fosdic Lake today.

Changing the subject from nutjobs whispering to lawns to my decrepit, rapidly aging body. I think I may have overdone it this morning in the pool. I seem to be in body ache mode, particularly in the mid-section zone. I'm sure I will recover.

Changing the subject again. A few minutes ago Elsie Hotpepper sent me a long email with a lot of text and pictures, asking me if I could translate it into legible English. I tried, really I did, but I quickly realized I was not sufficiently skilled to complete this particular Hotpepper task.

I do not remember ever failing to complete a Hotpepper task before, so now I'm feeling just a little depressed.

I'm sure I'll recover from that too....

The Lawn Whisperer Says Don't Waste Water Flooding The Tandy Hills With Guerrilla Art

When I hit the Tandy Hills today, around noon, the temperature was 92.7. With a semi-strong wind blowing. Which had a nice semi-cooling effect.

Today I took the north junction option on the trail down Mount Tandy. This route takes me over Tandy Falls.

I was quite surprised today, in the midst of the Great North Texas Drought, to see more water roaring over Tandy Falls than I've ever seen before.

By the time I made it to where the Tandy Highway crosses the Tandy River the flood had somewhat subsided. I could see, by where the high water mark had been, that I would likely not have been able to make the crossing at that point in time when the flood was at its most perilous.

There have been full page ads in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from the Lawn Whisperer, of late, advising locals not to over water their lawns. That same so-called "newspaper," this morning, had an article about the epidemic of broken water mains wasting water all over Fort Worth, at a leaking level greater than other Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex city's leak levels.

The Star-Telegram article indicated that the culprit behind the broken water pipe epidemic is the day after day HEAT wreaking havoc with the ground. No mention was made of the possibility that the epidemic of seismic testing might be a contributor to the broken pipe epidemic by also wreaking havoc with the ground.

Speaking of seismic testing. The seismic testing cables and equipment have now been removed from Mount Tandy. In their place a new piece of Tandy Hills Guerrilla Art has been installed.

I think I will call this work of Guerrilla Art "Tandy Tower."

If you look closely at the picture of "Tandy Tower" you can see part of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, peaking out above "Tandy Tower."

I wonder how many gallons of water were wasted today falling over Tandy Falls? It was a very high volume of water.

I wonder what the Lawn Whisperer would say about such waste? 

I wonder if all the water wasted on all the lawns in Fort Worth, during the entire lawn watering season, add up to what was lost over Tandy Falls today?

Very perplexing.

The Lawn Whisperer Has Found Another Victim Of Overwatering In His Quest To Save Texas Water

For a long time now I have been driving by the billboard you see in the picture on my way to the Tandy Hills. The billboard faces westbound traffic on I-30.

On the billboard a guy is looking at grass with a magnifying glass.

The billboard identifies the guy as The Lawn Whisperer and has him saying, "Looks like another victim of overwatering."

At the bottom of the billboard there is a website address, SaveNorthTexasWater.com.

Going to the website you meet The Lawn Whisperer again. You are directed to select the city you live in. I selected Fort Worth.

Selecting Fort Worth brought me to SaveTarrantWater.com, where I was advised to save water because nothing can replace it.

More important water information from Save Tarrant Water...

It's a drought out there.

Texas is experiencing the worst drought in more than half a century. No rain means our water supplies are taking a hit - outdoor watering plays a big role in how fast they go. When the combined storage capacity of TRWD reservoirs reaches 75%, TRWD will require it's municipal customers to initiate Stage 1 of its drought plan. The primary way to stretch our supplies and save water will be to limit outdoor watering to no more than twice per week. And although many of you do water efficiently, there are some who don't. Now is a good time to start. Thanks.

I wonder how many Lawn Whisperer billboards grace the Tarrant County landscape? I wonder how much the billboard ads cost? How much has been spent on the Save Texas Water websites? The Lawn Whisperer is also on Facebook.

How many gallons of water has all this propaganda saved?

No where in The Lawn Whisperer propaganda did I see mention made of the millions of gallons of water being taken from the Texas water supply by Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers.

Not only are millions of gallons of water being used to Frack wells, that water does not return to the water supply.

Plus, there have been instances where the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling has contaminated the water supply of multiple hapless victims.

So, really, how much is all this water propaganda costing? How many gallons of water are alleged to be wasted by overwatering? Compared to the many gallons of water wasted by Fracking?