Fort Worth's Tandy Hills Brush Bash Next Saturday With Grand Opening Of Don's Dawgs

The last time I hiked the Tandy Hills, before rain muddied up the place, I saw that a lot of brush had been cut and was laying on the ground, waiting, I assumed, for the upcoming Tandy Hills Brush Bash.

Yesterday I got email from Don Young that confirmed that the cut brush was for the upcoming BRUSH-BASH, which takes place next Saturday.

The most surprising news about the BRUSH-BASH was that a Snack Bar called Don's Dawgs will be making lunch available to those who get hungry and did not bring a sack lunch. And credit cards will be accepted at Don's Dawgs.

Message & Don's Dawg's Menu below...

The City of Fort Worth Parks and Community Services Department has been cutting invasive brush and trees at Tandy Hills Natural Area this week.

Your help is needed carrying the cut material and debris out of the park.

Join your fellow Friends of Tandy Hills to help restore and protect this beautiful 160-acre prairie remnant.

Date: Saturday, January 23, 2010

Time: 10 am – 3 pm

Place: Tandy Hills Natural Area
3400 View Street
Fort Worth

What to Bring: Work gloves, water and a can-do spirit.

Lunch: > > > Bring your own or purchase, on-site, from Don’s Dawgs. (see menu below)

More Information: Contact Don Young at
donyoungglass@earthlink.net or 817-731-2787

See you on the prairie this Saturday.

DY

Don's Dawgs Menu for Brush Bash 2010

Hot Dogs - $3.00
Veggie Dogs - $3.00
Hot Links - $4.00
Nacho's - $3.00
Chili - $3.50

Above items include your choice of toppings. Chili, Cheese, Sauerkraut, Jalapeños, or Chopped Onions.

Assorted Chips - $1.00

Assorted Soft Drinks and Water - $1.00

Hot Chocolate - $1.50
Hot Spiced Cider - $1.50

We will accept Cash/Visa/MC/Discover

Miss Puerto Rico Has Not Phoned Home To Texas Since Haiti Earthquake

That is the 4 in the afternoon view from Miss Puerto Rico's this 3rd Saturday of the New Year.

That is an ominous looking sky.

I don't think I am doing a very good job of cat sitting Miss Puerto Rico's cat, Tasha. The little beast doesn't seem to be eating.

I was instructed to give Tasha only 3, no more, of her special highly fattening treats. She eats those, so since she does not seem to be eating much out of her food bowl, I've been giving her more than the prescribed 3 units of the special fattening treat.

I have not heard from Miss Puerto Rico since her first day on the island. Puerto Rico is very close to Haiti. I have no idea if anything to do with Haiti is why Miss PR has been incommunicado.

Miss PR is back on the island to deal with some relative issues and had told me she would need to call every day to vent, so that the madness did not cause her a meltdown. I was not looking forward to those calls and likely would have let them go to voice mail.

On a totally unrelated subject that relates to today. I went swimming this morning, once more for the longest duration of the new year. That will likely continue to be the pattern until we go back into a Deep Freeze again.

A Saturday Shootout With Express Energy On The Trinity River In Fort Worth

It rained last night, here in usually dry Fort Worth, Texas. With the rain I knew my usual Saturday hiking up and down the Tandy Hills would not be doable, so I decided to go to Gateway Park.

And since I was at Gateway Park I decided to walk out to the Trinity Trails to see what those Express Energy boys were up to, if anything.

I think yesterday, when I mentioned checking in on the EE boys, I said I might be back today to search for the illusive meters that the TCEQ claims are required for this type of water removal operation.

Today I took along a bodyguard. I'm sort of glad I did. I could see there were a couple guys sitting in the White Darth Vader Pickup when I snapped the picture you see above, of the rutted up, muddied, damaged Trinity River levee.

And then I turned my attention to a leak spouting out of one of the pipes. Now is this leak before or after the water has been metered?

When I turned around, after taking the picture of the leaking pipe, I was surprised to see the two Express Energy guys out of the truck. They looked harmless enough. My bodyguard waved them a big howdy. They waved back.

The Express Energy guys would have had to walk through all that mud if they had wanted to get closer to me. Is mucking up the levee and the paved pedestrian trail included in the permit to run this operation? What happened next was very interesting.

I turned around from having taken the picture of the Express Energy guys standing beside their White Darth Vader Truck to find another White Darth Vader Truck coming towards me at high speed on the paved trail that says "No Motorized Vehicles." As he got closer he was not slowing down. I'm thinking, wait a minute, I'm the pedestrian here, walking on public land on a public trail.

I blinked and jumped out of the way after snapping the above picture. At this point the Express Energy exploits lost any chance of being considered a benign thing where I'm just over reacting. This had turned malignant. I continued walking, but kept glancing behind me. The truck that was on a course to run me over, drove to the rutted up zone, by the first truck, then quickly turned around and started heading back towards me!

By then I was off the paved trail because it was too muddy and too wet, I assume from leaking pipes. The truck stopped about midway between Beach Street and the water sucking site. I stopped to take some pictures of all the mud where the White Darth Vader Trucks drive on to the No Motorized Vehicles paved trail, right off Beach Street. That's the below picture.

You can sort of make out the former paved pedestrian Trinity Trail that has become a highway for Express Energy Services.

I continued on walking past Beach Street for about a mile. The paved trail crosses the Trinity River just east of the Beach Street bridge, but an unpaved trail continues on top of the levee on the north side. I sort of expected the White Darth Vader Truck to follow us. But he didn't.

I was a little wary of what I was going to run into on the way back through the Express Energy zone. The first White Darth Vader Truck was still in position, with the EE guys back inside the truck. You can see here another view of what a mess they have made of the paved trail, with tire ruts on both sides of the trail.

All looked peaceful as I continued walking. And then something funny happened.

I was on the bridge that leads into Gateway Park. I was taking some more pictures of the pipe leak. When I turned around to look in the opposite direction, I saw that one of the Express Energy guys was taking pictures of me! So, I took a picture of him taking a picture of me.

Now, yesterday I mentioned that in the Modern Wild West that I think cameras and cell phones have replaced the Six-Shooters of the Old Wild West. I think after yesterday's shootout Express Energy decided they needed to arm their guys. I hope he got some good pictures. I'm not very photogenic.

What Does Victoria British Columbia Raw Sewage Pollution Have To Do With Fort Worth?

A few days ago I referenced a Washington State issue that I thought had been resolved. That issue being the capital of British Columbia, Victoria, and its suburbs using the Strait of Juan de Fuca, that being the body of water between Vancouver Island and Washington, as an open sewer.

That's right, our good friends to the north pump their raw sewage into pristine ocean water.

This has upset people for, well, decades. I thought, even before I moved to Texas, that British Columbia had agreed to fix this.

Today I learned the raw sewage dumping has gotten worse. But, now, British Columbia is, finally, planning to fix this very bad Canadian behavior.

So, how did this change come about? Was it fear of International Embarrassment during the upcoming Vancouver Winter Olympics? Well, that is part of it.

But the bigger reason B.C. is finally fixing this is due to a young Victoria teacher named James Skwarok, also known as Mr. Floatie. Mr. Floatie is a 6 foot tall example of what Victoria needs to stop flushing into the ocean. Mr. Floatie has spent years showing up at unfortunate times for B.C. officialdom, using his high pitched voice to deliver a message from a group of activists calling themselves People Opposed to Outfall Pollution (POOP).

The Outfall part of POOP is what the humongous pipe is called that delivers the untreated sewage to the Straits.

POOP and Mr. Floatie were a public relations disaster for the British Columbia tourist industry. Mr. Floatie and POOP sent letters, about Victoria's Sewage Scandal, to all countries coming to Canada for the Olympics.

In 2003 British Columbia's government signed on to a plan to do nothing about Victoria's pollution for 25 years.

In 2005 Mr. Floatie tried to run for mayor of Victoria. The city somehow was able to block this, barring Mr. Floatie from candidate forums. Which, of course, generated way more publicity for Mr. Floatie and his cause.

In 2006 the gig was up for Victoria and its official position that pumping raw sewage into clean water causes no problem, when the Society of Toxicology and Chemistry concluded that Victoria had to stop with the dumping of raw, untreated, toxic sewage.

So, more than 20 years after this first became a scandal in Washington State, the Canadians are finally agreeing to clean up after themselves. And we have Mr. Floatie and his guerrilla tactics to thank for it.

I have been trying to think of a Barnett Shale Gas Driller Pollution equivalent of Mr. Floatie that might be used as a guerrilla tool to embarrass the corrupt city government of Fort Worth, the corrupt state agencies, like the TCEQ, who are supposed to oversee the gas drillers and the corrupt, running roughshod over Texans property, Natural Gas Drilling Companies, like Chesapeake Energy.

But, I draw a blank. Can anyone think of a Mr. Floatie for Fort Worth?

Gas Driller Caused Allergy Driving Mom From Home

On December 18, 2009, I blogged about seeing something appalling while walking in Veterans Park in Arlington.

A Barnett Shale natural gas drilling rig hovered above an apartment complex, appearing to be very close to the apartments.

What about the 800 foot rule between a drilling operation and residences? Did Arlington, a town known to run roughshod over citizen's property rights, not impose any distance rules?

Doesn't the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality over see such things? Well, worded correctly, is the TCEQ not charged with the responsibility of protecting Texans and their environment?

Well, sadly, we've all come to know the answer to that question. The TCEQ has been co-opted and corrupted with the installation of natural gas industry lackeys on the Commission, letting the fox watch the henhouse in yet one more example of corruption in Texas.

After I blogged about that noisy, too close, drilling operation in Arlington, I heard from Lynda, the daughter of the nice lady I talked to who was being made miserable by the around the clock noise coming from her new neighbor.

Let me interject before I get back to Lynda. Why is it if you call 911 to report that someone is disturbing the peace, as in drilling in the middle of the night, why is this not treated by the police in the same way as it would be if an individual were producing an equally noisy decibel level?

Back to Lynda.

I heard from Lynda again today. The situation has grown more dire for her nice mom. Here's what Lynda had to tell me...

Hi Durango...

Lynda the "nice lady's daughter" again. Yes, I was a passenger in the VW.

My Mom, the nice lady has already started to have allergy problems and her apartments smells of chemicals. My daughter went to visit today and after 10 minutes, had a sore throat and runny nose and complained that my Mom's apartment smelled of chemicals. It then hit me that my Mom's recent severe allergy problems and asthma as well as headaches could well be caused by the chemicals being released from the gas drilling at the tower sitting so close to her apartment.

I then called the EPA who said I needed to call the Texas Railroad commission. I am now awaiting a call from an attorney. from the railroad commission. If nothing else, I am hoping that the property will be forced to allow her out of her lease which expires in April because with her health problems, she cannot stay there.

Whatever became of Dr. Al Armendariz? The new head of the EPA in this region. There were such high hopes, with he being the guy who had shown that the gas drilling was causing some heavy duty, dangerous pollution, that the TCEQ and the corrupt local governments, like the City of Fort Worth and its Conflicts of Interest corrupted mayor, Mike Moncrief, would somehow be giving a good sound spanking by the federal government and a no longer toothless EPA.

Where was the EPA and Dr. Al Armendariz when Fort Worth mayor, Mike Moncrief, put on his bizarre dog and pony show to announce that there is no pollution being caused in Fort Worth by the gas drillers?

It is all very perplexing. I am getting real tired of being perplexed all the time.

Another Visit With Express Energy Services At Gateway Park Where Water Is Now Being Removed From The Trinity River

It's been a week since my bizarre encounter with Express Energy Services at the Gateway Park/Beach Street location of a Barnett Shale gas driller's removal of water from the Trinity River.

Un-metered removal of water, until I hear otherwise from the non-responsive Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

I decided to return to Gateway Park and take a walk to the water sucking location to see if the pumps are now running.

As soon as I turned off the engine I could hear the pumps. Or pump. I don't think all 6 are running because it did not seem any louder than when there was only 1 pump. Way back then I was appalled at the damage being done to the Trinity River's levee. I would never have thought, way back then, that it would get so much worse.

So, I walked on to the pedestrian/bike bridge that leads out of Gateway Park to the Trinity Trails. You know, those trails that have signs on them saying "No Motorized Vehicles. I stopped mid-way across the bridge and started taking pictures. I'd noticed a guy standing on top of the levee, above the pumps, as if he was standing guard.

That's the guard in the first picture.

The guard did not take his eyes off me as I snapped pictures. Then I saw him get on his phone. Just like last week. But, last week I was unaware of the criminal history of Express Energy.

Then he started walking towards the bridge and stood staring at me right were you see that yellow post at the end of the bridge, in the picture.

When the guard on the phone saw I was aiming my camera at him he quickly scurried away, but not before I was able to snap a picture of him scurrying.

I tell you, in our modern world a camera is like packing a gun back in the Old Wild West.

There were a couple guys working on the pumps. I could see water swirling around one of the intake pipes, quite a lot of swirling. At first I thought it was the glossy gleam of an oil spill.

Up on the levee there sat a 7th pump. I don't see how they'd have room for another pump.

The Trinity River looks so small in this location. It would seem those 6 pipes could be removing quite a significant percentage of the water flowing by.

I wonder if the guys working on the pumps were doing something nefarious. Is that why another guy was standing guard above them? And is why he took such an aggressive interest in me taking pictures?

I sort of hurried off the bridge, heading back to my vehicle, but on the way I strayed off the paved trail and found another vantage point to take a picture of the pumps and the white truck mucking up the "road" that's been built by the water suckers to get down to the pump pad.

The next time I visit this operation I will do a thorough search for the illusive meters that are required to be part of this type of water removal, according to the thoroughly discredited Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The Fort Worth Stock Show & All Western Parade

No, that is not the cavalry coming to the rescue to fight off the evil corporation that calls itself Chesapeake Energy, acting in cahoots with the corrupt city government of Fort Worth to terrorize and intimidate citizens who refuse to easily give up their property rights.

No, those guys on horses are riding in the world's biggest non-mechanized parade, that being the Fort Worth Stock Show's "All Western Parade" which is scheduled to start tomorrow, January 16, at 11am.

Around 100,000 people will likely show up to watch the parade. If I remember right, and I easily might not be remembering right, the parade was cancelled last year due to really bad weather. It appears, if the forecast for tomorrow holds, there should be no weather-related cancellation of tomorrow's parade.

There are a few things, well a couple, in Fort Worth that are among the best I've ever seen, anywhere. One of those things is the Stock Show Parade. It is really good. I've been to it twice. The only thing that vexes me about it is vehicles are not cleared from being parked along the parade route. I'd never seen a parade where vehicles were in the parking places along the road of a parade route.

Another thing that takes place in Fort Worth that is one of the best of its sort that I've ever seen is the Main Street Arts Festival.

The Stock Show Parade always takes place the first Saturday of the Fort Worth Stock Show. This year's Stock Show starts today, January 15 and runs through February 7.

Swimming Cold In Wet Gray Texas While Thinking Of Flying To Oahu

You are looking at Ko Olina Resort in the picture. Ko Olina Resort is in Hawaii on the island of Oahu.

I've never spent any time on Oahu. So, I've never been to Ko Olina Resort.

A few days ago I mentioned, in a blogging, that I was thinking of going to Oahu to be the Houseboy of one of my all time favorite people. I'd heard she wasn't eating due to too much stress taking away her appetite.

I figured with my good cooking and powers of convincing, I'd have that appetite restored in no time.

Well, Miss CVB was talking to Miss Oahu, aka Miss BS, and mentioned that I'd mentioned that I was thinking of going over to Oahu to be Miss BS's Houseboy.

This morning I got an email from Miss BS, telling me she'd LOVE it if I flew over. Miss BS told me she is at Ko Olina Resort and instructed me to look it up. I always do what I'm told. So, I looked it up. Ko Olina Resort looks to be a really really good thing.

Miss BS says we can go off-roading in her golf cart, go snorkeling, swimming, soak up the sun and people watch.

And, as if that is not enough to entice me, Miss BS says she maybe could even get me on LOST! Saying LOST needs some new faces.

I think I mentioned before that Miss BS is a TV star, currently on LOST.

This morning, because it was in the 50s, I was able to stay in the pool for about 5 minutes. The idea, right now, of being in a tropical climate, where the ocean is warm, where you can swim as long as you want without fear of freezing an important body part, where seafood is abundant, where mangoes grow wild, well, this has me all obsessing now about going to Hawaii.

I went to book a flight via Travelocity. I can get to Honolulu and back for $416. That's not much more than it costs to fly to Seattle. The only part of this scenario that vexes me is the longest I have had the torture of being stuck on a plane was 4 and 1/2 hours, from Seattle to St. Louis.

Anymore, when I book a flight, I purposefully find one that has as many plane switches as possible. But when you fly to Hawaii it's something like 6 hours from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Right now I am looking at another gray day in Texas. It rained last night, so the Tandy Hills are likely muddy, so I likely will not be going on a record breaking 10 days in a row of hiking the Tandy Hills today. I'm thinking there are probably some really good places to hike by Ko Olina Resort.

I need to immediately institute a regimen to get myself in satisfactory shape to make a public appearance in a swimming suit.

Foggy Fort Worth Hiking On The Tandy Hills & Unanswered TCEQ Questions

Another balmy day, with temperatures in the 50s, had me hiking the Tandy Hills at noon, for the 9th day in a row.

Today looked like hiking might not be doable, due to the extreme thick fog that has settled over the Fort Worth zone of North Texas, so thick it was like being in a cloud, with a mist getting the windshield wet,

But not to the point that windshield wipers were required. And once I hit the ground on the Tandy Hills I had no wetness issues. Except for overheating related wetness.

Speaking of wetness. I stayed in the pool this morning for the longest duration of the new year. I long ago figured out that an average temperature in the 50s made the pool easily
doable. But that vexing sub-freezing business we had going on since the day before Christmas cooled the water down to near freezing, so it has not warmed up to a satisfying 50 something temperature quite yet.

Can you spot the skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth through the fog? The picture was taken from the top of Mount Tandy.

Big Ed went hiking with me today on the Tandy Hills. Afterwards we headed to Town Talk. Stopped at a light on Beach Street, heading north, Big Ed pointed out a Barnett Shale gas drilling site and the plumes of something rising up from it.

Big Ed pondered the possibility that the gas drillers might be using a heavy fog day, like today, to do something nefarious that puts off plumes of fumes, that they would not dare try on a clear day.

Big Ed is a big proponent of crackpot paranoia type conspiracy theories. Then again, it was odd seeing that big plume of something spewing skyward from the drilling site. Have never seen that happening on a clear day.

But, one has to tell oneself that that Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) maintains an eagle-eyed watch on the gas drillers, highly respected, reputable agency that it is.

By the way, I've yet to get an answer from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to the questions I submitted via their website.

In the meantime, I got most of the answers via other means.

But one HUGE question remains. As in, how is the water being taken from the Trinity River being metered?

Information I found on the TCEQ indicates that water taken via the means it's being taken from the Trinity River by gas drillers, must be metered.

I'm thinking that it is the inability to answer my meter question that has kept TCEQ mute.

Fort Worth's Corrupt Mayor Mike Moncrief Puts His Conflicts Of Interest On Display Again

I was surprised this morning, when looking for the picture you see here of Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, where he belongs, as in behind bars, that the first time I blogged about the need to bring this criminal to justice was way back on May 15, 2008, in a blogging titled "Corruption in Fort Worth, Texas?"

Since then Moncrief has not only not been jailed, he has won re-election with 94% of Fort Worth's eligible voters feeling so marginalized that they didn't bother to vote, giving Moncrief a whopping 70% landslide of the 6% who did vote.

In recent days we have had fresh examples of why there are Conflicts of Interest laws in America. Even in Texas. With Fort Worth's mayor, again, outrageously putting his corruption on display for anyone caring to look, to see.

Well, Fort Worth's #1 Watchdog was watching. Below is what he had to say about Fort Worth's mayor's latest criminal behavior....

Unicorn Discovered on Dark Side of Moon

If you believe that line of BS then you'll most likely swallow the report delivered by John Sadler of the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to the Fort Worth City Council yesterday. If not, read on.

The mayor had requested the TCEQ study after the many recent news reports of toxic emissions coming from Barnett Shale gas facilities. He wanted to know specifically about such facilities in FW proper. Knowing the mayor as we do, he really wanted to end any talk of health and safety concerns or moratoriums in FW. This was a foregone conclusion shared by those who have been paying attention.

The pre-council session where the report was given was well attended by industry reps, notably, Walter Duease, point man for XTO and Ed Ireland of the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council (BSEEC), both of whom are involved in the Marcellus and other shale regions and both of whom have cozy relationships with city council and staffers.

The highlight reel-

1) Regarding salt-water injection wells in Fort Worth, city staffer, Susan Alanis made a point of saying that there have been no problems regarding public health and safety with the one injection located well in Fort Worth. This point was intended to prepare the public for new injection wells and a web of "salt-water" pipelines that will soon snake through FW neighborhoods.

2) We were told by another city staffer that a private meeting was held on January 5, 2010 to discuss the growing public discomfort with urban drilling. Invitees included reps from, TCEQ, Texas RRC, City of FW, Texas Pipeline Assoc., BSEEC and four drilling companies. NO neighborhood groups were included. Can you say, marginalized?

3) City Council reps nodded enthusiastically to Sadler's comment that, "ambient conditions" existed before drilling. That's code for: Blame something else. Drilling is not the problem. (May I remind you again that FWCanDo requested ambient air and water studies from the city attorney in 2005. Her answer came with a devilish smile: No thanks.)

4) Testing was done in less than ideal conditions to achieve the result desired by the mayor and drillers. The result: No benzene. No carcinogens. No VOC's coming from Fort Worth gas wells facilities. How else to explain the increasingly smoggy air over FW? see #3 above.

5) Near the end of the meeting, with media cameras rolling and reporters scribbling away, the mayor asked Mr. Sadler two well-rehearsed, drama-filled questions:

a. Are you convinced the industry is using best management practices? Answer: YES.

b. Do you see any need for issuing a moratorium on gas well drilling in FW? Answer: NO.

> > > Remember the Jack Nicholson movie, Chinatown? Recall the last scene of the film when private detective, Jake "JJ" Gittes is confronted with the fact that the police have been bought-off and that a killer and child molester has been allowed to go free. An angry and distraught Jake stares into space as his partner delivers the final line of the film:

Forget it Jake, this is ... Texas.

DY