Olive The Prairie Dog Officially Anointed Official Mascot Of The Tandy Hills Natural Area

Olive the Prairie Dog
Official Mascot of the Tandy Hills

Today, in Don Young's Prairie Notes #66: Sea of Gold we learned  it is now official that Olive the Prairie Dog is the Official Mascot of the Tandy Hills.

Last month Olive the Prairie Dog had a lot of people being very concerned about Olive suddenly, mysteriously, disappearing.

And then suddenly a lot of people were very happy upon learning of the news of Olive's safe return.

In this month's Prairie Notes Don Young had this to say about Olive and her disappearance and return...

Debora and I were amazed by the overwhelming response to the disappearance and return of Olive the Prairie Dog. The hills are literally her front yard. As a pup, she took to them quite naturally, navigating the tall grass by leaping and floating like Michael Jordan to get her bearings. She knows the creeks and valleys like the back of her paw. She's known by every Rabbit and Roadrunner and loved by every Kid on the Prairie. So...

By all the power vested in me, I hereby anoint Olive the Prairie Dog, the Official Mascot of Tandy Hills Natural Area.

It's about time.

I went to the Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area website to see if the latest Prairie Notes were posted yet, so that I could link to them, to find they were not, but I did find a page about Olive the Prairie Dog where I saw my name mentioned in a way that made me feel good.

I like feeling good. It happens so seldom.

Hot Hiking The Tandy Hills With A Missing Hotpepper & Cats

Green Leafs Above
Dry Tandy Falls

I'd not been on top of Mount Tandy for well over a week, til today. Since I was last at that location the wildflowers have pretty much left the scene, as has the field of green.

The prairie has now turned brown, despite last week's 3 days of rain.

I am now wondering if somehow the Tandy Hills missed out on getting hit by any of the downpours, because today I found Tandy Falls being Tandy Dry Falls, with Tandy Creek dried up.

The outer world is currently heated to 95 degrees at my location, with the 45% humidity making it feel like 102.

Who figures out what the temperature really feels like?

I do know that by the end of my hill hiking today I was a very hot sweaty mess. But, a strong wind blew across the prairie atop Mount Tandy, which quickly had me cooled down. A little.

Changing the subject from one type of hot to another.

I am very concerned about Elsie Hotpepper. I do not think I've heard from Ms. Hotpepper since May 31. I do not remember Elsie going missing this long before. Calling the Hotpepper Hotline gets a leave a message message.

Changing the subject from missing Hotpeppers to cats.

Yesterday a strange phenomenon occurred on Facebook. Miss Connie had been posting photos of her cute new kitty. Then, right on top of the latest cute Miss Connie kitty photo, CatsPaw posted a photo of her new kitty. I do not think Miss Connie and CatsPaw know each other or that both got themselves new babies on the same day.

If I had to choose which was the cuter kitty I think I'd have to go with Miss Connie's. I've always been partial to orange cats.

Now you are probably wondering who I think is cuter, Miss Connie or CatsPaw. Well, that is a very dicey question to answer. I'll have to go with the fact they are equally cute.

Spencer Jack Did Not Go To The Fort Worth Zoo With Me On Saturday

That is Spencer Jack in the picture, taken yesterday at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. Spencer Jack took his mom, Jenny, to the zoo to meet his aunt, that being my eldest sister, and his namesake, that being my ex-wife.

Behind Spencer Jack is part of the African Savanna exhibit. When the African Savanna opened in 1980 it was the first of its kind, won awards and spawned similar exhibits in other zoos.

Only the Bronx Zoo in New York City has won more Best National Exhibit awards from the Association of Zoos & Aquariums than Woodland Park Zoo.

My sister had not been to Woodland Park Zoo since the exhibits went natural. I don't think she'd been there since back when Bobo the Gorilla was the big attraction.

I forget when, exactly, but back in either the late 60s or early 70s there was a massive bond issue in the Seattle zone called Forward Thrust. Voters approved all sorts of things. Like building the (now dead) Kingdome, fixing up Pike Place Market, upgrading Woodland Park Zoo, building water treatment plants on Puget Sound and Lake Washington, that returned those bodies of water to their former salmon supporting clean glory, and I forget what else.

The voter's rejected building a rail transit system. That is now seen as a big mistake that only started to get rectified in the 1990s.

My sister takes off for Alaska next week, with Denali National Park as one of her destinations. I don't know if she took Spencer to the Northern Trail exhibit yesterday. It is made to look like a trail in Denali National Park. My last visit to Woodland Park Zoo was soon after that exhibit opened in 1994. I remember coming face to face with a big black bear, underwater, and being a little startled.

I've only been to the Fort Worth Zoo once. I did not find it a very pleasant experience.

I remember my first year in Texas some friends had friends visiting from Washington and they took the Washingtonians to the Fort Worth Zoo. I remember one of them verbalizing being amazing at some of the tackiness, mentioning one thing in particular, saying something like, "They have ad signs all over, that'd never fly in Seattle, things like Cheetah Exhibit Sponsored by Cheetos."

I remember being appalled by the aquarium. It smelled really bad and had all sorts of sea critters roaming around in one big tank.

Back Hiking The Tandy Hills Again With CatsPaw Talking About Inconsequential Nonsense

In the picture you are looking west across a prairie on the Tandy Hills at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

Yes, I was back hill hiking today for the first time since rain fell a few days ago for three days in a row.

I was expecting to find some muddy locations on the Tandy Hills' trails. But I found none.

Apparently the hills dry out faster than I realized, from deluging downpours, this almost hot time of the year.

Speaking of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

This morning we learned from Travel + Leisure magazine that the people who walk the streets of downtown Fort Worth are the 6th worse dressed people in America.

Shocking news.

I wondered how it was that Travel + Leisure magazine arrived at its conclusions at to how a town dresses.

That Fort Worth fashion plate who goes by the name CatsPaw also had an opinion about the importance of this type ranking of cities.

CatsPaw had this to say, sort of in poem mode...

Two words whether you're pro or con "fashion" in any of the named cities:

Who. Cares.

I can think of two more for the media world. One word starts with an "F" and the other with an "O."

Can you tell I dislike this kind of

Inconsequential. Nonsense.

What I think I am understanding CatsPaw to say is that she does not approve of fashionable cities. What I can't figure out is what two words, starting with "F" and  "O", that CatsPaw is directing at the media world.

Almost as important as this serious Worst Dressers issue is the fact that one of CatsPaw's fellow fashion plates, Elsie Hotpepper, has gone missing again.

The People Of Dallas/Fort Worth Are Not The Worst Dressed In America

This morning, whilst reading the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I was amused by an article the self-deprecating likes of which I don't think I've ever read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The writer of the article was miffed that Seattle did not make it on the Top 20 List of America's Worst-Dressed Cities, as determined by who knows what criteria by Travel + Leisure magazine.

The article in the P-I was titled Huh?! Worst-dressed cities, and Seattle isn't one?

Below is part of the P-I article....

To the editors of Travel + Leisure magazine: I think your readers made a tiny mistake in your new list titled “America’s Worst-Dressed People.”

I’m not arguing that Anchorage in Alaska isn’t the worst-dressed city in America. (I bet it is.) And Salt Lake City might be runner up, and Baltimore might be third.

But did your readers forget about all of us up here in Seattle? We’re usually a fixture on every worst-dressed-city list, like this one and this one and this one.

Yet, Seattle didn’t even crack your top 20 cities. Maybe Seattle should be proud — maybe it’s a sign we’ve finally broken up with waterproof fabric — but it just feels that we’ve been somehow slighted.

Dallas/Fort Worth did manage to make this coveted list, coming in as the #6 Worst-Dressed City.

Travel + Leisure had this to say about Dallas/Fort Worth...

Bigger seems to always be better in the Dallas/Fort Worth area; just take on look at the infamously over-the-top JumboTron at the Cowboys Stadium. And when it comes to getting dressed, big hair, conspicuous designer labels, and slick snakeskin boots are the norm. "Less is more" is not a phrase heard around these parts. 

I saw no mention made of this in this morning's Star-Telegram, not like the hoopla that was made when Fort Worth was picked as an All America City by some bogus Washington, D.C. lobbying group. Fort Worth actually had a city wide celebration over this non-prestigious honor.

Tacoma also was picked by this bogus group as an All-America City. I was working for the Deputy Mayor of Tacoma at that point in time. I asked him if Tacoma had a city wide celebration. If I remember right the Deputy Mayor said something like, "No, that would have made us a laughingstock. We thanked them, politely, then ignored it."

I've have had more than one local tell me that Fort Worth suffers from a collective civic inferiority complex. I don't see how a town can suffer from such a thing. Then again, a civic inferiority complex does seem to explain why a fuss would be made over a bogus All America City award. And why what passes for the local newspaper of record used to frequently opine that this that or the other lame thing in or about Fort Worth made the rest of the planet green with envy.

Three Texas towns made the list of America's Worst-Dressed, with San Antonio being even worse dressed than D/FW, and D/FW being worse dressed than Houston.

Below is the complete list of America's Top 20 Worst-Dressed Cities as determined, somehow, by Travel + Leisure magazine....

1. Anchorage 
2. Salt Lake City
3. Baltimore
4. Orlando
5. San Antonio
6. Dallas/Fort Worth
7. Atlanta
8. Portland, Maine
9. Phoenix/Scottsdale
10. Kansas City
11. Minneapolis/St. Paul
12. Memphis
13. Portland, Oregon
14. Washington, D.C.
15. Houston
16. Honolulu
17. Denver
18. Boston
19. Philadelphia
20. Nashville

Sven's Skagit Strawberry Patch Is Not In Poteet Texas

Dirty Ol' Sven Holding A Box Of
Skagit Valley Strawberries

In the picture you are looking at a box of strawberries.

You are also looking at the first husband of a young lady who taught me not to step on thyme when I was in high school.

The strawberry holder is known by various names. In strawberry mode he goes by Sven Burwash. By another name, Sven is the author of a major best seller titled Vis Major.

Being a best selling author is what Sven does to make a living. Growing strawberries is what Sven does for fun.

I can not remember the last time I had a real strawberry.

The last time I was in Washington was well past strawberry season.

A Driscoll strawberry from California is not a real strawberry. It looks like a strawberry, it sort of tastes like a strawberry, but if you've had a real strawberry, a Driscoll strawberry is a pale imitation.

Texas grows strawberries, down by Poteet. Poteet has a real big festival to celebrate its strawberry harvest. I have not had a Poteet strawberry. Poteet does not grow enough strawberries to export this far north. Poteet is south of San Antonio.

I'm guessing a Poteet strawberry, to me, would not taste like a real strawberry, but that prejudice may be unfair, due to being appalled by the peaches touted as being so good at the Parker County Peach Festival in Weatherford.

During my first time sampling peach products at the Parker County Peach Festival I told myself maybe they had a bad year. A few year's later I was back. Still not good peaches.

I remember wondering what one of those Parker County people would think if they were in Yakima or Wenatchee and came upon a Peach Orchard and tasted one of those peaches? Would they scream out "Dang, is that what a peach is supposed to taste like?"

Back to Sven and his strawberries.

The past few days Sven has been advertising his strawberries on Facebook with the following...

Get the kids, grandkids, stray kids....come on up to Ole and Sven's Strawberry Patch and take Sven's Strawberry CHALLENGE! Can you or one of your group get as dirty as ol' Sven here after picking just ONE flat of juicy berries?

UFF-DA-MY!

Remember, at Ole and Svens' U-pick/We-pick;
You only pay for the ones we see
The ones in your tummy leave for free
Yah Sure Ya-betcha......

Sven got several comments to his Facebook strawberry posting, including the following one from my nephew, Spencer Jack's dad, which elicited a warning from Sven ...

Jason Jones: Will for sure keep up the annual tradition...of picking the berries for free after dark...

Sven Burwash: Just don't step in one of our lutefisk booby-traps...

Those pesky Skagit Valley strawberry growers and their notorious lutefisk booby traps.

I Love Downtown Fort Worth & The Biggest Comic Strip In Texas That Surrounds Sundance Square

Fairly frequently, I think due to me being such a big booster of Downtown Fort Worth, I get email from Downtown Fort Worth, Inc.

I got one of those emails yesterday. It was via that email I saw the cool new logo and slogan for Downtown Fort Worth.

From the Downtown Fort Worth Inc. website...

It's hard to describe Downtown Fort Worth in a few words. But one thing's for sure: "You Get It When You Get Here." Go ahead, take a look around, then come and see the real thing.

Get what? I'm not quite sure. You might get something if you join in on one of Downtown Fort Worth's J.D. Granger Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Look around, and then come see the real thing? What real thing? I have no idea.

I have to say, the Downtown Fort Worth Inc. website is very well done. With a lot of information.

In the What We Do: NEWS section I learned that, after years of having no square in Sundance Square, construction has begun on a public plaza on Main Street between 3rd and 4th Streets.

Finally there will be a square in Sundance Square, after perplexing tourists for way too long in their futile search for the formerly non-existent square.

The Biggest Comic Strip in Texas has been built as a construction fence to keep prying eyes from seeing Sundance Square as it is being constructed. The construction fence/comic strip covers 36 panels, 7 feet tall by 16 feet wide. The biggest comic strip in Texas is Sundance Kid themed, in two parts, with part one being about the early 1900s era when the Sundance Kid, Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the Wall Gang wandered around Fort Worth's Hell's Half Acre, before it got covered with a Convention Center.

I'm not sure I understand part two of the biggest comic strip in Texas. From what I can glean, somehow the Sundance Kid finds himself back in modern times after an otherworldly mishap.

Does this mean the Sundance Kid finds himself back in 2012 downtown Fort Worth? Appalled at its current condition, with none of the saloons, bordellos and casinos he'd previously enjoyed in Hell's Half Acre and mad as hell that his name has been used to name a bunch of parking lots Sundance Square? And then uses his Super Hero powers to build a real square?

Also in the What We Do: NEWS section there is an article about a DFWI Luncheon for the Love of Cities that asks the question "How many times have you heard someone say "I love Fort Worth!" when talking about our city?"

I can quite honestly say I can not remember the last time I heard anyone say "I love Fort Worth!"

If ever.

After the article asks the I love Fort Worth question, the next paragraph informs us....

Downtown Fort Worth and the surrounding urban areas have seen a remarkable renaissance in the last decade.  Urban-focused blogs, grass root street events, innovative gatherings and a renewed interest in city life are changing the way people who love Fort Worth express that love. This is a wonderful byproduct of Fort Worth’s growth…the increased engagement of our neighbors in the life and future of their central city.

Have I ever mentioned what a HUGE fan I am of propaganda? I guess I don't have to mention it. It is sort of obvious, I would think, that I am a HUGE fan of propaganda. The more outrageously exaggerated, the better!

Walking With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts To The Blue Bayou Worrying About The Milky Way Andromeda Galaxy Crash

I am almost 100% certain my location on the planet was rain-free, last night, for the first in three nights.

I know with 100% certainty that this morning my swimming was totally free of a downpour, unlike the previous morning.

I am also almost 100% certain that my favorite hill hiking zone is likely still in dry out mode from our recent deluges.

So, today I got my mid-day salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation by chasing the Native American ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

As you can see, via the above picture, the Village Creek Blue Bayou has been re-charged by the recent deluges and was glowing, today, with a very appealing shade of reflective blue.

Changing the subject from Village Creek and its ghosts to other celestial issues.

I was shocked, moments ago, to learn, via FOX NEWS online, that, due to data acquired over the past several years, from the Hubble Telescope, those whose job it is to figure out such things have determined that the Milky Way Galaxy, of which Earth is a part, and the Andromeda Galaxy, are on a collision course, speeding towards each other at something like 250,000 mph.

That's fast.

I was seriously concerned til I got to the part of the article that said the collision won't happen for about 4 billion more years, and will take several billion years to complete. And won't result in the destruction of our solar system. After the Galactic wreck our solar system will keep on spinning. But it will be moved to a new location in the Universe, with an entirely new night sky to look at.

So, I guess I don't need to be concerned about any of my great great great great grandkids til a few million more generations generate.

That's a relief.

Was Utah's Shooting Star The Inspiration For The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Drive-In Movie Theater?

No. That above is not an artist's rendering of the upcoming Grand Opening of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Drive-In Movie Theater. What you are looking at above is a screencap from the Shooting Star Drive-In website.

The Shooting Star Drive-In is in Escalante, Utah. The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Drive-In will be in Fort Worth, Texas.

My #1 researcher, CatsPaw, discovered the Shooting Star Drive-In in her quest to discover what was the inspiration behind J.D. Granger adding a drive-in movie theater to the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, after expanding the TRVB into wakeboarding with the world's premiere artificial urban wakeboard lake and into the restaurant business with the Woodshed Smokehouse.

I suspect J.D. Granger took his gang of hard drinking junketeers on a fact finding mission on Highway 12, in Utah. Known to be one of the most scenic highways in America. And, though this area may be dry desert country, there are some water features to inspect, like Calf Creek Falls and Lake Powell.

Lake Powell was the result of a slightly bigger lake vision than the pond that may result from the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and was a more legitimate use of the Army Corps of Engineers. The Lake Powell Vision saw no signature bridges, though, which the TRVB saw, til it went blind in that area. The only signature bridge on Lake Powell is a natural one called Rainbow Bridge.

If J.D. Granger was inspired by the Shooting Star Drive-In to open the first drive-in movie theater in a big American city, in decades, he sort of toned down the inspiration from what he saw at the Shooting Star Drive-In.

The Shooting Star Drive-In, in addition to showing movies, is a destination resort, sort of. You can stay in one of eight vintage Airstream trailers, with movie viewing decks, for bargain prices that start at only $149 a night. Or you can watch the movies from one of seven vintage convertibles. If you have your own RV, the Shooting Star also has a spot for you.

I can not imagine why J.D. Granger chose not to add an overnight camping option to the Trinity River Vision  Boondoggle Drive-In Movie Theater.

It could be Texas themed.

Maybe tepees, since the drive-in will be by the location of an old Indian camp near where Marine Creek runs into the Trinity River.

The Tanks Predicted By The Church Of The Promise Of The Barnett Shale Have Arrived At My Neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Operation

Last Friday I blogged about being bum puzzled about What Was Happening At My Neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Natural Gas Drilling Operation? 

Then The Church of the Promise of the Barnett Shale answered my bum puzzled question thusly...

Looks like the skirt around the tank battery. They will connect to the well fittings and run the gas through dehydrators to separate the gas from the nasty water, and that water will go into the tanks waiting to be hauled off. They will separate off any saleable hydrocarbons in the water and dispose of the rest, responsibly. Then Enron, I mean Chesapeake will find a way to pipeline the dry gas out for sale, being very fair about how much the lease holders share will be of the proceeds. Information brought to you by The Church of The Promise of the Barnett Shale.

Today when I stopped at my neighborhood FW Weekly purveyor I saw that The Church of the Promise of the Barnett Shale was right, at least about the tanks, because today big tanks are being lifted in to place.

If the badwater gets separated and hauled away after being separated from the gas, where does the gas go?

I'm back being bum puzzled again.