Thanks for the heads up.

Our local office is no longer there.
I was wondering what caused it
Thanks.
Mike

Our local office is no longer there.
I was wondering what caused it

Meanwhile:

http://ext100.wsu.edu/anniversary/

Thanks, Ron.
Mike

Now +om, the previous governor whose political party begins with the letter D left the state with 3.3 billion dollar deficit. Something had to give.

tj

Yes, and now we're loosing popular programs right and left....and facing the same level of deficit as the one you describe. I'll pay another 5...heck...even 10$ on my taxes if it doesn't mean wholesale loss of the best programs govt. offers. You've got to look behind a certain somebody's smokescreen.

In this idiotic budget, it is said we can't afford the Stewardship Fund. Out-of-staters, that was a fund used to buy conservation properties and is said to have a near-90% approval rating in our state. Well.....the amount of bonding in this program's 25 years of existence-this being the claimed issue-is less than what this same "leader" proposes to bond on highways (Highway builders contribute heavily to his campaign) in one budget cycle! See what I'm saying tj? It's easy as pie to lie with numbers. And it takes real time and real effort to dig down and see what exactly is going on. Another goody: The Science Bureau of the DNR is being axed to within an inch of its life. Can someone explain to me what natural resources conservation is, if not science-based? And there's no economic study to go along with any of this. It's straight ideology, with no inconvenient data to get in the way. In other news, tj, you're far removed from the travesty that is taking place right now in our State Forest lands. They are literally being raped in a vainglorious hope to nudge up some economic indicator, quite coincidentally I'm sure, within the timeframe of between right now and the Republican Presidential Primary. And I say this as a strong supporter of the forest products industry. I just don't want to see our....yes, our.. resources liquidated for this ass.

+oM

I consistently vote and for the good guys/gals...unfortunately, voter apathy seems to be getting the most votes these days. Maybe when all the parks are closed, there are no more forests, pollution is ramped up to China-level, etc., etc....maybe then people will decide it's time to go to the polls (assuming they can find any still open).

If I have to spray it with an insecticide, I don't grow it.
There are plenty of plants I can grow without implementing a spraying program. Besides the obvious dangers, I'm just not that organized to do it at the right time. Heck, I might be on vacation, or more probably, I would forget.

A few years ago my wife's dying cousin gave us an orchid. I brought it home from Oregon only to discover it was infested with some bug that looks like little balls of cotton. I can't think of the name of it right now. While splitting wood I found some hibernating Ladybugs under the bark. I set them loose on the orchid and in a very short time the pest was eliminated. Here it is today.
Mike

You could make a case that the Land Grant College Act and it's eventual offspring, the County Extension Service, was the most successful program of partnership between the federal government and the states ever. Tens of millions were helped to a better life, agricultural practices were vastly improved and conservation of soil, water and public space became a crucial American value. Now "we just can't afford it". "Private enterprise will do a better, cheaper job." So, today agricultural policy is determined by Archer Daniels Midland, Monsanto and their ilk. Ornamental horticulture has been turned over to the big box stores. Public lands are public property only if there is nothing on or under them of interest to international corporations. Astonishing how far we have fallen and how quickly.

Thank you, those of you not aiming flame throwers my way (although it will happen, and that's okay too.)

This whole thing is a carefully orchestrated effort to discredit "government", yet my memory is not so bad that I don't remember the one salient point about that government-that it is us. This effort stems from the Reagan days and is an ongoing trainwreck of confusion and misplaced fervor. We'll be stuck with it until enough of us finally become active in the administration of our own nation/state/county/municipality.

BTW, voter apathy yes! In this state, a tiny percentage of those eligible to vote actually showed up, and as is so often the case, they largely came from the ranks of the mindless right. That plus ridiculously gerry-mandered voting districts, had the outcome chosen by these politicians. I think it's supposed to work the other way.

Here, the very first act of the governor, upon winning his first term, was to lavish enormous tax breaks on big-time donor-class individuals and corporations. This then set the stage for the "we're broke" days which followed, justifying in the minds of the ignorant, the splitting up of society into groups opposed to one another and the wholesale stealing from public employees which followed. Now, an enormous sum is being proposed to be borrowed for highway building-beyond all reason-and this will ensure that whoever follows will be utterly saddled with debt. This is an extremely deliberate process folks. Don't believe me-dig in yourself and see how this are done in WI, FL, TX, NJ, KS,.....etc. One guy wrote to the paper that Walker should be called "The Man From ALEC". Indeed, although that group has since splintered into hidden, unidentifiable groups to throw us off the trail. I better quit. I have literally only begun to laying out all that could be said. But this is no joke.

+oM

I wholeheartedly agree, +om and akamainegrower.
Mike

As I've posted multiple times Ralph Nader wrote a book as big as a telephone directory about how the government has been taken away from the people and the people need to get it back.

Orchid was a cymbidium with mealy bugs. Must be in the right environment to be blooming like that, although presented frequently at ordinary outlets (including warehouse stores) these usually require bright, cool, well-ventilated and humid conditions not present in most living rooms. My aunt grows them outdoors near Los Angeles (in the shade of buildings); when there was an orchid company near here the cymbidium house felt almost like a walk-in cooler, with big fans that seemed to be blowing all the time.

I grow cymbidiums in an unheated sun room in partial shade during the winter, and outside in mostly shade during the summer. Generally, cool temps. The potting medium is made up entirely of woodchips in varying degrees of decomposition. No fertilizer, and surprisingly to most people, no nitrogen deficiency.
Thanks Ron for the mealy bugs. ;-)
Mike

You won't get any flames from me. I am still reeling from the shock of your governor surviving that recall election. I am in the K-State Extension Master Gardener's program here in Kansas. We haven't been hit yet. Our governor is too busy draining resources from the elderly and disabled.

A veritable fire sale of our states resources-and I do not just mean natural resources-is what we've got here today. As to this clown's electoral successes, I think it was maybe Brandon up above who nailed it: Apathy won the election. While the Republicans crow about their "mandate", the truth is, a tiny percentage of people voted this and our various other knuckleheads into power. That in no way expunges those fools who, thinking, perhaps even correctly sometimes, that the choice is between the lesser of two evils, miss the larger reality that it is essential that we do just that-select the lesser of two evils. It would have meant the world, both in these and other election cycles I can think of.

I'm going to have to assume the flamethrowers are sitting this one out. Everyone who has commented has affirmed my sentiments!

Note to nation: Walker's a dangerous fool!

+oM

I'm going to have to assume the flamethrowers are sitting this one out.

I'm sure we can find some here if you are feeling neglected.

I live here. It is getting scary fast. Seriously. He is trying to do away with any state government board that might call the shots and give them advisory only status. This man is not environmentally friendly at all. Not in any way.

Can you imagine this shallow-minded fool as President?

+oM