Tim Smith

Awesome, JD. Good luck with this. I've been noticing different flavors of honey based on the flower types and wondering how much of a niche market exists for these things. There's a tupelo honey that is apparently more fructose than sucrose. Clover honey gets a lot of press. When I lived in Belize there was a dark honey that was incredibly bitter that I assume came out of the jungle. It wasn't much as a sweetener but it did amazing things to a cup of coffee. Soybean honey? That might be pretty good. Hope that farmer appreciates what you're doing for him, and I hope he's not using a BT variety.

Go for the lakes in remote areas if you can. River flows are low with the drought.

Well there's a little good news. With the recent rains the fire bans are relaxing. Things should be better for a while now.

Female or immature male bluegill (probably the former, given the size).

Yes. You can and should eat crayfish in Missouri...cooked crayfish. Search the threads to see the old discussion about trapping them.

Colorado has finally gotten a respite with a bit of rain and most of our major fires completely contained. Idaho, Wyoming and Utah still have problems. Yampa River was put under a voluntary fishery closure due to low water levels... ...caught a nice 12 inch brookie out of there earlier this year. That will be my last there this year.

This one is finally contained and burning out. 2 dead. Looting. 350+ houses burned.

Reeling in half a fish is something you gotta expect from time to time anywhere the fishing is good on salt water. Great video.

I've worked with manatee that get a lung fluke. Really ruins your day when they cough one up on you. Can't imagine having them myself.

And tarpon? Why stop there? Why not just whip up a whole new batch of species. We can splice and dice genes at will these days... Let's just put a sodium pump on a great white shark and whooooo weeee....wouldn't that be a hoot! Heck. Let's just cut to the chase, put some gills on a mountain lion and be done with it. I may even buy a new landing net.

THAT is fishing. Wow! Hats off to you gentlemen, that's a great accomplishment.

Be sure to ask for a penguin reserve on the Jack's Fork too.

Truly awesome!

The canyons above the city are heavily wooded. The town itself is on the edge of the prairie, rising into the foothills. The NOAA lab reported this morning that they had taken the precaution of removing most of the fuel from the perimeter of their property so they don't think they'll take a bad hit if the fire continues into town. 30,000 people evacuated in Colorado Springs last night. The fire apparently jumped a ridge the Forest Service did not think it could breech. Condolences to your cousins, Ness but their houses might make it yet. I heard 30 houses down so far but it's still going. The Waldo Canyon fire is now the top national fire fighting priority.

As bad as these mountain fires are, I can't imagine how bad an eastern deciduous forest fire would be under dry conditions...incredible amounts of fuel. The Waldo Canyon fire entered Colorado Springs last night and is burning down a neighborhood. The National Air Force Academy there is under an evacuation order.

Fire one ridge over from the city of Boulder CO, today. 20 evacuations and 2,400 pre-evacuation orders issued. First learned about this fire when I saw the smoke from it floating over Denver. South Boulder is on the list to be evacuated, including a large NOAA research facility. The High Park fire has now destroyed 257 homes and cost 31 million in damage with 55% containment. It is now bigger than the Hayman fire which destroyed much of the headwaters above Cheeseman Reservoir on the South Platte. 9,000 people still evacuated in Colorado Springs for the Waldo Canyon fire which is now 5% contained. Multiple consecutive days above 100F have made progress impossible and spot fires are becoming common. High tomorrow projected in the high 90s. I can now see smoke from three major fires burning from where I live. Woke up this morning to a house that smelled like a campfire. Was about to grill some chicken yesterday and thought I'd better check for fire bans. No charcoal grilling is allowed with fines up to 1000 dollars. Fireworks (except professional, permitted shows) are banned. Campfires are banned, even in fire rings.

Dow is launching a major ad campaign associated with these this month. Saw one of the ads yesterday on TV. They're targeting 12 states. http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20123121-54/dow-starts-mass-marketing-solar-shingles. I don't know what incentives are attached to these but the company says they have a 20 year life span...better than a lot of traditional roofs. Upfront costs are still high and solar shingles work best when the roof is designed to catch the sun whereas solar panels can be angled to compensate. If any construction experts need help putting basketball goal on your roof, the one I installed for my son 10 years ago is still not leaking... ...although in recent years he has taken to hanging from the rim so I may be SOL on that front soon.

I guess from my sample size of half a dozen houses and no leaks so far, I'm thinking the savings offset the cost/risks. I'm sure a sloppy installation would be a problem.

...or as in the case of the lease program...no cost with a 200$ bonus up front. I've seen enough basketball hoops and TV antennas on roofs to know that kind of leakage can be controlled.

This particular company owns the panels and handles problems due to weather etc. I'd be curious to know what the specific roof damage might be. Last night I also noticed a commercial for roofing shingles with embedded solar panels. Amazing stuff.

Yes, that's correct. Missouri also has fewer days with sunshine so the deal is less sweet there. But these are the kinds of things that can be changed and the kinds of things it makes sense to change.

No upfront costs. In fact there is an environmental group paying you 200$ to install the panels. The company gets their money from the lease. You begin saving immediately.

It appears most of these logs are going to be burned rather than milled. They're not as valuable as fuel as they would have been as lumber. I assume if you have access to lumber-ready beetle kill, you would be in a great position to make profits now. As for changes in policy changes, it's important to realize how rapidly the nation and forestry and the environmental sciences have evolved during this time. The population of the nation has increased by an order of magnitude this time. Forestry has gone from a completely harvest oriented trade with no concept of conservation to a data driven multi-user management practice trying to stave off multiple pressures. Forests take a long time to grow and it takes a long time to collect enough data to understand how they work. The transformation over the last 30 years has been nothing less than astonishing. Go to the professional journals from the 40s and compare them to the ones we have now. It's like comparing stone tools and laser technology. And Wayne, I assume that if thinning were allowed to occur, yes, it would have reduced fire danger. I'm not how sure how much difference it would have made if the Forest Service had opened more acres to thinning if, as you say, selective harvest is not profitable. Given that total production has still been increasing, the industry has apparently found enough people willing harvest their own wood to meet demand. More production would have driven prices lower and reduced to incentive to thin public lands.

I spoke to a solar consultant this weekend. The start-up costs of the offset package they were offering was a lease that was offset by 30% federal tax credit and 30% rebates from Excel Energy and a 100$ monthly lease. Energy sent back to the grid offsets Excel's cost and the savings to the consumer is 20-70%. This is a business, not a charity and taking a big chunk out of my energy bill sounds pretty good to me. Compare the environmental costs of making the panels to the drilling, piping, spilling and refining of coal based energy and it's pretty hard to see how this is a bad deal.