Boy Scout Councils Misusing Lands & Timber?

Lots of Land, Few New Camps for Scouts

I had not heard about the controversy involving extensive logging on Scout camps property until a friend of mine from the Pacific Northwest drew my attention to it. Apparently, logging goes on regularly on at least some Scout properties.

Below is another link to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which also has indicated it will have another story on Mon, Feb 2, 2009 about a “Boy Scout council which operated a dam on a pristine river and -- despite official warnings -- allegedly killed threatened steelhead trout. When it was discovered, the council sought aid from politicians to whom Scouting executives had ties.”

Profit trumps preservation for Boy Scout councils nationwide

You can make your own decisions about these practices; the writers clearly have theirs. No doubt there will also be further statements from official BSA sources as it appears this story does “have legs”, rightfully or wrongfully.

A Sad Story from My Hometown - Fremont, Nebraska

An article in the Fremont Tribune, the newspaper of Fremont, Nebraska, my home town, indicates that what is probably the tallest "office" building in the downtown area has fallen into disuse and disrepair and may wind up being torn down. See: It could take a lot to make 505 sparkle As much as I would hate to see this building be torn down, it would be just the latest in a long line of
of building losses in a downtown which has been deteriorating since the 1960s. The city leadership should have taken positive action to maintain and inprove the downtown when the "Fremont Mall" went in 40 some years ago. Instead, many buildings were torn down and many of those lots remain vacant or are now only parking lots. Deterioration of the downtown was also sped up by the events of Jan 10. 1976 when the Pathfinder Hotel was destroyed in a natural gas explosion. In my opinion, this former First National Bank building (now called the "505" Building, its address being 505 N. Main Street) should have been - and perhaps still could be - converted to living space on its upper levels, with the first level remaining retail. I hope the city and its leadership can come up with something to utilize and preserve this building.

A Sunnier Day

Well, today was at least party sunny, which I enjoyed, and also warmer, with most of the residual of our 2 inch snow from Wednesday having melted off. I've spent a good part of the day cleaning up my email inbox which had grown way too large with unanswered emails. Rachel is due home from work soon and dinner is ready, so I'll run off shortly. Rachel's work schedule is now pretty much Mon-Fri, daytime, so we should have evenings and weekends to do stuff we need or want to do around here. Barbara is doing well and the opthomologist/surgeon said her right eye looks good. He scheduled her to have the right corneal implant on February 26. Then, in May, she'll have the left eye cataract surgery and corneal implant. She said today "By August, I should be able to see!". We send our greetings to all and welcome your news and comments here or by email. As Garrison Keillor says "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch"!

Barbara's Cataract Surgery Done

Well, the surgery on Barbara's right eye went fine. She now has to keep putting drops into it for the next few weeks, but it all went well.

My Flickr Photostream, Ice, Snow

I spent quite a bit of time - perhaps too much - today uploading a bunch of old photos that my daughter, Sarah, had scanned for me. Mostly there are old 1960s era pictures from my Boy Scout days back in Fremont (Nebraska). Anyway, it was fun to view, edit and upload them to my Flickr which is at http://flickr.com/photos/larryfiehn/

We had rain all night last night into mid-morning, at which time it changed to a wet snow. We only got about one inch and a lot of it melted. Now it's getting rather cool, but a warming trend is forecast, which is fine with me!

Tomorrow I am driving Barbara over to the eye surgeon at nearby Glasgow (KY) for one of her cataract surgeries, so we'll be gone from mid-morning until whenever we get back.

I hope all goes well for you all.

Tuesday: Rain and Ice

Well, the freezing rain and ice did arrive. The roads were "OK" this morning, but we did lose power briefly here at home; probably some tree branches down on a power line. That does seem to happen quite a bit in this area. Barbara is teaching here class, Rachel is at work, and of course Rebekah is back in Boston. I'm putzing arouind the house. Maybe more later today!

Back Home from Nashville

Well, we successfully got our youngest daughter, Rebekah, to the Nashville airport. The weather is cloudy, but so far, nary a drop of any type of moisture, which is good. Rain, freezing rain, and ice are still in our forecast for later tonight! Rebekah's suitcase was overweight a few pounds, so when I got home I boxed up the excess and already shipped it to her. Overall, a good day.

Monday's Schedule

Well, it's soon time to be off to the Nashville airport so youngest daughter, Rebekah, can fly back to Boston and school at U Mass - Boston. It was nice to have her around so much since mid-December, but she's ready to get back to classes, too. Our weather is going to deteriorate here today, with rain and ice predicted to start late this afternoon and through the nighttime hours. I'm quite certain we'll have returned from Nashville - only about 75 miles - way before the weather turns, as her flight is at 12:45 PM. Oldest daughter, Rachel, is off to work soon and her WKU class after that, and tomorrow, Barbara starts her teaching again. All for now!

Sunday

Well, oldest daughter is at work all day, and it's rather cloudy and cool. I even saw a few snow flakes drifting around earlier, but it's not going to amount to much. Tomorrow we are off to the airport in Nashville whence youngest daughter, Rebekah, will fly back to Boston and her schooling at U Mass, Boston. It's been great having her home for over a month, but she's also looking forward to getting back to school! Not much else is going on. I am ready for another sunny warm day.

Barbara's New Computer

Well, we've succeeded to get my wife's new desktop computer, a HP a6600z, set up and running. It came pre-loaded with Window Vista Home Premium, which neither of us were crazy about, as we both prefer the Windows XP OS. We were considering partitioning the HP hard drive and installing a copy of XP, too, but so far, neither she nor I are encountering the horror stories we were expecting from Vista. Thus, the partitioning is on hold for now. We will have to install some software on the new computer if we don't do the partition. Time will tell. Meanwhile, it's still a beautiful day outside, being now about 50 degrees!

Website

My website, such as it is in its basic simplicity, is up and it seems all the links are working!

Spring?

Today promises to be a beautiful day in southern Kentucky. Sun in shining and it's already warm. I remember some years ago, the late Charles Kuralt said, on CBS' "Sunday Morning" that "The first sign of Spring is when you look for the first sign of Spring." Seems like today! So, we all got new AT&T cell phones last night after being unable to get satisfactory resolutions to our problems with lack of coverage here from Verizon (unable to get digital features). So, on another subject, why is the John Mellencamp song "Jack and Diane" stuck in my head this morning? "Oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone." May you all have a great day.

My Flickr and website

Well, my website is almost ready to upload; I hope that will be finished later today. I also have a photostream at Flickr but there's not much on it just yet. I have so many old photos and 35 mm transparencies to scan and upload, but it's going to take a while. Have a great day!

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my just-established weblog. I've recently built a homepage, set up an account on Flickr, and now my weblog. I'm not promising how often I'll post, but it's a start. More to follow very soon.