Photo Essay: Free Yard Mulch

January 31st, 2012

In the life of a xeriscaper, there are fewer questions sweeter than "Would you like some free mulch?"

Why the affection for ground up tree trunks, branches, and leaves? Because mulch holds moisture in the soil. It also builds the soil and controls weeds. In the arid Southwestern United States, we like such things. A lot.

Yesterday was free yard mulch day at my house. It came courtesy of Romeo Tree Service, which offers it at no charge. And that includes delivery. Romeo does this in order to avoid costly trips to the landfill. If you're in the tree business, those tipping fees can really add up.

Here's the Romeo crew, preparing to dump a truckload of fresh mesquite mulch on my driveway...

Photo essay - Romeo Tree Service delivery of free yard mulch, Tucson, Arizona

Here it comes!

Photo essay - Romeo Tree Service dumping a load of free yard mulch, Tucson, Arizona

Okay, so now I've got this big pile of free mulch in my driveway. In honor of this occasion, I got up bright and early to get some of it into the yard before work.

Since I don't have a wheelbarrow, I'm using a trio of five-gallon buckets to move the mulch. It's not difficult to push handfuls of mulch into the buckets, then haul them over to the piles I've created in the yard.

Matter of fact, it took only 40 minutes to reduce the driveway pile by a third. Only two more thirds to move, and then I've got some mulch raking to do.

Tip: Want some free mulch for your yard? Use the Romeo Tree Service request form.

Photo Essay: Battling Buffelgrass

January 18th, 2012

So, there you are, trying to do the right thing. You go to all the trouble of controlling the weeds on your property, then there it is: Buffelgrass.

According to the Southern Arizona Buffelgrass Coordination Center website, "[R]apid spread of buffelgrass and conversion of fire-resistant desert to flammable grassland rivals urban growth and water as the region's most pressing environmental issue. Buffelgrass has introduced a new wildfire risk into an ecosystem that is not fire adapted. It grows in dense stands, crowds out native plants, and negatively impacts native wildlife species and their habitat."

Buffelgrass is an invasive species, and it's one that we need to control before it destroys the ecosystem on which we depend. This post shows what you can do if you find yourself face-to-face with buffelgrass.

First thing to do is identify it. Buffelgrass grows in bright green clumps, and it looks like it has bottlebrushes on the ends of its stems. Lots of seeds in those bottlebrushes.

Here's buffelgrass, invading my neighborhood...

Nature photography - buffelgrass growing in street, Tucson, Arizona

Now that we've fingered the culprit, let's prevent it from spreading its noxious self around the neighborhood. Since the above plant is growing out of a gap between a public street and a curb, we can't dig it out with a caliche bar. Too much risk of damaging municipal property.

Instead, let's chop that buffelgrass down as far as we can, then spray the remnants with a glyphosate product like Roundup or a generic equivalent...

Nature photography - buffelgrass chopped and sprayed, Tucson, Arizona

Prefer to use a more organic approach? Try BurnOut. Or, if that's too rich for your budget, white vinegar. You may need to apply several doses, but guess what? That's often the case with the glyphosates or BurnOut...

Once the remnants are brown and dry, you can use a hand weeder to dig them out. Then you can trash them, just like the chopped buffelgrass...

Nature photography - buffelgrass chopped and ready for the garbage can, Tucson, Arizona

Photo Essay: Tucson Concert Venues

January 16th, 2012

Time for a look at Tucson concert venues, past and present.

First, a look back at one of the hottest dance clubs of a couple of decades ago. I'm talking about the Green Dolphin, which was located a few blocks south of the University of Arizona. This was one of the clubs that students raved about when I worked at the UA.

Not that UA employees would ever frequent a place like the Green Dolphin. The music was too loud for our bosses, the bands were ones that thirty-something worker-bees like me had never heard of, and, besides, all of us full-time employees had to get up early so we could arrive at our campus jobs by 8 a.m.

Hence, I have no Green Dolphin memories to share.

What I can share is what the place has turned into. The Green Dolphin has been closed for almost 20 years. These days, it just sits there, decaying in the Tucson sun...

Architectural photography - west wall of former Green Dolphin night club, Tucson, Arizona

Twenty years ago, Downtown Tucson was not the first place that would come to mind if you were planning a big night out. It was full of empty streets, empty storefronts, and a scary ambiance that didn't encourage people to linger.

Much redevelopment has happened in recent years. With redevelopment comes large community events like 2nd Saturdays Downtown. This one draws at least 10,000 people every month for strolling, eating, drinking, shopping, and admiring the vintage car show on Congress Street...

Event photography - vintage car show on Congress Street, Tucson, Arizona

The Tucson music cognoscenti know that 2nd Saturdays concert acts are the ones to catch before they head off to the big shows at Club Congress, Plush, or the Rialto Theatre.

With that thought in mind, let's check out the Heather "Li'l Mama" Hardy Band on the 2nd Saturdays Scott Avenue Stage. Here's Heather Hardy on the electric violin with Mitzi Cowell on guitar...

Concert photography - Violinist Heather Hardy performing with guitarist Mitzi Cowell, Tucson, Arizona

On bass, it's Larry Lee Lerma...

Concert photography - Bassist Larry Lee Lerma in performance, Tucson, Arizona

Manning the drums, Ralph Gilmore...

Concert photography - Drummer Ralph Gilmore, Tucson, Arizona

Tip: You can view more event photography in my portfolio and on this blog. I am also available for event photography assignments in Tucson, Arizona, and elsewhere. I specialize in concerts, festivals, parades, political rallies, and sporting events. To check availability and to request a proposal, please e-mail me or call 520-690-1888.

Photo Essay: Penn Wood School

January 11th, 2012

Always fun to go back and visit the last grade school I attended. If it's not peering into classrooms and seeing wall charts teaching skills that adults take for granted – remember what life was like before you learned how to tell time – it's taking a walk around the school grounds and realizing how different the world is from a child's perspective.

Did we ever sit in chairs that small? Was the basketball hoop really that high?

Photo essay - basketball hoop at Penn Wood School, Westtown, Pennsylvania

Are beech trees that massive?

Photo essay - beech tree at Penn Wood School, Westtown, Pennsylvania

That's the upside.

The downside is seeing what has happened to one of the great treasures of Penn Wood School. That would be what everyone called The Field. It was a grassy field that had been carved out of the woods behind the school.

To get there, you had to walk down a terrifyingly steep hill – no running allowed – cross a stream that had a very sharp looking wooden bridge, do a dash to the end of the paved path, and then there it was. The Field.

You could run around like crazy during recess, run laps during gym class, or win one of those oh-so-stylish ribbons at the annual Charlie Brown Field Day. (I treasured my third place broad jump ribbon for years.) After school, it was a great place for hanging out with friends, and you could even take a little hike on the nature trail that a Boy Scout troop had built in the woods.

Such was life for kids in the late 1960s.

These days, the paved path is falling apart...

Photo essay - crumbling path at Penn Wood School, Westtown, Pennsylvania

The bridge is covered with rotting leaves. And it feels shaky when you walk across it...

Photo essay - wooden bridge at Penn Wood School, Westtown, Pennsylvania

The Field is well on its way back to being The Woods. Looks like Penn Wood School has a tree planting project underway, but what's with all those junked doors? Someone remodel their house, then dump the old doors over at the school?

Photo essay - junked doors at Penn Wood School, Westtown, Pennsylvania

Come on, Penn Wood, it wouldn't take much to clean this place up. Just get a roll-off dumpster and some energetic people to tote all the junk away from The Field/Woods, and it's an attractive place again. Might even create some jobs.

The falling apart path? Well, that could be converted into a terraced hiking trail. Just find some railroad ties to create the edges of each terrace, fill 'em with dirt, and there you go. More jobs created and a new exercise trail for the Penn Wood kids. The bridge? Very fixable – even more jobs worth doing.

If the Penn Wood kids are too small or young to help, they could still learn from the renovation of their school grounds. Matter of fact, here's the outdoor classroom where the workers could brief the kids on what's going on that day, what their jobs are like, and how the kids can grow up to get one too...

Photo essay - outdoor classroom at Penn Wood School, Westtown, Pennsylvania

And if any of the worker/teachers need a place to put their notes, well, here's a lectern that could be put back into service...

Photo essay - fallen lectern at Penn Wood School, Westtown, Pennsylvania

So there you have it. A jobs program at my old school.

Photo Essay: Westtown School

January 6th, 2012

When I was growing up, Westtown was that hippie-freak Quaker school at the end of the street. The long hair and love beads crowd were quite the contrast to the buttoned down, straight-laced kids in my neighborhood.

I can remember one of the moms making jokes about “Westtown's finest” whenever she saw students heading away from campus toward the bus stop. They were headed toward Philadelphia, and judging from their expressions, they couldn't wait to get there.

Then, as now, the Westtown campus was surrounded by farm fields and forests. It's not a hotbed of excitement for teenagers.

After I left home and went to the University of Michigan, I met a graduate student who'd gone to Westtown during the hippie-freak era. She regaled me with tales of her efforts to end the Vietnam War by doing door-knocking campaigns – in my neighborhood.

Apparently, her antiwar activities ran afoul of what she called the Quaker Vatican, and she was told to tone things down. Me? I was amazed that there was anything conservative on the Westtown campus, much less a Quaker Vatican. And, no, I don't recall her ever knocking on my family's front door.

Fast-forward to the present, and Westtown is now a pricey prep school – I've heard that the tuition is more than $20,000 a year. Not the sort of school that many of the neighbors can afford, but Westtown is beloved for the fact that it has kept much of its 600-acre campus free of development.

Part of the open space is leased to Pete's Produce Farm, which does quite a brisk business. Looks like Pete is growing some daikon radish...

Nature photography - daikon radish growing in field, Westtown, Pennsylvania

Care for a hike? Plenty of trails to choose from, and some of them even offer challenges like trees to hurdle and obstacle courses to conquer...

Nature photography - fallen beech tree, Westtown, Pennsylvania

Nature photography - tire swing obstacle course in the woods, Westtown, Pennsylvania

Do be on the lookout for deer and hunters during the annual hunt...

And make sure to spend some time hiking around Westtown Lake...

Architectural photography - Westtown Lake boat house, Pennsylvania

Photo Essay: Vermont Recovers from Irene

October 26th, 2011

During the final weekend of August, Hurricane Irene was approaching the eastern United States. Since I have family back there, I called to make sure that everyone was all right.

The phone conversation with my Aunt Jean in Vermont had a very worried tone. About Hurricane Irene, she said, "It's as big as Europe!"

After it came ashore and became a (very wet) tropical storm, Irene aimed straight for Vermont. Which had already experienced a week of rain -- and serious flooding back in May. The ground was already saturated.

On Sunday, August 28, Irene dumped seven inches of rain on Vermont, a state of steep mountains and narrow valleys. Those picturesque brooks you see in tourism brochures became raging torrents that wiped out roads, pushed covered bridges downstream, and flooded homes and businesses.

That big-as-Europe storm packed quite a punch, one that Vermont is still recovering from. This photo essay documents recovery efforts in two towns along hard-hit Route 100, one of Vermont's primary north-south highways.

In mid-October, I'm in Vermont, in Aunt Jean's car, and we're stopping for a Route 100 reconstruction project in Waitsfield. During the storm, the Mad River got angry and took out the road...

Photo essays - Post-Irene Route 100 reconstruction in Waitsfield, Vermont

Aunt Jean lives on a high hill north of the town of Waterbury. So, she wasn't directly affected by the Winooski River flood waters. But the town certainly was.

Note the flood water line on this empty store window. That's about four feet high and the river is almost a half mile away...

Photo essays - Tropical Storm Irene flood water line in Waterbury, Vermont

The Winooski River is nice and peaceful again. It's just beyond the Waterbury public park, where storm debris is still visible...

Photo essays - Tropical Storm Irene flood debris in Waterbury, Vermont

Time for a walk down Waterbury's historic Randall Street, which was devastated by Irene...

Photo essays - Tropical Storm Irene-devastated Randall Street in Waterbury, Vermont

Some Randall Streeters are staying with friends and relatives in Waterbury while their houses are being repaired. Others have had to find temporary housing elsewhere.

Right now, the busiest people on Randall Street are the cleanup and construction crews. This is but one of the many debris piles I saw...

Photo essays - Tropical Storm Irene-devastated Randall Street in Waterbury, Vermont

These signs are awaiting official highway posts. In the meantime, the Randall Street trees will have to stand in as sign props...

Photo essays - Tropical Storm Irene-devastated Randall Street in Waterbury, Vermont

I was struck by the fact that, no matter how severe the storm damage, almost every Randall Street house is flying an American flag...

Photo essays - Tropical Storm Irene-devastated Randall Street in Waterbury, Vermont

Randall Street ends at the State of Vermont Waterbury Office Complex, which was severely damaged by flood waters. Most of the complex's 1,500 employees are now working elsewhere.

The Randall Street entrance to the complex was guarded by a security officer who told me in no uncertain terms that I could go no further. So, this photo was taken while I walked along Main Street...

Photo essays - Tropical Storm Irene forced the closure of the State of Vermont Waterbury Office Complex

After Hurricane Katrina, the federal government response was scandalously slow. Not so for Irene. Locals told me that FEMA was in Waterbury the next day...

Photo essays - FEMA disaster recovery center sign, Waterbury, Vermont

Before FEMA could open for business, the fire station needed a bit of tidying up. Flood waters came here too...

Photo essays - FEMA disaster recovery center, Waterbury, Vermont

Waterbury's private and non-profit sectors are vigorously engaged in the recovery effort. Here's a sampling of signs from around town.

Sorry to say, but I think that a lot of rug owners will find out that their floor coverings aren't salvagable. But it never hurts to ask...