The Daily R-r-r-ibbit

mental floss Blog » Dogs Welcoming Home Soldiers

via www.mentalfloss.com

Hawk's Notes: I can't think of a better way to celebrate veterans on Veteran's Day than to share the unconditional love of dogs for their soldier buddies. There are several videos at the link below the video or go here...please check them all out.

It's a laid back day in the holler

I'm just hanging out in the holler today after a fun time in Knoxville last night for the showing of Coal Country at The Square Room...my first experience there and a really good documentary, plus good music and a good-sized crowd. The post-film discussion gave me some ideas for how I want to focus my future blogging on coalfield issues.

I got home around 11 and the moon was so bright I didn't need a flashlight to find my way back into the house. Both dogs came out to greet me; Celie went down to the creek and barked for awhile. I'm sure there were lots of critters out in that moonlit landscape.

Here are some dog photos from our walk today. Leaves are about 80% dropped up here...it was cool and sunny and the dogs were loaded with energy.

Still experimenting with doggie action shots...here's Celie running toward me...

and here she is on the bank of Hudson Branch, sniffing the breeze, though it almost looks more like she's getting ready to howl.

Shadow finds sticks for us to play with every day.

Later I caught him in handsome prince mode.

Last night I experimented with images of stars and moonlight, but none of them came out. The star ones were streaky as I don't have a tripod or cable release, and the moon ones looked like the Eye of Sauron or something very un-moonlike. Here's another image from our walk today...sun coming through a poplar leaf:

Green Jobs: Portland Community Workforce Agreement

via www.youtube.com

Hawk's Notes: Lots of great things happening to get green jobs out of heart's desire and into the world. Green for All was involved in this particular project in Portland. They'll host a phone call on October 22nd with some folks from Portland who will talk about this. I'll post a link in an update later today.

I signed up for one of Green for All's recent calls that unpacked the Recovery Act in terms of socially just green jobs and was really impressed with all of the presenters.

UPDATE -- Here's some links for the Portland program and the upcoming national phone call:

Portland project web page

Growing Green Jobs Boom

October 22nd Phone Call Signup

Another Rowdy Day in Frog Pond Holler

The day after Celie and Shadow cured their cabin fever, they went into prevention mode, I think. While they were playing I got a few pictures of them as well as some bugs. Today the dogs were less rambunctious and I found even more amazing things to photograph. I'll put the dog and cat photos here at the R-r-r-ibbit and post the others at Earthbytes.

Shaddow chases Cheyenne

Shadow Swimming, Cheyenne Wading (Note beaver cuttings!)

Shadow "herds" Celie

And today: George, King of the Forest

We're all back in the house now but I'm the only one not sleeping.

Celie and Shadow Cure Their Cabin Fever

We didn't go out for a walk the last couple of days because my energy was sapped by a bug or something. I hate when that happens because the dogs won't go very far from home without me, and Shadow expends his pent up energies picking trash out of the wastebaskets and strewing it all over the house.

I did make it out today and caught the dogs in the act of recovering from cabin fever:

Miss Celie in hunter-hound dog mode

Shadow plays in the deep end of Terry Creek

I also got some wild-eyed pictures of George and Buddy hiding in the woods...but I'm going to save those for Halloween.

EPA: East Tennessee's Air Too Dirty » Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON - The air over Knoxville and four surrounding counties is too dirty and doesn't meet new federal standards designed to protect public health from fine particle pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.

The federal agency formally designated the counties - Knox, Anderson, Blount, Loudon and part of Roane - as "non-attainment" areas, meaning they did not meet the 24-hour standard used to measure particulate matter.

Particulate matter is emitted by power plants, factories and automobiles and can cause a number of serious health problems, including aggravated asthma, heart attacks and premature deaths.

via www.knoxnews.com

Hawk's Notes: Another nail in coal's coffin?