Adios Aberdeen

Have you ever had movers come in and ask immediately for a cup of tea? I put the kettle on and fixed their 'white' teas. Now I am hiding out in the bedroom trying to stay out of their way as they are so friendly they just talk and talk if I am in the living room. I think I'm going to miss the British more than I know.

This past week has been difficult saying goodbye to some truly great friends. Well, I honestly don't like to say "goodbye," so it was more of "sees-you-laters". This probably has less to do with some nice idea that we will all meet again, but more to do with my denial that we are actually parting. I get so weird emotionally during times of change. I want to cry, I feel like crying, but something inside can't grasp that this is actually a goodbye moment. It won't be until I have actually gotten on the plane at the airport that I'll actually realize I won't see everyone again for a really long time. Sigh.

Overall I am extremely torn about this transition. One the one hand we have had an incredible time this year in Scotland, have been included into a great circle of friends, and have experienced so many new things/ways of doing things. But on the other hand we have had a really hard time adjusting to the weather, the 6 hours of twilight in the winter, and coping without our close Texas friends and family. In Aberdeen everything is close, the countryside is all around you, and you have to drive for hours to find a 6 lane highway. In Houston we certainly don't have that but we do have incredible food, diverse cultures, and affordable clothes. One side doesn't necessarily win, but being a bit closer to family does tip the balance. But even that is hard to get as excited about as we will still be 5 hours away from most of our immediate family. My sister and her husband have moved to Houston while we have been gone though, so I am excited to see how that helps.

Our leaving "dos" have been really fun, so that has helped alleviate some of the sadness. Scott MacDonald gave us a Quaich, the Scottish cup of friendship. You fill it with whisky and then pass it around, everyone taking a sip as you go.

Mmmm…Famous Grouse is the only whisky I've been able to stomach yet.

We also had a great dessert party to say goodbye to all the friends we made through the Hebrew's Study, Breathe, SNAC, and YA.

As you can see, we had fun. Too bad I forgot to bring out the camera until half the people left. Well, that just tells you how much fun we had.

Our last Sunday at IBC (International Baptist Church) was difficult too. Sander and Chris played one last time in the band and we had a nice time to say farewell at the coffee fellowship. The church "family" there has been so welcoming to us and instantly let us jump in and serve in the band, Sunday school, and the youth. It was our first experience in a small church and we loved it. When we said goodbye it was wonderful to know every family's name and have a connection with each one. We will really miss that.

Elspeth, Me, Valerie (my neighbor), Kirstie, and Val. These, minus Valerie and me, are the girls that just started SNAC this past year.

The band.

Sander and I with pastor Andrew and his wonderful wife Laura.

Adios Aberdeen – We'll miss you!!!!

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Weather Report

We are packing up and saying our good byes here in Aberdeen. It has been a hard and emotional weekend so far, but more about that serious stuff later.

We know we will be facing a lot of changes and some reverse culture shock, but the biggest shock could be the weather.

Look at this comparison:

HOUSTON, TEXAS

Sun

37°C | 26°C

Mon

37°C | 26°C

Tue

36°C | 25°C

Wed

36°C | 25°C

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND

Sun

18°C | 10°C

Mon

18°C | 9°C

Tue

16°C | 11°C

Wed

16°C | 10°C

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Who Pays for the Delhi Sands Fly?

Here is an interesting article from NewEnviromentalism.org

The Endangered Species Act keeps on not saving endangered species.

Environmental activists are howling over proposed revisions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) is circulating a draft revision to the ESA that, according to Defenders of Wildlife Executive Vice President Jamie Rappaport Clark, "takes a wrecking ball to the whole Endangered Species Act."

But taking into account that its goal is to conserve and recover endangered species, the Act already seems pretty well wrecked. Since 1973 some 1,264 species have been put on the Endangered Species list and there are 286 candidate species waiting to be listed. The idea behind listing species is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would devise plans aimed at recovering listed species so their wild populations would grow to the point where they could maintain themselves.

How successful have the Feds been at recovering species? Not very.

Since 1973, only 40 species have been removed from the endangered and threatened species list and only 15 of those have been de-listed because their populations had recovered. The other de-listed species either went extinct (nine species) or shouldn't have been listed in the first place (16 species). Only about one percent of listed species have been declared no longer in endangered or threatened by extinction. Despite this sorry performance, the activist group Endangered Species Coalition hails the ESA as "one of our nation's strongest environmental laws."

One aspect of the draft revisions of the ESA that raises the ire of activists is the proposal to permit compensation when a property owner shows that a government action aimed at protecting an endangered species has diminished a property's value by at least 50 percent. The Center for Biological Diversity tendentiously declares that this draft provision would "bankrupt the federal agencies by diverting conservation funds to pay landowners and corporations to obey the law."

At a recent seminar at Seattle University, Holly Fretwell, a senior fellow at the Property Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, offered some case studies showing why compensation to landowners is not only fair but also in the interests of saving endangered species. Fretwell cited the case of Ben Cone, a tree farmer in North Carolina. Cone owns 7,200 acres on which he raises southern pines in an 80 to 100 year rotation—that is, once he harvests an area, he allows new trees to grow for 80 to 100 years before harvesting them. This kind of forest management is very favorable to wildlife and his woods attracted and sustained a wide variety of animals, including 29 red cockaded woodpeckers The woodpeckers were listed as endangered in 1970, three years before the ESA was enacted. Red cockaded woodpeckers prefer to make nesting holes in pine trees that are about 80 years old.

Suspecting that Cone's woods might be home to the woodpecker, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) which administers the ESA, required Cone to pay a biologist $8,000 to find woodpeckers in his forests. In 1991, once the woodpeckers had been identified, the FWS prohibited Cone from harvesting timber on 1,560 acres of his land in order to protect woodpecker habitat. The cost to Cone: $1.8 million. Note that the Fish and Wildlife Service paid nothing and the taxpayers in whose names the woodpecker was being protected paid nothing; the only person out any money was Ben Cone. Between 1983 and 1991, Cone had been harvesting 919 tons of timber annually.

Cone, trying not to lose more money and control over his land, increased his rate of harvest on the land he could still access more than 10-fold. His goal was to prevent his pine trees from maturing into trees suitable for nesting woodpeckers. Obviously, this was not good for the woodpeckers the FWS was supposedly trying to help. Later researchers found that as Cone's problems became widely known among North Carolina foresters, many also feared that the feds would some day prohibit them from harvesting their timber. They began to cut their trees on a faster 30 to 40 year rotation in order to prevent woodpeckers from inhabiting their woods. Ultimately, Cone had enough money to hire lawyers to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service for compensation. Afraid that they would lose the case, the feds eventually settled with Cone.

Others have not been so fortunate. Fretwell briefly discussed the economic harm to the impoverished city of Colton, California, caused by uncompensated efforts to protect the Delhi Sands fly. On the outskirts of Austin, Texas, Margaret Rector's 15-acre property plummeted in value from $831,000 to $30,000 once it was declared suitable habitat for the Golden-Cheeked Warbler. As Fretwell noted, "Under the Third Amendment to the Constitution, Americans cannot be forced to quarter soldiers in their houses, but under the ESA Americans can be forced to harbor listed birds, snails, wolves and bears."

The Fifth Amendment also guarantees that private property will not be taken without just compensation. In other words, cities, states, and the federal government can't just take someone's property to build worthy projects like schools and roads without paying them for it. And while it would be far cheaper if the land were just seized, we don't do that and claim that such payments would "bankrupt" government agencies.

Why should the case be any different for protecting endangered species? The draft revisions of the ESA would partially right this current wrong, but why should landowners be compensated for only 50 percent of their losses? We would all think it unjust to give people whose land is taken to build roads and schools only half the value of their property. If the public values endangered species (and most of us do), then it seems only fair that we fully compensate the people on whose land they live for taking care of them for us.

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Freezing cold!

I'm freezing. It is 55 degrees outside and the wind is 15mph from the north. I'm a little confused as 1) I thought it was August, 2) I thought it was supposed to get warmer in the summer!!!

To add to it, no one here seems to mind and continues to worry about Global Warming. Wouldn't that be a good thing to people who haven't felt the warmth of the sun in two years? I would be ok if people at least acted a little sad that it was still cold. Instead they say things like, "Well, Tuesday was really nice, wasn't it? I was almost roasting that one time I went outside." It was about 63 degrees on Tuesday and the sun stayed out about 2/3 of the day.

Well, I have turned on the heater and put some socks on. I'm sure I'll feel warmer soon...

Here is a little somthing though that shows I'm not alone in my thoughts:

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an explanation

We had a complaint so - warning! Gross-eshness ahead.

Also, I thought I should let everyone know publicly that the following picture is not a stock file. No, it is in fact of an item once owned by Sander and CSISD. Interesting, eh?

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