I just had dinner with my Tioga County friend Liz (her activist blog: and her store website: ) and her gf Hannah at Falafel Bar as they were on their way home from a wedding in Denver. Two hours of intense brain sharing about everything from crazy friends to natural gas well drilling to the proposed closing of North Penn High School.

I guess I need to get some of my brain energy out before I can focus again...

The Southern Tioga school board is going to choose whether to renovate or close the high school I (and my parents, aunts & uncle) graduated from. Closing the high school would mean busing kids in grades 9-12 to the schools 10 miles north and south and renovating the elementary school into a pre-k to 8th grade facility. It's a $17M vs. $27M project according to the feasibility study, but it looks like there's a lot of waste/unnecessary stuff in the high school renovation part that is inflating the cost. I created a facebook fan page five days ago for "Save North Penn High School!" and already have 440 fans and my dad and few friends have asked me to create an ad in the free weekly classifieds paper to promote the cause. I don't have access to the feasibility study these proposals are based on, which prevents me from having solid substantive arguments. The best I've got so far is "closing NPHS will negatively impact educational outcomes for students" and "closing NP means the death of Bloss." It'll be interesting.

Liz has been focused on the impacts of natural gas well drilling that's happening all across PA. There was a massive fish kill a few weeks ago in a formerly healthy stream on the West Virginia-PA border caused by dumping of untreated hydraulic fracturing waste water into an abandoned deep coal mining hole. The West Virginia DEP-equivalent says that it caused by a naturally occurring golden algae bloom - exactly the same cause proposed by the responsible company - but the PA DEP says it's from the waste water and wants the company's US EPA permit revoked. NY has halted all drilling - smarties! She's set up an information session with our county planner (possibly retired - i forget) for tomorrow night. I'm hoping a lot of people will show up and learn about the environmental devastation that's happening elsewhere so that we can be on guard in Tioga County. Companies are already drilling and spilling the frac water - we're getting reports from the local DEP office - 8,000 gallons of this toxic stuff. I'm so frustrated that so many people haven't learned from the devastation of the mines - the Tioga River, which runs through Bloss, is a dead river because of acid mine drainage.

And now I must return to the grey and gloomy world of law school... someday I'll get paid for the analysis work and the resulting legal actions, right?

I can't figure out how to swipe this video from facebook and it's not on youtube so I hope this is public...

Tioga County Visitors Bureau tourism promotion video:



in contrast, a new Buffalo Niagara tourism video

Among developed countries, America is viewed as one of the most religious nations, and it seems that there is no end to its inhabitants' appetite for Christianity in all its flavors. Americans tell pollsters that they go to church in immense numbers, and most of them name the Bible as their favorite book.

Church attendance as established by surveys is one of the main factors alleged to illustrate the depth of religious feeling in America. Depending on which poll you consult, between 33 percent and 43 percent of Americans claim to attend church weekly. Using the low end of that range, we get a figure of around a hundred million people. Even cursory crack research, however, reveals that this can not be true, for the simple reason that there are not enough seats in all churches in America to hold nearly as many people.

I think the article is snarkily amusing, but the second half is easier to poke holes in,

According to a study conducted for the Catholic Biblical Federation in 2008, 93 percent of Americans have at least one copy of the Bible at home. Twenty-seven percent of Americans surveyed believe that the Bible is "the actual word of God, which must be taken literally, word for word," and 78 percent view its contents as true. Almost half of American respondents agree-either somewhat or completely-with the statement "The Bible should be studied at school," and 56 percent have given a Bible as a gift at least once. In addition, a Harris poll conducted the same year showed that Americans overwhelmingly name the Bible as their favorite book.

One might deduct from these numbers that the Americans' knowledge of the Bible is at least somewhat satisfactory. Nobody could like the Bible, let alone maintain that its contents are true, give it as a gift, or recommend that it be taught in schools, without possessing at least an elementary awareness of its teachings. In order to agree that the Bible contains the unerring pronouncements of God, which are to be taken literally, word for word, from beginning to end, one must necessarily be acquainted with what these pronouncements are.

Since they don't reference other polls of American ignorance, it's easy to make fun of Bible literalists' ignorance of the Bible. But it totally correlates with general American ignorance about history (or any other substantive topic).
or

This weekend is peak leaf peeking in Tioga County, but I was there last weekend... Got these shots as the sun was slipping behind the mountains, up past Pirate's Rock.








We kept driving up the trail to the Wrench and found that people had been burning the plastic/insulation off aluminum, probably to get a higher price selling it for recycling.



The plastic had melted off and run towards the creek and then pooled where it cooled. The dark bits are the burnt plastic.



Ew.

Yeah. So interesting.

thanks, (e:zobar)!



(okay, not a great shot. i think my room is too dark)



(better... would prolly easier if i wasn't using a sleepy, resistant puppy)

Still back in August...

Lisa, Miriam & I had a wonderful time with the Buffalo Queer Women's meetup and the assorted (e:peeps) who ventured out Friday night at Adonia's. Saturday, we went to the Towne for breakfast and then to the Falls.







And then we went to the Anchor Bar because Lisa LOVES wings. I had the pesto ravioli, which was pretty good. Lisa said the wings were "eh" and expensive but she was happy that she got to do the tourist thing at the Anchor Bar. (See (e:heidi,49673) for a picture at Anchor Bar.)

(fifth & final post today!)

I got some fancy greens from the coop this week.



The first time I had them, I insulted them by using Hidden Valley Ranch buttermilk dressing (and sunflower seeds! Just like Pizza Hut!) The greens wilted in disgust.

The second time I had them, I used Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette. The greens weren't offended but they didn't perk up, either.

Tonight, I got it right. I made lemon garlic dressing, sliced up some grape tomatoes, added goat cheese and sunflower seeds. Wow!



4 T. olive oil
4 T. fresh squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)
2 T. finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt & pepper to taste.

(From _Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa_ ISBN 9781566563987 p. 14)

We're still in the backlog of photos from August... it was a very nice month for taking pix. (fourth post of the day)

This time we're at Fallbrook, PA, (map: ) formerly a thriving town of 1,400 people with an opera house and a railroad that connected to Corning, NY. (wikipedia: ) It's now a ghost town. The cemetery is amazing but I haven't shot it yet.

Eventually the spot I photographed became a state park with a big picnic area including a pump well, a pavilion, and guardrails along the cliff above the creek. The park has been abandoned. I'm guessing it was abandoned because of the severe acid mine drainage from all the mining (see Uncle Dudley's coal mining museum (e:heidi,49799)). Although the Tioga County Concerned Citizens Committee has been working on AMD remediation for about 20 years now, there's still a lot work to be done for the stream to support aquatic life and be rid of its sulfuric smell. I'd love for this to be a usable park again with fishing, swimming, camping and hiking. Fall Brook is part of the headwaters of the Tioga River which runs north into New York state and then turns back down into PA becoming the Susquehanna, eventually feeding into the Chesapeake Bay.

The entrance bridge. I'm guessing it was built by Civilian Conservation Corps members but I don't know that for sure.


That bridge is so beautiful!


A and Nisha on the trail


Nisha checking out a mushroom


Mushroom on the trail


Settling in for the nice view.


We sat up there for a while... and then I dropped the hood to my telephoto lens 20' down the cliff on the bank of the creek. A thought he was going to scale down the cliff and I said absolutely not! There's a trail down. Nisha was the first to give up hiking from the base of the trail to where the hood landed. she was pretty upset that she couldn't figure out how to follow any farther. Then A had to stop - he boosted me over a pretty big rock & tree combo so I could finish the trek. I know I'm making it sound very arduous, and it was, but it's all within a very small area, just a couple acres.

A little way down the cliff trail looking up


part of the cliff


River, waterfall... The orange tint is real - it's from the acid mine drainage. TCCCC does educational events with schoolkids where they can tie-dye white t-shirts in a concentrated version of the orange water. It's pretty gross.














Back at the top we checked out the cement pad where the picnic pavilion was.

Blackberries. Yum!


Pump for the well


Spider & web

(third post of the day)

Well, it's not really Uncle Dudley's museum, it's her boyfriend Bernie's coal mining museum.

Silver tea set for (e:Matthew)



Miners' lunch boxes


Old telephone, radio, lamps and bottles


Helmet with headlamp, lantern, sitting on a dynamite box


Five different trivets poured by Ward Manufacturing to celebrate Blossburg Coal Festival and the 75th anniversary of Ward Manufacturing a square nail (there's a word for this - penny nail? it's more of a spike but not big enough to be a railroad spike), a coin bank from Miners National Bank in Blossburg, beer chips from the Duncan Tavern in Antrim, PA (still exists!) and from the Bloss Hotel, which my great aunt & uncle Jack & Vera Reid owned, glasses, and an employment card from the mines. There's an old brass plumb bob in the background.


Bird cage for canaries the miners would take into the deep mine shafts. When the canary died, they had to get out of there quick - there wasn't enough oxygen.


Better shot of the bank with some kind of oil can.


Whiskey, moonshine, and other jugs


Business card from Jones & Brague Mining Co., the last of the coal mining operations in Hamilton Township. My grandfather worked for them washing coal trucks. He also worked for Ward Manufacturing.


Telephone directory for Morris Run Coal Co. Bernie couldn't tell me an approximate year, but it was really early - no numbers, just dashes like Morse code. (Sorry for the glare with my reflection - I tried a couple different shots - I would have had to move it to get a decent one.)


I'm trying to get a good picture that conveys the luxurious summer lazy feeling of Uncle Dudley's back porch. It's latticework covered in old olive tree branches.