“Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the Everending Earth” by Craig Childs
“The sixth mass extinction is well under way. Numbers of lost and declining species are rapidly rising with no end in sight. Some researchers offer outside estimates that as many as half of all remaining species may disappear within the next century.” xvi
The earth has died many times, and it always comes back looking different. In an exhilarating, surprising exploration of our planet, Craig Childs takes readers on a firsthand journey through apocalypse, touching the truth behind the speculation. Apocalyptic Planet is a combination of science and adventure that reveals the ways in which our world is constantly moving toward its end and how we can change our place within the cycles and episodes that rule it.
In this riveting narrative, categorized in the nature category, Childs makes clear that ours is not a stable planet, that it is prone to sudden, violent natural disasters and extremes of climate. Alternate futures, many not so pretty, are constantly waiting in the wings. Childs refutes the idea of an apocalyptic end to the earth and finds clues to its more inevitable end in some of the most physically challenging places on the globe. He travels from the deserts of Chile, the driest in the world, to the genetic wasteland of central Iowa to the site of the drowned land bridge of the Bering Sea, uncovering the micro-cataclysms that predict the macro: forthcoming ice ages, super-volcanoes, and the conclusion of planetary life cycles. Childs delivers a sensual feast in his descriptions of the natural world and a bounty of unequivocal science that provides us with an unprecedented understanding of our future.
“The word ‘apocalypse’ from the Greek apokalypsis, originally referred to the lifting of a veil or a revelation. The common definition as a destructive worldwide event is more recent. In this book, it is both.”
“A friend had been traveling in Nigeria, and he came back telling me that one year you’re taking pictures of laughing children and the next you go back and most of those children have died.” 10
Craig Childs is a commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Men’s Journal, Outside, The Sun, and Orion. Awards he has won include the Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Award, the Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure, the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award, and, for his body of work, the 2003 Spirit of the West Award.
“I asked how they found his body, faceup or facedown. Faceup, they said, which was somehow a relief to me. He had not fallen over helpless. He had stopped to rest, chosen the place with what was left of his mind.” 11
https://i0.wp.com/noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/apocalyptic-planet.jpg?fit=1875%2C2850&ssl=128501875Noelle M. Brookshttps://noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-6.pngNoelle M. Brooks2013-04-21 21:45:122018-09-18 07:40:44Apocalyptic Planet
“Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution” by Jennifer Cockrall-King
A global movement to take back our food is growing. The future of farming is in our hands-and in our cities.
“Every minute in the United States, over an acre of agricultural land is lost to commercial and residential development.” 144
“The idea to write a book about urban agriculture-the practice of producing and distributing food right in cities-felt like it came looking for me as much as I went looking for it.
As a food writer with a serious passion for gardening, I had long been in the habit of stopping to talk with anyone watering a few pots of rosemary and basil, for instance, on the patio. (Several minutes later, we’d still be trading stories about what interesting edibles could be grown with the right amount of obsessive coddling.) But about five yeras ago, I started noticing more tomatoes and cucumber vines twisting around condo balcony railings where previously there had only been the usual flowerpot standards of geraniums and lobelia. Then a few maverick homeowners began ripping up their front lawns and replacing them with tidy rows of pole beans, peas, and carrots. Other urbanites were not so subtly defying city bylaws and keeping chickens and beehives in backyards. Finally, it was impossible to ignore how community gardens continued to mushroom in size and quantity, not just in my hometown, but in other cities I visited.” -Introduction, 9
“We weren’t gardening. We were growing food!” 151
Jennifer Cockrall-King is an award-winning food journalist whose work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, the National Post, Canadian Geographic, Maclean’s, and other major publications. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta, and in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, where she founded and runs the Okanagan Food and Wine Writers Workshop.
“We wanted to highlight the fact that we weren’t doing this for fun. We’d rather not be doing this. The question of food is not a theoretical construct. It’s a matter of life and death.” 151
https://i0.wp.com/noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/food-and-the-city1.jpg?fit=1799%2C2689&ssl=126891799Noelle M. Brookshttps://noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-6.pngNoelle M. Brooks2013-04-21 20:39:482018-09-18 07:40:50Food and the City
Writing timeless essays that capture vanished worlds and elusive perceptions, Stephen Harrigan is emerging as a national voice with an ever-expanding circle of enthusiastic readers. For those who have already experienced the pleasures of his writing-and especially for those who haven’t-Comanche Midnight collects fifteen pieces that originally appeared in the pages of Texas Monthly, Travel Holiday, and Audubon magazines and is categorized in General Interest, Travel, Southwestern Studies, and Essays.
The world’s Harrigan describes in these essays may be vanishing, but his writing invests them with an enduring reality. He ranges over topics from the past glories and modern-day travails of America‘s most legendary Indian tribe to the poisoning of Austin’s beloved Treaty Oak, from the return-to-the-past realism of the movie set of Lonesome Dove to the intimate, off-season languor of Monte Carlo.
If the personal essay can be described as journalism about that which is timeless, then Stephen Harrigan is a reporter of people, events, and places that will be as newsworthy years from now as they are today. Read Comanche Midnight and see if you don’t agree.
A former senior editor of Texas Monthly magazine, Stephen Harrigan writes full-time from his home in Austin.
“In assembling a book like this one, there is a natural tendency for the writer to think of it hopefully as more than the sum of its parts, as a solid coherent statement rather than a scattershot collection. I’ve tried not to saddle Comanche Midnight with aspirations it cannot fulfill, but on the other hand I don’t believe that the components of this book came together by accident. For every piece I’ve included, there are two or three others that are still mouldering in the lost-magazine graveyard. Some of them don’t deserve to be resurrected, and in fact it would pain me to think anybody would ever read them again. Others, though, are pretty good. I left them out because, in some vague way, they didn’t belong. There is no great theme to this book that I can decipher, but it seems to me that all the pieces at least share the same frequency. They address my old preoccupations with worlds that have vanished, communication that is sealed off, perceptions that are out of reach. There is an air of mystery about them, and it is that mystery that finally emboldens me to think of them as true essays. They are a record not just of certain events and people and places, but of the mind that witnessed them, and that is still trying to grasp what it beheld.” -Introduction, xi
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Janisse Ray grew up in a junkyard along U.S. Highway 1, hidden from Florida-bound travelers by the hedge at the edge of the road and by hulks of old cars, stacks of blown-out tires, and primeval jumbles of rusted metal. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, published by Milkweed Editions, The World as Home, tells how a childhood spent in rural isolation grew into a passion to save the almost vanished longleaf pine ecosystem that once covered the South.
This book categorized as a nature memoir includes photos from Ray’s life, each with their own caption.
Janisse Ray was born in 1962 and is a native of the coastal plains of southern Georgia. Naming the Unseen, her chapbook of poetry about biology and place, won the 1996 Merriam-Frontier Award from the University of Montana, where Ray earned an MFA in creative writing in 1997. A naturalist and environmental activist, Janisse has published essays and poems in such newspapers and magazines as Wild Earth, Hope, Tallahassee Democrat, Missoula Independent, Orion, Florida Wildlife, and Georgia Wildlife, among others. She lives on a family farm in Baxley with her son.
The World As Home, the nonfiction publishing program of Milkweed Editions, is dedicated to exploring our relationship to the natural world. Not espousing any particular environmentalist or political agenda, these books are a forum for distinctive literary writing that not only alerts the reader to vital issues but offers personal testimonies to living harmoniously with other species in urban, rural, and wilderness communities.
Milkweed Editions publishes with the intention of making a humane impact on society, in the belief that literature is a transformative art uniquely able to convey the essential experiences of the human heart and spirit. To that end, Milkweed publishes distinctive voices of literary merit in handsomely designed, visually dynamic books, exploring the ethical, cultural, and esthetic issues that free societies need continually to address. Milkweed Editions is a not-for-profit press.
“We have to set to the task of repairing the damage done by and to us.” 103
Contents
Introduction
Child of Pine
Below the Fall Line
Shame
Built by Fire
Iron Man
Forest Beloved
Junkyard
Crackers
Native Genius
Timber
Heaven on Earth
Clearcut
How the Heart Opens
Longleaf Clan
Clyo
Hallowed Ground
Poverty
The Keystone
Beulahland
Indigo Snake
Mama
Bachman’s Sparrow
Light
Flatwoods Salamander
Altamaha River
Pine Savanna
Driving and Singing
The Kindest Cut
Leaving
Second Coming
Afterword: Promised Land
There Is a Miracle for You If You Keep Holding On
Appendixes
Acknowledgments
“By day the sun, close in a paper sky, laps moisture from the land, the gives it back, always an exchange.” 3
Outside Resources
“Words rise out of the country.”
-Iain Crichton Smith
“There’s just as many fish swimming in the ocean today
luscious and beautiful in every way
than have ever sputtered and spewed in the saucepans of yesterday.
“Don’t take more on your heart than you can shake off on your heels.”
-Walter Lynn Woodard “Pun”
“Through the acres of wrecks she came
With a wrench in her hand,
“Through dust where the blacksnake dies
Of boredom, and the beetle knows
The compost has no more life.”
-James Dickey, “Cherrylog Road”
“The landscape that I was born to, that owns my body: the uplands and lowlands of southern Georgia.” 13
Thought-Provoking Questions
Of what use to humanity, is a man who cannot see beyond his own hurt? 64
What is entity? 109
Where are the eastern bluebirds, winter chickadees, yellow-rumped warblers, white-eyed vireos? 268
Where are tree swallows and savanna sparrows? 268
Where is yellow colic root and swamp coreopsis? 268
Where is bird’s-foot-violet and blue-eyed grass? 268
Where are meadowlarks? 268
What happened to the cougar and the red wolf? 268
Eighty to 95 percent of the metals of vehicles of that era are recyclable, but what do you do with the gas tanks? 268
What about heavy metal accumulations in the soil, lead contamination, battery acid leaks, the veins of spilled oil and gasoline? 268
The topsoil would have to be scraped away: where would it go? 268
What about the rubber, plastic, and broken glass? 268
Would we haul it all to the county dump? 268
Where would we find all the replacement parts for this piece of wasted earth? 268
Might they not come, slowly, very slowly? 268
Winner of the Southeastern Booksellers Association Book Award for Nonfiction
Praise
“The forests of the Southeast find their Rachel Carson.”
–New York Times
“Janisse Ray knows that her region’s story and her own story are inseparable; in many ways they are the same story. To tell that story as well as she tells it here is at once to show what has gone wrong and to light the way ahead. This book, clearly, is only a beginning. It is well done and very moving.”
–Wendell Berry
“Janisse Ray is a strong and imaginative writer.”
–Peter Matthiessen
“[Ray’s] tale of growing up poor and white in backwoods Georgia is suffused with the same history-haunted sense of loss that imprints so much of the South and its literature. What sets Ecology of a Cracker Childhood apart is the ambitious and arresting mission implied in it’s title….Heartfelt and refreshing”
-Tony Horowitz, New York Times Book Review
“In this time of unparalleled cynicism, any writer capable of imagining Paradise rebuilt on the ruins of a junkyard ought to command our attention, if not our humble gratitude.”
–Phillip Connors, Newsday
“Ray has given us a gift with Ecology of a Cracker Childhood….This is like the best of Annie Dillard and Dorothy Allison combined.”
–Boulder Weekly (Great Books of 1999)
“A child grows up poor in a junkyard in Baxley, Ga., and writes a terrific book about her life, her family, and the ecology of the longleaf pines.”
–Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville)
“The South’s Rachel Carson….Her voice needs to be heard.”
–Greensboro News & Record
“This is no ordinary book that fits into an easily defined category….Ecology of a Cracker Childhood deserves to be out on the main shelves of any bookstore.”
–Winston-Salem Journal
“A tellingly honest tale of a girl who has grown up, against all odds, to become not only a lover of nature, but a spokeswoman for her place of origin and her ‘Craker’ kin.”
-Thomas Rain Crowe, Rain Taxi
“Every page of her book is equally vivid, whether she’s describing the South Georgia junkyard where she grew up or the longleaf pine forests of today.”
-Sharon Rauch, Tallahassee Democrat
“A hauntingly beautiful work that explores the themes of loss and the redemption to be had through connection to family, culture, and nature. Seamlessly weaving memories of her poverty-stricken childhood with musings about the destruction of the longleaf pine forests that once blanketed Georgia, Ray creates a tapestry of the landscape she carries ‘inside like an ache.’ She deftly spins the connections, offering what she’s learned: That her personal story is inseparable from the story of her land.”
–Charleston Post and Courier
“In Ray’s Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, you can open any page and out will fall words like pressed flowers and autumn leaves, vivid souvenirs of joy and loss.”
-Glenda Burnside, Bloomsbury Review
“She writes poignantly and movingly about herself and her colorful kin, and equally so about the red cockaded woodpecker, the gopher tortoise, the indigo snake and the flatwoods salamander. In the over-tilled fields of memoir and nature writing, Ray has conjured a joyous green shoot of a book.”
-Michael Swindle, Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Ray’s descriptions of the idyllic forests capture their beauty….The stories are enthralling.”
–Durham Herald-Sun
“More than her passion for the wilderness, her activism or her outrage, it is her capacity for wonder that wins us to her fervent environmentalism-a capacity born and bred, ironically, not in the college biology lab or the naturalist’s notebook but in the brier patch of a junkyard adrift with car guts, old lawn mowers, broken glass.”
-Amy Godine, Orion
“Ray’s redemptive story of an impoverished childhood brings to mind the novels of Dorothy Allison and the nature writing of Amy Blackmarr, but the stunning voice and vision are hers alone.”
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Every endangered ecosystem should have such an eloquent spokesman.”
-Bailey White
“One theme of this smart book hit me particularly hard: there are no wastelands on this planet, only places that could regain some of the balance and beauty that lies not so far in their past.”
-Bill McKibben
“What impresses me most about this astonishing book is the seamless interweaving of personal memoir and natural history-an interweaving the more remarkable in view of the jolting differences between the junkyard of the author’s childhood and what is left of the natural landscape of her beloved south Georgia.”
-Jim Kilgo, author of Deep Enough for Ivorybills
“Janisse Ray is a role model for countless future rural writers to come.”
-Wes Jackson
“Vivid….In Janisse Ray, the region has found a worthy and eloquent advocate.”
-E: The Environmental Magazine
You can find several videos of Janisse Ray speaking in formal settings on YouTube, but I enjoy the casual setting as she reads from her book in the forest from this video:
https://i0.wp.com/noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ecology-of-a-cracker-childhood.jpg?fit=306%2C475&ssl=1475306Noelle M. Brookshttps://noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-6.pngNoelle M. Brooks2013-04-21 17:45:182018-09-18 07:41:02Ecology of a Cracker Childhood
“The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild Places” by Gary Paul Nabhan Stephen Trimble, Introduction by Rober Coles
The Geography of Childhoood is a collection of essays written by conservation biologists and seasoned naturalists, Nabham, and Trimble. These essays explore the needs of children to experience nature firsthand and deliver surprising statistics, such as the fact that more than half of American children get their environmental information from the media. Included in the book are childhood experiences of the authors and their own personal experiences with their own children. They describe how their own children react to the world of nature and look at cultures that are closely tied to nature. This book is an interesting read, especially for those who live or work with children. It can also bring about questions about your own childhood experiences with nature. Many of these questions will remain unanswered.
This book, categorized in psychology and nature, also includes photographs that were taken by Stephen Trimble. The photographs are speckled throughout the book, generally appearing on each cover page of each new chapter. The photographs generally feature children in nature and show their joyful expressions and contemplative statures. These photographs only enhance the inner message of the book.
Personally, I enjoyed this book as it brought up many interesting thoughts about children and their experiences with nature. I found myself underlining and highlighting as I read and contemplating over what I had just read. Many questions were brought up that I enjoyed thinking over. I enjoyed the scientific research and statistics that this book provided and was intrigued with Gary Paul Nabhan and Stephen Trimble’s findings. As a future educator, I was very interested on their thoughts on public education and how formal education is often thought to be more valuable than personal experience. As a future educator and possible parent someday, I hope to implement some of what I’ve learned from this book in my teaching and parenting styles. Children need nature in their lives and I hope to preserve that belief.
“Simply put, we are concerned about how few children now grow up incorporating plants, animals, and places into their sense of home.”
Nabhan and Trimble, xi
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In order to help “keep San Marcos beautiful,” the Terry Scholars have adopted a plot of land and have vowed to keep it clean and beautiful. We’ve adopted the spot right next to the San Marcos Nature Center right across the street from Herbert’s Taco Hut on Riverside Drive and make a trip at least twice a semester to pick up trash and recycling from the grounds. We are personally involved in the preservation of this precious San Marcos resource. We want to keep San Marcos beautiful and we’re doing something about it!
Adopt-a-Spot is a part of Keep San Marcos Beautiful (KSMB)’s efforts to help raise public awareness’ educate citizens about the source of debris’ and generate public support for community involvement to Keep San Marcos San Marvelous. It’s a free and easy way for groups to help San Marcos and makes a visible impact in our community. It also helps earn some Texas Pride and shows that Texas State students care enough about the environment to take action. Because San Marcos is growing, the population is growing as well. With this surge in population, trash and litter is increasing in public areas. 90% of the litter is picked up by employees that are paid by taxes, so volunteer efforts help reduce litter cleanup costs and save taxes for better use. With the money saved, the city can direct tax dollars to city beautification rather than trash pickup. Also, by seeing volunteers at work in adopt-a-spot areas, the public responds. Research has shown that Adopt-a-Spot areas are less littered in.
I enjoy participating in this event in order to give back to the beautiful community that we live in. It’s a fairly short event, lasting only an hour or two, but it’s very rewarding to help keep and area clean and to do my part.
https://i0.wp.com/noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/the-gang.jpg?fit=4000%2C3000&ssl=130004000Noelle M. Brookshttps://noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-6.pngNoelle M. Brooks2013-04-17 23:08:222018-12-22 18:54:26Keeping San Marcos Beautiful!
I’ve never been to the Austin Zoo, but I’ve been meaning to make a trip up ever since I heard that they had foxes. I finally managed to make it up one weekend after powering through a Friday and Saturday filled with nothing but Ceramics homework…literally non-stop for hours upon hours making ceramic cylinders on the potting wheel, a skill that I have no talent in. But after all that struggling, my reward was a Sunday off at the Austin Zoo!
I woke up early the morning of February 24th to meet with my boyfriend, drive to Austin, and get there right around the time they’d open. At the San Antonio Zoo, the animals are more active in the morning, so I figured that it’d be the same with these animals. Plus, I wanted to have all the time I wanted to spend at the zoo. We got a little lost trying to find our way there, but we eventually made it.
After entering through the gift shop and purchasing our tickets, we entered the actual zoo. The first animal I saw…was a prairie dog. I’ve seen many, many prairie dogs throughout my years living in North Dakota, where they are extremely common. I’ve had plenty of experiences with prairie dogs, so I moved on pretty quickly.
The woman at the gift shop had recommended that we visit the big cats first because they tend to come out in the mornings before retreating inside their shelters later in the day as the temperature rises. We began heading that way, walking past the prairie dogs and entering the primate area.
In this area, there was a lemur stretched out and enjoying the sun and some small monkeys with long fur. There were other animals in there, but I don’t remember them very well. There were canines, too, though, wolfdogs and foxes! I loved the foxes so much that I’ll be writing them their own post later.
There was one wolfdog who looked very happy as he lay in his pen. He was panting with a bright grinning expression on his face. I smiled as I looked at him until I realized that he was missing a foreleg. He only had 3 legs…The Austin Zoo is not only a zoo, but also an animal sanctuary, so I don’t know what happened to him, but I’m glad that he looks pretty happy now.
There was another wolfdog in a separate pen that looked much more solemn. This animal was pure white and lied about on the ground looking bored or tired. I’m not sure what gender the wolfdog was, but it gave off a “she” vibe to me. I enjoyed taking pictures of her. With her eyes closed, she looked relaxed and elegant in my photographs. Unfortunately, I could not avoid the bars of her cage when taking my photographs, so I couldn’t achieve that natural look that I strive for.
After staying with the wolves and foxes for a while, we moved on again, passing by several enclosures with turtles in them. Apparently it was lunch time for the turtles as each of them had a dish filled with leafy greens in their reach. The turtles looked humorous as they paraded about the leaves walking all about them and stretching their long necks from out of their shells to munch on the vegetation. Turtles look pretty funny when they eat.
I was surprised at just how many of these turtles the zoo had. There were several enclosures, each with about 2-4 turtles in them. Their turtles also varied in size, some an impressive “dog-like” size while others were more “rabbit-sized”.
After enjoying watching the turtles munch on their leaves, we moved on again. I was completely astounded when I saw the next animal. Resting on the ground in the middle of her enclosure was the largest pig I have ever seen in my life. I don’t know why this pig was so massive, but I was taken aback! The pig looked bigger than me! I can’t imagine how much she must weigh!
We continued walking about looking for new animals to view and were disappointed to find an empty bear cage. The bears must have been hiding in their shelters. There was a pretty cool mural of all the different kind of bear species found all across the world, though. There really aren’t that many kinds of bears, which is surprising. While there are over 300 types of bats, there are only 7 kinds of bears, the polar bear, grizzly bear (sometimes called the kodiak bear or the brown bear,) black bear, sloth bear, spectacled bear, moon bear (known as the Asiatic black bear,) and the sun bear.
Thankfully, we were able to enjoy the tigers. As I walked by an enclosure, I noticed a huge pool of water, complete with a fountain. “This must be a tiger cage,” I told my boyfriend explaining that tigers love water and that zoos always provide them with pools to swim in. We walked up to the exhibit and were disappointed not to see any animals inside. Shortly afterwards, though, a woman told us that they would be feeding the tigers in a few minutes and that it would be an entertaining event. We pressed up close to the safety bars and waited for the show to start. Soon afterwards, other people started crowding around, as well.
Some zookeepers entered the enclosure and began piling meat on some rocks. There were 3 piles spread far apart from each other. The workers also began spreading water about the ground and filled up a nearby trough with water. After a few minutes, the shelter doors opened but nothing happened. Suddenly three tigers burst from the opening and dashed to their own piles of meat. It was amazing how swiftly the tigers escaped and how elegantly they each went to their own pile without any conflict. They must do this every day and have their own designated piles.
It was pretty gruesome watching the tigers scarf down the bloody pieces of flesh. It was difficult for me to watch the tigers move the bones to the back of their mouths to allow their back teeth to polverize them. I don’t handle blood and gore well and bones really freak me out. I have trouble eating chicken off the bone because of it…so I don’t like seeing animals eat off the bone, either. Blech!
After I took quite a few pictures of the tigers eating, I couldn’t take much more and had to move on. We moved next door where a lioness was lying and licking herself clean. She had a very powerful looking jaw.
As we were watching the lioness, we suddenly started hearing a loud roaring noise. We looked about and found that the path curved around to the back of the lioness cage. In the back was another lion cage, this one with a lioness and a lion. The lion was roaring about, but just as we spotted him, he stopped. Other people had also heard the roaring and had come around to find the source of the noise. We all took our pictures and gazed at the lions for a bit before moving on again.
We continued walking through the rest of the park. Most of the animals were hiding in their shelters including the bobcat, the mountain lion, and the leopards. There were more wolfdogs in the back of the zoo, but there enclosure was huge and they were at the very back of it, way out of sight. According to the sign, they all belonged to the same pack and had come from the same owner. That was pretty cool.
We walked around a bird area for a bit and saw some parrots and cockatiels. There were signs warning against owning exotic birds as pets because of how difficult they can be to take care of. Most of the birds there were abandoned or confiscated pets. It’s sad how some people buy pets without doing research beforehand and figuring out if they really can take care of the animal.
We came across a new part of the zoo, a petting zoo. At this moment Nick pulled out a bag of food that he had purchased from the gift shop. “I knew you’d want to feed the goats,” he said.
I did enjoy feeding and petting the goats, though there was one very greedy goat that would stick his muzzle through the bars and stick out his tongue. He was a pretty ugly goat, too. The children enjoyed his enthusiasm and continued giving him pellets. In a split second the goat would gobble everything from the child’s hand, then begin immediately demanding more again. I fed him a little bit, but I saved my pellets for the goats who weren’t so greedy and demanding.
There were also sheep that you could feed and pet, but I tried to avoid them because wool makes my skin itch. I think that sheep are adorable, but I just can’t pet them. My mom is also allergic to wool, but other than us, I haven’t met anyone else who is.
The zoo not only had goats and sheep that you could pet and feed, but also llamas and deer in a separate area. The llama was incredibly ugly with crooked teeth sticking out from the front of his mouth. Just like the greedy goat, he was eager to be fed and was right up against the bars asking for food.
After the crowds around him spread, I walked up to him and spread out my hand with a few pellets on it. “Here you go, llama,” I welcomed. The llama quickly gulped down my pellets and left me his own, disgusting gift. Not only were his teeth and face disgusting, but the inside of his mouth was, as well, as he left a gloppy mess of spit and saliva all over my hand. It was wet, sticky, and slimy and made me want to gag. To get back at him and to clean my hand, I wiped the mess all over the side of his neck. His fur wasn’t much better as it was matted and curled, but at least it got most of the spit off!
Right next door the llama was a completely opposite animal, a beautiful and elegant spotted deer. Her grace greatly contrasted the llama’s goofy and scruffy appearance. I don’t particularly love llamas, but I love deer, so I was pretty excited to get to pet and feed her! I was a little bias and gave the remainder of my food all to the deer in the agreement that she let me stroke her and take her photo. She was impatient, as she really only wanted my food, but I got a pretty good close-up of her and was able to pet her a few times. As soon as my hand was empty, though, she would begin to back away until I replenished the food supply. I guess you could say that the deer was pretty shallow. It took a lot of food to keep her occupied enough to pet her and get her photograph!
It seemed that the deer didn’t like the llama, either. Whenever he would draw near, she would scamper off. It took quite a bit of bribing to get her to return to me after she had run off. Unlike the llama and the greedy goat, she tended to stay further away from the edge of the enclosure. After I fed her and got a few photographs of her, she dashed off into the more wooded area of her pen and wouldn’t come up for anyone else.
There were many other deer in the area, as well, but all of them were in the back of the pen resting in the leaves. None of them were interested in any of our whistles, calls, or offerings of food.
After I had given away all of my food, we continued on and found a train. It was only a couple of dollars to ride and the staff member said that we would see animals that you couldn’t see otherwise, so we waited for the next train to roll up. Once it did, we bought some tickets and sat in the front seat. The train was small and meant for children, but I was comfortable as it had been a long day already and my feet were beginning to hurt. The train started and passed by enclosures of kangaroos, cows, and a few other animals, but then it left the zoo and started circling the nearby surroundings. There were wooden cutouts of mushrooms, spaceships, and pirate ships…nothing having anything to do with animals. This train definitely was meant for children, but it was still a nice break.
After the ride, we began to make our way to the park exit. All throughout the park there were roaming peacocks and as we were walking a peacock dashed past us with a group of kids shortly behind him. I felt bad for the bird as he ran, frightened by the children, but it did allow me to get a really great photo of him.
Overall, it was a pretty good visit at the Austin Zoo & Animal Sanctuary. It got my mind off of schoolwork for a day and allowed me to spend some time with my boyfriend. I also got some good photographs and saw some foxes, which I’ll write about it in a different post. The Austin Zoo isn’t nearly as big or nice as the San Antonio Zoo, but they’re more an animal sanctuary than they are a zoo. They are a non-profit organization and all of their animals are rescues. Most of their animals also have their stories posted on their informational plaques telling you where they came from and how they ended up in the zoo. It was all very interesting, I just wish they had a restaurant so I didn’t have to leave as early as I did! I do plan on returning again some day, though.
There were over 4,000 Bobcat Build volunteers this year!
Here at Texas State University, we take pride in our close-knit community. Texas State and San Marcos have a symbiotic relationship, just as the San Marcos River and the animals that call it home do. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish off-campus from on-campus as the campus likes to inhibit random buildings around the city, even far away from central campus. Because of this close relationship with our surrounding town, we like to give back and dedicate a day of service to the residents of San Marcos. This day is known as Bobcat Build.
Bobcat Build was started in 2002 and was inspired by Texas A&M University’s Big Event. Today, Bobcat Build is the second largest one-day community service project in the state of Texas, only shadowed by A&M’s service day. Bobcat Build continues to grow each year and had over 4,000 volunteers this past year.
I participate in Bobcat Build every year as a Terry Scholar. This year was no different and I arrived at the Strahan Coliseum Parking Lot before 8:00am, ready to work.
https://i0.wp.com/noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/bobcat-build-1.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1960960Noelle M. Brookshttps://noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-6.pngNoelle M. Brooks2013-04-16 22:23:282018-12-22 18:54:38Bobcat Build 2013
The other day, Dianne Odegard, from Bat Conservation International, visited my Nature & the Quest for Meaning to discuss bats. After giving a PowerPoint presentation about the myths and misconceptions of bats, Dianne asked us to create poetry about the winged beasts. She challenged us to team up with the person next to us and create a haiku about the unusual mammals and submit them to the Bat Conservation website afterwards.
Haikus use a structure composed of 3 lines, the first and last lines containing 5 syllables and the middle line containing 7. These are some of the haikus that my classmates and I constructed.
https://i0.wp.com/noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Rob-Potter.jpg?fit=3448%2C5168&ssl=151683448Noelle M. Brookshttps://noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-6.pngNoelle M. Brooks2013-04-16 21:12:282020-01-06 09:20:21Bat Poetry
Although I love nature and enjoy being outdoors, there is something that will always remain a barrier standing between myself and my full enjoyment of nature. Though I may love nature and mostly everything within it, that doesn’t stop nature from watering and irritating my eyes, running and itching my nose, and causing me to live each day in a cloudy, stuffed-up fog.
https://i0.wp.com/noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/allergies.jpg?fit=4000%2C3000&ssl=130004000Noelle M. Brookshttps://noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-6.pngNoelle M. Brooks2013-04-16 19:25:372018-12-22 19:34:28I’m Allergic to Nature
Back at home, my family, like many others, has an animal companion to keep us company and make our days brighter. My common family of four is even more common in the fact that we have a family pet, a dog. Though, our dog is a little unusual. We have a dog named Sandy, a golden-white German shepherd. Sandy’s had quite a past, transferring from shelter to shelter. For a time, she even lived with a foster family, but from now on, Sandy has our house to call her home.
With an interesting coat color for the breed, we constantly receive comments on Sandy’s unique golden-white color. German shepherds are known to be almost any color including brown, black, white, liver, red, blue, and gray, yet German shepherds are not known to be golden-colored. Believed to be a mix, Sandy is figured to be either half yellow lab, due to her love of swimming and water, and her “soft bite”. Labs were bred to swim across lakes to retrieve fowl, bringing the birds back with their “soft bites” to prevent damaging the meat further. Sandy also sports a pair of “angel wings” a white marking common in labs. “Angel wings” are white stripes located right behind the shoulder blades. Maintaining the German shepherd body and characteristics, it’s difficult to identify Sandy’s past genetics. Although her specific breed may be a mystery, we are happy to include Sandy in our family.
Back in October of 2008, my family had just moved cross-country, back to our hometown in Texas. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas all went by…The house, although unpacked and filled with all the possessions that make it home, still bore an empty presence. A loving family, we’re rarely without pets. From a stray cat, named Hobbes, who we loved for about nine years; seven goldfish, each with his its own name; frogs and crickets that were given the best; and two, white rabbits who still clutch a corner of my heart after occupying four years of my life; we’ve shared our home with a diverse collection of animals. But, through all sixteen years of my life, we’ve never had the most common pet: a dog.
On January 17, 2009 my family gathered in our car and drove across town to the Animal Defense League. My mom had been carefully studying each animal they displayed on their website and had read up on all the rules, regulations, and information listed on the Internet. We wanted to be well-informed and fully prepared to adopt our first dog.
After arriving at the shelter, we asked to look around at all of the animals available. We literally looked at every single animal they had. It was quite an experience. I was bitten at one point.=
After hours of looking, one dog had stuck in our mind, but we still hadn’t looked at all of the animals. An employee saw us wandering and brought us to one particular pen. “This is Sandy,” the employee said, “She dances.” The dog in the pen quickly dashed up to the fence to greet us with a happy expression. The woman spun her finger in a circle in the air and Sandy immediately jumped up on two legs and spun around in a circle.
“Oh, wow!” we all exclaimed, surprised by her training.
Majestic Sandy
“Can we walk her?” my dad asked. After getting a leash, we were headed to the large meadow they use to allow animals to run about. We were surprised how easily Sandy walked on the leash. She seemed pretty excited to walk about, but she had good manners, as well. Pretty soon, all of us had fallen in love with her.
After the walk, we returned to her pen and gave back the leash. Still making up our minds, we decided to visit the dog that had stuck in our minds before, but as soon as we saw that dog, we knew that Sandy was the dog for us. All of us immediately wanted to go back to Sandy’s pen.
We spoke with an employee and pretty soon we were in the Main Office filling out paperwork. While we were waiting for the forms to pass, we used a dog tag-making machine to craft Sandy a brand new gold dog bone-shaped tag for her collar. She still wears that tag to this day.
Within the hour, we were walking out of the animal shelter with Sandy on a leash. Sandy was very excited to hop in our car and go for a ride. To this day, she is excited to ride in a car.
Once we got home, we allowed Sandy to explore our home. She was very excited and happy as she quickly darted from one side of the house to the other. She never stopped moving as she dragged her nose around the floor and discovered her new home’s quirks. After a while, we led her upstairs to explore the second half of the house.
When Sandy entered my room, she was given quite the scare. Resting on my floor is a large male lion stuffed animal that is almost life-size. Sandy entered my room and turned the corner coming face-to-face with the lion. She jumped in shock, turned, and ran away. For about a half hour afterwards, she still would not come into my room. After coaxing her in, she cautiously sniffed the lion until she found out that it wasn’t real. After that scary incident, she was back to her active self, running about the house and beaming with excitement.
It’s now over three years later and Sandy has become a permanent part of our family. Now completely comfortable in our house, Sandy has actually found my room to be her favorite room in the house. With my bed resting right up next to the window, my room offers Sandy the perfect spot to perch and watch “Dog Television.” She especially loves barking at passing dogs and watching birds fly by. Also, she spends each night in my room with me, having her own bed next to mine, though she usually prefers to sleep on the floor.
Sandy is a wonderful, loving dog and I love her dearly. From time to time I come to miss her as I spend my time in college over an hour and a half away. I enjoy coming home to a happy, jumpy dog who’s just as excited to see me. I love Sandy and I believe that she loves me just as much.
Memoirs of a Past Foster Owner
“…and here’s poor Sandy at the shelter before her rescue “
October 29, 2007
Sandy is a sweet dog who quickly steals hearts. It’s easy to see that she was once loved and cared for, but the poor girl went through some rough times, coming out of the shelter at a mere 33 lbs. In just a few days’ time, Sandy was back to her “old self,” though, eating heartily and with no food issues. She will be packing on the weight in no time, though she’ll always be petite. Apart from her weight (soon to be a non-issue), she appears to be happy and healthy, sweet and loving. She truly has a beautiful disposition!
Sandy runs and plays in her foster’s acre-plus yard several times a day. She would enjoy a large yard and lots of interactive play. She loves walks and would undoubtedly love a jogging partner. Sandy does great in the car and thinks trips to the park and lake are the best! Though she has only been allowed to wade into the water, she sure likes it! In every activity, Sandy is energetic but well-behaved. (She would benefit from formal training and may get that with her foster or adopter, but she is naturally responsive, so we think she will learn easily.)
Sandy also loves sitting on a rug or blanket next to the couch and chewing on her bone, especially after a nice long walk. (She LOVES chew toys and bones but has not bothered shoes or other people possessions.) Other pastimes include following her fosters around wherever they go and observing their every activity. (Note: The kitchen is another place she has displayed good manners).
Sandy has met other dogs and we think she would enjoy the company of other dogs/playmates, but seems to get along better with males.
Her fosters have lovebirds and she barely notices them.
Sandy has only lived with cats for 5 days. Her foster’s cats were initially terrified (of all dogs) and then one of them attacked her, so it’s not really fair to judge her yet, but the current prognosis is no cats. If you have cats, check back to see if this changes.
Golden German Shepherd
January 23, 2008
Single, White, Female seeks ACTIVE partner (owner or dog sibling!). Couch potatoes NEED NOT apply! Love DAILY long jogs through the park, and would probably LOVE chasing a frisbee or doing agility work on the weekends…Loves kids (other people’s, I can’t have any of my own), other large male dogs OK too.
Sandy & her Foster Owners
If you are looking for a VERY ACTIVE German Shepherd to accompany you jogging, hiking, or any other outdoor activity, Sandy is your girl! I call her “The Snow Fox” because she looks like a little, white fox darting around…..she is DEFINITELY built for speed. She is a petite female (about 45-50#) approximately 1 year old GSD who goes from dawn till dusk…like the Energizer Bunny!! I think she would excel at something like agility because she is lightening fast and NEVER quits. She would also be a wonderful jogging partner…she prances when she runs, and doesn’t have the big, heavy build of a full-sized GSD that makes jogging so hard on their hips.
Sandy is a happy dog who lives to play. She probably should not go to a home with older or smaller dogs because she would worry them to death to PLAY with her!! I don’t think she would hurt them though…same thing with cats. She gets along GREAT with all of my big males, but can get pushy with females.
She loves ALL people…no exceptions. She is housetrained, crate trained (she sleeps in her crate quietly at night). She is a POWER chewer, but as long as she has a Kong to play with and chew on, she is fine. She rides great in the car; if the trip is long, she will just lie down and go to sleep. She sits on command, and we are working on other basic commands for her…she loves to please, but she is young and needs reinforcement with her commands.
Sandy is spayed, Heartworm negative, microchipped, fully vaccinated and ready to GO, GO, GO to her forever home. If you are in the market for a sweet dog who would make a GREAT jogging partner, she is your girl! Please apply for her on-line now!!
March 2008
Sandy has completed a month of obedience training at Southern Star Ranch!
July 2008
Sandy has decided that she is really a LAB in a German Shepherd Dog body…she LOVES to swim!! She is very graceful in the pool, and she and her foster Lab brother swim laps every day together!
https://i0.wp.com/noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/golden-beauty.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1480640Noelle M. Brookshttps://noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-6.pngNoelle M. Brooks2013-04-04 00:06:312018-12-22 19:34:28My Dog, Sandy
I feel like I am a complex individual with a lot of different elements to my personality, my thoughts, and my emotions. Because of this and my drive to create art, I tend to express different aspects about myself through creative means. With my writing abilities and artistic talents, I’ve created original characters that have grown and matured as I have. I’ve used these characters throughout the years to say what I need to say, emphathize with my feelings, and help me express myself. For many of these characters, I create websites for them, uploading various artworks of them and writing life stories about them. Several of these characters personify certain aspects of myself, exaggerating that aspect to help me understand it, but only one represents myself as a whole.
https://i0.wp.com/noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ellones-reference-sheet.png?fit=1500%2C787&ssl=17871500Noelle M. Brookshttps://noellembrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-6.pngNoelle M. Brooks2013-04-03 22:52:222018-12-22 19:34:29I am Ellone
