[Fishbreeder]

Save the planet???? Where's it goin'? Heck I think we need to think about saving ourselves, the planet will take care of itself.

Back to water.....

Most koi ponds are not very consumptive of water as compared to other consumptive uses. Taken altogether, its not even a drop in the ocean.

Lets take a look at water usage near to where our friend Mustardseed lives in Central Texas....Number one by far and away, think it is flushing the john? Well maybe if he;s got what we call here a "King of the Hill water saving commode" that hasta be flushed five times to um, er, get all the solids down. How about drinking water for kids? Ever see a kid drink out of a hose, the tap in the kitchen, or bathroom sink? Me either, even though thats where I drank from when I was a kid, my kids think drinking water comes only in a plastic bottle. Well then, how about brushing your teeth then? The laundry, that must be it? Or perhaps bathing? Well, maybe in my house because I took out the "Nancy Pelosi flow restrictor" in my shower head, I want a real shower, not just getting damp and soapy. Washing the car, now that's gotta use a ton of water...but the car wash recycles thier water....hmmm...

None of those things, in fact all of them together are literaly not a drop in the bucket so where does water go in Central Texas??????

Carpet grass front lawns, number one consumptive use where it don;t rain much. San Antonio, Austin, Big D, Foat Wuth, go to those places drive in any subdivision and you see lush, green lawns. My M-I-L in Port Aransas (coastal community but very dry with respect to rainfall) put in a "xeroscape" as her water bill was over $200/month to keep the lawn alive. Now its around $25/month. It looks fabulous and uses zero water.

Golf courses, close second. Gotta play golf if you work in an office, right? I never got into it, not enough time in the day. Actually a precious few enlightened communities actually use "grey water" or treated sewage to irrigate golf courses, but precious few.

I learned these things while working on the largest water well ever drilled on planet Earth, 17 miles SW of San Antonio. It was a fish farm, near perfect one, until it got imminent domained so the water could go to capretgrass lawns and golf courses. Papers would have you beleive it took the water from the mouths of children.

Outlaw carpet grass and golf courses West of Interstate 45 and you save half of the water consumed in Texas. Think that'll happen? Much easier to outlaw koi ponds, they gotta use more water than the front lawn, right? No way, but perception is hard to change.

Now a few good ideas are being implemented here. I drive up and back I 45 maybe three days a week to Houston and surrounding areas (where the money is). I have yet, in the last two years, made the trip and not seen gigantic windmills being taken from the port to North Texas. So big are they that it takes an 18 wheeler to transport just one blade.

No windmills won;t save us, but, it is feasible to get as much as 20% of our electric power from windmills (more properly termed "wind turbines"). My B-I-L puts them up around Sweetwater. I been there. Ugly, yes, clean, also yes. Thousands upon thousands of them, some making as much as 3 megawatts each. Texas generates more elctricity from wind turbines than any state or country. If they figure out how to keep them from rusting away in the warm, humid, salty air offshore (them you see in Northern Europe offshore are in a cool, dry climate, not warm and moist) then we can get as much as 50% from them. Ugly, yes. Kill birds???? Not compared to how many birds are killed by housecats (number one cause of bird mortality).

There's a huge landfill in the next county (Galveston). They blow air into one side and take biogas out the other side. The gas engines (16 cylinder) are so large that if you stand on the intake manifold you can't see over the valve covers.

Many small time fuel users (me included) collect used vegetable oil (mine from a seafood joint in Galveston) and make biodiesel or "greasel" from it. I filter it and add paint thinner is all. Burn it in one banger diesels made in China or India. My biofuel is kinda coarse so it won;t work in my kubota. 'Course the engines that are able to use this waste made to fuel do not meet EPA tier 3 requirements for emissions, not smoky, too noisy. So they are getting hard to get. Go figure.

Now, for sure we will have to change some of our ways. One Texan per double cab dually ain't gonna cut it much longer. But we don't all havta drive cracker boxes on wheels either.

I'm not yet sure how I'll vote....I have voted mostly Libertarian these last few elections. I had hoped Ron Paul (local politician that votes his concsience) would have had a chance, he paid my lunch once, even after I told him I didn;t live in his district. That's like an infinite amount more'n any other politician ever did for me.

Louisiana governor Jindal? I really like that guy, he's kinda young though, maybe next time. I could care less what color the President is, I care greatly about how the President acts, thinks, and votes.

Gotta git, time to save the planet later.....

Brett