Engorgeous George

You, like Tim, seem top enjoy the stench even before the sh!t has been taken.

And you are promulgating the "talk out there" by mentioning it here. You do so with no facts, no basis. You forward a narrative which my be completely untrue, prematurely, having no idea of its veracity. That is the height of irresponsiblity. Get back to us when the "talk out there" is attributed to a source and when it is confirmed by at least one other named source.

Pretty much how I see it as well. The partisans will continue to argue on the deck of a burning ship all the while not noticing that a few elites are laughing as they fling monkey scat down upon our heads. Me, I got tired of having to shampoo that monkey mud out of my hair so I jumped ship.

And the sign said "Straight white males Need not apply" So I identified as a pansexual boller hat And I went in to ask him why He said, "You look like a fine upstandin' young chapeau I think you'll do" So I took off my hat and said, "Imagine that Huh, me workin' for you"

I finally got curious enough to look up "palisade".

Seems like an admission that things need fixing. You might have wanted to phrase this as "to run".

I think the relevant figure for underbrush clearing is not the amount of state land with underbrush, but the amount with underbrush in and immediately adjacent to populated areas. As for the name calling and the deliberate misunderstanding to try to make some point which ignores, or only tangentially and incidentally addresses your main points, well Horseman tends towards being the south facing end of a north facing horse, what are you gonna do?

There is a large alligator snapper in the reservoir I kayak on routinely. They are not native to Colorado so it is interesting to see it. I have seen it maybe a half dozen times over the last two years.

I do laugh at those female Senators who take, as a matter of faith, that women are the equal of men in physical tasks. It simply and demonstrably is not true. A few exceptional females may be the physical equivilent of a few unexceptional or even unrepresentative males, but females are generally not capable in infantry units tr special forces. Can they effectively serve in combat in other roles, as pilots, as weapons officers on ships, as drone operators, sure, but there are limits.

I have observed in many bureaucracies underlings believing they know more about how business should be conducted than those in charge, even than those who invented the business or enterprise. Street Cops who think they know more about policing than their Chiefs, football playeres and fans who think they know more than their GM's, Janitors who want to tell you how their companies ought to be run .Hegseth is one of those. Now I happen to agree with him that the mission of the military is defense, not social engineering, but I have my doubt that he truly understands and appreciates the scope of his desired role. As for his personal shortcomings, I am not impressed, but I don't find those particularly relevant as most of us have personal shortcomings. His education is not unimpressive and his service is appreciated. As I said in the thread when his nomination was first announced he might be more appropriately qualified for a role at the V.A. I think his qualifications for Sec of Defense are a bit light, but I understand a president valuing loyalty. I hope Hegseth rises to the occassion. I hope he is a fast learner. Me, I am naturally suspicious of any man who frosts his hair. Hegseth, Newsom, I don't trust those types. Shallow, I know, but I simply do not trust them.

You would think a military guy would know to check the background in his target picture before firing away.

I miss the BWCA. I had a belligerent moose swim after me for over a mile once while up there. Was fzairly close to Knife lake Dorothy's place if you are familiar with her. (Maybe not as she has been gone maybe 40 years or more now. Damn she made good root beer.)

At my brother's place in Grand Lake he and I took down all the beetle kill pines. We cut them up into firewood. (Took the better part of a year. Of course we worked on it only when we felt like it.) The slash from the trees we put through a chopper, mixed with some compost, and rototilled into the ground and overseeded with oats and wildflower seed. (Both are no longer evident but they did germinate and help hold the soil the first year.) His property was getting overgrown and dry so we put a herd of goats on it for a month, 20 goats for 40 acres. We also had a pump and a generator. See we knew fire was inevitable given all the fuel for one from the beetle kill on all the pines. When the East Troublesome fire approached his property we got out. We left the generator and the pump on, pumping water from his pond to multiple hoses attached to sprinklers. He lost some kayaks and some record albums in a storage shed. The shed did not burn but the heat caused some melting. The otters did not return to his pond for two years. We don't know if they were disturbed by the sudden water draw down or from the ash sediment which ran into the pond after the first rains. His house, garage, and barn made it just fine. I do note there were some fantastic buying opportunites for land in the area after as many folks just wanted out. Now there are very attractive high mountain meadow where the pines use to dominate and aspens are populating the area. The elk herds seem larger than before. I think the meadows support more of them. We don't see moose any more. I have no explanation for that other than they seem to like being at the edge of forests along creek bottoms. I purchased ten acres. I have not built on it as of yet. I am now thinking of selling it.

Take a que from Bugs ...

It would have been different but equally as ineffective. Neither political party has a monopoly on incompetence.

Very true.

I will say this. I would rather have goats roaming around my property and pooping on it rather than homeless folks as some here have advocated. I don't know what is in the diets of the homeless, but their turds are quite offensive, akin to my own, really. Also, say you are having a party. if a goat wanders by and drops a few raisins it is maybe a conversation starter, if some giant homeless slob like me comes by and drops a typical foul smelling log, well, party over, everybody who is not sickened is actively running away. Some with weak constitutions may not make it out alive.

I have a pond and a number of fruit bearing trees on my property so it attracts a great deal of wildlife. I see Eagles, hawks, Great Horned owls, turkeys and all manner of smaller birds. We get deer and antelope, fox, coyote, and raccoons galore. During the warm months i bike and kayak the nearby reservior so add all manner of water foul and wading birds, not to mention beaver, muskrats, and the occassional bobcat. during the summer i am in the hills rafting or kayaking every weekend adn have not gone a summer without seeing many moose, elk black bear and at least one mountain lion as well as many big horn sheep and one, only one mountain goat.

I don't appreciate being referred to as ignorant. Animals can clear significant amounts of brush. Not all of it, but amounts which would make a substantial difference in California's wildfire season. If animals reduced the tinder by 50% in and around suburban and urban communities, and if that were coupled with fire breaks and fire roads, and adequate water pressure from a few more high altitude storage tanks gravity feeding water and water pressure to hydrants many fires could be substantially or totally mitigated. Would they all be absolutely suppressed and mitigated, absolutely not. Would many communities have been at least partially spared during this recent event, almost certainly so. We are not now talking about best efforts, just reasonably achieveable goals which are cost effective,and those efforts were not in place. Were I a burnt out homeownerIi would be looking for political scalps right now, and justifiably so.

And yet in spite of the great benefits they provide sanctuary cities and states are now deciding to forgo those great benefits. They cannot afford any more benefit.

An acre of good productive grazing land can sustain about six goats. For Scrub lands like those in the California hills each goat can control the brush on about 2 to four acres. They need about six to eight pounds of dry brush a day. Goats would not be a panacea, but the are more or less ecologically friendly, are low cost, low maintenance, and readily available. Their down side is they will gladly consume decorative vegetaton and flowers and mountain lions will follow them into neighborhoods.

Which Colorado fire? Storm King, Heyman, Marshall, East Troublsome or one of the ahlf dozen in the last decade that consumed twice as much acerage as all of these present fires combined? The pine beetle tree kill made this state a tinderbox. Smart landowners adn home owners did what they could to clear the debris. If they did enough they saved their homes. If they did not, their homes and properties were lost. BTW the canyons here experience hurricane force winds too. Sort of the nature of canyons.

Goats. Herds of goats.

Well, in fairness, had the path to the moon been upstructed by brush we may never have gotten there.