Christmas Day Balloon Farm

A Merry "Murky" Christmas

Merry Christmas to my visitor(s) and commentor(s) out there in the civilized world beyond the swamps! Today Mr. and Mrs. Swampcritter took a Christmas Day cruise over to scenic swamps of Dividing Creek.
For those of you a little rusty on your local geography that would be near where Worcester and Somerset counties meet. It is mighty pretty country.
As we drove up out of the swamp on Fleming Mill Rd. off to our right on Harry Riggin Rd. we were very pleased to see this little Christmas balloon farm display. It is owned by Rick Adams and his fiancee'. I first saw this last year and thought it was great, hopefully you will too.
Merry Christmas!

Finally The Rains Cease

I admit it. I am sick to death of all the rain we've been blessed with lately. In the past day and a half, we have received 3 plus inches. The Swampster appreciates his environs but I don't want them to wash awy either.
The road closed sign you see here is a common enough sight on Porter's Crossing Rd. in Worcester county whenever you get an appreciable amount of rainfall.






The house in the background by the way is where my grandmother was born. In the top picture you see see some brave and intrepid scofflaw negotiating the flooded road. The general rule of thumb is if you can see the lines on the road, the water is not so deep that it can't be driven through. Don't ask me how I know that.
I can tell you this. On more than one occasion I have been canoing on this section of the Pocomoke River and have actually canoed over the road. Water that high over the road usually occurs in the spring after a heavy Nor'easter. Today I'm enjoying the sunshine, even if is cool.

Somwhere Col. Saunders is Smiling

Yes indeed the Kentucky-fried Colonel is smiling somewhere today. Just look at this. We have here in this picture 10 chicken houses, all brand new. Several are still under construction. This is in eastern Worcester County. The Swampcritter and his brother cruised down that way today and happened to take Five Bridges Road and were surprised to see this, to say the least.
Now 10 chicken houses may not seem like such a big deal, but from this side of Worcester county you can almost spit into Somerset county. That being the same Somerset county that had all the issues with wells running dry only recently.
How many gallons of water do you suppose these chicken houses pull out of that same aquifer every day? A small house will use 3000 gallons daily, and these are not small houses and keep in mind there are 10 of these. Am I being an alarmist here? I ask this because less than five miles away over in Somerset county there are another 15 chicken houses as large as these. I can't imagine that they use less water. Water here on the shore is fast becoming a finite resource.
The Worcester county commissioners have apparently taken note of this but have thus far only expressed a token concern, but take note Somerset county is still intent on Ethanol production which will require millions of gallons of water to be pumped from our aquifers.
The Swampcritter is of the opinion that Ethanol is an ill-conceived solution to our energy problems, and even though I am an Eastern Shore native I don't believe we need to see poultry production on a scale that jeopardizes resources. I know from whence I speak, my dad worked in the poultry industry his entire adult life as a serviceman. He was very good at it., and was very pleased to see positive changes. Somehow I don't think even he would have been pleased to see this.

Waiting on the BBT

The BBT of course is The Big Brown Truck, also known as UPS. I'm waiting for it's arrival as eagerly as any kid at Christmas, even if Christmas is 3 weeks away. I've ordered a new guitar, which I really don't need as I now own 4 plus 1 banjo. This one will be the exception as it is an electric guitar. I'm buying it used since it's no longer in production. It was made by Cort, which is a Korean company. It is a Matt "Guitar" Murphy signature model. If you've never heard of him I'm not surprised, but you've heard him play if you listen to Howling Wolf, or the Blues Brothers. Matt is a sideman, and a very good one at that. His discography goes back into the 1940s. He's been around that long and is now 82 and still playing, and playing good. Most of his career he played for people like Memphis Slim, Muddy Waters and the Wolf, but he has done some of his own stuff too. I'm going to try to get back into electric blues music. most of what I play now is acoustic. Now I need a band. Maybe they'll come on the BBT too.