When I bought my condominium six years ago, I had a lovely, quiet view of a hillside. Sometimes it was planted with wheat, sometimes with hay, and sometimes it was just sitting there. It took a toll on my allergies, but watching quail marching single-file, listening to the pheasant’s squawking flirtations, laughing at the little brown bunnies chasing each other, and being able to walk my dog in the field were a source of relaxation and happiness.
Here is my hillside last winter:
Pretty...
Here is my hillside being cleared for apartment buildings…or something:
Evil giant backhoe thing
Evil giant backhoe thing's friends...
My poor hillside is being destroyed in the name of “progress.” Many new apartments and too few parking spaces are the order of the day. There’s money to be made!
We’re paving over more and more prime farmland everyday, while hundreds of apartments in this town go un-rented every year. Notice that the topsoil is at least 20 feet deep. It’s a crying shame…
All photos by Zooey
13 Comments
July 11, 2009 at 9:30 am
Nice to see you back, Zooey. Sorry about your hillside. It seems the Big Yellow Taxi is still rolling along.
July 11, 2009 at 9:34 am
Thanks, Med. Nice to be back.
I’m glad I didn’t have to go through the weekend with no internet. I would have discovered how lame my life is.
July 11, 2009 at 9:46 am
I had a touch of that a week or so ago. The cable company wanted to send a work crew to replace the coax cable in my house. I went and got a new modem.
July 11, 2009 at 9:53 am
It’s been a long time since “customer service” was anything in the way of competent or actual service.
July 11, 2009 at 10:05 am
Zooey!! You’re back, Yeah! We missed you!! I’m sorry you are having to witness this enviromental violence around you. Why they call this “progress” is beyond me.
July 11, 2009 at 10:23 am
Hi, krystal. I’ll have a couple other posts up in a while — to make up for my egotistical pissing and moaning.
I just figure, if not here, where else would anyone pay attention!? Heh.
July 11, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I have come to the conclusion that developers are a breed of being who look exactly like humans, but have an extra gene which causes them to despise nature. This gene commands them to pour asphalt over every open space that they can get their hands on. Grass, trees, open fields, mountains, rivers and any other natural thing MUST be destroyed in order for them to survive.
July 11, 2009 at 12:24 pm
That is so sad. Sorry you lost your beautiful view and place for relaxation
July 11, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Zooey,
AP has a news release today bringing fame once more to the University of Idaho and Moskow, Idaho.The subject of the story is the giant Palouse earthworm which some say is an endangered species. Do you remember that beasty?
This brings to mind that you can stop the excavation next door by petitioning for saving the giant Palouse earthworm from extinction. You can also picket the site, thus gaining wider recognition for the cause. I am sure that you will become the talk of the town, if not the nation, if you do so.
July 11, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Here’s the link to the mythical giant Palouse earthworm news.
If the worm was there, it’s been scraped off already, Walt. This is Idaho — they don’t give a shit.
July 11, 2009 at 3:16 pm
That’s a front-hoe Zooey…..’cos it’s….ummm….at the front.
It is indeed a crying shame.
That evil giant front-hoe’s evil friend looks like a typical ‘grader that redistributes the soil that’s been dug-up.
But there’s another type of grader that doesn’t have that squat ‘bin’ in the middle. Instead it’s like a typical four-wheeled front-loader/bulldozer, but then its go a long extension at the end of which is another pair of wheels for steering, and underneath the extension it has a wide blade to scarpe the area level. I expect you”l be seeing one of those soon.
And I expect you aren’t just losing your view, you are losing the hill itself. For some reason developers love to flatten everything.
July 11, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Zooey, you should use a picture of this photogenic creature and describe its cunning ability to outwit the most dedicated pursuer. A challenge to the most dedicated hunter. That would bring even the NRA to your cause, though there might not be much to mount on a wall plaque after dispatching one with an Uzi or AK47.
July 11, 2009 at 3:41 pm
5th,
Clearly I know nothing about earth-moving machinery.
The land has been scraped level by your last-mentioned machine (also used for snow removal). I took my dog for a walk on the site, and she had the pleasure of leaving them a gift.
I’ve been watching a hawk circle it’s former hunting grounds for the last half hour. Sad…
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