Editor:

Back in the early '60s we wintered in the Keys and met a commercial photographer from Tampa. We had friends in Tampa we wanted to visit so we offered him a ride there.

On the way up U.S. 41 (now I-75) he had to stop to shoot photos of a new development. Off of U.S. 41, down a dusty unpaved road. We came to a small A-frame with a sign "$25 down - $25 a month" selling lots while the pumps were going 24/7 pulled up sea bottom to make land and leaving canals.

When sold to folks up north they moved in and laid sod and a sprinkler system to keep it green (grass it not native to Florida). Some 50 years have gone by of fertilizing to keep it green. Seems to me that over time the sea bottom is sponge-like and now saturated backing into the canals. It will produce blue-green algae to feed red tide. So, Cape Coral, when is enough, enough?

Mary J. Tekip

Port Charlotte

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LETTER: Fertilizer dumped since the '60s | Letters To Editor - yoursun.com

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Tax Management Solution Industry Market Global Production, Growth, Share, Demand and Applications Forecast to 2025 - Melanian News

At the regular meeting on January 14, 2020, the Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the rezoning of a 20.2-acre parcel on the southeast side of Sterling Hills Boulevard, approximately 900' of its southern terminus. The entrance to the parcel will be an extension of Windance Ave from Sterling Hills Blvd.

The proposed name for the subdivision was not mentioned during the meeting.

The land is currently zoned agricultural (AG) and will be rezoned as Planned Development Project (Single Family) (PDP(SF)) to accommodate 80 lots for single-family residences, defined in the petition as 13 60-foot lots with a minimum area of 7,200 square feet and 67 50-foot lots with a minimum area of 6,000 square feet. The overall density for the project is 4 dwelling units per acre.

Attorney Darryl Johnston represented the petitioner and owner of the property, Christopher Wert. The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) recommended approval of the petition with the modification of adding a 30-foot vegetation buffer of 80% opacity along the north and east borders of the property.

The eastern border includes a masonry wall that currently separates this property from the Pristine Place subdivision.

Another requirement is that the project includes a gated emergency access meeting the design requirements of the Fire Department in the southwest corner of the site to connect with Sterling Hills Phase IV.

More here:
BOCC Approves Subdivision South of Sterling Hills - Hernando Sun

By Steve Geliot

Hundreds of people have signed a Brighton photographers petition calling on Brighton and Hove Albion to stop lighting up the night skies around the Amex.

The club has been using lights and heaters to promote grass growth in the winter months so it can meet Premiership pitch standards for the last three years.

But the light spills into the night sky, and the orange glow can be seen as far away as the Long Man of Wilmington a distance of more than eleven miles.

As well as light pollution, scientists have now made a link between lights such as these and the deaths of insects which are vital to our eco-system.

Artist Steve Geliot complained last year and says he received a courteous reply from the club. But when the nightlights were switched back on this winter, he decided firmer action was needed.

At the time of publication, 779 people have signed his petition asking the club to put the lights out.

Mr Geliot, who lives near Preston Park, said: I have been becoming increasingly aware and upset by it over three years but last year I particularly noticed it and I did contact the club.

I got a courteous response but I can see that its as bright as ever this year.

What has changed this year is the science. And people like me are saying this isnt right, and Im not putting up with it.

I completely get that theres a lot of loyalty to football and to the club and Im not not anti the club or football.

But the glow shows up in photos I took at the Long Man of Wilmington. The Amex is even brighter than Newhaven Harbour. Its just unbelievably visible.

I dont think its that difficult to fix it, it just needs reflective panels so its lighting up the pitch and not the sky.

If Albion is a progressive club, and I think it is, how wonderful would it be if they were the first to fix it?

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove Albion said: Like most businesses, the football club must balance its concern for, and responsibility to help protect, the environment with our need to practically run our business as a Premier League football club watched by tens of millions of people across the world.

You will appreciate that, with millions of pounds worth of athletic and footballing talent on display each home match day, we must not only meet and maintain league regulations for the quality of our playing surface, but we also have a duty of care to our players and those of visiting teams.

Beyond our responsibilities to the athletes, and to the fans who pay to expect to watch a high quality football match, the quality of our pitch can significantly influence our performance and therefore our results. Indeed, its quality can create a (legally) competitive advantage or a disadvantage.

Our results on the pitch govern the overall health of our business, and with it the thousands of directly and indirectly created jobs (90% of which are local), not to mention the overall local economic impact, independently measured as being worth 212 million in the 2017/18 season alone.

The success of the football club also supports an important local charity, Albion in the Community, which runs more than 60 different health and educational programmes for over 40,000 local participants and makes a further local economic contribution of nearly 30 million each year.

In the winter months, whilst we may at times experience high rainfall and high winds, with little or no natural sunlight, a grass pitch misses a key element of its natural ability to re-generate and grow after use. We must therefore replicate that loss of light artificially.

Clearly, we will always limit the use of artificial light for all the reasons highlighted but Im afraid we are unable to further limit or eliminate its use completely. To do so, would be to significantly neglect the other responsibilities.

Please be assured that we take our responsibilities for the environment very seriously indeed, but like airlines, car manufacturers, supermarkets, consumer goods factories, and other businesses we all use every day, it is impossible for us to eliminate our environmental footprint altogether.

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Hundreds call on Albion to put the glowing Amex's lights out - Brighton and Hove News

by Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

My first look at Badlands National Park is not anything I expected or visualized. The Pinnacles entrance to the national park, where the Wilderness Voyageurs guides have taken us for our first ride of the six-day Badlands and Black Hills bike tour of South Dakota, is aptly named for the spires that form this otherworldly landscape.

Badlands National Park is 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires and the largest, protected mixed-grass prairie in the United States. The Badlands Wilderness Area covers 64,000 acres, where they are reintroducing the black-footed ferret, the most endangered land mammal in North America. Just beyond is The Stronghold Unit, co-managed with the Oglala Sioux Tribe where there are sites of the 1890s Ghost Dances. But as I soon learn, Badlands National Park contains the worlds richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, dating 23 to 35 million years old, a period between dinosaurs and hominids.

The name Badlands was intentional, for the earliest inhabitants and settlers found the extremes of climate and landscape extremely harsh. The American Lakota called this place mako sica, or land bad and early French trappers called it les mauvaises terres a traverser, both meaning badlands. Those very same French trappers would be the first of many Europeans who would, in time, supplant the indigenous people, as they were soon followed by soldiers, miners looking to strike it rich with gold, cattlemen, farmers, and homesteaders recruited from as far away as Europe.

We get our bikes which our guides James Oerding and John Buehlhorn make sure are properly fitted, and outfit us with helmet, water bottle, Garmin. They orient us to the days ride essentially biking through the national park on the road (Dont stop riding as you go over the cattle guards; when the van comes up alongside, tap your helmet if you need help). We will meet up at the 8.2-mile mark where there is a nature walk and the van will be set up for lunch.

And then we are off at our own pace down an exquisite road (the cars are not a problem). That is a mercy because the vistas are so breathtaking, I keep stopping for photos. And then there are unexpected sightings like bighorn sheep.

At the 8.2 mile mark, we gather at the van where James has set out a gourmet lunch.

There is a boardwalk nature trail (I note the sign that warns against rattlesnakes and wonder about the kids who are climbing the mounds with abandon). I realize I am in time for a talk with Ranger Mark Fadrowski, who has with him original fossils and casts of fossils collected from the Badlands for us to look at and touch. We can see more and even scientists working at the Fossil Prep Lab at the Visitor Center further along our route.

There are no dinosaurs here, Ranger Fadrowski explains. This area was underwater when dinosaurs lived. But these fossils gathered from 75 million years ago and from through 34 to 37 million years ago (there is a 30-million year gap in the fossil record), fill in an important fossil record between dinosaurs and hominids (that is, early man). Teeth, we learn, provide important information about the animal what it ate, how it lived and the environment of the time.

The Pierre Shale, the oldest layer when this area was under a shallow sea, is yielding fossils from 67-75 million years ago. He shows us a fossil of a Mosasaur, giant marine lizards, an ancestor of the Komodo dragon, and one of the biggest sea animals.

We dont have fossils from the 30-million year gap either the sediment was not deposited or it eroded. Indeed, we learn that these tall spires of rock with their gorgeous striations, are eroding at the rate of one inch each year, and will be completely gone in another 100,000 to 500,000 years. But the erosion also exposes the fossils.

The environment changed from a sea to a swamp during the Chadron Formation, 34-37 million years ago. That was caused when the Rocky Mountains formed, with a shift in Teutonic plates. That pushed up and angled the surface so water drained into the Gulf of Mexico. It was formed by sediments carried by streams and rivers flowing from the Black Hills, deposited in a hot and humid forest flood plain.

Alligators lived during this time. The alligator fossils found here show that the animal hasnt changed in 30 million years. The alligators migrated when the environment changed, so survived.

During the Brule Formation, 30-34 million years ago, this area was open woodlands, drier and cooler than during the Chadron Formation; in some areas, water was hard to find. Animals that lived here then include the Nimravid, called a false cat because it seems to resemble a cat but is not related. The specimen he shows was found by a 7-year old girl just 15 feet from the visitor center and is the most complete skull found to date (imagine that!); there are two holes in the skull that show it was killed by another Nimravid. Also a three-toed horse (now extinct); and a dog.

In fact, it turns out it is not at all unusual for visitors to the park to come upon important fossils (there is a whole wall of photos of people and their finds just from this year). In fact, one visitor, Jim Carney, a photographer from Iowa, found two bones sticking up and reported the location. They thought it would be a single afternoon. It turned out to be a tennis-court sized field, now known as the Pig Dig; the dig lasted 15 summers and yielded 19,000 specimens, including the Big Pig.

It was found at the beginning of the Brule Formation when the area was drying out. We believe it was watering hole drying up. Animals caught in the mud were prey for other animals.

This is a place of Archaeotherium, Oredonts, Mesohippus, Subhyracodon, Hoplophoneus, Metamynodon, Cricid and Palaeologus.

The Sharps Formation, 28-30 million years ago, is where they have found Oreodont fossils. The name means mountain teeth because of the shape of its teeth, not the environment. Fossils are identified mostly because of teeth which are most common to survive and reveal clues about behavior and what the animal ate, which speaks to the environment.

He shows us the fossil of an Oviodon. It is weird, there isnt anything alive like it. The closest relative is camel-like the weird cousin that no one knows how related. It is the most commonly found fossil which means it was probably a herd animal. And a Merycoidodon (ruminating teeth), which he describes as a sheep camel pig deer.

The Badlands are eroding, so will reveal more fossils. Fossils are harder than rock, so they wont erode as fast. Interestingly, only 1 percent of all life is fossilized. We have to assume there are missing specimens.

The Badlands is particularly lush for fossils because of the types of sediment that preserves them well. 600,000 specimens have been collected from the Badlands since paleontologists first started coming here in the 1840s. Just about every major institution in the world has specimens that were originally found here, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

They provide clues to the Golden Age of mammals halfway between when dinosaurs ended and today horses, camels, deer.

I had no idea.

Im so grateful that John (elected the sweeper for todays ride) has not rushed me away and, in fact, waited patiently without me even realizing he was there.

I continue on, stopping often to take photos of the extraordinary landscape with its shapes and textures and striations. I barely miss a dead rattlesnake on the road (I think it was dead) and am too rattled to stop and take a photo.

I get to the visitor center which has superb displays and an outstanding film (must see). Again, no one is rushing me away, so I stay for the film, The Land of Stone & Light.Native Americans have been in this area for 12,000 years; the Lakota came from the east around 1701 following buffalo, their culture was so dependent on buffalo. They would pray for the buffalos well being rather than their own.

Treaties were signed that defined the borders, but they were broken. The white settlers demanded more and more of the Indian land, especially after gold was discovered in the Black Hills. (I later learn it was William Custer, the famous General of Custers Last Stand, who discovered the gold.)

The buffalo so precious to the Lakota were hunted nearly to extinction. The white men put up fences for their ranches and farms, preventing the buffalo from migrating. What happens to the buffalo, happens to Lakota they were forced to cease their traditional life, settle down and farm or ranch. Resistance led to tragedy (Battle of Wounded Knee). (There is a photo of the Wounded Knee Massacre at the Trading Post.)

By the turn of the 20th century, the federal government was inviting homesteaders to come out and settle the West. They would get 160 acres if they could last five years on the land. They advertised abroad, enticing immigrants to the luscious plains in the Dakotas.

Lumber and stone were rare in the Badlands, so the settlers built their shanties of sod, called sodbusters.

Living was hard; small-scale farming couldnt succeed. They endured blistering summers, cruel winters, extreme wind. Many left, especially in the Great Depression. I think, how ironic.

Before the Lakota, before the dreams of homesteaders ended, paleontologists came here 150 years ago. The layered landscape of the Badlands told the story of geologic change, of climate change, that is still continuing. The Badlands are eroding fast at the rate of one inch per year, so in 100,000 to 500,000 years, all will be gone. The earth is a dynamic and changing system.

The ecology is complex. This is a mixed-grass prairie it may look dry, but the tangled roots store nutrients. Animals help sustain it the bison churn up the soil, mixing the moisture and scattering seeds; prairie dogs are critical to the ecosystem, too they also stir up the soil, and the burrows they dig are used by other animals like owl and ground squirrel. The black-footed ferret lives in abandoned burrows and also eats prairie dogs.

The farmers attempt to eliminate prairie dogs resulted in the near-extinction of the black-footed ferret. They have been reintroduced along with the swift fox, bighorn sheep.

The mission of National Parks is to preserve and restore but we cant restore the biggest animals that once were here the prairie wolf and grizzly bear.

Im about to leave when I stumble upon the Paleontology Lab, which is open to the public, where we can watch as two paleontologists painstakingly work to remove sediment from the bone their efforts magnified on a TV screen.

I am working on a Merycoidodon, an oreodont, which is a group of hoofed mammals native to North America, the sign says in response to what must be the zillionth time a visitor asks. Although they have no living relatives in modern times, oreodonts are related to another native North American mammal: the camel. Oreodonts are sheep-sized and may have resembled pigs, but with a longer body, short limbs and with teeth adapted for grinding tough vegetation. The skulls of Merycoidon have pits in front of the eyes, similar to those found in modern deer which contain scent glands used for marking territory. Oreodonts lived in herds and may at one point have been as plentiful in South Dakota as zebras are in the African Serengeti.

But the paleontologists are happy to answer questions, too. One tells me she has part of an ear canal (very unusual) and ear bones. Its unusual to have the upper teeth. This is a sub-adult I can see wisdom teeth and unerupted teeth. She is working on a Leptomerycid relative of mouse deer an animal the size of house cat.

It has taken her 170 hours to extract teeth from the rock.

This is the second time anyone got an upper row of teeth for this species. It may change scientists understanding. Were not sure if it is a separate species it has a different type of tooth crown. But having a second fossil means we can compare.

Just then, the senior paleontologist, Ed Welch comes in and tells me that because teeth are used to determine species, the work being done could prove or disprove whether this animal is a separate species.

Welch says it so far looks like a species that was named in 2010 based on the lower teeth. Now we have upper teeth and part of the skull. The difference could be variation by ecology (for example, what it ate). It was found at the same site so it would have been contemporary. We looked at several hundred jaws. This one could be an ecomorph just different because of what it ate.

The Badlands have some of the oldest dogs ever found, and the most diversity. In the display case is one of only eight specimens ever found the other seven are at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City but they are not displayed; this is the only specimen that can be viewed.It is the oldest one of its kind, 33-32 million years old and was found by a college student from Missouri.

He says the seven-year-old girl who found the sabercat fossil that the Ranger showed, came back this year, now 16 years old.

We ask visitors to leave the fossil where it is and report to us, give us photos, a GPS, so we can locate. Some of the fossils were found right on the trail, not even in remote areas.

Probably the most famous a hero around the lab is photographer Jim Carney of Iowa who found two bones that ended up being a big bone bed that so far has yielded 19,000 specimens.

Judging by a wall of photos of visitors and their finds just in 2019 it would seem that people have great odds and probability of finding an important fossil.

The fossils collected here since the 1840s are in every major institution. While fossils of dinosaurs and early man might get everyone excited, these fossils the middle of the Age of Mammals are important to fill out that story of ecological and evolutionary change.

The Badlands is in the middle of the earths transition from greenhouse to icehouse and the fossils found here show how animals responded to the ecological change: adapt, migrate or go extinct.

Welch made the decision to open the paleontology lab so people can see scientists at work. We decided to do more than a fishbowl, to make it a great education tool.

The Fossil Preparation Lab in the Ben Reifel Visitor Center is typically open from 9 a.m. 4:30 pm daily from the second week in June through the third week in September. The national park is open all-year-round.

For more information on the Badlands National Park visit nps.gov/badl/planyourvisit/events.htm

During our ride through the Badlands National Park, I spot the major animals that are residents here, including the bighorn sheep, American bison, pronghorn (also called antelope), mule deer, and black-tail prairie dog. The one I miss is a coyote (yet to come).

We have 12-miles further to bike to our accommodation for the night, the Circle View Guest Ranch, which proves to be an amazing experience in itself.

Wilderness Voyageurs started out as a rafting adventures company 50 years ago but has developed into a wide-ranging outdoors company with an extensive catalog of biking, rafting, fishing, and outdoor adventures throughout the US and even Cuba, many guided and self-guided bike itineraries built around rail-trails like the Eric Canal in New York, Great Allegheny Passage in Pennsylvania, and Katy Trail in Missouri.

There are still a few spots left on Wilderness Voyageurs Quintessential West Cuba Bike Tour departing on March 21.

Wilderness Voyageurs, 103 Garrett St., Ohiopyle, PA 15470, 800-272-4141, bike@Wilderness-Voyageurs.com, Wilderness-Voyageurs.com

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Going places: Biking through the Badlands is voyage of discovery millions of years in the making - Blog - The Island Now

A new year means new opportunities and, while resolutions made in January rarely survive until February, there are some actions we need to put on our calendars so help make 2020 the best it can be for us on the farm and in our lawns and gardens.

So lets begin with January.

January is meeting month; a time when people gather and learn new techniques or reinforce old methods. There will be several opportunities in January and February to attend meetings and conferences that will help us be more efficient. These range from the annual Shepherds Symposium next Saturday to the Virginia Tech Beef Health Conference at the end of the month. In between, Wytheville will once again host the Southwest Virginia Grassland and Forage Conference on Jan. 21.

In February, we need to be out in our fields and pastures looking for opportunities to improve the health of our soils. February is a great month (most times not in 2019) to collect soil samples and determine our fertilizer needs for the coming spring and summer. It is also a great time to renovate pastures and hayfields by frost seeding clover. Using this method, you simply scatter clover seed into existing grassland. The sod needs to be well clipped or slightly overgrazed to facilitate the seed getting to the soil, but it is great way to improve grazing animal performance without too much input costs.

February can also be a great time to get the sprayer back out. Warm days (above 50 degrees) can offer the opportunity to blister several weeds such as thistles, buttercups, henbit and bedstraw. If your fields were yellow, white or purple last spring, use this opportunity. One added benefit to treating fields this time of year is your chances of killing the neighbors garden is all but none existent; however, this only works if you use the correct chemical in the correct amount on the correct target. Know your enemy.

March is a good time to sow some more hardy crops such as spring oats, but is probably too early (cool) for grass seeding. Apply your fertilizers now (although you can give cover crops a shot of nitrogen in February again in warmer weather). One strategy that can work well is to split your fertilizer applications especially in hay crops. Put on half your fertilizer needs now and put on the remainder after the first cutting. March is also a good time to move cattle and livestock to cleaner pastures. Animals that have been shorted on nutritional needs during the winter (and our hay this year is short on both supply and nutrients generally) can find themselves in distress in the cold days of March. Add in mud from cold March rains and cows getting ready to have calves and you have the recipe for a disaster.

April is really two months. The first part of April is a good time to reseed grasses in both our fields and lawns. It is also when we need to make sure our mowers and planters are ready to go. Early April is also when many people begin the process of wasting money. The return of warm weather gets everyone stirred up to make garden. There are some vegetables that can be growing during this time, but, for the most part, both the plants and your pocketbook will be rewarded by planting later in the season. A complete list of garden crops and their planting dates is available at the extension office.

Late April is a time of readiness. If the weather is good, corn can be put in the ground and hay crops need to be coming down. Keeping a careful eye on both the weather and your grasses will help you determine the time to go. Being too early can be bad, but you never really catch up from getting behind.

In our area, with the exception of a pure stand of timothy (which is rare), every hay field needs to be put down in May. Weather and work schedules may interfere, but the loss of nutrients by letting crops get too mature amounts to millions of dollars of losses every year. Mowing in May also means you can get that second shot of fertilizer out and working before the dry weather of summer sets in. Nitrogen is water soluble but it is also volatile in warm weather. We want our soil nutrients moving to the roots, not boiling skyward.

The final month we will look at in this column is June.

June is a good time to get the sprayer back out, but be careful. Gardens and bees are out so be very deliberate in your efforts. That said, early June is a great time to treat our hay feeding areas for spiny amaranth or spiny pigweed while it is small. You can also go after some of the bedstraw areas (the white clouds of weeds you see in hayfields). For homeowners, June is also the month you need to treat your hemlocks and conifers for pests such as bagworms.

Later this spring, we will make our plans for the summer and fall of 2020, but, in the meantime, prepare yourself for a great 2020. It is going to be the best year we will get for the next 12 months.

Jan. 11--Shepherds Symposium, Virginia Tech. Call 540-231-9159; you must preregister.

Jan. 15--VQA Steer and Heifer Sale, Tri State Livestock Market.

Jan. 15-17--VA Farm Show, Fishersville.

Jan. 17--Our Great Gator Giveaway Drawing, noon, at the Virginia Farm Show, Fishersville.

Jan. 20--VQA Steer Take Up, Tri State Market.

Jan. 20--Farm Management Meeting, 6:30 p.m. at Farm Bureau Building, Marion. Topic is BQA Recertification.

Jan. 21--VFGC Winter Conference, The Meeting Place, Wytheville.

Jan. 22--VQA Heifer Take Up, Tri State Market.

Jan. 27-30--VCE Annual Meeting, Hotel Roanoke.

Dr. Andy Overbay is Smyth Countys agriculture and natural resources extension agent.

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Extension Answers: 2020 resolutions for the farm and garden - Southwest Virginia Today

By Andy Villamarzo

Hernando Sun sports reporter

TAMPA- Its a debate that has been ongoing since the day Jameis Winston was drafted back in April of 2015 among Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans all over social media and football chat rooms. The time is now for making a crucial decision on whether Tampa Bay retains their No. 1 pick of the 2015 NFL Draft. Should Tampa Bay retain quarterback Jameis Winston?

The argument can always slide both ways like Winstons inconsistencies to play well throughout the measure of a regular season. Whether you want to look at Winstons 4-touchdown days against the New York Giants, Los Angeles Rams And Detroit Lions or ponder how he could throw five picks versus the Carolina Panthers and four against both the New Orleans Saints and Houston Texans. Nonetheless, Winston has yet to produce the kind of consistency that fans and even his own coaches would like to see on a game to game basis. Theres a lot to intake here when diagnosing the career of Winston to this point.

Whether its been Winston under the guidance of Lovie Smith, Dirk Koetter and now Bruce Arians, all have or are well regarded amongst those in NFL coaching circles. To be fair with the former, Smith, the now Illinois Illini head coach only got two seasons in Tampa Bay, in which he improved the Buccaneers from 2-14 to 6-10. A couple weeks after the season, however, saw the Glazers family dismiss Smith after just two seasons which could be tied to his desire to add more coaches to his staff, a demand met for Arians (largest staff in the NFL).

Enter Koetter, who was Smiths offensive coordinator and had previous coordinating experience in Atlanta and Jacksonville. Albeit it was Koetters first head coaching gig in the NFL, the 2016 season was a hit. Despite Winston throwing 18 interceptions, Tampa Bays defense ranked in the top 15 en route to a 9-7 campaign. The success of 2016 brought upon major expectations for 2017, including the signing of wide receiver DeSean Jackson.

Those expectations werent met, as Tampa Bay floundered to a 5-11 record behind significant issues on the defensive side of the ball. The same issues parlayed into the 2018 campaign and a 3-game suspension of Winston after an embarrassing Uber incident in the off-season led to a surprisingly good start behind journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick. After a 2-2 record, Winston was reinserted as the incumbent starter, but was benched after an awful showing versus the Cincinnati Bengals (four interceptions). The 2018 season ended with Winston getting another shot under Koetter and after a brief resurgence, Tampa Bay sputtered to another 5-11 record and the firing of Koetter.

Enter Arians, the self-proclaimed quarterback whisperer, who stated prior to the 2019 season that Tampa Bay already had a quarterback it could win with. After a 5,000-yard, 33-touchdown, 30-interception season, Arians sounded conflicted in comments after the season about Winston. The former Arizona Cardinals head coach mentioned things like we will not beat ourselves next year and we can win with this quarterback, we can definitely win with another one werent exactly badges of honor when it came to giving Winston any praise.

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Should the Tampa Bay Buccaneers bring back quarterback Jameis Winston? - Hernando Sun

NEW CONSTRUCTION in the exciting Alexander Woods neighborhood by Payne Family Homes. This 3,178 s/f, 1.5 story has 4 BD, 2.5 BA, a main flr Master suite & a 4 CAR GARAGE (4th car is tandem). Features inc 9 clngs w/vlts, gas FP w/stone surround, Deluxe Kitchen, staggered height cabinets w/hardware, Quartz c-tops, island w/seating bar, st steel appl, butlers pantry, W/I pantry, frml DR, engineered wood in the main living areas, large Mstr W/I closet, Luxury Mstr Bath w/dual shower, raised height Mstr vanities w/wave bowls, a Loft, W/I closets in every bdr, Jeld Wen low E windows, tall bsmt pour, R/I bath & more. The ext is elegant w/brick, low maint siding, arch shingles, full yard sod & prof landscape. This premier Chesterfield location is near some of the regions top employers, popular shopping areas, restaurants, commuter byways & in the sought after Parkway Central school dist. Enjoy easy access to Hwy 40/61, medical facilities, outstanding parks, recreation & Lambert Int Airport.

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29 of the Most Expensive Homes for Sale in the St. Louis Area - STLtoday.com

Baked by the sun and buffeted by wind, the southeast corner of a sod house is typically the first piece to fail and fall.

Merle Block would learn this lesson the hard way, some years after hed taught himself to build a home from the very ground around it.

He and his wife, Linda, were farming and ranching near Gothenburg at the time. But they felt called to tell the story of their ancestors, immigrants who landed in Nebraska and had relied on the earth to provide the shelter they needed.

They feared the areas connection to its past was slipping away.

Both of our families lived in sod houses in the 1880s and thereafter, he said recently from Arizona, where they were escaping winter. I grew up on a farm, but I never saw the sod houses.

In 1988, they bought 3 acres near Gothenburgs interstate exit, built a bright red barn and opened a museum, showcasing the areas rich Swedish history with old photos and pioneer-era items.

Merle Block put up the sod house next, cutting and stacking and shaping the bricks of soil into four walls and a roof. It took him three weeks and three good reference books, he said.

The couple now had the makings of a tourist attraction, but they needed more tourists. So he built what he called the worlds biggest sod-raking plow out of new steel and old bridge planks, four times larger than normal and a magnet for travelers.

It was just a showpiece, right up next to the interstate at the front of the lot. People would see it and pull off.

The sod-raking plow at the Sod House Museum is four times bigger than normal and made with new steel and old bridge planks.

But he wasnt done. He collected all of the scrap barbed wire his neighbors, and their neighbors, could offer, and taught himself to be a sculptor.

He wrapped more than 3 miles of fence wire into a Native hunting on horseback, 4.5 miles into a buffalo grazing nearby.

I put the buffalo out in the grass beyond the sod house and the barn, and theyd spot that right away. People kept coming back and bringing friends and showing them. And thats what we wanted.

The buffalo grazing near the Sod House Museum is made out of 4 miles of old barbed wire.

Those early years, they were averaging 50,000 visitors a summer, he said. They didnt charge admission, but they accepted donations and sold souvenirs in the sod house.

That still didnt do it, he said. It wasnt a money-making project.

They welcomed visitors for nearly three decades, even as the Pizza Hut and Howard Johnson and Comfort Suites and espresso shop moved into the area, and the sod house weathered and he had to build it back up, and the sculptures rusted and the demands of running a museum started taking a toll.

They shut it down two years ago.

We hated it that we had to close, but the time comes when it doesnt work. The wife said: Were old. You get up into your 80s; you just dont want to work.

They put their attraction on the market last year: barn, sod house, barbed-wire buffalo and Native, worlds largest plow -- 3 acres of interstate-area property -- for $119,000.

Merle Block collected scrap barbed wire to create a Native on horseback.

Gothenburg is proud of its pioneer history, promoting its Pony Express station, the historical museum and, for years, the Sod House Museum.

And its boosters have been monitoring the future of the property. It needs updating, but its still a draw, said Deb Egenberger, executive director of the Community Development Office.

Wed love to see it remain there, she said. We have a lot of folks who come right off the interstate and want to see it.

The offers started trickling in, said Stephanie Walker, an agent with Gothenburgs Remax Farm, Home and Ranch whod never sold a sod house before.

It was a unique listing, just because it wasnt a typical commercial listing.

Most potential buyers had plans for the property that didnt include telling the tale of the areas history.

Merle Block spent three weeks building the sod house in 1988.

But then the right offer appeared. A fair price, and a letter pledging to continue the museums legacy, while making some changes and updates.

That meant something to the sellers, Walker said. The property is under contract, the deal should close soon and the hand-built tribute to the past should have a future.

The Blocks are very much tied to that, she said. And theyre glad to see it continue.

The porch swing isn't the only attraction in Nebraska that claims a "world's largest" title. The Leon Myers Stamp Center at Boys Town is home to the world's largest stamp ball. The colorful ball has a 32-inch diameter, weighs 600 pounds and contains 4,655,000 postage stamps.

In downtown Omaha you'll find a 13-foot fork gathering up a bite of metal pasta. Jake Balcom designed the stainless steal sculpture called "Stile di Famiglia" (Family Style) for the The Homeowners Association of the Towns of Little Italy. You can see the sculpture at 1115 S. 7th St.

More about the artist: Jake Balcom

The Klown Doll Museum in Plainview is home to more than 7,000 dolls. Don't miss Stumpy the Klown, the museum's 8-foot-tall wooden mascot.

Beneath this concrete pyramid in Seward is a time capsule filled with an assortment of artifacts including a Chevy Vega. The items were placed in the capsule by Harold Davisson in 1975 with instructions to open the capsule on July 4, 2025. The pyramid is billed as the world's largest time capsule.

Hebron claims to be the home of the world's largest porch swing.

You can't have a list of odd attractions without including Carhenge. The monument near Alliance is one man's automotive tribute to England's ancient Stonehenge.

The tiny northeast Nebraska town of Maskell is home to the smallest city hall in the United States.

The Archway museum straddles Interstate 80 near Kearney. The 310-foot-long elevated building features exhibits and stories about America's western expansion.

The lower level of the Hastings Museum is dedicated to Kool-Aid, which was invented by Hastings native Edwin Perkins.

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The past and future of Gothenburgs Sod House Museum and the world's largest plow - MDJOnline.com

Photography by ALICE MARY HERDEN

Every year during the winter break, thousands of people take part in the annual Christmas Bird Count. December 14 this year marked Audubons 120th year.

The Christmas Bird Count was known as the Christmas Side Hunt, a holiday tradition back in the early 1800s, where riflemen would shoot and kill as many feathered fliers they could find in a particular area and at that time included small game. The group that had the most birds collected would win, what they won is unknown.

After years of conducting this Side Hunt, conservationists, including famed ornithologist Frank M. Chapman began to take notice of the decline in the birding population.

Frank M. Chapman came up with the idea of exchanging their rifles for a pair of binoculars and by that hopes to restore that areas birding population. From that day on, this became the most popular tradition among hundreds of thousands of avid birders.

According to The First Christmas Bird Count document on Audubon.org, the count held on December 25, 1900, twenty-seven participants observed over eighteen thousand individual birds and over eighty species. Ducks, sparrows, woodpeckers, and owls were among those species counted in over ten states, including Ontario.

The Christmas bird count has been the longest-running citizen science program in the U.S. if not in the world. Dr. Marianne Korosy, Director of Bird Conservation, said. Its important not only for Audubon members but people that are interested in birds.

Dr. Marianne Korosy explained another vital factor for this bird count: tracking changes in species diversity. For example, if species X had been observed at the same location for over eighty years and for the next twenty years, not one sighting was recorded, that could be one of the indicators of climate change.

The Christmas bird count not only documents the number of birds of each species but they document the diversity of the species that are present in the same time increment every year, Dr. Marianne Korosy said. The count always runs from December 14 to January 5. We are sampling, in essence, the birds in the same time frame every year in the same 15-mile diameter circle. That gives us a long-running database that we can evaluate trends, the population as well as species diversity.

Linda Vanderveen and Bev Hansen organized two separate bird counts in Hernando County.

On the Brooksville Christmas Bird Count, we got 110 species. The unusual birds were a Clay-colored Sparrow, a Peregrine Falcon, a Broad-winged Hawk, a Baltimore Oriole, and a Says Phoebe. The Brooksville Circles center is Bystre Lake, and the circle is 15 miles across. We have seven teams covering the areas.

The most numerous bird species were Robins, Crows, Ring-necked Ducks, Cowbirds, Coots, and Cattle Egrets. Birds that we dont find anymore are the Burrowing Owls, Great Horned Owls, and several species of ducks. Loss of habitat has taken a toll over the years.

~Linda Vanderveen via email

The most outstanding bird for the Aripeka-Bayport CBC is an adult male Hooded Oriole, a very rare bird that has only been documented in Florida twice before. It was found in Weekiwachee Preserve and is still being seen by countless birders who are traveling from various parts of the state to see it. Thirty-two birders participated in this count. We saw 17 species of ducks and 14 species of shorebirds.

Parenthetically, in the days after the CBC, while some birders were on their way to see the Hooded Oriole, they found another bird rarely seen in Hernando County called an Ash-throated Flycatcher. This is also in Weekiwachee Preserve.

~Bev Hansen via email

Hernando Audubons participation in the Christmas Bird Count can document changes in bird species happening here in Hernando county. Those feathered friends we see out and about during our hikes or walks, biking, driving, or even watching them visit bird feeders in our backyards is just one way of understanding the effects of habitat loss and changes in the climate.

Those interested in learning more about the Christmas Bird Count, please visit: https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count

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Birders document rare finds during the Annual Christmas Bird Count - Hernando Sun