Exhibit at Lake Geneva public library, December, 2011

Coke snuffs bottle ban in GC

According to the New York Times, 11/10/11, CokaCola used its influence through the National Parks Foundation (those people who send you requests for donations to the national parks about this time each year), to kill a NPS- proposed ban on plastic bottles in Grand Canyon NP.  Plastic bottles- largely through sale of disposable bottles of water, Gator Aide and the like, comprise 30% of the solid waste at GC, according to the NPS.  The Grand Canyon National Park staff sought to follow similar bans at at the Utah parks to cut down on waste and disposal loads.  Coke's Dasani brand of water would suffer from such a ban, which it made known through the NP Foundation, to whom it contributes each year.  Results:  the bottle ban was quashed by the Director of Parks in Washington.

I hate bottled water.  It represents the privatization (through corporate ownership) of formerly public water resources.  All such water goes into those ubiquitous plastic bottles, which get buried in landfills or incinerated in a cloud of ethylene chloride, hydrochloric acid, carbon monoxide and CO2.

Arrrggghhh!!!

On the South Kaibab Trail

Rogers Ridge painting

A shaft of light captured my imagination so I put it in this 18X24" oil on canvas

Rogers Ridge horse trail, VA Journeys, July 4

Link to paintings

My paintings are available on
www.zhibit.org/hougen

Clearcut at Ice Age Trail

Obviously the WI DNR is clearing some brush 

along the IceAgeTrail.  This shot was taken May 30 on the section between the horse camp and

Stone Elephant.  It was a huge mess:  ground torn up by heavy logging machinery, with all the ambience of a clear cut.  This stack of red pine logs is waiting for the lumber mill.

I thought there might be a better way to do it;

Whoever designed this logging machine 

must surely be a bustard.  For wherever

this contraption goes, there follows the garlic mustard.

In stead of hiring some jobless guys

with axes and scythes slightly rusted,

this carbon- belching monster goes--

technology not to be trusted.

The opinions are those solely of the management.  I am sure the DNR is doing the best they can with what they've been dealt (governor Walker, thank you again).

Purpose

Am I a hiker who paints or a painter who hikes?  The lack of posts suggests I'd rather be doing something else, which is true, such as hiking!  Herewith are some recent out- takes.

If Jared Loughner had a brother

If Jared Loughner had a brother, he'd live out here in these woods.  He'd shoot up signs, and songbirds and pines, and anything that he could.  I used to think country folks were fine, and did everything just as they should. But seeing the way you shot up this sign makes me feel like I'm back in the 'hood.

tornadoes & global warming

Amur Tiger (puzzle), with detail

Split Rock Light