Plans derailed again!

 I try to stick to my plans but have to have priorities in order too. I got to CMO this morning to be greeted by a message on my answering machine from my husband, and he was very angry. For years I've been pressuring him to not mow the town habitat, but he feared a ticket from the city. Eventually he caved to my demands and didn't mow. Today he got a notice from the city. All my fault of course, and I'm ordered to "fix it." So I scrapped the trail plans and headed back to town.

This letter says the offense is "High weeds, including Right-of-way." First of all, it's the city's job to mow the right-of-way, not ours. Second, we do mow the right-of-way except for my flower patches which the city agreed to not mow last year and they didn't. Third, all around us are lots and yards full of weeds, tumbleweeds and worse. My husband thinks this is because the code enforcer doesn't like him because when my husband was on the city council he got into a heated argument with the enforcer about something. So I had to put the trail work on hold. Here are some photos of our "High weeds" taken today. The letter says it "must be cleaned and cleared within 10 days."

Our alley, kept mowed by us.

And here are photos of yards all within 2 blocks of us that are like this year-round. Never mowed. I took these photos a couple of months ago.

I rest my case. If you can, come by and see for yourself. (W Marfa St between 12th & 13 Street.) Or you can email the city manager at: 

city.manager@ci.alpine.tx.us

The squeaking wheel and all.....

It's a shame when you can own land in town but can't enjoy flowers and native grasses on it, instead must toil to keep it mowed to code. I don't like bloggers that use their blog for their political or religious agendas, and I don't do that, but you know how I do anything for my habitats, like the year (2011) that I bought and hauled water for an entire year.

Tomorrow I'm going to see about filing an appeal. It seems incomprehensible to me that our beautiful habitat isn't considered an asset to Alpine, instead of something to be condemned. And I'm not only fighting the city but fighting my husband over it too.