Well, Gary, you have pretty much made my point for me. "Nothing much happened until these projects were undertaken." Meaning that before those projects were undertaken, no overdevelopment was underway, no rampant, unchecked growth, no overcrowding, no overpaving, no serious strain on the aquifer and no real threat to the creatures who were here before us. I agree that's true. And I wish the rush to develop Florida had been handled in such a way that those conditions were still prevalent in many more areas of the state. In my opinion, there are WAY too many people jammed into Florida today, and what has made that possible is the complete lack of foresight and planning. I don't really want to get "political" per se, either, and I agree that at this point we can't turn the clock back and undo very many of the things that were done in well-meaning but ill-advised this planet refforts to grow, grow, grow. But for me, Life on earth really ISN'T "all about people." I believe we are supposed to fit INTO the grand scheme of things on the planet, rather than tromp roughshod over it all, with no regard for other living creatures and their habitats. In other words, the more I learn about humans, the more I like animals. ;o) But truthfully, I'm willing to compromise. I know we are here to stay. I just feel we should each do our part, as best we can, to at LEAST not make things worse. And at best, to undo some of the disasterous money-making, land-grabbing, swamp-draining, canal-digging mistakes of the past. Some of those mistakes were made due to the expansionist ideas at that time in history, and some were made out of sheer greed and total disregard for anything or anyONE coming later. It's incumbent upon US today to try to decide which of these problems can be addressed and possibly corrected, and which we just have to learn to live with. We have to pick our battles wisely and try to do a better job of planning for future generations of both people and wildlife. Again, these are just my own personal thoughts on the matter, and not meant to start any kind of argument. But in my book, these three things are true: ecology is not a bad word, extremism on either side of the issue is counter productuve, and there should be plenty of middle ground to be explored when dealing with these issues. Marcia

Herb, I followed the link and visited his home page, but didn't find any photos of his own work. I think drawings, sketches and even photos of the designer's work go a long way to convincing the prospective client of their own capabilities... a gallery section would be a great addition to his site but the basics are explained concisely, and any beginner would benefit from reading them.. Here's an example of a site here in Australia which I think covers this aspect rather well.. and maybe there are also a few ideas for Eric :) Here is a link that might be useful: Gallery

I also believe somewhat the "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger", but I have limits. My old doctor who was a very wise and moderate man told me that we were "sanitizing ourselves sick" and that if we didn't expose ourselves and our children to soem things we'd never develop a natural immunity. Of course, I'll kiss a horse on the lips, don't blink when I eat ice cream with raw eggs (although the fat content gives me pause, LOL), if I find a dog hair in something I pick it out. I eat raw tomatoes from the garden, dusted off on my shirt, although I know I grew them in nicely composed cow manure. However, I don't eat meat that's been sitting on the counter for two days, I won't buy home canned goods from people I don't know and I cringe when someone sits their purse on my counter, knowing that purse has been on the floor of the bathroom, the back seat of the car, sitting on the sidewalk. I really don't like it when I go somewhere and see cats walking on counters either, because I know they've dug in their litter box. At my home I just quietly clean the counter before I start food prep and don't obsess. At the cat's home, I just shut up because although I find it icky, it won't kill me and I know it. And I'm not one of the people who get so grossed out over a bug. Insects are eaten in many parts of the world (although I choose not to except in case of starvation) and I love lobster which is basically a huge water bug. Yeah, really, it is, look it up. So, at the end of the world, the zombies are going to have to do me in, my immunity at this point is pretty good. Annie

I've eaten horse, during the PBB scandal when all the cattle were poisoned and dropping over from PBBs in the cattle feed. LindaC, I bought Pocky at my local Meijer's and sent it to dishesdone, they had a chocolate and a strawberry version. Ashley says she's gotten it at WalMart right next to the college, it's a cookie shaped long and thin, not as big around as a pencil and dipped in chocolate or strawberry fudge. I have eaten crocodile AND alligator, and black pudding which Grandma used to call blood sausage. Nettle tea tastes icky and "green" but is supposed to be a diuretic and make your hair shiny, I can't figure out what the heck those two things have to do with each other, but I've tasted it because it's also supposed to be helpful for anemia. I didn't see that it helped. I had chicken tiki masala at a restaurant in Ann Arbor with Elery. It was basically a chicken dish with a curry kind of sauce over rice. Eh. I'm not a huge fan of curry. Paneer? Elery likes cheese. A lot. So we tried this, it kind of reminded me of the homemade yogurt cheese I make by putting yogurt in a strainer and letting it drain for several hours. Criollo chocolate is just a variety of cocoa bean. It's expensive and I found it to be very mild, I wasn't all that impressed with THAT either. I think I bought it at Fresh Market, and everything there is expensive so maybe that's just why it cost more. Tom Yum is just soup. I think it had coconut milk in it and it kind of reminded me of Chinese hot and sour. Annie