Random Topic #10

It’s been years since I’ve had poison ivy – and it’s probably due to just dumb luck as it is quite common in Arkansas and we have quite a bit of it on our property.  We don’t have any pets or other animals, so I’ve never really thought about how poison ivy would affect other creatures.

Poison ivy is an Asian and North American plant, known for the irritating, itching rash it causes in some people, a rash that is also sometimes painful.  The numerous subspecies of Toxicodendron radicans – poison ivy – are variable in appearance and habit and can be found growing as a climbing vine that grow on trees or other supports, a shrub as tall as 4 feet (1.2 meters), or as a trailing vine.  The compound that causes the rash is urushiol, an odorless, colorless clear liquid in the plant’s sap. Contrary to some beliefs, the urushiol in poison ivy is not a defensive measure to ward off animals, but, rather, helps the plant retain water.¹

While many sources say pets and virtually all other animals are not sensitive to effects of urushiol, some papers document that dogs can get the rash.²  Unfortunately, pets that roam outside can carry the oil to their humans as well as other surfaces.³  Poison ivy is commonly eaten by many animals, such as cattle, goats, deer and bear, and the seeds are consumed by birds. Studies have shown that white-tailed deer prefer eating poison ivy over most other plants.

Definition of urushiol: a mixture of catechol derivatives with saturated or unsaturated side chains of 15 or 17 carbon atoms that is an oily toxic irritant principle present in poison ivy and some related plants (genus Rhus) and in lacquers derived from such plants.⁴

Sources:

1. Toxicodendron radicans – Wikipedia
2. Dogs CAN Get Poison Ivy? – Poison Ivy
3. Do Dogs And Cats Get A Poison Ivy Rash? – About.com
4. Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Image information:

• Image by Jan Haerer (leoleobobeo); Accessed on Pixabay, October 12, 2016; CC0 Public Domain, Free for commercial use, No attribution required.
• This image differs from the original in that the dead foliage clutter has been converted to greyscale.  This does not change the copyright status of the work as the only original contribution is altering color.

21^st Century Digital #5

The top image is a digital “sketch” rendered from the digital photograph at the bottom.

Thousands of Chickens in an Alabama chicken house. (Akvis Sketch rendering) ¹

Thousands of chickens live in this large place where their main function is to lay eggs. Located in Monroe County, Alabama. May 2, 2010.²

Sources:

1. Image rendered via Akvis Sketch v.16.0; detailed sketch, original colors, intensity reduced
2. Highsmith, Carol M, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010639851/. (Accessed October 11, 2016.); Medium: 1 photograph : digital, TIFF file, color; Credit line: The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Highsmith, a distinguished and richly published American photographer, has donated her work to the Library of Congress since 1992. Starting in 2002, Highsmith provided scans or photographs she shot digitally with new donations to allow rapid online access throughout the world. Her generosity in dedicating the rights to the American people for copyright free access also makes this Archive a very special visual resource.

Random Topic #9 – sugar

Sugar beet workers, Sugar City, Colorado. Mary, six years, Lucy, eight, Ethel, ten.
Family has been here ten years. Children go to school in the winter. July 1915.¹

Three-year old Hilda, who is beginning beet work on a Wisconsin farm. July, 1915.²

“I don’t never git no rest.” This is the attitude that Henry, a six-year old beet worker takes toward life, on a Wisconsin farm. July, 1915.³

Ten-year-old Mollie Steuben topping beets. Many children of this age put in a full day’s work, and many begin younger. The work is hard and the children sometimes cut themselves or are “hooked” by the long tooth on the end of the blade. Mollie and her two sisters, 12 and 14 yrs. old, work from 6 A.M. to 5 P.M., near Sterling, Colorado, Oct. 21, 1915.⁴

Family of Fred Karb and their mud shack — beet workers near Sterling, Colo. They all work from 5:30 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. with about an hour for lunch. The 6 and 8 yr. olds pull and pile, -10 and 12 yr. olds pull and top. Oct 22, 1915.⁵

Part of the family of George Padroni, near Sterling, Colo. They have 9 children and some hired help. Only one child in school. This is 6 yr. old Lena, who works some, too. The 8 yr. old boy pulls and piles beets. 9 and 12 yr. old boys run the pulling machine, the mother said, “We all got to do all we can.” 11 yr. old girl piles and tops and does housework. 13 yr. old girl piles and tops. Says she hasn’t hurt herself with the knife this year, but did last year. The whole family begins work from 5 to 6 A.M. and works until 6 P.M. and after, with time off for dinner. Pedroni has been living here for 20 yrs., owns several hundred acres, about 100 in beets. Is said to be well-to-do.Location: Oct. 25, 1915.⁶

A Giddings beet-puller, drawn by 4 horses. The two knives pass along the sides of the beet rows and loosen the soil — but they do not pull the beets — the workers finish pulling by hand, often with some extra exertion. A kind of hand plow puller is often used on small farms. Near Sterling, Colorado, Oct. 23, 1915.⁷

The random topic this time was sugar which I used as a search term in the U.S. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. Several Lewis Hines photographs of child sugar beet workers appeared on the first page of the search, which led to refining the search to sugar beet workers, from which I selected this images

Sources:

1. Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/item/ncl2004004202/PP/. (Accessed October 06, 2016.)
2. Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer.  Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/item/ncl2004004216/PP/. (Accessed October 06, 2016.)
3. Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/item/ncl2004004203/PP/. (Accessed October 06, 2016.)
4. Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/item/ncl2004004286/PP/. (Accessed October 06, 2016.)
5. Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/item/ncl2004004301/PP/. (Accessed October 05, 2016.)
6. Wickes, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ncl2004004254/PP/. (Accessed October 06, 2016.)
7. Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ncl2004004310/PP/. (Accessed October 05, 2016.)

Three from the Road #13 – 2010 trip

West Fork of the White River, Brentwood Rest Area, Hwy 71, Arkansas

On July 2, 2010, our first day of travel for a trip out west, we were I540 in western Arkansas trying to decide where to pull over for a break and lunch. Just before we got to the Winslow exit, I remembered a rest area on old highway 71 that we used to stop at almost every time we went over the mountains.  We weren’t sure that it would be still open since almost all of the through traffic bypasses that area now.  We decided to check it out.

During the 1980s and 90s, we often traveled US Highway 71 to northwest Arkansas to visit Karen’s family. Along the way, we would sometimes make a stop at the State of Arkansas rest area near Brentwood. During most of that time, a new four lane highway was under construction to bypass old US 71.  On January 8, 1999, the new highway was fully opened to traffic as 540, reducing our travel time from sometimes over 3 hours – depending on traffic and weather – to just over 2 hours.

We were pleased to find that the rest area was not only still open, but had been significantly improved.  The rest room building and the area around it was still much the same, but remodeled, with new fixtures, and cleaner overall.

Located on US 71, between Winslow and West Fork, the park now boasts a 1/3 mile fitness trail and other recent improvements.  Part of the trail is on the bank of the West Fork of the White River, which at this time of year is normally little more than a trickle.

No longer a State of Arkansas facility, it is now the Brentwood Community Park.  With traffic moving to I540 (now I49) after that freeway opened in the late 90s, rest area usage plunged.  The Arkansas State Highway Department closed it in 2001 because of vandalism and lack of use.  It was subsequently reopened with the idea of locating a law enforcement substation there.  After that never materialized, the park was on the verge of being closed again when local residents volunteered to take care of daily maintenance.

West Fork of the White River, Brentwood Rest Area, Hwy 71, Arkansas

References:

• Brentwood Community Park

Art on Sunday #19, Random Topic # 8 and 21^st Century Digital #4

Sculpture Perforated Object at Virginia Street entrance of Bruce R. Thompson U.S. Courthouse, Reno, Nevada. 2007¹

This week’s Art on Sunday post was “inspired” by random topic selection “object” which was searched in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. As the original is digital in format, it also fits in my 21st century series.

A plaque, attached to a large granite boulder, situated just to the south of the sculpture, reads:

MICHAEL HEIZER
PERFORATED OBJECT
1996

Steel sculpture in two parts:
Virginia Street element: 27′ long, 9’9″ high, 5’5″ wide
Liberty Street element: 34′ long, 1’3″ high, 3’6″ wide

Perforated Object was inspired by an artifact discovered in 1936 in a excavation headed by anthropologist and archaeologist Robert F. Heizer, the artist’s father. The original artifact unearthed in the Humboldt Cave nearly 100 miles southeast of Reno, was carved from the horn of a bighorn sheep and “perforated” by 90 holes drilled through it. Created over 1500 years ago and left with the belongings of a Shoshone shaman. It’s purpose remains unknown, though it may have been of spiritual or ritual use.

This modern interpretation of the original object is constructed of bridge building steel and is approximately 450 times larger in size. The rough line of steel rings, placed on the opposite side of the building represent the negative space of the perforations, a reminder of the artifacts mystery. Perforated Object, fabricated at the artists Nevada studio, is simultaneously a contemporary public artwork and an emblem of the original early Native American inhabitants of the region.

Michael Heizer, the artist, was born in 1944 in Berkeley, California, and grew up visiting archaeological sites around the world. He is one of America’s most important and internationally acclaimed sculptors.

Commissioned for the United States by the General Services Administration
Art-in-Architecture Program

Source:

1. Highsmith, Carol M, photographer.  Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010720021/. (Accessed October 05, 2016.)
   Notes:
   • Medium: 1 photograph: digital, TIFF file, color.
   • Artist: Michael Heizer, 1996.
   • Steel, measuring 9.5′ x 27′.
   • Photographed as part of an assignment for the General Services Administration.
   • Credit line: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Dust, Drought, and Depression #10

State Faces Its Problem; Is Desperate¹

LOS ANGELES. (August 11, 1937)— Between 300,000 and 400,000 migrants from the dust bowl and flood areas in the East, Middle West and South, constitute the most serious problem facing California, in the opinion of Harold W. Robertson, field secretary of the Gospel Army, a religious and welfare organization, that has made a study of the migrant and transient problems in the San Joaquin and Imperial Valleys.
“Unless immediate measures are adopted to provide medical treatment and rehabilitation, also some plan to stop this homeless horde from coming into California, by autumn this state will be facing the most serious health, moral, economic and sociological problem in its history,’ Robertson declared.
Following are his opinions, the result of his trips to Northern and Southern California, and his observations In Los Angeles county:
“These refugees are mostly from the flood and dust bowl sections of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, with a smattering from Kansas and Oklahoma.
“The majority of them come to California within the last six or seven months, and according to a statement recently released by the U. S. Resettlement Bureau, 100,000 are on the way. Few of these people have obtained employment. They are settled mostly in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. in Los Angeles county, and in the Imperial Valley counties.
“A percentage of them come from the cotton states of the South and large numbers of these people who have had some experience with cotton, are camped in two counties where there are not jobs to take care of them

70,000 In Family Groups

“As far as I was able to determine through questioning chiefs of police, mayors and representatives of welfare organizations, approximately 70,000 migrants are camped in the valley counties in family groups. This does not include the single transient or migrant. I have been informed by members of the Los Angeles board of supervisors that the number of migrant or transient indigents in Los Angeles county is three or four times that number at the present time.
“There also is a large group camped around some of the Imperial Valley communities.
“Approximately one-half of this migrant group is of a particularly low moral caliber. Many of the adults have never had an education and are unable to sign its names to receipts for food and clothing given them by welfare associations.”

Four families, three of them related with fifteen children, from the Dust Bowl in Texas in an overnight roadside camp near Calipatria, California. March 1937.²

Missouri family of five, seven months from the drought area, on U.S. Highway 99 near Tracy, California. February 1937.

Refugee families near Holtville, California. February 1937

References:

1. Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph, Wednesday, August 11, 1937
2. Lange, Dorothea, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000000789/PP/. (Accessed October 04, 2016.)
3. Lange, Dorothea, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000000793/PP/. (Accessed October 04, 2016.)
4. Lange, Dorothea, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000000799/PP/. (Accessed October 04, 2016.)

Notes:

1. This post was originally published June 24, 2013. It has been updated to be more “mobile friendly” and republished October 8, 2016.

Lange, Dorothea, photographer. Sharecropper family near Hazlehurst, Georgia. July, 1937. Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000001489/PP/. (Accessed October 03, 2016.)

Farmers Desert Dust Bowl Lands¹

Settlement Problem Faces Officials

Washington, April 8, 1937 (AP)—Federal relief leaders said today one of their big unsolved problems was caring for between 100,000 and 150,000 farmers and their families who left the Great Plains drought area for a new start in the Far West.

The resettlement administration and state relief leaders in California, Washington, Oregon and Utah contend the migration is a national problem calling for federal action.

A federal report described the mass movement from the region of drought and dust storms as “probably the last great migration of settlers to the Far West.”

If searing heat and rainless weather should ruin crops on the Great Plains again this year, officials predicted the migration will reach larger proportions.

Resettlement officials estimated that more than half of the families who moved to the northwest were virtually destitute, about one-fourth had saved a few hundred dollars, while a few had salvaged enough to finance purchase of a new farm.

Lack of residence requirements made federal and state relief aid difficult, the survey said, and many families spent the winter in shacks, hovels, deserted tourist camps and tents.

“Living conditions in many of these shack towns were a disgrace to civilization.” the survey said.

Squatter camp on county road near Calipatria. Forty families from the dust bowl have been camped here for months on the edge of the pea fields. There has been no work because the crop was frozen. March 1937. ²

Part of the daily motorcade of drought refugees. The Montana-North Dakota state line. July 1936.³

Oklahomans bound for Oregon along a highway in California. February 1937.⁴

References:

1. Reading Eagle, Reading, Pennsylvania, April 8, 1937
2. Lange, Dorothea, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000000922/PP/. (Accessed October 03, 2016.)
3. Rothstein, Arthur, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998019552/PP/. (Accessed October 03, 2016.)
4. Lange, Dorothea, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998019552/PP/. (Accessed October 03, 2016.)

Notes:

1. This post was originally published June 17, 2013. It has been updated to be more “mobile friendly” and republished October 6, 2016.

Random Topic #7

The inspiration for this little video was selection of a random prompt, in this instance, “liberate.”  A search of the Internet Archive came up with the newsreel footage and, with a limited  amount of editing, this video was produced for a “random topic” blog post.

Video Selected, Edited and Published 9/23/2016