And the Yadkin River Watershed
From almost anywhere in Winston-Salem that gives you a high vantage point when you look to the north you can see Pilot Mountain. That's What I grew up seeing. That view is not at risk, but the ability to enjoy visiting the mountain and the surrounding parks and bike trails are at risk. The risk will be both a visual eyesore plus an odorous and noxious. Two large commercial chicken farms are being put in the land between the mountain and the river.
These two commercial enterprises will consist of 8 45' X 500' chicken houses. Yeah, that's right 16 of them. That's 360,000 sq ft of chicken manure. They expect there to be 300,000 chickens raised there 3 to 5 times a year. That's up to 1.5M chickens a year.
These two Shoals Factory Farm sites will likely together grow more than 300,000 birds, five or more times per year for an annual rotation of over 1.5 million birds. Broiler chickens will grow in these two facilities in six or more weeks and be trucked out for processing and human consumption. This revolving chicken door is projected to result in approximately 8,520 tons of manure annually deposited on the doorstep of Pilot Mountain State Park, the Yadkin River, Horne Creek Living Historical Farm and Shoals Recreation Center. These calculations are based on data provided by the South Carolina Cooperative Extension through Clemson University . We believe everyone deserves an experience of our public resources that is free of the air, water, and noise pollution from this industrial activity that will harm each and every one of us.
8520 tons! Yep. you read that right, TONS.
That's a lot of shit. That's a lot of ammonia in the air in a small area.
Many of you may not have heard of Pilot Mtn. before, at least not as Pilot Mtn. You may have heard a reference on The Andy Griffith Show about Mt. Pilot, that was Andy's salute to his home turf. The town of Pilot Mtn. is just south of the mountain, Andy's hometown of Mt. Airy is just north of the mountain.
Join those of us who oppose the further construction of these monsters. By liking the Facebook page Save Pilot Mountain State Park and reading more about it at Save Pilot Moutain.org
Btw, just to give you an idea of scale, the Dean Smith Center (meaning the entire building not just the court) is 300,000 sq. ft. These monsters take up an additional 60,000 sq. ft. The average family farm sized chicken house is more along the range of 30' X 120' or 3600 sq. ft. Just one of these 45' X 500' big boy takes up 22,500 sq. ft.
There are lots of other considerations that I haven't covered. Many of you would know them better than I. The least of which is a degradation of wildlife habitat including nesting Bald Eagles.
On with the games!!
Mojo Friday Guidelines
Disclaimer; Kinda like the Pirates Code, they're just guidelines, meant for fun. They aren't hard and fast rules.
1) If you comment you have to recommend all comments. (in order to receive mojo you have to give mojo. It's only good mojo manners.)
2) Everything you say may be taken as a joke (so if you ask a question, expect a silly answer)
3) You must recommend the diary (and pimp it unapologetically)
4) You don't have to comment to recommend.
5) You can't steal my idea (right, like that ain't goin' to happen. It has in numerous forms, I'm flattered!)
6) Mojo mojo mojo mojo, mojo mojo mojo.
7) TexDem (that's me) is not bound by the guidelines. Neither are you
Mojo Friday Goals
Disclaimer; These are mostly here for nostalgia, the site has changed so much and the servers have been upgraded to the point I don't think we could fuck with the site with 1000 people participating. 2007 it ain't.
A. At least 300 different commenters and 1000 comments by 1:30 PM EST and 1500 by 5:00 PM EST Friday Night that it's posted.
B. 100 recommends for each comment, at least.
C. Stay on Recommend List at least five hours (this requires some strategic planning by you guys, refer to guideline #3)
D. At least 200 diary recommends. 300 would be better, spread the word.
E. And always, fun fun fun.
F. Have at least 75% average participation rate as seen here in the Mojo Friday Postgame Show by Woodtick and bjedward.
G. (New) Have at least 30 kossacks over 90% participation (see here for some tips).
H. Overload the servers with recommends, not to mention dominate Top Comments Mojo list. (we do tend to mess with the site with all of our recommends at one time)(also, to dominate the Top Comments Top Mojo we need at least 50 comments with over 200 recommends, see guideline B)
I. That's enough for now. (Have a suggestion? Post it.)
MKinTN posted a diary to help everyone achieve greater success called How to Succeed at Mojo Friday Without Really Trying.
For those of you new to MF (Mojo Friday) we have our own lingo about a few things. Thank's to MF'er Jez (the link will explain) go to this diary for a little more fun and explanation. Official Mojo Friday Snecktionary.