a very brief, micro-regional ecological survey

4. (bonus question) name an animal exclusively indigenous to your area.

1. under concrete, but clayey
2a. Hard enough to drive nails in with, flouridated
2b. yes
3. London plane, cherry
4. That beetle they found at the natural history museum that seems to be indigenous to London Planes.

1. full of oil and homeless man piss
2a. tastes like dry wall
2b. yes, dry wall provides roughage
3. a massive spire made of dog shit, soiled mattresses, and crumpled up beer cans; the entire neighborhood lies under its shadow.
4. Drunken Polish people who sit on their stoops with dead stares and suddenly begin to piss themselves, the urine streaming down the sidewalk.

1. Great for gardening/farming when they aren't building subdivisions on top of it.
2a. Soft. Flouridated.
2b. Yes.
3. Sugar maples, white oaks, sweet gum.
4. No idea.

1. chalk
2a. hard
2b. yes
3. beech, elm, sycamore, ash, hawthorn, blackthorn, elder
4. none that I know that are exclusive to the local area, but there are a few species that are restricted to chalk grassland that you won't find elsewhere in the UK (e.g. adonis blue butterfly)

1. Dark and rich for the first inch or so, then lots of clay underneath. No problem w/growing.
2a. Clean, soft, clear.
2b. Yes.
3. Maple, ash, dogwood, willow, fir.
4. None that I know of.

1. sand straight to the bedrock
2a. well-water, soft and wonderful
2b. there's an industrial filter on the pump
3. red pines, white pines, scrubby oaks
4. some special variety of sand pipers

1. Not sure, but corn, soybeans and cotton jump straight up out of it if it rains enough. At the south end of the county, there's an area where the soil is so rich it's almost black.

2. Not too hard, not too soft, and very tasty.
2a. yes

3. white pine and red oak

4. there's this orange tabby cat that doesn't stray too far from our block.

1. There are enough vegetables in the back yard for me to think it is reasonable fertile.

2. It has a weird taste, even after the Brita gets to it. I might need to adjust to it.

3. That is a good question that I don't have an answer to. I'm more curious about what these birds are that I'm constantly seeing. I'm sure the answer is something dull -- I'm usually not terribly interested in the names of such things -- but I've been seeing these particular birds quite a lot, and they are so brown and unassuming, that I am curious.

4. It's by no means exclusively indigenous to this region, but this is the first place I've lived with black squirrels, and I'm not used to them yet.

Does that make me a racist.

1. Sand, mostly.

2. It's quite good, actually.

3. Yes.

4. Redwoods, eucalyptus, olive

1. heavy clay
2a. chlorinated
2b. yes
3. oak
4. not exactly indigenous, but there is a species of psychotic magpie

1. Claggy
2a. Delicious
2b. Hell, yes.
3. Deciduous

4. Nothing. England innit.

1. alkaline. sometimes contaminated.
2a. i'm sure it's fine... tap water is very highly regulated.
2b. no, it just tastes better after a run through the brita.
3. coniferous, broadleaf. there are a lot of palm trees here but they're non-native and dying off.
4. the chihuahua-in-a-prada-purse

1. er, earthy (really not sure, I think it's okay)
2.(a) Quite nice.
2(b) Nope
3. Lime, London Plain, Horse Chestnut

4. No creatures that are rare.

2 (b) I meant yes. Duh sorry.

1. what's the soil like where you live?
dry?

2a. what's the tap water like?
2b. do you drink your tap water unfiltered?
fine w/ ice, yes if no other options present themselves

3. what kinds of trees do you see most frequently?
elms, I think, maybe pine

4. (bonus question) name an animal exclusively indigenous to your area.
horned frogs?

1. It is sandy! Chiles and pecans grow here a treat – I don't know what coalescing factors of soil & clime lead to this. I am really temped to call my father-in-law, the USDA soil scientist, but not THAT worth it.

2a. The tap water has a lot of minerals at the bottom. The water, in sum, is extremely hard.

2b. Hell yes I drink it unfiltered. (I think the main reason though is being brought up like "American water is the best regulated; filtering it is paranoid and insulting!" Which is mostly true.)

3. Trees PLANTED include the Spanish cypress, the pecan tree, palm trees, and the Texas live oak. Trees out and about...the main large fauna is creosote, ocotillo, aloe and yucca (these get planted a lot too). None of these are trees but they all get fucking big. The main trees out in the desert are Russian olives, which are non-native and basically weeds.

4. Giant 'flying creatures'

Oops I meant large FLORA. Sorry about my bout of dipshititis!