About

I live in an area called the Back Mountain.  It is upland and northwest of a large and populated valley.  The Back Mountain comprises over 100 square miles and is home to approximately 27,000 humans.  It is a verdant and pastoral quilt of  relatively thriving communities and two college-sized universities. There are cows, sheep, and horses in the fields. Bear, deer, coyote, and fox roam the forests. The eagle and hawk patrol the skies. There are two large reservoirs; myriad ponds, lakes, streams, and creeks – all draining into the Susquehanna River, which drains into the Chesapeake Bay. Each foot of the way was once Paradise.

Recently, EnCana Corporation was given permission to drill three “exploratory” natural gas wells in the Back Mountain.  If this goes the way it has elsewhere, it will have major long term consequences for our good communities.  We must educate ourselves and our decision makers.

I will be posting information and links. I invite you to learn along with me.  I also encourage your comments and submissions.

Thanks for reading, hope to hear from you!

Herb Baldwin
2/3/10

3/9/10

I did not grow up here. I have lived in NEPA since 1974. I was born in Jersey City, NJ. In third grade we moved to the suburbs. My dad was a painter (ladders and scaffolds) for Western Electric who left school in the depression to find work. He drove jeep in the Battle of the Bulge and married my mom soon after the war. They had seven kids. He eventually got his GED and took a supervisory position as the maintenance foreman on the midnight shift. Dad let a worker sleep off a drunk the night the worker received his divorce papers. Dad was demoted back to the scaffolds and never again left them .

My mother’s dad wrestled and boxed to make extra money in the Great Depression. Grandma worked in the mills as a young girl and picked up the habit of pinching Red Top snuff into her nose. She sold her pies and wreaths walking through the neighborhoods of the wealthy.

I have worked in factories and offices.  I have worked for individuals, governmental agencies, and corporations.  I  live a modest and meaningful life.  The life my hard working forebearers wished for me.  They were sensible people.  A showy home, expensive automobiles, lavish clothes, and eighty dollar wines were all the province of kings and wannabees.  It was considered unsavory and aristocratic.  Not much use for that mind set.

3/31/10

I live in the Frances Slocum State Park area, but have been to Moon Lake many times. Anyplace where people can run, play, hike, swim, camp, learn, bike, and socialize reverberates through life like an endless smile. The gas it will be sacrificed for, will give but a few its’ neon pleasure and leave the rest of us in debt and diminished. As far as the County is concerned, mismanagement begets mismanagement. It is like a lie.

The opinions in this blog are mine and mine alone, unless otherwise noted. Thanks for reading!