In the Child Care business? Know someone who is? An update on two citizen involvement stories. Don't only take my word for it, get involved. Lastly, buzz pollination.
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In the Child Care business? Know someone who is?
I recently got the Request for Comment in my inbox from the Colorado Department of Early Childhood.
It's asking for providers to send in written comment about (quoting the request page linked below):
"Proposed changes to the Rules Regulating Child Care Centers that Provide Less than 24-hour Care. These proposed changes will add rules regulating Outdoor Nature-Based Preschools (ONB) and update small child care center rules to allow for the care of infants and toddlers."
If that sounds like you or someone you know, go to the link below, look over the rules, and send in your thoughts (or send the link to someone who is in the business).
We get the government we allow. Speaking up may not result in things changing to be what you want, but I can guarantee that NOT speaking up will.**
If it's your business or your livelihood, don't wait for someone else to do it. Get involved and be sure that what needs to be said, gets said.
**And the Colorado Dept of Early Childhood is one of the worst offenders: there's not even an unelected board, there's an unelected single individual making decisions (with the advice of a group that doesn't get a vote).
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CODEC/bulletins/3e57d12
An update on two citizen involvement stories
I wanted to update a couple examples of citizens getting involved locally that I've been following.
The first link below (by the time you read this it might be official) details how the Karman Line Annexation in the Springs seems to have failed. This was the flagpole annexation that the City Council decided to move forward with despite repeated negative comment from residents and farmers in the Lower Arkansas. A group of citizens got together and gathered signatures to put the issue on the ballot so voters could get the final say.
As someone who is concerned about the farmers in the Lower Arkansas and their ability to farm, I was glad to see it. I'm sure the people working against the annexation feel the same.
The second link below is an update to Elbert County's consideration of the Xcel Power Pathways project. The Elbert County Commissioners voted unanimously to reject Xcel's plan. This is another effort I supported and am glad that the ElbertCo folks stood up. They've been quite active at every step of the Power Pathways approval and have marshalled their neighbors to make their local government speak up for them. This is a victory well earned.
What do both of these stories have in common?
They are both examples of citizens working locally to make an impact on their everyday lives. They're both about ordinary people having their fill and standing up.
There is no guarantee of success (there wasn't for the folks here either), but you are sure to fail if you don't try.
I hope that these two updates serve as an example and inspiration if you're currently trying to get involved. If you're not and these stories give you the encouragement you needed to go from "I should do something" to "I will do something", but you don't know where to start, let me know. I can connect you to resources.
https://coloradocommunitymedia.com/2025/06/17/elbert-planners-reject-xcel-plan/
Don't only take my word for it, get involved.
Ms. Jiblits lives in Elbert County and is part of the group that is fighting Xcel Energy's Power Pathways Project (see the post prior to this one -- you will find Ms. Jiblits quoted in the article I use as a reference).
She frequently gives me heads up on their efforts and recently I asked her if she'd be willing to write something about getting involved.
It's one thing to hear it preached repeatedly by me, another to hear it from someone who's put in the actual work.
She agreed and what she sent me is linked at bottom. There is a quote I would like to excerpt from it because it encapsulates exactly the way I feel.
"People feel that they have no say in government decisions. I believe that if there is an issue about which you feel strongly, you need to get involved, especially at the local level. By building a collaborative relationship with local officials and residents, you can have a positive influence on local government decisions that will affect your community. You can’t just complain, you have to take action."
Thank you Ms. Jiblits for getting involved and thank you for sharing a story and (I hope) some inspiration.
Buzz pollination
That time of the week again. Time for something for fun, something interesting, not related to politics.
I was watching something about bees and pollination recently, and learned that there is more than one way that flowers get pollinated by bees. Different kinds of bees, that is.
There is the usual way, the one you're likely thinking of when you think of (European) bees pollinating crops: the bees fly from flower to flower, pollen attaches to their bodies, this pollen then fertilizes the next flower they land on.**
There are some flowers, however, where the pollen cannot be got at readily because it's in an area too small for insects to crawl into. These flowers are fertilized like normal. The pollen still needs to be spread on the stamen to fertilize the ovum ("eggs" are the animal equivalent) of the plant, but no bug can get up there to spread it around. Next time you see a tomato flower, look carefully at it. The pollen is up there inside that yellow cone and the entrance is tiny, even by bug standards.
Such plants require buzz pollination: they need to be vibrated to jar the pollen loose so it can fall down inside the flower and fertilize the ovum.
An old gardeners' trick I once read had it that you periodically shake your tomato plants to increase your yield. The modern equivalent, a YouTube "secret", is to hold an electric toothbrush up to the flower. I've idly shaken tomatoes when bored, but I've never done the toothbrush. I don't know that I've noticed a difference. Besides, I prefer to have bees and plenty of flowers of all kinds to keep a ready stream of pollinators coming by my yard to keep my yields up.
Clearly (and obviously) plants have been getting buzz pollinated long before humans or their electric toothbrushes, so how do insects do it?
There may be other insects and other ways--see the first link below for a Wikipedia explainer-- but the way the lecturer highlighted in the series I watched was how bumblebees do it.
Bumblebees somehow detach or repurpose some of their flight muscles. After doing so, they rapidly contract and relax these muscles so their body vibrates like an electric toothbrush. The Wikipedia page has a pretty neat video showing a bumblebee in action. Go and check it out. It's exactly the kind of shaking that plants requiring buzz pollination want.
At this point, you might be wondering what the bumblebees get? After all, without nectar to drink which we're all familiar with in "regular" pollination, why bother spending the time? The pollen. The pollen is also nutritious to insects. Shaking the flower causes enough pollen to fall to fertilize the ovum and give Bumble a snack.
They clearly need food. If you've seen bumblebees, you'll note that those things are BIG!
Grace Note:
I found something else on the topic to share. As someone who grows (tries to at any rate) blueberries, I noted in my reading that blueberries are also pollinated by buzz pollination.
Since the native and non-native pollinators that hang around my house are usually active after the blueberry bushes bloom, I can't really depend on them. So I might just be out in early Spring with an electric toothbrush vibrating my blueberries. Yes, blueberries matter that much.
On the other hand, per the second link below, apparently European bees are learning to pollinate blueberries, so maybe I won't bother.
That's it for today.
Enjoy the rest of Friday and I'll see you back at it on Sunday!
**Many plants, by a variety of means, have ways to prevent self-pollination. That is, that the pollen from one flower is either prevented from or unable to fertilize that same flower.