GRACIE AND GEORGE, THE TWO BALD EAGLES WHO MAKE THEIR WINTER HOME ON HILTON HEAD ISLAND, HAVE WELCOMED THE FIRST OF WHAT THEY HOPE ARE TWO EAGLETS THIS SEASON. THE FIRST HATCHLING CRACKED ITS SHELL ON SATURDAY EVENING AND BY MONDAY MORNING HAD COMPLETELY BROKEN FREE. IF MOTHER NATURE WORKS HER MAGIC IN AN ORDERLY FASHION, THE SECOND EAGLET COULD APPEAR IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS, THEIR EGGS WERE LAID THREE DAYS APART JUST BEFORE THANKSGIVING. GEORGE AND GRACIE ARE ALREADY COMBING THE ISLAND FOR FOOD TO HELP THEIR GROWING BROOD. THE EAGLETS GAIN ABOUT A HALF-A-POUND A WEEK FOR THEIR FIRST TWO MONTHS. YOU CAN WATCH THE NEST FOR THE NEXT HATCHLING AND WATCH THE LITTLE ONES GROW AT HHILANDTRUST.ORG.
AND THEN THERE’S THE 4-YEAR-OLD HILTON HEAD CAT NAMED FLOUNDER WHO’S BECOME A LITERARY STAR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON. AUTHOR NINA LEIPOLD FEATURES A TOY PIANO, A SMALL SKATEBOARD, A RED TUBE TUNNEL AND FLOUNDER’S FAVORITE, A MANGLED STUFFED MOUSE THAT GIVES HER BOOK ITS TITLE, ‘LOVE YOU, MOUSE TOY.’ A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, LEIPOLD PULLED OUT A SOUNDBOARD THAT HAS BUTTONS THAT PLAY THE RECORDING OF A WORD. FLOUNDER APPEARED TO BE TRYING TO COMMUNICATE WITH LEIPOLD AND THE SOUNDBOARD WAS THE ANSWER- STARTING WITH THE BUTTONS THAT SAID ‘PLAY’ AND ‘OUTSIDE’. NOW FLOUNDER CAN COMMUNICATE WITH OVER 100 WORDS- ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR BEING ‘MOUSE’- REFERRING TO HER MOUSE TOY, WHICH LED TO THE BOOK, WRITTEN AND DOCUMENTED BY FLOUNDER AND Q-R CODES ON EVERY PAGE OF A BOOK YOU CAN FIND ONLINE.
YOU’VE LIKELY HEARD A LOT ABOUT THE GROWTH OF WHAT’S CALLED ‘DATA CENTERS’, HUGE GROUPS OF BUILDINGS USED TO MANAGE DATA THAT ARE PROMISING JOBS, BUT ALSO INCREASED ENERGY AND WATER USAGE. RESIDENTS IN WALTERBORO HAVE BEEN LOUDLY DISCUSSING A PROPOSED 860-ACRE DATA CENTER NEAR THE HEAD OF THE ACE BASIN, A LONG-ESTABISHED WETLANDS CONSERVATION AREA. WALERBORO’S ZONING APPEALS BOARD IS CONSIDERING A CHANGE IN ZONING TO ALLOW CONSTRUCTION OF THE CENTER BUT IS GETTING AN EARFUL FROM HUNDREDS OF RESIDENTS CITING ENVIRONMENTAL AND ELECTRICITY RATE ISSUES. DURING JUST THE SECOND QUARTER OF LAST YEAR, 20 DATA CENTER PROJECTS NATIONWIDE WERE DELAYED, OR BLOCKED ENTIRELY BY COMMUNITY OPPOSITION.
THE END OF THE YEAR IS PROBABLY A GOOD TIME TO EVALUATE YOUR BOSSES. FORBES MAGAZINE HAS RANKED THE TOP COMPANIES TO WORK FOR IN SOUTH CAROLINA, RELEASING A LIST OF 15 BEST-IN-THE-STATE COMPANIES THAT EMPLOY MORE THAN 7-THOUSAND EMPLOYEES NATIONWIDE AND EXEMPTS ORGANIZATIONS LIKE COLLEGES, SCHOOL DISTRICTS, GOVERNMENT OFFICES AND CHARITIES. COMPANIES WERE EVALUATED ACROSS 11 CATEGORIES INCLUDING EMPLOYEE AND CUSTOMER SENTIMENT, SUSTAINABILITY, DIVERSITY AND WORKFORCE STABILITY. TWO OF THE TOP 15 ARE IN OUR PART OF THE LOWCOUNTRY, SEA PINES RESORT IS RANKED 9TH, ITS SISTER PROPERTY AT KIAWAH ISLAND IS 13TH, THE BERKELEY HALL CLUB IS 14TH. MICHELIN TIRE IN GREENVILLE IS THE NUMBER ONE PLACE TO WORK ACCORDING TO FORBES.