Season of sugar and mud

© harrington

Welcome, Thanks for dropping in. The dark dots you can see above the shadow line in the photo are actually a couple of tom turkeys walking across the neighbor's field yesterday afternoon. If the photo were larger, you would be able to notice that the snow cover is shallow enough that most of the birds' legs are visible. The snow cover on the township road is also very shallow. Unfortunately, although turkeys and deer don't seriously compact snow in the woods and fields, cars and trucks do compact it on township roads. Then, when we get to celebrate Spring, our country roads (thank you, John Denver) turn to ice and mud. Where the clay content of the class five aggregate is high enough and combines with snow melt, it's hard to tell one from the other. Neither does anything for traction or directional stability. If it weren't for the occasional deer or turkey that decides it's better and safer to run in front of an on-coming vehicle than to wait, icy roads would be less of a hazard. On the plus side, warm days above freezing and cold nights mean that sugaring season is underway. Maybe one of the few positives that may come to My Minnesota as a result of being the top warming state in the nation could be an increase in the number of sugar maple trees growing here and the amount of maple syrup produced. One the other hand, the current drought and our profligate use of water, combined with the impacts of climate change, may present more problems for wild rice growing. We have created a consumer culture and, although we're really, really good at consuming the earth's resources, we haven't realized yet that, when our climate's gone, we can't just buy another to replace it, not even a "new and improved" climate with more warming power with the naming rights going to Fossilfuels, Inc. Just imagine the entertainment value and good will "this thousand year storm brought to you by Fossilfuels." Thanks again for coming. Stop back again soon. Rants and/or raves served daily here in My Minnesota.