As April leafs out of the North Country #phenology

Within the past few days the countryside has come alive. Leaf out and bud burst is now obvious almost everywhere. Tints of green, in multiple shades, are splattered across treetops, interspersed with the red-maroon-pinks of maples. More birds are singing from fewer bare, leafless branches.

marsh marigolds in bloom

Photo by J. Harrington

Marsh marigolds and skunk cabbages have emerged along local creeks and rivulets that are flowing full from April's showers. Threats of Springtime flooding seem to have diminished into disappearance. Spring's arrival felt tardy this year but has now burst, quite literally, onto the scene. Somewhere in and around marshes Canada geese and sandhill cranes are incubating eggs. More and more bald eagles are nesting in our area and web cams reveal eaglets that  have hatched.

leaf out's beginnings

Photo by J. Harrington

Tomorrow we pick up the first of our Spring Greens Community Supported Agriculture [CSA] shares from a local CSA. The [updated] greens include:

• Pirat lettuce
• Pea shoots
• Butter green salanova lettuce
• Green onions
• Green oak Sweet crisp salanova lettuce
• Kale
• Arugula

One of the challenges of having become an ardent supporter of local foods is that the Better Half is, quite literally, making me eat my words. Most of my life I've been near  the front of the class of the "meat and potatoes" school. Learning to eat my greens is causing me to swallow hard and learn to taste the bitter with the sweet.

cutting greens

By Lucille Clifton

curling them around

i hold their bodies in obscene embrace

thinking of everything but kinship.

collards and kale

strain against each strange other

away from my kissmaking hand and

the iron bedpot.

the pot is black,

the cutting board is black,

my hand,

and just for a minute

the greens roll black under the knife,

and the kitchen twists dark on its spine

and I taste in my natural appetite

the bond of live things everywhere.

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Time for a change of diet?

Does Minnesota have a Food System Plan? Should it? Here's some background for your consideration.

Minnesota does well with apples but we need more than fruit

Photo by J. Harrington

More than a decade ago, the state of Vermont enacted legislation calling for a "ten year Farm to Plate Strategic Plan."

Farm to Plate is Vermont’s food system plan being implemented statewide

to increase economic development and jobs in the farm and food sector

and improve access to healthy local food for all Vermonters.

Around  the Chesapeake Bay, there's a multi-state foodshed network supporting a vision of:

A sustainable, resilient, inclusive and equitable food system that supports healthy communities, land and waterways in the Chesapeake Bay watershed 

Minneapolis was once know as "Mill City." That's changed

Photo by J. Harrington

Here in Minnesota, we have lots of activities supporting our farm and food systems, but, so far, I've found no indication there's a coherent statewide vision, although I have found so far at lease three regional visions and a statewide perspective.

• Region 5, a multi-county region centered around Crow Wing County, has focused on the local food system as an asset for economic development and the creation of a resilient region.
• Southern Minnesota has an  evaluation of local food systems as regional economic drivers.
• Northern Minnesota has Food Sovereignty in Northern Minnesota; Building a Sustainable and Accessible Food System in This Region
• Minnesota even has drafted a Food Charter, although  it appears there's insufficient interest or support for ongoing efforts.

If you've been following recent news, you've probably seen reports of meet processing and packing plants being  shut  down do to COVID-19. You may have seen coverage of farmers destroying and/or dumping food due to the pandemic and reduced markets. Meanwhile, "37 million people struggle with hunger in the United States..." Here in Minnesota, 

• Nearly 900,000 Minnesota residents live in lower- income communities with insufficient grocery store access. This grocery gap is fourth worst in the nation and disproportionately affects Minnesotans living in rural communities and tribal nations.1
• Rates of obesity and diet-related diseases and the resulting costs to society demonstrate the impact that these inequities have on the health and prosperity of our state; Minnesota incurs $2.8 billion in obesity- related healthcare costs per year.2
• Investing in healthy food infrastructure and agriculture could yield $2.9 billion per year
  for a state like Minnesota.3

You may also have read or heard that the way we produce and waste food has a lot to do with solving, or exacerbating, the  problems we've created by breaking the climate. "...agriculture and forestry activities generate 24% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. "

There's an old saying that seems to fit our current situation: "You ain't lost if you don't care where you are." It seems to me it's in our best interest to care where we are and where our  food system is headed, unless we believe climate change and future pandemics won't affect it or us, it's time for:

Change

By Wendy Videlock

Change is the new, 

improved 

word for god, 

lovely enough 

to raise a song 

or implicate 

a sea of wrongs, 

mighty enough, 

like other gods, 

to shelter, 

bring together, 

and estrange us. 

Please, god, 

we seem to say, 

change us.

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What does resilience feed on?

Have you noticed that many of the "systems" on which we rely are not serving us well when faced with COVID-19. Is a significant part of the issue related to increased centralization that dominates markets (e.g., Amazon?)? How much freedom have we traded for lower prices? Take a look at James Howard Kunstler's Long Emergency. Has the "health care" system been able to respond to the coronavirus crisis and keep the doors open for other non-critical medical needs? What do the shelves look like in your local supermarket?

farm direct sales

Photo by J. Harrington

Let me suggest that we seem to be lacking accountability for the performance of our health care system(s) and our food system(s) because there's no real system planning or entity responsible for making sure systems function under what we should anticipate as a sequence of growing disruptions. We've barely begun to return to what used to pass for normal after the "great recession" of a decade or so ago and then the coronavirus pandemic struck. Now we have major corporations demanding we bail them out while threatening an inability to perform such basic functions as providing food (chicken, hogs, beef?).

is all farm country food country?

Photo by J. Harrington

We have major systems design, operations and accountability issues facing us individually and collectively. This should come as no surprise. Fortunately some folks, such as those at thrive, are focused on how we can create more resilient systems. Here's a list of seven principles they suggest help ensure system resilience. To read the details, visit Everybody’s talking about resilience, but does anyone know how to apply it?

SEVEN PRINCIPLES

Principle one: Maintain diversity and redundancy

Principle two: Manage connectivity

Principle three: Manage slow variables and feedbacks

Principle four: Foster complex adaptive systems thinking 

Principle five: Encourage learning

Principle six: Broaden participation

Principle seven: Promote polycentric governance

If you think about it a little bit, you may realize that our current political "system" is maladapted to deal with resilience thinking. We're going to have to figure it out and then make our "political leaders" do what's needed. That's if we haven't beaten each other to a pulp first.

This Morning I Pray for My Enemies

Joy Harjo - 1951-

And whom do I call my enemy?
An enemy must be worthy of engagement.
I turn in the direction of the sun and keep walking.
It’s the heart that asks the question, not my furious mind.
The heart is the smaller cousin of the sun.
It sees and knows everything.
It hears the gnashing even as it hears the blessing.
The door to the mind should only open from the heart.
An enemy who gets in, risks the danger of becoming a friend.

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More signs of Spring #phenology

I am remiss by a couple of days reporting that a couple of branches on the forsythia in the back yard have blossoms. That bush gets way more sun than the ones in front which are partially shaded by a tall pine and have started leaf out but no flowers yet.

In another sign of the season, outside window washing started today. The upstairs (deck) and downstairs (screen porch / patio) walkout doors got the proverbial "lick and a promise" today. That activity was prompted by the dogs rediscovering how transparent the screen door is as they crashed through it to chase a squirrel that was on the deck starting to nibble on the leaves of the healthiest of the beach plum plants. Both dogs have been sent  to their rooms for a time out while walkout windows were washed and reinstallation of the screen door was accomplished. The reinstallation was significantly aided and abetted by my Better Half. I was too busy looking for the temper I had lost to be well focused on the details of putting the screen (and my equanimity) back on track.

SiSi at 1, seven  years ago

Photo by J. Harrington

One of the house-wreckers, my SiSi, had been celebrating her seventh anniversary living with us just prior to the screen door event. This after she had spent  the morning trying to hide in the pocket of my jeans. I had forgotten just how skittish she is around thunder. She finally decided that hiding in the corner behind me in my reading chair was her best option. Obviously, she had fully recovered her "playfulness" by the time she spotted the squirrel on the deck but failed to notice the screen door between her and the squirrel.

SiSi when not eating, chasing squirrels, or hiding from thunder

Photo by J. Harrington

If you have a dog, or have had a dog, or some day hope to have a dog, you will probably enjoy Mary Oliver's Dog Songs volume and, for some of the best writing ever about dogs and the people they own, take a look at any of Gene Hill's dog stories, for example Tears and Laughter. That pretty well covers what SiSi and I and our Better Half have been through today. Be well, stay healthy, enjoy Spring!

The Power of the Dog

Rudyard Kipling - 1865-1936

There is sorrow enough in the natural way

From men and women to fill our day;

And when we are certain of sorrow in store,

Why do we always arrange for more?

Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware

Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy

Love unflinching that cannot lie—

Perfect passion and worship fed

By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.

Nevertheless it is hardly fair

To risk your heart for a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits

Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,

And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs

To lethal chambers or loaded guns,

Then you will find—it’s your own affair—

But… you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,

With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!).

When the spirit that answered your every mood

Is gone—wherever it goes—for good,

You will discover how much you care,

And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way,

When it comes to burying Christian clay.

Our loves are not given, but only lent,

At compound interest of cent per cent.

Though it is not always the case, I believe,

That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more do we grieve:

For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,

A short-time loan is as bad as a long—

So why in—Heaven (before we are there)

Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

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Bud burst, leaf out, burst of color #phenology

Leaf buds are bursting. The tiniest of leaves are appearing, softening the bare branch outlines of trees. Maple flowers have opened. Day lilies grow taller daily.  I have once again passed through a North Country Winter without carefully reading either a botany or a phenology primer. I'm embarrassed. On the other hand, I read quite a bit of poetry and a lot about agriculture and food systems (but I still haven't mastered making compost at home). For reasons far beyond my ability to guess at, let alone comprehend, the local tamaracks have been slow to green up this year and  the oaks seem later than usual to start leaf out. The showers and warmer temperatures expect during the next several days may well jump start more activity on  the greening up front.

backyard deer droppings

Photo by J. Harrington

We had a grackle at the feeder yesterday. I don't remember seeing that before. Nor do I remember seeing as many deer droppings all over the yard as there are this Spring. If I had to bet, I'd guess they were foraging on the acorn mast that dropped in great quantities last Autumn. There's lots left that still needs to get raked up. Mother Nature is often profligate in her ways. A quick scan of the chrome yellow male goldfinches now in their breeding plumage reveals she's extravagant in many ways.

male goldfinches in Summer colors

Photo by J. Harrington

Sometimes I think the year after year variability in Spring's arrival is to teach us not only to pay attention but to give us practice in growing our patience as well as our gardens.

Such Singing in the Wild Branches

It was spring

and I finally heard him

among the first leaves––

then I saw him clutching the limb

in an island of shade

with his red-brown feathers

all trim and neat for the new year.

First, I stood still

and thought of nothing.

Then I began to listen.

Then I was filled with gladness––

and that's when it happened,

when I seemed to float,

to be, myself, a wing or a tree––

and I began to understand

what the bird was saying,

and the sands in the glass

stopped

for a pure white moment

while gravity sprinkled upward

like rain, rising,

and in fact

it became difficult to tell just what it was that was singing––

it was the thrush for sure, but it seemed

not a single thrush, but himself, and all his brothers,

and also the trees around them,

as well as the gliding, long-tailed clouds

in the perfect blue sky–––all of them

were singing.

And, of course, so it seemed,

so was I.

Such soft and solemn and perfect music doesn't last

For more than a few moments.

It's one of those magical places wise people

like to talk about.

One of the things they say about it, that is true,

is that, once you've been there,

you're there forever.

Listen, everyone has a chance.

Is it spring, is it morning?

Are there trees near you,

and does your own soul need comforting?

Quick, then––open the door and fly on your heavy feet; the song

may already be drifting away.

          -Mary Oliver

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In anticipation! and welcome!

With less than a week left in April, I'd say it's officially "late April." According  to Minnesota Seasons, that means we can anticipate the arrival of male ruby-throated hummingbirds anytime soon. As much as I love the arrival of waterfowl and wading birds such as Canada geese and sandhill cranes, I am constantly delighted and amazed by the arrival of tiny sparks of life embodied in hummingbirds.

male ruby-throated hummingbird, mid-May

Photo by J. Harrington

If we get a  foot or so of snow anytime over the next couple of weeks, feel free to blame me and the hummingbirds for  our  optimism. I filled and hung a couple of feeders, based largely on the report of a hummingbird having been sighted today at Maiden Rock, WI.

Journey North web site

It'll probably be a week or two, or more, before a grape jelly feeder goes up for Baltimore orioles, but it's really encouraging to feel that we're coming into Spring instead of just out of Winter. Turning that corner at the end of this years Earth Week, more of us may be able to admit that some things in this world simply arrive as gifts and our responsibility is to pay attention and enjoy them and be thankful that they're sharing their lives with ours.

Think about this for a moment: in a universe whose very existence some find improbable, during a span of time beyond my comprehension, an improbable life such as mine, or yours, crosses that of an even less probable hummingbird so sometimes both arrive together in the same place and the same time in an impossibly huge universe is miraculous, isn't it? Looking at the size and duration of the universe, what's the probability of you or I seeing a hummingbird within arm's reach? But it happens. It's a gift from the universe to us.

“Hummingbirds”

by Mary Oliver

The female, and two chicks,

each no bigger than my thumb,

scattered,

shimmering

in their pale-green dresses;

then they rose, tiny fireworks,

into the leaves

and hovered;

then they sat down,

each one with dainty, charcoal feet –

each one on a slender branch –

and looked at me.

I had meant no harm,

I had simply

climbed the tree

for something to do

on a summer day,

not knowing they were there,

ready to burst the ledges

of their mossy nest

and to fly, for the first time,

in their sea-green helmets,

with brisk, metallic tails –

each tulled wing,

with every dollop of flight,

drawing a perfect wheel

across the air.

Then, with a series of jerks,

they paused in front of me

and, dark-eyed, stared –

as though I were a flower –

and then,

like three tosses of silvery water,

they were gone.

Alone,

in the crown of the tree,

I went to China,

I went to Prague;

I died, and was born in the spring;

I found you, and loved you, again.

Later the darkness fell

and the solid moon

like a white pond rose.

But I wasn’t in any hurry.

Likely I visted all

the shimmering, heart-stabbing

questions without answers

before I climbed down.

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Earth Week: Day 6

Often, change comes very, very slowly. Today feels like the first, real Spring day in this Spring season in our North Country. No jacket for the mid-day dog walk, sunshine, no real breeze. Local drive-in restaurant is now open for take out. Life may slowly edge toward what may seem like a new normal. Soon even the legislature should adjourn sine die on Monday, May 18. One question hanging in the air is how soon and for what will one or more special sessions then be called.

no signs, yet, of dandelions  soon?

Photo by J. Harrington

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are refusing to pass any new environmental appropriations unless they include money for rural wastewater treatment upgrades, projects usually funded with bonding. MinnPost published a Community Voices article in 2018 with helpful background to the contentious issues. The legislative moves and countermoves on these issues remind me of the old Abbot and Costello routine of "Who's on First." Would that legislators had to get their work pre-vetted by the courts to ensure a lack of ambiguity. Would that all legislative candidates were required to take training in "Win-Win" negotiations and that their oath of office required them to use such training in their legislative activity. It's no wonder, in my opinion, that Partisan identity exceeds racism, religion as key element dividing Americans, panelists say. Is this how we make democracy work?

I wish I understood why more Democrats and Republicans haven't come together and agreed on the major points (identified by The Economist) made in Peter Senge's book The Necessary Revolution, which is now more than a decade old. It seems to me there's more than enough to go around so everyone could claim more than one win by accepting and acting on these Take Aways:

The world is in peril because of severe environmental degradation. 

The sustainability crisis represents the interconnected symptoms of an enormous problem: a global system that is dangerously out of whack. 

The Industrial Age, which brought immeasurable benefits, is now creating immeasurably dire problems. 

Humankind cannot continue to ignore these concerns. 

Global warming is today’s major environmental issue. 

The world is quickly reaching a point of no return regarding warming. If people don’t act quickly, it may be impossible to halt. 

Organizations and nations are swiftly working to bring about positive change. 

For example, Australia may ban its entire citrus industry to conserve water. Sweden hopes to eliminate any dependence on fossil fuels by 2020. 

Quick fixes and short-term solutions will only exacerbate serious sustainability problems worldwide. 

Socially and environmentally responsible practices make good business sense

This all brings me to another thought regarding politicians. Could we improve the quality of our representation if the filing papers for office included a notarized acknowledgement that the office seeking candidate does not know everything needed to do the job and is willing to maintain the kind  of  open mind needed for learning? Or might that make candidates too fearful?

"Because of the fear monster infecting this country, I have been asked for this poem, this song. Feel free to use it, record it, and share. Please give credit. This poem came when I absolutely needed it. I was young and nearly destroyed by fear. I almost didn’t make it to twenty-three. This poem was given to me to share."

Joy Harjo

Fear Poem, or I Give You Back

I release you, my beautiful and terrible
fear. I release you. You were my beloved
and hated twin, but now, I don’t know you
as myself. I release you with all the
pain I would know at the death of
my children.
You are not my blood anymore.
I give you back to the soldiers
who burned down my home, beheaded my children,
raped and sodomized my brothers and sisters.
I give you back to those who stole the
food from our plates when we were starving.
I release you, fear, because you hold
these scenes in front of me and I was born
with eyes that can never close.
I release you
I release you
I release you
I release you
I am not afraid to be angry.
I am not afraid to rejoice.
I am not afraid to be black.
I am not afraid to be white.
I am not afraid to be hungry.
I am not afraid to be full.
I am not afraid to be hated.
I am not afraid to be loved.
to be loved, to be loved, fear.
Oh, you have choked me, but I gave you the leash.
You have gutted me but I gave you the knife.
You have devoured me, but I laid myself across the fire.
I take myself back, fear.
You are not my shadow any longer.
I won’t hold you in my hands.
You can’t live in my eyes, my ears, my voice
my belly, or in my heart my heart
my heart my heart
But come here, fear
I am alive and you are so afraid
of dying.

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Earth Week: Day 5

Several years ago, in 2012 to be specific, the ferns that grow at the edge of the woods in front of our  house had fiddleheads several inches high. This year there's no sign of emergence yet. In fact, most of the plants are just beginning to show any signs of life. I suspect that this year's about as far behind normal as 2012 was ahead. This kind of variability keeps me on my toes and makes me pay attention.

early April 2012, fern fiddleheads

Photo by J. Harrington

I've been spending time on  the last few Thursday afternoons in an on-line book club discussing one of my favorite books, Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass. Most of the themes in the book unsurprisingly fit very nicely with Earth Week. There's one paragraph that I think more of us should know about and all of us should be more mindful of, because I  believe it helps to explain both many of the problems we're facing these days and one of their solutions. Kimmerer writes:

Just as old-growth forests are richly complex, so too were the old-growth cultures that arose at their  feet. Some people equate sustainability with  a diminished standard of living, but  the aboriginal people of the coastal old-growth forests were among the wealthiest in the world. Wise use and care for a huge variety of marine and forest resources, allowed them to avoid overexploiting any  one  of  them while extraordinary art, science, and architecture flowered in their midst. Rather than to greed, prosperity here  gave rise to the great potlatch tradition in which material goods were ritually given away, a direct reflection of the generosity of the land to the people. Wealth meant having enough to give away, social status elevated by generosity. The  cedars taught how to share wealth, and the  people learned.

We are living in a culture that behaves as if we are still pioneers and we are no longer living in that niche. It is time, past time, that we cultivate our own version of an old-growth culture, don't you think? We may have enough time for a second chance on Mother Earth. We don't have enough time to move to another  home planet and, from what we've seen, it would take less time, effort and  other resources to restore habitability to Earth than  to terrascape either the moon or Mars. This  is  our Planet B.

THE CEDAR TREE.

by Richard Walker.

I understand why the People

in the Northwest

say the canoe is sacred,

that the canoe has a spirit.

We know that a cedar tree

can tell us by its rings

when salmon runs were big,

when bears and eagles

and wolves feasted on salmon,

and left the carcasses

near the trees,

and the carcasses decayed, and

the nutrients went into the soil,

and into the roots of the trees.

And what else do we know, but perhaps

this tree grew where an Ancestor

had been buried,

that the Ancestor fed the tree, that

the Ancestor’s flesh became the tree’s

flesh, that the Ancestor’s blood

became the tree’s sap?

And what else do we know, but that

This tree continued the life,

growing to great heights,

providing shelter for birds and

other animals,

providing bark fiber for clothing,

and for fishing nets,

providing bark fiber for baskets

in which to collect berries or cook shellfish,

fine woven baskets that are passed from

mother to daughter, and from grandmother

to granddaughter?

And when the tree’s time was done,

it was felled,

and became a canoe,

a seagoing canoe that carried the People

on waters the Ancestor knew,

carried the People to gatherings and

sacred ceremonies.

And what else do we know, but perhaps the

song that comes out on the water to a puller

in the canoe

is a song from the Ancestor,

a song of thanks for continuing the

circle of life,

and respecting the interconnectedness

of all living things,

a song of thanks for respecting

the sacredness of life?

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Earth Week: Day 4, #EARTHDAY2020

While walking my dog, SiSi, a bit ago, we, or at least I, enjoy some nice Earth Day surprises. First came the sound of sandhill cranes passing overhead. Then, a minute or two later, I noticed a small flock of turkeys sneaking through the back corner of our property. (SiSi isn't tall enough to see over the low ridge intervening between the road and the back corner.) Today's Spring breeze still has a nip to it but conditions are moving in an improved direction.

The beach plum plants are now back to living on the deck. If it looks like we're going to get a hard freeze or measurable snow storm I'll bring them inside. Local rule of thumb is don't plant frost-damage-susceptible plants before mid-May.

We wish each and every one of you, those close to you, plus those you care about, an Earth Day full of health, happiness and the peace of wild things, and may you and yours enjoy them at least until the next  time Earth Day comes around. Don't forget to do something nice for our Mother every day.

wood duck drake and hen

Photo by J. Harrington

“The Peace of Wild Things”

by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

great blue heron

Photo by J. Harrington

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Earth Week: Day 3

The "wet spot" pond in the back yard is shrinking. Maples and poplars and some bushes are showing softer silhouettes as bud burst begins, Oaks are still hanging tough and waiting for warmer days. The  extended weather forecast finally has foregone below freezing temperatures for the next week or so. It's time to put the beach plum plants back outside and see what happens. A couple of them are showing some small signs of life.

skunk cabbage emerging in April

Photo by J. Harrington

Every year, about this time, give or take several weeks, I have to remind myself that the ground needs to thaw and dry before I can start Spring cleanup. As I look at the tiny tunnel entrances that are scattered below the bird feeders, I'm disheartened by the apparent population of moles, voles, shrews and what all keeping our soils aerated and eating the seeds discarded or dropped by the birds. The local bird population is including more goldfinches and purple finches these days, plus a red-bellied woodpecker is appearing with an increased degree of regularity.

Each day this week, including today, despite occasional sunny moments of warmth, the breeze, regardless of the direction from which it comes, has had a cold bite. Or, maybe I'm just noticing it more as I get older. I've yet to make it back to the wetlands to check on the skunk cabbage or the marsh marigolds. Tomorrow or Thursday look promising. A longish walk through the woods on Earth Day has more appeal than joining fellow tree huggers on line for a 50th anniversary. Maybe I can work in both.

marsh marigolds emerging in April

Photo by J. Harrington

It's not been a horrid Winter, but a longish one and, just as it was fading, COVID-19 struck and stuck us at home. I've had about as much of living in interesting times as is good for me, I'm afraid. May you and those close to you be happy, healthy and able to celebrate Earth Day with love and enthusiasm.

Trout Lilies

by Mary Oliver

It happened I couldn't find in all my books
more than a picture and a few words concerning
the trout lily,

so I shut my eyes,
And let the darkness come in
and roll me back.
The old creek

began to sing in my ears
as it rolled along, like the hair of spring,
and the young girl I used to be
heard it also,

as she came swinging into the woods,
truant from everything as usual
except the clear globe of the day, and its
beautiful details.

Then she stopped,
where the first trout lilies of the year
had sprung from the ground
with their spotted bodies
and their six-antlered bright faces,
and their many red tongues.

If she spoke to them, I don't remember what she said,
and if they kindly answered, it's a gift that can't be broken
by giving it away.
All I know is, there was a light that lingered, for hours,
under her eyelids - that made a difference
when she went back to a difficult house, at the end of the day.

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Earth Week: Day 2

The 50th anniversary of Earth Day arrives in two days. Oil futures are tanking today. Headline becomes "Oil tanks!"? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) We overproduce food, so farmers go broke. We have a broken economic and distribution system so kids, parents, and others go to bed hungry. We're in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic with no sign of adequate testing, treatment or vaccine, but idiots are protesting shelter-in-place orders. Obviously they're not familiar with the great Kris Kristofferson's lyric: "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose. Nothin' ain't worth nothin', but it's free. [g*d, do I miss Janis some days!]

can there be "food deserts" in farm country?

Photo by J. Harrington

I've been doing more reading and thinking about food systems these days and I keep running into examples of the accuracy of John Muir's observation:

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.
- My First Summer in the Sierra  , 1911, page 110. 

First question: what is a food system? According to the American Public Health Association:

Food systems include inputs, mechanisms, and structures for food production, processing, distribution, acquisition, preparation, consumption, and metabolism. ² Also included in a food system approach are the participants in that system, including farmers, fishers, industries, workers, governments, institutional purchasers, communities, and consumers. Food systems are deeply entwined with many social issues. Overlapping food systems serve local, regional, national, and global levels; herein, the term refers to the national level, unless noted.

APHA defines a sustainable food system as one that provides healthy food to meet current food needs while maintaining healthy ecosystems that can also provide food for generations to come with minimal negative impact to the environment. A sustainable food system also encourages local production and distribution infrastructures and makes nutritious food available, accessible, and affordable to all. Further, it is humane and just, protecting farmers and other workers, consumers, and communities.

It doesn't take a lot of awareness to realize that our current food system isn't sustainable and is taking only "baby steps" toward becoming more sustainable. There's a number of organizations, international, national, Minnesotan and local that are working to improve the current system. Fortunately, the folks organizing Earth Day are among those who recognize the roles played by how we produce our food in deteriorating the planet on which we depend for all the necessities of life.

The good news is that, if we manage to transform our food system, it can go a long way toward helping us solve another major environmental problem we're facing, climate change. We'll get into that  tomorrow. A major question in my mind is whether the needed changes can be accomplished through evolution or revolution. I suppose part of the answer to that question is how broken we're willing to let the climate get before we change. A growing number of reports note that we're running out of time but still have some options.

Farm Country

by Mary Oliver

I have sharpened my knives, I have
Put on the heavy apron.

Maybe you think life is chicken soup, served
In blue willow-pattern bowls.

I have put on my boots and opened
The kitchen door and stepped out

Into the sunshine. I have crossed the lawn.
I have entered

The hen house.

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Earth Week: Day 1

Today is the start of "Earth Week." James Lenfestey has a nice editorial in the Star Tribune: Earth Day at 50: 'There is no Planet B'. I particularly like the final paragraph:

As the nation fights through the COVID-19 pandemic toward the November elections, voters need to remember two facts. When asked in a Democratic debate if climate change is an existential crisis, every candidate answered yes without hesitation. Meanwhile, the Trump administration and its allies, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, do everything they can to prop up the struggling fossil-fuel industry while undoing regulations aimed at curbing the climate crisis. Planet Earth is on the ballot this November.

Environmental Cartoons by Joel Pett

I'm somewhat less than thrilled with the prospective choices we're likely to be offered come November. Then again, I can accept Lefenstey's assessment and, I believe, go him one better. Aldo Leopold, of "A Sand County Almanac" fame, long ago proposed a Land Ethic and the assessment that

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

There is no doubt in my mind which political party tends more to "preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community." It's not the Republicans. If you have, or hope to have, descendants, you might want to use Leopold's assessment as a filter for judging candidates. Yes, I'd much prefer to have a president way more progressive than old Joe. But, even these days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I much prefer the party of life to the party of death to all but the top 1%. How about you?

What I Have Learned So Far

by Mary Oliver

Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don't think so.
All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of -- indolence, or action.
Be ignited, or be gone.

From: 

New and Selected Poems 

Copyright ©: 

Mary Oliver 

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A "social distancing" clarification

Yesterday I received an email from the Office of Governor Tim Walz with an update on COVID-19 preparation and response. At least part of it leaves me confused and perturbed. In part the email states:

Executive Order 20-38 allows Minnesotans to engage in a range of activities, including boating, fishing, hunting, hiking, and golfing as long as they follow new outdoor recreation guidelines. These guidelines include:

• Maintaining 6-foot social distancing
• Avoiding crowded areas, and
• Staying close to home

this Northern Minnesota trout stream is more than half a day's drive

Photo by J. Harrington

I don't know what "Staying close to home" means in this context. One of the outdoor activities I enjoy  is fly-fishing for trout. The closest trout streams I'm familiar with are in the state to the East. I have no idea what the Wisconsin COVID-19 guidelines cover. I do know that the WI streams are much closer to my home than the Minnesota streams to my South or North.

The initial stay at home order stated:

Individuals may travel to exempted activities and may travel to return to a home or place of residence. Individuals may also travel into and out of Minnesota. 

No help there on what "close to home" means. In fact, the word "close" isn't in the order at all. The Extension does include the phrase "close to home" without any further specification on what that means. I suppose I'm now faced with the question of whether a trout fishing trip can be considered essential. If we get some warm, sunny, relatively calm Spring days after our long, dreary Winter and COVID-19 trashed Spring, the answer may rapidly become yes, just as on occasion, before I retired, I needed an occasional mental health day under similar circumstances. Thanks, Governor Walz for the loophole for the  angling folks.

Speckled Trout

By Ron Rash

Water-flesh gleamed like mica: 

orange fins, red flankspots, a char 

shy as ginseng, found only 

in spring-flow gaps, the thin clear 

of faraway creeks no map 

could name. My cousin showed me 

those hidden places. I loved 

how we found them, the way we 

followed no trail, just stream-sound 

tangled in rhododendron, 

to where slow water opened 

a hole to slip a line in, 

and lift as from a well bright 

shadows of another world, 

held in my hand, their color 

already starting to fade.

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Time to reconsider the Wobblies?

I hope you and those close to you remain healthy and virus-free. I've seen reports and videos that MAGAts of various species are protesting against shelter-in-place orders. I'm starting  to remember reading about the Industrial Workers of the  World and the strikes that were part of the IWW history. In light of reports coming out of work places like the Smithfield plant in South Dakota, it may well be time to become more supportive of the Wobblies and those like them, rather than fall for false patriotism and claims of "freedom."

essential workers: farmers or hedge fund managers?

Photo by J. Harrington

Have you read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States? It's been criticized by some but Zinn defends it this way:

My history ... describes the inspiring struggle of those who have fought slavery and racism (Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses), of the labor organizers who have led strikes for the rights of working people (Big Bill Haywood, Mother Jones, César Chávez), of the socialists and others who have protested war and militarism (Eugene V. Debs, Helen Keller, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, Cindy Sheehan). My hero is not Theodore Roosevelt, who loved war and congratulated a general after a massacre of Filipino villagers at the turn of the century, but Mark Twain, who denounced the massacre and satirized imperialism.^[8][9] I want young people to understand that ours is a beautiful country, but it has been taken over by men who have no respect for human rights or constitutional liberties. Our people are basically decent and caring, and our highest ideals are expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which says that all of us have an equal right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The history of our country, I point out in my book, is a striving, against corporate robber barons and war makers, to make those ideals a reality — and all of us, of whatever age, can find immense satisfaction in becoming part of that.^[10]

In light of what we've've been seeing during the past few years, and the reaction of the mainstream Democratic establishment toward the more progressive members of the party, I'm finding myself, despite getting older, leaning more Zinn-like in my assessment of the direction we need to move to actualize the ideals on which this country was purported to be established.

Perhaps it's due to my having been an English major in college, but I've always been fond of Mark Twain. Another rebel I admire is Ani DiFranco. Never have I seen a more infectious grin than her's on  the Knuckle Down cover. The fact that she's done a number of CD's with Utah Phillips is another reason to gratefully acknowledge her authenticity. As I recall from the liner notes on one of the DiFranco-Phillips albums, Utah was proud he carried an IWW card.

It's becoming more and more clear to me as the COVID-19 pandemic continues that the "normal" we were living pre-pandemic was not healthy, just, not sustainable for 99% of us and all of the planet on which we depend for our air, water, food and shelter. Let's make sure we "return" to something better. Try listening to  DiFranco and Phillips, reading Zinn, listening to early Dylan and all of Woody Guthrie. My America has a long, proud history of rebellion embedded in community. There's no I, I, I nor me, me, me in US. We would do well to reacquaint ourselves with that instead of accepting  the  false patriotism of excessive individuality.

This Land Is Your Land

Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land was made for you and me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway;
I saw below me that golden valley;
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding;
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there,
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing.
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me. 

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