Big yellow taxi

Effective tomorrow, our days will be 20 minutes shorter than they were on the Solstice and daylight will continue to shrink until we reach and pass the Winter Solstice. Have you noticed the loss? For many, probably most of US, natural cycles are largely incidental to the significant aspects of our lives, especially if we work a 9 to 5, 5 day a week job. Joni Mitchell wrote and performs a song (Big Yellow Taxi) prescient for these times. It includes the refrain:

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot 

storm clouds on the horizon

Photo by J. Harrington

I've been retired for some years now and have tried to become more aware of and sensitive to seasonal changes, but I don't get out fishing and hunting as much as I used to, am not really a gardener nor a forager, and am only indirectly dependent on nature for many of life's necessities. Yes, this weekend's Canadian wildfire smoke is a threat to breathing fresh air but it should be gone by tomorrow and, other than staying inside, there's not much I can do about it. We depend on our private well for drinking, cooking, and bathing water and have it tested a couple of times a year for hardness. We had a comprehensive test some years ago and there's no obvious local source of nitrates nor are there babies in the house anymore so we rarely follow the Health Department's testing recommendations.

In our county, we get siren alarms when there are severe thunderstorms. The house is outside the current 100 year flood plain. I'm not sure when, how or if climate breakdown will prompt a redelineation or the identification of a 500- or 1000-year flood plain. We lack the Texas' Hill Country's history of flash flooding so ....

Much of the preceding has been prompted by the July 4th disaster in Texas and my growing concern about the continuing lack of effective response to the IPCC warnings about continued emission of greenhouse gases and the effects on our weather/climate. In my opinion, recent actions by Congress and the current regime smack of malfeasance in light of the risks and threats to the safety and security of the country's population and future. Have we all become Texans in spirit?

Let Them Not Say

by Jane Hirshfield

Let them not say: we did not see it.
We saw.

Let them not say: we did not hear it.
We heard.

Let them not say: they did not taste it.
We ate, we trembled.

Let them not say: it was not spoken, not written.
We spoke,
we witnessed with voices and hands.

Let them not say: they did nothing.
We did not-enough.

Let them say, as they must say something:

A kerosene beauty.
It burned.

Let them say we warmed ourselves by it,
read by its light, praised,
and it burned.

—2014

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Spring, sprang, sprung!

The sun is shining. Fields are greening. Birds at the feeder are catching up on meals missed due to recent weather. This morning I finished rereading The Boy, the mole, the fox and the horse with our granddaughter. At two and a half, she’s more interested in an iPad screen than looking at pages in a book. I’ve discovered that the book has been animated and is available on Apple tv and, I believe, a cd version. We will do some exploring and cross-checking to determine if presents for her third birthday will include access to the A-tv version, a cd, or both. The story is too important to let my bias toward platforms [books over screens] deprive her of a fuller enjoyment of the tale of friendship, not that I believe in that old saying about the mountain and Mohammad.

If you’re out and about in farm country, be sure to keep your eyes open for lambs. Today was the first day this year we noticed some out with the rest of the flock. Up until now it’s been too cold and/or wet and/or hot to let lambs go gamboling in the fields. Rams and ewes look like they’ve recently been shorn so warmer, dryer weather is healthier and more comfortable for the grownups too.

how long unti dandelions arrive?

Photo by J. Harrington

Rivers are running more than bank full. Marshes are still flooded. Low spots are full of pooled water. All day rain is forecast for tomorrow and Thursday. I think that’s an invitation for me to start the first branch fire of the year in the fire pit. But wait! The hoses may still be full of ice or slush and the outside faucets haven’t yet been turned on. Maybe next week, if we reliably enjoy overnight low temperatures that stay above freezing. This afternoon’s progress may be limited to removing the back blade from the tractor, a small but significant measure of seasonal change.

An April Day

Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr. - 1895-1919

On such a day as this I think,
      On such as day as this,
When earth and sky and nature’s whole
      Are clad in April’s bliss;
And balmy zephyrs gently waft
      Upon your cheek a kiss;
Sufficient is it just to live
      On such a day as this.

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Spring is overflowing

Roadside ditches are full of flowing waters. Low areas in farm fields have become ephemeral ponds. Floodplain wetlands and marshes are flooded. Spring and snowmelt have arrived, accompanied by flock after flock of migrating songbirds and waterfowl.

local creeks flowing more than bankful

Photo by J. Harrington

Several upland fields held a pair or more of sandhill cranes. We can confirm seeing the first robin of the season. The Better Half shared a photo she took of a butterfly. And yet, it was quite disconcerting to drive back roads with the window down in the Jeep, enjoying temperatures over 70℉, while looking at substantial snow cover on many fields, in many wooded areas, and residual snow banks along ditches.

The melting snow in the fields behind the house has revealed a mess made by underground critters during the winter. After the soil has dried, we’ll drag a harrow over the mounds and tunnels that have been turned up. Before we get to that, we’ll collect and burn garden carts full of dropped, broken, branches and finish picking up the winter’s worth of dog droppings. At least those chores will have us outside enjoying sunshine, warmth, and the opportunity to walk on bare, greening ground.

It will be a few more days before the level of mud in the dog run has diminished to the point where we can let our two out for some free play time and be able to safely let them back into the house. Meanwhile, we’re going to figure out what to wear over the next couple of days as high  temperatures creep into the eighties and then drop back into the fifties over the weekend. If anyone has good, tested, suggestions on how to organize a seasonal wardrobe for that kind of pattern, please drop a note in the comments.

April

By Alicia Ostriker

The optimists among us

taking heart because it is spring

skip along

attending their meetings

signing their e-mail petitions

marching with their satiric signs

singing their we shall overcome songs

posting their pungent twitters and blogs

believing in a better world

for no good reason

I envy them

said the old woman

The seasons go round they

go round and around

said the tulip

dancing among her friends

in their brown bed in the sun

in the April breeze

under a maple canopy

that was also dancing

only with greater motions

casting greater shadows

and the grass

hardly stirring

What a concerto

of good stinks said the dog

trotting along Riverside Drive

in the early spring afternoon

sniffing this way and that

how gratifying the cellos of the river

the tubas of the traffic

the trombones

of the leafing elms with the legato

of my rivals’ piss at their feet

and the leftover meat and grease

singing along in all the wastebaskets

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A record I wasn’t hoping for

Expectations are that, at some time this weekend, this winter's season snowfall will be sufficient to place us in the top ten snowiest winters. For the current record, I’ve lived in this state for five of the top ten winters. If we just bump the winter of 2017-18 [78.3 inches] then it will still have me here for 5/10 because of simple substitution. However, current winter #9 was in 1966-67, before my time here and only one tenth of an inch more than #10. So, if we end up with 78.5 or more inches, I’ll have lived in Minnesota for more than half of its top 10 snowiest winters. Had I know that could happen before I moved here, would I have? Given how I feel about winter, snow, and cold, it’s doubtful. It appears that I’ve done something terribly wrong in my life to end up with such karma but, other than moving here, it’s not clear what I might have done to deserve this. Did my move create a self-fulfilling prophecy? Am I confusing cause and effect? Will this winter ever end?

it just keeps coming down

Photo by J. Harrington

Since I am neither a meteorologist nor a climatologist, I don’t know if snow that falls after the end of meteorological winter (on or after March 1) is counted in the seasonal record, or if the record is actually based on the period between winter solstice and spring equinox, or, since in Minnesota it’s been know to snow every month of the year except July, the annual snowfall record is based on the period from July 1 through June 30 of the following year.

The flood forecasters have now chimed in with their concerns that moderate or more floods have more than a 50% probability in the Twin Cities and at Stillwater. The combination of snowfall records and flooding is a logical relationship that also relates to climate change/global warming (half or more top snowfalls in the past 5 decades). And yet our elected leaders have continued to play political games with timely responses to greenhouse gas reductions, just as they are currently playing brinksmanship games with the federal budget, debt ceiling and Social Security payments. Do you suppose the Republicans think they have nothing to fear from multitudes of gray-haired citizens whose palsied hands shake so much they would never seek retribution on politicians who stiffed them into hunger-laced homelessness? I hope we never have to find out. If those same seniors have children and grandchildren about whom they care, it could be fun to watch the Republican party get replaced by a Pewter (green/gray) Party by whatever name, perhaps the 7th GenerationParty?

After the Quarrel

Paul Laurence Dunbar - 1872-1906

So we, who've supped the self-same cup,
    To-night must lay our friendship by;
Your wrath has burned your judgment up,
    Hot breath has blown the ashes high.
You say that you are wronged— ah, well,
    I count that friendship poor, at best
A bauble, a mere bagatelle,
    That cannot stand so slight a test.

I fain would still have been your friend,
    And talked and laughed and loved with you;
But since it must, why, let it end;
    The false but dies, 't is not the true.
So we are favored, you and I,
    Who only want the living truth.
It was not good to nurse the lie;
    'Tis well it died in harmless youth.

I go from you to-night to sleep.
    Why, what's the odds? why should I grieve?
I have no fund of tears to weep
    For happenings that undeceive.
The days shall come, the days shall go
    Just as they came and went before.
The sun shall shine, the streams shall flow
    Though you and I are friends no more.

And in the volume of my years,
    Where all my thoughts and acts shall be,
The page whereon your name appears
    Shall be forever sealed to me.
Not that I hate you over-much,
    'Tis less of hate than love defied;
Howe'er, our hands no more shall touch,
    We'll go our ways, the world is wide.

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Flowing cold water on Spring’s arrival

Each year I’m surprised by how long it takes snow to melt once temperatures start to creep above freezing. This year is no different. I don’t expect it to all disappear at once, but the roof is still covered by more than a foot of snow in some places, even though the sun is shining and the temperature is in the low to mid forties. There’s a helpful explanation here. The USDA has made available a whole hydrology chapter on snow melt here.

we’re still well above the snow depth of Christmas

Photo by J. Harrington

I know that several places in Minnesota keep track of when local lakes experience ice-in and ice-out. Minnesota is also known for having experienced snow 11 months of the year. The Department of Natural Resources tracks snow depth and ranking. Our winter so far has been more snowy than average.

A slow snow melt lessens the likelihood of flooding but impending spring has me anxious to get out wading and walking again. Wading becomes more challenging as rivers and streams approach bankfull conditions. We also remember to leave the lightweight waders in the closet until late May or some time in June. Neoprene is much warmer in cold water.

A week from now we may regain several inches of snow cover, making up for at least some of what we’ll lose over the next few days. Or, the forecast may change. What won’t change is the persistent, relentless increase in heating degree days as the sun continues to climb higher in the sky for more hours per day. Soon spring’s youthfulness will vanquish an aging winter.

[the snow is melting]

By Kobayashi Issa
Translated by Robert Hass

The snow is melting 

and the village is flooded 

      with children.

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Are our CAFO regs all wet?

During the past several days, we've had a chance to see severe flooding affect parts of China, England and the U.S. Meanwhile, a multitude of wildfires are burning in Canada and the western U.S. It's obvious, if we stop to think about it, that our built environment, and much of our "managed" natural environment, are neither constructed nor operated to minimize the climate and weather related hazards to which we are now exposed.

storms get more intense even in farm country

Photo by J. Harrington

This would be of less concern if we had the slightest idea what should be used for new or improved design standards or building codes. But, if what once was a 1,000 year storm now has a return frequency of a couple of decades, due to increased weather and storm volatility and other climate crisis related factors, when and under what conditions should floodplain identification be modified; setbacks be expanded, pipes and lagoons be oversized, etc.? Shouldn't these kinds of questions be raised and answered before new or expanded confined animal feeding operations [CAFOs] be allowed? The Environmental Working Group, five years or so ago, released a report on North Carolina's "fields of filth." To my knowledge, there hasn't been a comparable evaluation of Minnesota's requirements, despite the growing impacts of climate breakdown. Would we not be better served to have a review before the situation gets much worse? In the climate change world, I believe such  an approach is referred to as adaptation. For most of US it needs to become common sense, especially in the Midwest, where, according to this data, both Minnesota and Iowa rank ahead of North Carolina in hog production.

Frogs Eat Butterflies. Snakes Eat Frogs. Hogs Eat Snakes. Men Eat Hogs.

Wallace Stevens - 1879-1955

It is true that the rivers went nosing like swine,
Tugging at banks, until they seemed
Bland belly-sounds in somnolent troughs,

That the air was heavy with the breath of these swine,
The breath of turgid summer, and
Heavy with thunder’s rattapallax,

That the man who erected this cabin, planted
This field, and tended it awhile,
Knew not the quirks of imagery,

That the hours of his indolent, arid days,
Grotesque with this nosing in banks,
This somnolence and rattapallax,

Seemed to suckle themselves on his arid being,
As the swine-like rivers suckled themselves
While they went seaward to the sea-mouths.

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