New and improved?

It’s the time of year when many waterfowl, such as Canada geese, are molting. Several years ago, before the county rebuilt the bridge on Hwy 36 over the Sunrise river, and “improved” the shoulders of the road by removing some trees and extending the guard rails, molting adults and fledglings still growing flight feathers would sit around roadside and, too often, wander into the road. Those scenes looked like this.

Canada geese loafing along Hwy 36

Photo by J. Harrington

For a few years, we didn’t see any geese hanging around the edge of the road near the bridge. We assumed the guard rail deterred them. This morning, we noticed a flock of geese near the end of the guard rail. We also noticed what looked like a road killed goose body near the centerline. Maybe we’ll at least have fewer goose fatalities with the roadway “improvements.” I would have settled for no sightings as a tradeoff for no collisions but that was obviously too much to hope for. Let’s just hope that whatever scavenges on the roadkill goose doesn’t become another victim of a road made safer for vehicles in the middle of a wildlife management area. Maybe the county can at least put up some “GOOSE CROSSING” signs someday soon.

In happier news on the backyard feeder front, the glass dish for the grape jelly feeder magically appeared today as the sun was at a better angle to reflect off it. [Yesterday, we theorized the squirrels had absconded with  it.] It’s not going to be returned to service until and unless we figure out a way to keep the squirrels from dumping it again. That may be easier said than done, plus, the young orioles seem to be acclimating nicely to the sugar water feeder.

Wild Geese

by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

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Jeers to triathletes, Cheers for artisans

This weekend, particularly Sunday the 28th, might be a good time to avoid much of Southern Chisago County, unless you don't mind being delayed by a bunch of triathlon participants clogging many of the roads, including a Highway 95 crossing. Here's a link to the event's web site if you want the gory details.

a local road but not on the route, we hope

Photo by J. Harrington

Several years ago part of one of the courses included a stretch of our road. We weren't particularly pleased about that. Hindering the travels of local folks and ordinary visitors to accommodate triathlon participants aggravates us old curmudgeons. We don't object to the use of the roads, but to the way the local constabulary too often holds vehicular traffic at intersections to permit triathletes to move freely. And, probably even more curmudgeonly, we really don't give a damn if the event does benefit local businesses.

our homemade artisan sourdough bread

Photo by J. Harrington

On a more cheerful note, we call to your attention to a new addition in our listing of local artisans with whom we've done business [right han column, top]. The Marine Mills Folk School keeps offering more and more classes, several of which we find to be of greater than passing interest. Plus, we're quite grateful that we don't have to head for one of our favorite, but very distant, places in Minnesota, Grand Marais, to enjoy learning artisanal skills and practices. We invited the Daughter Person to join us for a sourdough class earlier this year. The Better Half has taken, we believe, a couple of classes in weaving and felting. We're pleased that the good folks that started the Folk School did so and that they seem to be having a decent degree of success. Lifelong learning is something to which we think everyone should aspire. And, the addition of a Folk School to our extended neighborhood provides one more thing about which we can express gratitude for living where we do.

A Shropshire Lad 19: The time you won your town the race

By A. E. Housman

The time you won your town the race 

We chaired you through the market-place; 

Man and boy stood cheering by, 

And home we brought you shoulder-high. 

To-day, the road all runners come, 

Shoulder-high we bring you home, 

And set you at your threshold down, 

Townsman of a stiller town. 

Smart lad, to slip betimes away 

From fields where glory does not stay 

And early though the laurel grows 

It withers quicker than the rose. 

Eyes the shady night has shut 

Cannot see the record cut, 

And silence sounds no worse than cheers 

After earth has stopped the ears: 

Now you will not swell the rout 

Of lads that wore their honours out, 

Runners whom renown outran 

And the name died before the man. 

So set, before its echoes fade, 

The fleet foot on the sill of shade, 

And hold to the low lintel up 

The still-defended challenge-cup. 

And round that early-laurelled head 

Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, 

And find unwithered on its curls 

The garland briefer than a girl's.

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A bridge too far?

It's the time of year when we used to see lots of Canada geese along and about the road edge going through the Sunrise River pools in the Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area. This year we've seen very few geese or their goslings. We're not sure why but we have a prime suspect. The water in the Sunrise pools has been unusually high all Summer, but we don't think that's the basic problem. The geese used to hang out along the shoulder and into the road near where the river flowed under the highway. We surmise that a few too many motorists had close, or too close, calls with a goose or geese.

Canada geese "roadside"

Photo by J. Harrington

Several years ago, the county replaced the bridge crossing the river and the conduits through which the river flowed. When they did that, they added very long stretches of guard rail, separating the roadway from most of the shoulder. The geese no longer hang out along that stretch of roadway and marsh. We can sort of understand that, but what leaves us scratching our head is why the geese didn't decide to congregate on the North side of the road, where there's still quite a bit of marsh and shoulder not separated by a guardrail.

bridge construction: bulleting board

Photo by J. Harrington

We admit that the new and improved road is probably safer for both motorists and geese, but we also admit we would have much preferred to see a lower speed limit and a "goose crossing" sign instead.

The Bridge Builder

By Will Allen Dromgoole

An old man going a lone highway,

Came, at the evening cold and gray,

To a chasm vast and deep and wide.

Through which was flowing a sullen tide

The old man crossed in the twilight dim,

The sullen stream had no fear for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting your strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day,

You never again will pass this way;

You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,

Why build this bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head;

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followed after me to-day

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been as naught to me

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”

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Climate change checklist manifesto: transportation

Much of the transportation sector actions are focused on those living in urban areas. Very recently, for the first time, that's where more than half the human population resides. But, to take one example, Mexico City (proper) is between 500 and 600 square miles in size. That could readily challenge the capacity of an electric bicycle. We believe that the transportation solutions proposed below would be much more useful if they were integrated with a design approach similar to that described by Christopher Alexander in A Pattern Language.

urban street with bicycle and van

Photo by J. Harrington

Furthermore, from our recent reading, it appears that recharging the battery in an EV takes considerably longer than the time needed to pump 20 gallons of gasoline into a conventional or hybrid vehicle's gas tank. That, combined with the limited range of EVs, makes the current EV models of limited utility outside urban areas, much of the US. Again, a design approach balancing transportation options with various contexts would enhance the utility of the proposed solution.

rural road for walking? bicycles? vehicles?

Photo by J. Harrington

TRANSPORTATION

Numbers are Optimum Scenario Ranking (from Drawdown)

4 . Electric vehicles — Driving battery and plug-in vehicles instead of conventional vehicles

We believe that, to properly assess this action, a system perspective is needed. We live in the North Country where it's been known to snow every month except July. The EVs we've seen so far offer neither the range, the traction, nor the affordability we want. Minnesota's electric grid still depends heavily on coal-fired plants. The system doesn't yet offer what we consider a viable option.

26 . Ridesharing — Using ride-sharing services and/or carpooling

Several of the members of the household do ride share. When we were a commuter, our schedule was such that ride-sharing opportunities were limited due to our variable schedule and evening meetings.

11 . Mass transit — Using public transportation for commuting in cities instead of individual vehicles

We don't live in a city nor does the public transportation available offer sufficient flexibility for those who don't have 9-5 jobs.

15 . Telepresence — Using video-conferencing technologies in place of commercial flights

This offers some potential, but has also been shown to have the drawback of not offering helpful body language views nor the immediacy of personal sidebar conversations.

16 . Hybrid cars — Driving hybrid cars instead of conventional cars

Many hybrids offer only marginal mpg improvements over conventional cars. The tradeoff we settled for was reducing our annual vat by about 50% while increasing our mpg by 3 or 4. This represents a significant net reduction in our carbon footprint.

17 . Bicycle infrastructure — Biking to destinations in cities instead of using cars

Viable for short distances. Many of our meetings were beyond a short travel distance or were part of a chain of meetings that cumulatively added up. This works for some folks much better than for others. It still lacks adequate convenience for about half the year even in Northern cities.

18 . Walkable cities — Walking to destinations in cities instead of using cars

We did this quite a bit when we worked in Minneapolis and had meetings within a reasonable walking distance and time.

22 . Electric bicycles — Using electric bikes for urban transport instead of using cars

We don't live in an urban area. It would be interesting to learn about range/travel time/recharge time tradeoffs.

Statement on Energy Policy

By Carter Revard

It’s true we have invented quark-extraction,

and this allows our aiming gravity at will;

it’s true also that time

can now be made to flow

backward or forward by

the same process. It may be true as well that

what is happening at the focal point,

the meristem of this process,

creates a future kind of space,

a tiny universe that has

quite different rules. In this, it seems,

whatever one may choose to do or be becomes

at once the case. In short,

we have discovered heaven and

it’s in our grasp. However,

the Patent Office has not yet approved and cites

less positive aspects of this invention. First, it

does not generate profit, and

it does make obsolete all present

delivery systems for our nukes. Then,

it will let private citizens do things that only

a chosen few, that is, OUR sort, should be allowed—

fly freely from one country

to any other, spreading diseases

and bankrupting transportation.

Home-heating, auto-making industries will be trashed,

employment shelled, depressions spread worldwide,

sheer anarchy descend.

For these and other reasons,

no one must know of this. . . . 

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It must be Summer! #phenology?

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has work going on at two locations on I-35, near the crossovers at Hwy 97 and separately at Hwy 8. The North / South traffic between the Twin Cities and Duluth, plus lots of daily commuters, face delays or detours.

Before there was I-35, there was Hwy 61 (sometimes revisited), an alternative North / South route. Chisago County and the City of Stacy have a long section of that closed from County Road 19 North. So much for that alternative route to I-35.

not needed come Winter

Photo by J. Harrington

Our own township road also runs North / South but we hadn't noticed a large increase in traffic despite the closures and delays on I-35 and (old) Hwy 61. So, this past week, the township did a culvert replacement which, for some time, essentially closed our North / South travels. We understand the need for road maintenance and improvements, most of which can't be done in our North Country Winters. That helps explain why Minnesota is sometimes said to have two seasons: Winter and Road Construction. Highway departments do their best to minimize the inconvenience, we're sure. But there doesn't seem to be any requirement or process that mandates work be coordinated so that detours off of a state road don't get routed onto a county highway that's also experiencing road work. We think there needs to be a much better set of requirements, or better enforcement of any signage requirements that exist.

sign of Summer road sign

Photo by J. Harrington

The township crew had put a "Road work ahead" sign on the side of the road a couple of hundred yards before their culvert work which had the entire road block off. Drivers got to notice this as they came downhill and around a curve leading into a "steam shovel" and ditch closing the complete cartway. We think it would have worked much better if the township had put a "Road Closed Ahead" sign back where drivers could have readily taken a detour. That would have minimized the inconvenience to both drivers and the work crew which experienced at least one stoppage to let us pass after we had skidded to a halt at their blockage.

There are other road signs that indicated Summer will soon be here. We've shared a couple above. Yet one more sign that Summer is practically upon us? Today we had our first ice cream cone of the season.

Road

By Lisa Williams

This is what poetry is (says the Road), 

a laying down of uniform pattern 

across a land you can't control 

but which you think it best to flatten. 

It's far from vivid. Look at the whole 

flamboyant forest! Look at the paths 

that can't be uttered by a mouth 

and at the scattered arcs of light 

more integral to this wide planet 

than words will ever be. Your lines? 

Like railroad tracks that cut the bracken, 

bring something through, then disappear. 

No one knows what speck was taken 

or where it moved, and no one cares.

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Speak now, or forever hold your head!

This morning we headed off to do some errands. Just down the road a single coyote dash across about 50 yards or so in front of us. Native Americans know the coyote as a trickster, or a helper, or a creator. Since we're a little familiar with the myths surrounding coyote, we were promptly reminded that tomorrow night is precinct caucus. Time for "crafty intelligence, stealth, and voracious appetite."

Here's an up-to-date version of 

How to caucus in Minnesota

The linked page in turn contains a link to the Minnesota Secretary of State's web site, where you can find the location of your caucus if you don't already know.

What we haven't yet found is a cheat sheet summarizing each candidate's position on a number of key issues, copper-sulfate mining and single payer health insurance being to we find of particular interest. Some candidates have noted that the governor should be sure that the laws are followed and any permit that's issued for a copper-sulfate mine must be rigorously enforced. (Some of us are familiar with the lack of enforcement activities by some of our regulatory agencies when it comes to taconite and related mining activities.)

We understand the problems political candidates face with the need to not offend too many people in order to get elected in the first place. We also think that the pablum and pandering that passes for political discourse has become a large part of our national, state and local governance problem. Since we're going to be at our local Roads and Bridges committee meeting this evening, infrastructure offers a classic example. For some time now the US has been getting grades of D or less  on its infrastructure maintenance and development. Two people were killed recently in a train crash that's been described as avoidable. Minnesota hasn't increased its gas tax, or provided a meaningful alternative funding source for transportation, especially roads, for years. Meanwhile, our township has board members who think the solution is to pave every gravel road but haven't shown any analysis of what that would, or could, do to future budgets. Strong Towns keeps pointing out its concerns that we can't afford the roads we have. Meanwhile, we'd be happy if we could find some clear, definitive criteria for when a rural road should, or should not, be paved.

should this be paved? when? why?

Photo by J. Harrington

Absent any rational approach to managing where and how we live and get around, we strongly recommend participating in local government and attendance at precinct caucuses. It's barely better than undergoing root canal, but it seems to be all we have if we hope to maintain the facade we're at least nominally a democracy.

                     Developing the Land

By Stephen Behrendt

For six nights now the cries have sounded in the pasture:

coyote voices fluting across the greening rise to the east

where the deer have almost ceased to pass

now that the developers have carved up yet another section,

filled another space with spars and studs, concrete, runoff.

Five years ago you saw two spotted fawns rise

for the first time from brome where brick mailboxes will stand;

only three years past came great horned owls

who raised two squeaking, downy owlets

that perished in the traffic, skimming too low across the road

behind some swift, more fortunate cottontail.

It was on an August afternoon that you drove in,

curling down our long gravel drive past pasture and creek,

that you saw, flickering at the edge of your sight,

three mounted Indians, motionless in the paused breeze,

who vanished when you turned your head.

We have felt the presence on this land of others,

of some who paused here, some who passed, who have left

in the thick clay shards and splinters of themselves that we dig up,

turn up with spade and tine when we garden or bury our animals;

their voices whisper on moonless nights in the back pasture hollow

where the horses snort and nicker, wary with alarm.

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Deer me #phenology

Many, many years ago, when I was first learning about hunting whitetail deer, my campmates taught me to always look toward the back edge of fields when looking for whitetails. That rule of thumb has, for the most part, served me well over the years, up to and including this morning. As I was driving away from the house to get the jeep serviced, I looked toward the back of our property and there was a whitetail doe, feeding on something. I couldn't tell if she had a fawn with her or not.

Several miles plus a right turn down the road, I saw another doe. This one wasn't at the back edge of a field, she was right beside the road and I didn't notice her until she raised her head as the front end of the jeep was about 50 feet from her. Fortunately for all concerned, she stayed in the grass and the jeep and I passed without incident. I certainly hope she didn't have a fawn with her.

whitetail doe and fawns, midSummer grasses

Photo by J. Harrington

As my pulse and blood pressure slowly returned to normal, I was very grateful that the doe hadn't performed one of the patented, harebrained stunts deer are known for and bolted directly into the side or in front of the jeep. I also started to wonder some more about the fussing I'd seen in social media a week or ten days or so ago, about farmers and/or MNDoT mowing roadsides before August 1, because numerous birds use roadside grasses as nesting cover. On the other hand, having lived in and around deer country for most of my adult life, I like it much more when I have an opportunity to hit the brakes when I see a deer. Twice I haven't and they've run into the side of the vehicle I was driving. Each time without apparent body damage to vehicle or deer. Once a doe bolted in front of me from some roadside trees, allowing me barely enough time to avoid a catastrophic encounter.

I'm not sure what the answer is. Birds aren't necessarily more valuable than deer, and bird/vehicle encounters are, I think, less frequent and less damaging to vehicles than deer/car collisions. I suspect it's not possible to set mowers at about 18 inches, allowing ground cover for birds while making roadside deer more visible. That would make it too easy.

mowed roadsides improve visibility

Photo by J. Harrington

Outside cities it's currently legal to mow the first eight feet or shoulder at any time. Clearly, in my neighborhood, that first eight feet gets mowed very infrequently. I do have one somewhat strange neighbor who mows between the road and his fence, but not on the house side of the fence. I almost never see any deer in his yard at any time.

If any of you have come across what seems like a viable resolution to the conundrum of "to mow, or not to mow," please share it. As we, as a society, turn more roadsides and medians into habitat for pollinators, I'm getting more concerned about creating the unintended consequences of increased "collateral damage" resulting in a net loss of some kinds of non-pollinating wildlife that also lack the evolutionary background to avoid vehicles traveling at highway speeds. Back in the days when much of my leisure time was spent on the ocean in small craft, I was pretty rigorous about the rule of "a place for everything and everything in its place." But then there are neither roadsides nor ditches on the ocean.

Mowing

Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

There was never a sound beside the wood but one,
And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.
What was it it whispered? I knew not well myself;
Perhaps it was something about the heat of the sun,
Something, perhaps, about the lack of sound—
And that was why it whispered and did not speak.
It was no dream of the gift of idle hours,
Or easy gold at the hand of fay or elf:
Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak
To the earnest love that laid the swale in rows,
Not without feeble-pointed spikes of flowers
(Pale orchises), and scared a bright green snake.
The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.
My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make.

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