Have yourself a Happy Little New Year

It has been a not so wonderful year for most of us in the 99%.  Wages remain stagnant, far too many people are unemployed, the Congress is, thanks mostly to Republicans, unable to make the commonsense governing decisions to make the country function.   On the personal side, the weather was far to variable for easy gardening.  Wet weather in June destroyed the onion and potato crops at Casa Monzeglio and delayed corn planting until it was no longer practical.  As with all things weather related, there were compensations.  The beautiful fall weather enabled bumper crops of beets, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower.  I'll rinse and repeat in 2014, hopefully with better results.  I have never been a big fan of resolutions, so I won't make any besides committing to my daily natterings on this blog.  I hope the political and economic situations will get better, but with the present polarization in the country, the aging and death of the "greatest" and the "boomer" generations is probably only way things will change.   I hope to break 80 on a golf course in 2014.  I also hope the family will remain healthy and any changes in that regard will be for the best.   Have yourself a Happy Little New Year and let's all "muddle through somehow".

vegetable demand

Flat and falling would seem to be the answer to the statement above.  Despite a growing population and a fairly consistent message from the media that Mom always was right about eating your veggies for better health, demand for the green stuff seems less than it was 20 years ago.  Part of this perception may be the overall supply.  With better refrigeration and handling techniques and new sources of supply around the world, there is more variety on a 12 month basis than ever before.  Enter any supermarket produce department and you are overwhelmed by the number of choices.  But check the grocery carts at the checkout and many are devoid of fresh vegetables.  Highly processed foods predominate among the consumer selections.  It was recently calculated that to eat a very healthy diet low on processed foods would require the expenditure of about $1.50 per person per day for the average family.  That doesn't seem like very much, until you multiply that out over a week's time and for a family of four it comes to almost $30/week.  Of course, that is only the equivalent of 3-4 packs of cigarettes per day.  What it really comes down to is better education and subsidies so the poor can afford to eat better.  As always, easier said or blogged than done.

Nice work if you can get it

Paul Krugman had an interesting blog post on Christmas Day theorizing corporations may actually profit from a slack economy which holds down wages.  Corporate profits are booming, but most employees are terrified of losing their jobs.  Turnover at most companies is way down from the normal rate in a recovering economy because both workers and their bosses know there are three applicants for every job being offered.  Except for high tech jobs which require specialized skills, there is no dearth of workers for almost any job.  This leads to wage stagnation even as profits rise.  Krugman does not say, but probably assumes all of us know that wages are almost always the biggest expense for most corporations.  Holding down wages is one way to increase profits, even if demand is flat.  While he does not suggest there is actual collusion among CEOs to hold down wages, the collective decisions made by corporations have had the same effect.  As the middle class is ground down by decades of falling wages in real terms, will balance ever be restored in relationship between workers and capital?   It's a question with an answer most people will not like.

Christmas time is here...and gone

Like that song in a "Charlie Brown Christmas" that drives the Divine Mrs. M crazy, the season seems to compress into a single day of gift giving and conviviality, followed on the 26th by a determined return to the business of normal life.  Now of course, the New Year's celebration will be front and center.   However, since there is significantly less profit to be made on celebrating that holiday, the drumbeat will be muted.  The year's best and worst lists, over eating and over drinking will occupy us for a few days before we get back to the normal grind.   The Pope's message of peace will be commented on, especially the part where he is exhorting other religions and even atheists to join in a drive to change the consumer culture.  The subversive nature of much of what the pontiff has been saying is not lost on multinational corporations and their media mouthpieces.  The environmental degradation and the attendant climate change drives their profits.  A change is in the air, and hopefully it will last longer than one day a year.

Christmas Wishes

No curmudgeonly posts today.  To all the readers (hopefully more than one) of this blog, may the blessings of the holiday season be abundant and continue through the New Year.  

Icy start to winter follies

Even though we dodged the big one, it was still an icy weekend on the NCR.  A 1000 foot deep layer of frozen air hovered over us and all the rain passing through it wound up as ice on exposed surfaces.  Ironically, the ski areas were rained on all weekend as they are elevated above the thousand foot level.  Lake Placid and Whiteface mountain were in the balmy 40s all weekend while those of us in the valleys were stuck in the low 20s.  A two hour stop at the local mall on Saturday required a one hour defrost to get the ice off the windshield.  On Sunday, a weather emergency closed the stores and most of the roads except to emergency vehicles.  Today looks more normal, and many people will be doing last minute shopping until the stores close on Christmas Eve.  With the passing of the Solstice, today is officially longer than yesterday, and we are one day closer to spring.  That should keep me going through the worst of the weather this winter.

Positive poseur

I have been told by the Divine Mrs. M, among others that my daily rants have been verging on the morbidly pessimistic.  I plead guilty on account of the weather, but will try to moderate the misery with at least a patina of optimism.   On that note, while it may be the shortest day of the year today, tomorrow will begin the long climb toward the summer solstice.  A little Paul Winter consort music for the winter solstice is in order today.  That and hoping the mercury edges high enough to abort the ice storm predicted for large areas of the north country this weekend.

Solstice musings

Let me make this perfectly clear.  I hate winter.  I know that's close to sacrilegious if you live in the north country, but I treat it the way southerners treat summer.  It's something to live through as expeditiously as possible.  While NYC and environs will set record temps this weekend with rain, the NCR (North Country Riviera for those who don't follow this blog on a regular basis) will be on the rain/snow line.  We expect 6-8 inches of white stuff, followed by freezing rain and then a plunge into the deep freeze to lock it all in place.   The psychic toll this takes on everyone, especially with little or no sunshine and the shortest days of the year is insidious.  All I want to do right now is curl up with a seed catalog or watch the golf channel.  But instead, I'll be scraping and shoveling and thinking of warmer days to come.  As the days lengthen a little and we get into January, I'll probably start skiing again and trying to make the best of a bad situation, but in the meantime it's good to get a little winter hate on the record.

Christmas fatigue

After hearing Bob Seger's version of "The Little Drummer Boy", I have officially OD'ed on Christmas music.   I look forward to hearing the timeless favorites every year, but at some point, a sharp stick in the eye is preferable to some of what passes for holiday carols.  I guess each generation of musicians must take a crack at the classics, but Madonna singing "Santa Baby" is too much early in the morning.

The pope and the American way

The new pope has had the audacity to actually treat the teachings of Christ as if they have relevance in today's society.  Predictably, the right wing of America has had a collective hissy fit.  The pope is a Marxist according to Rush Limbaugh.   No, I'm not says Francis, but some of my best friends are and they sometimes make sense.  I think he is playing with their heads.  The problem for the elites in our society is the New Testament is diametrically opposed to business as usual in 21st century America.  The religious dialogue is supposed to be focused on gays and abortions.  Like the wizard of Oz says, we are supposed to ignore the guy pulling the ropes and mouthing the phrases.   Jesus told the rich man to give all his wealth to the poor and free his spirit.  No wonder they crucified him.  These latter day Pharisees will not rest until Francis' message is muzzled and the conversation is returned to icky sex.   Let's hope the pontiff continues to discomfort the rich and give hope to the poor during the coming year.  It's almost enough to make this fallen away Catholic think their is something more to his childhood religion than incense and punishment.

Winter and virtue

Cleaning up after a winter storm almost always makes me feel somewhat virtuous.  The uncovering of the driveway from a blanket of white is a positive statement that winter can knock us down, but we'll get up and keep going.  Unfortunately, snow showers overnight put a patina of snow back on the asphalt, and the temperature tonight will be 7 below, so it's not going anywhere soon.   The Divine Mrs. M and I went to a reading of Dicken's  A Christmas Carol on Sunday and it seemed oddly relevant to the situation today.  The diatribes Scrooge hurls at the underclass of mid 18th century England sound very close to what you hear on Fox News regarding the layabouts collecting extended unemployment.  You can almost hear them saying "Are there no workhouses, are there no prisons?" when those without work wonder what will happen to them when their benefits run out.  This stigmatization of the unemployed gives comfort to the latter day Scrooges who see the social safety net as a drag on profits.  One can only hope Boehner and some of his henchmen see a few ghosts on Christmas Eve.

Punishment

For my intemperate diatribe against winter, Mother Nature is threatening to bestow 10-15 inches of snow on Saturday night and Sunday.  For whatever sins they may have committed, American workers got the "bipartisan" budget screw from Congress last night.  Mother may be capricious, but at least I know what I'll be dealing with for the next several months.  Congress, on the other hand seems to be relentlessly cruel to the 99% of us making less than a half million per year.  And there is no spring in sight.  While some spending on domestic programs was restored, so was more bloat to a military which has no mission to speak of but plenty of budgetary power.  No infrastructure spending to speak of, no relief for long term unemployed workers and the knives are still out for "entitlement" programs.   Some areas of the country will be virtually abandoned in coming years if the Trans Pacific Partnership treaty goes through.  The offshoring of jobs will continue and people will continue to gravitate to low paying service jobs.   It's a metaphorical winter that never seems to end.  Of course, the way to bring spring to America is to elect people who have the interests of the vast majority of us at heart.  Will we wake up, or will the moral issues which cloud economic self interest continue to bring us the Michele Bachmans and Steve Kings whose fruitcake value systems are leading to the beggaring of the nation.  Winter is coming.... will it ever end.

Curmudgenly winter posting

The older I get, the more I detest the winter season.  Walking the family dog this morning, the mercury hovered at 3 degrees and neither of us wanted to be out there.  The forecast for the weekend is snow, with at least some flurries expected every day next week.  I used to look forward to snow and the winter activities associated with the white stuff, like skiing, hot chocolate and ice skating.  Now I wonder if my tractor will start so I can clear the driveway and how many dollars are going up the chimney with each start of the oil burner.  Instead of a getaway to some frozen mountain, I long for palm trees and fairways.  The next person who waxes poetic about the wonders of winter should be boiled in hot chocolate and buried with a  stake of holly through their heart.  Bah, Humbug!

Not so veggie holiday

Markets continue to be sluggish for most vegetables as we head toward the Christmas holidays.  Lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and spring mix are cheap and plentiful at shipping points and there is not much relief in sight for growers.   Most of us have given up trying to figure out why demand has lagged so badly.  The consensus is the root of the problem is the same as with the larger economy.  Many people don't have jobs, therefore no money to spend, and ergo, no demand.  With the Congressional budget deal failing to extend unemployment benefits, up to 4 million people and their families will lose purchasing power in the next few weeks.  Unfortunately, one of the first things to get cut from the family budget is fresh vegetables.  So it looks like the pain in the FOB market will continue.   The bright spot for vegetable marketers is the booming food pantry market.  Between private donations and government support, food banks have become an important customer for shippers with #2 grade vegetables which traditionally are very hard to move in an oversupplied market.  That's a pretty bleak message for the holidays.

Empathy deficit

The American public is starting to feel an empathy deficit regarding the long term unemployed.  The republicans in congress want to cut loose the 4 million long term unemployed instead of extending relief.  Along with the cuts to the food stamp program, this is represented as doing the lazy moochers a favor.  Instead of lying back and collecting all these cushy government benefits, the formerly employed should get in line for those Walmart greeter jobs.  Then they can apply for government largesse to cover the deficit between their munificent paycheck and what the real world demands.  While it is comforting for those of us with jobs to discount the millions who are collecting unemployment as unrealistic.  Take any kind of job and try to improve from there.  For a mid level executive who was dropped due to downsizing or off shoring or general economic downturn, flipping burgers or picking up trash is probably not an option, even if he or she were willing and able.  Many of these people have generated hundreds of job applications for low paying work and were told they were over qualified.  If the lone factory which supported most of the good paying jobs in town closes, there is relatively little chance you'll be able to sell your house and move to where there is an equivalent job without taking a huge loss.  Those of us who grew up in the latter part of the 20th century did not see the grinding poverty our grandparents experienced in the great depression.  The benefits many of us would deny the unemployed are what keeps communities around the country from imploding.  So even if our dark side would like to see the lazy moochers afflicted, in the end, the rest of us will pay the piper.

Feeling for the season

The Christmas vibe was all over the NCR this weekend.  The Champlain Valley Voices, presided over by the Divine Mrs. M performed on Saturday and we attended a Messiah sing in on Sunday in Tupper Lake.  The music was beautiful, as is the light snow this morning.  I hope it turns to rain this afternoon.  It seems Congress, however, wants to audition for the Grinch this year.  With time running out to renew unemployment insurance, reconcile the budget and get a farm bill passed, the House has decided to go on Holidays starting this Friday.  That means they are not only a do-little congress, but they been out of session more than in this year.  Of course, the plight of the 4 million long term unemployed mean little to our representatives, or so it seems.  By allowing their benefits to lapse, they are not only causing much pain to the individuals involved, but hurting everyone else as well.  When these people are cut from the rolls, family, friends and the overstretched local government agencies will have to deal with the fallout.  Lives are being ruined, families destroyed and no one seems to care.  Congress could pass a jobs bill this week and put these people back to work, but by some perverse logic, most republicans in the House seem to feel we should continue to punish those that can't find work.   Even though there are 3 times as many workers as there are job openings.  Logic is not a strong point with many of those who claim to represent us.

Goodbye Mr. Mandela

Nelson Mandela has passed and many tears, crocodile and otherwise will be shed. Reams of newsprint and whatever passes for that in cyberspace will be devoted to his legacy.  Even those who were his enemies in life will choke out a few hosannas.  For his country he is a curious mix of Abe Lincoln, George Washington and John Brown.  Along with a cast of thousands, he overturned apartheid and healed the rift between blacks and whites as no other leader in Africa has been able to do.  During the struggle he was reviled by many as a "communist".  The same idiots have applied that label and many others to President Obama.  It seems a black man cannot be a leader without much of white society trying to pigeonhole him it terms they can understand and fear without resorting to racist cant.  Mandela, much as Ghandi before him shows us the blueprint for combating oppression in a non-violent, but nonetheless effective way.  Hopefully future leader of other causes will look to him as someone worthy of emulation.

Tis the season

I ran out to the garden last night and harvested a couple of bunches worth of collards for supper.  Although they have endured temps in the  low teens several times in the last week, the leaves were still in good condition.  The winterbor kale also looks good and a nice warm rain today should freshen them and the spinach.  It's getting down to final harvest, but it has been a long and productive fall at Casa Monzeglio, so I'm not complaining.  The 10-14 day forecast looks cold and snowy, so a white Christmas looks like a foregone conclusion.  Meanwhile, in the markets, most winter vegetables out of the western and southern growing areas are in the tank.  Demand seems to be nearly non-existent and even with tighter supplies being touted by shippers, no one seems to care.  The post Thanksgiving hangover is continuing and only Christmas business will get things moving again.

Diet and Health

As we dive into the dietary vortex between Thanksgiving and Christmas, most of us tend to put on a few pounds.  Christmas parties, large meals, hectic schedules and COOKIES are diet killers.  Marc Bittman in today's NYT reminds us that moderation is important in a healthy diet.   I have flirted with the idea of vegetarianism or even veganism, but have usually pulled back from the brink, and Bittman's take on nutrition makes me feel better about the dietary path I and the Divine Mrs. M have taken over the years.  We now eat little red meat, and usually have one or two vegetarian meals per week.  With a large garden, the possibilities of all vegetable meals are endless.  It becomes more difficult during the winter, but still doable.  As both Bittman and the ethical nutritionist Michael Pollan preach, we eat lots of plants, little meat and processed foods and everything else in moderation.  The Achilles heel of this whole scenario is the upcoming holiday gluttony. 

Health care for Dummies

As it becomes more evident that the government's health care website is working and more and more people are signing up for health insurance, two things are happening.  First, republican's heads are exploding as the success of the website undercuts their argument that the whole system is unworkable.  Of course, the system in Massachusetts on which Obamacare is based has worked, so why shouldn't a nationwide system based on the same framework?  Second, more and more people are questioning the stupid premise of corporations profiting from everyone's need for healthcare.  We will all need medical intervention at times between our first breath and our last, and the easiest way to provide it is with Medicare for all.  By giving one entity the power to negotiate with Big Pharma, the hospital system and individual providers, we will have an efficient system similar to the one that delivers health care to our seniors.  A simple payroll deduction like the medicare or social security tax will take care of payment and most of the paperwork.  What's not to like if you are not an insurance company, or more specifically a millionaire CEO whose salary is paid by denying care to people and perpetuating a paperwork nightmare?

Turning the calendar

The golf clubs are in storage, the garden is sleeping, but the first harbinger of spring arrived on Saturday in the guise of a seed catalog.   Despite not being the first of my circle of gardening fanatics to receive said catalog it didn't dim my enthusiasm.  I daydreamed by the fire on Saturday evening, looking at new varieties, tools and equipment.  I won't start ordering until after Christmas, but as the cloudy, snowy days pile up, the anticipation of another season in the dirt keeps me going.  That and the promise of golf under the palms at some point....

Giving Thanks

It's trite, but true, that most of us living a comfortable middle class lifestyle take a few perfunctory seconds each Thanksgiving to "count our blessings" and give thanks before or after we tuck into a gigantic excess of calories.  We went around our table and each person thought about what to give thanks for and for the most part it was the usual litany of being happy that our friends and family were gathered together to reflect on our fortunate position.  The possibility this was merely a happy accident and that we could just as easily be homeless in America or living in a hut in India does not occur to most people, including yours truly.  I think most of us feel we have made our own reality and the fortunate combination of stable home lives, mentoring and just being born white in America in the latter part of the 20th century is an afterthought, when in fact it has more to do with our social status than any conscious decisions on our part.  Just as the children of the 1% will never know what many of us deal with on a regular basis; job security, health issues we can't pay for, etc., we in the middle class will probably never know the grinding poverty which forecloses many of the options we take for granted.  College education, an extra pair of shoes, knowing at the end of the day we will have a full stomach are all things most of the rest of the world deal with on a daily basis.  So, yes, I am thankful for all the things I mostly take for granted, but I hope many of the people I forget about on a regular basis will someday experience the bounty we celebrated yesterday.

Health Care for all

The news for the ACA, aka Obamacare is getting better by the day.  Even the news media, with their fascination with the good news, bad news meme is finding it harder to come up with equivalent horror stories about rising premiums or website delays to balance the good news of formerly uninsured people finding affordable insurance.   NPR explored the private insurance exchanges being used by large companies to try to rein in health care costs.  By giving their employees a fixed amount of money each month to find their own insurance, companies with thousands workers can now figure exactly how much insurance is costing them.  Also, they can now cap the amount they give to employees and leave said employees holding the bag if costs go up.  I believe this will eventually drive a groundswell of support for "Medicare for all".  This was not politically feasible until now, since the vast majority of Americans with healthcare through their employer were not willing to change something that worked for them.  However, by forcing most people to deal with the bewildering complexity the insurance companies deliberately use to drive up costs, there will be more support for the simpler, single payer system.

Changing tastes

Apropos of my post regarding carrot storage for the winter, I find the changing tastes of Americans interesting and in some ways troubling.  As recently as my own childhood, I remember eating lots more potatoes and root veg during the winter and mostly canned green vegetables.  The fresh versions of green beans, greens and other summer vegetables were either not available or of such poor quality when they finally made it to our local A&P that my mother bypassed them.  The interstate highway system, the development of post harvest cooling techniques and the overall improvement of the cold chain have led to a revolution in fresh vegetable options for winter consumption.  Blast freezing has also vastly improved the frozen foods section, so the possibilities for eating a balanced, healthy diet have never been so good.  So why is obesity endemic in the population?  If you casually check the shopping carts at most grocery stores, the proportion of processed foods in most are very high compared to fresh or minimally processed vegetables.  As the cartoon character Pogo (another holdover from the 1950s) has famously said, "We have met the enemy and he is us".

Freeze and aftermath

Winter made an early visit to the NCR on Saturday with a couple of inches of the white stuff and temps in the single digits this morning.  Anticipating the onslaught, I harvested the last of my carrot crop and am trying an old storage technique.  I dug a trench in one of my cold frames and buried a 30 gallon plastic tote up to its rim.  I put the carrots in the bin, layered the carrots with clean sand, snapped the lid on the bin and mulched the frame with straw.  I put the lights back on the frame and now I'll wait until February or March to see if the carrots hold up.  Otherwise, it is back to the tasteless supermarket imposters for the spring.  I filled up a spare refrigerator with spinach, broccoli, parsley and carrots, so we'll eat garden veggies til sometime in December.  By then, the seed catalogs will be coming in and I'll start planning for next year.

Where were you in 63

Not quite as catchy as the slogan from American Graffiti (Where were you in 62), but for many of my generation  it was a point of pride to remember exactly where you were and what you were doing at 12:30 central time on Nov. 22, 1963.  I can still remember the light shining through the streaked windows in the library at St. John the Evangelist catholic school that afternoon when the news reached the nuns who in turn told us the president was in hospital after being shot in Dallas.  The rest of the afternoon and evening were a blur, and the indelible images of the horse drawn caisson rolling into Arlington cemetery took up the rest of the weekend.  As a 7th grader I was curiously detached for the most part, but at some level I realized history was being made.  Catholics in particular took the assassination very badly.  One of our own had been gunned down and the world would never be quite the same again.  A Canadian friend was commenting on the approaching anniversary the other day and casually stated the FBI was behind the death as if it were established fact.  I wonder what the verdict will be 50 years from now.

Finding a voice and a champion

Although many have known she was the champion of the middle and working classes for years, the senior senator from Massachusetts came out swinging on perhaps the most pressing issue for baby boomers facing retirement.  Elizabeth Warren said it is not the time to cut Social Security, but expand it as the only retirement plan most Americans can really count on when they stop working for pay.  The loss of defined benefit pensions which a more highly unionized earlier generation used to stave off poverty was traded for the grand experiment of the 401K plan.  Employers would match the contribution of workers and the resulting investment in the stock market would create a wealthy retired class...NOT.  When the dot com bubble burst, many lost almost all their retirement savings.  The real estate bust continued that crisis.   The stagnating wages of most in the middle class prevented much saving and now the "grand bargain"  sought by many in D.C. would chip away at the last refuge of  60 somethings on the verge of retirement.   Enter Senator Warren with a diametrically opposed message.  Let's say something about our society by treating those who worked all their lives and played by the rules to enjoy a decent retirement.  The naysayers on the right who feel we can afford endless war and 550 billion dollar "defense" budgets have no reply to the Ms. Warren's economic populism. 

Food Security and the produce business

People got no jobs, people got no money.  That is the quote Charley Pierce uses to describe the current economic situation.  Most economists call it a lack of demand and cluelessly wonder why, calling it is a lack of business confidence.  I guess that is technically correct, but it misses the point.  Without money to spend, the middle class and the working poor can't generate demand which might inspire business to expand and create more jobs.  It is a virtuous cycle, but the starting point is money in people's pockets.  That is the problem today.  Everyone in the produce business is lamenting the poor business conditions of the last few weeks.  They have run out of possible explanations as to why the slowdown is happening just before Thanksgiving.  The massive cuts to the food stamp program are probably the single most important reason for the slump.   With billions of dollars more being cut from the program later this year and unemployment benefits running out for millions of people, conditions will only get worse.  Cutting money from people who will spend it immediately for necessities like food and shelter is not only cruel, it is economic suicide.  The lemmings on the right in Congress are diving off the cliff and they are dragging many of us with them.

Magical thinking and the American Polity

We seem to be at the threshold of a possibly disastrous era in American governance.  We have a two party system, but only one is committed to governing the country.  The Democrats want to increase access to health care, rebuild the country's infrastructure and reduce the inequality which is ripping America apart, physically and emotionally.  The Republicans are not a partner in these projects, nor are they the loyal opposition.  Rather, they are a guerilla movement dedicated to sabotaging and destroying anything originated by the Democrats.  The health care plan is a case in point.  A cobbled together monstrosity with more moving parts than a Swiss watch, the ACA was designed using the talking points of the conservative Heritage Foundation and the actual mechanisms of Romneycare, the Massachusetts health care plan.  The repubs  fought the plan at every step without offering any constructive alternative.  Since the rollout of the plan they have seized on every glitch as evidence the entire plan is unworkable, despite the evidence to the contrary in the Bay State.  Meanwhile, as they proved during Bush's two terms as President, the GOP has no interest in governing, unless you count wealth transfer from the poor and middle class to the top 10% as political engagement.  If they gain control of all three branches of government, we can count on republicans to shred the social safety net and hand the keys to the economy to the multinational corporations and banks who will loot the treasury and accelerate the climate change which will leave an uninhabitable wasteland within a few generations.  Is this the legacy we want to leave our descendants?

Weather and Time

The late fall honeymoon is looking like a very short term deal here on the NCR.  50 MPH winds are blowing Sunday's mild temperatures out to sea and the big chill will be here for the next few days.  The garden is getting tired.  I harvested a few items for the Divine Mrs. M, but the foliage on the beets, carrots and turnips were damaged and I had to peel several layers off the nappa cabbage to reach leaves that were undamaged by the last cold snap.  The warm rain yesterday and today will put life back in to the broccoli.  I may get out the flashlight tonight and pick the last few heads.  Meanwhile, the golf courses remain optimistic, but so do the local ski areas.  I mowed the lawns for the last time on Saturday and if I had been ambitious, I could have skied and played golf on Saturday and Sunday. 

Milestones

Birthdays are highly overrated.  As I told one well wisher this morning, it is the moment between the milestones that I most appreciate.  The weekend promises to be mild and clement, so golf, gardening and yardwork are in order  (probably in that order also).  Whiteface mountain will be open for the first skiing of the season.  So much to do, so little time!

The new apocolypse now

The devastation left in the wake of super typhoon Haiyan is mind boggling.  One weather forecaster compared it to a 50 mile wide tornado.  He didn't add the storm surge the 175mph winds generated to his description.  The combination leveled a city of 350,000 people and killed at least 10,000 so far.  The final toll will probably be higher since many will die of disease and exposure.  There is no shelter, food or clean water nearly a week after the storm hit and despite robust efforts by the Phillipine government and other nations and aid groups.  The problem is the infrastructure has been wiped out, leaving helicopters as the only viable relief delivery vehicles.  What is happening on the ground must be terrifying disaster planners all over the world.   In a climate change driven scenario, these types of disasters could very well happen all over the world every year.  A category 5 hurricane hitting the east coast of the US could generate a trillion dollars of damage and untold suffering.  The negotiations at the Warsaw conference on climate change are taking on a newfound sense of urgency, but can they deliver the kind of tough love the human population of spaceship earth needs to survive the coming century?

Veterans and policies remembered

I have always had an ambiguous feeling for Veterans' Day or as the Canadians put it Remembrance Day.  As a child of the 60s, I grew up with the Vietnam War and its aftermath.  It was the beginning of the polarization of  America. As an eighth grader in 1965, I remember jeering war protesters in New York on a class trip.  By 1970, I had come around 180 degrees and joined the anti-war movement.  With a high draft lottery number, I never had to make the decision not to serve in what I considered an unjust war, but many in my generation served enthusiastically or reluctantly and over  50,000 paid the ultimate price for their country.  These policies were mostly set by WW2 veterans who felt they were doing the right thing in combatting communism.  History has provided a harsh judgement  of their actions.  Many of the small and larger conflicts since then have been orchestrated by a succession of "chicken hawks" who never served in the armed forces, but presumed to use them for ideological ends.  The evolution of the conscript army to an all  volunteer force has reduced the involvement of the average American with the military.  We all pay homage to our vets by rote, but what are we celebrating?  Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children have perished in our wars over the past half century and for what?  I think everyone between 18 and 20 should have to serve the nation either at home in a civilian service or in the armed forces.  An involved citizenry is essential to democracy.  If everyone is a veteran, then we all have a stake in and a voice for and against policies promulgated by our representatives in Washington.   Perhaps we will want to be represented by people who have had the experience of service.  Veterans' Day will be a truly national celebration.

Getting the message

I guess the conventional American is a racist bigot whose gag reflex is triggered by the sight of NYC's new mayor with his black wife and biracial children.   At least that is what Richard Cohen of the Washington Post opines in his latest descent into the underbelly of American politics.   As I have pointed out numerous times since President Obama's election, more that 50% of the opposition to his policies is driven by the racism that is still alive and well in many areas of our nation.  Even though a recent poll shows 87% of respondents approve of interracial marriage, I still think many of the affirmative responses are approvals in the abstract.   "Not my son or daughter", would probably be the response if the question were "Would you approve your child marrying a black man or woman".  Of course we have come a long way from the anti miscegenation laws of the Jim Crow south.  But we still have a long way to go if the WaPo's op-ed pages are any indication of present attitudes about race in these United States.

Golfing with geezers

With another Sunday in the 40's it was time to make obeisance to the golf gods for perhaps the last time this year.  My friend and I went to one of the local courses expecting to be among a few hardy souls, but to our surprise, a golf tournament was in the process of being organized.  There were about 30 hardy golfers, mostly in their late 60s and early 70s ready to go, so we joined the fun.  Dressing for late fall golf is about the same as any cold weather outdoor activity.  Several layers of clothing, but loose enough to allow full movement.  The weather was cloudy and although it stayed in the low 40s, the northeast breeze was damp and chilly. Making a birdie on a difficult par 3 was the highlight in an otherwise forgettable round.   The weather forecast for next weekend is predicting warmer temps after a midweek cold snap, so it's possible the garden and the golf course will remain open for business next weekend.  So it goes.

Garden redux

Despite the cooler than normal temps, the garden continues to yield surprises.  I harvested some broccoli, kohlrabi and some truly gigantic daikon radishes for the local co-op last night.  A couple of nights in the upper teens and lower 20s damaged the turnip greens and broccoli rabe and have pretty much stopped anything from growing, but a warm rain yesterday has perked up most of the foliage.  I expect to harvest quite a few items this weekend for short term storage since we are supposed to receive an arctic cold front on Tuesday and Wednesday.  That will keep the temp below freezing for 48 hours and probably freeze the top several inches of soil.  Time to get the nappa and bok choy out as well as beets and turnips.  The spinach, carrots and winterbor kale can survive the blast as long as it warms up by next weekend. We'll see....

The Chinese Free Lunch

The Chinese are bent on proving the old adage "There is no free lunch", wrong.  With their purchase of the Smithfield Packing company, they have secured a huge supply of pork for their 1.4 billion people, and left much of the mess for the US taxpayer to clean up.  That's Marc Bittman's take on it in yesterday's NYT.  Bittman, who aggressively advocates for a meatless diet doesn't even weigh in on the ethical issues of the pork business.  He points out that China maintains a strategic pork reserve, much as we do with oil.  By buying Smithfield, they strengthen that reserve with some of the most advanced food production technology on the planet.  Instead of stealing that information, they were able to buy it.  Meanwhile, the nastier aspects of pig farming, the confined feeding operations the vast manure lagoons and all the environmental costs associated with it will be passed on to American taxpayers.  I don't see how this is a good deal except for the Chinese and the top executives at Smithfield.  It's just another example of global capitalism at its worst.  The profits are private and the costs are socialized.  Meanwhile, we give a potential enemy a strategic advantage.  Dr. Strangelove would appreciate the irony.

auguries

The political high priests of the left and right will be digging through the entrails of last night's elections to justify their own prejudices and assure the faithful their auguries are the correct insights.  That a liberal won the NYC mayoralty should come as no surprise, nor should Christie's win in New Jersey or even the detestable Macauliffe in Virginia over the even more vile Cuccinelli.  So what can the average person extrapolate from these results.  Precious little in the overall scheme.  Although with Diblasio's win, the message is a template for a national democrat in 2016.  Don't be afraid of a progressive, populist campaign.  It will resonate with many who feel disenfranchised.  It is not only a "Tale of Two Cities", but of two nations; one with seemingly limitless opportunities for the 1% and severely constrained limits for the rest of us.  Show us the way to level the playing field and take on the entrenched plutocrats and most of us will rally to you.  Taking 400 big ones to make a speech to the likes of Goldman Sachs is not going to get it done, Hillary.  If both sides cast their lot with those who would wreck the hopes and dreams of the 99%, then despair it the harvest they will reap and we will be a poorer nation, psychologically and economically. 
 As a side note, the Divine Mrs. M takes umbrage with my implication she takes her excellent health care policy for granted.   Having seen the results of poor coverage for the less fortunate over the many years of her career, she is cognizant of her advantages and thankful for them; as I am for her.

Health care blues

I think most Americans feel the way I do about Obamacare.  It doesn't really affect me since we have had health care through the Divine Mrs. M's job since the 1970s and it has served us well.  Intellectually and now by personal experience as our offspring get their own policies we know there are people at risk due to the soaring price of care, but it doesn't impact us directly.  We smugly go about our business thinking we made the right decisions and fellow citizens with junk policies or no health care at all were foolish.  Unfortunately, many did not have the option to choose gold plated policies to protect their families.  As Alan Grayson once famously put it the Republicans have a health care plan for those without insurance.  It's called the "if you get sick, die quickly", plan.  While it is not Medicare for all, the ACA at least makes a dent in  the ranks of the uninsured.  There is no good reason not to give the law a chance to prove its worth, except in the minds of those who feel that its success could spell the end of the party of angry old white men.

Slip sliding into winter

The big cool down continued this weekend.  After a soggy Saturday spent harvesting for the food co-op and cleaning up the tomato patch, the temperature started dropping during the night and finished below freezing on Sunday morning.  Despite lots of sun, the mercury or digital, depending on your generation, never got above 38 degrees.  I harvested beets, celery root and the last planting of romaine.  The latter was only good at the heart, but made a tasty end of season salad.  Aside from the winterbor kale and spinach, which shrugged off the temps, the rest of the greenstuff looked ragged, even at the end of the afternoon.  I doubt things will get much better in the short term, but a warm midweek rain and rising night temps should keep the broccoli and other greens going for another week. 

Musical evolution

Thanks to the miracle of satellite radio, I can shuttle among several formats on my drive to the office each day.  Today, the Nice Polite Republicans on NPR were annoying me with their apologetic coverage of national affairs.  It seems almost every development in Congress is an opportunity for republicans and a disaster for democrats.  The sophomoric host of this morning's obfuscation, Steve Innskeep was cheerleading a little too loudly, so I switched to the music channels.   I usually listen to 60s and 70s pop, but I decided to check  the channel which replays the hits of the 2000s.  First up was a reminder of why I listen to the 60s., Smash Mouth singing "hey now you're an all star".  My oldest daughter was a senior in high school when this was a a hit.  I switched back to the 70s and a hit from 1970, "Everything is Beautiful"  was playing. I was a freshman in college at that time..   What a difference in sentiment.  That song could have been playing in 1950, 1960 or 1970.  It would never be a hit now.  I'm sure every generation says this, but if the music we listen to shapes our world view, we are in big trouble now.

Finished the start

Finished planting the 2014 crop of garlic yesterday afternoon.  I was in a hurry to get it in before the predicted rain for today makes a soggy mess of my beautifully manicured beds.  The beds were the consistency of  perfectly baked chocolate cake and the temperature was warm enough to make the whole process fairly enjoyable.  With a little over 2000 cloves stuck, there should be plenty of garlic to sell next year.  Planting garlic usually brings the gardening season to a close here on the NCR, but the weather promises to be fairly clement for the next 10 days, so harvest will continue.  Aside from the occasional frost/freeze, this is one of my favorite times in the garden.  Mother nature has frozen most of the weeds, but the hardy veg continue to grow, or at least remain in prime condition.  I will harvest the rest of the beet crop this weekend, but the broccoli, kale and spinach will continue to grow, and I will heavily mulch a bed of late carrots for harvest during the winter.  The only fly in the gardening world is the continued growth of chickweed, which is hardier than any vegetable known to man.

The old is new

The Divine Mrs. M and I attended the premier of the new/old Wurlitzer organ at The Strand theater in Plattsburgh last night.   The circa 1924 organ produced in Buffalo by the Wurlitzer company was restored to original condition in a process which required nearly 13 years and the equivalent of several hundred thousand dollars.  Starting with the donation of the organ by a couple in Massachusetts who had the entire organ, including pipes which reach 16 feet, installed in their basement, the instrument was totally restored and reconfigured for the 2000 seat theater in downtown Plattsburgh.  We enjoyed a showing of the silent film " The Phantom of the Opera", starring Lon Chaney, accompanied by an organist playing the equivalent of a full orchestra.  The house was packed for the benefit concert at $20.00 a head.  It seems nostalgia is a powerful draw.  Many of those in the audience had memories of bygone days when these performances were not so unusual.  I wonder if this is a recent phenomena, or if looking back at "the good ole days" is something every generation does.

The Big Chill

I just had to put that title down for today's post.  As much as I hate the first real freeze of the season, the reference to the archetypical boomer movie is irresistible.  I'll survey the damage tonight, but at least there was no wind to add burn to the freeze.  For sure, the lettuce and more tender veg are history.  The real question is how badly did the broccoli and cauliflower freeze and how long will they take to rehydrate.  We have rain and warmer weather predicted for later in the week, so we should be ok in that department.  The next question is how to get the garlic planted before the rain makes a muddy mess out of my carefully prepared beds.  Fall gardening on the NCR is not for the faint of heart.

Freeze warning

Last week, the galinsoga froze.  By tomorrow morning, many other denizens of the garden will follow that dastardly weed to oblivion.  The weather service is predicting temps in the high teens and low 20s.  At the very least it will freeze many of the hardy vegetables to the point they will need a good shower and warmer weather to thaw and regain their texture.  Broccoli is one of these.  The beets and carrots can shrug off a single night of very cold temps, so long as the ground doesn't freeze.  Some of the greens, like turnip tops will probably burn at these temperatures, while the kale will just get sweeter.  Spinach will hug the ground, but should weather the cold.  Unfortunately, any lettuce still in the ground will be a popsicle tonight.  After such a long run of clement weather, I hate the idea of the garden shutting down, but all things must pass.   I did make up a bed for planting early spinach next spring, so despite the shutdown, spring is around the corner...LOL

Sail ho....really?

An article in the NYT is touting the return of sail power in the form of a 39 ft. sail powered barge bringing produce and other locally produced farm items to NYC via the Hudson River.  This is the brainchild of a consortium (if you could dignify this little bootstrap operation with that name) of Vermont and NY growers along the Lake Champlain-Hudson river corridor.  My own little corner of the NCR was once a bustling lake port in the 18th and 19th centuries.  The Valcour port provided an easy means for locals to reach markets for their goods via boat rather than the primitive roads that existed at that time.  While the movers behind this latest sailpower initiative freely admit it is more show than go, they also point out that 9 million people live within walking distance of the ports the little sailboat will stop at.  Do I think I'll be selling produce via sail in the near future?  I doubt it, but stunt or not, at least their is creative thinking evident in our area.

Winners, Losers and Also Rans

The Red Sox put a quick claim on World Series glory last night, winning 8-1 over the Cardinals.  As a lifelong Yankees fan, I am conflicted by our archrivals success.   Meanwhile, team GOP is losing badly in the political world series and it promises to get really ugly.  Holding hearings to berate web designers and political appointees is not going to take America's collective mind off the recent $24 billion government shutdown brought to you by the party of Lincoln.   The 16th President is probably spinning in his grave as his erstwhile successors tarnish what is left of his party's legacy.  Finally, the weather continues to run downhill here on the NCR.  (That stands for North Country Riviera for those new followers of this blog).   I think we may have had a galinsoga killing frost last night, but I won't know til later in the day.  Otherwise, the garden continues to produce.   The divine Mrs. M picked about 10 lbs. of grape tomatoes yesterday in anticipation of the freeze, so we will have tomatoes with our salads for the next couple of weeks.  The hardier crops will laugh at 28 degree temps. 

Perennial fantasies

Marc Bittman in the NYT tells us that perennial heaven is right around the corner, give or take a hundred years or so.  By working with the genes of annuals, scientists at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas hope to have a perennial prairie which will produce food with minimal inputs and maximum sustainability.  The catch, which Bittman doesn't explore is the amount of food per acre the new regime could produce.  I doubt it is a fraction of what today's corn and soybean crops now yield.  Of course these yields are unsustainable, depending on huge fossil fuel inputs for fertilizer, irrigation, harvest and storage.   Also, the bounty is produced by essentially mining the soil and causing large losses of soil each year and polluting the rest of the environment.  These factory farms are certainly not the solution to mankind's increasing appetite each year.  However, Bittman and Wes Jackson's fantasy of a perennial prarie is only viable in a world with many fewer than the 9 billion people who will be standing on the earth by the turn of the next century.  We need solutions, and at least this is a start.  Let's hope there is a happy medium between the extremes.

Mild weather continues

Woke up to temps in the 50s this morning.  That would usually be a warm high for the day on the NCR at this time of year.  We have a few frosty mornings predicted later this week, but nothing that would shut the gardening season down.  I look forward to checking on the growth of many different crops when I get home in daylight later today.  Although the tomatoes are probably toast, there is still a cornucopia of items to harvest this weekend.  And garlic to plant.

Pleasant weekend

Thoroughly enjoyed the PMA in NOLA.  Two days of produce talk, excellent food and music are balm to the produce person's soul.  The divine Mrs. M and I spent Sunday afternoon sightseeing in the French Quarter.  Beignets and cafe au lait at the Cafe Du Monde was definitely on the list of must dos.  The weather was nearly perfect for the time of year and  aside from being a little footsore at the end of the day, we enjoyed the experience.  A little jazz to finish the evening and now I'm ready to go back to the real world even if I have to drag my partner back with me.  No politics were discussed and very little current affairs leaked into the produce bubble.  Now it is back to the NCR and business as usual. 

Travelling

Light blogging today.  The Divine Mrs. M and myself are heading to New Orleans for the Produce Marketing Association Convention.  There we will see the latest products and packaging, mostly made in foreign countries by low wage workers or in the USA by similarly low paid people.  It is too easy to be cynical about the food production and distribution system in this country.  If all the workers were paid a living wage, it is likely most people would be horrified by the increased cost.  We are subsidized by the government every step of the way from the seed to the finished product and very few people question the relative cheapness of food in this country.  Enough ranting.  I will report on the wonders of the produce universe tomorrow.

The party of stupid

The post-mortems continue this morning as commenters on the left and right weigh in on the republicans' ignominious surrender last night.  Of course the Faux News brigade will paint a picture of a principled band of patriots who fought the good fight, while the outlets who cater to a less sanity challenged audience will call it what it was, a band of nihilists who were willing to take the country down as collateral damage in their vendetta against the president.  Now the focus will shift as the wrong headed agenda of  slashing the social safety net and cutting back the functions of government at the behest of the .01% continues to generate positive media coverage.  As one blogger puts it,  punching hippies, kicking the poors and punishing the olds never seems to go out of style in this country.   Will the party of stupid learn from the thrashing it took in the polls.  I doubt it.  The only way this ends well is if enough of the politically apathetic wake up and do their civic duty.  Otherwise we will seemingly get the government we deserve.

Avoidance

I'm only going to pontificate on weather and crops today.  The puerile politics our nation has descended to makes my stomach turn.  Anyway, it looks like we are finally going to get some fall weather here on the NCR.  By Saturday night the tomatoes and hopefully the galinsoga will be history.  Because the lows will remain in the upper 20s and low 30s for the rest of next week, the hardy veg will be fine.  The last cauliflower and broccoli plantings should continue to bulk up and the spinach will continue to grow.  If the deer leave the beet tops and carrot foliage alone they will get larger also.   The last few forlorn heads of lettuce will hang on until we get to the mid 20s, but it has been a good run for lettuce this year.  The head lettuce growers who still have crops in the ground are reaping a bonanza as the California lettuce in the Huron growing area is virtually non-existent due to water restrictions.  That means iceberg will be scarce until the Florida  and Yuma deals begin in December.  With FOBs in the mid to upper $20s in Quebec, growers are set to finish on a high note.  As I predicted 10 years ago, the season continues to expand.  We are now at least 2 weeks past the traditional end of lettuce in the North Country.  With California's continued weather woes, I can predict imaginative growers who will try to extend the season further as the weather continues to warm.  Newer varieties which can cope with our warmer summers followed by others which can mature in the shorter days of October and November will eventually find us eating local salads for US Thanksgiving.

Moment of Truth

It looks like John Boenher will finally have to make a decision he is dreading;  either cater to the crazies in his caucus, or put the best interests of his country first.  Assuming the Senate votes on a debt ceiling extension which also ends the government shutdown, the ball is in House's court.  The country is now a laughingstock around the world and most first world inhabitants shake their heads as they contemplate the tea party's antics.  Even a banana republic would blush. The Senate bill is just a stopgap measure which ensures we will play out this tawdry drama again in February.  Even this delay is too much for some of the crazies.  They imagine they are the patriots about to be overrun by the hordes of unbelievers, led by the Kenyan Muslim Usurper in Chief.  Fortunately, if Boenher puts the Senate bill up for a vote by the entire House, it will pass easily and we will see the relatively small number of idiots who have held the nations economy and by extension the world's hostage.  And it will also expose most of them for the racist assholes they are.

Weekend Bliss

As in two days of glorious fall weather.   Finished the Farmers' Market on a high note with a swinging load of beautiful produce.  It almost makes me look forward to next year.  Of course that would require me to continue my amnesia regarding the weather in June and early July.  Fortunately for most Americans, farmers have notoriously short memories.   Meanwhile, the ignorance part of the bliss equation was no TV and very little radio.   Therefore no reflections on the country's governance problems.  Checking this morning showed the teahadist wing of the erstwhile republican party was still making Boenher dance as they pull the strings.  It would appear the defense of the .01% takes precedence over the rest of us.

Last Hurrah

The last farmers' market has finally rolled around, and I have to say I approach this last Saturday with a mixture of relief and regret.  It is nice to finally get Friday nights and weekends back.  At the same time, I will miss the sense of urgency and the fulfillment as the loaded truck rolls into the market and customers snap up the produce I put such effort to grow and harvest.  It sounds somewhat corny, but I feel a link between myself and the ultimate consumer on those sunny and even not so sunny Saturdays.  I think that essential link between farmer and consumer is missing in most transactions today.  The production of food has become so divorced from the people who buy and eat it that it is almost as impersonal as buying a pair of shoes or some laundry detergent.  If I keep doing this in future years, much of the satisfaction is that connection I make as a grower with my customers.  Of course it would be nice to make more than a minimum wage for the time I spend on this hobby. 

Government disaster as reality TV

Watching the political shows these days is almost like being strapped into a chair and forced to watch endless reruns of Jersey Shore or Big Brother.  You want to scream at the idiots who are trotted out each night to affirm that yes, "white is black", "up is down" and not least, "freedom is slavery".  The 30 or 40 Teahadists and the Koch brothers are forcing the country to the brink of default in an ultimately futile attempt to rollback the 21st century's likely most important social accomplishment, health care for the majority of Americans.  Like social security and medicare before it, this is an imperfect program, but it will get better and ultimately will be known as the precursor of universal health care.  Much as the generation that grew up with the New Deal, the generation that experiences Obamacare will be a force for the Democrats.  The dead enders in the Republican party know this and the present apocalypse is their reaction.  I believe cooler heads will prevail, but the cost will be high. Meanwhile, we have to wonder how much longer we'll be experiencing groundhog day.

Frosty start

I had to scrape the windshield this morning for the first time since late April.  We barely touched 36 degrees, so most of the tender veg are probably still okay.  I'm sure the galinsoga will live to grow another day.  With the rain on Monday and warmer temps coming up for the weekend there should be plenty of maturing going on in the garden.  The beets and carrots are still coming on strong.  I noticed more teacup size heads of cauliflower in the last planting and the broccoli is bulking up.  The second cuttings of spinach will be plentiful for the next couple of weeks and the third set of peppers will be in the offing next week.  All in all, the late garden is almost making up for the nightmarish June and early July of our discontent.  

Racism and the Republican Id

It seems the teahadists in the House are determined to destroy the Obama presidency even if it lays waste the American economy.  That is the clear message the lemmings with the suicide vests are spreading through the media.  By some strange coincidence almost all of these nihilists are from the south.  Of course many residents of the old confederacy have little use for the rest of these United States, and for brown skinned people in general.  Obama presents the perfect pretext to bash both of these bugaboos using the rubric of patriotism.  They are fighting to keep the debt (mostly accumulated under republican presidents) from swallowing the country.  If the country dies due to their tender ministrations, at least they can say they tried.  What they did not count on was a unified Democratic party and a president with a mandate and a spine transplant.  Now they are backed into a corner with no way out but to capitulate in a most humiliating fashion.  Like a cornered rat, this is when this movement is most dangerous.  It is also when its foundational racism is most likely to be outed.  When this happens, perhaps the nation can begin another healing process.  But I doubt it.  As long as their are people who fear the "other", there will be hate and destructive actions.  We need to call these out and excise them from the nation's politics.

Springing back

Another mild weekend here on the NCR.  Still no frost predicted for the next 10 days and it looks like most if not all of the late crops will mature, even if the customers are not available.  The farmers' market closes next week, but if the latest returns are an indicator, the customers have moved on to other activities of a Saturday morning.  I guess fresh vegetables are a summertime thing for many people and they will return to chain store fresh for the rest of the year.  It's a shame, because the most vitamin dense veggies are available now.  Cauliflower, broccoli, kale, winter squash, etc. are way more nutritious than green beans and summer squash.  I tried roasted kohlrabi this weekend and it was delicious.  It has been a bountiful fall so far and it looks like it will extend through much of the month.  Certainly it has been a better season than the spring and summer that preceded.

Republican roulette

It looks like Boenher has taken most if not all the bullets from the gun his party was holding to America's collective head.  By telling moderates he is willing to use Democratic votes to raise the debt ceiling he is effectively neutering the teahadist wing of his party.  Maybe the collective sigh of relief from most Americans will give the speaker enough cover to keep his job.  The alternatives are not pretty.  We can hope the next election will be a referendum on the party of stupid, in which case Nancy Pelosi will be pounding the gavel when Hilary takes the oath of office.  There will be a collective explosion of heads at FOX nation, but the future of the country will look immeasurably better with grownups in charge again.

Weather is beautiful, wish Congress was

At least the weather is beautiful for a government shutdown.  No natural disasters to remind the teahadists the need for a functional federal government.  So, until the pain of their constituents and the need for some semblance of responsibility forces them, the shutdown will continue with each side's cheerleaders egging them on.  On the face of it is a no-brainer.  However, brains are not something the tea party is noted for.  Meanwhile, summer has returned to the garden.  I hate to even mention it, but it is actually getting dry out there.  The lettuce for next week should be full size in time for the last farmer's market of the year.  The cole crops continue to jump, although with fewer daylight hours it is a little slower than this kick of warm weather would otherwise provide.  The tomatoes are about done, with excessive cracking on the slicers.  I picked the last few plums, but I don't think their flavor is good enough for sauce.

Proving old maxims

Looks like the republicans are going to prove the old saying "Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result".  They can continue to pass the same idiotic riders delaying or defunding ACA on the back of the continuing resolution to keep the government operating and the Senate will continue to reject the bill and send it back to the House.  Meanwhile, real people will begin to suffer as the government shuts down.  What this comes down to is a lack of leadership on the GOP side.  Someone needs to stand up to the teahadists and tell them you cannot govern the country in a constant state of crisis, regardless of the fundraising opportunities it creates.  The spineless speaker of the house is obviously not up to the task.  Boehner is too consumed by his need to stay on the job until he can land that lucrative lobbying gig to do his duty to the country.  This is what it all boils down to; greed and ideology feeding off each other.  Meanwhile, the rest of us get to watch the trainwreck and hope we are not collateral damage.

Good, Bad, Ugly

It was the best of times, it was the...well, you get the idea.  The weather has been fantastic, with no let down for the rest of the week.  Aside from heavy morning dew each day, the weather for growing or finishing crops has been extraordinary.  There is some cloudy weather and showers predicted for the end of the week, but the long range shows no frost through the middle of next week.  The political situation on the other hand is bad and about to get ugly.  The wrecking crew also known as the Republican party is throwing a tantrum because they cannot get their way with the Affordable Care Act.  It is now up to a handful of senior party members and mostly John Boehner to make sure the political system functions for the majority of Americans.  The previous week has provided a shameful chapter for future historians.  Regardless of those who lionize him now, Ted Cruz will go down as a latter day Joe McCarthy; a demagogue who plays on the fears of the credulous.  When will someone confront him with the classic line from Edward Murrow,  "At long last Sir, have you no shame".

I can see clearly

The rain is gone, at least for the next 10 days or so.  Continued dry and mild weather is really bringing on the fall crops, while keeping the warm weather lovers hanging on.  The beans and tomatoes are only a pale ghost of themselves when it comes to taste.  The night temps in the 30s and 40s have changed the flavor from August's ambrosia to a slightly stale September. The only heat lovers which improve in the fall are the peppers.  The change from green to red brings out the sweetness.  Carrots also improve with cooler temps and shorter days.  The last plantings of broccoli and cauliflower are showing  signs of heading now, and with the forecast for the next several weeks showing above normal it seems I will be able to harvest most everything before it is nipped.  The next several weeks will be devoted to harvest and cleanup and finally planting next year's garlic crop.  The fun never stops!

speculating armageddon

As the nation teeters toward the possibility of shutdown and then default, it behooves the people of this once great nation to look in the mirror and do a little soul searching.  Virtually no one wants to see either of the above scenarios take place, but a rather small minority of the nation's voters have enabled a fanatical caucus in the House of Representatives to take our country's full faith and credit hostage for an ideological phantasm.  These Gerrymandered jihadists are the creation of republican led legislatures which have removed accountability from the electoral equation.  This echo chamber of political purity drives these representatives in the opposite direction from a clear majority in the US which feels the government needs to continue to function, and the bills need to be paid.  The rest of us are now in the position of a motorist rubbernecking at a traffic backup.  Will we get to see the accident, or will it be cleared away before we reach the bottlenecek.  I guess we'll find out in the next three weeks.

Health Care Follies

To use a newly hackneyed phrase, I guess we are on Cruz Control for the next couple of days.  The senator from Texas has one notable achievement to show for his latest tantrum.  He has sparked a bi-partisan consensus that he is a pompous asshole with nothing substantive to contribute to the national dialogue.  Aside from fundraising among the rubes who believe the nonsense he is peddling, what possibly motivates the man?  He is a Harvard graduate, although he is rapidly diminishing that particular brand.  He knows that the template of Obamacare is the Massachusetts health care law, which has brought health care to 98% of that state's residents without unduly increasing costs.  When fully implemented, the federal law will enjoy similar success and the praise which will undoubtedly accrue to it.  The Democrats will have by that time locked up majorities of the women's, latino, Asian and youth vote for generations and the angry old white men who support Cruz will be a diminishing demographic which no one (except the makers of Depends) will mourn.  So what calculations can be whirling through the his head.  Frankly, I'm stumped. 

Frost

Looks like no frost and or rain for at least 10 days.  I guess mom nature is trying to make up for the horrific early season visited on farmers in the North Country.  I'm glad I planted a lot of late crops and gambled we would have a mild fall.  Although the last plantings of cauliflower and broccoli are barely showing heads, it looks like the weather will cooperate and I should be harvesting them by the middle/end of October. 

Falling toward October

Not quite waiting for Godot, but as the season progresses, there is less and less change in the garden.  I am referring to the pace of growth of most crops at this point.  The cukes and zukes are really slowing down now.  Kale and cauliflower seem to be speeding up and the tomatoes are cracking before they can ripen.  Even the weeds have slowed to a crawl except for the ubiquitous galinsoga which will only be stopped by a relatively hard freeze.  It looks like another week like last; a rain, followed by cooler weather and then a gradual warmup.  By this coming weekend we should be back in the 70s for highs.  No frost predicted in the longer range through the first of October, so we should be able to finish harvest of most crops before they are frozen.  There is some late cabbage that will need another 2-3 weeks of decent weather, but it looks like we may get it. 

Who are we kidding

As the pain caucus dumps a new load of worry on the American underclass with passage of the food stamp denial bill, it becomes more evident every day that the present economic distress has fueled the nascent racism this country has struggled with since 1619.  Owlsely county in Kentucky is 98% white and nearly 50% of the population uses food stamps yet Mitt Romney won 81% of the vote.  I rest my case.  The only conceivable reason to vote so diametrically opposed to your own interest is racism, pure and simple.  Yet, no one in the media has touched this third rail of hate.  Some of the left wing media will make a glancing reference to "southern strategies", but while this hate festers most in the old South, it is present throughout the country, especially among white males in lower socioeconomic classes.  With the ascendance of a black president, many of these unfortunates see their last visions of superiority stripped away.  How else to explain their embrace of all things anti Obama. 

Warm and wet

Looks like we'll peak with temps around 80 today before some rain and cooler weather hits in time for the weekend.  The lettuce and other cool season crops should kick back into growth with this heat.  For the summer crops like squash and cukes, it is too little, too late.  The long range forecast shows milder weather in October, so the gardening (and mowing) seasons will be extended.  I have lots of late broccoli and cauliflower, so I hope we grow until November.  There are three or four more farmer's markets to attend, but I'll have plenty of stuff to sell after the 15th of October if the weather remains fair.  I guess we'll see.  The only potential for mayhem in the garden is one local deer who has steadily developed a taste for beet greens and now carrot tops.  The local talk radio station is keeping him out of the late garden (I have a radio set in the middle of the garden), but he is coming within a 100 feet of the house to sample the carrots.  I don't think the Divine Mrs. M will appreciate talk radio at all hours of the night, so I'm covering the carrots with remay cloth.  The full moon certainly makes for good night vision for the deer.  At 5:30 this morning it was bright enough to read by.

More pain, no gain

The Washington D.C. chapter of the Marquis De Sade club, a.k.a. the Republican caucus has decided that not only do millions of Americans not deserve the chance for affordable health care, but many of the same people do not need to eat either.  Defund Obamacare before it can have any positive impact and deny food stamps to millions of working Americans who will have to choose between paying for food or rent or auto expenses.  It seems these insular millionaires are so divorced from the workday world of most of their constituents they don't realize the havoc these policies will create.  Didn't they see the recent "budget" Mickey D put out for their employees.  It assumes they are working at least two jobs and focuses on how to get as many government benefits as possible to supplement the meager wages they are being paid.  These idiots rail about "Socialism" and yet they underwrite the corporate profits of the major low wage paying corporations.  The average Walmart employee can't get by without major subsidies in the form of Medicaid, food stamps and other government programs.  If they defund these programs, perhaps we will have real labor unrest and a revival of the pitchfork unionism of the early 1900s.  Then we will see some real pain.

Modern foodlike substances

I bought a bag of kettle cooked "Tomato Parmesan" potato chips the other day.  Being somewhat ravenous, I ate most of the bag and liked the taste, to the amazement of the Divine Mrs. M.  I eventually bought another bag and was eating some last night when I decided to read the ingredients.  Big mistake.  I got as far as "tomato like flavors" and gave up.  I have no idea how the word parmesan was even allowed on the label, as there was no mention of real cheese on the label besides a fleeting reference to cheddar.  WTF!  Of course this was not some artisan chip maker, but Frito-Lay.  I should not have been surprised, but I did expect some real tomato and real parmesan to be involved in the production.  The labeling laws are obviously not working for consumers, unless you are willing to spend time reading the ingredients listed on the package; a somewhat time consuming experience. The modern American food experience has morphed into more or less continuous introductions of what one food writer refers to as "foodlike substances". This ersatz food makes up a larger and larger portion of what we eat on a daily basis.  The solution is to stay away from processed foods.  Unfortunately, unless you are willing to devote a much larger portion of your income and leisure time to this endeavor, it is a difficult proposition.  One thing for sure, Frito-Lay will not be selling me anytime soon.

Beware the Ides of September

Of course, it is raining again this morning.  Looks like we'll have to wait til tomorrow for the promised sunshine.  We'll also have to dodge a possible frost here on the NCR.  However, if we manage that, we look to be seasonably mild for the next 10 days.  The broccoli and cauliflower are really starting to mature.  The other cool season crops are also doing well if we can stay dry for a few days.  The weekend was schizophrenic with a damp drizzly Sat. followed by a brilliant Sunday morning and a decent afternoon.  The Divine Mrs. M attended the Battle of Plattsburgh events in her period finery to the edification of all and sundry.  The world continues to turn, despite the best efforts of some factions in this country to turn back the clock.  That's all the news and musings from this little corner of the world.

It's the temperatures, stupid

After the deluge, it looks like smooth sailing for the next 10 days.  We had a total of 2 inches of rain since Tuesday evening.  That has pretty well saturated the soils in the area.  Now we are being promised a succession of  sunny days with temps in the 70s during the day and 40s at night.  If this holds it will go a long way toward maturing many late planted crops.  Beets, carrots, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, kale, cauliflower and many others will thrive with ample moisture and clement temperatures.  Of course we are getting less light all the time, so that will slow things down, but the above normal temps will counterbalance the lack of light.  We just need to avoid more rain for the time being.  Big doings on the NCR this weekend.  The local re-enactors will celebrate the Battle of Plattsburgh which effectively ended the threat of British domination of New England at the end of the War of 1812.  While most Americans don't realize the significance of the land and sea engagement on Lake Champlain, most historians rate it as a pivotal moment in the war.  A rag tag army of irregulars and a makeshift navy defeated veterans of the Napoleonic wars and the British navy.  We always love the story of the plucky underdogs upsetting Goliath. 

Wet and wild

With 3/4 inch of rain last night and another inch or so predicted today, it is time to put away the hoses and start getting the garden ready for winter. There is still plenty of harvesting to do, but with frost predicted early next week, the tomatoes, squash and other summer veg are probably history by next Wednesday.  Of course the weather will probably change course after the frost and we'll get a couple of weeks of nice weather.  Hopefully all the late planted brassicas will fulfill their potential.  It seems like a fitting end to a thoroughly annoying season.  Cold and dry, cold and wet, hot and dry, now cold and wet again.  Many gardeners threw in the trowel in June.  For those of us that stuck it out, there have been a few pleasurable moments, but mostly frustration as with the best of intentions things continued to go awry.  I hope this is a one off year, but I'm trying to build fortitude for next year already.

What's a gardener to do

Whine about the weather of course.  Now we can expect 1-2 inches of rain, followed by a cool front.  So much for late maturing vegetables.  Now we have to hope the fall rains hold off and the temps don't get too cool, too fast.  The late broccoli and cauliflower look great, but need several weeks of clement conditions to mature.  Ditto for late carrots and beets.  Even the spinach and turnips need some warm weather.   Of course, being a gardener under these conditions still beats being president of the US right about now.  Mr. Obama lost me and I daresay most of my generation on the question of Syria.  Perhaps if his predecessor had not poisoned the well of humanist intervention to prevent further use of WMD, Obama might have gotten a different reception by his own nation and the world.  However, Shrub and his henchmen have forever tarnished our reputation in that respect.  Besides, if he really wanted to bomb Syria, he should have ruled it out.  The republicans in the House of Representatives probably would have passed a mandate ordering him to do it.  Anyway, I'm glad my biggest problem is the amount of precipitation I will have to deal with over the next couple of days.

Another wild ride

From 37 degrees on Monday morning to near 90 on Wed. afternoon and back to the 40s by the weekend.  It's Sept., but not your father's Sept.   We are getting weather from April to October and the month is not even half over.  At least the heat should start bringing on the broccoli and cauliflower which have stalled for the last couple of weeks.  There are quite a few items which would normally have matured by now, but persistently low night time temperatures have slowed them to a crawl.  Unfortunately, we are now starting to run out of time.  The long range forecast seems to indicate cooler and drier than normal which is usually a good thing.  But this year we have had successive waves of too much of a good thing, whether rain or heat and now cold and dry.  The basil has been a bright spot for most of the season, but this regime has caused mildew on most of the remaining plantings.  The cilantro and dill remain fine as well as parsley.  No more pesto this year.  I can only hope the remainder of the month and October get closer to normal than the last few weeks.  Probably not going to happen.

Very muted drumbeats

If Mitt Romney was president and told the nation we must punish Syria for its use of nerve gas on its own people, there would be a continuous outcry in the conservative media for that action.  We would be told our credibility was on the line and we couldn't as a great power allow this kind of atrocity.  Fox news personalities and the ever odious Limbaugh would be telling us we must follow the president's lead.  However, with Obama in the White House, this is a fund raising opportunity for Republicans who are demonstrating a new found reluctance to use the armed forces in this situation.  Even the "liberals" who supported Bush have found their mojo and are opposing military action.  Of course, Obama badly miscalculated the international will to oppose Assad, but he should have known he would be opposed at home by almost everyone but the true believers.  He has almost painted himself into a corner where he must use force unilaterally without Congressional approval.  That is sure to trigger howls for impeachment.  If he does nothing, the same dipwads will tell everyone he is weak and we obviously need a republican daddy to make the world more secure.  I can't say I feel sorry for the president at this point.  He is in a bubble of "Yes Sir" and seems to have lost touch with most of the American people.  I hope he finds his way out of the situation, but it doesn't look too good at this point.

Close, but no frosty cigar

We bottomed out at about 39 degrees on the NCR this morning, so nothing in the garden was hurt, although we will see the effects on the heat lovers for the next few days.  Temps will rebound, but no really warm weather is predicted through next week.  The cole crops and spinach should do well, and I have started to harvest some winter squash.  The tomatoes and peppers continue to surprise, while the lack of corn and potatoes still hurts my gardener's pride.  We have enough precipitation for the rest of the season, which of course means it will rain at every opportunity until November.

More stupidity

As usual, the teabaggers and their Republican allies are displaying the brute stupidity they are known for as the mechanisms for the distribution of Obamacare continue to roll out.  If the media had been as ubiquitous in the 1930s as it is today, I'm sure Social Security would have been under attack even more than it was.  The same idiots who gladly spend far more in benefits than they ever contributed in taxes want to deny younger Americans medical care because they can't pay for it.  These feckless, middle aged boomers benefitted from government largesse from the time they were born and will continue to collect until they die.  Cynical groups like "Americans for Prosperity", a Koch brothers' funded astro-turf organization are mobilizing the greedy geezers and wannabees to try and pull the rug from under the next generation's struggle to fix a broken health care system.  The Rube Goldberg monstrosity cobbled together under Obama is better than what it replaces and eventually will be improved, hopefully into a single payer system which includes all Americans.  It's a shame progress is being delayed by short sighted, amoral fools.

Frosty predictions

By tomorrow night, some mountain hollows in the North Country and far northern areas of Quebec may see the first frost of the season.  Here on the NCR, we should be in the mid 40s for lows, but it will be a big change from last week's heat and humidity.  The tomatoes and peppers will mature more slowly and even the cole crops will slow down, but with the good soil moisture now I'm pretty confident even the last plantings of broccoli and cauliflower will be harvested.  I picked quite a few tomatoes last night and sprayed for flea beetles and cabbage worms, so it was a productive evening. We had some minor hail damage in the bok choy and nappa cabbages, but it only affected the outer leaves.  So even the rain was a mixed blessing.  But I'm not complaining.

September mornings

Clear and cool after a good rain that broke the heat.  Ah, September.  After suffering through a week of hot, humid end of August weather, the 3/4 inch of rain on Sunday afternoon was welcome.  The last lettuce transplants will take off and seedings of broccoli rabe and turnips will come up with only minor (I hope) flea beetle pressure.  The fall cole crops like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kohlrabi should jump even with the cooler weather.  Soil temps are still warm.  With the exception of a couple more plantings of spinach and turnips I'm done with seeding and transplanting.  Weeding will continue for another couple of weeks, but for the most part that pressure is lessening.  A long mild fall is what I need.  What I get is probably another story.

Foreign Policy Stupidity

Maybe most of us are just tired of the US acting as the world's policeman, but there seems to be little public appetite for blowing up real estate in Syria as retaliation for the regime's use of chemical weapons against their own people.   Thanks to the system set up by the US after world war 2, the UN is basically  a toothless tiger when it comes to the policing department.  Russia will use its veto to hamstring any action by the Security Council.  This power was supposed to be used by the US and its allies to keep the world "safe".   Thanks to the Cold War and its legacy, this little loophole has drastically reduced the role of the UN to enforce penalties for use of WMD.  Also thanks to xenophobic US foreign policy, we will not suffer the UN to dictate our actions in any given situation.  So now we are stuck as lone actors in a deteriorating situation which has little to do with our national interest.  If we strike the Assad regime, the arabs will probably come down on his side and the Iranians will be faced with a put up or shut up moment vis-à-vis Israel.  The whole episode could spiral out of control and for what.  We blow up a few radar installations because we can't allow any of our servicemen to be killed and then have to deal with the  fallout listed above.  Can't we ever learn?

wishing and hoping

I spent the evening transplanting lettuce and killing (hopefully) flea beetles.  This time of year, transplanted lettuce is a little bit of a gamble.  A warm beginning to Sept. and some timely showers and I will have beautiful lettuce by the equinox.  A cold, dry Sept. and I'll be hoping for a late frost and anticipating harvest in mid-October.  The same goes for spinach planted now.  With a little luck we will be eating spinach frittata in November.  The fall garden is more of the same for me and most gardeners; plant it and hope the vagaries of the weather are in your favor.  With costs for seed, fertilizer and land escalating every year, many commercial growers who used to do the same thing can't afford to gamble that way unless it is a desperate toss of the dice.  An early frost or a too wet fall can be the difference between a good year and clinging to your business life.

Here we go again

As the media and political pressure mounts for some sort of retaliatory strike against Syria, I hope the president ponders the words of Martin Luther King who spoke in Washington 50 years ago today.  King never avoided confrontations, but usually defused them before violence broke out.  What if blacks had confronted Bull Connors and his police dogs and water cannons with AK-47s.  I can't think the Civil Rights movement would have been advanced.   The Arab League condemned Syria, but won't condone an attack on the country.  Israel is caught in the middle and would likely be attacked by the Syrians which would draw the Arabs in on their side if the Israelis retaliated, which they would certainly do.  The best thing we can do is let the  U. N. weapons inspectors do their job.  If they find evidence the Syrians used nerve agents, then let's lead a coalition in the U.N. for a worldwide condemnation of Syria and for a U.N. force to bring peace to Syria.  I think that is what Dr. King might have proposed.  Let's hope we have grown enough in the past 50 years to live up to his legacy.

The pleasure of late season gardening

We got a good 3/10 inch of rain last evening and this morning it was a pleasure to survey the late planted garden.  Aside from the porcupine I surprised and the deer tracks in my lettuce that is.  All the weeding and fertilizing I did over the weekend, along with the transplanting is poised to reward me with a bountiful Sept.  Kohlrabi, swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach will be the stars of the coming month.  The lettuce continues to thrive and the late planted bok choy and nappa cabbage will be prime if I can keep the flea beetles at bay.  The weeds keep coming, but they are not overwhelming at this point and the forecast is for enough dry weather to keep them in check with judicious use of the wheel hoe.  Meanwhile, the crops of summer are not major producers, but tomatoes, peppers, basil, cilantro, summer squash etc. are continuing to fill containers.  And of course the carrots and beets brighten up the tables at the Saturday market.  It's a fine day to be a grower.

The new possibilities

I'm reading a series of sci-fi novels set in the far future.  The dominant society in the galaxy is call the Culture.  Money has no meaning to the people in this society since the machines they have created have produced so much wealth the human members can pursue whatever jobs they want to or not.  Some people specialize in playing games.  Others pursue planetscaping.  Still others help the machines run the galaxy.  As opposed to the terminator vision of the future, machines are benevolent and view humanity as a feature, not a bug.  What fascinates me is a future where you are not forced to chase dollars at the expense of what you may perceive as your true vocation.  Which brings me to the article in today's times saying the middle class must educate its way out of the current lack of middle skilled jobs.  If productivity is so high, why do we have to dream up new ways to make money.  Let people pursue their muse and see where society goes.  Of course there will be some who decide an 18 hour day watching ESPN is there idea of productivity, but some are already doing that.  Let a million flowers bloom and there will be enough bouquets for everyone.  We may be approaching the ability to make money superfluous. 

Limping toward the finish line

Got a quarter inch of rain yesterday.  That's fine short term, but in a perfect world we would have gotten a nice slow inch of rain over the course of the day instead of a quarter in about 10 minutes.  It would seem we only get precipitation fast and hard these days.  I won't have to water the spinach plantings to get them up.   My fifth planting made on the 17th is up this morning.  The lettuce continues to thrive and the blast of heat early this week is bringing on the tomatoes and peppers.  The fall greens look good also.  The market should be well stocked this weekend.  I hope the shoppers are looking for cooking greens and salads.

World Views

Concentrating on summer pursuits, either selling, golfing or gardening.  Every once in a while, the world intrudes and demands some thought.  The situation in Egypt and the middle east as a whole is volatile and important to us, but perhaps not as much as 10 years ago.  With the boom in fracking and Canadian tar sands, we can meet most of our energy needs without the Arabs.  Of course we are speeding down the road to an uninhabitable planet, but I'll put some trust in science and capitalism and hope for the best.  The whole democracy thing seems questionable at this point.  We preach to the world about how wonderful our system is and meanwhile prosecute people who speak out and try to make the government transparent.  No wonder the majority of the world's population is ruled by authoritarians. If the "shining city on the hill" can't get this democracy thing right, how can we expect the third world to come along.  When getting enough to eat is a daily struggle, self rule can seem pretty futile.  Maybe that's why we are having some problems with government.  Up to 30% of US population experiences hunger on a regular basis. 

Staving off the inevitable

As I watered my fourth planting of fall spinach, I realized why I keep planting despite the calendar.  I will probably plant at least two or three more beds of spinach before retiring the planter for the season.  Chances are the final planting will not be harvested this year and maybe not even next spring.  But those little green sprouts at summer's end keep me focused on the garden.  There is plenty of life out there, but the temptation is to slack off when planting stops.  Weeds, disease and insects are ready to step in and devastate the fall crops.  By planting late, I'm keeping interested in what is going on out there.  When it is too late to get spinach to germinate, the only weeds still coming up are chickweed and the dread galinsoga.  At that point, the garden is on autopilot with only a little fertilization  and cabbage worm control necessary.  Then it is on to garlic planting and cleanup.   All possible thanks to the humble spinach plant.

Warming trend

It began to feel like August this past weekend.  The temperatures at least came close to the 80 degree mark for the first time in several weeks.  A welcome thundershower Friday evening provided enough moisture to keep things growing.  Made some more lettuce plantings on Saturday along with kale and kohlrabi.  I have 4 more lettuce seedings to transplant, which if the weather cooperates will take me all the way to November.  I have continued to plant spinach with the seedings getting closer together as the days shorten.  As I wrote to a friend, this has been one of the most challenging gardening seasons I have experienced in over 30 years of getting my hands in the dirt.  I wonder how many people will give up their backyard plots after this season.  It makes sense to spend time and money on gardening if you get a return on your investment.  To put seeds in the ground and get relentless rain and/or searing heat and drought is more than many of us want to experience.  The wired generation has by and large given up the idea of gardening and many of my generation are getting tired or fighting the wild swings of weather.  Climate change will make us more and more dependent on commercial growers who are also under increasing pressure from weather.