Cooler weather

Seems like summer came and went a couple of weeks ago.  Just as people got tired of days in the 90s and nights in the 70s, they are gone, replaced by 70s and 50s respectively.  That wouldn't be bad if the first half of the summer was not such a horror show.  What we need now is a long warm late summer and early fall.  The corn and forage crops need it, as do the late planted vegetables.  An early fall would be a disaster for agriculture in the north country. 

Normal??????????????

After frantic hours planting many late maturing vegetables for fall, the promised rain on Saturday and Sunday failed to materialize, so it was back to watering the beds by hand last night.  The soil worked up nicely, but without a shower for germination, the seed will just sit there.  Under the gun on a shortened season, I can't wait for Mother Nature to fill the moisture requirements.  Of course, once everything is watered in and sprouting we will no doubt have a deluge.  The weeds don't seem to need the extra water.  They sprout no matter what.  So after watering, it was back to weeding.  The cycle continues.  This is about as normal as it gets this time of year.

Physician heal thyself

There has been much made of the recent trend of doctors prescribing fruits and vegetables to obese and nutritionally challenged patients.  That is well, but we need to have a national conversation in tandem with the implementation of the ACA pushing for more consumption of fruits and veggies if the health care reform is going to make a difference in our nation's collective health.  It has been shown that consumption of 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day has benefits.  Unfortunately, most of the population falls woefully short of that goal.  We need to rethink our priorities and the screwed up system of financial incentives which results in a subsidized diet of junk food and increasing cost of healthful vegetables.  Many poorer folks make a quick turn out of the produce department in their local store, if indeed they even have such a store in their neighborhood.  We are rapidly establishing a two tiered system of nutrition which shuts out more and more people from obtaining the ingredients of a healthful diet.  Local farmers' markets are one way to stem this tide, but in large cities, the cost of the farmers' bounty is still way beyond the reach of many, and there is winter to contend with.  There needs to be year round access to fruits and vegetables for all Americans.

calling out the inmates in the asylum

A conservative pundit at the American Enterprise Institute is chastising congressional Republicans in no uncertain terms for stalling and sabatoging the implementation of Obamacare.  He says it does not quite rise to the level of treason, but it is ethically and morally bankrupt.  The trouble for the GOP   is the early experience of many with the Affordable Care Act has been very positive and as the provisions of the law continue their rollout, public opinion should turn very much in its favor.  Once people realize this is a very benign law which benefits the overwhelming majority of the population, opinion will turn against those who are trying to deny these benefits.  Most of those people either vote for democrats already or will when they are able.  This demographic tidal wave is poised to sweep the republicans into the same historical trash bin as the Whig party.  Ironically, the party of Lincoln replaced the Whigs as the opposition to the democratic party of Andrew Jackson.  The tea party seems like the likely successor to the republicans, although their poorly thought out program of nihilistic outrage will not resonate with many people under 60. 

Familiarity breeds nostalgia

Walking outside this morning as the temp hovered at 46 degrees on a bright and sunny July morning, I was momentarily overcome by nostalgia for so many similar mornings over many years.  As a kid in the 60s mornings like this meant it was late summer and almost time to go back to school.  Later it was the herald of late summer in Potsdam as a college freshman.  Even later it was innumerable summer and fall mornings working outside as a nurseryman.  Over 50 years of such mornings make for a philosophical musing of the circle of life.  I hope to experience a few such  sunrises during retirement.  In the meantime, this is too darn early for mornings like this.  It is still July, not September, and we need more heat units.

Ups and Downs

According to the weather channel, we could break a record low temp record here on the NCR this evening.  47 Degrees is pretty chilly for July, especially after the brutal heat we have experienced the last couple of weeks.  The roller coaster will continue next week as we get back up to the high 80s.  The planting and weeding continues, and the garden continues to round into something approaching normal for this time of year.  For commercial growers, the season has been nearly as unkind.  Most growers who do this for a living are working with much better drained soils than I am, but even so they are having problems with delayed maturity and low yields.  Muck soil growers have fared better, but even they will experience planting gaps as the season progresses.  Prices vary wildly as glut succeeds scarcity and customers complain of variable quality.  It is a season to try the patience of the hardiest farmer or gardener.

Summer push

I hate to use the word late in the same sentence as garden. It gives a feeling of finality which I hate.  So I'm sticking with summer for the time being when referring to gardening.  After a long weekend and last evening I have gotten quite a bit planted in the recently dried out back gardens.  More summer squash and cucumbers, lettuce, beets, carrots, herbs and cauliflower and broccoli transplants.  The garlic is almost harvested and the barn is redolent with the smell of the stinking rose.  There is plenty of weeding to do, but at least it is starting to look like a garden again.  It's time to start thinking about planting fall spinach, but maybe next week.

Deserification and the future

It's hard to think about drought after the early summer floods in this neighborhood, but some in the western states are staring down the barrel of a gun called climate change and are seeing long term drying and the increasing prevalence of triple digit temps.  The author of an article in the NYT this morning outlines some tepid strategies to deal with the coming double whammy of drought and heat, but the plan seems like warmed over (sic) platitudes.  Trying to force cities to compost green waste and distribute it to local farms sounds like a good idea until you ask who will bear the cost.  Increasing soil organic matter in desert soils also sounds like the right thing to do until you realize that in 100 degree temps, soil organic matter vaporizes when the soil is tilled.  I think large areas of the American southwest will be virtually uninhabitable in coming decades and we will have to move large populations to areas less prone to the coming inferno.  That's the kind of strategy we need to implement.

Trayvon, Barack and white hysteria

After President Obama's musings on the Trayvon Martin case were broadcast today, the usual suspects waxed hysterical that the president should even imply that race may still be an issue in these United States.  The media, even the liberal fringes tip-toed around the 500 lb. gorilla throughout the trial and even in the aftermath.  Now, with protestors camped out in Rick Scott's office and the white supremacist hordes gloating that it's now OK to shoot a black man for no apparent reason, the president chose this moment to weigh in on the situation now facing black men who are not president.   As I read some of the remarks, I saw myself as a teenager, vaguely uneasy in the presence of aggressive black youths.   As I got to know many of my contemporaries, I realized the swagger and menace some of these black men projected was calculated to cover for their perceived inadequacies.  The same is true of young white men in similar circumstances.  The stereotype of the "big black buck" who terrorizes white women especially is as pernicious as it is widespread among many.  The threatening "other" is as old as human civilization and will take a long time to debunk.  The self evident loathing which many direct at the first black president is proof that the average black man will be teaching his children and grandchildren the tricks of racial profiling for several more generations.   In the meantime it would behoove the non racists among us to stand up to the worst of the assholes who equate color with character.

The blues on greens

The greens are blue with the temperatures we are having now.  It was 96 degrees at 5 p.m. yesterday and it felt like someone left the oven on convection bake.  Walking out of an air conditioned office was a shock.  Working in the garden afterward was even more hellish.  The only consolation was it must have been too hot for the mosquitos to fly, so I didn't have to deal with that too. 

Hot times

It's all Al Gore's fault.  The hot steamy weather, the forest fires, the western drought.  Let's lay it all at the big guy's door.  After all, if he hadn't come out with all those pesky charts and graphs showing the steady increase of global temperatures with the increasing carbon emissions caused by human beings, this whole climate change thing would definitely not be happening.  The inconvenient truth is our generation is on a collision course with destiny and the aftermath will not be pretty for our descendants.  Even if we abandoned all carbon based fuels cold turkey, which is impossible, we can't reverse the pendulum of climate change quickly enough to head off some devastating consequences.  We will have to deal with the increasingly wild weather for the rest of our lives and that of many generations to come.  The question of us is can we start the process of amelioration, or will we be known as the heedless generation which may have put the future of our species and indeed the entire planet in peril.

Hot time in the old town

Two days of 90 degree heat and people are already wishing it was October.  The good news is this weather is drying up the ground in a big hurry.  Of course, that is a double edged sword.  It's great to work up some areas that have been waterlogged for 7 weeks, but the limited root systems the vegetables used to adapt to the continuing deluges will suffer unless we get some interim showers.  I transplanted some lettuces to the ultra secret garden.  The soil still feels a little like Play-Doh, but it at least absorbed the water I used after planting.  Unfortunately, there are not enough daylight hours available to catch up with all the tilling, planting and mowing that needs to be done over the next days and weeks.  But, I think I'm giving up on complaining about the weather. It certainly has not done any good so far this season.

The Verdict is in

And it is not an encouraging one for American society in general and for people of color in particular.  By exonerating George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the jury of six women, perhaps inadvertently, has declared open season on "suspicious" people of all colors, but specifically black men of a certain age.  While the jurors were only asked to rule on a very narrow interpretation of the law, the inevitable outcome will be to empower the racist id of our nation's consciousness.  If the roles had been reversed and Martin was the survivor and Zimmerman the deceased is there a thinking human being who would believe the verdict would have been the same.  As long as the meme of the scary black man is present in this country, trials like this will always end this way.

Trayvon Martin and American racism

I have not followed the George Zimmerman trial with the zeal that some of the media seem to expect of the population as a whole.   The entire affair is a murky mess of conflicting evidence, dueling experts and incendiary coverage.  What almost everyone covering the trial tiptoes around is the obvious racism of Zimmerman and the fact Martin is almost never referred to as the victim.  The "scary black man" trope is the unstated defense for Zimmerman.  The irony is most of his "supporters" would probably cross the street to avoid the brown skinned  defendant.  His only hold on their support is the fact he is less colored than Martin.  I have no doubt if Trayvon was a white youth on his way back from a trip to a convenience store and the confrontation with Zimmerman ended with the youth's death, Fox News would be leading the charge for the death penalty for their erstwhile hero.  Unless and until this nation and indeed any country can get past its fear of "the other", we will be condemned to many replays of this scenario, especially in states which pass "stand your ground" legislation coupled with the right to possess and carry concealed weapons.

The long dry out

While the divine Mrs. M and myself spend the weekend in Leatherstocking country, the garden and yard at Casa Monzeglio should continue to dry out.  While this is mostly good news, it will triple the yard work and gardening load and yours truly is not looking forward to sweaty hours of mowing, hoeing and planting as the heat mounts and July melts into August.  At this point, having written off many of my garden favorites, I don't know how much effort I want to expend for dubious payoffs.  I'll probably gear up anyway, but these niggling doubts will be with me going forward.

Ch Ch Ch Changes

I'm not a David Bowie fan, but when it comes to climate, that song nails it.  After the Biblical deluges we have been subjected to, the new long range forecast looks like we'll be taking a steambath with temps in the 90s for a good bit of next week.   Our weather on the NCR has been a cross between Florida and south Jersey this summer.  Traditionally, we have low humidity during the days and cool evenings.  Lately, it has been the opposite.  Hot, muggy days and stifling evenings and nights with occasional downpours.  This is not what long time residents or even short timers like myself expect.  A week here or there is one thing, but six or seven continuous weeks of adverse weather is enough to make even grown men weep.  If this is the face of climate change in the North Country, there will be seismic changes in agriculture, tourism and resource management.  And if this little corner of the country is representative of the country as a whole, our descendants are in for a wild ride.

To rain or not to rain

As the soggy soils finally show some sign of drying, the question becomes how to taper precipitation to match the root systems of whatever remains in the garden.  Most plants have concentrated all their roots in the top couple of inches of soil, so a rapid dry out will hurt them before they can penetrate to moisture.  Of course, if it is a choice between continuing deluges and cold turkey dry out, I would prefer the latter.  After today's showers the forecast is for 5-6 days of dry weather.  That would be anomalous this season, but I will gladly take it.  There is still a lot of gardening left this year, but it will be a different sort than the usual.  Most of the longer season crops which were hurt earlier like corn and potatoes are not viable going forward.  Shorter seasonal crops such as summer squash, fall greens, cucumbers and lettuces will get more space.  Hopefully the customers will use whatever appears at the market this summer and fall.  We'll see....

Egyptian-Arab Winter

As surely as the Arab spring happened, the seasons will continue to change and it looks like the Egyptians will see winter before many of their co-religionists.  Before you sneer at the bumbling attempts at self government made by many middle eastern nations, it behooves us to stare into the NSA abyss revealed by Edward Snowden.  From complicit congressmen and senators who abdicated their oversight responsibility to secret courts who reinterpreted laws in such a way as to negate the stated intent, our democracy has not distinguished itself in recent weeks.  We spend time arguing about the direction our government is going and tugging the wheel right and left.  It turns out the people's representatives are not even in the driver's seat.  The courts and the elements of the executive branch are making decisions we will have to take responsibility for in the long run.  There are good people in Congress, but too many are held hostage by increasingly irrelevant ideologies while the reins of government slip through our fingers.  If we are not careful, the Arabs will be holding us up as an example of a failed democratic experiment.

Another Soggy Monday

More showers and thunderstorms are predicted today as we head into another soggy week.  The long range looks a little more optimistic with several days showing zero % chance of rain.  Of course it will take more than one or two rain free days to get any kind of drying going.  The grass in most of my yard still squelches underfoot and all but the smallest of my gardens is off limits at present.  I still managed to transplant some lettuces and brassicas and seed basil, cilantro and dill on Sunday morning, but it rained immediately after that.  I have reached the acceptance stage of grief regarding this gardening season.  I will keep working on it, but having passed through disbelief and rage, I think I can deal with whatever the rest of the season will bring. 

Natural fireworks

Mother Nature decided to start the fireworks show a little early at Casa Monzeglio.  As we made final preparations for a Fourth of July family barbeque, the thunder started.  The lightning was impossible to see through the sheets of water pounding the yard.  We received nearly  3 inches of rain in less than a half hour.  Of course after we moved the dinner indoors, the sun made a mocking appearance.  It is disheartening to even look at the garden at this point.  Most of the back gardens are too soggy to even step into for the time being.  More on that next week.  As far as celebrating the fourth, as the divine Mrs. M put it, we may not be the vibrant democracy we might wish for, but we are still grateful we are Americans. 

Soggy Declarations

The brief respite in the forecast has been put to rest.  Chances of rain and thunderstorms are back through the weekend and into next week.  Now the weather report throws in heat and high humidity so any lingering hope some crops might escape the relentless rains without too much damage is toast.  I remember one other summer like this during the late 1980s on Long Island.  I watched as my meticulously trellised tomatoes turned black and died as the rains and humidity fed the blight.  As I recall we had about 14 inches of rain in July and ducks were swimming in the field behind the garden.  It is not quite as bad this time, but things are not looking good for much of the garden.  How about some soggy fireworks for the Fourth.

The end in sight

Either the rainfall or the garden; take your pick.  The intermediate forecast actually shows several days without the threat of thunderstorms here in the north country.  It's hard to believe when you have been pounded as many times as we have this season.  The weeds are poised to breakout and run away with what is left of the gardens unless heroic efforts are made in the next few weeks.  If we do get the promised respite, there is still quite a lot of gardening yet to be done.  Lettuces, beets, fall greens and short season crops like beans and summer squash can still be planted.  Some short season sweet corn is still a possibility, and of course herbs and other succession plantings are still in order.  If the tomatoes and peppers can make up for lost time there is still a chance to salvage something.  For field corn growers in upstate and Canada, there will be yield losses in many fields.  This is the year to find the poorly drained spots in your fields.  Some fields will be near total loss as fertilizer is washed away.  Veg crops in heavier soils will also show major losses.  Even with disaster declarations there will be little help for most growers.  Welcome to climate change circa 2013.  Let the games begin...

More of the same

Bad weather and republican stupidity. The two are almost synonymous this year.  As the tragic fire in Arizona took the lives of 19 firefighters, the relentless rain in the northeast continues to decimate crops, destroy roads and killed at least one person in NY.  Meanwhile, republicans in Texas have decided they know best what women should do with the health of their bodies once they are pregnant with the patriarchy's offspring, and the guiding lights of North Carolina's legislature seek to punish the unemployed by reducing and/or ending long term benefits even with an unemployment rate of 8.8%.  I guess there will be a rush to apply for those Walmart greeter jobs that have been going begging.  Really, the feckless stupidity represented by these state governing bodies it almost beyond belief.  The fact most people don't pay attention to local governance needs to change, or there will be more manifestations of this kind of cruel homage to Ayn Rand.  Let's hope the weather is kinder than our fellow men.  Although the whole panoply of climate change is tribute to the kind of short sighted, profits first and the environment be damned mind set which leads to the breaking of the social contract.