Categories
Kitchen Garden

Week 1 — Outdoor Gardening

Third year of using this portable greenhouse.

When the heat pads, LED light positions, and folding table in the dining room are full of trays of seedlings, it is time to move the garden outdoors. That means setting up the portable greenhouse. A round of indoor planting has been completed. All that is left is breaking down peppers and tomatoes from channel trays into individual soil blocks, and starting squash and cucumbers indoors when the seeds arrive. From here on, the focus is on planting garden soil.

It took me about 90 minutes to reassemble the greenhouse. I let it sit overnight, then began moving plants from indoors. The forecast is for no freezing overnight temperatures the rest of the week, so it was as good a time to get it up. The forecast Monday and Tuesday is highs in the 80s. Yikes! It’s April 13!

I finished the plot where I started potatoes. Next moving southward are leeks, onions, turnips and radishes. I fenced these in, although I don’t have mulch so I will return soon with the hoop hoe to weed and fertilize.

The roots of the locust tree that blew over in the derecho were finally deteriorated enough to dig them up. Last year I set two brush fires over the stump in an attempt to burn it out. Now the large pieces of root are stacked next to the composter, awaiting disposition. They are rotted enough, and most likely I will take the four-pound sledge to them and work them into the compost. Planting the trees there and leaving them was a mistake that years later has been rectified.

While I was turning soil in the plot for cruciferous vegetables and digging up tree roots, a neighbor walked down the hill toward me from their home on an adjacent lot. She carried a package with pieces of focaccia and sourdough as a gift. We chatted about spring—and the moles in our yards. Moles and voles have spread throughout the neighborhood. It makes no sense to eliminate them in a single yard without eliminating them everywhere. In our country setting, it’s not certain any approach would rid us of them permanently, so live and let live, I say. It’s another part of the habitat.

While moving seedlings to the greenhouse I had a good look at them all. The February plantings are getting big, and this week is time for them to go into the ground. I planted five collard seeds and only four survived, so I planted six more on Sunday. Everything else can use more time in the greenhouse.

I took measurements and decided on a 90″ x 246″ space for the first cruciferous vegetables. That makes four rows spaced 22.5 inches apart with 13 plants per row. Next steps here are to fertilize and till the soil, lay down plastic ground cover and get the seedlings in the ground. There are not enough kale and collard plants to fill all the spots, so I may make two rows of either broccoli or cauliflower or both. I need to count seedlings. However this turns out, the area will get fenced in before nightfall on planting day.

During the first week of gardening, the work simply presents itself. There is no written plan. The seasons of gardening I’ve conditioned into myself over 43 years of growing things on our property guide me, almost unawares.

Categories
Sustainability

Small Modular Reactors And Iowa

Google Maps Image of Duane Arnold Energy Center
Google Maps Image of Duane Arnold Energy Center

A joke is circulating on the internet that SMR stands for Spending Money Recklessly. It isn’t funny because it is true, even if big money investors have a plan to recoup their investment in Small Modular Reactors with interest. Regular folks like me don’t want new nuclear power when renewable projects that include solar and wind power generation can meet much of our needs.

Here’s the rub with my way of thinking: renewables are clean, cheap, and safe for the first 70-80 percent of meeting our electricity needs. Something needs to fill the gap so the grid can reliably deliver exactly the amount of electricity customers use. What fills that gap? Nuclear energy is a candidate for that, yet it is beset with problems, especially in the United States, like some I mentioned last week.

In her new book, Clearing the Air: A Hopeful Guide to Solving Climate Change in 50 Questions and Answers, author Hannah Ritchie has four on nuclear power:

  1. Q: Isn’t nuclear power dangerous? A: Nuclear power is not risk-free, but it’s one of the safest energy sources we have.
  2. Q: Doesn’t it take too long to build a nuclear plant? A: Nuclear plant in the West often have long delays., but some countries can build plants in six to eight years.
  3. Q: Isn’t nuclear power too expensive? A: Nuclear power is expensive, especially in the U.S. and Europe, but some countries are building it much cheaper.
  4. Q: What about radioactive waste? A: We know how to handle radioactive waste safely in deep geological sites, but countries need to prove it.

Ritchie points out there is almost no case for fossil fuels to fill the mentioned 20-30 percent gap in our electricity needs going forward because they are unsafe compared to other forms of electricity generation. When we recognize all their external costs, they are too expensive.

SMR stands for Small Modular Reactor. These nuclear reactors are designed to be factory-built and transported to the installation site as modules, allowing for streamlined construction, scalability, and potential integration into multi-unit configurations, according to Wikipedia.

According to Ritchie, one of the problems of U.S. construction of nuclear power plants is there are not enough experienced workers. We need to build a good number (maybe 10-12) of identical nuclear power plants to train workers in these jobs. Changing government regulations regarding nuclear power have created an environment where each plant is different and that variation is part of the reason construction is delayed. Controlling the design characteristics of Small Modular Reactors by building them in a factory could possibly address the worker issue by standardizing non-site specific differences between nuclear power plants.

As I write this, Eastern Iowa does not have a confirmed commercial SMR project, nor does anyone in the country. There is talk about installing one or more at the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo. By “talk” I mean there is policy activity in the Linn County Board of Supervisors, and discussion of existing infrastructure to handle nuclear materials at Palo. Last month, in both the Iowa Senate and House, legislation (HSB 767/SSB 3181) moved to provide sales and use tax exemptions for nuclear energy projects. If enacted into law, it would encourage development of nuclear power projects in Iowa. So far, Iowa is at jump street regarding new nuclear power.

The idea of implementing new SMRs in an environment where there are zero of them in commercial operation in the U.S., seems a bit unlikely. It would be if I were the investor. The role of the federal government is critical in advancing this form of electricity generation.

There is also the legacy to deal with. While nuclear power is safer, by orders of magnitude, than fossil fuel electricity generation, when a problem happens as it did in Fukushima, Chernobyl, or Three Mile Island, it receives global attention. There are other, real-world issues.

Any discussion of nuclear power in the U.S. carries the weight of our earlier nuclear history. Civilian nuclear reactors are distinct from weapons programs, but they share regulations, institutions, supply chains, and a legacy of radiation policy shaped during the Cold War. Uranium mining for both weapons and fuel exposed workers and nearby communities. Atmospheric testing at the Nevada Test Site spread fallout across the country, including in Iowa, and as far away as Rochester, New York, where radioactivity ruined film being produced by Kodak. These experiences led to compensation programs and continue to influence public trust, particularly when new projects or waste sites are proposed. The relevance is not technological equivalence between power generation and weaponry, but the role that historical exposure plays in how communities assess risk today.

One might ask, isn’t the president eliminating regulations to enable the nuclear power industry? Yes and no. While the administration shifted policy direction toward evaluating nuclear reactor proposals more quickly, reducing the regulatory burden, and treating nuclear power as a strategic national priority, it does not mean there are no regulations at all. In fact, the changing regulatory environment is one reason why it takes much longer to build a new nuclear power plant here than in other countries. Every regulation change demands design changes for accommodation. One expects post-Trump administrations to make more regulatory changes.

Small Modular Reactors are no silver bullet, although no form of electricity generation is without issues. Whether SMRs move from planning to commercial use is an open question in 2026.

Categories
Kitchen Garden Writing

Spring 2026

Trail walking before sunrise on April 9, 2026.
Spring flowers.
Spring garlic.
Zestar! apple buds.
Bluebell buds.
Leeks, onions, turnips, and radishes planted on April 9, 2026.
Categories
Living in Society

Artemis II

Artemis II astronauts in flight. Photo Credit – NASA.

I cannot forget to record the Artemis II NASA mission. Each day since launch on April 1, I noticed the moon on clear mornings, and wondered. What do the astronauts feel? What are they observing? What is the purpose of this trip? It is okay to wonder.

If you would like to learn more about Artemis II, click on either photo and it will take you to a website to read more.

Categories
Living in Society

District 2 Politics

Rural Polling Place

At a political event in rural Cedar Township one attendee said to me Phil Hemingway had a good chance of winning the supervisor election in District 2 of Johnson County. The Republican may win that township. Trump won the area in 2024, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks won there in 2022, including in my precinct, also located in the northeast corner of liberal Johnson County. There is more to the story.

Hemingway has run for office so many times I lost count. He hasn’t changed much, if anything in his policy positions and campaign rhetoric. I’m confident Republicans like him for that, yet his brand of what I will call “doctrinaire consistency” indicates he is out of touch with Johnson County voters. This is evidenced by his repeated losses while running for supervisor.

If he were a serious candidate, there would be some evidence of modifying his message to accommodate voter feedback. Instead, he relies upon a familiar set of policy positions and critiques of government that remained unchanged over multiple campaigns.

Things do change in Johnson County. Not least of the changes was a law Republicans like Hemingway helped craft that divided the county into supervisor districts. The idea was rural parts of the county would get better representation. While he may have made his colleagues happy by his contributions to bringing this policy idea into law, there is little evidence it will work, based on the districts created by the Legislative Services Agency.

The precinct level voting across District 2 show a consistent pattern in both 2022 and 2024. (Data is publicly available on the Johnson County Auditor website). While Republican candidates perform strongly in rural townships—Cedar, Fremont-Lincoln-Lone Tree, and Big Grove-Solon Annex—the margins are not large enough to offset overwhelming Democratic advantages in Iowa City precincts. In other words, all the work done by Hemingway and others to create this supervisor district election was for naught.

A review of Hemingway’s public record—especially in light of his 2021 defeat to Jon Green—shows a political persona defined more by consistency than evolution. Across multiple campaigns and in his earlier service on the Iowa City school board, Hemingway maintained a stable set of themes, rhetorical habits, and political positioning. What has changed since 2021 is limited.

The Cedar Township event attendee next said to me, “Well, he was elected to the school board.” Indeed he was. I first encountered Hemingway at the Iowa City Community School Board meetings where I was a reporter for the North Liberty Leader. I remember him as something of a gadfly who liked to hear himself speak and frequently asked questions at the public meeting. I saw no questions of his had substantial impact on the board’s actions.

I was finished at the North Liberty Leader when Hemingway was elected to the school board. There is some public record of his proposals related mainly to budget. Sometimes he made vague assertions about policy, as many Republicans do. Because his was a minority view, the board continued to do their work without taking him seriously. I would like to know how many 6-1 votes there were with him being the one. Others tell me there were more than a few.

Data and math kill his chances in the upcoming supervisor election.

The distribution of votes across District 2 raises a structural problem for a candidate like Hemingway. His base of support is geographically concentrated and numerically limited, while the opposition vote is both larger and more efficiently distributed across the district. Under these conditions, repeating the same campaign strategy is unlikely to produce a different outcome.

Hemingway continues to use the same tools he has from his earliest campaigns, expecting different results. He should put away his hammer if he wants a chance at winning because every problem is not a nail.

The creation of supervisor districts was intended, in part, to amplify rural representation. However, District 2 illustrates the limits of that approach. Even with rural precincts grouped together, the inclusion of multiple high-turnout Iowa City precincts creates a built-in advantage for Democratic candidates. The result is not a competitive balance, but a district where electoral outcomes are relatively predictable.

I predict the winner of the June 2 primary between Democrats Jessica Andino, Janet Godwin, and Jon Green will also easily win the November general election.

Categories
Sustainability

Stories About Forests

Part of the forestry preserve at Lake Macbride State Park.

I was taken aback by the administration’s decision to dismantle the U.S. Forest Service. Jim Pattiz outlined what happened in his substack post, “Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service.” What they are doing is bad. While the news broke suddenly, and agreements were signed quickly, the future of roughly 193 million acres of forests and grasslands not carved up with roads or clear cut logging has been up in the air for decades. With this administration, loggers and anti-government agents appear to be getting their way.

In 1970, Joan Didion opened her celebrated book The White Album by saying, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” The U.S. Forest Service action reminded me of this and the competing stories it represents.

One story, summarizing Scott Russell Sanders in A Conservationist Manifesto, goes like this. The national forest represent a wilderness with something to teach us. We are part of a living biome. We should protect these wild places as a habitat for wildlife, as a reservoir of natural processes, and as a refuge for the human spirit. The U.S. Forest Service adds a layer by being a research arm of the federal government.

Another story , according to Sanders, asserts that to “lock up” these acres from development would cost jobs, handicap economic growth, and “threaten the American way of life by denying us access to fuel and timber.” We Americans should be free to go into the warehouse that is nature and do whatever we want, regardless of consequences. It is squandering resources to not harvest timber from national forests and refrain from building roads there.

My story is we lie to ourselves by saying we can lawsuit our way out of this. Already, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club filed lawsuits challenging the USDA’s “interim final rule” that removed public comment and environmental review procedures for forest projects, arguing the fast-track rules violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. I wish them well. But shouldn’t we be able to agree that the 8.5% of land these acres represent should be set aside and preserved? It is very American to settle this in courts rather than in the hearts and minds of citizens.

In typical fashion for this administration, they are moving very quickly to dismantle the U.S. Forest Service, using the playbook developed to change the Bureau of Land Management during Trump 1.0. The headquarters will move from Washington, D.C. to Utah, and much of the research into how to prevent forest fires, and related issues will apparently end. Many employees will resign because they can’t support what the administration is doing or leave because moving to Utah is not a pleasant prospect. This is the change Republicans seek.

On my daily walks through the woods on a gravel trail, I consider the quiet and beauty of place. The sounds of bird life fill the air, and the air breathes fresh and clean, that is, unless a wind blows in from a concentrated animal feeding operation. We all need this type of solace from time to time.

We do what we can to survive in a Republic. Lawsuits are part of that as are competing stories about our experiences with the same things. I seek to be part of the biome and contribute to its well being: At the same time, I seek to understand all these stories and more, to contribute more than I take, while taking only what I need to survive and protect the commons for future inhabitants of Earth. That is a just path.

Categories
Sustainability Writing

A Madman Without a Strategy: Trump’s Latest Threats Are Unacceptable

For Immediate Release: April 7, 2026

(Washington, D.C.) — President Donald Trump’s April 7 threat that he might escalate U.S. attacks on Iran so that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” should profoundly alarm every U.S. and global citizen. 

Whether Trump is threatening a massive conventional bombing campaign or making a veiled threat to use nuclear weapons to try to coerce Iran into submission, leaders of nuclear-armed states cannot, must not, threaten the end of “a whole civilization.” 

Such threats are unacceptable and following through would be a massive war crime and humanitarian disaster. In addition, an attack on Iran’s Busherer Nuclear Power Plant would risk a radiological disaster in the region.

The only type of weapons in the U.S. arsenal that could destroy “a whole civilization” in a day would be nuclear weapons. Any use by the United States of nuclear weapons against Iran would permanently damage the United States’ reputation, shred its alliances, and would constitute a war crime for which everyone in the chain of command could be prosecuted.

Even if Trump is not considering the use nuclear weapons, but “only” intends to launch a massive conventional bombing against civilian targets in Iran, the effect would be the opposite of Trump’s ostensible goal: preventing Iran’s leaders from acquiring nuclear weapons. 

Rather, it would reinforce the belief that the only way a nation can deter attack from an aggressive nuclear-armed state is to possess one’s own nuclear weapons. A further escalation of this war would thus provide further incentive for Iran – and possibly other states – to develop nuclear weapons.

During the course of the nuclear age, past U.S. presidents have issued veiled nuclear threats against smaller, less powerful but very determined nations only to learn that such threats do not lead them to capitulate. U.S. nuclear threats during the Korean War and later against China and the Soviet Union, as well as Nixon’s “madman” strategy, which involved a nuclear threat against North Vietnam and a massive strategic bombing campaign, failed to bend adversaries to U.S. goals.

We call on rational voices inside Trump’s circle of formal advisors, informal confidants, members of Congress from both parties, and global leaders to remind Mr. Trump that responsible leaders do not threaten to commit war crimes, that a further escalation of his illegal war would undermine U.S. and global security and risk the lives of innocent people in Iran and the Middle East, and that the responsible path forward and out of this war is to immediately end the hostilities.

Categories
Living in Society

Woven Shirts and Such

Sunrise on the state park trail on April 6, 2026.

This is a utility post designed to prime the writing pump for posts coming later this week. It is a bit quotidian, so forewarned.

I decided to get some button-down, woven shirts for my new job as a poll worker. I expect to be called for at least one early voting shift, and then to work the long one that is the primary election day. I haven’t bought a woven shirt in a very long time, maybe since I retired from the big job in 2009. My basic top is a t-shirt in spring and summer, with an added sweatshirt in fall and winter. It serves. I am getting the new shirts mail order, because I have no interest in going to a clothing store.

Monday I fueled the car for $3.529 per gallon. That is high, yet what is the comparison? In Mainz, Germany, where I lived for three years, today it is between $8.00 and $8.70 per gallon (Deutschmarks per liter converted to dollars per gallon). German travelers get a better bargain with the built-in high taxation rate of 55-65 percent. If you ever traveled on the German Autobahn, you know what I’m talking about. I wouldn’t mind paying this amount for gasoline if only it were accomplishing something better than making rich oil companies richer.

I burned the weeds on the plot where the cruciferous vegetables will go. Kale, cabbage and the like are furthest along in indoor planting trays and can tolerate some cold. They will be in the ground soon. The blaze was intense and quickly finished, in about 20 minutes. I worked hard to keep it from spreading too quickly to other plots. I was only partly successful and a couple garlic plants got wilted. It appears they will recover… we’ll see.

It looks to be a good week in the garden. Next up is the long mentioned onions and leeks. The goal is in the ground by Wednesday.

Plot for cruciferous vegetables.

Categories
Living in Society

A Week Without Fertilizer

Predawn light on the state park trail.

I had to take a step back from life and noticed it was 3 p.m., the traditional time of Jesus Christ’s death on Good Friday. As has often been the case, everything outdoors was quiet for a moment. Reading the administration’s orders to dismantle the U.S. Forest Service had taken me aback. Find information about it here.

The highlight of Friday was working on seedlings with the garage door open, my U.S. flag on display. From my workbench I could hear the sound of songbirds in the neighborhood. Using my Merlin Bird app I was able to identify seven species in close proximity: American Robin, Chipping Sparrow, House Finch, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse, and Northern Cardinal. The chickadee was browsing around where I planted flower seeds last week. This nesting period is a true harbinger of spring.

I had to get provisions for the weekend at the grocery store. Traffic along Highway 1 was heavy all the way into the county seat. It was well before the commuting time, so I guessed people were getting off work early for the long Easter weekend. I paid close attention to traffic even though there was a lot to think about.

Fertilizer was on my mind. Midwestern BioAg specializes in locally produced composted chicken manure among other products. While made locally, the disruption caused by the U.S.-Israel-Iran War, and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, has farmers scrambling for alternatives to the types of fertilizer imported from the Middle East (containing urea, ammonia, sulfur, phosphates). Composted chicken manure already has broad application on farms, so it is a good operational fit for large-scale growers. Likewise, while the private equity acquisition of the company in 2020 may or may not be directly relevant, these firms change focus from small seasonal buyers like me to serving large customers. I had to figure out what I’m doing as an alternative since it is not available.

The hardware store sells “composted manure,” so I bought five bags. It was cheap, but after reading the label, it is only ten percent composted manure and the rest “composted natural forest products.” Its numbers are 0.05-0.05-0.05, so very little nitrogen. It is more soil conditioner than fertilizer, and what I need is more nitrogen, as does every farmer in Iowa. Probably the best solution is to travel to a couple of farm stores and see what they have left. Because conventional farmers are scrambling for fertilizer this year, whatever I find will be expensive.

The other alternative is to use the fertilizer left from last year–a five-gallon bucket–judiciously and let the rest go without. Because I have been gardening for decades here, there is likely some residual fertility left in the soil. Not a permanent fix, but it could get me through this growing season. I eventually found a 10-10-10 commercial fertilizer at a local hardware store. That will have to do this year.

Home-grown food will be important in our lives as the federal government cuts programs to the bone and puts people out of work. Eventually they will come after our Medicare and Social Security, so local food is doubly important, as is replacing my source for garden fertilizer.

Categories
Reviews

Book Review: Clearing the Air

Hannah Ritchie is the kind of data head I would like to be and her new book, Clearing the Air: A Hopeful Guide to Solving Climate Change in 50 Questions and Answers is part of the reason. In it, she explains many aspects of solving the climate crisis using data to back up her statements. This one is worth reading.

Because the book is written in ten topical parts–fossil fuels, renewable energy, electric cars, and such–it is easy to find whatever topic is relevant to a current discussion. Once a reader picks a topic, the uniform format–question, answer, charts, discussion, and what we need to do–the information is quickly accessible. It reads less like a narrative, and more like a scientific research tool, which I suppose is the point.

The section on nuclear power challenged my way of thinking about the power source. It opened the possibility that because of its long overall positive safety record, it could fill a need in a renewable energy powered electrical grid currently being addressed by fossil fuels. She points out the significant obstacles to nuclear power in the United States, and addresses paths to overcoming them. Every part and individual question and answer is like this.

Her five questions to separate fact from fiction are a simple, straight-forward way of evaluating anything read in the news media, in books, and on social media. That alone s worth the price of the book.

So many terms about climate change solutions get bandied about public discourse. Having a reliable way to access information about heat pumps, aviation fuel, electric cars and the like, helps avoid stress caused by trying to digest claims that may or may not be true.

My recommendation is get a copy from your public library and read it. You will likely be glad you did.