Chives, lettuce and garlic are up in the garden, beckoning my presence.
On yesterday’s last day of winter I spent a couple of hours burying four large plastic tubs for an experiment in carrot growing. 18-inches deep, I filled them with compost. After settling overnight, they will be re-filled and planted with four varieties of carrot seeds from Johnny’s Selected Seeds: Yaya F1 OG (hybrid early carrots) Bolero F1 (hybrid storage carrots); Purple 68 F1 (hybrid specialty carrots); and Laguna F1 OG (hybrid main crop carrots).
I have enough seeds to plant a spring and fall crop.
Carrot Container
Anyone who has planted carrots is familiar with the main challenge: providing deep, loose soil for the roots to grow. Last year’s crop was a moderate success in the ground, but I didn’t dig the bed deep and it showed. Over the winter I read about growing carrots in containers. Since I had the tubs, there wasn’t much additional work to cut drainage holes and place them in line 10-12 inches deep.
With rainfall, the new soil may settle. Judging from the locust tree roots I cut to make the holes, there is plenty of soil moisture, although a higher percentage of clay a foot deep. It’s an experiment. We’ll see how it goes.
Raised Beds Next to Compost Bins
Today’s garden task is to consolidate and blend the remaining compost. There are two bins and a pile of decomposed apple pomace and horse manure. There is plenty to build soil in most of the garden plots.
The first two lambs were born at the farm last Sunday, evidence of spring. I’m ready to work in the garden as soon as time off work aligns with precipitation-free days — maybe Saturday morning.
Despite heavy winter precipitation it looks like the upper Mississippi River basin will be spared severe flooding this spring.
The Corps of Engineers has been lowering the water level at the Coralville Lake in preparation, and society is getting used to the threat of perennial flooding. A season without it would be welcome reprieve.
I have been getting ready for spring. Before I leave for work today and the garden tomorrow a few thoughts about political life.
We elected delegates to the district and state convention last Saturday. I stayed until all committee seats were filled and delegate and alternate names were recorded. That was my role in this quadrennial presidential campaign.
On Wednesday a group of political friends from the caucus gathered. While we are engaged, there will be a lull in political action until after Labor Day and the fall campaign in the general election begins.
As the presidential primary season finishes out, it is hard to see a path for Bernie Sanders to overcome Hillary Clinton’s lead in delegates. The fact he didn’t win a single state in the March 15 elections is the sound of the death knell tolling for his campaign.
People want this to be settled, yet the 2008 election of Barack Obama is evidence these things are never really settled. In fact, Clinton’s long history of being assailed by conservatives and liberals alike, predating Obama by decades, suggests there is no such thing as “settled” in national politics any more.
In the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, four people have announced. I have had multiple conversations with each of them and even have a photograph of Chet Culver, Patty Judge and me at Old Capitol the night before Culver’s inauguration as governor. If you have been reading this blog at all, it’s clear why I would align with State Senator Rob Hogg, who like me is a graduate of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project.
Congressman Dave Loebsack may or may not have an opponent in the second congressional district. A physician from Iowa City has expressed interest, and they could nominate someone at their district convention. If one considers who ran against Loebsack since he beat Jim Leach, Republicans really have no one.
In the state legislature races, our State Senator Bob Dvorsky isn’t up this cycle, and Republican Bobby Kaufmann doesn’t have a challenger for his seat in the House of Representatives. There is unlikely to be a Kaufmann challenger until 2022 after decennial redistricting.
Five Democrats have announced for three county supervisor seats up this cycle. Rod Sullivan and I have a relatively long relationship, including his two votes to appoint me to the county board of health. Lisa Green-Douglass demonstrated she has political legs and is just getting started as a supervisor. I plan to vote for both incumbents in the primary.
The third choice is more difficult. Three people with careers have announced. Jason T. Lewis is a University of Iowa employee; Kurt Michael Friese is a successful restaurateur and author; and Patricia Heiden is executive director of Oaknoll Retirement Community. All live in the large urban area that includes the county seat.
When one considers the community impact of these three candidates, Pat Heiden stands out. A political newcomer, Heiden seeks elective office after 36 years at Oaknoll, 21 of those as its executive director. I’ve given three talks at Oaknoll and have known a number of its residents. It is a culturally significant social group which makes positive contributions to the growing population of 60 plus citizens of the county. Heiden shares some responsibility for this.
I met Kurt Friese at the county convention, but only briefly. Even though he purchases a significant amount of locally grown food for his restaurant, virtually no one I know in the local food movement mentions his name. I need to understand him and his candidacy better. I also plan to read his book about hot peppers.
Jason T. Lewis announced at the convention and I know a little about him. He has been following the Iowa City Community School District and ran for school board twice unsuccessfully. I need to know him better.
My initial assessment of the race is we have too much board of supervisor influence from people who live in the county seat. I plan to vote for three candidates and favor people who have worked in business over government employees. That means after casting my vote for incumbents, selecting one of the two business people, Friese or Heiden.
We’ll see how it goes as winter ends, spring arrives. I plan to set politics aside as the work to sustain our lives in a turbulent world continues.
Hillary Clinton Delegates and Alternates at the Johnson County Democratic Convention, Tiffin, Iowa, March 12, 2016
JOHNSON COUNTY, Iowa — Democratic delegates met in all 99 Iowa counties on Saturday, March 12. The day was overcast, but hopeful.
A bellwether was the fact I didn’t recognize many of the hundreds of people at the Tiffin High School auditorium where our county convention was held. Old timers are giving way to a new generation of Democrats brought in this election cycle by the contested presidential primary and Iowa’s first in the nation caucuses.
The results of the presidential horse race were similar to caucus night — Hillary Clinton had four more state delegates after the conventions than Bernie Sanders, ratifying her historic Iowa win 704-700.
The convention was about more than the presidential nomination.
With delegates intoxicated by the allure of the presidential race, Congressman Dave Loebsack and State Senator Bob Dvorsky attempted to sober them up with focus on the importance of the 2016 Iowa legislative races. For six years, Democrats have held the Senate Chamber by the slimmest of margins 26-24, Dvorsky said. If Democrats lose the Senate, Iowa could go the way Wisconsin and Kansas have.
“There are 12 Democratic Senate races this year, and we have to run the table,” Dvorsky said.
First term State Senator Chris Brase has a competitive race in nearby Senate District 46 which includes Muscatine County and parts of Scott. Since none of the Johnson County Senate delegation will be on the ballot in 2016, Dvorsky encouraged delegates and alternates to help with Brase’s campaign.
“Embrace Brase,” he said.
Loebsack was in sync with Dvorsky, affirming his support for Hillary Clinton, saying he would support Sanders if he were the nominee. He then explained that the presidential race, even his race and the challenge to six-term U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, were less important to Iowa than the state house races.
During the caucus of Clinton delegates and alternates to elect district/state delegates, former Iowa Democratic Party chair Sue Dvorsky affirmed the strategy of the presidential campaign returning to Iowa after the Democratic National Convention. The presidential campaign will bring much needed financial and organizational resources to prop up the Iowa Democratic Party.
There was other news at the convention.
Abbie Weipert of Tiffin announced she will join North Liberty Mayor Amy Nielsen in the June 7 Democratic primary to nominate a candidate in House District 77. Nielsen was first to enter the race after two-term Representative Sally Stutsman announced her retirement last month. I met Weipert during the 2012 campaign when her now husband Travis was elected Johnson County Auditor.
There was no announcement of a challenger to two-term Republican Bobby Kaufmann who represents House District 73 with six precincts in Johnson County along its border with Cedar County. During a previous discussion with Cedar County Democrats chair Laura Twing, no challenger is forthcoming. At this writing, Democrats appear ready to cede this seat.
Jason T. Lewis announced a bid for county supervisor in the June 7 Democratic primary. Lewis joins four other candidates, including incumbents Rod Sullivan and Lisa Green-Douglass, and newcomers Kurt Michael Friese and Patricia Heiden. Heiden, until recently a registered Republican, was the only one of the five who didn’t address the convention Saturday morning. Three seats are up this cycle.
Sullivan and Green-Douglass have the upper hand going into the primary. Sullivan is arguably the most liberal of the current supervisors and has strong rural connections that are important in a county dominated by the City of Iowa City and the University of Iowa.
Green-Douglass was elected in a special election Jan. 19, however, her strong showing during the 2014 primary contest gives her better name recognition than Friese, Heiden or Lewis. Mike Carberry beat Green-Douglass 3,459 to 3,333 on June 3, 2014, which was a respectable showing for both candidates.
What likely tipped the win to Carberry was better county-wide name recognition combined with support of the Newport Road gang. Before the January election, I heard a gang member refer to Green-Douglass as “no good,” so their support may be an issue for her again this cycle. During his speech at the convention, Friese, a friend of Carberry, aligned himself with interests of the Newport Road gang with his campaign tagline, “Stop pouring concrete on good farm land!” He also parroted the Newport Road position of developing the county by filling in existing lots rather than through additional rezoning. It will take more than alignment with any one group to win the Democratic primary. According to the cowboy card Friese distributed at the convention he has a broader palette from which to paint his campaign.
Johnson County’s leaders asserted a focus more on down-ticket races than the presidential or U.S. Senate ones. It’s hard to argue with that.
Best political speech of the day, maybe of all time? Two letters, “Hi,” from County Attorney Janet Lyness who had laryngitis.
The family-owned home, farm and auto supply store put me on a Monday through Friday schedule this year. It created something rare — a regular weekend off.
As winter ends, work at home and at the farm returns to center stage. It was possible to feel I got something done this weekend.
I did — indoors and out.
Le weekend began Friday with a time clock punch. After work, I bought provisions at the warehouse club on the way home. After putting food and sundries away, I repaired one of our two cars in the garage. I drove the repaired vehicle to pick up Jacque after work, reading a book checked out from the library on my phone’s Kindle app while waiting in the parking lot.
That evening at home I made a to-do list on the white board and continued reading. I hope to finish Slavery in the Upper Mississippi Valley 1787 – 1865: A History of Human Bondage in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin by Christopher P. Lehman before returning to work on Monday. It’s due back to the digital library in seven days.
At home I watered the trays in the south-facing window. The basil, lettuce and celery seedlings are coming along. I burned the brush pile and prepared containers for raised beds of root vegetables planned for early planting. Making sure I had five buckets of sand for next winter, I swept the remainder into the ditch from the road in front of our house. Each task accomplished added to a positive, hopeful attitude.
Embers of the Burn Pile
Sunday I’ll soil block at the farm. We’ve been having a problem with invasive species in the seedling trays. That needs discussion and resolution before we get too far along. The schedule is 28 trays of 120 blocks, or 3,360 seedlings, so addressing the problem quickly matters.
Set this aside. Saturday made the weekend.
Saturday cooking included a bowl of steel cut oats for breakfast, chick pea curry to use up the last of the big batch of them, and chili with cornbread for dinner. Since Jacque works on Saturday afternoon, and seldom knows how long the work will take, I always prepare something that can be re-heated easily while listening to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio.
Earlier Saturday I made a trip to the grocery store to buy some organic celery, raisins and onions, then returned to the kitchen and made three jars of lemon flavored iced tea for the week. The food was all good although I forgot the garlic in the curry.
These things seem simple, but framed by a regularly scheduled weekend off, they have the potential to become a way of life. What ever happened to that in our 24-hour, non-stop social media, highly complex, yet unfulfilled lives?
While we won’t get rich living like this, it is rewarding in so many other ways. It’s past time to re-invent Le Weekend.
BIG GROVE TOWNSHIP, Iowa — This headline in this morning’s Boston Globe says it well, “Clinton and Trump are now the presumptive nominees. Get used to it.”
Author James Pindell attributes the appellation to math.
“They have accumulated more delegates than any other candidates in their parties for the national conventions,” he wrote. “Both won three of four early contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. Not a single candidate with those win records has ever lost his or her party’s nomination in modern presidential political history.”
Presumptive. Get used to it. Got it.
While few saw Trump coming a year ago, people have been saying Hillary Clinton was the likely Democratic nominee for president since before she announced on April 12, 2015. They were right then and now.
The nominating process set up by Democrats after the debacle of 1968 is working. It fielded a group of candidates, winnowed the field, and is moving rapidly toward nominating Clinton. Clinton needs 2,383 delegates to the July 25 national convention to win. After last night she has 1,001 to Bernie Sanders’ 371. With the remaining delegates, Sanders needs to do much better than Clinton. But for the details of how the race plays out, as Pindell indicated, it is over.
In Iowa the Super Tuesday result means as soon as Sanders bows out, needed revenue from the Clinton campaign can begin to flow to the Iowa Democratic Party. My quote of Iowa politico Jerry Crawford from last year bears repeating.
“In all the races I’ve been involved with of various kinds it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” Crawford said on Iowa Press. “Iowa, the Iowa Democratic Party, our ticket in this state desperately needs the general election assets that Hillary Clinton will bring as our party’s standard bearer. That’s the way we recover from what was a very, very tough 2014 election.”
As I wrote at the time, the coordinated campaign should be blown up and re-invented. It’s money that holds us back. Democrats are damned if we raise it and damned if we don’t.
One of the successes of the Iowa Republican Party since Jeff Kaufmann took the reins has been generating cash for operations. Democrats in a donor poor state still rely on the presidential candidate, and partly because of it, the race has focused disproportionately on electing the president. As my own data crunching during the 2012 race affirms, a winning president doesn’t have enough coat tails to carry all of the down ticket races in Iowa. If he did, my state house candidate would have won his race. This is a basic problem with Iowa Democratic politics: not enough money and too much focus on the presidential horse race. A corollary is not bringing enough new people into the party.
People suggest retaining the new people Bernie Sanders recruited to his campaign is important, and it is.
Rod Sullivan Feb. 22, 2016
At the same time, each electorate is different and there is no expectation everyone who voted or caucused for Sanders in the primary will continue to be involved in a general election campaign for Hillary. The idea we should “do things” to retain them is ridiculous and counter productive. The narrative of momentum and a linear procession from announcement to primary to election is a bankrupt one. People will make their general election decision based on information available to them as election day approaches.
The power of politics has more to do with what people we know are doing. To the extent the power and influence of national media can be mitigated, voters will make a sound decision. However, media continues to shape opinions to the extent Republicans I know are trying to accommodate a Trump vote despite his demagoguery. It’s the media that puts them in this situation.
As the case of Trump indicates, elections no longer are about logic and reasonableness. To elect a candidate we each must work to influence people in our circles. As we march to the finish of another presidential election it is important to remember we have a sphere of influence… and to pay no attention to that man behind the curtain pulling the levers.
The first spadeful of earth was waterlogged. There was no frost more than a foot deep, so I’ll be ready to plant lettuce March 2.
My maternal grandmother called this planting “Belgian lettuce.” I follow the tradition whenever conditions permit. Reserving some lettuce seeds to plant in trays, the rest will be broadcast in a small plot. I will also plant some turnips — mostly for the greens.
The calendar shows it is winter, but spring is everywhere.
This week, former Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and former Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge said she is considering a run in the June 7 primary to be the Democratic candidate to challenge incumbent U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley. The filing period begins Monday and ends March 18.
If Judge enters the race, that would make four contenders, each of whom I know better than most politicians. Based on many conversations with all four, I plan to vote for Rob Hogg, a current state senator, author and climate advocate.
Tom Fiegen, a bankruptcy attorney, is running in the primary. Like fellow candidate Bob Krause, a former military officer and defense contractor, Fiegen challenged Roxanne Conlin in the 2010 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, placing third of three candidates with 6,357 votes. Krause was ahead of Fiegen with 8,728 votes. Both lost to Conlin, the clear leader who garnered 52,715 votes that election.
Six years later Fiegen and Krause are running again. Fiegen has become a Sanders Democrat, hitching his wagon to the revolution Bernie Sanders asserts is needed. Bob Krause is, well, Bob Krause, a man with an irresistible urge to run for office, not unlike Saul Bellow’s character Henderson the Rain King, with a personal quality “that manifests itself as an inner voice crying out I want, I want, I want.” I like them both, but as I said, will be voting for Hogg. Judge should stay out of the race unless she has something new to offer.
The discussion about a replacement for the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court of the United States has generated anti-Grassley sentiment. The general election campaign should be heated. It will be almost impossible for Grassley to avoid addressing his obstruction in this because Republicans have put the Senate Judiciary Committee he chairs front and center, saying they won’t even consider an Obama nominee.
It will take more than moral outrage to defeat Chuck Grassley in the general election. Grassley has a token primary opponent who will likely be vanquished. I don’t see much outrage directed toward Grassley in society beyond social media. Without that the race is an open question. Whether Democrats can get beyond commenting on blogs and in social media to organize is unknown at this time. I am hopeful — some, tempered with realism.
Filing closes at 5 p.m. on March 18 when the primary races will be defined. Until then, there will not be a lot of action, just work — sustaining a life in a turbulent world.
Hope of spring arrived with warm ambient temperatures last weekend. It prompted me to clean the garage, roll up the garden fencing left out after making the burn pile, consider locations to plant Belgian lettuce, and inspect the compost piles and bins.
It won’t be long before gardening begins. It has begun.
In the meanwhile, we continue to cook and eat the stores from gardens and shopping trips past.
A jar of dried chick peas had been sitting on the counter.
I hydrated and boiled them, making enough to fill two plastic tubs — normally that many would last a couple of months. The idea was to use them up.
First I baked falafel. It was a lot of food with the second tub of chick peas leftover. Breakfast has been four or five falafel ever since, making a different sauce for each small batch. There were too many falafel.
Next came veggie burgers. I used chick peas, black beans, oatmeal and a mixture of cooked garlic, onion and bell pepper. Seasoned with parsley, celery salt and herbs from the pantry, with an egg as a binder, there were three extra patties which I froze for future use.
I also made a big batch of flavored iced tea. Using tea bags found in a canning jar in the cupboard, I put four in a teapot and poured boiling water over them to steep. In the back of the ice box I found a quart jar of simple syrup and a bottle of organic lemon juice.
On the bottom of three-cup canning jars I measured a quarter cup each of lemon juice and simple syrup. I poured hot tea on top, screwed on the lid and put them in the ice box. The cost was much lower than the Arnold Palmer – Arizona Iced Tea brand iced tea – lemonade drinks sold in convenience stores everywhere. It tasted much better too.
This weekend was of rest, reading, cooking and a bit of garage and garden work. Brief respite before returning to the farm next Sunday for my first session of soil blocking. Homelife in a busy life that generates too little income but rewards our labor in other ways.
On Friday, Feb. 5, the benchmark crude palm-oil future contract traded on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange reached its highest level since May 2014, according to NASDAQ.
Traders were feeling bullish as warm, dry weather caused by El Niño in the region receded from the prime palm plantations in Sumatra, Borneo and other parts of Indonesia.
These palm oil producing regions are half a world away, yet they matter to Iowa more than one knows.
The use of palm oil for cooking is in direct competition with soybean oil, including Iowa-grown soybeans traded on international markets. In a recent interview, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said one out of four rows of Iowa soybeans are bound for international sales.
“India, the world’s largest importer of cooking oils, will buy more soybean and sunflower oil this year (2015) than ever before as a global glut weakens prices and prompts buyers to switch from palm oil,” according to Bloomberg News.
Because of the decline in farm commodity prices, current trends may favor soybeans over palm, but at the expense of soybean farmers. There is a clear case to be made to avoid products like chocolate, ice cream, detergent, soap and cosmetics that contain palm oil and its derivatives as a way to support Iowa farmers.
What matters more is deforestation to expand the cultivation of palm trees. Using a slash and burn methodology to clear equatorial rain forest for palm plantations, the haze covering Indonesia was visible from space. While haze may be viewed as a temporary inconvenience, deforestation has a direct impact on the planet’s capacity to process atmospheric carbon dioxide. That’s not to mention the loss of habitat and biodiversity, as well as release of carbon stored in trees into the atmosphere.
From logging, agricultural production and other economic activities, deforestation adds more atmospheric CO2 than the sum total of cars and trucks on the world’s roads, according to Scientific American.
“The reason that logging is so bad for the climate is that when trees are felled they release the carbon they are storing into the atmosphere, where it mingles with greenhouse gases from other sources and contributes to global warming accordingly,” the article said. “The upshot is that we should be doing as much to prevent deforestation as we are to increase fuel efficiency and reduce automobile usage.”
Most corporate food conglomerates use or have used palm oil and its derivatives as an ingredient. What’s a person to do?
The first recourse in Iowa is the power of the purse. Avoid purchasing products with palm oil because it competes with Iowa-grown soybeans, and is a contributor to climate disruption. There is no such thing as sustainably grown palm oil.
Palm oil and its derivatives go under many names. A list of alternate names for palm oil can be found here along with a handy wallet sized printout.
Here is a list that discusses use of palm oil in various consumer products.
Explore the Rainforest Action Network web site, beginning with this link. There is a lot of information about the issue and actions you can take to address the most pressing aspects of deforestation.
While Indonesia may seem distant, what goes on there and in other equatorial palm plantations matters here in Iowa.
Driving out of Flint, Mich. on Bristol Road wasn’t in the plans.
I interviewed some 30 people, all but one male, for truck driving jobs at the Days Inn across from the GM plant. Tired and ready for sleep, I went to the van to get my overnight bag and found all four tires had been slashed.
In the parking lot with a driver I later hired, the tire service came and replaced them. Around 10:30 p.m. I decided to drive the four hours back home to Indiana. The drive seemed much longer as I fought sleep and considered the day’s events.
In his film Roger & Me, Flint native Michael Moore identified Nov. 6, 1986 as the date of the announcement that General Motors would start laying off thousands of workers to move jobs to Mexico. Eventually, Mexican labor would prove too expensive and GM moved some of those jobs to Southeast Asia and elsewhere where people would work on the cheap building cars and auto parts.
I made about a dozen recruiting trips to Flint in 1988. There was a lot of interest in our non-union jobs, a lot of anger, and few hires. As a trucking terminal manager in Northwest Indiana I interviewed countless people seeking work in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky and many other states. I took a pencil to it, and found I had interviewed well over 10,000 people from 1987 until 1993. My life was forever changed by that experience as one applicant after another told me their stories of adjusting to devastation in the rust belt as the policies of President Ronald Reagan and his cronies eviscerated the middle class. We are still in the wake of his administration.
It was the end of an era as large-scale work sites like Buick City laid people off and eventually shuttered their plants. Flint is just one example of the hellhole the steel, auto, and other manufacturing towns became. Flint went from being an award-winning auto maker to being an EPA cleanup site. People still live there, but what was no longer exists.
Today we hear of the water crisis in Flint.
Nearly two years ago, the state decided to save money by switching Flint’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, a tributary that runs through town and is known to locals for its filth, according to CNN. Because of the corrosive nature of water in the river, iron oxidized discoloring tap water, and more importantly, lead began leaching from the pipes in the water system.
“Everything will be fine,” former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling said as he downed a glass of water.
It’s not fine. It won’t ever be fine.
Flint went to hell, literally, after GM began shedding jobs to cheap foreign labor. Violent crime rates rose, people left the city, and today 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Employees dependent on union jobs had trouble coping when the jobs were gone, resulting in complex social and psychological problems. I experienced some of their anger that day in Flint and I won’t forget because it permanently changed me.
I get why Reagan is lionized for what he did to Flint and dozens of other manufacturing cities. The anger is still here. We are still in Reagan’s wake.
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