Lake Macbride State Park covered in a thin haze of smoke from Canadian wildland fires, June 28, 2023.
On Tuesday, June 27, there were 66 wildland fires being tracked across parts of Ontario Province in Canada. As a result, smoke and particulate matter is spreading over much of the United States, and across the Atlantic Ocean to multiple European countries. It has rendered the air quality “very unhealthy.” What is there to do at this point but monitor our local air quality and moderate our time and activities outdoors? The underlying science and human behavior which favor conditions for the fires have been ignored so long, we transitioned to a mode of acceptance and now focus on coping with the disaster.
At least the scenery on the state park trail is nice.
I got into something while working in the yard. I believe the ailment is contact dermatitis and the little spot where I got it itches constantly. I put some ointment on it a couple times a day and should be fine after two to four weeks, according to the Mayo Clinic. I don’t know what I contacted, although I found some nettles out by the composter. I harvested the nettles and hung them in the garage to dry. There is a cup of nettle tea in my future.
The garden is really coming in. The freezer and refrigerator are almost full. I am much closer to the garden this year than previously. I never fail to marvel at what it can produce. For now, life on Earth is pretty good, despite the contact dermatitis.
Editor’s Note: This is one of 100 newspaper articles written for the North Liberty Leader, The Solon Economist, and the Iowa City Press Citizen beginning in 2014. The North Liberty Leader stopped publication in early 2022. The Solon Economist remains on the bubble. This is an example of the collaborative type of writing produced with my newspaper editors. The whole experience of freelancing was beneficial if low-paid.
Iowa City Community School District board meeting on Jan 28, 2014. Photo by the author.
Van Allen school to be expanded Four new classrooms will serve 100 additional students
By Paul Deaton
IOWA CITY (Feb. 5, 2014) – Paintings by Van Allen and Penn Elementary School students on the walls of the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD) school board meeting were a colorful backdrop as Superintendent Stephen Murley and the board held brief discussions during an equally brief meeting on Jan. 28.
The board held the second of three readings of Appendix 9 , the ICCSD capital projects planning and approval process document that guides the board in its oversight and implementation of the district’s facilities master plan. The long-range plan was adopted on July 23, 2013, and proposes to spend an estimated $252 million on capital improvement projects during a 10 year period. Included in the plan is an addition to Van Allen Elementary School in North Liberty.
Following the formal meeting, the board’s Operations Committee met, and began with an update on the Van Allen design project by representatives of the architectural firm Neumann Monson and Van Allen Principal Pat Brown.
On Dec. 17, 2013, the Iowa City school board approved a project design expenditure of $123,250 for Van Allen. The design was to include additions to the current structure, containing four classrooms to house approximately 100 additional students. A committee of staff volunteers worked with Neumann Monson during the design development phase of the project. Three schematic designs were evaluated, with a final preference for additions to existing pods two (on the East side of the building housing Kindergarten through second grade) and three (on the West side of the building housing grades three through six. The design would create about 5,600 square feet of new space and fall within the approved budget of $1.68 million.
Principal Brown explained the criteria the committee developed for the addition.
“One of the things we’d like to do is to continue, as much as possible, is (keeping) like grades together so that we can group our first grades together, second grades together. Our teams do a lot of collaboration in their planning and delivery of instruction. It works much better when we keep those grades together,” she said.
Brown said another important criterion was flexibility of classroom design. “We are anticipating growth in the North Liberty area. And as we’ve seen with enrollment, kids don’t always come to us in neat packages with the numbers just right as they move up through the grades. (The additions) could give us growth on both sides of the building.”
“We will have additional classroom space to meet student instructional needs in a positive learning environment,” said Brown in an email after the meeting.
Current enrollment at Van Allen for K-6 is 489 students. In addition, the elementary school also serves 27 preschool students. Projected enrollment for the year 2022-2023 is 527 based on the school’s current attendance area.
According to Brown, there are plans to rezone the attendance areas in North Liberty and Coralville beginning this spring. Additional students will likely be zoned into the Van Allen Elementary attendance area to help with projected elementary population growth.
“North Liberty enrollment projections for the school-aged population taken from the U.S. Census (2000-2010) shows an increase of 122 percent. Coralville increased 29 percent,” said Brown.
Van Allen Elementary School was Iowa’s first LEED certified public school. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a set of rating systems for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of greens buildings intended to help building owners be environmentally responsible and use resources efficiently. Van Allen received a silver LEED certification, and features natural lighting, recycled building materials, geothermal heating and cooling, and natural landscaping. Neumann Monson expects to preserve LEED certification with completion of the project.
The board will hold a public hearing on the final project design in April. Once the design is approved, Neumann Monson expects the bidding documents to be prepared for distribution to contractors by April 24, and returned by May 16. Construction is to begin June 1, with a construction completion date not later than June 30, 2015.
The cartomancer drew an Ace of Spades, indicating things that have been in disarray in my life may be coming together. After mild spells of undiagnosed dizziness today and yesterday, I feel the dam breaking and am ready to portage to the other side as the impoundment pool is released. That means I will return to writing my autobiography soon.
I sent the first half to four friends from whom I hope to hear feedback. Two have responded and two are married and will respond together when both finish reading. The feedback garnered thus far has been invaluable.
The next decision is whether to work on the part just reviewed or work to get the rest of it up to the same level of completion. The second part is problematic in that there are multiple narrative threads which represent a lot of work. At the same time, revising what was reviewed makes some sense while the feedback is fresh.
In part two there will be the experiences with family before our child attended formal school. Those are the most important years and they are over before we realize it. It is important to capture some of those fleeting essences while we can. We brought her home from the hospital to Cedar Rapids, Iowa where we lived the first 30 months, then moved to the Calumet region of Indiana where she started Montessori School, followed by public schools. We moved to Big Grove Township in 1993. That’s one narrative.
I lived through the post-Reagan years of turmoil in the workplace and have things to say through the frame of living in the Calumet and recruiting truck drivers and mechanics. More than anything, in interviewing some 10,000 people, I learned and felt directly the pain Reagan’s initiatives put so many working people through. I want to tell that story.
The challenge of being a writer intensified with the advent of computer technology. Of what was this new tool capable? What were realistic expectations? How did it change the way I wrote? How did writing in public change from my first letter to the editor in 1974 until today? Another narrative worth exploring.
During my career in transportation I traveled all around the country. I spent the most time in Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and other states. I used to bring a magnet home from each new place and filled up the front of the home refrigerator with them. I spent time with some of the poorest people in the country and with large corporations far removed from the reality most of us know. Sorting that out will be a big task in itself and seems worth doing.
There is a lot in front of me. It appears to be in the cards for me to get going again. I can feel it. I am ready.
My first letter to the editor of a newspaper appeared in the Quad-City Times on Dec. 30, 1974. I had just returned to my home town from Europe after college graduation. I did not like the culture I experienced in Davenport. The letter was a way to express my opinion in public and garner feedback from other members of the community. It worked to a fashion before the time of social media. It would not be my last letter to a newspaper complaining about living in society.
There are risks when writing in public. When I wrote letters to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, in response, I received anonymous threatening letters in the mail. It was a form of intimidation for having an opinion with which someone disagreed. Because the letters were anonymous, and didn’t threaten me physically, I discarded them and wrote more letters to the newspaper. I’m not certain I’ll write any more letters to the editor, yet I won’t let intimidation be the reason to slow me down.
In Iowa, we are considering the incident of a prominent meteorologist named Chris Gloninger who received a death threat after educating his viewers about climate change. Repeated email harassment over his weather reports led to a case of PTSD, after which he resigned his position. I seldom watch television weather reports, so I likely don’t understand the situation. Harassing a T.V. meteorologist via email is a lazy person’s way of “sticking it to the man.” How infantile!
In his upcoming book, The Hidden History of American Democracy: Rediscovering Humanity’s Ancient Way of Living, author Thom Hartmann closes with the following:
You may think your voice is but a faint whisper in the wilderness, but there are ways you can amplify it at no cost other than a bit of effort. Write letters to the editor of your local newspapers. Become active on social media. Volunteer with the dozens of great good-government groups and organizations devoted to saving our environment, our democracy, and our world.
The Hidden History of American Democracy: Rediscovering Humanity’s Ancient Way of Living by Thom Hartmann.
Hartmann reiterates one of the best remedies for feeling impotent or down is to take action. We can’t let the inevitable naysayers get to us when we do.
Good luck Mr. Gloninger. May your future be bright.
For the first time since I began gardening in Big Grove, deer jumped the fences and began nibbling on my plants. Thus far, they got into two plots, eating peas, green beans and cucumber plants. I put up supplemental fencing where I thought they jumped over, yet I’m not sure that will do any good. I don’t have enough fencing to elevate the height to eight feet all around every plot.
What is going on? I haven’t changed anything. My instinct is the exceedingly dry weather hindered growth of their natural food supply and my tasty plants were better than starving. The damage of one eating session is substantial, and will impact yield. I need to do something.
I mastered the art of keeping rabbits out of the garden. By securing the bottom of the fence to the ground, and letting the clover grow in the yard, they have plenty of food without intruding on my vegetable patch. It is a success story. I’ve long realized deer can easily jump my four and five foot fencing, yet because of the how I planted, they haven’t… until now.
I’ll rig up some additional fencing after the sun rises and I view last night’s damage. What I believe would resolve the problem is getting a good, long rainfall.
Vegetable broth simmering. Made with many kinds of garden greens.
A hummingbird dipped water from the leaves of cabbage plants throughout the garden. It has been a dry season, yet the bird found enough to drink condensed from the night and pooled in drops on the leaves. The garden is full of such life. By taking time to stand, listen, and look, we share in the experience. We become part of the garden, which is not nature, yet as close as we can get.
A deer was eating pea blossoms over the fence. I let it go on for two nights then installed additional fencing to make it eight feet tall and restrict access on that corner of the garden plot. It worked, but the deer jumped the fence on the other side and tried to access the peas from inside the fence. It ate one or two, leaving hoof marks in the fresh-dug soil where I planted spinach seeds. I wonder what happened that it only took one bite.
Predictably, I found the first little green worm on a kohlrabi plant yesterday. The egg-laying white butterflies have been thick in recent days. It was only a matter of time. The challenge now is to seek them out and pick them off in the mornings. Hopefully the organic insecticide I applied will suppress them. They arrive just as the heads of broccoli are beginning to form. Half the battle is knowing their behavior. It is a battle that can be won by diligent humans.
My daily morning walk through the garden is rewarding. Everything is growing and besides early greens, I harvested the first zucchini and patty pan squash. This is my first year growing patty pan or scallop squash. This first one will go into stir fry later this week.
Tomatoes and tomatillos are beginning to blossom. Onions are forming bulbs. Green cabbages are about three inches in diameter. Soon I will turn over the first tub of potatoes for small ones. Apples and pears are growing. There is a lot going on.
We are lucky to be able to age in place. I don’t think of the outside world when I’m in the garden. I listen, observe and experience the ecosystem I made while wondering how I fit in. It’s the wondering that’s the best part.
Cart of five varieties of kale picked June 17, 2023.
The best kale is harvested before the characteristic little green worms have a chance to establish themselves. I deter them from getting too far by a couple of applications of Dipel, an insecticide containing toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk), a naturally-occurring bacterium found in soil and plants. Btk is not harmful to humans, to birds, or to most beneficial insects and pollinators. It is widely used by farmers who use organic practices. The truth is one has to do something about the little green worms to have a good crop. This year, because of these applications, the cruciferous vegetable patch of kale, collards, broccoli, cabbage, chard, and cauliflower looks quite good.
The spring greens harvest has two major purposes outside eating fresh kale and collards. I stem the leaves and put as many packages as will fit in the freezer. Less attractive leaves, as well as the stems go into canned vegetable broth. I have been following this practice since we got a small freezer during a power outage. Since then, we upgraded to an upright freezer. This enables us to eat greens all year, until next year’s crop. It is something that goes well in our garden. Something upon which we rely in our everyday cooking.
Based on the number of white butterflies spotted in the cruciferous vegetables yesterday, it will be hard to keep up with them soon.
We like kale, especially in stir fry, soups, and tacos. Many people do not care for it. I learned to grow it from my friend Susan back in 2013. I would stop eating it if I didn’t grow it myself and control all the inputs. Part of aging successfully will be figuring out how to continue the annual kale crop.
Milkweed bug and Monarch caterpillar having breakfast in our yard.
It was a long process to create a habitat where Monarch butterflies would stop on their annual migration, lay eggs, and provide images like the one above in our garden. Both milkweed bugs and Monarch butterflies are creatures of a very specific set of conditions. Without those conditions, neither would exist as they do.
So it is with politicians. It turns out Democratic members of the Iowa Senate also require specific conditions to thrive, and removed Minority Leader Zach Wahls, and replaced him with the more experienced Senator Pam Jochum last week. All 16 Democratic senators voted for Jochum to replace Wahls. What happened? Senator Wahls explained in an email received on June 12:
By now, many of you have seen the news that last week, my Democratic colleagues in the Iowa Senate chose a new caucus Leader, Senator Pam Jochum. After serving as Leader the past two-and-a-half years, I know how critically important this job is, not just for Iowa Democrats, but for all Iowans. Her success is vital to the wellbeing and betterment of our state, and I will continue working hard everyday to serve my constituents, help Leader Jochum and the Iowa Senate Democrats, and elect more Democrats in Iowa.
I am no longer Leader because I made the difficult decision to fire two longtime senate staffers who did not share my vision for change while restructuring our staff. My Senate Democratic colleagues disagreed with my decision. There is always a resistance to change and new ideas, and I stand by the decision because Iowa Democrats desperately need a new direction and leaders who will chart that course.
I chose to run for the Iowa Senate in 2018 because our state was heading in the wrong direction and we needed change. Since 2014, we have all watched Iowa Republican politicians strengthen their iron grip on our state, and we have all seen the damage the Republican agenda has wrought on our families and communities. Governor Reynolds and extreme Republicans in the legislature are hellbent on taking away our personal freedoms, defunding our public schools, and hollowing out the middle class. Our rural communities continue to lose population. Our young people are leaving Iowa for better opportunities in more welcoming states. Our political system is not working for Iowans.
As long as I have the opportunity to serve in elected office, I will continue to push for change and to fix the broken system that is failing our state. Iowans deserve a strong and forward-looking Democratic Party that is ready and willing to embrace the change necessary to halt the advance of Republican extremism. We must put change and progress ahead of comfort and the status quo.
So many people are discouraged about the direction of our state and the losses our party has sustained over the past decade, and if you are one of them, I want to speak directly to you. While they want us to give in to cynicism, we must refuse to accept that Iowa is lost forever. Our fight for liberty, justice, and shared prosperity is difficult. Our success will require honest reflection, an immense amount of hard work, and a deep commitment to change. And while change is always hard — Iowans are counting on us, and failure is not an option.
I hope you will join me in continuing the fight for a better future for everyone who calls Iowa home.
Onward. ZW
Email from Senator Zach Wahls, June 12, 2023.
The money quote is, “We must put change and progress ahead of comfort and the status quo.”
Erin Murphy reported in the Tuesday Cedar Rapids Gazette that Mike Gronstal, formerly a lobbyist for the Iowa State Building and Construction Trades Council, lost his job because of his involvement in the Wahls matter. Gronstal was previously the Iowa Senate Majority Leader.
“The nature of Gronstal’s involvement in Senate Democrats’ leadership change was not detailed by the council or made public by Senate Democrats,” reported Murphy. “But the two longtime staffers who were fired had worked for Gronstal when he was majority leader.”
Senate Democrats may have said all they plan to about removing Wahls from leadership, yet the incident indicates an unwillingness to change that is disheartening for rank and file Democrats who haven’t given up hope in regaining a majority. I mean, the days of Mike Gronstal’s influence should have ended when he lost his re-election campaign in 2016. What are you telling us, Democrats?
Pam Jochum will make a fine minority leader, so that’s not the issue. Likewise, I can understand if the senators were upset by a staffing change that affects them all if it was unannounced or unexpected. There are ways to fire tenured people without a brouhaha. It seems unlikely we rank and file will ever know the full story. If that’s the ground floor for party rebuilding, then so be it.
I met with a group yesterday to talk about our new State Senate District. Our experienced and popular Democratic candidate lost his reelection bid in 2022. Some of the more connected people present for the meeting had ideas for a 2024 candidate. At this point, we don’t have one. The meeting itself was inconclusive about what we should do to defeat the Republicans who won in our Senate and House districts last cycle.
With a Republican trifecta since 2017, the majority party has used their power to make changes they want. I don’t believe they are close to being done. It has been clear Zach Wahls is competent since he was elected. What caused a majority of the Democratic Senate caucus to ouster him? We have a brief statement, yet we don’t have the whole story.
Butterflies, I understand. Politicians? Not as much. This thing is going to be a distraction for a while and I’m not talking about photographing caterpillars.
They say if you bring something good to a potluck you’ll have to bring the same dish to every potluck from now on. I don’t make the rules.
When I attend a potluck, with or without my spouse, I take something we can both eat. Sometimes it is popular, yet mostly it is not. I overestimated the degree to which other people’s like for kale would match mine. I no longer take kale dishes. Whatever is not eaten goes into our rotation of leftovers. Live and let live. Life is good.
When the garden comes in, I make something for potluck with fresh ingredients, maybe potato salad. It is important to keep anything with eggs in it chilled. During apple harvest, some sort of baked apple dish is the norm, something like apple crisp. Thus far, my dishes haven’t been described as good very often, so I’m free to experiment. And I will.
In mid-June we have a good idea if there will be an apple crop and how big it may be. This year’s apples look to be plentiful. Typically, earliest apples go to sauce for fresh eating, and apple cider vinegar. Depending upon how they taste, I may make some apple butter with early apples. Mostly I wait until the September-October harvested ones for the main batches of canned sauce and butter. I also fill up the cider vinegar jars in the pantry. Each year I learn a bit more about processing the abundance when there is one.
The two newest apple trees are unpredictable. One has a couple of fruits forming, and the other has a lot. I can’t remember which is Zestar! and which is Crimson Crisp. Either would be welcome this year.
I toured the garden this morning and besides weeding, things look alright. There was not much caterpillar damage on the cruciferous vegetables. In the front yard, I saw a Monarch caterpillar and a milkweed bug having breakfast together. Late spring is a great time of year.
There have been two points of catharsis this year: finishing winter writing and sending the draft of my autobiography to a few friends, and finishing initial garden planting last week. Heading toward summer, new things are on the horizon.
More than at any time during the year summer is an opportunity to take on long-standing projects. I expect there will be plenty to do, including cleaning and organizing the garage, landscaping the yard, and tending neglected home maintenance tasks. We spent a lot on home appliances in the last month, so there is no extra money to take a vacation. We haven’t taken a vacation since our child was in high school 20 years ago. There is no pressing need either.
Summer was the time for political activities such as walking in parades, barbecues and picnics, and listening to speeches. Our political activities have become separated from most of society and these old-time activities have become irrelevant to winning elections or much else. If I had a business, I’d enter a float in our local parade. Otherwise, I’ll avoid town the day of parades. There are no planned trips to the many parades, festivals and activities planned in our part of the state.
Each summer I debate reading The Great Gatsby, my favorite summer novel. Most years I re-read it, although that decision is not made for 2023. Since I set a daily goal of reading 25 pages, the question now is which book will go into the rotation next. I’m so familiar with Gatsby it is a one or two day read. If I missed this summer it would be no loss. There are plenty of other good books to read in my library.
The garden has been producing for about a month so cooking has changed with fresh vegetables. Greens are on the table almost every meal, and when tomatoes, peppers and cabbage come in, I’ll consult my personal recipe list and prepare some seasonal dishes.
Summer is about freezing, drying, and canning food from the garden. I need a dozen more quarts of vegetable broth and this will be the year to replenish the pantry with all things apple. Tomatoes are the other main canning item. I process them whole and in the form of sauce. It was a struggle to get tomatoes to take in the garden, yet they are growing now and there should be a good harvest. Canning alone will fill any voids in the schedule.
Before we realize it, summer will lead to autumn and harvest. It’s time to enjoy life while we can. Happy summer!
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