I’m putting together a spring newsletter for inclusion in the June billing.
Less than half the people who live in our association participate in the Facebook or Google Groups, so a newsletter is our chance to reach out to almost everyone.
There are some things that bear repeating each year, and I’ll include them. I also want to try something different this month.
If you have a short bit of news to report related to what’s going on in the association, please forward it to me by Monday afternoon. If you have a question about the association, and it has broader relevance, I’ll include your question (with your name), and address it. Any tidbits of local history would be welcome. I’m looking to post things specific to our subdivision in which everyone would be interested or could learn from. To keep the budget low, I’m planning on a single, one-sided sheet, so let’s fill it up with useful and interesting info.
The reason for the holiday is to honor the men and women who died in military service for our country.
I hope you and yours have a safe and peaceful Memorial Day Weekend.
Regards, Paul
~ Email to our home owners association Google Group sent May 25, 2017
Over the weekend a storm broke off a branch in one of the maple trees. The branch wedged between two others 20 feet above the ground. I couldn’t remove it myself.
The tree service came yesterday with chain saws, ladders and loppers to bring the branches safely down. After work at the home, farm and auto supply store I cleaned up the site and built a brush pile next to the garden. I’ve been thinking of adding two more plots, so maybe, after I burn the pile, this is the time.
Not knowing better in 1993, we planted the maple too close to the house. It needs taking down according to my arborist and climber.
Seedling Cart
I’ve been working in the garden center at the home, farm and auto supply store. Foot traffic has been brisk with customers picking up flats of seedlings for flower and vegetable gardens. Working outdoor provided an opportunity to talk about gardening. I felt in my element.
At home, the lawn is overgrown and our garden is two-thirds planted. The seedlings are ready so I’m waiting for the intersection of dry-enough ground, time at home, and clear skies. As soon as that happens I’ll get more planted.
The weather forecast is for near-perfect spring weather. No rain and a high around 65 degrees.
The day began at 4 a.m. with reading and laundry. I moved the cars down the driveway and rolled the seedlings out of the garage before dawn.
There should be fewer seedlings on the cart by day’s end.
The lilacs are toward the end of the season. I stood inside the branches, lush with flowers, and let the scent envelope me.
Years ago our daughter kicked a soccer ball under the lilacs. For a moment I was distracted… I retrieved the ball then I saw her. This memory of her in sunlight from under the lilacs is part of me this warm spring day. I carried her with me as I prepared for a day of gardening.
After a shift at the home, farm and auto supply store I begin a nine-day vacation. I say “vacation” but really mean “reboot.”
I hope to plant most of the garden, work in the yard and re-engineer parts of our homelife for efficiency. Why? To reap that feeling of being organized and prepared for summer.
It’s not as easy as re-booting a computer. Old habits are embedded in the code of this life.
In any case, I’ll hit the switch and see what happens. Hopefully good will come of it.
Rain began mid-morning and is expected to continue until sunset.
Let it rain.
It’s an opportunity to work on inside chores before spring planting.
I’ll tackle a long-neglected inbox and use produce in the ice box and freezer to make soup. There’s plenty to do in the jumble the garage has become since winter — moving the lawn tractor toward the door, organizing the planting tools and cleaning shovels, rakes and bins for the season. I’m antsy about getting the garden planted — I accept it won’t be this weekend.
A few friends are participating in the People’s Climate March today. CNN and the Washington Post covered the District of Columbia march. There are several marches in Iowa and elsewhere. The key challenge for participants and other climate activists is determining what to do in a society where the importance of action to mitigate the causes of climate change garners slight interest.
“Surveys show that only about one in five adults in the United States is alarmed about climate change,” Jill Hopke wrote in The Conversation. “This means that if climate activists want this march to have a lasting impact, they need to think carefully about how to reach beyond their base.”
Collard Seedlings in the Rain
The unanswered question is how shall people outside the activist community be recruited to take climate action and by whom?
There are no good answers and no reason for climate activists to lead the effort. However, we can’t give up if we value society’s future.
The main issue is the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The good news is there are renewable sources of energy for transportation, manufacturing and electricity. How will society make climate change action ubiquitous with a majority of the world population?
Mass demonstrations can play a role in an effort to raise awareness about climate change. So can articles written by journalists, scientists, bloggers and organizations. At a minimum we can each strive to live with as light an environmental footprint as possible. We can explain to our friends, family and neighbors. Everyone has the potential to do something.
Today’s cool weather and gentle rain is a reminder.
“Staying out of the cold and warm inside? So are we,” Richard Fischer of Bernard wrote this afternoon via email. “Due to the weather we’re moving the event over to Convivium Urban Farmstead and Coffee shop, 2811 Jackson St., Dubuque.”
We must consider our lives in the built environment and let it rain. Have faith in today’s potential and adjust, knowing as long as rain comes and sustains our gardens and farms we too will be sustained.
There is much we can do when it rains. We can act on climate before it’s too late.
After work at the home, farm and auto supply store I drove to the farm and picked up the first spring share. In it were spinach, baby kale, Bok Choy, Choi Sum, broccoli raab, rhubarb, oregano and garlic chives.
Already my mind is swirling with cooking ideas.
I’ll prepare a breakfast omelet using greens seasoned with oregano and garlic chives. Most of the oregano will be dried and flaked for cooking. Garlic chives will be processed with cream cheese for a sandwich spread. In the mix is rhubarb jam, spinach casserole, and sautéed greens. There will be lots of cooking with this week’s abundance.
It’s the next stop on along the annual circle of local food.
While at the farm I sorted through a stack of pallets used to deliver straw and hay and found two to bring home. I made a wheeled cart for summer crop seedlings finishing before the big May planting. The other will be used to organize the garage until Memorial Day. I’ve requested May 6 – 14 off work at the store to get planting done.
For the moment, life is about the weather — seeing how it unfolds and checking my weather app for forecast updates. It is also about forgetting the fray of politics for a while to become a practitioner of something useful — not only in Iowa but globally.
Between arrival home from the home, farm and auto supply store and sunset were three hours to work outside. I did.
I watered the garden, rolled up the garden hose, repaired the bird feeder, and emptied the kitchen compost bucket.
Broccoli and kale seedlings look good. After a third day of conditioning outside, they should be ready to go into the ground. I transplanted the hot pepper plants to larger containers. Three varieties in this batch: cayenne (8 each), conchos jalapeno (1 each) and early jalapeno (23 each).
It felt like I got something done. That’s saying something in a life consumed with work.
A gardener never knows what a season will yield. We keep busy planning and doing things to grow a crop to share with family, friends and neighbors. A window of daylight and temperate conditions can be well used on a week night.
It’s where we live — on the margin between hope and despair.
After a Saint Patrick’s Day meetup with friends in Iowa City I drove home, parked my car in the garage and haven’t moved it since.
It was too cold for outside work on Saturday so I stayed in, did laundry, cleaned the bird feeder, wrote, read, and cooked dinner of bean soup, Carnival squash and applesauce cake.
The ambient temperature is expected to rise to almost 60 degrees, so I’m planning to work outside after a shift of soil blocking at a community supported agriculture farm.
I read Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History in its entirety this weekend. Her combination of background information with personal stories of field trips is eminently readable. I can’t remember a day so absorbed in a book since leaving transportation. The main takeaway is how uncertain scientists are about changes in earth history over the long term and the consequences of our lifestyle.
Japanese Beetles
The broader meaning of words like “Anthropocene” is not settled, nor agreed. What I know after this immersion, and after reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Haran, I am ready to move forward with something other than narratives of how homo sapiens swarmed over the planet like Japanese beetles.
I buy more bird feed since working at the home, farm and auto supply store. Counting whole kernel corn, I have five different varieties in the garage. Each type attracts a different bird and we enjoy watching them through the French door off the dining area. Some days I feel like picking up a 20-pound bag on sale, and do. I went overboard with 50-pound bags of whole corn and millet, although sparrows seem to really like the millet. There is no science to my purchases.
Bartering is making this year’s garden planning a lot different. Part of the barter system is trading labor for a spring and fall share. Each side of the deal can be defined monetarily. I get a credit of $13 per hour for labor which is applied to retail price of the shares. I use greenhouse space and materials to germinate seeds and care for seedlings until planting in my garden. I will also acquire onion sets and seed garlic through the farms. Where there is a clear financial value, the barter system is simple and easy. This part of the exchange translates into things we can use in our garden or kitchen.
The exchange for specific produce is more complicated.
Canned Tomatoes
Tomatoes are a large part of summer. Last year I planted them in three different garden plots. This year I’ll decrease my plantings to what we’ll use fresh and rely on the farms for canning tomatoes. In 2013 the farmer provided crates of tomatoes which I canned. We split the canned goods 50-50 that year. That was a bit disadvantageous to me considering the amount of work. We haven’t finalized the split, but both farms I work on produce many more tomatoes than needed for their members. One farmer wants lots of canned tomatoes. Something can be worked out.
Bell peppers were a garden failure last year and for many previous years. I’m eliminating them completely. The farms produce bell peppers with a high frequency of imperfect fruit. I plan to trade labor for these seconds and get all of my bell peppers from them. In addition to fresh eating, I seed and freeze them to use throughout the year. We did a 50-50 split on these in 2013, however, this year I’m considering a straight trade of labor hours against a to be determined cost per crate.
There are a number of items we don’t use much in our kitchen but are abundant on the farms. I don’t plan to grow any kohlrabi or cabbage. Should be no problem getting what we need without occupying space in our garden. I’ll barter for some additional broccoli for freezing.
Likewise, I don’t plan to grow lettuce outside my small plot of Belgian lettuce. In between the spring and fall shares that’s coming from bartering.
Summer squash is abundant and available from the farms as are many kinds of greens: collards, chard and “braising greens.” I will grow my own kale and spinach, and everything else will be bartered from the farms.
Eggplant? If Johnny’s Selected Seeds proofs and sends Black Beauty seeds I’ll plant them along with Fairy Tale eggplant. The former can be sliced thick, baked and frozen. The latter are good for the kitchen while in season. There is always an abundance of eggplant at the farms.
Yesterday was the last winter Saturday of staying indoors. Going into the planting season it will also be my day off from the home, farm and auto supply store and the farms. Yesterday was a good day, made better by a feeling of accomplishment. As humans we sometimes need that.
BIG GROVE TOWNSHIP — Sweeping sand signals the beginning of an outdoors season.
I spent part of Saturday collecting sand from the road in front of the house. I harvested more than we used this winter, so inventory is net positive by 1.5 buckets. It has been so warm we didn’t use sand at all on the driveway or steps.
Trees and lilac bushes are beginning to bud. Troubling but okay as long as a frost doesn’t return between apple blossom time and when they set. I shared my concerns about the early warm weather with a neighbor. We ended up planning a joint project for when frost is out of the ground. “Climate change” and “global warming” didn’t come up but weighed in nonetheless.
I breathed in fresh air and contemplated the beginning of things positive.
Thursday I coughed up a nickel-sized piece of phlegm. By Saturday the cold dominated my attention rendering me lethargic the rest of the day. Besides sand collection, I managed four loads of laundry and a simple dinner of cooked carrots and rice with a vegetarian “chicken cutlet.” Productivity was punk.
Calling off sick from the home, farm and auto supply store is an undesirable option. The reduction in pay for missing work is significant. Although we get 40 hours of sick pay during the year, I don’t want to use it unless I feel sicker than I do. We are incentivized by an end of year payment for unused sick pay. That check for last year came in handy.
Hopefully I can finish several outdoors chores on today’s list.
Most of my reading has been on line since September, but no more.
Instead of picking up my mobile device when I wake, I read at least 25 pages in a book.
It is a positive development, born of new habits, in the land of apparent madness Iowa has become since the general election.
I’m reading articles on paper as well. A tall stack of newsletters and magazines rests on the cocktail table next to the couch. I know many of the authors who write for Via Pacis, The Prairie Progressive, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Veterans for Peace, The Sower, Humanities Iowa, The Iowa Policy Project, and others.
Brian Terrell reported on his recent trip to Russia. Kathy Kelly about her work in Afghanistan. Frank Cordaro reported on activities at the Des Moines Catholic Worker. Jessica Reznicek wrote an article from the Sarpy County Jail in Papillion, Neb. explaining why she vandalized the Northrup Grumman property in Bellevue, Neb., home of the STRATCOM. Veterans for Peace chapter reports from around the country laid out a broad veterans agenda exposing the true costs of war and militarism. Mike Owen, Trish Nelson, Jeff Cox, Nate Willems, and many others offered insights enhanced by our history together. Newsletter writing provides a perspective unavailable in corporate news outlets. I welcome it and want more.
It was impossible to resist being drawn into the social media drama around the president’s executive orders, proclamations and memoranda during his first week in office. 45 has gotten the attention of almost everyone I know, engaging new people in the political process. To be fluent in society one has to read related documents as well. Some say I was grumpy last week. Maybe I was. Reading and learning is the best defense against excessive grumpiness.
So many people I know feel overwhelmed by the Republican takeover of state and federal government. To deal with the aftermath of the election I read — an hour or two each day — from words printed on paper.
There are few other things so helpful in sustaining a life in a turbulent world.
Journey Home 
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