I got to looking at our local climate data Monday.
Frankly, I was driven to it by the NWS weather radar. In the wee hours when I got up, we were going to get an inch-and-a-half of rain starting at 7:15 AM. But lo, and behold, at the appointed hour, it was just a high overcast.
But the “time to panic” was near, reassured the weather monster: Thunderstorms beginning at 10:45. And then again, nothing…
(Continues below)
This went on for a good part of the day – “Expect thundershowers beginning at 3:45 PM…” – yeah, right.
We sat out on the screen porch last night until almost six and finally gave up. But we were up this morning at 4 AM waiting for the Big Rains. Sadly, nothing is on tap under 8:15. (We want to see this “climate change” up close.)
This did get me to thinking about this year’s weather, so here are a few of the highlights of “climate change” here.
The rainfall, year-to-date was 24.49-inches. The previous year for the same window it was 20.36. Might seem like a gawd-awful amount of rain if you live in Droughtifornia, but when you live somewhere that 6-inches can fall in a day, it isn’t such a big deal.
A couple of other items caught my eye:
It was not much hotter than last year. The maximum temp for the period was 101 in 2016 with a low of 27.
This year, the max temperature was still 101 but the low was 15F.
That might sound like climate change is making things cooler, but talking to the fruit growers, our young man (OM2’s son) who works on things around here to help us keep up, was telling us it wasn’t cold enough, long enough to really drive a lot of trees into winter dormancy so the crops would be lower this year.
The bugs are up, too.
Monday the Space Weather Prediction folks up the hill in Colorado released the latest Solar Cycle Projection data:
As you can see, the Sun is in process of going back into nap-time. When this happens a lot of other things seem to go hand-in-hand. Namely, extremes of weather don’t seem so extreme except that cooling Earth temps do result in more rainfall – since the warmer air held more water than cooler air could.
Still, climate has always been changing – since day one. Climate dopes, though, would argue that the manmade component is terrible and must be stopped. Then simply ignore the Truth about climate scamming when it leaks out.
Which reminds me.
Did you see the story out of Australia this weekend?
Turns out “Temperature readings plunge after Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology orders end to ‘tampering’.”
The “cutsie” angle to this is that the weather stations the Ozzites were using happened to have a SmartCard port into which (we’re not sure whom) stuffed the data by throwing out lower temperatures that were recorded so the data would skew to the (agenda) – warm.
The story which is bound to follow ought to be discovery that the “SmartCard skewer cards” are used in places other than Oztralia. When that comes out, we’ll tell you when to brace for the next onslaught of hot air from the climate-tax globalist scum who want (pardon this) in your pants.
If the crooks were baking the climate books in Oz, they will surely do it elsewhere. But who are we calling Shirley?
(bah-dum-bump!) (rim shot)
The Climate Change mania remains rampant among the impaired, even though sea level is down a bit the past couple of years. And Al Gore’s latest inconvenient spin has augured in. But the climate promoters still have the ear (and front page) of the NY Times which this morning is peddling “Scientists Fear Trump Will Dismiss Climate Change Report.”
GIGO (*garbage in, garbage out) by friend. Flawed data always results in bad output. You can safely betcherass that heat islanding is underplayed and high temps emphasized while lows are “adjusted” – just like in Oz – worldwide. But “investigative journos” won’t go up against anything labeled “Science” for fear of being branded “deniers.”
The Vatican had the same kind of groupthink control last in the Middle ages. Science is the new Religion – and because we are such self-deluding apes, it’s being abused in much the same way.
As the climate hoax implodes, a major source of left-leaning politics (and thus campaign fund raising) fails. Even today we’re reading how the USDA is dialing it back and will refer to “extreme weather.” But this president didn’t have a hand in forming a carbon exchange like his predecessor.
Is common sense making a return? Heavens no! Just a pause in the rhetoric in the social-media-fed asylum. Like a 7th inning stretch.
The Ure’s “Garden of Eden Eaten“
One of our readers was asking about how things were going in the garden.
I’m embarrassed to say that we haven’t had time, nor the inclination to do much green-thumbing. Here two months back, some coons or possums got into the garden and ate damn near everything. There was a row of cauliflower and they were about half the size of a fist when the famine-crew got after ’em.
Deer followed, brought in by the squash leaves. Gone overnight.
That’s why today the garden looks like this:
I’m sure that somewhere under this pile of greenery, that the deer have taken to hopping the fence to get at, there is something worth eating. But the coons or possums got all the squash and a lot of everything else.
This is all because I didn’t have time to weld up the “deer proofing” extension on the garden fence. It’s a project that has been on the drawing board for a couple of years.
Local critters kind enough to leave the tomatoes alone. We wrestled with the vines for a while and had some good tomatoes out of it, but in time, even these were stripped of succulents and left for dead. We’re surprised they didn’t eat the fencing that was coiled to hold the tom’s up.
There was a time, way back when, that I thought to myself “How could God, in the bible, send a terrible flood to wipe everything off the face of the Earth?”
Today, looking at the remnants of what had been a promising start to this year’s garden, I feel a certain kinship. But instead of sending a Flood, I’ll be picking up two 20-gallon jugs of propane. Then I’ll happily blast anything green straight back to Hell from whence it came.
Once properly cleaned out, we’ll try for a fall re-start of the Edible Eden.
But we won’t hold out too much hope, since Eden’s don’t seem to be doing very well.
Putting a new sign up in the shop, though:
“You can garden or you can reload.”
The choice is getting easier over time.
Write when you get rich, or see where the possums and coons got off to. There’s a momma raccoon with three kits for sure. Don’t mention I have a small caliber reward for their gardening assistance..
George@ure.net
George, the resemblance between your garden and mine is remarkable!
That’s not my reason for writing, however. I got my electric bill yesterday. We call it the air conditioning bill in the summer. Our average kWh usage in July is 1300, this year 900. We had some unseasonably warm weather late spring/early summer, and then nothing. This has been the most pleasant summer we’ve had since we moved to Michigan 7 years ago. My wallet appreciates it too.
Our two fig trees did gloriously this year, over the top! Figs for months, then it ended. The birds competed in the a.m. to get to the best ones. They were so delicious right off of the fig tree, no chemicals. They are 4 years old, and I give the increase in production to the wet spring and nice rainfall regularly. Yes, in Texas!
The “new” 50 year old house we bought has a bunch of interesting edibles. Our figs were great until a month ago (NW Florida) and then they disappeared. I understand a second crop is due soon.
George, You need a dog. A good dog would make sure that your turf is protected.
But their leave foot-hazards!
On our farm we train dogs when young to do their business in the fields and not the yards. They pick this up fast and saves us all that yuck!
Electric fencing! A couple of wires low a couple
high! We have the same problem here in AZ! The javalena or feral hogs in your area are the worst! Fencing works half assed
but electricity stops them all dead in there tracks! You can get some real nice solar units cheap 50 to 70 bucks. I use those on the bee hives(works way better than 20 100ft extention cords hooked together)
You might consider pneumatics before going full scale rimfire on the critters but then i am in a sub-urb, while you are full scale out of the urbs.
We got Foxes, mom and about 4 kits. found chewed tomatoes on the vine Monday.
Last time I had a raccoon I used a .22 air pistol and got the biggest one in the flashlight in the head right above his eyes. He did a backflip over the deck rail and the rest ran off. It just rang the leaders bell because they all went in the woods, and never came back.
I recommend a pump up pneumatic over a springer for two reasons, first, much easier to (learn to )shoot, and second, you can power it down in pumps and using flat point wadcutters just put a sting on the critter. Also you can usually find them in pawn shops for about $25-50 where a springer or a pre-charged will go up higher than you or I want to pay.
Also look at the air soft stuff shooting plastic beads, which sting like heck.
Good luck though, they love the salad bar.
and as you know, the PNW is experiencing way too hot temps (last week got up to 99 out here by Duvall) and a stretch of no rain that will break records (with no rain in sight for some time ahead still). Hot temps – so hot that I know many old timers who grew up here and are now in the 70s and 80s who have broken down and bought a/c for their homes…even for these hardy types, they say it has become too hot even for them and they are willing to write that check for $6-8,000 to install ac (window units are not allowed in many communities around here, and the freestanding units are loud, bulky and only can cool one room – a limitation that can become a little crazy making after 2 or 3 weeks).
Only thing that is saving us from subjected to even more brutal heat is the smoke from the 100+ fires in BC – it has reduced the daytime temps, but has added the breathing problem – an activity that isn’t really isn’t an option. So, the a/c serves two purposes – cooling and allowing one to be able to breath indoors.
Don’t know which warming theory to blame but am confident that it doesn’t help that the greens of the PNW are concreted over, but long gone are the days in the PNW where “it only gets hot for a couple days out of the year”.
From my view down here in South Louisiana it looks like we have your summer weather and you have ours! The other day we got 4″ of rain in a little over an hour. We’ve have just a few days in the 90’s, mostly in the 80’s due to clouds and rain, rain and rain.
There is a feature called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation which is somewhat overdue as the last ‘flip’ was 40 years ago.:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_decadal_oscillation
“They” don’t know what causes it but as usual, there are a number of unproven theories.
When will it flip back? Who knows – ask your nearest NOAA weatherman – they seem to have a BS answer for everything!
George, you are gardening in the wrong season. Go hydroponics and a greenhouse in the winter. In the winter you have more time, no weeds, no pest. Summer is for projects, mowing and setting on the porch.
You put me on the hydroponics path years ago, THANK YOU. Planting the garden on Labor Day, bacon and tomato sandwiches for breakfast on Thanksgiving.
RB Patton
My farm friends grow most of their produce in open fields and do use electric fence. They also use firearms. The delicate and more expensive produce is raised in hoop houses. They are simple and cheap to construct but do require a bit more ‘farming’ than just letting nature take its course. They also have a herd of near feral cats and several dogs. It’s a system that works.
” (We want to see this “climate change” up close.)”
Phew George you got this old mans mind wondering again.. I just love this stuff.. now I totally believe in climate change.. I believe that it is a lot like putting a crayon in the window of a car. it stays solid and as the heat builds up it slowly melts into a puddle of melted wax and color.. the same goes for climate change.. you can’t sit and watch it.. it is like boiling a frog if you change the temp drastically you see it.. a degree here and there.. you don’t.. what you do see is a gradual change in overall weather patterns.. more droughts more violent storms wild winter patterns.. a great book that we were made to read is called cataclysms of the earth.http://www.catastrophism.com/cdrom/pubs/books/cataclysms/
it is an extremely thought provoking book and just like the ancient books of philosophers of the past I think should be read and contemplated once a year.. but that is me..
anyway can we see it… not really it is slow motion it won’t be noticeable till it becomes like a tree that has reached the point of no return.. the tipping point. ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_sITO8NYrg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHrFBOUl6-8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9gHuAwxwAs
I just love this guy.. he really does a good job of posting his opinion..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx-7j5lH9gE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFCS0Pcv-Eg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnLVSDAbieA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2F3bw4CmhQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2F3bw4CmhQ
Now in my opinion this is a natural cycle and can not be blamed solely on the actions of man.. can we change it.. I doubt it.. to much sex to many people.. and even if we were to stop today the cycle would continue to increase by our actions for how long fifty to a hundred years.. eventually the earth will work to rid itself of the problems and start the cycle once again.
Now..what can we do.. absolutely nothing.. I personally believe that we are beyond the tipping point and as time goes by the tree moves closer to the crashing point.
What I find interesting is every day we build like carpenter ants destroying our own environment.. what should we be focusing on.. the garden.. and green building.. my new project is to try and build a garden that is portable and can grow in freezing conditions.. but hey it probably won’t work or maybe it will.. its all an experiment in the great what if.. ..
Really, how much sex were they having 10,000 years ago, how much effect did that sex have on today, okay, tongue in cheek, as they say, but really now, I just cannot believe that mankind has contributed to anything except nuclear pollution. All the rest disappears in enough time. I mean, but, hey, maybe I am wrong, maybe mankind really did eat the dinosaurs – and then had sex and a cigarette!
“the deer have taken to hopping the fence to get at, there is something worth eating. But the coons or possums got all the squash and a lot of everything else.”
Those dates rabbits….
My father almost my whole life complained about those darn rabbits and his garden…
The funny thing .. he fed those Rabbits and deee away from the garden and never had a problem with them eating any of the families garden. What I did is grow a completely different garden just for them sugar beets Millet lettuce etc. That gets ravaged regularly by the bunnies my garden isn’t touched I have known others that do the same thing each with similar results.
Maybe the solution isn’t to try and keep them away but invite them to their own garden to dine.
Those damned rabbits.. hate this phone.
The animals are just like us they are trying to get by.
My philosophy is only shoot what you plan to eat.
Try the separate garden you might be surprised and the animals a lot happier to.
Why isn’t Zeus out there doing his job?
My SIL called my garden
“JoAnns gourmet bunny cafe”.
Well spoken. BTW, when a bunney sits still broadside when one reloads an air pistol 12 times, that re enforces the phrase “DUMB BUNNY”
It also suggests a reader who needs to training in the fine art of one shot, one kill