Crazy weather!

[altivo]

It's 46F and rising. A squall line of thunderstorms is approaching on the radar. Well, OK, it *is* March, after all. But this is abnormal for so early in March at my location. We've had a repeat of the flooding of two weeks ago as roof snow and ice melts rapidly and the running water has no place to go. And it's supposed to turn back to snow again sometime tomorrow morning. Wisconsin has a winter weather advisory, but all we have is a flood watch.

Finished threading the loom this afternoon, only to realize that I'd made some kind of error because it ended in the wrong place in the pattern sequence. Sure enough, I zigged when I should have zagged at about 60 threads into the 240. My own fault for not using a diagram and thinking it was simple enough to keep track in my head. Fortunately it can be fixed by starting at the error point and working back toward the beginning, so only 60 threads need to be changed.

The mystery creature has added more sticks to the hole in the oak tree. After checking our bird books, we concluded that it can't be an owl or a woodpecker. The most likely suspect now is a mourning dove, of which we have many.

Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

We got snow in Wakefield this morning. SNOW in a City which seems to suffer from permenant inversion.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Probably just the aftermath of the earthquake. Shook the air loose or something. ;p

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I am not complaining. I want more. It'd be nice if it could settle a bit as well. I like snow...as long as it goes in the end. I understand how it can get annoying over time.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I like it while it's snow. When there's too much of it melting all at once, as just now, I don't like it at all. Our barns are flooding again because the meltwater can't run off fast enough. On top of that, it's been raining all night. I'm afraid of what I'll find once the sun comes up.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Get some sandbags if you can. They can help.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That might work, except we'd have to get a truckload of sand too. The pattern of surface flow is such that one entire wall of the barn needs protection. Otherwise it will just go around the barrier and come in somewhere else along that side.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

We're just getting too good at defending against Floods in the North of England. ;)

The Dutch are the real masters of the levvie though.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

What worries me here is the development. I've mentioned before the fact that the 240 acres just north of us has been turned into a housing development. Minimum of 3 acres per dwelling, but still that means they have broken up the old drainage system, paved for roads, etc.

Funny thing, though. Not one lot has been sold in the section nearest us. The reason? They're all under water now except for one or two months of late summer. Theoretically, we know enough to predict that. In fact, I could have told the idiots it would happen. Now they've got a "development" that is just breeding mosquitoes. At least it used to grow maize and soybeans, now it does nothing at all.

Worse, if the berms they plowed up along the northern boundary of my land give way, I'll get a serious flood. All that water used to drain away in a buried tile system, which they have completely disrupted.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

And of course more concrete on areas like that means less grass and mud to ABSORB the water in the first place.

This has been an issue in the UK concerning the new houses that are being built on known flood plains.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7244013.stm

At least here though, we have an excuse (lack of space). The US is a huge country. Last I heard you are not short of land. It just seems like total madness to me.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, I think the sub-prime lending fiasco has put a pretty good halt to it all for the moment.

It's a cultural disease, though. People who work in cities but equate prestige and importance with living in the country. Because of the existing suburban sprawl, they keep going farther and farther out. The commute from here to Chicago is 65 miles, yet there are people driving it daily, even at the present high fuel prices. I think something's going to have to collapse farther. Depending on the outcome of this fall's elections, the collapse may be closer than many people realize. Even the US doesn't have the economy to continue supporting this kind of waste.

This county has some of the richest farm land in the midwest, because most of it was mucky swamp that was drained by digging in tiles a hundred years ago. Taking that out of production and pouring concrete over it is incredibly stupid. But as long as they can get the kind of prices the developers are getting for cardboard box houses, the sprawl will continue.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I have often wondered as to the madness of huge commutes for those living in country, but working in the cities. It will ultimately become unsustainable, as gas becomes not only more expensive, but also rarer, as the stocks run out.

We'll just have to get use to living more densely. They manage it in Japan. But then, the Japanese do not have a culture of inherent distrust of your fellow man. I think the problem is that in this hyper-capitalist culture we live in, we are always suspicious of our neighbours. Because we have it hammered into us that we must screw them before they screw us. No wonder people want to live far away from hordes of other people. They are all out to get me!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Capitalism or whatever it is, you're right about the attitude. Back in 1999, with paranoia about the Y2K imagined disaster, people around here were stocking up on food, water, and ammunition to stave off the starving mobs that were supposedly going to come spilling out of Chicago like a horde of locusts. My contention was that it never could happen like that. Most of the starving hordes in Chicago would starve in place because they'd have no way to get this far out, and wouldn't know how to do it anyway.

Rather than living more densely, though, I propose that we stop the population explosion. It's incredibly stupid. So people like sex, so what? Doesn't mean they have to be having five or six kids they can't educate and care for. I'm starting to seriously favor the Chinese solution of strict controls on reproduction. Capitalism, of course, prefers that the population continue to expand because it creates cheap labor and a bigger consumer pool. But there's a limit to how long that can go on before we run out of space and resources.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I am a paid up member of VHEMT. Or at least I watch their LJ group.

I am not as bonkers as some of the posters on there. I do not desire to see the human race exterminate itself. However it is quite true that the current rate of growth is unsustainable.

Sorry to have hijacked your journal here. This all started with flooding. :D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

And a flood of human rugrats is even more serious than a flood of melted snow, in my opinion. No problem.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Certainly more noisy.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

And smellier too. ;p

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

You have doves living in your area? Cool.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yep. We had them even when we lived in Chicago. Of course in the city, you get the rock doves too (the common "city pigeon") but the mourning dove is much nicer in behavior, appearance, and sound. Here we have only the mourning dove, but often see as many as six or eight at once.

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

Derider, I mean, Dear Rider.

Here I always thought it was morning dove. *mourns the passing*

Imp

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, "morning" too, I suppose. But the official name is "mourning" because of the sad sound they make. I guess someone thought it sounded like "boo hoo hoo hoo." ;p

They build very sloppy nests and I've always thought they were in perpetual mourning for the eggs that fell out.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Strange weather indeed, its a pity you can't collect all that water so when summer comes you've got plenty of wet stuff :)

Hmmm a mystery creature *hides near the tree and watches*

(Excuse the lateness of this reply)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

We usually have sufficient rain in the summer anyway. Typically we get a dry year about one out of ten.