Dams and Sheep: Two Things I Learned in the Paper Today

 

Glen Canyon Dam

#92 October 26:  An interesting article on today’s editorial page. This year 4 dams will come down on the Klamath River between the border of Oregon and California.  Originally built for hydro electrical power they are no longer useful for this purpose, supplying less than 2% of the power in the region.  Dams have been built since man watched the beavers but out West, a great surge of dams were built in the last 100 years including the engineering marvels of the Glen Canyon forming Lake Powell and the Hover Dam forming Lake Mead.  Dave and I have visited them multiple times while traveling out West and mourned their depleted water levels. According to the editorial, what is “doing them in” can only be partly blamed on climate change.  Their demise is being caused by poor maintenance which allows silt to build up behind the dam reducing their ability to generate electricity and maintain a water level to provide for the municipalities that rely on them for both drinking and agricultural water and flood control.  Added benefits of losing the dams include a freer flow for salmon and restoration of cultural waters for Native Americans. How long will these engineering marvels remain useful?  Will they endure?  It’s hard to fight Mother Nature! 10/30

#93  October 27:  When we were in The Netherlands and Belgium, we noticed several clover leaves and roadsides that were being “mowed” by sheep and goats.  An article in today’s paper is about an entrepreneur who is providing “lamb mowers” mainly in Virginia near DC.  You can purchase a “weed and feed” for $195 for 2 hours.  Supposedly the sheep will eat the grass to the optimum 4-inch height including any weeds.  They also leave rich “fertilizer” behind.  Cory Suter, the self-described “Chief Shepherd” will also see that someone comes behind the sheep and string trims the edges; so far he hasn’t been able to teach them that!  LOL For $250, you can purchase a “sheep-over” for bigger jobs. Haven Kiers, an assistant professor of landscape architecture at UC, Davis is researching the benefits of having sheep “mow” the grounds there.  Her study noted that students purposely ride their bikes close to the sheep and sit with them, for comfort, especially after exams! 10/30

How was Clockwise Decided?

 #91 October 25:  David asked me an interesting question the other day:  what or who decided the direction for “clockwise”?  So I looked it up!  Clockwise probably came from sundials where the shadow follows the rotation of the earth in the Northern Hemisphere – around to the right! 10/30

Some things I learned about Homelessness

 

#89 October 23: David and I have had several conversations about the Homeless population both in Washington state where we just visited and in NC.  He found an interesting article with statistics.  I would have thought that the top 10 states for homelessness would have been warm states.  Not so.  Yes, California tops the list and Nevada (#9), and Hawaii (#4) are there, but Vermont and Oregon are 2 and 3, along with NY, Maine, Alaska (#8), and Delaware.   This is the ranking in percentage per 10,000 residents in 2022.  And NC ranks 33rd with 9 per 10,000 and SC is 49^th!  I’m not sure what to make of this.  In a country as rich as ours, we should be able to do better.  11/30

Two New Vocabulary Words!

 

#90 October 24:  Another new vocabulary word:  prorogation  The new House Speaker made a prorogation address. This is the time between sessions of a parliament or legislature.  The address would mark the end of one session and the beginning of another.  11/30

#94  October 28: Another new vocabulary word:  superfog.  On Monday a “super fog” caused a 25+ car pileup on I 55 out of New Orleans resulting in several deaths.  How does a super fog differ from the fog we love to watch in our valley at Park’s Peak along the Broad River?  According to today’s paper, a super fog is a regular fog plus smoke.  In New Orleans, the fog combined with bog fires in the Bayou Sauvage.  The National Weather Service reports that super fogs can even occur on January 1 or July 5, after celebratory fireworks!  10/30/2023

 

A few fun facts about mushrooms – besides I have some that are going bad in my fridge!

 

#95 October 29:  A farming area in Kennett Square, PA is the self-proclaimed Mushroom Capital of the World.  With just 6000 residents, the farms nearby produce 60% of the country’s mushrooms, a $1.2 billion industry… that’s $200 in mushrooms for each of the residents!10/30/2023

 

#96  October 30: We always enjoy the mushrooms around Park’s Peak from the almost microscopic orange ones that crop up in our drive to the deep orange “chicken of the words” that pops up under the same tree each year on our walk.  I would love to see the blue mushroom that only grows in New Zealand.  According to the website, they have no psychedelic properties. 10/30/2023

Four things I learned for Halloween!

 

 

For Halloween we need some special spooky… or at least Halloween fun facts

 

#97  October 31:  What is America’s favorite Halloween candy?  In our house its Snickers, but according to candy distributor CandyStore.com which crunched 15 years of data the winner is Reese’s peanut butter cups!

 

#98  November 1:  In what state is it the norm for trick-or-treaters to receive full-size candy bars on Halloween?  Better move to Oregon!  10/30/2023

 

#99 November 2:  Harry Houdini passed away on Halloween Day, from a burst appendix in 1926.  Ouch!!  10/30

#101 November 4:  I’m printing this story verbatim from “Interesting Facts”.  While the story is fun, what I learned was we didn’t have jack-o’-lanterns until the Civil War.  I always thought they were from the story of the Headless Horseman.  But I just looked and Washington Irving wrote it right before the war in 1820. 10/31

STINGY JACK

No matter what face you carve into your Halloween pumpkin, it will probably be called the same thing: a jack-o’-lantern. But how did spooky illuminated squash get that name? Turns out, the term we use to describe glowing pumpkins comes from Stingy Jack, the main character in a centuries-old Irish myth. 

Americans haven’t always carved pumpkins; it wasn’t until the mid-1800s that squash was used for holiday fun. About 200 years before, those celebrating the harvest season in Ireland were making their own lanterns from turnips, beets, and other root vegetables as a way to ward off Stingy Jack, a phantom who roamed the countryside around the harvest. According to Irish lore, Stingy Jack (sometimes called Flakey Jack) was a swindler who took up drinking with the devil, though when the tab came due, he didn’t want to pay his share. After convincing the devil to turn into a coin, Jack trapped his drinking partner in his pocket, releasing him only with the agreement that Jack’s soul would stay free of the underworld. However, as in all folktales, there was a catch (and a warning about immoral behavior): At the end of his life, Jack’s trickster soul wasn’t accepted into heaven or hell, leaving him to wander the earth with naught but a coal (provided by the devil himself) inside a turnip-turned-lantern. By the story’s end, Stingy Jack became “Jack of the Lantern,” which eventually morphed into “Jack O’Lantern.”

Irish immigrants brought the Stingy Jack story to America, though the name and practice of jack-o’-lantern carving took some time to catch on. It particularly picked up following the Civil War, when a grief-struck nation became fascinated by spirits and ghost stories, and it’s a tradition that’s become a fixture of autumn in America ever since.

 

The 100th Thing I've Learned!

 

#100 November 3:  My sweet almost 3-year-old neighbor, Cora fell from her swing and got a black eye and cracked 3 bones above her left eye.  I assured her dad that this was NOT his fault that accidents happen to all kids and parents.  And that risky behavior is good for children in moderation.  To that end, the 100^th thing I learned last week is that the jungle gym is 100 years old this year with the patent being approved in 1923.  The first jungle gym was invented by Sebastian Hinton and was in Winnetka, Illinois at North Shore Country Day School.  I’m sure more than 100 broken bones have been attributed to this wonderful, risky invention!  And kids have been hanging upside down in trees for more than a millennia!! 10/30

A Year of Three Fall Seasons

 

#88 October 22:  This isn’t exactly something I’ve learned, but something I’ve come to appreciate.  I am truly blessed this year to experience 3 different Falls!  The leaves in the Pacific NW were about a month ahead of Charlotte and the views especially in the Cascades were exquisite.  Today I write from Park’s Peak in Bat Cave NC where the leaves are almost at peak and our drive is an amazing canopy of yellows and reds.  I’ll go down the mountain next week where Charlotte will explode in a riot of color in 2-3 weeks.  The older I get, the more I appreciate nature:  Fall leaves, sunsets, and sunrises!  This morning there was a “bounce effect” and the sky above Shumont Mountain (to our SW) was streaked in a glorious pink and blue with the yellow, red, and green leaves below.  I live in a rainbow!!  10/22

This is my happy place.  I sit here and read and write at the "internet bar" at Park's Peak.  This time of year it doesn't get any better!

The view from the Internet Bar at Park's Peak

Sunrise at Park's Peak looking SouthWest

Our driveway at Park's Peak

Fall in the Cascades, Washington State

Good News about Solar Power and Climate Change!

 

#87 October 21: I’ve been surprised by the frequency of climate change facts that have shown up in my “learning something new every day”.  Finally, some good news!  According today’s paper, the world has already crossed the tipping point on solar power. According to a study in Nature Communications, solar will dominate the majority of global power generation by 2050.  This is without any changes in policies.  And this is a fact I found most interesting:  solar costs $42-$48 per megawatt while coal generated power is $78 per megawatt.  The article also pointed out problems with solar energy such as grid instability if there is an overreliance on solar due to weather fluctuations.  10/22

The Other Underground Railroad

 

#86 October 20:  This comes under the heading "Things I'm Ashamed I Didn't Know Already!" I firmly believe that every month should be Black History Month and I also admit that my education is lacking when I read in the paper today about something I hadn’t thought about with the Underground Railroad.  While most slaves escaped to the North by walking from safe house to safe house, as many as 100,000 escaped by sea, the very mode of transportation that helped enslave them.  Perhaps the most famous slave to use the Maritime Underground Railroad was Ona Judge, one of George Washington’s slaves.  He would bring her with him from Virginia to the then capital Philadelphia and she boarded the “wrong” ship on her return from PA to VA.  She lived out her life in New Hampshire and refused to name the captain of the ship until after his death for fear of reprisals.  Many slaves tried to sail to New Bedford, MA as it adopted abolition in 1784.  It was called the “Fugitive’s Gibraltar”. 10/22 

I think I have some reading to do!

What Katy Perry and Luna, the Cat, Have in Common!

 

Luna Trys a Little Wine

While Katy and Luna may have a love of wine in common, that is not what I learned:

#85 October 19:  My granddaughters just got a new kitten and they love it when Luna purrs.  According to the paper today, researchers still haven’t broken the code as to why cats purr, but they have discovered an extra fold in their vocal cords that allows them to have a vocal fry, similar to the low register Katy Perry often uses.  They have also found that the purr is not intentional i.e. it requires no brain stimulation but is an automatic response.

#84 October 18:  More improvement to my vocabulary:  vocal fry.  I came across this term in an article about cats purring (see #85).  It is sort of the opposite of a falsetto.  It is when you purposely make your voice lower and breathy.  Google said Millennial women often use it to project authority.

3 More Things I Learned on Vacation

Sculpture outside of the National Nordic Museum 

 #83 October 17:  The National Nordic Museum was close to our Air B&B and it was free on Thursday. I  never thought about the Nords coming to the Pacific NW, but with all of the logging and fishing, I guess it makes sense.  According to the exhibit, between 1840 and 1920 (80 yr) nearly 1/3 of the Nordic population immigrated to the US. 10/15

#84 October 18: When I think of folks from the Nordic countries, I usually think of tall blonde Finns and Swedes.  It was eye-opening to see the diversity of body types, coloring, and ethnicities. 10/15

#85 October 19:  It was so much fun having our children “to ourselves” on vacation.  We declared Clay “the restaurant whisperer” as he could find the best “holes in the wall” with terrific food.  10/15

Emily and Dave play a game in one of the many breweries we explored

The Rain in Seattle Goes to the Dogs!

 

#81 October 15:  We are in Seattle on vacation and yesterday we had what we consider a stereotypical Seattle weather:  misty to “real” rain most all day.  Here is something I learned:  As we were driving around I noticed that dog raincoats are a real thing here.  I knew such things existed, but only thought they were for folks that “doted” on their dogs.   I must have seen a dozen!  Emily pointed out that you can wipe off paws, but you wouldn’t want the dog constantly “shaking it off”.  The owners of the Air B&B said we have won the lottery, as the weather is projected to be rain free for the next couple of days. 10/3