DUMBER THAN DUMB

THEN WHY NOT COCAINE AND OPIUM?

WISCONSIN DITCH HEMP

Monday,  8:30 AM.  5 degrees F, wind W, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is lightly overcast.  The humidity is 70% and the barometer is trending up, currently at 30.26".  It looks like it will be a cold but pretty nice winter day.
   Hawaii thinks it can pay off its debt by exporting commercially grown marijuana, and Colorado and some other states see taxing legalized pot as a revenue bonanza.  If that is true, then why not cocaine and opium?  Bad ideas all.
   I have watched the debate over marijuana use and its legalization over the years.  It is an illegal drug that has been used pretty openly for decades.  It was around when I was in college in the late '50s and early 60's.  Tramping through the farm fields and woods pheasant hunting back then I would come across Cannabis sativa plants growing twelve feet high,  artifacts of the days when hemp was grown in Wisconsin to make rope and cloth (rope hemp has a relatively low amount of THC, the pscho-reactive compound in Cannabis sativa). There were always jokes about "smoking rope"when I was a kid.  And in the late '60's when I was the Assistant Director at the Milwaukee Mitchell Park Conservatory (the "Domes") I answered one druggy reporter's snide question, "What kind of high can you get from eating or smoking all the plants growing in Milwaukee parks?" My answer; "Lots of different highs and other reactions, most probably including death." Ingesting unknown or unfamiliar plants is nothing to take lightly.
   I never tried pot, even though it was around and used by a few of my acquaintances at the University, because I saw the results of their using it.  They came to class stoned, made spectacles of themselves and eventually dropped out.  There are few things  dumber than stoners thinking they are  smart.  Add to my own early experiences the fact that pot is obviously a gateway drug to worse things, and I am very much against its legalization, regardless of the libertarian argument.  A society replete with stoners and worse is not a pretty sight and highly unlikely to achieve greatness, or even solve its everyday problems.  The same can be said about alcohol abuse, but alcohol in wine and beer has been around as a food preservation method since the beginnings of civilization, and we don't need to add to its spinoff problems.
   I am something of a herbal junkie, so can understand the desire to use natural plant products to improve human health and performance.  I might even go so far as to legalize the growing of drug related plants in one's own backyard, and their use in an unrefined state for personal consumption. And probably well regulated medical use as well.
   However the legalization of recreational drugs such as  Cannabis, or any other addictive, deleterious drug, is a bad idea in general.  And government using recreational drugs of any kind as a general revenue source, and encouraging their production and use  is totally counterproductive, and dumber than dumb.

WELL EDUCATED SNOW

WHERE'S THE HOUSE?

2013 AMERICAN BIRKEBEINER RACE

Sunday,  10:00 AM.  8 degrees F, wind WNW, very blustery.  The sun is shining on the fresh snow and it is all beautiful to look at.  The humidity is down to 69% and the barometer has spiked to 30.10"
   The ice Caves reopened yesterday, the last snow storm making snow shoes or cross country skies necessary and high westerly winds make for dangerous cold.
   In Hayward, an hour to the south, the annual Birkebeiner cross country ski race was held yesterday.   The "Birky," as it is known locally is a traditional Nordic race originally meant to commemorate a heroic Norwegian exploit.  It attracted an estimated 40,00 skiers and spectators from around the world.  Don't know where we put them all.
  Did you know our Bayfield snow is very well educated?  It has attained a PHD degree.  Piled Higher and Deeper.

UP TO ONE'S WAIST IN SNOW

THERE'S A GARDEN UNDER THERE SOMEWHERE

Saturday, 9:00 AM.  7 degrees F, wind westerly, moderate with strong gusts.  The sky is overcast with the sun again struggling to shine through.  The humidity is 80% and the barometer is trending up, now at 29.82".
   We have been clobbered with between 12" and 18" of snow in the last several days and everyone is running out of places to put it.  Our big hope now is that it will be a normal spring and not be still snowing in May as it did last year.  Last March was open and mild and then we were dumped on in April and May.  There is concern in the orchards that the winter pruning won't get done.  At present they are only able to prune the tops of the trees, walking on snow shoes.  A misstep and the pruner is up to his waist in snow.

STUCK IN THIS BLIZZARD WITH A JIMMY CARTER

SHOULD HAVE FLOWN SOUTH

FULL UP

THAT'S NOT JIMMY CARTER DRIVING

Friday, 9:00 AM.  16 degrees F, wind W, moderate with strong gusts.  The sky is overcast and it is snowing, but the sun is making a feeble attempt at shining through the wintry mess.  The humidity is up, to 89%, and the barometer is trending down, now at 29.13".  We have gotten perhaps 8"-10" of new snow so far.  Neighbor Jon Nelson just stopped by to sweep out my driveway, for which I am extremely grateful.  It is hard to find places to push it, though.
   By ten o'clock yesterday evening we were in a raging blizzard, an all-too-familiar whiteout, and whatever snow cover we lost in the last few days of thaw has recovered with a vengeance.  Pretty, though!
   The severe weather, with winds up to 40 MPH, has led the National Park Service to temporarily close the Ice Caves.  It is feared the high winds may break up the ice pack along the shore and make access to the caves treacherous.  Meanwhile, Robert Krumenaker, the  Apostle Islands National Lake Shore  Superintendent, has gone on the radio to tell us the caves may not be open in future winters because of global warming.  I wonder if Bob ever goes outside.  Or even looks out the window.
   But not pretty at all is the face of revolutions around the world and the administration's by now familiar meek response to them. We gave little or no encouragement  or even advice to the incipient democratic revolutions, now failed, in Iran, Egypt, and Syria.  And now the blood of patriots is being spilled in the streets of Kiev and Caracas while we stand by as though helpless. The young of the world want to be free, and we are complicit in their enslavement and deaths by "leading from behind."
   As soon as the Olympics in Sochi are through we will see Putin's envoys in the Ukraine; let's just hope they don't arrive by tank, as they did so often during the cold war (think Hungary, 1956, and the youngsters throwing stones at the Russian tanks).  The Czar is angry and looking for revenge; maybe we should have let him win the hockey games (I'm surprised President Obama didn't try to arrange it).   Putin will again threaten to cut off Russian gas and let Europe freeze if he is opposed.  We should crank up our oil and natural gas production so we can supply Europe if he does.  It's all a chess game, and Putin is winning.
   Cuban forces are already reported in Venezuela, and if we don't counter that move we will soon see Iranian missiles in the Gulf of Mexico.  Doesn't anyone in Washington remember the Cuban Missile Crisis?  The Russians won't be back, but Iran will step right up.  And our feckless leaders have declared the Monroe Doctrine dead just when we need it most.
   We also need an Andrew Jackson or a Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office, and we are stuck in this global blizzard with a Jimmy Carter.

CONNECTING WITH YOUR INNER TEENAGER

NOT VERY RISKY AS YET

WHY THE SPEED LIMIT?

Thursday, 9:30 AM.  31 degrees F, wind NE, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is now mostly clear, the sun is shining strong, with some clouds retreating in the east and pushing in from the NW.  The humidity is 76% and the barometer is mostly steady, now at 29.64".  Things look pretty benign at the moment, but we are evidently in the path of a big storm that is due to arrive later in the day.
   The ice road evidently is thick enough that the several days of warm weather is not affecting it.  The really vulnerable areas are near the shorelines, usually the first to become unsafe.  The Ice Road has a posted speed limit (it is legally a continuation of County Hwy. I ) of 15 MPH.  That limit is not only a safety consideration.  Higher speeds, particularly by heavier vehicles, undulate the ice, creating a wave action which can cause cracks in the ice and weaken it.  So you can't just go out there and go fast and spin around and have fun.  If you want to connect with your inner teenager,  go to Ashland and get on the ice race track.  I've seen vehicles doing that at odd times.  Don't know if its legal, though.

DRIVEN OUT OF BUSINESS

Wednesday,  9:00 AM.  22 degrees F, wind SW, light to moderate with stronger gusts.  The sky is cloudless, the humidity is 79% and the barometer is trending up, now at 29.64".  We seem to be finally getting our "January thaw." Yesterday snow was sliding off roofs and plopping in huge clumps on walks and driveways.  One is advised to watch for avalanches cascading down from steep metal roofs.  There may be good work here for St. Bernard rescue dogs.
   I have had several Almanac readers inquire by email as to why I had to spend some time inconvenienced in Duluth.  I try not to let my posts get personal unless they relate to my main topics of interest; gardening, horticulture, the environment, local issues,  and relevant politics.  I guess the following comments fit pretty well within the last two parameters.
    I am pretty much O.K. but am on light duty after several days in hospital. Not to get specific, let me just say that  the specialist  whom I go to in Ashland for an old problem is in the process of retiring and was unavailable. The Ashland hospital folks were very caring but minimally capable in this instance, so we had to drive an hour and a half on icy roads to Duluth where I was seen by a specialist and put on bed rest for several days and nights. 
  I am at home now and have to take it easy for a week.  This type of incident is  a real downside to living up here in the Northland and, unfortunately, Obamacare is aggravating this issue; I knew it was going to force my independent specialist (who has offices in several far-flung communities which he serves) out of business the last time I saw him take my manilla file down from its niche on the wall of his office.  This doctor is not going to try to computerize his thirty and more years of patient information as required by the new law, and no other doctor is likely to buy his business if they are required to do the same.  

   The only alternatives for most independent "country doctors" who serve so much of the nation is to retire, or if possible to be absorbed by a far-flung hospital empire, whose bean counters will squeeze every ounce of flexibility out of the operations in the hinterlands and the public will be faced with higher and higher prices, less and less service, and more and more hundred mile runs for in-hospital care and emergency treatment.    

   Meanwhile, the politicians in Washington who have immediate access to Walter Reed and other top hospitals do not understand the problems they have created and could not care less about the rest of us who do not fit within the parameters of their collectivist schemes.
   As the President said, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Period."  He should have added a qualifier: "If we haven't driven him out of business."

CHEERING MY MORNING; THE FIRST SPRING NURSERY CATALOG

HAUSER'S SPRING PERENNIAL CATALOG

Tuesday, 9:30 AM.  14 degrees F, wind NW, very light,  The sun is powering its way through the clouds and it is a pleasant morning, after some more light snow last night.  The humidity is 91% and the barometer is 29. 21".
   Amidst all the snow and cold, a sure sign of spring!  The first nursery catalog of the year, from local Hauser's Superior View Farms.  A Bayfield tradition for well over a century, and located just outside of town on Hwy. J, Hauser's has a wonderful full line of field dug perennials.  Gardeners come from hundreds of miles for their spring sale.
   Hope springs eternal, or perhaps spring hopes eternally;  anyway, it certainly cheered my morning.