Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Glad you folks liked the song. I really liked it as well when it first came out!

@HomeOnTheRange,

Good to see you back on the forum!

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[farmerjan]

Hi it's Sunday. Another beautiful day weather wise. We never got the predicted rain on Friday or Sat. A couple of sprinkles was all. It burned off the dew/fog this morning and we are looking to have sun all week. That would be perfect to get alot of haying done.....BUT..... my son is on his way this morning to the Regional DOT Roadeo in Buloxi Miss, with another guy. They will drive partway of the nearly 900 miles today, and the rest tomorrow. Plans are to do a little sightseeing I think too. So, there will be no haymaking this week. It is supposed to be hot again tomorrow, up into the mid 90's but then the rest of the week more normal like in the upper 70's and mid 80's. Things are as set up for me to take care of everything as possible, cattle rotated to new grass and some hay put out in a couple of fields where we have the cattle that need to be pregnancy checked; the ones that came down off the hill late that afternoon a week ago. Don't want to turn them out with the others until we know their "standing", and the vet left 2 days after we did the others that friday afternoon, for a week, and now my son is gone this week and I am not going to get them in and try to work them by myself. It just goes alot easier with 2 or more people.
So, I am going to get the lawn mowed here at the house and probably test maybe 2 farms, whom I haven't heard back from yet. Then next Saturday is the poultry swap that I plan to take all the meat birds to. He has a few chickens that he wants me to take of his, so I will have to make sure I can tell which is which when I start feeding there tomorrow. Going to make the rounds to check all the cattle at the different places too.
Had some trouble with the automatic bale bed truck yesterday. Fuel not going through the fuel filter and it getting all clogged up. Seems that diesel fuel gets a type of algae in it and it gets like jelly soft globs in it. Just one more thing. He has been using an anti algae product due to the heat here, but will have to do something different. Just one thing after another. I had thought to maybe take that truck to the poultry swap, but would/could not trust it now. Will have to figure out how to stack some stuff in the bed of my little truck to take them as those meat birds are big and take up alot of space. Thinking of making a top for the whole back of the truck and just putting them in it and then just washing it out . I have a bolted on toolbox on it, and it is too difficult for me to take off by myself. So, something to study on and decide how I want to do it. He offered to let me take his crew cab, but the clutch is so stiff that I have a hard time shifting it and just don't want the responsibility of it. Hard to start, to get the clutch pushed in enough, the pain in my ankle makes it almost impossible, can bypass that by putting it in neutral and jumping it with the starter solenoid under the hood, but that doesn't help the actual shifting. It wouldn't be so bad but having to maneuver there into a tight parking space and around alot of people, I am not comfortable with the ankle/clutch difficulty. I can drive it around here with no problem, once he gets it started, if there is not alot of traffic, but it is still a very stiff clutch.
Well, that should be taken care of after the ankle replacement.

Well, everyone have a nice day. Time to get something done. Going to do a bunch of laundry and hang it out since it is so nice and sunny, too.

 

[Baymule]

Truck troubles.

 

[farmerjan]

First, I want to say that I don't buy into this whole "climate change, we are causing the extreme heat with the fossil fuels", etc and so on. I mean really what fossil fuels where the cave men burning in their "fred mobile" to cause the ice age to end and the dinosaurs to flourish and then the newer ice age to happen?????? That said, I don't deny that we might be contributing to it a little, but causing it no. I remember about 25-30 years ago they were predicting an ice age was coming....

But I was looking at weather underground and saw some charts on record heat setting and all that and it has been recorded that we have had the warmest weather as a whole in the last 20 years or something like that and more records have been set in the last 10. The Arctic ice is at the lowest "mass" ever recorded..... BUT the Antarctic ice is increasing. This goes along with some observations that I have made and commented on a few times over the past several years that it seems that we have longer summers, and it lasts later in the year. Spring comes later/if at all, and is VERY SHORT. We seem to have a week of spring and then go right into summer.
Like this year, it is much warmer LONGER than normal. The prediction is that fall will "come " later and there is talk there will be a delay in the fall colors. Last year they weren't that great due to all the wet and rain. Fall stays warmer and lasts into Dec or later. We had a wet, miserable winter, but it wasn't as cold as normal. I have kept informal records for years, but we always had "cold weather" by Thanksgiving when I was younger. It was cold enough during hunting season that you could hang the deer outside, and it would get chilled and not get too warm during the day. Now it is a real crapshoot and seldom can you hang it outside for more than 24 hours because it isn't cold enough. We often got dustings of snow in CT around Thanksgiving. Now we have short sleeve weather often up near Christmas. Yes, I am further south than I was as a kid , but I have been here in Va since 1981, and I can see a slight trend for warmer later in the year.

As I have gotten older, I do not want as much winter as I had when younger. It is harder to get around and feed, and I just get plain old cold. It takes so much time to prep for the long winters. @Bruce and some in the upper mid-west will tell you that. You just deal with the cold, the frozen water, and all, but you spend more than half your life preparing for it. I had the energy to do it when I was younger, not anymore. I would prefer to not get all the wet cold rain we get. I would prefer it gets down to the 20's at night, ground gets hard, and we get more snow than rain. The snow is alot easier on the animals. That 34* degree stuff, with wet cold soaking rain is not normal for this area of Va.. 20's to 40's with snow and firm/hard/frozen ground is more like it.

So anyway, all this comes from the observation that I had 97* today on my porch recording thermometer. . That is a bit out of normal consideration. And alot of our members have been lamenting the extreme heat as of late. I don't want to see it drop 40 degrees and stay in the 50's all of a sudden either. 45- 50* nights up to 70's days, and slowly sliding into colder.....

What is your opinion of the "climate"?

 

[Baymule]

My opinion is that the climate is always changing, it always has and it always will. It is scientific fact. Do we have an influence on the climate? Yes. Is the world going to end in 12 years? Only a moron would believe that. Do volcanoes cause climate change? Yes, it is documented fact. I believe that we should be as responsible as possible.

I loathe and despise liar politicians who brow beat the population with made up factiods and believe we should all give up modern conveniences while they themselves drive their cars, jet around the world in private comfort, while whipping people who truly do care about the environment into an ignorant frenzy. Cow farts. Really? What about the millions and millions of bison who roamed North America for eons? Another "cause" for good intenders to get whipped into a frenzy about.

Funny how the chemtrails are never mentioned.

Funny how Americans are blamed for the world's woes while China and India get a free pass-and they are the world's worst polluters.

I will shut up now.

 

[farmerjan]

Need a 1,000,000,000xxx like button!!!!!!

 

[CntryBoy777]

I agree with @Baymule for the most part and think we should take care of things the best we can, but I believe the greed, money, power, and control are underlying factors in all the "chicken littles" running around clammering about environmental conditions.
I believe it reveals the extint that "society" as a whole has been brainwashed to "think" as they are taught in the present day educational systems. There is a shift taking place here, unlike any other period in national history and the "sheep" are being led in the direction those wanting power and control are directing them towards.
I personally believe in The Holy Bible, and it states that things will continue to grow worse and worse as time goes on. There is nothing that will change that fact in any way, so our generation as we age and pass on, have less influence in the direction things are headed in....and will soon be the minority as the "sheep" become the majority. Those of us that continue on will witness the "tipping point" and hear the audible "flush" of the toilet as what we know and grew up with will just be memories of the past. Just as our folks witnessed from the Depression to the "computer age".
Many of our personal rights have been taken away and most are unaware of it, being distracted by other things as their attention is diverted towards what is being tauted in the news, scientists, or latest gadgets.
When those in "authority" are relied upon, then they "control" the agenda and only the "info" that is revealed is all that is known......guess, I best end it there....

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Miss @farmerjan,

I hope it is not too late to join the discussion on climate change, as I would like to comment. It's funny that this topic came up, as my wife and I just finished reading a book titled The Uninhabitable Earth - Life After Warming by David Wallace Wells. Reading that book makes me want to go research the science and evidence behind the theory of climate change, both from its advocates and from its critics. But I will comment now, and perhaps will correct or clarify or amplify later as I learn more.

Miss @Baymule is correct in saying that the climate is always changing. Prior to the current change in progress, it was always a natural phenomenon. But the science indicates that this time it is primarily we humans who are behind the increase in carbon dioxide and thus the increase in temperatures. (For reference, see the web page at NOAA here: https://www.climate.gov/news-featur...ate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide ) This is both good news AND bad news. The good news is that because it is not being caused by nature but by us humans, then we can do something about it to slow and hopefully stop the warming. The bad news is that there does not seem to be the will in the world to implement the changes required to stop the warming. Here is the list of countries that contribute the greenhouse gases that are warming the atmosphere (this figure and others can be found at https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data ):

What do you think the chances are that the entire world will actually do anything to curb and perhaps halt the emissions of greenhouse gases until it is already getting VERY hot? I think that both my wife and I will probably be dead by the time it gets really bad, but I think of our nieces, nephews, and grand nieces and nephews who will still be alive and having to cope with it. I fear that most of humanity are doomed. Will the earth survive? Absolutely. Will humanity survive? Maybe. But if humanity does survive, its living conditions most likely won't be much like it is today.

Sorry to post such a downer of a post. It does not have to be this way, but I fear it will be this way because we humans won't act collectively to stop the trend until it is so obvious to everyone, and by then it will be too late to do much good.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

Of note in that pie chart, while China is the highest producer of CO2, the USA produces 2.35 times as much per capita.
https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/science/each-countrys-share-of-co2.html

 

[farmerjan]

All are welcome to add their opinion and 2 cts worth. I certainly don't believe we are innocent of contributing to problems.

But I am with @Baymule in that we are not the only or the worst, and that if we stopped right now and were able to go to totally neutral, it would make little or no difference because there are too many other "developing" nations that won't/don't care. Add to that all the Naturally occurring things like volcanoes, which can change things in a minute, and then top it with the possibility of chemical and "nuclear disasters" , and I just don't think that some of what is being ranted and raved about, amounts to a hill of beans. I do think we need to be more aware of what we are doing. However, all those that are pushing some of this, need to get their inventive thinking caps on and find / create / invent industries that can and will deal with all that is ALREADY EXISTING here. Recycling, which I have done since the "hippie generation" in the 1970's.... when you had to take the little aluminum ring off the glass soda bottles from when you twisted off the then metal cap, in order to recycle the glass, ..... is practically non-existent now because most all our plastic that was recycled went to china. Why can't we have "recycling industries" here and start using our plastic? Where are all the "innovative young people" ? They have cut the allowable plastics here to 1's and 2's.... but nothing like the 1's that your salad comes in from Wendy's....Bottles only and they are very picky about them. Now it is being said that even though we are recycling at least that little bit still, it is actually going into the landfill. An editorial in our paper said that due to the US-CHINA trade war, , and them not taking our recycling either, that there is no place for it....BUT.... they want us to stay in the HABIT of recycling so that we will be able to go back to it when there is a market for the "waste".

Okay, it is an ingrained habit for me to recycle; but the other day I actually threw out a couple of plastic bottles that were in my truck, rather than bring them home to put in the recycling "bag" I have here. Why bother when they are going in the landfill anyway? My son looked at me like I had lost my mind when I told him to go ahead and put them in the trash. I'm too "old" and don't have the "fire in my belly" to come up with some sort of technology or industry that can take the plastic and melt it down to make something else out of it..... Isn't this some of what younger people are going to school to learn to do??? To come up with new ideas, and to figure out how to make it work??? I'm no inventor..... but just like the combustion engine, someone figured out how to make it work, and look at where we are today. Why are there no DOMESTIC factories, or whatever, to break down then reuse something like the plastic waste????
@Bruce maybe can weigh in on this, but it seems when I was alot younger, Vt used to take the glass bottles that were returned for deposit, and maybe recycled, and they were ground up and used on the highways on the shoulders of the roads instead of rock. Maybe I have it wrong.... but it seems that I remember my family members in Vt talking about it.

After doing a quick study, it seems there has been alot of glass "reuse" done. Well, we went from mostly glass to now the overabundance of plastic. So why aren't all these young smart, brilliant, save the planet people, coming up with alternatives for what is ALREADY right here in front of them?????

It's like nuclear power.... I am not against it per se...... come up with a way to utilize, stablize, or NEUTRALIZE the waste, and I am all for it. The scientists that go into nuclear energy and all that are so far above my "paygrade" and brain power mentally..... You figured out how to blow up the world with it.... okay, figure out how to "unblow it up", with something it can do that is constructive.....like the power, but how to also DEAL with what is left. We don't need a "half-life" of the spent fuel going into deep mines or something that will still be able to kill us 500,000 years later (or whatever it is.) Sure, I won't be around then to worry about it.... but I hate poisoning the earth even now with that waste.

All the computer smarts, all this innovative stuff electronically, really isn't worth the powder to blow it to kingdom come when you get down to the real nitty gritty of daily living. Until man and mammals are physically altered, we need food, liquid (water) and are going to have bodily functions that need to be disposed of. If the food and water comes in some plastic containers, there should be a way for it to be used. If we keep burying it in the landfills, there won't be decent healthy soil to grow stuff to eat. And before you say well, all the food will come from a "lab" and be engineered.... have you ever looked at what actually is in something like the "beyond" burger???? Look at what is used to make this "fake meat".... and show me how our bodies are going to utilize some of that stuff.....

Maybe we will just be like the "Jetsons" .... hope I don't live to see that.