Change

 A section of land just west of us has been Native Prairie and a wooded area with many Oak trees as long as I can recall ( that would be about 70 years).  

The land is being cleared.  What a change.

From our home we could hear the high pitched whine of the huge saw machine as the old Oaks fell one by one.  The Oaks were thick as hair on a dogs back. 

So it will be a field  and grow something...potatoes, corn or a small grain of some kind.   I suppose some of the deer will return to have a salad...we often saw deer in this field...belly deep in Native Prairie grasses and flowers.  Most likely the pair of Fox we saw one evening have been displaced as have the coyotes. 

Is it progress?  I suppose eventually it will feed a few more people. 

Far Side

Orange Trees

I took a photo of the orange trees so you could see that they are still orange.   I am certain it is not Pine Bark Beetles because when they attack the tree it turns orange from the top down.  These trees turned orange all over within a few days last fall (September 22 was the first photos I took of the orange trees.).

You may ask why does she document this?  Because I can, perhaps to keep a record.  I wonder how many more trees will turn orange before someone else notices.

“Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a good shovel.”  Aldo Leopold  A Sand County Almanac

Tall Grass Prairie

Chance and I went for a drive to see how a few of the remaining Tall Grass Prairies are doing.   We were glad to see that no one had plowed them up.  It has been a wet year..so it would be tickling the bellies of Buffalo if there were any.

Photographs were hard to take because it was very windy. The light purple flower in front is Spotted Knapweed.  This healthy prairie keeps it at bay along the roadsides. I wonder what caused the darker green strip in the field..might have been where someone emptied a manure spreader.

Purple Prairie Clover dots the entire field.  It was nice to have some time to just mosey along.  The Deer Flies have joined the mosquitoes.  They follow the car and wait for you to get out.  I had to limit Chance’s hanging his head out the window time.  He doesn’t like the Deer Flies either.

We went by Joe’s old  pasture..the pasture where the horses used to entertain us. It has been planted.   

This field was a horse pasture for a long time. No more Joe to take care of a bunch of old horses anymore.  I am not sure where the horses went and I haven’t asked.  You know the old saying “If you won’t like the answer, don’t ask the question.”

Slowly the landscape around us is changing..not all for the good but changing none the less. 

Farm land is being bought up by big corporate farms.  More and more acreage every year.  I watch a couple of sections of Tall Grass Prairie every year..and hope they don’t get gobbled up. I will return in the Fall when the grasses turn golden/red:)

“There are idle spots on every farm, and every highway is bordered by an idle strip as long as it is; keep cow, plow, and mower out of these idle spots, and the full native flora, plus dozens of interesting stowaways from foreign parts, could be part of the normal environment of every citizen.” Aldo Leopold

Spot in the Road

One of my favorite spots to stop and take a photo is right here.

I can see the lay of the land.  The different crops planted and the road with the hills in the distance.  This is the road that leads home.  I like it when there is no traffic! Standing in the middle of the road is an awesome feeling..almost powerful especially if I have my camera.  There was a sign out in the field near the approach where I parked.

Remember those long French Fries in the box that I talk about?  They came out of this field.

The chemical stench burned my eyes and nose.  The smell was terrible..they are the stinkiest of neighbors.

They use something to fumigate the soil to kill something..not sure what..but it must be some powerful crap.

Just so there is a record for all of posterity this is the view to the east.  The first photo was a view to the west.

Sometimes I wonder about the Deer that wander through these fields.  What do you suppose is the effect on the deer..and if you are a deer hunter is this important to you?   Was there some “study” done on the effects of animals passing through..grazing in adjacent areas?  Last I heard deer do not read signs:(

Tall Grass Prairie

The evening sun casts a glow across the tall grass prairie.

The Big Bluestem is beautiful.  It is just beginning to get it’s purple cast.  I love this little bit of untouched prairie.  Can you imagine buffalo and wild horses running along with this grass tickling their bellies?   It must have been quite a sight long ago.

The early settlers must have waded through this field.  The native tall grass prairies were not always friendly..a lightening strike could turn this beautiful prairie into a prairie fire that would have to burn itself out.

There are only a few of these untouched fields in our area.  I enjoy them while I can, I am sure in a few years they will all be gone:(

Aldo Leopold wrote:
“Man always kills the thing he loves. And so we the pioneers have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in.”

More Progress ??

The air was full of dust, our usually quiet corner of the world was interrupted by dust and a high pitched whine.

We drove out a half a mile.. to find that these trees in the tree line were being ground into mulch.

The tall grass prairie is changing before our eyes.  This one is closer to home.

The bothersome trees between the former CRP land and a bean field  are being removed one by one.  Limb by limb. There are piles of mulch.

Soon this view will be devoid of trees.   I remember when this field had many rows of trees going north and south.  I used to find a shady spot to rest and wait for my Mother to stop her tractor. My parents owned this piece of land a long time ago, back when the many windbreaks went North and South and met up with the trees that are being removed.

Progress?  I am not convinced that it is progress.  However it is a change.  One that I am noting for future generations..they are the ones that will decide if it is progress or not.

Two days ago they sprayed the hazardous chemicals on the the field across from our front driveway..the Peligro ( Danger) signs are still out in the field.  I noticed that both mail boxes at the end of the driveway have some funny looking splotches on them.

Well I guess I am done wallering around in pity for the Tall Grass Prairies…for now.

Congratulations to the winner of the drawing!

 

DJan has a blog called DJan-ity and she is from the great State of Washington..she sky dives..and hikes..and reads!  I know that she will love this book as much as I do.  I have a hardcover version that was a gift from my daughter a long time ago:)

Progress?

Times are a changing..times are getting tougher.

People that enrolled their land in CRP ( Conservation Reserve Program) or before that it was a similar program called Soil Bank of the 1950’s are selling out.  Traitors.

Fields that reverted to Natural Prairie, saving the soil and the water from the pesticides and over use by the Corporate Farmer are falling by the wayside one by one.

First they come in and put in a well for a center pivot irrigator.

This field has not been farmed for years..I am sixty ..sigh..and I have never seen a crop planted in this field.  It has always been a natural prairie home to the tall grasses, flowers, birds, rabbits and mice.

A spark burned this section of land on Friday when we had the wind from hell.

This piece of land is two miles south of us.   Everyone was concerned where the wildfire would go..Far Guy said the flames were awesome.  His Uncle lives to the west, the wind was from the south..the fire travelled north.  If it would have jumped the road..it would have been an out of control fire in the mainly pine forest along the lake.  The helicopters couldn’t fly and the water dumpers were grounded due to the wind.

 

This photo is history.  History of the Tall Grass Prairie that soon will become a home for potatoes that make Extra Long French Fries that stand up in a box..pinto beans and small grains.

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
- Aldo Leopold

I have more to say about this subject..but for now I will be quiet. 

I found an old copy of my favorite book at a garage sale the other day.  A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold..if you would like to be entered into a drawing for it then leave me a comment.  Please tell me how close do you live to a Tall Grass Prairie?  I live a mile from one..so far it has escaped the clutches of the  corporate farmer. I will draw a name on Monday night.  The book cost a whole quarter, I buy them when ever I see them at garage sales..and I pass them on to people who I know will appreciate them:)

Accountable

 

“For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death.”  Rachel Carson

Sometimes I have thoughts, like isn’t it strange that many people in this area died of Liver Cancer and they all seemed to live along a line that stretches from the Shell River down by Hwy 34 to past the electrical substation up on the prairie.  They were neighbors and relatives.  

A long time ago when I was little we used to go to visit my Uncle Hugo and my Aunt Mia quite often.  Trucks with barrels would be going into the woods.  Much later I found out that the land was owned by a chemical company.  Could whatever was being dumped there..still be there?  Buried?

Too bad I didn’t have a camera back then.

I have one now, I took this photo one day last fall after the smell of Hydrogen sulfide permeated the area.  Far Guy didn’t want to stop..and I did not get out of the car…and I have a zoom lens on my camera. 

From the MSDS sheet for Vapam HL a soil fumigant: Warning: This product contains Metam Sodium, a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. ( Probably means it may cause cancer in Minnesota too.)

Somewhere, somehow someone has to be accountable for how the land is treated. Has anyone thought about the birds that fly through..or the deer that wander through at night…how are they affected?  What is the long term affect on the land?

Perhaps I am the only one that thinks about it..and wonders what we leaving for our grandchildren..besides a huge deficit are we leaving them a planet that will be so polluted with cancer causing agents they won’t be able to grow their own food? :(

Christmas Trees: Real

Do you have an appreciation for real Christmas trees? The smell, the pitch, the spray painted funny green color, the needles falling off all over your floor and covering your packages..making little plink, plink, swoosh sounds as they hit the brightly colored packages and slide off. Trying to remember from one year to the next what the best formula for sugar water was? Do you have a thought somewhere deep in your brain about the beautiful fire hazard you will expose your home and family to? Do you like to have your Christmas tree up a really long time? Or is your true tree spirit only good for a week or so?

My first real appreciation for Christmas trees began in my fourteenth and fifteenth years. A summer job, on a "Shearing Crew." The days were hot and the sun relentless as we made our way down the plantation rows with shears in hand, cutting of all growth that did not make a perfect Christmas tree shape. The tree boss would watch our work closely and come by with his machete and correct our mistakes. These trees were all going to be harvested and sent off to city folks who required perfect trees. I remembered thinking..who in their right mind would want a perfect tree anyway..and pay for it too boot.

My Father would always bring a tree home for us, I never asked where it came from. It would just appear, probably from one of his brothers woods. It was never perfect, one side would be bushier than the other. There seemed to be some comfort to me that it might not have been perfect in the woods, but once decorated it was perfect.

Far Guys Father owned a Christmas tree plantation. He wanted everyone to have a fresh perfect tree for Christmas. We enjoyed many of those trees after we were married. Perfect. He was both a harvester and a planter. Perfect.

Last year we vacationed in Indiana, when we returned to Minnesota, we wanted to bypass Chicago (where there are more than two cars on the road at the same time.) When you are in Mishawaka, Indiana your choices are limited. We had never travelled into the Lower Peninsula of Michigan before, it is a beautiful area. However the Christmas Trees were being harvested there, in OCTOBER. Funny colored Christmas trees, wrapped in nets being loaded onto semi trailers. Feelings of sadness enveloped me, Christmas trees are big business. My sadness lifted as I watched more of the landscape and by doing so I realized that there was as much planting as there was harvesting..field after field of trees stood testament to that as I viewed trees in different stages of growth.

Real true Christmas tree connoisseurs will be both armed with a saw and a shovel, tools you need to be both a harvester and a planter:)