A few days ago temperature was around 106F, then the wind shifted to the north and in about 30 minutes, temperature dropped to around 71F. What looked like storm clouds were all around, but what we got was perhaps a third of an inch of drizzle and rain.
But as dry as it has been, even a fraction of an inch is good news. Crops look a bit greener. The rain covered a good chunk of Tripp county, but was not consistent. The roads may have been well wet for a mile or two and then nearly dry for another mile or two, but I think nearly all of Tripp County got some.
We need more, but despite some locals denying the existence of global warming, I suspect it is a strong factor in the widespread drought conditions across the western US. I hope you are getting some rain and no hail or tornadoes
*** Stay tuned for more than just weather reports--- Doug Wiken
I woke up this morning thinking about childhood days shocking grain that had been cut and bundled by a farm machine I could not remember "binder" for anything. Did a Google search for "machine to make grain bundles. That turned up a very interesting link with a pdf of McCormick 1903 grain, hay and forgage machines. Sure enough, images of several of the old machines my father was still using. One other memory from those days. We had oat bundles shocked in the field. Dad hired a 90 year old neighbor who knew how to stack bundles. Jens Peter Jensen got it done as if he were a 30 year old. Anyway, below is a link to the old machinery which will probably still work today if anybody held onto the antiques.
So much for old memories. At first I did not know how to save the ad brochure, but it is easy. Right click on the brochure and select "download page". It is fulltext.pdf and has about 35 pages. Just takes seconds to download. Worth having if you are at all interested in old farm equipment or had the misfortune of riding on the back of a binder or dump rake originally made to be pulled by horses.
****Stay tuned even if the information probably preceded the invention of radio--- Doug Wiken
Temperatures in the area have been mostly dreadful. Something like 104F for high yesterday and it stayed hot until temp finally dropped down to 75F this morning. Did not take long for the bright, burning sun to again push temperature up to around 104F today and there was some humidity which was good for crops, but made the heat more miserable.
A little good news this evening, Wall of clouds filled the northern sky and we got a bit of rain. Just enough to leave puddles on asphalt and settle the dust. But, the tiny shower came with a temperature drop down to 71F or 81F depending on which report or thermometer. Breeze actually felt cool which was markedly different than winds this morning and yesterday which felt as if they were coming out of an open furnace.
Looks like some of the corn around here unrolled with the drizzle and temperature drop.
*** Stay tuned even if it is really to hot to waste time on the internet--- Doug Wiken
John Harter posted this on Facebook. It looks like an interesting idea that can save manpower and time. It does appear that something like a couple rear-facing TV cameras might help reduce the concentration required to make this work.
Good heavens. KELO weather said it was going to rain around here and this time it actually rained a bit like they predicted. Now Reliance, SD weather radio is warning of flood danger in S Central SD including Tripp, Todd, Mellette, etc. I just checked local weather at Winner three-day weather Looks like this flurry of rain has so far drizzled, rained, and misted in about 1.5 inches of precipitation. Update of Apr 18, 2016--- Total now up to around 2 inches and still misting and raining.
I saw pheasants sitting up in trees as Robins or Blackbirds would and deer hunkered down under bushes. Of course I did not have my camera with me then.
We need the moisture, but after a couple days of this, a bit of blue sky and sunshine would feel good.
What I still don't understand about the Reliance, SD weather radio is why that station never broadcasts weather conditions in Winner, SD. Some days the roughly 60 miles north and south between Reliance and Winner means the weather is remarkably different in the two areas. Strangely, other SD weather radio stations do broadcast information about Winner, SD weather. KZZZ60 (Channel 7) is usually the only weather station available here on our car radio.
****Stay tuned even if it is raining on your parade.----- Doug Wiken.
Daugaard has expressed concern about industrial hemp leading to a gateway for recreational marijuana. This concern seems rather strange when as far as I know, he has been silent about his concerns about allowing alcohol sales on SD college and university campuses which is more threat than any raising of non-narcotic hemp will ever be.
This is not Daugaard's first weird concern. He has had two years or so of concerns that if SD took the tens of millions of dollars available to SD health care, the funding might end at some time. Any smart businessman would have said, let us take the money and if the funding ends, we will get that mess cleared up when it happens and then plan for that eventuality as the money flows into SD hospitals and to medical professionals.
Daugaard's silly concerns may already have been a fatal error for some sick South Dakotans. His failure to oppose the lunacy of booze on the campus will almost certainly lead to multiple fatalities and injuries of all kinds.
Daugaard must have learned a rather perverted tribal form of logic which stretches everything to fit his tribal preferences and mythology.
Another interesting article in Science News, Oct3, 2015 page 8. This one titled "How farm life can prevent allergies". The caveat on this article is that the science is based on experiments with mice; but, seems to be supported by a study of 1,707 children in fours countries which shows the same link between being exposed to barn dust and resulting allergy resistance.
Scientists have known for a long time that farm life seems to protect kids from developing asthma and hay fever. The study with mice may have found the link between barn dust and allergy resistance. Mice exposed to the dust developed resistance to house dust mites which otherwise produce asthma in mice.
Analysis of mouse lung tissue revealed that Trifaip3, the gene for making the enzyme A20, had switched on. A20 tells cells to not react and thus prevents triggering immune system unnecessarily. The A20 enzyme removes ubiquitin, a molecule that sticks to proteins and can signal cells to dial up inflammation.
The dust ingredient may be a bit of bacteria called endotoxin. That alone would trigger the same response in mice as the air loaded with fine cow manure particles.
Frankly, I can understand the above, but have insufficient knowledge to determine if this somewhat exotic and also primitive science is significant or not. The same appears to be strue of Stewart Levine of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md. says it explains a lot, but still does not know if he himself would put a kid in a barn to test this.
Meanwhile those of us still around cattle and barn dust and who have probably been exposed to it since early childhood may owe any resistance to allergies we have to that early exposure. I suspect we will learn more about the connection between dried cow manure and allergy resistance in the future.
***Stay tuned even if you would rather have allergies than ever get even close to barn dust--- Doug Wiken
Last night it seemed like thunder rolled and lightning flashed from about 2 AM until 5AM or so. Nearly lightning-illuminated sky in all directions and resulting thunder seeming to be all around. It was not a good night for my sleeping.
Now, after looking at the link in the previous post for Winner weather, it appears all that noise and light show was accompanied by about 0.47 inches of rain. That was enough to keep ground soaked for awhile, but there was enough noise and light for three inches of rain.
I guess I should not gripe about this. At least we are getting some rain. Back in 1976 or so we saw a lot of clouds blow up from the west and then seem to split so the rain went south or north of us. And it was not just my imagination. Corn yields varied from about 25 bushels to 125 bushels per acre in similar fields separated by only three to six miles.
Anyway, weather has been almost too interesting for nearly the last year. I guess that is what is predicted with global warming. Whatever are the limited odds for weather catastrophe, the human race can not afford to gamble what we have done with exploiting fossil fuels can continue lest we make earth uninhabitable for our children or grandchildren.
*** Stay tuned but don't expect politicians intimately linked to fossil fuels to save your world--- Doug Wiken
I found a "deal" on a new Nikon Coolpix. It is a quite powerful point and shoot camera. I will have some photos here soon as I learn more of the features. What I did not like about the camera was the lens cap with no way to tether it to the camera. It did not take me long to misplace that lens cap. I did find it today after looking in a half dozen places. I decided I would get it tethered to the camera strap similar to the Canon point and shoot I have been using (and used to shoot photos below).
I first bought a 1/16 inch drill bit. Then I happened to have a broken Edie Bauer crank flashlight and it had a wrist strap. I got that removed and it happened to be about the right length. I drilled two 1/16 inch holes about an eighth of an inch apart with a small lenscap rib between them. I drilled from the inside out which worked well. Photo below shows the inside of the lens cap.
The doubled cord loop was pushed through one hole and back out and then the tether was threaded through the loop. That was a bit of a pain, but a toothpick helped. This is a bit like the Canon cap. I suspect a thin shoelace might work as well and I may ultimately make one of that, but for today, this works. Photo below shows outside of the lens cap.
Why Nikon did not make the lenscap with a tether is beyond me. This is not a cheap camera (some say it is in fact over-priced), and this failure to include a tether appears to be a way of cheaping out and making the otherwise very good lenscap nearly useless in the real world. It is substandard design for any real utility. But, a simple remedy is available if you purchase one of these Coolpix cameras.
***Stay tuned even if this is late afternoon---- Doug Wiken
The Tuesday, July 7, 2015 Rapid City Journal has an AP story titled "Keystone hearing won't affect ruling" with info from Bob Mercer.
If that is the case, what was the purpose of the meeting? PUC Chairman Chris Nelson says the hearing will help commissioners formulate questions during the pipeline process. Apparently this will be followed with an "evidentiary hearing" and the final decision will only depend on testimony and evidence presented at that hearing.
The SD PUC appears to be complicit in dog and pony shows designed primarily to give the impression if not the reality that they give a rat's ass about the public interest. The commissioners should be held personally responsible if they approve a pipeline with pipe made in India and designs only made to specifications perhaps 90% leak free. That just is not good enough when these pipelines cross rivers and aquifers critical to drinking water resources in South Dakota.
The South Dakota Governor's office and the legislature have resisted taxing these pipelines to build up an environmental protection plan. This strikes me as severe, serious dereliction of duty.
With all the newspaper and TV ads Trans-Canada has been dumping into SD ostensibly to influence the easily influenced, but more likely to buy the silence of SD mass media, I was frankly surprised to see even the rather limp news story on the irrelevance of the SD PUC public input hearing in a SD newspaper.
Canada's Trans-Canada outfit was interviewed by Bloomberg News and stated that the primary purpose of the XL pipeline was to get a "glut of crude" out of the midwest so that fuel prices could be increased 10 to 15 cents per gallon. That does not suggest that the XL pipeline is in the interests of the US or South Dakota residents. The enormous tax benefits claimed in the pre-hearing hype has not turned up with other pipelines in reality. Also, the enormous energy demands of the pipeline are likely to increase electric costs for all homeowners in this region. We have already had electric rate increases in most of South Dakota. We really don't need more rate increases because of a pipeline that is not in the US interest.
County commissioners have been wined and dined and requested to send letters of support to the PUC and elsewhere to indicate their support for the pipeline. I am not at all convinced that is a legitimate function of county commissioners especially when none of them seem to have the faintest idea of the potential economic and environmental disaster possible with these pipelines or any engineering experience or education themselves. Their willingness to ignore actual constituent opinion and pander to a very special non-US special interest is very discouraging.
South Central South Dakota has really good drinking water and perhaps not a whole lot else that is really, really good. This resource should not be ignored or under-estimated.
***Stay tuned but don't wait until "Don't drink the water." becomes the local mantra---Doug Wiken
Residents of South Dakota. Check your broadband speed with the SD Speedtest. Your test will both let you know how speedy is your ISP and also help get us better service in South Dakota.
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