Fridays topic

I’m doing my part…. My oak tree and raccoon friend have been looking for some magic stones …. Anybody see any?

What I have noticed over the years is that the seasons seem to be shifting by a month or so to me. Seems like winter starts in mid to late December now whereas 20 to 30 years ago I remember more cold in November. I recall as a kid warmer March and April months and so on thru the summer and fall. Of course there was the odd year mixed in but just in general..

Just my opinion and everyone has one…

“What I have noticed over the years is that the seasons seem to be shifting by a month or so to me. Seems like winter starts in mid to late December now whereas 20 to 30 years ago I remember more cold in November. I recall as a kid warmer March and April months and so on thru the summer and fall.”

X2 I’ve noticed the same thing. We used to get out ice fishing around Thanksgiving. Now it’s Christmas.

Why we need irrigation? Because when I was a kid grampa would plant corn at the rate of 13k plants per acre. Now some farmers are planting 35k seeds per acre. Tells you one reason why they need more water.

i usually get on ice around xmas in SE MN. UPRL still freezes around thanksgiving so i see nothing has changed much. i believe the climate change is real and it will have an effect just not as sudden as some predict.

All i can say is i dreaded August until this year. would be nice to see fall last for more than a month this year.

MX1825 wrote:

Why we need irrigation? Because when I was a kid grampa would plant corn at the rate of 13k plants per acre. Now some farmers are planting 35k seeds per acre. Tells you one reason why they need more water.

MX another part of the equation is evidenced in a picture from many years ago of a hand pump with a piece of concrete about a foot in diameter at its base.
The rest of the concrete pad was about five feet below it, why??
Because people across the USA have to have their fruits and veggies year round and irrigating a barren desert into an oasis for crop production sucked the aquifer dang near bone dry.

If the desert could be left a desert and investors were not so damn greedy for money the west would not be where its at today.
The idiot who built a city in the middle of the desert and the powers that be that okayed it to rape folks pocket books in the name of entertainment should be hung out to dry as well as the folks who thought they could sustain a form of agriculture out there.

And now they want to pump water from the Mississippi out west???
Come the hell on!! who is going to pay for that???
A little bit of math will tell you the energy needed to pump water that far at the volume needed and that high uphill and down again will tell you it will take at least six times the amount of power that our largest nuke plant can put out.

Now, lets add maintenance, daily supervision, infrastructure as a whole, it is absolutely unfeasible !!!!!
Let the west dry completely up, No one belongs out there anyway, sure, it is said: but the environment is suited for healthy living for folks with whatever ailment.
Ya, I get it everyone wants to live forever,well, cept for this old polecat, like my dad used to say, death is like going to the bathroom, when ya gotta go ya gotta go, why prolong the inevitable???
And lastly I will add, just like always, follow the money train!!

Technology will find a way to harvest saltwater. Ill bet money on that for my lifetime.

Deuces wrote:

Technology will find a way to harvest saltwater. Ill bet money on that for my lifetime.

The problem is what to do with the salt brine leftover. That stuff might as well be nuclear fallout.

ajw wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Notmafiaguy wrote:</div>
Technology will find a way to harvest saltwater. Ill bet money on that for my lifetime.

The problem is what to do with the salt brine leftover. That stuff might as well be nuclear fallout.

Send it to China, they will have their kids mix it in with all the plastic they send back here.

The population boom in the Western US is unsustainable. It will be interesting to see what happens in areas that rely on the Colorado River watershed specifically, because it’s on life support with Mother Nature ready to pull the plug soon. I will not feel bad for those people in arid areas who stuck their life savings into unsustainable real estate or “agriculture.” If they want life in the Western US to continue as is beyond the next generation, it’s going to get real costly. Capitalism will rear its ugly side when people/municipalities are forced to buy water on the open market.

Iowaboy1 wrote:

Because people across the USA have to have their fruits and veggies year round and irrigating a barren desert into an oasis for crop production sucked the aquifer dang near bone dry.

If the desert could be left a desert and investors were not so damn greedy for money the west would not be where its at today.
The idiot who built a city in the middle of the desert and the powers that be that okayed it to rape folks pocket books in the name of entertainment should be hung out to dry as well as the folks who thought they could sustain a form of agriculture out there.

And now they want to pump water from the Mississippi out west???
Come the hell on!! who is going to pay for that???
A little bit of math will tell you the energy needed to pump water that far at the volume needed and that high uphill and down again will tell you it will take at least six times the amount of power that our largest nuke plant can put out.

Now, lets add maintenance, daily supervision, infrastructure as a whole, it is absolutely unfeasible !!!!!
Let the west dry completely up, No one belongs out there anyway

The Department of the Interior just announced today that Arizona and Nevada will be receiving less water from the Colorado River basin next year because of low levels. Arizona is especially going to take the bulk of the cut because they only have “junior water rights.”

The situation out there in terms of freshwater availability is getting more dire by the day. Water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead are down to about 25% of full capacity. Upper level states like Utah refuse to budge on their water consumption because they want to continue to expand housing and communities. We need to start thinking long term here. Stop building more houses if there isn’t enough water for it. Stop watering golf courses in the desert if there isn’t enough water for it.

Right now I feel pretty fortunate to live in an area that generally has an abundance of freshwater. Some of our neighbors to the west may not be so fortunate in the near future.

Maybe Minnesota can get ahead of things and ban watering golf courses and lawns now. Think of the gas you can save by not mowing as often.

Dutchboy wrote:

Maybe Minnesota can get ahead of things and ban watering golf courses and lawns now. Think of the gas you can save by not mowing as often.

To your point I think this is the least I have personally mowed in a year so far.

I watched a segment on 60 minutes I think it was about the Colorado River and how the south western states that have used the majority of the water will now have to use less because the north eastern section is now needing more. I was not aware of the deal they had to share the water that could get interesting.

Dutchboy wrote:

Maybe Minnesota can get ahead of things and ban watering golf courses and lawns now. Think of the gas you can save by not mowing as often.

then why not ban irrigation systems???

in no way am i anti farmer…….i know where my food comes from, but…….

John Rasmussen wrote:

I watched a segment on 60 minutes I think it was about the Colorado River and how the south western states that have used the majority of the water will now have to use less because the north eastern section is now needing more. I was not aware of the deal they had to share the water that could get interesting.

I watched that too on Sunday evening. Four states to the northeast are considered “upper states” and the three to the southwest are “lower states” when it comes to water rights to the Colorado River. The problem is that the contract these 7 states have is so outdated its somewhat ludacris. It actually allocates more water than is available. And its based on senior or junior water rights to the water. For example, the Imperial Valley in far south central California has more legal authority to water than all of Nevada or Arizona. So its technically and legally possible for California to use their entire allotment of water and leave all of Nevada and Arizona high and dry.

The upper states have rarely used their entire allotment, but that is starting to change. If these states can’t come up with a way to reduce water consumption together, the federal government is going to step in and do it for them. The federal government doesn’t use a scalpel either; they use a blunt hammer style. They’ll simply cut usage across the board all together.