Lark Street

Things I plan to do to be climate resilient when I own my own land 🌎 🚜 🏘

Climate change is real and its impacting us all already and it’s going to only get worse. The politicians’ solutions – where they exist at all – are kind of bad, mostly consisting of evacuation centers and welfare and reminding people that it’s okay to walk away from the post storm deterus – they’ll cart it off to the landfill for you.

  • First off, recognizing that political activism is not going to protect me from climate change. The buck stops with me.
  • Buying a Prisus or electric car won’t protect me but buying a backhoe might.
  • Own a house that has metal roofing and remove trees nearby that could burn in a wildfire
  • Make sure the house and barn are well away from streams and flood plains that could flood in extreme rain
  • Have an independent off-grid electric system and on site fuel storage
  • Have a tractor with a front end loader to both bury debris and dead stock, and also fill in and repair washouts
  • Have extra materials like timber, plywood, gravel, dirt and culverts to make repairs after wash outs.
  • Not own a lot of material things that are easily damaged by water or smoke
  • Be willing to do with a lot less with the land rather than the property

September 22, 2021 – Looking Ahead This Week

The next few days will be quite rainy β˜” but then sunshine returns for the weekend β˜€

Autumn seems to have definitely arrived although today certainly is fairly mild. I am thinking about staying in town this weekend and maybe going up to Thacher Park one last time before the summer nature bus service is done.

This Afternoon.
Feels like …
September 1st.

Chance of Showers

A chance of showers. Partly sunny.

South wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

and

79 degrees , 67 max dew point, 6:50
sunset.
Tonight.
Muggy !

Chance of Showers

A chance of showers, mainly after 11pm. Mostly cloudy.

Southeast wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

and

68 degrees , 68 max dew point, 6:43
sunrise.
Thursday.
Feels like …
September 1st.

Chance of Showers

A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy.

Southeast wind 9 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

and

79 degrees , 69 max dew point, 6:50
sunset.
Thursday Night.
Muggy !

Showers

Showers. Low around 65. Southeast wind around 10 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

and

65 degrees , 68 max dew point, 6:45
sunrise.
Friday.
Feels like …
September 24th.

Showers is likely then Chance of Showers

Showers likely, mainly before 10am. Mostly cloudy.

South wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

and

71 degrees , 65 max dew point, 6:48
sunset.
Friday Night.
Feels like …
September 14th.

Slight Chance of Showers

A slight chance of showers before 2am. Partly cloudy.

Chance of precipitation is 20%.

and

53 degrees , 6:46
sunrise.
Saturday.
Feels like …
September 24th.

Mostly Sunny

Mostly sunny.

and

71 degrees , 57 max dew point, 6:47
sunset.
Saturday Night.
Feels like …
September 12th.

Partly Cloudy

Partly cloudy.

and

54 degrees , 6:47
sunrise.
Sunday.
Feels like …
September 24th.

Mostly Sunny then Chance of Showers

A chance of showers after 2pm. Mostly sunny.

Chance of precipitation is 30%.

and

71 degrees , 54 max dew point, 6:45
sunset.
Sunday Night.
Feels like …
September 17th.

Chance of Showers then Partly Cloudy

A chance of showers before 8pm. Partly cloudy.

Chance of precipitation is 30%.

and

52 degrees , 6:48
sunrise.
Monday.
Feels like …
September 21st.

Mostly Sunny

Mostly sunny.

and

72 degrees , 53 max dew point, 6:43
sunset.
Monday Night.
Feels like …
September 17th.

Partly Cloudy

Partly cloudy.

and

52 degrees , 6:49
sunrise.
Tuesday.
Feels like …
September 21st.

Mostly Sunny then Chance of Showers

A chance of showers. Mostly sunny.

Chance of precipitation is 30%.

and

72 degrees , 57 max dew point, 6:41
sunset.

Bend

Gerrymandering Podcast – FiveThirtyEight

Gerrymandering Podcast – FiveThirtyEight

If you haven't been following FiveThirtyEight's Gerrymandering Podcast, your missing a lot.

You'll learn how Americans are increasingly putting themselves in non-competitive districts (by choosing to live in like-minded neighborhoods -- Republicans are increasingly choosing rural areas and outer suburbs, conservative red states while Democrats are increasingly choosing urban areas and inner suburbs, liberal blue states),

Also is very interesting how every goal when it comes to gerrymandering impacts another. Increasing minority representation in Congress means that Democrats get packed into districts which makes other districts favor Republicans, essentially disinfranchizing the views of minorities while increasing their representation.

Or how hard it's become to make actually competitive districts. If whole communities are of one political persuation, to make the district competitive, you have to get very creative with drawing district lines and grouping dissimilar communities together, often reducing the power of minority races in elections.

Then throw in the fact that whoever is in political power will try to maximize their advantage by drawing districts, within the constraints of many different court rulings, and you have much give and take.

December 23, 2017 Morning

Good morning! Happy Festivus, the Holiday for the Rest of Us. A cold and rather wet rain (what else?) and 34 degrees in Delmar. At least it’s melting the ice and snow from last night, in preparation for the winter snowstorm. There is a south-southeast breeze at 7 mph. The skies will clear around 9 pm.

Today will rain, mainly before 5pm. High of 38 degrees at 2pm. Five degrees above normal. South wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 45 degrees. The record high of 64 was set in 1990. 8.8 inches of snow fell back in 1947.

The sun will set at 4:26 pm with dusk around 4:58 pm, which is 35 seconds later than yesterday. At sunset, look for light rain and conditions and 38 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 9 hours and 2 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 10 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of rain and snow showers before midnight, then a slight chance of snow showers between midnight and 1am. Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy, with a low of 29 degrees at 6am. 11 degrees above normal. West wind 7 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. In 2016, we had partly cloudy skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 35 degrees. The record low of -15 occurred back in 1989.

At some point I should go out and brush off my windshield and flip up the wipers so I have a half decent chance of making it out to my parents house for Christmas Dinner tomorrow. Otherwise, it’s going to freeze up later. I haven’t started up Big Red since last Sunday, but I’m sure it will be fine. The protective relay on the accessory battery may be off from normal discharge, but it should be fine once I get going and it resets. I want to get that solar panel on but it’s difficult with the winter weather.
My primary plans for today is to go down to the library later on this afternoon, and work on some code and graphs. Later in the evening, I will continue working my LED module. I am doing better with the leaded solder, but I find still challenging to get the connections together. I also need to build more of a plan where I wire the components so it comes out neat. I think though I’m learning and getting better. But laying things out on perfboard is much more challenging then just plugging things into a breadboard. While they are less efficent and more expensive, I kind of wish I had gotten addressable LEDs for my first project. But maybe the second one — if I build an LED sign. 

I decided to go with wireless headphones, to address the problematic audio jack on my cellphone. I think they may last a lot longer then the regular earbuds I use, as usually the headphone jack on the headphones dies before the earbuds do. Plus, especially skiing I tend to get tied up in the chord. Remembering to charge them will be a pain, but I figure if I do each night, there is a better chance they will work all day. I can use the regular wired headphones with my laptop, especially because the bluethooth driver doesn’t seem to work well on my laptop with Linux. I found a pair of wireless Anker Soundbuds for $20 with an online sale, although I ended up buying two extra USB cables to get the free shipping. I needed more USB cables because I find after a year or two — even the good ones I’ve gotten at Staples — the flexing of the wires causes them to die. That said, I am now using the dead USB cables as a source of free wiring for other projects.

It does not look good for heading out this weekend camping. I just don’t trust that the roads will be sufficently plowed for heading up north and doing some Christmas camping. I guess I could do what I did last year and go to a local state forest but honestly I think it’s going to be pretty cold, so I should just put it off for New Years Weekend, assuming that it is decent enough to go camping. Eventually spring will come back around on the guitar, I mean calendar.

There are 1 months until National Pie Day when the sun will be setting at 4:57 pm with dusk at 5:28 pm. The average high temperature is 32 degrees, with a record high of 61 in 1895.