The Village Snow Witch Has Spoken!

 

She prefers to be called "Prognosticator", but it does smack of something else. I have also heard she is training a new village prognosticator, who concurred with her "prognostication". 

All is good...

Winter WIll Now Go from the Village of the Dammed! (Not a Typo)

Our Village Snow Prognosticator AKA The Snow Witch has spoken.

(The village Snow Witch, is picture here, in blue, talking with Dr. Darrel Apps, Happily Ever Appster daylily hybridizer fame, this day working at a fund raiser for the local Kiwanis.)

As of Wednesday we were due only two more snowfalls. If this weekend's storms barreling down (up?) on us in the upper Midwest deliver them, we will be done with this snow. That doesn't mean we won't have a cold, wet spring, but snow accumulation will be at an end.

This is great news, of which we are all glad to hear, here in our sleepy little village. Passersby mention it to one another at committee meetings, and on Facebook, and in line at the convenience store, and at the local bait, tackle,and gas.

We are done.

Deep sigh of relief.

All the gardeners can sharpen their hoes. Yard masters can check spark plugs on mowers. The Village Maintenance Dude can checkout issues regarding road repair.

And as has happened since the beginning of the Great Recession, a fresh crop of "For Sale" signs has burst into bloom around the village. (I think approximately six, of the 315 habitable addresses.) Fortunately, none on my block. The closest lies between my house and the high school. The house on the corner that was for sale has a buyer, the married child of a long-time residents of the village who live two blocks the opposite direction.

Also, sold this late winter, two distressed and razed properties the village had owned. Additionally, a 10,000 sq. ft. retail building, a Family Dollar, will begin building on the site of the old fire station, close to our downtown.

Spring will not be without its challenges. My 80-yearold father cannot find his drill, which is probably 125 years old, that he uses to tap maples. To be fair to him, a good half dozen people may have used and moved it. It looked like this and was the first drill I ever learned to use, mu father explaining it was an inclined plane wrapped on a cylinder which is how drill bits and tractor tires are both adaptations of simple tools. The microchip and internet are just not in my father's tool set.



This year promises to be a much better year for the local specialty item my father brings to the table. If I am lucky I will receive two or three whole pints of real beautiful golden 100% maple syrup harvested and boiled down by my dad. Last year with the unseasonably warm temperatures in February and March the maples burst into bloom in less than a week. I had to beg for the one I received. The sap turning bitter once the thermometer reads 60 during the day and doesn't get down to 30 at night. It's probably all that chlorophyll running rampant feeding new leaves.

Also the Village faces a challenge to what we on the Village Board feel is our economic and center and soul, our Mill Pond. Dammed by at least 1864, and possibly earlier; it is the reason for our village's existence.


This picture was taken last March 20, 2012. It wasn't a hardship to ask them to wade in the waters which had been warmed by unseasonably warm weather.


Any of the restaurants on the Mil Pond side have decks opening on the pond. One establishment is talking of renting paddle boats this summer. I've always thought a windsurf rental and lessons business, or even offering beginning sailing lessons might be fun on the pond covering 17 acres.





And we want to continue to be the "Village of the Dammed".

Several small communities here in Wisconsin have been forced by economics and the not-so-gentle pressure of the Wisconsin DNR to lower water on impoundments and abandon and remove their dams.


It appears about once every fifty years, the Village Fathers (and Mothers!) are faced with the challenge of whether to keep the Mill Pond or let it go.

The damming of springs and a small inlet stream (it is one of the headland impoundments of the Pine River watershed) allowed grinding of grain for around a century. For about 40 years it also generated electricity for the village.



Since the catastrophic dam failure and draining of Lake Delton in The Dells in 2008, legislation has been passed giving the DNR teeth to chew down dams not own by a entity with the resources to make enormous capital improvements. The DNR sees no value in something that may cause litigation for property damages or loss of life. Our dam came back with a "Significant Hazard" rating leaving us scratching our collective head. Damage to what? The failure of the dam would empty a portion of its 49 acres-feet of water into a marshy park-like area. This is just over the volume of water to fill three Olympic sized swimming pools. Never underestimate the power of rushing water, but really?

I do understand the DNR's POV. I do, for personal reasons, familial reasons. (That Director, Awareness-to-Action Campaign, Schuylkill Watershed Specialist, and author of "A River Again", my sister...) We also have a view of our own. That view has allowed us to make decisions with the basic premise the dam and its effect, the Mill Pond, will always be in place.

Reasons Against Removal:

Invasive species (largemouth bass, crappy) will have access to Class A Trout streams, possible contaminant (arsenic, pesticides, and herbicides)will flow into those same streams, economic effects to our downtown, flooding downstream if the dam is not present to control run-off during periods of heavy rainfall as the high water marks for the Pine River are unknown during any period of white settlement and habitation in this area as the dam has been existent since at least 1864, any contaminants in run-off draining into to pond from farmland stays in the pond basin, that there has been at least one if not two incidents of catastrophic dam failure without loss of property or life (our rating should not be "significant hazard" and silt wash out is unlikely or low because the small inlet stream and surface run-off flows through a boggy marsh allowing sediment coming in to settle out, and that we have been working closely with Trout Unlimited to restore/enhance the surrounding area as ecologically as possible and that the possible historic stream bed may run through the foundation of one of the historic buildings (the mill) in the village (to say nothing of the TID dollars we have allocated to that property owner.

And possibly, most importantly:

Until, if ever, the local Fire Department or any assisting fire department near the village has access to a high capacity well, the dammed Mill Pond is our only quick-fill option for fighting fires in and around the village!

This has probably not been a concern for many of the surrounding area dam owners. I doubt there is a point on any part of the Pine River nearby that would have the rapid draw capacity needed without the hazard of drawing in sand through your foot value. The high capacity wells at the DNR's Fish Hatchery may have an access point, but it is very debatable we would be granted 24/7 access of the sort on short notice we would need to guarantee.

For some reason (fish virus, I believe), the DNR is held access to their multimillion-dollar Cold/Cool Water Hatchery very close. I don't see them granting access, even assuming there is an access point, to the gated part of their facility.

This impoundment is not the dumping ground the Delaware and Pennsylvania's Schulkyll was. It has it own estuary and marshes. It is beautiful now, as it is. It is not filled with water weed and algae bloom. We don't manicure all its shoreline. We pick up the trash.

So there you have it. The battle that needs to be fought. We have chosen.

And, today, since I will be feeling like a shut-in with forecasted snow and sleet, I will treat you to pictures of my seedlings and grow room, probably tomorrow!

Clear and Cold

Big snow flake, picture taken by the "father of snow", The snowflakes photos here were taken by Kenneth Libbrecht of CalTech, using a specially-designed snowflake photomicroscope. They show real snow crystals that fell to earth in northern Ontario, Alaska, Vermont, the Michigan Upper Peninsula, and the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.

Little snowflake.

This time of year "clear and cold" is a frequent weather report. This was explained by this rhyme from my childhood.

"As the days grow longer the cold grows stronger."

I will also report at this time that our first "cat-tracking snow" was very late this year. Our local Snow Witch or snow prognosticator, as she prefers to be called, forecasts 35 snowfalls this winter.

This last week we were suppose to have flurries through the day with accumulations of between 1" and possibly 3" near the "lake". The lake being Lake Michigan. I'm really not "near the lake" in the sense the weatherman is predicting. I stepped out of the house, seeing the very tiny flakes and thought:

"Big snow little snow; little snow big snow."

I'm sure this sounds like gobblety-gook to most of you. To others interested in the old ways of weather forecasting, read carefully. When the size of the snow flakes are large, conditions (cold, humidity, etc. in the upper atmosphere are right for a small amount of snowfall. When the snowflakes are small, heavy snows.

Since back moving to Wisconsin where my family has lived for over 150 years, I have been attempting to get to the meat of this saying. As such, I have noticed when the snowflake size changes from the small to large flakes the snow storm is finishing up. Last week when I walked out of the house and saw the tiny flakes, I thought, "Whoa! This is a lot more than an inch or so."

It ended up being somewhere between 7" and 10". I shoveled, and shoveled, and shoveled.

So what's the cut-off between a little and a big snowfall? I've been analyzing this,too. I would say somewhere between 3" and 4" is that line, at least this has been my observation.

In this digital age we are moving farther and farther away from the wisdom of observation and more into the realm of science. The weather persons were all over themselves apologizing for the vast difference in call this last storm.

They could have asked me...

I came across Libbrecht's research working on a picture book on snow for the Twins. With an entire generation separating their father (my brother) and me, I feel the need to pass along these "wisdoms."

Now, if I could just get the village Snow Witch into sharing her knowledge which allows her to predict our annual number of snowfalls with such accuracy! For other weather stories, search my blog using the search tool and enter "snow witch".

Have a Happy New Year! (And, if it is sunny and the moon is close to full, expect fairly cold weather.)

What the Snow Witch Says

Handsome son, his girlfriend and Faithful Companion this last Sunday at the village Mill Pond.

I visited the local library. The village snow prognosticator says despite the beautiful weather we can still expect two more snow falls. The head librarian also says she is more than willing to give them up.

The Village Snow Prognosticator

This is the Ice Queen from the "Narnia" movie. Our snow witch could be her mother, but she looks a lot like her, and is the epitome of what I think of as a Snow Witch.

Here in Wild Rose we have our very own village snowfall prognosticator, AKA... THE SNOW WITCH.

"Da, dat daaah...!" (like the three chords from "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?")

I'm told she prefers the title Snow Prognosticator. For me, though, there is just something more melodramatic about "Snow Witch" (da, dat, daaah).

So anyway, there's this woman who was taught by someone else how to tell the number of snowfall an area will receive based on interpretations of the first 'cat-tracking" snowfall. If your black cat can't leave visible track in the snow as it crosses your path, the snowfall doesn't count. (You can see where the whole cat thing leads me down the path to the name "THE SNOW WITCH"...da, dat, daaaah!)

Last year, she predicted over 45 snowfalls, I forget exactly how many. She nailed the exact number on the head. Down at the local library they post and track her predictions and report on where we are with unrelenting vigilance.

Everyone wants to know. I don't think she has been more than one snowfall off in ten years. It's uncanny.

They didn't used to post it, but in this busy age, it saves our librarians time just to post it on a big white board brought out specifically for that purpose.

This year, she is predicting 23 total snowfall, three of which have already passed.

So 20 more and counting...

Our "Snow Prognosticator" is unfailing...

Do You Have a Plan?

Garden design for my yard which I prepared as part of a landscape design class ten years ago.

Planning seems to be a key component of my mindset of late.

My son is a high school senior and starting out his last season of varsity basketball as well. Last spring his team graduated an incredible trio of basketball players, so although the five of the seven seniors on this year's varsity squad have played together since they were eight for like what amounts to ten months a year; they need to come up with a plan of how they will replace the average 37 points the 2011 seniors brought to the net each and every game.

"So what's your plan?"

My son's bedroom is painted black, his choice. He's not emo or a goth, but he is a gamer. With his flat screen TV, the black walls and drapes give his room a theatre-surround feel. To relieve the blackness, we've taken to "writing on his wall", literally. A number of lines from video game plots and movies, along with inspirational sayings from Abraham Lincoln and Henry Ford (and maybe even Harrison Ford) are jotted on his walls.

One of the latest is:

"So what's your plan?"

Today, I stopped and picked up a book at the library and checked in with the Snow Witch (23 snowfalls predicted, 21 left to fall for those of you who are counting). Basketball is a big topic this time of year in our tiny village. I remarked how it didn't seem possible my son was a senior already, to which the librarian countered, "So does he have a plan?"

There it was again. Alas. "It is his mother who doesn't have a plan," I replied.

Empty nest. Empty home. He's my only chick and he's been gone more and more these days. Working, practice, helping out friends, helping out family. HE HAS A PLAN. A winning season in basketball, getting college credit for six of his seven Advanced Placement classes, already accepted at UW-Green Bay, majoring in chemistry, and maybe a post season run for a gold ball at State; he has a plan.

It is his mother without a plan.

Oh, I have a garden plan, as you can see here. Did I implement this garden plan? Yes, and no. I put up the fence and built the deck. I had the electrical buried and the left border is as drawn. The maple has not yet grown into these dimensions and its trunk is still outside the border's bedline. The planting area on the right lower side has retained that shape, but has been beefed up to a shrub and tree border. The dwarf plum died and I thought it might be a better idea to plant the 'Beauty of Moscow' lilac a bit farther from the deck. The small unlabeled shrub was replaced by a dappled willow, the chokeberry was moved next to it.

None of the paved areas have been paved, much to my chagrin during mud season. I haven't built a garage. Separating the southern part of my yard from the rest is a very low dry stack brick wall and pergola. I do have the utility shed that was a supposed temporary storage solution.

I reconsidered planting any type of shrub literally on top of my well head and dry laid 16" square pavers on sand there instead.

My deck lacks the overhead structure and railings I hoped to build. Maybe next summer, after I replace the one board that has dry rotted in the decking (no matter that I have kept it regularly painted!).

And the roofline of my house has changed. I bumped out the attic space for a master bedroom loft. And smack dab in the middle of what would be the central green space I have a square-ish potager, because of my new mantra, "Grow what you eat."

Instead of a rose garden I have hydrangeas and a carpet rose hedge. The peach has been planted and died, but not before giving me a couple dozen of incredibly sweet peaches to remember it by. I have planted other small fruiting trees, an apple, a sweet cherry, grapes, a pear, and an apricot, and laid out a strawberry bed and blueberry bushes; mostly as part of the right hand shrub and hedge border.

There will be changes between a written plan and its implementation. It is easier to color inside the lines. The first step is to have a plan.

So what's the plan?

It's Official: Winter is Over, The Village Snow Witch Has Spoken

It's official, here in central Wisconsin. Our village's Snow Witch has tallied up our snowfalls and she has proclaimed an end to winter.

Three cheers for the Snow Witch!

Hip! Hip! Hooray!

Spring has come!

More Snow in the Forecast for Wisconsin

More snow is in the forecast for Wisconsin gardeners, particularly in the northern (Sorry, Debi-o! See her pictures of "'Springtime' in the North Woods") and central parts of Wisconsin, possibly as much as six inches! Snow is in the forecast for overnight tonight and overnight Tuesday into Wednesday.

Two snowfalls will once again cement the leadership and knowledge of all things weather of our village Snow Witch, giving her smug bragging rights. She would never come right out and say, " I told you so..."

Gardening in Wisconsin is starting to look a bit more like a Greek tragedy than anything else. The snow also give weight to weather as an externalization of internal mood of one of my life's leading characters, my teenage son. Having recently dissolved things with his girlfriend of a year; he says his heart just feels cold.

I used to tell him he was always so very funny, although not a good joke teller, more of a "life comic" along the lines of Adam Sandler. Nowadays, it seems like total Greek Tragedy at this Wisconsin gardener's house.

His history teacher has assigned him a "This Day in History..." paper to be written in front page newspaper style. My son, being as one with his "Cut and Paste" generation, went to the Internet to pull up everything that happened on his birthday in recorded time in one fell swoop. While he was in the shower, I snooped.

"You could title your front page 'On This Day in History...: Son Born, Comedy Dies-- Last episode of Monty Python Aired' Sub-headings include: 'So Many Football Players, University of Pittsburgh Takes to Numbering their Jerseys' and 'Electric Car Goes 15 Miles Between Rechargings-- in 1893'," I say.

1893???

"What's Monty Python, Mom?" the apple of my obviously ancient eye queries.

"Before there was Saturday Night Live, and William Sandler, Rob Schneider and that crew, there was the Three Stooges and Monty Python," I reply.

"ADAM Sandler, Mom!"

"Musta crossed a circuit with Adam and William Shakespeare," I mumble.

Comedy has decidedly evolved.

Unfortunately, weather in Wisconsin seems to be moving toward Spring at the same rate we are moving toward having a viable electric car-- way too slowly for me.

As for the garden?

I moved one more of my cole crop type trays of starter plants into my cold frame, which is now full with five flats. Even though the temperatures have been in the freezing range for most of the day and night here, and the seal where the bricks and storm window meet is far from perfect; the plantlings are soaking up any sunshine with which we are blessed.

I walked through a Big Box store the other day and noticed a lot of herbicides and pesticides for sale, far out numbering any growing things. One other thing caught my eye, though. I first noticed this on a NYC gardener's blog, "66 Square Feet". She is a rooftop gardener, or "farmer" as her zoning requires her to be; and seemingly a fairly good one, not having farm roots. She started her peas in fiber pots!

What? Peas pre-started in fiber pots. Now here is the same thing, a six-cell of peas about 3"-4" tall for $1.93 in the Big Box store. Peas germinate in about 3-4 days. If soaked overnight, it improves the consistency of germination. In the spring, you can almost always count on a least one of those four days including a shower. Keeping the seeds/planting area from drying out in for 3-4 days is not much of a struggle. Translate that into a NYC rooftop with a city's heat sink and winds, that's a different story, transplants for everything has to be the way to go.

So how does this apply to gardening in the central part of Wisconsin? Well, I planted my soaked peas 10 days ago today. As of yesterday, nada, zip, zilch. The weather is making everything so slow here. On the flip side when this weather pattern exits the state, we are more prone to having the temperature shoot up to 90 degrees while the rest of the state settles into a balmy 70 degrees. Those 3-4 hours when the sun is at its peak and temperatures that high are killer for young peas. I talked with some gardeners a few days back, who spoke of planting their peas through the snow, because of those central Wisconsin temperature spikes.

As I mentioned before, peas are problematic here. Might planting them as transplants make sense for us just as it does with the NYC gardener and her unsual micro-climate? Are pre-started peas a "Best Practice" for central Wisconsin gardeners who want to ensure their spring pea harvest?

For all you non-gardeners, happy sledding and may you have a Wonderful White Easter!

Snow! and Carrots: April 16, 2011 Update

Change that rain to trackable snow. One snow day down and two to go, according to the local Snow Witch.

The seedlings in the cold frame outdoors look great, even after brushing an inch of the slushy stuff off the storm window. When I was telling of the construction I failed to mention I laid down a layer of black landscape fabric to serve as a heat sink.

Today, gardening will be indoors tending to the plants in the grow racks and reading garden blogs.

My latest tray of seedlings on the heat mat is looking good. Planted 3 or 4 days ago with cosmos 'Pimk Pop", carrots 'Danvers', and Celeraic 'Brilliant'; the carrots are already up. Carrots are sometimes difficult to germinate here. You can plant them in cool weather and suddenly the weather spikes up to the 80 and 90 degree mark, making it almost impossible to keep them moist for the lengthy germination period.

These carrots I planted to use as transplants following an Australian gardening model. In Australia, carrots are planted almost the way we plant onion sets. I have been looking at pictures of Australian Community Gardens and I have been impressed at the lushness of their plantings. They look better than the Community Gardens of which pictures are posted here in the States. For this part of Wisconsin, planting carrots as "sets" should possibly be recommended as a "Best Practice". I will continue to follow up on this and post my results.

Additionally, I have planted a very early cropping carrots 'Little Fingers' directly into the garden. The growth habbit of this cultivar reminds me a bit growing some sort of radish.

Pruning Grapes and Leonardo di Vinci's Vitruvian Man

Well, it was an incredibly beautiful, SEASONAL spring day, today. I called the village library to check with our very own village weather prognosticator; yes, the village SNOW WITCH! So what's up? Is spring here?

I call. "Is the Snow Witch in?" "No," comes the casual reply. "So, is her forecast still posted for the year?" The librarian on duty doesn't hesitate, just gives me the bad news.

"The Snow Witch says three more measurable snowfalls."

Damn! I asked, "When was she last in to update her findings?"

"She came by this morning," was the droll reply. Damn! Damn! Damn!

You see, our village Snow Witch is not wrong about these things. Further consultation with the weather prognosticators in the village gives additional information; one of the snow falls will be a heavy one.

"Ugh!" My mother had crocus blooming this morning. My hepatica are green! Come on!

No wonder the Snow Witch is not in!

Regardless, today I begin working on my yard. I still have a couple feet of snow in places. I rake where I can. This is the latest in six years I have pruned my grapes. They are on my list for today.



If you have never pruned your grapes, the chore may seem incomprehensible. If that is the case, I recommend cutting off all but 6'to 7' of the vines so you can see what you you are doing.


This picture shows two grape vines clipped back to 6' or 7'. I did that in the fall.



Next keep in mind, that if you mess it up, there will be a next year. When keeping grapes, your goal to to prune them to increase your yield. I like to trim back the vines to 6' to 7' in the fall to remove material that may have been exposed to fungal diseases. I leave the rest to provide additional protection in the winter to the crown.

During the growing season I tie my grapes to wires running north and south strung between two 4' posts. This allows the prevailing NW to SE winds to provide good air circulation. This is supposed to prevent diseases. Grapes are susceptible to many of the same diseases and pests which affect roses. To date, I have not been affected by any pests, nor diseases.

I have tried to illustrate a couple things. The red parts are the oldest parts of my grape vines. Those sections boxed in pink our this last year's growth. The wires I have high-lighted in blue. Three years ago's growth is orange. The year before last is in yellow.


These parts I have circled in yellow are last year's growth. Cut them back so you can see what you are doing. The bark on the vine that appears to be peeling is typical of a grape vine and nothing to be concerned about (green rectangle).


The first year, I let them grow. The next year, I started to try and see the form of Leonardo di Vinci's "Vitruvian Man". The farther you get from the trunk of the grape the less vitality the budding spurs have. Also, you want to prune before too much energy is expended with leaf development. In central Wisconsin, you want to prune before April 10, preferably between the last weekend in March and first weekend in April.

Circled in yellow are the coming fruiting buds for this year.


These vines actually were tip die-back and are dead. This is why I do not do my pruning all the way back in the fall.


These vines are some left from last year's growth. Cutting these into foot-long lengths and burying about 2/3 of each in a potting medium, keeping them moist, and placing them in a protected spot will encourage them to root. I usually use Rootone to root them and get 100% to root. They root so easily, if you wanted to forgo the Rootone, they would most like root anyway. In that case, I would attempt to root a few extra to be sure I got the number I intended to plant.


All finished!

I have two grape varieties, Frontenac and Othello. My vines are approximately 6 years old now. The second year in the ground, one of the vines were inadvertently clipped off at the ground. I thought at the time that was to be the end of the one, but the next year it grew back, only lagging for a year or so (the one circled in green).

You want to leave 6" to 18" of branching running off from the trunk both left and right at two levels (equivalent to the legs and arms). The length of the branches should include two to three bud spurs. When you have mature vines you will eight to twelve fruiting buds per plant. Think of "Vitruvian Man" when pruning.

Grapes do not like competition with grass and weeds. I do have mine underplanted with strawberries, which seems to work well, however. I use a 10-10-10 fertilizer and water them on a weekly basis. To have grapes grow well, the most important ingredient is that they be well-watered, especially when the grapes are growing quickly after the summer solstice.