Nature

Compared to our sisters and brothers in the animal kingdom, humans are gloriously naked, when they are naked. The drastic reduction of hair on our bodies is nothing less than remarkable. It is unprecedented in our family of hominids, which include orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and humans. Nevertheless, humans still have approximately the same density of hair follicles as chimps and gorillas.

So why have we lost most of our body hair? Today’s evolutionary scientists speculate, but do not offer one definitive reason.

 

 

 

We should probably note for the on-going record that it is currently snowing in Brattleboro, and there is close to an inch of the stuff piled up on the ground. What makes this somewhat unusual is that we’ve had almost no snow in March, the temperatures were warmer than average, and everything had melted. 

Spring was well on its way, with snowdrops, crocuses, and daffodils starting to blossom, leaves on some bushes and trees starting to bud, and birds returning from their migrations. Many humans had begun yard clean-up and spring cleaning. Now it is all put on pause until it watms back up.

In the beginning the LORD Thankgodiamaman created the heaven and the earth.

On the second day Thankgodiamaman gets very busy creating all kinds of things out of the void and from the face of the deep.

He said let there be light, let there be a firmament; let there be lights in the firmament and stars in the heavens; he made the land, he made the wetland; he divided the waters from the waters; he brought forth grasses, herbs and fruit trees; he made the creatures, two by two, on the land, in the waters and flying fowl, whereupon Thankgodiamaman blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply.”

Enjoy the warm temperatures while you can. That is, enjoy the warm days with a grain of proverbial salt. These warm days are actually bad things.

Scientists are reporting that February broke global temperature margins at record levels. used words such as: jaw-dropping, stunning, shocker, climate emergency, bombshell, extraordinary, frightening, and unprecedented.

In a recent comment I used the metaphor that we Americans were headed for a Rip unless we woke up, and it got me wondering if this was accurate. My exact line was “…the election is a vast nasty leading to a larger and far more dangerous rip tide.” Rips are naturally occurring, and while often deadly, they are avoidable, and deal-able, if panic doesn’t prevail. Most fatalities happen because people freak out and try to swim against the current, directly into shore, and drown from exhaustion or fright. Even strong swimmers can’t contend with the force of outgoing surge.

It’s worth keeping in mind, Rips don’t have vertical pull, they won’t suck you under. Mostly they channel water back out, built up from incoming waves.  Some Rips, according to recent science, a great many, are large surface level conveyer whirlpools, streams that will eventually return you to shore if you go with the flow.  You can’t always be sure that will happen though, so riding it out may not be practical, even if viable. In any case the current will only carry someone out a few hundred yards beyond where the waves break as a result of shallower seabed, or sand bars. 

This has been a weird winter. We saw a few snow flakes in October, a bit of snow around the end of December and early January, then almost nothing. Relatives down south are still digging out, though, from their big snow storm.

The temperatures have been relatively mild. As I type it is about 40 degrees out. What little snow was there is turning to water and evaporating.

This chilly, windy morning, as I was walking my dog, I was surprised to see a large flock of robins fluttering all around the Spring Street Parking Lot.

Are they lost? Or did they miss the southbound AMTRAK?

(According to the Quebec based bird welfare organization Le Nichior, the proper collective noun for robins is
a “worm”.

)

I took , just southwest of BEEC. Such a cool experience!

This year, the winter solstice will occur on December 21st at 11:49 PM EST. It’ll be the shortest day of the year in which Brattleboro will receive about nine hours of daylight. Happy holidays!

We took a walk in the Retreat Woods recently as a way to get back into nature without having to go too far.  It had been a while since we last went — probably in the early summer sometime.  The trails were already too wide then, but this last time, it was obvious they had seen some hard wear.

In most places, the main paths were down to hard-packed bare earth, with lots of trippy rocks and tree roots pushing up that I don’t remember being quite so much in evidence before.  The softer, smoother top layer of earth seems to have been worn away.

Well, that was somewhat unexpected. Some snow at HQ on Cedar Street today.

Surprised cats came to the back door, wanting to come back in after expecting to be out most of the day. Both were covered with snowy ice pellets.

Did you get some flakes, or was this a micro-weather event?

A greedy raccoon steals cat food and then demands MORE by banging on a glass door with a rock.

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 The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) had its sixth and final monitoring day for the summer of 2015 on Wednesday, August 26th. All of our sites received significant rain in the day prior to sampling and 20 of our 27 sites tested above the “suitability for swimming” standard set by Vermont and the EPA. It is generally recommended to wait 24-48 hours after a significant rainfall to resume swimming in lakes and streams, so keep that in mind when making weekend plans on the water.

The kids are headed back to school and our monitoring season has come to a close. I want to take this time to extend a gigantic thank you to all of our volunteers who took time out of their Wednesday mornings to collect samples and help transport them to where they needed to go. We would not be able to make this program work without all of our amazing volunteers. So….THANK YOU!!!!!

All planetary life forms anywhere throughout the universe have an expiration date.

On Earth, the mass production of humans with their built-in obsolescence is no exception, which, akin to our manmade consumer products, the people have a shelf-life of their own. It’s a good thing too. The human population cupboard is full, and, in fact, bursting at the seams.

As a society, the human collective can expect two expiration dates. One is on the daily road of sustainability where individual humans become extinct (aka death). The other is when humans taken as a whole are no longer sustainable on this planet causing the extinction of the species.

I know this is a loaded question but where can I find some loons near Bratt?  Has anyone heard their calls in Windham County?  I returned last week from camping in the N.E.K. and fell in love with their haunting calls. Just curious if anyone knows or not.

The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) had its fifth monitoring day for the summer of 2015 on Wednesday, August 12th. All of our sites, as well as much of the Northeast, received a soaking rain the day prior to sampling and only one of our sites tested below the “suitability for swimming” standard set by Vermont and the EPA. It is generally recommended to wait 24-48 hours after a significant rainfall to resume swimming in lakes and streams, so keep that in mind when making weekend plans on the water.

The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) had its fourth monitoring day for the summer of 2015 on Wednesday, July 29th. Our sites on the Saxtons River and Sacketts Brook received significant rainfall in the day before sampling and 5 of our 27 sites tested above the recommended “suitability to swim” bacteria level set by Vermont and the EPA. It is generally recommended to wait 24-48 hours after a significant rainfall to resume swimming in lakes and streams, so keep that in mind when making weekend plans on the water. As the summer progresses you can use the charts we publish to make informed decisions about where it is safer to swim or boat based on which sites have high bacteria counts after rainfall or tend to always have high bacteria counts.

The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) had its third monitoring day for the summer of 2015 on Wednesday, July 15th. The majority of our sites received significant rainfall in the day before sampling and 8 of our 27 sites tested above the recommended “suitability to swim” bacteria level set by Vermont and the EPA. It is generally recommended to wait 24-48 hours after a significant rainfall to resume swimming in lakes and streams, so keep that in mind when making weekend plans on the water.

Even though we keep saying that bacteria levels are heavily dependent on rain, river users, whether they be swimming, boating, paddling, tubing, fishing, or even just hiking by, can help improve water quality by taking care of the rivers and their shores.

It’s peak summer, buzzing abounds. I was recently struck by the correlation between bikes and flies. This article attempts to chase that down. An exercise in vernal observation and kinetic free association, admittedly esoteric.

Sitting by the side of the road, gazing with even a slight degree of critical attention, you’ll see Harleys, BMWs, Ducatis, Triumphs, and a spate of Japanese varieties, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki.  Within each company selections are offered which do specific things optimally. The Touring Bike, the Cruiser, the Racer, the Dirt Bike. Also dotting the landscape, an array of hybrids made to straddle on and off-road use, they do various tasks reasonably well. These are the Enduros, Spyders, Dual Sports, etc. It’s a vast domain, with models for every passion and taste.

The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) had its second monitoring day for the summer of 2015 on Wednesday, July 1st. As you may recall, a large thunderstorm came through our area Wednesday morning which coincided, rather unfortunately, right with our sampling time. Some volunteers were out before the storm moved through, but about half our sites were not tested due to the inclement weather. Our volunteers are a valuable asset and we never want to risk their safety to get a few water samples!

          Bacteria levels tend to spike following a heavy rain event when more water falls on the ground than can be infiltrated, or soaked into, the ground and it runs off directly into rivers and streams taking everything loose on the ground with it. In the case of impermeable surfaces such as concrete, pavement, and compacted sand or gravel, no water can ever infiltrate and always becomes runoff when it rains.