A Hint of Spring and "A Sand County Almanac"

January can be a long, cold month here in northern Missouri. Then we begin to have a few days that give you hope that spring will return. On these days I begin to think of Aldo Leopold and his little masterpiece “A Sand County Almanac”. Leopold, known as the father of wildlife ecology, was at the forefront of conservation ethics.

Aldo Leopold taught at the University of Wisconsin and wrote from his weekend retreat, an overused sand hill Wisconsin farm. ”The Almanac” was published in 1949 a year after his death. It is a collect of writings made of his thoughts while working his old farm and other essays on the then emerging field of conservation ecology. His slim volume has become a nature writing classic similar in status to Thoreau’s “Walden”.

The first chapter “January” is an essay about a skunk that has awoken from its winter slumber to a world of melting snow and lengthening days. The skunk begins a journey across the farm to find food, leaving a trail which is investigated by the tracker Leopold. Each January I find myself pulling out my copy of the almanac and beginning to read it again. I usually only make it through the a few chapters before I put it away for another year. But just as longer days and warmer temperatures make gardeners get out their seed catalogs, I too have to have my spring fix of Aldo Leopold.

Now It's Winter and Now It's Not

Blogging about the weather? I know…What a boring topic. But you have to admit it has been a challenging subject this year.

I’m one of those people that like the weather to be the way it is suppose to be. In winter I want cold and snow. Summer should be dry and hot. Spring can be variable, but a slow warming that blends into summer is most welcome. And autumn, my former favorite season, needs brisk days and chilly nights that let the foliage turn beautiful colors.

The previous two winters were pretty true to definition. There was snow on the ground for Christmas both years and last year the snow hung around until March. But this year is behaving quite differently. There has been no snow of any true amount and worse the days are fluctuating between highs of 60 degrees followed a few days later by cold in the teens. What makes it even worse is that when we have these wide variations it means the wind blows hard along the temperature gradient and makes everything miserable.

Of course with all this deviant weather behavior you can’t help from wondering about Global Warming, which is a topic that is liable to restart the Civil War her along the former border states. We take our red and blue state divisions seriously. Religion, science, sports teams, and the weather can all result in gun shots being fired.

I said that autumn used to be my favorite season of the year. But as I get older and the cold is making parts of my body I don’t even know the name of begin to ache, I now see autumn as a forewarning of the pain to come. Maybe the way to solve this problem is to pack my bags and head to a warmer climate as so many of my fellow baby boomers seem to be doing. After all a gentle winter in a sun-belt state or even Mexico or Central America would be nice. And when I want a dose of good bracing cold I’ll just make a visit, although a short one, back across the Mason-Dixon Line.

What a Great Christmas!

For the third year in a row my whole family was home for Christmas. By family I mean my wife and our two children; although our children are now adults with partners of their own. We are beginning to reestablish some of the family Christmas traditions that we had not been able to do over the years when everyone was living so far apart.

My wife and I each have one parent alive, her mother and my father, which are becoming affectionately known as “the ancients”. They both now live within visiting distance so we were able to have a “Christmas dinner” with each. Which means quite a few extra Christmas dinners over several days of Christmas, but it was worth it and I’ve always thought that so much preparation goes into the holidays that Christmas Day should be more than one day anyway.

It looks like 2012 is beginning as if it may be an excellent vintage year. Happy New Year everyone!