Drought, Shingles, War, Immigration, Inflation & Elections--2023 Was One Demoralizing Year

At my age you don’t want to be caught wishing your life way, I am eagerly wishing this whore of a year 2023 outta here.  The La Nina drought we have had for the last three years, made gardening difficult and expensive. Your grass burned out, you had to water often, and you always needed mulch. Meanwhile, I signed up for the Master Gardener course thru Dubuque County Extension, which proved to be a good deal more difficult than it was when the person who originally told me about it took it, but I passed. 

The pressure of that, running for city council and trying to paste-up the Cascade Free Press on the computer is certainly what gave me shingles, which I still have--apparently it does last six months! While the Free Press was clearly campaign lit, it looked like a newspaper and was so highly researched that some of the pieces in it were nothing but numbers (i.e. ordinances, comparisons of salaries of local city administrators, fines, etc). That did not stop Mayor Steve Knepper from whining that it had inaccuracies. Shortly, after the election I invited him over here to my house and told him make a list of them—I would re-research the issue and publish a correction if necessary. Tomorrow is the New Year’s, and I still haven’t heard from him, so that tells me a lot. While he was here, however, he did admit that Councilwoman Megan Oliphant did say that removing a tree cost $1,000.  I rose and pointed mine cost $3,000+ but you can’t get up and correct a councilperson anymore, no matter how wrong they are. Citizen input was seriously curtailed in 2023. 

Mentally, I classify societal problems as those we could solve easily if we would each take the responsibility to act or vote honorably. Example: UPS, FedEx, and Amazon traffic on this street exploded this Christmas because so many people are ordering stuff. Are we really going to put a dent in pollution if we increase driving, deliveries and leaving the vehicle running when we dash into the P.O?  Or leave it running while we eat a burger in a bar? 

How much responsibility do we as individuals bear for what is wrong with our world? It seems the world we live in would be a whole lot better if individuals did what was right in and outside the voting booth.  How many Russians voted for Putin? Israelis for Netanyahu, and one of my opponents in November who only said he wanted “to serve” and came up with not one single idea before the election. He went to three council meetings, but I have never seen him at the podium either supporting a good idea or denouncing a bad one. He cares about Cascade? 

My second class of problems is those we can’t do anything about. My friend Rona living in Haifa,

suddenly finds herself in a war zone.  I disliked Netanyahu even in the year I was there in 1986 because he seemed corrupt.  He courted the right wing, compromised democracy in his country and look at where Israel has landed. I don’t have any friends in Ukraine, but my heart breaks when I see films of the destruction there. But I can’t vote in either place! 

It’s been a year of increased mental illness, judging by the talk about it, looking around and seeing the pressure ordinary people are under. Nevertheless, we will certainly see more of it because the Governor Kim Reynolds seems dead set on getting rid of the income tax, which will leave the state with less money and increase the tax burden on the poor. Nobody seems very concerned about this level of immigration is doing to the American people either.  

Look at Israel and Russian and vote honorably whether it is in your own interest or not.

Xmas Memories

 

My Florida niece wrote this Christmas wasn't sure why she always thinks back to Christmas in Berlin. Well, she has an excuse--she was a kid then. There is certainly that tendency to remember your "Santa Claus Christmases."  One of the years I was there, she had the lead in the  "Krippenspiel" (Christmas Pageant. I was always an angel!) 

But I recall those German Christmases  fondly too, and I was 50!  Something extraordinary about a society that lights one Advent candle, then two, then three and finally four. That doesn't put up the tree till a night before Christmas and puts real candles on it when it does. It seems real candles require a great deal more attention than electric lights. Still, as the days become shorter and darker, lights are in many ways a great a consolation to us as bonfires were, I am sure, to the Neanderthalers. 

Still I can't help but remember those mid sixties years when we kids, sang at midnight mass, and ran

over to the Old Grove to skate for a couple hours before we had to get nylons, heels, wool skirts--only female heathens wore pants to church in those days. My astonished great-nephew exclaimed, "You guys had midnight mass. "Yes we did!"  I am not sure why that was so astonishing. A more recent X-mas memory is the "Weihnachtswindmuehle" that I found in a Chariton, Iowa junk shop and Pat Kurt, loved (maybe because he was German; it's a German thing.) He's been dead 9 years this coming April and since I have had it out of the box once--to take it to a East Side classroom I gave it to Charlie, is either a little German or pyromaniac. At any rate, it found a home this Christmas, and I am happy.

Possible Cascade Rain Garden Sites

Walked around town Saturday in the rain, sizing up water flow and looking for good spots for rain gardens. I found several on city ground. Here are some pix that illustrate where the water runs and an explanation of how a rain garden might assist in holding it on the land for a short period of time, so that in a heavy storm it doesn’t roar into the river and contribute to flooding. Recently, I read that the whole state of Iowa was a collection of intermittent rain gardens, swampy spots farmers hate and are tiling the water out of. Those swampy spots are undoubtedly what made Iowa land so fertile, and once they are removed, it will undermine the composting processes that made our soil that way.

Immediately east of the second city  building directly behind the old hotel is bare spot that appeared to be retaining water and seems a most likely candidate. There would need to be little sculpting of the ground, so that the water it holds doesn't undermine the foundation of the building. It seems that mixing compost with the soil there would do the job. It could be planted with pampas grass, which gets ripped apart in the wind, unlike some of the other, better grasses that retain their pretty plumes well into winter. If you want an example, drive past my house, to the south along the sidewalk I planted pampas grass as part of my and compare the pampas grass with the cultivar of it that still has its plumes.

Another inviting possibility is along the old well-house. As can be seen from the photo, the road where the water runs is the alley that provides access to the apartment behind Main Street, and protected by the cement wall (at the top of this photo) that is clearly visible from the bridge. The problem with this site is obvious at a glance--the water runs down the road toward the river. To access the water, a person would have to have to pull up to the east (right) side of the building. Though the water can only be used for irrigation and watering down construction sites. It used to be Cascade City water, but now it is so laced with nitrates it can't be drunk. So this site would take a good deal more work to establish a rain garden, but a couple vigorous perennial bushes or grasses  would only shorten the road.

Of course, the purpose of a rain garden is to hold water for a short period instead of allowing it to rush into the river and curtail flooding.  Private homes and businesses provide ample opportunity for rain gardens as well. The first place to look is downhill of where the water runs off your house. (This is a lovely illustration from a book on the topic.) Water deftly selects the shortest distance with the least resistance between two points, so look to nature herself. 

The best possibility in town, it still seems to me is the section of the Legion Park that the city owns and is an (ersatz) "driveway." In really heavy rainstorms the water cuts a 6-in gulley in the sand and makes it almost impossible to drive on. The DNR would like a $50,000 fix (a grass paver system) that will cost the city $10,000 and any cost overruns and we must apply for a grant. A rain g arden would result in a lovely display of flowers and grasses visible from the pool.

Of course, not every lot can accommodate a rain garden. I might be tempted to try to squeezed one into the grassy section next to the B & B east of the bridge, and it might work, but it might also flood the owner's basement, so it is important to keep those sorts of practical considerations in mind. 

If you are interested in my opinion of what might work in your yard, garden or business, I will come out and look free of charge. Drop me a line at keyronmcd@yahoo.com or message me on Facebook.

Last Council Meeting of 2023

That the city is not broke but overcommitted and has had to strip down library, did not deter Future Fields & Recreation, spokesman Kurt Conrad from pressing his demand to hire a consultant for almost $10,000 to plan for future baseball fields. The motion was approved, as was a potential plan for two-phase pickleball courts in Oak Hill promoted by several players in attendance. Neither vote commits the city to specific $-amounts but does allow the groups to fund-raise for their respective causes.

            Jim Terry, the local Alcoholics Anonymous representative, requested that his group be allowed to continue to meet in the EMS building, which provides ground level access and bathroom facilities. The group can meet there till April, but must then move. City Administrator Lisa Kotter urged Terry to try local churches until the library is constructed.

Pure bureaucracy: there has been no assertion that AA or any other group renting the facility has caused damage or entered the locked areas, which presumably store emergency medical supplies including narcotics. However, an assessment done by a private firm recommended that other groups  not be allowed to rent the facility. The EMS volunteers will, however, be allowed to charge the city mileage for use of their private vehicles.

           The balance of the meeting was previously discussed ordinances: definition and time limits for snow removal from sidewalks and a method for notifying and fining citizens, the 300% increase in parking citation fees and a recreational burn ban, which will get three readings. However, the snow emergency and removal and parking fee increase passed on first reading. This writer has always objected to that practice but the 2nd December meeting would fall on Christmas day and has been canceled so the agenda was rather long this year. Merry Christmas.