Zombies (7/27/2023)

“It must be the zombie apocalypse” was our reaction, while sitting in the parking lot of the Burger King in Hillsville, Virginia. A sirens was going off, an ambulance was coming by, various fire engines, and not to count the large number of police cars. We were on our first real camping trip in our van; post retirement. Somewhat of a dress rehearsal for our coming trip across country, and also just our first real vacation. (By the way, I am borrowing the zombie apocalypse metaphor from Nigel Saunders from the Bonsai Zone who always uses that phrase when he hears a siren.)

We left home on Monday morning for the Rocky Knob Camp Ground on the Blue Ridge Parkway, just outside Floyd. We planned to stay there two nights, knowing well that there would be no electric hookups; water was available at the restrooms. In other words, camping was relatively primitive. It proved to be delightfully true when we got there. It was a larger campground than expected, and the camping spots were fine. It took a bit of adjusting to get a somewhat level site, but by the second night we were fine. We had taken the van out to go to a magnificent hiking spot (more about this a little later), followed by lunch at a winery and a visit to Floyd which was downhill from the campground. So, when we returned, we had learned our lesson and parked the van at a more level position.

After two nights, we packed up and drove to Grayson Highland State Park. Their campground is much more developed; it has running water and electricity. Spots are tighter together, and here again, partially because of my choice and because of the vehicle, getting a perfectly level (sleeping) site was difficult. However, the second night was a charm. We stayed in the park, did some magnificent hiking and after two nights, we moved to Highland County to visit friends where we camped in their driveway but ate and showered in their home. My wife even managed to break their toilet seat cover. The following day we drove home.

What amazed me the most about both camp grounds was that they had volunteer hosts. These were older couples in their 70s and 80s who stay at the place for free and help with hospitality and in the camp store (if there is one). Something to consider.

The hiking:

In the Rocky Knob Recreation Area, we did the Rock Castle Gorge Trail the first day. We only did the lower part, approximately 2.8 miles each way, although our FitBits told us it was closer to 3 miles (so 6 miles total). It is an absolutely gorgeous trail. A fairly moderate hike (on the easy side of moderate in our eyes), with some nice up hills and vistas along a wild creek. It was extremely enjoyable. We topped it off with that visit to the Chateau Morrisette Winery for a glass of cold white wine and a cheese plate for lunch. The winery is very dog friendly; I highly recommend a visit to this winery. The location, vistas, layout and the wine a super.

On our way out, on the second day we walked the 3-mile Black Ridge Trail. This trail was also very nice, somewhat slightly more challenging, but very pleasant with some nice vistas. This trail has much more variability in the landscape; however, both trails in this area were great.

In Grayson Highland we only walked one trail. The 3.7-mile Stamper’s Branch Trail kicked our butt; however, it was great! With the 3.7 miles I mean that the trail is actually only about 1.9 miles each way and it leads from the camp ground to the visitor’s center. The trail has an elevation gain of close to 900 feet and let me tell you, these 70-year-old knees felt it. Moreover, coming from sea level, I noticed that we peaked at an elevation of almost 5000 feet. Grayson Highland is near Mount Rogers, Virginia’s highest mountain. I enjoyed the types of vegetation we hiked through and we even saw a bear in the far distance.

So how did my bonsais fare while we were gone? I had received a LinkTap Wi-Fi watering timer what is called a “tap linker”. This is a Wi-Fi water timer that opens a valve to a hose on which I had two sprinklers mounted. I had the sprinklers go on every morning for 20 minutes. Let me tell you, from the looks of it my plants loved it. They look lush and in much better shape compared to when I water them by hand. Thank goodness, my neighbor Bob was also looking out for them, and all was good.

In all, we had a successful trip. We now feel much more comfortable and want to do again. Living the retired life! Not like zombies.

Our Rocky Knob camp site.  Somewhat primitive, but very pleasant.

Our first hike.  It was a nice tail along a stream.

Chateau Morrisette Winery.  Our cheese palte after a nice hike.  A great way to recover.

The view on the hike of our second day (departure day) on Rocky Knob.

Our Grayson Highland Hike.  The stream crossing.

Stormwater, the early years (7/10/2023)

In a previous post I mentioned that I once had the ambition to write a book on stormwater and erosion and sediment control (and I may still do it). This idea was a natural outflow of the job I did pre-retirement. The following post is part of an introductory section that I wrote for the book. Ince I lifted from a chapter, I have changed it a little to make it a narrative for you all to follow and understand. I left the literature citations out, feel free to contact me, if you are interested in them. So here I go:

Very early, North American settlement history may have followed similar patterns as were encountered in Europe of the Middle Ages. The settling population in North America initially concentrated in towns and villages for mutual protection from outlaws and native Indian population. This is evident by some of the older larger urban centers on the east coast. In addition, large tracts of land were deforested very early on in settlement history for the use of timber (building materials) and the growth of cash crops, in particular tobacco. A 17th century document in the historic town of Williamsburg describes that climbers of the church spire in town (or what is now Colonial Williamsburg) were able to see the York River to the north and the James River to the south, a feat that is impossible nowadays because of the regrowth of the forest in the area. The peninsula appeared to have completely deforested, mostly for the growing of tobacco at that time.

The cartographer Lewis Evans observed the same thing when he reported in 1750 about the deforestation and conversion to agriculture land that had already greatly altered the hydrology and clarity of streams and creeks in the Piedmont of Northern Virginia:

"When the country was cover'd with Woods, and the Swamps with brush, the rain that fell was detained by these interruptions, and so had time to insinuate into the Earth, and contribute to the springs and runs. But now the country is clear'd, the rain as fast as it falls is hurried into the rivers, and washes away the earth and soil of our Naked Fields."

 

The reports by Evans were only the beginning. Human caused accelerated erosion increased steadily as is shown in a recent study by Kemp et al (2020) who conclude that European settlement of North America during the past century has resulted in the movement in as much sediment that natural processes can move in 700 to 3000 years. They estimated that geologic sediment production which had been relatively stable for the past 40,000 years increased 10-fold as a result of European settlement and the rapid expansion of agriculture and river modification seen throughout the continent.

So, what are currently the main sources of sediment the waterways in more developed nations? It was reported that while agriculture practices generate considerable amounts of sediment by way of erosion; we now estimate that areas cleared for construction are able to generate the equivalent of many decades of sediment in one year compared to agricultural uses (let me know if you are interested in the source). Research determined that construction can yield 140,000 tons of sediment per square mile per year, compared to 1000 tons from agriculture land and up to 500 tons from forested land in the Piedmont area of Maryland. In other words, construction is a major contributor producing 140 times more sediment than agriculture land per unit area (for example per acre or hectare). However, , there is so much more land being used for agriculture than actively being disturbed by construction activities.

On an interesting note, while sediment production increased at least 10-fold over historical times in North America during the last century, it was also observed that during the same period it seemed that less sediment reached the ocean. This was caused by the retention of the sediment by reservoirs that were constructed by human. Reservoirs served for the storage of drinking water and water for energy generation and irrigation. It has been estimated that a total of 1.4 ± 0.3 metric tons of sediment per year is retained by reservoirs world-wide. Siltation of these reservoirs will eventually greatly reduce the capacity, function, and usefulness of these structures. It appears that Indonesian rivers were a rare exception and that they deliver more sediment to the coastal areas than other rivers that they surveyed.

Here I’ll step away from my book chapter. I saw similar issues in Nepal where the land or better fertile soil was being carried away by runoff. The main reason was deforestation for agriculture. We often joked that a new island was being formed off the coast of Bangladesh. This island was formed from the sediment being carried by the rivers coming out of Nepal. The results in Nepal were the drying out of springs and dropping groundwater table, a phenomenon seen throughout areas that are being deforested.

I’ll end here, there are many posts where I discuss some of these items as well. Just look in the keywords for the words like stormwater, erosion, sediment, erosion and sediment control, runoff reduction and alike. If you like or enjoy what I wrote here, let me know and I’ll pull some additional material out of my writing.

Our daughter was in New Delhi, India these past few weeks and sent me this newspaper shot.  They had 6" (126 mm) of rain in the afternoon and it flooded the town.  Can you imagine all the impervious area in such a large city, it created havoc.

Why am I here, revisited (6/20/2023)

This past week or so I had a relatively large number of hits on my blog. While this is of course very pleasing, I also wonder what folks are reading and one of the posts that received a lot of the attention was titled: “Why are you here? … On Training and Teaching (Part IIX).” The post was from July 2017.

The post starts out by describing my honest request for critique for a new course I started to teach, and ended in my musing on why I do what I do. I never received much of a review from my students, but that seems par for the course. I used to be an assistant manager and acting manager of a public radio station, and we always reminded ourselves that if we did not get anyone complaining, no one was listening. In other words, maybe my classes put them all to sleep.

In the same blog, I also introduced you all to my favorite saying that I like to pay back (or maybe award) the community willing to put up with me. I have always wanted to volunteer and contribute to the society or even the group (my work place) that I am involved with.

Rereading the blog made me think about my current stage in life, almost exactly six years later. I started my retirement life less than a month ago. Where am I now in this big picture of life? The republican elected officials in our county successfully got rid of me from the committees that I volunteered on and replaced me with their conservative cronies, so my payback stopped. I could of course join other not for profit groups or volunteer more for my church. But let’s take a step back.

I described in my 2017 post that a questionnaire that I answered which asked me what was important in my job? I could now twist that a little and ask what I would think would be important in my retirement life, or better the rest of my life, whatever there is left? Was it:

• Money
• Benefits
• Freedom
• Research
• Teaching, or
• Perceived contribution to society?

Yes, money is important; however, we get our social security, pension and whatever we eventually dare to pull out of our savings or investments. Am I going to try to make a few extra bucks? Yes. This week I am doing a little extra teaching for some beer money, and a friend has asked for my resume for some extra consulting work. A headhunter was looking to get me a fulltime job for double the salary that I had been making, but I am just not sure if I want to keep working in a stressful job. Altogether, while money helps, it does not seem to be the direct route to happiness or better contentment or fulfillment.

In a previous post I already complained about the tardiness in getting my medical insurance squared away. But yes, health insurance is very important especially when you get older. So, continued benefits are important, especially when you get older and your health might start failing. Thank goodness, I feel great.

Ah, freedom. I addressed some of that in my previous post. No more alarm clocks, and we now have a clock that tells us what day it is, not what time it is.

The next three points somehow blend together. I am no academic, and since I graduated with my doctorate at an advanced age, I was 37, I was never able to get an academic position. In other words, research is what I make it to be. Most of the stuff I look up is for personal interest (which you all should be familiar by now) or related to my work (teaching, past and future). I am also researching some future road trips. Some of the research has been successful, and I have been on the winning side of lawsuits as expert witness. Most of these wins were the result of my research and a very skilled lawyer. Obviously, those days are over, but I still research items for my writings and for some of the teaching that I will continue doing during retirement. I already had a teaching gig the first 15 days into my retirement.

This teaching (and this blog, I hope) assist me in what I perceive is and can be my contribution to society. Giving you all a look at the inner workings of my brain as well as maybe teach you a little, convey a little of what I learned over the years. Hopefully this can be my legacy to society at large. Something to be remembered by, like my past students who during my retirement tour told me that they always learned something from me and my lectures. I have no large sums of money to start endowments or foundations, so this will have to do!

Now you know, why I think I am here, in life and on this blog. Again, if you are a regular reader, by now you know me and my interests. If there is an item you like me to research, discuss; let me know in the comment section of my posts and I will entertain it. Otherwise, I will just keep writing and updating you a few times per month.

Our friend Mason took this photo of me as part of a birthday celebration for a friend and me last week.

Our new (retirement) clock

Welcome to Mars (6/13/2023)

Welcome to Mars, at least that is what photographs from New York City look like. Here in coastal Virginia, I am not so sure what the sky equates to. A combination or hybrid between Mars and the old Los Angeles? These is just a grey haze outside, like it is supposed to be very humid. However, it is slightly orangey or pinkish. Moreover, it is not warm, as in warm and humid. On top of that, the air smells.

You must be living under a rock if you do not know what this is all about, the Canadian wildfires. Although, on our neighborhood’s Facebook page, one lady actually asked the question what was wrong with our air. The other day we received the wrong newspaper and the Wall Street Journal, which we normally don’t read, had an editorial in which they blamed poor forest management for the fires. It is like a country that has 40% of its landmass covered by forest and has roughly 38 million people can manage all those forests. Moreover, all those forests are usually covered by snow for a couple of months a year and therefore inaccessible. The truth is that there is a heat dome parked over Canada, this early in the year. Couple a very (record) warm May with an extensive (record) drought and you create a tinder box. Nothing or very little to do with poor forest management. But it is easy for the right wing to blame everything on poor forest(environmental) management and absolutely ignore any sign of climate change or global warming. Moreover, they are convinced it is cyclical.

Heat and drought in Canada? How come? Well, I have written a lot about climate change, and guess what? Voilà, more evidence. With climate change or global warming, it seems that the northern latitudes warm up faster than us in the lower ones. This is the phenomenon we are experiencing. Hopefully this past week’s experience will wake up a few, although it seems we have a lot of political distractions lately.

I downloaded this photograph from MSN news who got it from Reuters News..  If this is copyrighted, I am sure they will let me know.  However, to me this shows me and the world what it was like in New York City this past week as a result of the Canadian wildfires.  It also shows you why I titled my post "Welcome to Mars."

Free at last? (6/4/2023)

The first few days of retirement are completed. We both retired on Wednesday; I attended my wife’s retirement lunch on Tuesday and she came to mine on Wednesday. We were both introduced to colleagues and supervisors (at the last minute of our employment). The only thing we often could say was “I heard so much about you.” In one instance at my wife’s luncheon one of her colleagues whispered in my ear: “and it is all true.” This was when I said that to her boss.

I can only tell you that it is true what people tell you, retirement is not for the weary. Time to relax, hell no! I already had two inquiries about jobs and if I would be so nice to apply for them or at least send in my resume. These past two days were used to unpack what we brought home from the office and to organize our new lives at home. My wife already had lunch with a very good (retired) friend, who can’t wait for more companionship. I had dinner with her husband, also one of my best friends. Saturday and Sunday were not different, we were constantly on the go. No rest and relaxation here, yet.

Of course, in addition to all this, the past few days have been filled with discussions about our finances. Will we have enough money to maintain our now past lifestyle? On top of that it seems that my health insurance is screwed up. This ranges from Medicare part B to the supplemental part. It is a complete mess. Hopefully everything will work out; however, I better do not get sick in June. Folks at Social Security appear to be so inept, you tell them that you are retiring on June 1 and apply for Medicare at the same time and then did not put anything in the remarks section about wanting Medicare to start on June 1 which I assumed would be self-evident, but no! Moreover, there are no instructions that you had to fill out a starting date. Whomever entered the data did not bother to ask or question things. I learned assume consists of three words: ass, u and me. In other words, I should have known better, and it really made an ass out of me and guess what I think of you (u) right now, social safety net? Oh well, this will come to pass, if I get sick, I might need to start a go-fund-me page to pay for my medical bills this month.

A quick report on last week’s travel. My last trip for the state was to Abingdon. It was an emotional trip for me at times. I greatly enjoy the Southwest, or better the southwestern part of the state. While they are more conservative, I can somehow understand why and accept it. They feel left behind as I think I outline in a previous post. The two days teaching was good, I met with a lot of folks that I have taught over my 14-year career as an instructor for the state. Moreover, I got to eat and drink in places I visited before. It was a fun trip. All I can say is that I will return to the area, but now socially and to explore. This was not my last visit.

Since we are now the proud owners of a camping van (I mentioned this for the first time here), my wife and I are talking about maybe producing a more detailed travel blog, or maybe even starting a YouTube channel for me, where I can talk more about nature, bonsai, stormwater, and our travels. We will see what is going to happen in the future. Stay tuned folks, but as I promised, this blog will go on! By the way, our first trip was to Belle Isle State Park, a place we visited before for some day hikes. It was recommended to me by one of my students in Lynchburg as a great site to go camping, and I dare say it was great. The fun part there was that during our trip we ran into a past student of mine from Staunton (2-hour drive from Belle Isle). He works for VDOT (Virginia Department of Transportation) and was on visiting the area as well. Crazy when you know so many folks around the state. It somehow amazed my wife how well known I am. Retirement is a double edged sword; I have to behave myself. Well, not really.

Our setup at Belle Isle, we had fun.

My wife and Radar enjoying the outside and waiting for that beer.

On the Creeper Trail in Abingdon

A selfie in my last class in Abingdon