Making the most of a deep freeze
Pick your best gear and get moving
(Special early edition: Skip to the bottom ASAP for events happening Tuesday, Feb. 18 in Des Moines and Davenport!)
We’re not supposed to gripe about the cold in Iowa, but this ain’t February Iowa cold. This is January cold. Polar vortex cold. Maybe even Alaska cold. Unprecedented, you might say.
We can take just about anything in Iowa from right wingnuts blowing smoke to this river valley blowing snow, but by this time of the year, we’ve had enough of it.
All of it.
Turn up the volume to hear the wind.
We were just about to come out of hibernation, too. Millions of federal dollars had poured into this state to rebuild our local and regional food systems after decades of atrophy. More farmers than ever were using cover crops to reduce erosion after decades of bare ground and nonstop tilling.
My houseplants were sprouting new growth after going dormant for the winter. Hell, even the chickens are laying.
Poor chickens.
There was hope alongside struggle. Longer days, more sunshine.
Then this happens. Minus 20 “with the wind,” they say, as if there’s an Iowa day without wind. Let’s just say minusfriggin20 and skip the qualifiers.
It’s bad out there and everyone knows it. Just scan the headlines. Don’t bother with details. It’s not like you can change them just by knowing them, so stop.
We’ve got work to do. A WWOOFer is staying with us for 3 weeks. Averie’s got common sense and a good work ethic, she’s personable and not demanding. She wants to learn whatever I can teach and forgives me when I get it wrong.
She even laughs at my jokes. A real keeper.
Knowing a February warm spell wouldn’t last, we put in a lot of pruning time when she first got here. The pear orchard, the fruit trees along the driveway and around the house, done.
Even the chestnut orchard got some love. We removed tree shelters, cleared out leaves and old wasps’ nests, trimmed suckers and sprouts and replaced the shelters.
Then 6 inches of snow landed Wednesday. Time to chill.
Right. By Thursday afternoon, I was wondering if I should invite our Draco Hill Nature Farm guests out to snowshoe and sled. The kitchen needed mopping. When did that toilet handle get so loose?
On Friday, I resigned myself to another wasted day. Sitting and sulking at the kitchen table before lunch, I checked the National Weather Service. (I dare Elon to shut THAT down. Watch the tractorcades roll in!)
WHAT??? It was 24 degrees outside! And that would be the last day before this minusfrigginzero crap set in. I looked up to see Averie in socks and jams reading in front of the fire.
“Let’s get some pruning done!”
“OK!” she said. Six inches of snow on the ground outside and a cozy fire inside. Did I mention I won the WWOOFer lottery?
We pulled on our winter gear – layers of long johns, jeans, overalls, winter coats, knit caps, balaclavas, heavy socks, boots, insulated gloves - and headed out the door looking 40 pounds heavier and moving 40 years older.
First, we had to plow the snow-blown the driveway so we could drive to the other end of property. Done.
Then we had to take the plow blade off the 4x4. Done.
Then we had to sit and wait until Chilly stopped barking at the 4x4. Done.
Then we were on the gravel heading south.
Guess what happens these days when you drive down the road at 25 m.p.h. without a windshield? Yeah, when you actually get moving, the resistance to what you’re doing can get worse for a while.
By the time we got to the south end, my cheeks were about to fall off. Tears like horizontal icicles formed crusty lines from my eyes and hat. My vocal cords were frozen and I couldn’t feel my fingers. Since I’d told Averie multiple times to snag the foot warmers for her muck boots, I didn’t dare tell her I’d forgotten hand warmers.
I’d tough it out. That’s what real farmers do, right? (Maybe. But smart farmers would’ve remembered the handwarmers.)
We pulled up alongside seven acres of 15-year-old trees, (paid for by a program that’s probably been murdered by now). They range from 50-foot larches to 3-foot oaks browsed by deer every Spring. Over the years, we had caged some and left others to fend for themselves, then moved the cages to give more trees a chance.
Averie and I grabbed our loppers and clippers and shuffled through rows of spruces and larches until we arrived at the oaks and walnuts. While the dogs romped in the snow, we took our blades to the lower limbs, knowing that if we did this right, the wounds would heal quickly. The trees would grow straight and tall. We would leave a gift to the future.
The more we cut and wrestled branches, the warmer we got. My fingers thawed out, my feet started sweating in my boots. We pruned about 100 trees before it started to snow again.
Then the temp dropped below that of dry ice.
Politics in our world today seem daunting. The season should be over by now. We’ve had enough already. There’s no better weather in sight. And it’s very, very uncomfortable out there.
The best cure is to pull on the right gear* and get moving. And so we do, because there’s always work to be done.
Tuesday, Feb. 18th!
Miss these? Then join the Iowa Farmers Union or find your local Indivisible group to hear about future actions.
Iowa Farmers Union Lobby Day, Iowa State Capitol, Des Moines, 10 am - All Welcome who want to demand fairness for family-scale, independent farms, fight agrichemical corporations and stand up for small towns. Learn more.
82nd Indivisible federal office visits, Davenport, 11:15 am- All Welcome to walk the halls of Grassley, Ernst and Miller-Meeks’ offices and visit with staffers to demand our privacy and our rights. Learn more.
*Why are Indivisible and the Iowa Farmers Union the “right gear” for me?
The members of these organizations believe that direct action as a group is more powerful than anything else we can do.
These organizations are rooted in grassroots activism that gives us local control over our activities while enjoying statewide and national coordination to maximize our effect.
Recent Scenes from Draco Hill
Got to love the fact that Iowa took "climate change" out of the science standards. The spike in willful ignorance in this country is astounding.
Lovely to receive this in my inbox this morning. Happy to hear the WOOFER laughs at your jokes. It's impressive what you've built through the cold, the wind, and the crap. I very much enjoyed my visit back in 2018 (interviewed you for book), which feels like ages ago in this changing world. Sending warm vibes your way from an only moderately cold winter :)