Christmas in Indiana

Matt and Julie sent us airline tickets so that we could spend Christmas with them and our three grandchildren. What a wonderful Christmas gift. They were wonderful hosts. Somehow, Judy and I both ended up being sick during the trip. Nevertheless, we really enjoyed the time we had with Matt and Julie and our grandchildren. Santa was very generous to all on Christmas morning. We got to go into Chicago during the front and back ends of the trip, and while there, got to drive through the heart of the Windy City at Christmastime, walk around Millenium Park in the famed lakefront area of Chicago and walk under Cloud Gate (the big bean) and watch ice skaters skating from above, enjoy hot dogs at a downtown hot dog eatery, go to the Lincoln Park Zoo at nighttime in the winter (a rather different experience), drive around Wrigley Park (home of the Cubs) and more.

It was a white Christmas, but at least not a white out Christmas in Indiana. I tried to make a big snowman with the grand kids, but the snow was so dry, I ended up making a miniature snowman with three snowballs. When we got back, I couldn't believe I had only taken four pictures on the whole trip, Allison on the computer, Lauren being silly, and Megan with Julie nearby, and one of Maestro Snowman.

Mississippi and Tennessee Reports

Mississippi. We really enjoyed the time we had with Lori and James. On Sunday, after Church, we traveled up to Natchez, MS, and stayed there overnight. On Monday morning, it was already raining, so we decided not to rush to Vicksburg, but to follow our original plans. We spent some time in the morning looking at some of the historically significant buildings in downtown Natchez that make this town on the Mississippi River so special.

We followed the picturesque Natchez Trace (trail) up to Emerald Mound, the 2^nd largest Indian mound in the U.S. The rain actually stopped long enough for us to climb up the mound. Further up the road, we went to Sunken Trace, which gave a sense of the importance of the original trail that the road follows and that early American Indians used. Again, the rain subsided long enough for us to enjoy this experience.

We finally made our way up to the Vicksburg National Military Park. While it was raining off and on, we had a thoroughly enjoyable experience there, with very few others in the park while we were there. James took some impressive pictures and video segments that the overcast day actually enhanced.

The following day, we went to the WWII Museum in downtown New Orleans. The new movie that Tom Hanks narrates was an otherworldly experience, and truly helped me appreciate the scope of that war that was fought on several fronts. There was so much about WWII that I had was oblivious to, so the whole experience (movie and exhibition) was quite an education. We all enjoyed the time we had together, and we were all thrilled about how well this trip went. Lori posted some of the pics that James took during our time together on her Facebook page (Lori Ure > Photos > Mississippi & Louisiana 2009).


Tennessee. I took three days off to make some person-to-person contacts with potential contractors to build our future home in Tennessee. One day was spent getting there, one doing business on site, and one getting back home. I was very happy to be able to make some important contacts, and to get a better handle on what steps need to be taken in order for us to move forward with our home building.

What was meant to be a whirlwind trip, however, got stalled in a record-setting snowstorm in Washington D.C. I had the misfortune of having D.C. as the leg between Nashville and New Orleans in both directions. In coming back, our jet got as far as being de-iced and on the tarmac, but the snow was coming down so fast that snow plows couldn’t keep up, so we never got clearance to take off Friday evening. It continued to snow through Saturday, and Dulles ended up with 18+ inches of snow, eclipsing the previous snowstorm record of 12.1 inches in the month of December, and the 6^th greatest overall snowfall from a single snowstorm on record for the area. I finally got out Sunday evening. What a relief!

Plans through December

My agenda for the remainder of the Month of December is as follows:

Dec 6 - 12 (Sun - Sat): Making sugarcane crosses at Canal Point, FL (see last year's blog this time of year).

Dec 12 - 16 (Sat - Wed): Spending time with Lori & James, who are coming into town. We're excited.

Dec 17 - 19 (Thu - Sat): Whirlwind trip to our future home site in Tracy City, TN, meeting with Grant Miller, and other people we will be contracting work out to.

Dec 22 - 28 (Tue - Mon): Judy and I will be spending Christmas with Julie, Matt, and three granddaughters, Allison, Lauren, and Megan, the youngest of whom I will be introducing myself to for the very first time.

On another note: I am updating the book, "Tew Heritage," which is a history of Wm. Thos. Tew and his wife, Clara, and their descendants. I had conversations with descendants of each of his seven children last night, and was amazed at the level of interest there is in me pursuing this project. It will probably take several months to complete. When completed, it may very well go on line, so I may be looking for some "family" expertise.

Kayak swamp tour

I posted a boat trip that Ron Mangels and I took into swamp country not far from where we live back on May 23 of this year. While it would have taken hours to paddle my kayak to the furthest point that we reached, going the same route, I was aware of an access water route from the highway that goes along Bayou Black between Houma and Gibson that would take me to the same location.

Today, I decided to figure out exactly where the access route was, and take it. This was probably the most enjoyable trip I have had thus far in my kayak...moderate effort with a big scenic reward. The most exciting thing I saw from a wildlife standpoint, was the biggest owl I think I have ever seen in my life. It swooped down very close to where I was paddling...what a thrill!

Wendell B. Johnson's inspirational story

I am amazed that I was completely unaware of Wendell B. Johnson's life story upon learning about it this morning. What got my attention upon bumping into the website dedicated to his life, was firstly, that we are connected in several ways, and secondly, that his story is so inspirational. Wendell was a quadriplegic most of his life as a result of diving in a canal as a teenager without realizing that there was a ledge only a foot or so under the surface of the water. First, the connections. Wendell and I were born only two months apart, and started our lives in the same town, Mapleton, Utah. While not closely related, we do share a common great-great-grandfather, Edwin Whiting, making us 3rd cousins. Wendell's accident occurred in 1964 when he was only 16 years old. I had a severe diving accident that could have profoundly changed my life shortly after returning from my mission. I did a backwards dive off a diving board in Roosevelt, Utah and my neck caught the end of the board, rendering me unconscious in the water. The force of the dive busted off the wings of two vertebrae in my neck. I was told I was very lucky not to have been paralyzed. My neck was immobilized for several weeks afterward until the old wings dissolved, and new ones grew in. My mother told me of a diving accident in Mapleton that left someone paralyzed. Wendell has to be the very person she was thinking of.

Wendell Johnson took his tragedy and turned it into a positive. He was not only an artist (see gallery) but a great example and an active member of the community. He served as Justice of the Peace for six years, and later as Mapleton's mayor from 1982 - 1986, he also co-authored two books, married, fathered a child against great odds, raised his daughter, and designed the blueprints for his own home, all despite his difficult circumstances. His great lesson in life was one of patience and endurance despite challenges. He believed wholeheartedly in setting and meeting goals, and in the power we all have to achieve wonderful, positive things in our lives. He died in 1986, living considerably longer than the medical experts had predicted.

I have carried a book about Mapleton for many years that my parents gave me, and only now realize that one of its co-authors was this man. I dug the book out, re-read it, and by so doing, learned a little bit more about my roots. Both my father and grandfather were town presidents of Mapleton, and my father was the town's first mayor, according to the book. I recommend reading Wendell's biography, one of which is written by his daughter. The painting above is of Buckeley Mountain in south Provo. We lived directly under this mountain for several years after returning from Hawaii, and before coming to Louisiana.

New Moon is making box office history

New Moon has grossed $258M worldwide over the 5 days it has been open to the public. To be sure, I have not seen this movie, and know very little about it. But I am intrigued by the fact that the book that the movie is based on (part of the Twilight series) was written by a latter-day saint (Mormon) homemaker, a BYU-graduate, who has stated that she is "straight laced" about her beliefs. Stephanie Meyer, described by some as the heir apparent to J.K. Rowling's long-held crown, has a personal story that is incredible in its own right. Talk about going from rags to riches almost overnight! The more popular LDS blogsites are abuzz with commentary, some of it having to do with the contradiction between the restrained lifestyle espoused by the Church and the powerful sensuality portrayed in this movie. I wish Stephanie well in her transition into a whole new life as a celebrity. Here is a video of Stephanie telling her story in 2007. I'm sure there must be more current videos.

Food insecurity in the U.S.A.

The news that I watched this evening carried a news story from Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (my big boss) on food security in the U.S. A recently released USDA report estimates that nearly 50 million Americans had difficulty getting enough to eat in 2008. This represents one in seven households, a sharp increase from one in ten food-insecure households estimated just one year earlier, in 2007. Secretary Tom Vilsack described this report as an alarming wake-up call, and a direct result of the effects of the recession we are going through, with widespread unemployment and rising poverty levels. In 2008, nearly 17 million children, or 22.5 percent, lived in households in which food at times was scarce -- 4 million children more than the year before. And the number of youngsters that are outright hungry multiple times during the year, rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million. This was last year. Who knows what the statistics will be for this year. While we are preparing for that big Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps we need to be reminded that a staggering percentage of the world's population goes chronically hungry, and that even here in the U.S., many households are barely getting by. As much as we may feel that we struggle to get by, we really are better off than the vast majority of the world's population, and Thanksgiving is a good time to be grateful for what we do have.

The National WWII Museum in New Orleans

The National WWII Museum in New Orleans is going through a $300 million dollar upgrade to be completed by 2015, and was just recently designated by Congress as the country's official World War II Museum. Tomorrow, Tom Hanks, Tom Brokaw, and scores of WWII veterans will be on hand for a ribbon cutting ceremony associated with the Grand Opening weekend, following the completion of "three remarkable new venues." Upcoming events at the Museum leading up to Veterans Day next Wednesday and beyond are shown at the Official Website of the National WWII Museum. We have never been there. This is definitely a place we would like to visit and experience while Lori & James are in town. One of the venues features a so-called 4-D film (wind & shaking seats) called "Beyond All Boundaries" that is narrated by Tom Hanks.

Erianthus bengalense - a species with ornamental potential

A few years back, we were experimenting with a relative of sugarcane (Saccharum) where I work, called Erianthus bengalense, the genus of which I believe in Greek, means red (eri) flower (anthus). We are no longer experimenting with Erianthus bengalense, but still have an interest in Erianthus arundinaceus, which is more robust, but, in my opinion is considerably less attractive. Unfortunately, in the USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) system, all the species within the Erianthus genus got lumped under Saccharum, which is technically not accurate.

I was enamored with the beauty of the plant, so I planted a stool of it in my back yard for its ornamental effect before the field it was in got plowed. The last two years, it was beaten up pretty badly because of severe storms, but this year, it achieved its full glory. [I added a second picture taken about two weeks later; note that the white speck at the top is the moon in the background]

Garden update

Our fall garden is underway with the planting of cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, onions, and a new entry...bok choy. The bok choy grew so fast that Judy picked some stems tonight and so we will be trying it out for the first time. Judy was looking at some recipes today. I can't wait to see how the bok choy tastes, since I have never tried it before.

Just for an update on our summer garden, we planted a few slips of a very colorful variety of sweet potato, bred at LSU, called Evangeline. It has a mix of purple and green leaves. I put it in the garden in early summer after we had harvested most of the spring-planted crops, and it pretty much took over the garden with very little care. It was pretty much growing wild. To our surprise, we got a bumper crop of sweet potatoes, which is amazing considering that we only planted a few slips to begin with. Judy made some pies with the sweet potatoes; the people at work swore they had to be pumpkin pies when I let them get a taste. When it came time to establish a fall garden, we knew we were going to see unwanted sweet potato plants sprouting up like weeds, but it turns out that it wasn't too much of a problem. I guess the sweet potato is related to the morning glory which helps to explain its aggressiveness.

We had some cantaloupe and watermelon plants that hung in there longer than we expected ... another pleasant surprise. Our satsuma orchard consisting of three small trees also had an amazing number of satsumas (a type of Mandarin orange originating from China but brought here from Japan). We have been enjoying them over the past month. Today, Judy harvested two small pail fulls, which will be turned into "orange" juice. I must say that our garden and back yard have surprised us by how productive they have been over the past year.

What are the odds???

Four undefeated teams left in the NFL, and our family has a connection with each of them!




New Orleans Saints (Tom and Judy), living in Louisiana.
Denver Broncos (Lori and James), living in Colorado.
Indianapolis Colts (Julie and Matt), living in Indiana.
Minneapolis Vikings (Alan and Neal), while not living there, at least they were born in Minnesota.

New Orleans City Park

Wow, I can't believe it has been so long since I last visited my own blog site. We were at the end of the USDA fiscal year which goes from October 1 through September 31 each year, so there was the usual rush to get everything finished that needed to be finished. Then, I was obligated to be host to an Egyptian visitor who was here for two weeks. We were working on a USAID proposal for the benefit of both of our countries that has a deadline of October 20th. He has left now, and I feel relieved. Then, on top of everything else, we are in the middle of sugarcane selection which means I am in the field, helping out with selection as much as possible. This year, selection is especially difficult because the cane is down and tangled to some degree. Also, it has been very hot and muggy. On Thursday this week, I was involved in selection, and by 9:30 a.m., my clothes were soaking wet from top to bottom. My leather boots were oozing water out. By 11:00, I had to stop because of heat exhaustion. I was drinking water all along, after each row of selection, but when I went home at noon to change clothes, I weighed 9 lbs less than when I had left the house in the morning. When I got to the house to change, Judy informed me that the air conditioner had stopped working, and the service man wouldn't be able to check it out until the next day. After cleaning up at home and then going into the office to do desk work in the afternoon, when I returned home, we ended up turning on all the ceiling fans and opening up the windows. It still never got below 86 F indoors by the time we went to bed, so needless to say, Thursday was a rather unpleasant day for me all the way around.

Thankfully, the cold winds from the north finally made it down to Louisiana on Friday, and today, Saturday, it was unbelievably pleasant. It actually felt like the fall season had finally arrived. I had church meetings in New Orleans in the morning, but while driving in, I was listening to a guy by the name of Dan Gill from the LSU AgCenter, who has a weekly Saturday morning talk show about plants. He mentioned that there was a Fall Garden Show going on from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the New Orleans Botanical Gardens in City Park. City Park, a 1,300 acre open space near downtown New Orleans, is to New Orleans what Central Park is to New York City. I had heard that it is a great place for families to spend the day together. I had never really gone into City Park before, and thought this would be a great time to check it out. So after the church meetings were over, I went to City Park and enjoyed the Garden Show, as well as the Botanical Garden. I drove around the park a little bit, and now realize that City Park is a wonderful place that has much more to offer than I had ever imagined. Perhaps, when Lori and James come later this year, we can go there.

Sugarcane harvesting around the corner in Louisiana

In about one week from now, southern Louisiana goes through a transformation. The roads become filled with trucks loaded with cane headed to one of the twelve or so sugarcane mills remaining in Louisiana. The mills take on the look of beehives with all the trucks arriving to drop their loads of cane. Clouds of steam are churning out of smoke stacks at each of the factories from the sugarcane bagasse being burned to power the processing of cane in order to extract the sugar from the crop.


Today, a few USDA scientists from our location, including myself, had the opportunity to go to the John Deere factory in Thibodaux. This factory manufactures cane harvesters that are sent in sugarcane-growing areas all over the world. We were looking at some of their newest, most advanced harvesters, and even got to see a very interesting-looking prototype harvester that was designed to harvest a wide range of large tropical grasses over variable row conformations. It was a fun experience. I took a couple of shots of their latest "green machines," used for harvesting sugarcane. Of course, the prototype machine is still under wraps, so I wasn't allowed to take any shots of it. John Deere bought out Cameco a few years back, but kept the Cameco yellow color for a while. Now all of their cane harvesters are John Deere green, so it is easy to tell the farmers that have newer machines from the farmers that are still relying on the older Cameco-colored machines.

The machines are designed to cut the cane, chop the stalks into short sections less than a foot long, elevate the stalks from the harvester into a wagon, and leave all of the leafy trash in the field so that the mill only has to deal with the cleaned stalk sections. Here are two videos, one showing the harvest operation, the other giving you a sense of what you would experience being in the cab while the cane was being harvested.

Judge has ruled against genetically modified sugar beets

I learned at work that Judge Jeffrey S. White of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, has ruled against GM sugar beets. His decision was based on his opinion that the government failed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of genetically engineered sugar beets before approving the crop for cultivation in the United States. The decision could lead to a ban on future planting of the GM beets, which have been widely adopted by farmers. How widely? Over 95% of the U.S. sugar beet acreage is planted to Roundup Ready beets this year (2009). Worse than that, there is no non-RR seed available. It could take up to two years for the sugar beet industry to be in a position to completely switch back to non-RR beets. This could cripple the beet industry - an industry with a lot of powerful senators. Which states grow the most beets? Minnesota and Idaho are at the top of the list. I'm sure there will be a lot more to this story. In the mean time, rest assured that the cane sugar industry is not similarly impacted. The above picture was taken in Rupert, Idaho by Chad Chase for The New York Times, which reported the story on September 22.

I don't know where you come down on the GM issue, but here is a provocative video that ties my last two posts together, done by Penn and Teller. It's about 10 minutes long, if you have the time.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug dies

While Patrick Swayze's death got far more press, my attention was directed at the passing of a giant of a man, Norman Borlaug, one of the most influentual plant breeders who ever lived. Borlaug was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his role in helping to feed a hungry world through the development of short-stature wheat (Mexico) and rice (India) varieties, that had resulted in a dramatic yield in these two crops. He is widely regarded as the father of the Green Revolution. His contributions, and the recognition he got for his work, had more to do with my decision to pursue a career in plant breeding than any other single consideration. Borlaug is credited with saving the lives of hundreds of millions of people. He worked tirelessly up to his death at age 95, promoting the causes he believed strongly in. One of the statements attributed to Borlaug that left an indelible impression on me during graduate school at the University of Minnesota (coincidentally the same school Borlaug graduated from), was when he was asked what made such a successful plant breeder, he retorted, "I let the plants talk to me." He later explained that what he meant by this was that, as a breeder, he didn't sit behind a desk, or let subordinates do the "dirty work" involved in doing selection...he was out there doing the work himself, which allowed him to develop impressions of what plant characteristics were important in improving yield. This message was especially in parts of the developing world where if you had an advanced degree, that was supposed to mean that you never had to get your hands dirty again.

Trip to Australia

As mentioned in the previous post, I had the opportunity to attend the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (ISSCT) Breeding & Germplasm Workshop held near Cairns, Queensland, Australia, with Dr. Anna Hale, peer research geneticist at our Sugarcane Research Laboratory in Houma. The workshop was held at the Novotel Rockford Palm Cove Resort about 30 kilometers north of Cairns. To get a flavor of Palm Cove, check out the embedded video at the palmcoveaustralia website. We were in Australia during their winter, but this part of Australia is tropical, so even at night, we didn't see the temperature dip below 60 F. In fact, the weather couldn't have been more perfect during our trip. The beach was only a stone's throw away from the resort, and all the restaurants in Palm Cove were along the beach front. We were actually delayed in getting to our destination because of a missed connection (air traffic related). We should have flown from Newark NJ to Hong Kong-Brisbane-Cairns. Instead we ended up going to the Narita Airport near Tokyo, then to Guam for a 23-hr layover, then to Cairns, missing a pre-workshop Genomics meeting held at Port Douglas, Queensland, but getting to our destination before the Workshop began. The view from the balcony side of my room that greeted me the morning after we arrived, reminded me of Tennessee (see first pic). Over 70 fellow sugarcane researchers (geneticists and related disciplines) were at the Workshop from 17 countries. This was Anna's first trip, so now she can finally connect faces with names she is already familiar with.

One of the really neat things that happened at this meeting was that two presentations were given from other countries that I knew I had impacted. One was from the Island of Reunion (France) where I was part of a team of consultants in 1984. At that time, we strongly recommended that sugarcane seedlings be evaluated across the extreme range environments that sugarcane was grown on the Island, and not at just one location. Another recommendation we gave was that modifications be made to their breeding facility to assure better flowering, allowing for a wider range of crosses to be made. The thrust of the Reunion presentation at this workshop was that the number of advanced clones with commercial potential had increased greatly as a result of following our recommendations. The two young scientists from Reunion seemed thrilled to meet me, as I was one of the members of the 1984 consulting group. The other presentation I had an impact on was from South Africa. The South Africans adopted single-stalk small pot culture of plants used on crossing carts (as opposed to air-layering stalks of plants in a large container) following my presentation in a similar Workshop held in South Africa six years ago. They reported that small-pot culture proved to be far more efficient and less labor intensive than their old method, and that the number of flowers they annually achieve has remained constant.

The Workshop went from Monday through Friday (Aug 17-21). On Wednesday, we visited Australia's premier sugarcane breeding station located just south of Brisbane and saw their photoperiod and crossing facilities. We also went to a variety yield trial, and learned more about how selection and yield testing is done in Australia.

Following the Workshop, Anna and I spent a full day taking in the Outer Great Barrier Reef (stopping for 2-hrs at Green Island), then a second day going north as far as Cape Tribulation, returning by way of the Atherton Tableland above the Cairns coastal region, stopping briefly to take in the famed Barron Falls at Kuranda. Our final day was spent in Cairns, where we did some shopping for gifts before returning home. Thankfully, our return home was without incident.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, JULIE!

So strange. Last night, I was talking with my wife, Judy, about how forgetful I am becoming, and how even people at work are commenting about my forgetfulness. Judy had some good advice for me. I was probably being a little more defensive than I needed to during our conversation. At any rate, throughout the whole day, it didn't occur to me that yesterday was our youngest daughter's birthday.

Sorry about that, Julie. I hope you had a great birthday! Also, it's great to see that your youngest daughter, Megan, is doing so well, and getting along so well with Lauren, who will be a pre-schooler. And it's exiting to know that Allison is taking the big step into kindergarten this year. I bet she's really excited about that. I'm sure Matt is excited too in his role as a school administrator. I wish you all the best.

I will be off to Cairns, Australia for almost two weeks (Aug 12-25) going to the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (ISSCT) Breeding & Germplasm Workshop with a fellow scientist, Dr. Anna Hale, from our Station. Following the meeting, we will spend a couple of extra days in Australia. We will join a post-meeting tour group for at least one day in order to experience the world-famous Great Barrier Reef. I will try to post a blog or two during our travels.

BP and Verenium Announce Vercipia Biofuels

BP and Verenium Corporation announced on Wednesday (July 29) that its 50-50 joint venture company will operate under the name Vercipia Biofuels. Corporate headquarters will be located in Florida. Quoting from their website, "Vercipia, which means 'green beginnings', will utilize dedicated energy canes and [other tall-stature] grasses, both abundant biomass feedstocks, in conjunction with novel enzymatic conversion technology being developed by its parent companies, Verenium and BP, in its production process. Vercipia plans to develop one of the first fully integrated cellulosic ethanol production facilities..." The plant will have a production capacity of 36 million gallons of ethanol per year, or about 25 times the capacity of the plant they built near Jennings, Louisiana. As can be seen on their PDF fact sheet, this location is in Highlands County, Florida, just NW of Lake Okeechobee, and not too far from Florida's sugarcane country, which is mostly on the south side of Lake Okeechobee. Vercipia Biofuels has entered into a long-term agreement with Lykes Bros., Inc, a well-known, family-owned Florida agricultural business, to provide the energy grasses for conversion to fuel. I can only assume Lykes Bros. plans to grow energy cane as well as forage sorghum on their farm, based on the short list of feedstocks mentioned in the fact sheet. Presumably, they will use energy canes that were bred at the USDA Field Station in Canal Point by Dr. Peter Tai. Dr. Tai's semi-wild canes certainly looked superior to Louisiana's released energy canes in the energy crop test I saw last winter in Florida, which should be no surprise, since they were selected in that environment.

Our summer garden nearly over with

Once we harvest the last watermelon left in our garden (see picture), the summer garden is essentially over with. We do have some sweet potatoes growing in our garden in a semi-wild condition. I don't even know if there will be much to harvest in the end. I do know that the sweet potato vines would eventually take over the whole garden if we let them. In a month or so, we will start thinking about what to plant in our fall/winter garden...that is, unless we are thinking about how get out of the way of a hurricane approaching us.

USDA introduces The People's Garden Initiative

Go to the USDA webpage that I have hyperlinked and learn about The People's Garden Initiative. Our new Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack explains it in a video that can be accessed at the USDA webpage by clicking on the words to the right of the icon.

What was the idea behind this? As explained by Secretary Vilsack, the USDA wants to showcase what we are involved in at the USDA, and to encourage folks to consider local production and local consumption. It is a charge to those of us who work at the USDA to roll up our sleeves in our respective communities, set an example, help create a movement toward self sustainability across the country, helping people to better connect with the earth that we all depend on for our sustainance.

Report on our 4th of July Tennessee Trip

This was our second trip to Sewanee Village and our property in Tennessee. Judy posted pictures that we took during this trip (1-45) together with the previous trip (46-85) on her Shutterfly site. We left at 2:00 a.m., in order to reach our desination by noon and thereby meet with a TDEC representative to get a septic tank permit. It turns out that the man never showed up that day, so our very early start was all for naught. He was going to be out of town for the next two weeks, so this was a disappointment. But, we took advantage of the extra time we had, and were ultimately able to do some tree clearing with a brand new chainsaw that Judy had gotten a good deal on. It took me a little while to get used to the chainsaw. I got a good work out, and we were able to indicate with land clearing and a blue ribbon that I happened to have, where we wanted our future house to be. As things turned out, a different TDEC representative showed up while we were temporarily away, and he prepared a septic tank design based on where we had indicated we wanted the house, and signed off on the septic tank permit, so all ended well. We camped at a campsite in Monteagle, TN, not the greatest but at least reasonably close to our property.

We spent basically two days on the road looking at modular homes. We actually visited a site in Pulaski, TN (Modular One) where modular homes were being built. The assembly line production of these homes was impressive indeed. There is no doubt that modular homes are very well built...certainly up to the standards of a regular home...and beyond. We spent a good two hours the following day talking to a modular home dealer in McMinnville, TN referred by Fred Day of Modular One. This lady was very thorough in trying to determine exactly what we wanted in our home. Judy liked a certain design from another modular home builder, so the lady worked from that plan, modifying it according to our needs and wants. We would like to have a basement, so that had to be worked into the plan (location of stairway, etc.).

On our travel to McMinnville via Manchester, we quickly realized why this area is considered one of the most important in the country for the growing of landscape trees and shrubs. Landscape nurseries were everywhere, and they were unbelievably large and emaculate. We were told that the nursery business in this area is a $500,000,000 business. We actually stopped at a research facility in McMinnville that houses researchers from Tennessee State University and USDA scientists from the U.S. National Arboretum (Wash. D.C.) that use McMinnville as a worksite. The few scientists who were there on Thursday were busy with last-minute reports and getting ready for the 4th of July holiday, so we weren't able to get the usual tour.

We returned to Monteagle from McMinnville along a very scenic route (Hwy 56) that took us through a town called Altamont. The name is so strange for me to hear, because I attended Altamont Elementary and High School in Altamont, Utah. Altamont, TN has the distinction of having the largest concentration of Latter-day Saints of any town east of the Mississippi River. Apparently, even to this day, a majority of the population in the town is LDS (so we were told), though there are a lot of inactives. We took a picture of a historical LDS building that was right in town. There is even an older historical building. Apparently, the modern chapel is on a different highway, not Hwy. 56, explaining why we didn't see it. Ironically, if we lived on the other side of the Sewanee Creek that borders on the development, we would be in Altamont Ward in a different Stake, and be in a different temple district (Nashville, not Atlanta).

The Miller Family went all out to have a great 3rd Annual 4th of July Event. On the 3rd, Judy and I followed a trail built down to Sewanee Creek about 400 feet below the development area. In the evening, we watched two movies at the ampitheatre that has been built in the development. It made for a long evening, but both movies were impressive, one entitled "The Power of Community-How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" about how Cuba's population coped with the severe reduction of petroleum in their lives in the post-USSR era (something we can learn from in our future... remembering that petroleum is NOT a renewable resource), the other a musical film entitled 1776, which I thought was extremely well done and appropriate for the occasion. I was getting very tired at the end. On the 4th, Grant Miller brought in a terrific band, who performed for a smattering of guests at the ampitheatre. Unfortunately, we missed the band, because we were anxious to take advantage of what little time we had to clear our property. We had a potluck barbeque to which Judy prepared dutch oven cooked chicken and cherry dump cake. Both were big hits. We had fireworks and another movie on the 4th, which we weren't able to stay for because we had gotten too tired. We went to church on Sunday and enjoyed the afternoon with the Millers with leftovers from the potluck. The Millers were great hosts for us throughout our second trip here. The weather held up through most of the week...until the late evening on the 4th, at which point we had already retired to bed. We really enjoyed our second trip, and look forward to returning to prepare to build our future home in a beautiful part of Tennessee.

Traveling to Tennessee over the 4th of July

Tomorrow, we will be traveling to Tennessee to join in the 3rd Annual Independence Day Celebration at the Village on Sewanee Creek. This trip will also give us some time to familiarize ourselves with the property we purchased in the Village, and take the necessary steps toward the eventual building of our future home there. We will give a detailed report on our trip after we return on the 6th of July. I borrowed the above picture from the Photo Gallery of the Sewanee Creek website. Credit: Grant Miller.

U.S. House narrowly passes major energy-climate bill

Quoting from the Associated Press, "In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives narrowly passed sweeping legislation today that establishes the Unites States' first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly, energy.

The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs."

As can be seen from the closeness of the vote, a significant number of democrat congress members were against this sweeping bill. One of those was democrat Charlie Melancon from Louisiana. Charlie was formerly top dog at the American Sugar Cane League, holding the position that Jim Simon now holds. Charlie represents south Louisiana whose economy is heavily dependent on the success of the oil and gas industry, so he was obligated to come out against the bill. Charlie had to have had some mixed emotions about this, in that the sugar industry would benefit by legislation that promotes green energy, and the fact that there is no other area in the U.S. more severely impacted by global warming than southern Louisiana.

I will admit that I have mixed emotions as well. We are surely moving into a brave new world with the passing of this legislation. Here is a useful Q&A website relative to this bill.

With this legislation, we are almost certainly going to hear more in the news about "cap and trade," so it is probably going to be useful to become more familiar with what this term means.

LSU Tigers...College World Series Champions!

I admit, I sort of went underground over the past three evenings...not even checking my e-mail, nor my favorite websites. The College World Series came down to two unbeaten teams, LSU and University of Texas, which, in a double elimination situation meant that if these teams split the first two games, a final third game would determine the champion. It turned out to be a very thrilling 3-game series. LSU made an improbable comeback to win the first game. Texas had an unbelievable pitcher in the second game, and took that one. The third game went back and forth for a while, until LSU started taking command in the latter innings, finally winning the game convincingly at the end. I had a lot of fun watching all three games. LSU's Coach Paul Mainieri has been to the College World Series three times, once with Notre Dame while coaching there, and twice with LSU (2008 and 2009). Tonight, he could finally say that he reached the pinnacle with a very special team. The shots of his family crying with joy, and him hugging his father on the field were very touching following the game. Great going, Tigers!!!

Vegetable Field Day at our USDA research facility

Tomorrow, from 9:00 a.m. to noon, the La-Terre Master Gardeners and the USDA are hosting the Annual Vegetable Field Day in Terrebonne Parish. This is the first time since I have been in Houma that we have helped host this event at our facility. Personnel from the LSU AgCenter will be involved as well, providing presentations, and sharing information. There will be contests, such as for the largest tomato and the ugliest tomato brought to the Field Day; there will be opportunities for taste tasting different varieties of the various vegetables at the field day, and so on. We will also get to show off some of the research we do at our facility. It should be an interesting and fun day. Besides sugarcane, we can show off a few sugarbeets that we specially left in the field for the event. They are gigantic, but are starting to get seriously attacked by bugs and diseases. We also have some tropical maize that is now 13 feet tall, with ears that are over nine feet from the ground. I had to use a ladder to put silk bags on them this morning. Anyone interested in corn at the Field Day will be amazed at the size of these plants.

While on the subject of crops, people outside of Louisiana may not be aware that we are going through a fairly severe drought, with no relief in sight. If the drought keeps up for another two weeks, it will have a severe impact on Lousiana agriculture generally. Farmers are very concerned.

New addition at our house

The Mangels family, a family in our congregation, had a cute little dog show up at their house a little over a week ago. Judy visited them, was introduced to this dog, and learned of the family's efforts to find its owner, and short of that, someone who might be interested in taking the dog. Judy fell for the cute little dog. With Nikki gone, and Kitty showing signs of his age catching up with him as well, we decided to bring him home. We also made an effort to find the rightful owner. We have had the dog since Sunday, and it is beginning to look more and more like we will permanently keep this dog. It's about the same size as Nikki. While we are not 100% certain, we believe this dog is a yorkipoo, which is perhaps the most common of terms used for a hybrid between a yorkshire terrier (yorki) and a poodle. Our new addition is about 18 months old (according to a vet assistant who looked him over).

He needs a name. So you are welcome to weigh in, after looking at his picture. The dog has a black back, and his belly and legs are solid brown. The thing I like most about this dog, especially compared to Nikki, is that this dog is very quiet. As a watch dog, I guess this isn't a good thing, but for peace in the house, it is great.