Seeing the Mississippi River firsthand

During the final five weeks of my employment at the USDA Sugarcane Research Unit, following our move to Tennessee, I have been staying with Greg and Monica Stock who live in Thibodaux, LA.  Since they live only 25 miles from the famed Oak Alley Plantation near Vacherie, LA along the Mississippi River, I decided to take a leisurely Sunday afternoon drive to see what the river looked like at flood stage.  For southern Louisiana, the day couldn't have been more perfect, weather wise, with lots of sunshine, relatively low humidity, and pleasant temperatures. There wasn't a large crowd of people trying to see the river at the front of Oak Alley as I had expected, yet while I was there for about 20 minutes, several people pulled over with the express purpose of ascending the 20-ft levee to see the river, as I had done.  My strongest impression of the river was that it was flowing very fast, much like any large river would do going through a narrow strait.  During the entire time I was on top of the levee, I saw no river traffic.  I could see barges on the other side of the river that were tied down.  Of course it is always a funny feeling to see how much higher the river is than the land it is passing by, including the Oak Alley Plantation itself.  The three photos I included show the Oak Alley Plantation; then looking in the opposite direction, the river, and finally, a photo of me taken by some onlookers.  My only other significant observation on this trip was how the sugarcane is starting to really show stress effects from the severe drought we are going through in southern Louisiana.  It is indeed ironic that we are going through a severe drought while simultaneously experiencing flooding from the Mississippi River.

Terrebonne Parish at risk with Mississippi River flooding

With the opening of the Morganza Spillway beginning today, low lying areas in Terrebonne Parish are almost certainly going to go under water.   This includes Gibson, Bayou Black where several swamp tours operate, Southdown Mandalay, and Bull Run Road where our USDA Farm is located.  Beyond this, it is a wide open question as to how serious flooding will get in Terrebonne Parish as shown by the Army Corps of Engineers map at left.  We are being assured by government officials that Houma should remain dry, but we all too keenly remember how levees didn't hold up in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.  It is not outside the realm of possibility that the Mississippi River could change course under a massive flooding situation, changing to the more direct and steeper flow through the Atchafalaya River to Morgan City, which is where it used to primarily flow, going back enough years.  Obviously, this would be catastrophic to all of the coastal Parishes in Southeastern Louisiana.  Peak flooding is expected in this area around May 23, a little over a week from now. 

Then and Now

First photo above was taken on June 23, 2002, shortly after we moved into our new home in Louisiana.  Second photo was taken yesterday, March 9, 2011, nearly nine years later, as we prepare to move to Tennessee.  This has been a wonderful home for us, and served us well over years we lived here.

Life on the Bayou soon to be Life on the Cumberland Plateau

Tomorrow (April 8) we close on our home in Houma, Louisiana. We will be allowed to stay in our former home one additional week.  Next week Monday - Wednesday (April 11-13), we plan to move all of our belongings into a moving van trailer, then stay through Friday (April 15), using sleeping bags, folding chairs, and a card table.  On Saturday (April 16), we travel to Tracy City, Tennessee, getting there early enough to complete the paperwork that will allow us to have the keys to our new home.  We couldn't have cut it any closer, given that the earliest possible date we would be allowed to access our new home (from when it was formally completed, inspected, and a mandatory10-day waiting period passed) is just about the very day we arrive.  The moving van is expected to arrive on Tuesday, April 19, and we will have the balance of the week of April 17-23 to get everything moved in and start getting settled.  Judy will remain in Tennessee, and I will fly back to Houma most likely on Saturday, April 23, to fulfill my work obligations.  My official retirement day is May 31.  However, I will "wrap it up" on Friday, May 27, the following Monday being an official holiday (Memorial Day), Tuesday being taken as accrued vacation time.  At the moment, I plan to stay with the Stock family in Thibodaux between April 23-May 27.  They have a large home with only Greg and Monica living in it at the moment; they were gracious enough to offer me to stay with them.  They are planning some landscaping and gardening, so I can hopefully repay them "in kind" by assisting them with their plans.  Judy and I very much look forward to settling in the Cumberlands, and living out our dreams there. 

How will the government shutdown affect us, if it happens?  Not too much, since we were planning to be taking accrued vacation time over the next two weeks anyway.  Hopefully the Legislative and Executive branches will have settled their differences by then and government can return to work when I am ready to return to work.

Utah Lake Bridge Controversy

A bridge over Utah Lake has been proposed and hotly debated in Utah Valley.  It is projected that the valley will double in population from the current nearly 600K to1.2M by 2040, and that the population west of Utah Lake will go from 40K to at least 250K.  From the standpoint of added time and fuel expended, not having a bridge over Utah Lake will become wasteful for a rapidly increasing number of commuters who will be traveling twice daily around the lake to get to the central business (Provo/Orem) area.  The bridge is opposed on the grounds of disrupting migratory waterfowl, being too expensive, and being built prematurely.  Here is a detailed document with pics of the proposed bridge from various vantage points, including those used in this blog entry.

Having lived in southern Louisiana for over ten years, it becomes hard to understand why there would be much controversy as to whether to build a bridge over Utah Lake.  Try going anywhere from New Orleans without going over a substantial amount of elevated highway not much different than is needed to go over Utah Lake which itself is only 12' deep at its deepest point.  The causeway over Lake Pontchartrain is 24 miles compared to the 6 miles proposed to go over Utah Lake.  The stretch of elevated freeway from Ponchatoula to the Mississippi River (I-55, I-10, I-310) with nothing but swamp and open water underneath, is nearly 50 miles.  Maybe the die hard opponents of building the bridge need to come live in New Orleans for a summer. Let them go on I-10 from Slidell to New Orleans to Baton Rouge to Lafayette.  Each leg will take them over far more open water than the 6-mile proposed bridge at the north end of Utah Lake.  And by the way, they will see plenty of bird life down here, for those who worry about how a bridge over the north end of Utah Lake is going to disrupt bird migration as it relates to the lake.  As to the prohibitive cost of building the bridge ($300M to $600M, depending on the estimate), perhaps Utah needs to get an estimate from those who built the elevated highways in Louisiana.  These estimates seem excessive, but then again, what do I know?

One final thought:  We have committed to living in Tennessee and look very much forward to what we believe will be a rich experience there.  If we had decided to return to Utah Valley, living on the west side of Utah Lake would have had enormous appeal for me.  The west side is a respite from the rat race on the east side. Yet it is close enough to have an amazing view of the "big city" across the lake and the Wasatch Mountain backdrop behind it.  One example of a future planned community is Mosida Orchards...worth checking out for those who live in the general area.

Tale of two weather contrasts: Truckee, CA versus New Orleans, LA

While eating breakfast this morning, I pulled up the Weather Channel and was surprised to learn that snow depth at Truckee, California (near Lake Tahoe) is about 9 feet.  Truckee has received ~6 feet of snow in the past week, and is expecting at least 2 feet more through the weekend.  Ski resorts around Lake Tahoe,  where the snow is much deeper, normally close in early May.  With snowfall records occurring this year, they may stay open well into June, and the locals are ecstatic.

By stark contrast, New Orleans is expected to reach 83 F today, which would be near the record high for this date (85 F).  The sugarcane crop in Louisiana appears to be nearly a month further along than usual in early spring growth.  Our spring garden is looking great as well.  We won't be benefiting from it this year, since it will belong to someone else after we close on our house early next month.  But we're enjoying lettuce, radishes, and onions from it already.

Sweeteners, caloric and non-caloric

We had a group of college students from the Dallas area visit several government research facilities in our area over their spring break.  They spent a day with us.  One of our scientists, Dr. Paul White, was asked questions about sugar (i.e., table sugar or granulated sucrose) in comparison to other sweeteners, including how their chemical structures differed from sucrose.  After the tour, Paul developed a graphic that the rest of the scientists could use whenever the subject might come up again in future visits by the public.  Paul graciously allowed me to use his graphic as the basis for a personal blog entry.  I rearranged the order of the sweeteners and embellished his original graphic with color.  The chemical structures of the various sweeteners were taken from Wikipedia.

Sucrose is the standard by which all other sweeteners are measured.  High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the next most important caloric sweetener, but it has declined as of late for two reasons, 1) a negative image in comparison to table sugar, and 2) increased prices for corn which has made table sugar increasingly cost competitive.  The corn industry has worked hard to overcome the negative image that the public has of HFCS, and are now seeking permission from the FDA to use the name "corn sugar" on food labels.  Commercials from the corn industry state, "whether it's corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can't tell the difference. Sugar is sugar."  Natural caloric sweeteners of lesser importance include honey, maple syrup, etc.

Non-caloric sweeteners have had less impact on cane and beet sugar consumption than HFCS.  But their impact is still substantial.  We have essentially gone through four generations of non-caloric sweeteners, namely saccharin (Sweet'N Low), aspartame (Equal), sucralose (Sweeta), and now Stevia glycosides from the Stevia plant, sold in various formulations as Stevia, Truvia, etc.  The latter is a natural product.  The others are artificial sweeteners, though sucralose is a sucrose molecule modified (some OH groups replaced with Cl) in a way that makes it 600 times as sweet as sucrose.

Houma home sold

Unless something unforeseen occurs between now and final sale, which, at this moment, appears to be highly unlikely, we have sold our home in Houma.  The home will have a new owner on April 8.  We asked for a two-week extension on the time we need to vacate the home, which the new owner has agreed to.  This gives us a little extra breathing room on the other side.  Our new home in Tracy City, Tennessee has been "nearly finished" since Labor Day last year, and is still not quite ready to be occupied.  The home itself has been finished for some time, but the holdup has been the building of the carport and a small storage building inside the carport.  We are given to understand that the carport is essentially finished, and it's the storage building that awaits completion.  Once completed, we then have to wait an additional 10 days before we are allowed to occupy our new home, or put a single item inside of it.  Once we move our belongings to the new home, Judy will move.  I will need to stay a little longer, since I am obligated to give a minimum of three months notice to the USDA before retiring.  We are looking forward to turning the page to a new chapter in our lives.

The cost of driving a car...more than you may think

Everybody knows that gas prices have gone up sharply as of late...40 cents just in the last month.  My favorite website for tracking gas prices on a nationwide basis is at GasBuddy.  Click on 'Gas Price Maps' at the GasBuddy website and you can get a quick visual of gas prices by county across the nation.  Notwithstanding, fuel costs still represent a small fraction of the total cost of driving a car.  AAA recently published the 2010 Edition of their annual "Your Driving Costs," which considers typical operating costs (gas, maintenance, tires) and ownership costs (insurance, license, registration, vehicle depreciation, and finance charge) for three sizes of sedans (small, medium, large) driven for 10K, 15K, or 20K miles per year.

With rising gas prices, AAA's chart is quickly becoming dated.  Since the price of gas has gone up from the $2.60 per gallon that their chart (pdf file) was based on, to nearly $3.50 per gallon, I adjusted the cost of gas per mile in the AAA chart accordingly and posted the revised numbers in this blog entry (click on chart).  After going through this exercise, I was surprised by four realities: 1) cars are much more expensive to drive than I appreciated, 2) small cars are far cheaper to drive than large cars, and not just because they are more fuel efficient, 3) sharp increases in gas prices do not change the total cost of driving a car, even on a per-mile basis nearly as much as I imagined, and 4) the person driving a car 20K miles per year is paying considerably less per mile than the person driving a similar car only 10K per year.

Biomass meeting and tour in Tennessee

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a biomass meeting in Tennessee last month (February 15-17).  On the third day (Thursday, Feb 17), after two days of meetings in Knoxville, the group had a chance to visit a switchgrass farm and a cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant, both in Vonore, TN, which is about 45 min south of Knoxville.  We were informed that there are just over 5,000 acres of agriculture land now planted to switchgrass in Tennessee.  The nearby ethanol plant is capable of producing 250,000 gallons per year of ethanol from switchgrass, corn cobs, and other cellulosic sources.  More details are available at this link.  There is still a gap (locals called it the "valley of death") between the State and Federal funding of switchgrass production and conversion to ethanol versus actually having a viable, self-sustaining cellulosic ethanol industry.  Further improvements in efficiency are being worked on in several key areas, both on the farms and at the plant.  As a side note, I got a kick out of asking one of the locals how to say the name of the town we were in.  I asked, "Is it Vonore, like 'manure'?"  He replied, "You have to emphasize the first syllable...VON-ore.  It's just like the word, McDonalds.  Here, we say MAC-donalds."

Government shutdown looming

It is looking more and more likely that there will be a Federal Government shutdown early next month, meaning that non-essential government employees, myself included, will be instructed to not show up at work.  The Federal Government is currently funded through a continuing resolution that expires March 4. If Congress fails to either approve the longer-term spending bill or pass another stopgap by the expiration date, most government operations will cease until more funding is approved.  In 1995, Republicans in Congress reached an impasse with President Clinton over elements of the fiscal year 1996 budget which resulted in a government shutdown in November that year.  Threatening a government shutdown is a risky game for Republicans to play.  In 1995, public opinion largely sided with Clinton.  You can be sure that Obama is well aware of that fact.

Here are a couple of articles that popped up on the shutdown: "Government Shutdown: What's at stake" by CNN; Battle over Budget Cuts Raises Specter of Federal Government Shutdown by Fox News.

Here are possible 2012 presidential candidates who favor a shutdown.  Sarah Palin: "A shutdown would force President Barack Obama to work with Republicans."    Tim Pawlenty: "In Minnesota we survived it OK. You don't want to be reckless or irresponsible about it, but there's going to have to be some lines in the sand."  Ron Paul: "I don't think it would hurt one bit."   Newt Gingrich: hearkening back to the 1995 shutdown, ""Everybody in Washington thinks that was a big mistake. They're exactly wrong."

Here are those who do not favor a shutdown.  Mike Huckabee: "I think it is not a good thing.  It means the disruption of a lot of things. It just creates a nightmare. The ideal solution is for people to act like adults...do the jobs they were sent to do."   Michelle Bachmann: among Tea Party politicians, a minority opinion, "That's not going to happen because that won't serve anyone's interest."  Haley Barbour: stated that Republicans should learn the lessons of 1995.  Mitt Romney: could not find any statement where Mitt was quoted on the subject, but assume that he would not favor a government shutdown.

USA Today's analysis of 2010 Census at state level features Louisiana first

USA Today has begun to present local data from the 2010 Census.  Data on population trends and ethnic makeup will be released for each state during the months of February and March, beginning with Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, and New Jersey; Louisiana demographics being on display first.

As shown in the 2010 Census, Louisiana's population has had some interesting shifts, heavily driven by natural and man-made disasters.  New Orleans' population has gone from 485,000 (2000) to 343,830 (2010), a 29% drop, thanks largely to Katrina.  The estimated population drop was not this great, so the census was rather revealing.  Relative to its size, the parish (county) most impacted by Katrina was St. Bernard Parish, on the east side of New Orleans, which sustained a 47% drop in population.  All in all, seven parishes lost populations at double-digit rates, while ten parishes gained population at rates above the national average of 4%. Parishes between Baton Rouge and New Orleans gained the most, with Ascension and Livingston Parishes gaining 40% and 39%, respectively.  While Baton Rouge and surrounding areas gained considerably, and New Orleans shrunk, New Orleans remains the largest city in the State. Terrebonne Parish, where we live, increased by 7%.

Tropical Cyclone Yasi slams into Queensland, Australia

What is being called the "Cyclone of the Century," Yasi is now coursing its way through Queensland. It was reported to be a Category 5 storm as it approached landfall.  In its wake, it dealt a powerful "blow" to the midsection of the Australia sugarcane industry, causing world sugar futures prices to reach 30-year-high levels.  Australia is the 3rd largest exporter of sugar in the world.  I have had the good fortune of visiting Queensland twice during my career.  Between the two trips, I have been lucky enough to have traveled by road from Cape Tribulation near the top of Queensland, all the way south to Mackay, then by air to Bundaberg and eventually to Brisbane. Queensland is indeed a very large state.  So to see the size of Cyclone Yasi relative to the size of Queensland, for me, was amazing.  Yasi came on shore just south of Cairns where Dr. Anna Hale and I recently visited (see blog entry "Trip to Australia," dated 30 Aug 2009).  The life cycle of sugarcane in Australia in early February, would be equivalent to our sugarcane in early August.  Like our sugarcane, the greatest damage from a storm like this will probably be more from the water than from the wind, water that sugarcane farmers in Australia certainly didn't need, considering the extensive flooding that they have already experienced.  Something to remember when looking at the path of a cyclone south of the equator, is that the south side is the "bad" side, as it travels from east to west.  Intuitively, we would think of it as being on the north side,  but a southern cyclone spins clockwise, causing the surge of water to be on the opposite side from what we normally expect.  The last word I heard is that Cairns came through this major storm better than most expected.  Residents of Cairns and surrounding communities were benefited by being on the "good" side of the storm.  Further south at Mission Beach, which took the most direct hit, the devastation has been described as "apocalyptic."  The coastal town of Cardwell, a few kilometers south of Mission Beach, was described as having been "wiped off the map."

Tew's Life on the Bayou - a retrospective view

It has been nearly three years since I began this blog.  This is my 191st entry in 35 months, meaning that, from the beginning, I have averaged a little over five blogs a month (≈1/wk).  My output has gone down some from year one.  My goal this year and beyond is to level off at about one entry per week. With my anemic start this year, I'm going to have to step it up a bit, just to meet this goal.

One question that I have thought about (and I'm sure I'm not alone as a blogger in asking this), "Now that Facebook has become such a universal phenomenon, what role does a blog serve that social networking doesn't presently serve?"  To me, this is a valid question, but I think there is an obvious answer.  And it has to do with the intended permanence of each entry.  Facebook is a place for spontaneous expression of feelings and thoughts (perhaps like a fleeting telephone conversation), whereas, a blog entry is generally much more thought out (like a carefully drafted letter to a friend you haven't written to in some time).

I believe my blogs have inevitably given some insight into my life and interests.  This may be largely beneficial only to my own posterity, but that is as it should be.  Occasionally, it has been self instructive.  For example, I was taken aback by revisiting my 5 Jan 2009, "50 things I would like to do" entry.  I quickly realized that, even if I only accomplished 1/10 of what is on this list, I would be doing well.

It's interesting to me that my work-related blog entries have come in handy on several occasions.  For example, the freeze we had a year ago was rather harsh, and now there is some evidence that the severe winter we had one year ago may have had a greater adverse impact on USDA-bred sugarcane varieties as a whole, than on LSU-bred varieties (that must pass through early selection stages in a more northerly environment).  To illustrate the severity of the freezing conditions a year ago, I have referred back to the graph I put together for the 12 Jan 2010 (Freezing on the Bayou) entry.  Being in the blogosphere, the graph is readily available, even when I am away from my own personal computer.

I anticipate using my blog more for documentation purposes in the future.  Certainly, my previous blog to this one, dated 8 Jan 2011, "Excess sugarcane bagasse -- what to do with it," was done with documentation in mind.  I'm not going to be sitting up in the middle of the night, wondering why I am blogging when I am aware that only a tiny handful of people are going to be reading my blogs anyway.  I know a few faithful followers, probably mostly family, will keep reading my blogs, and I genuinely do appreciate your responses.  Feedback is always welcomed.  I will try to keep my blogs varied, and will likely shift them toward being more family oriented in the future. 

I wish this had been my first blog of the year, but I can't reverse the order now...so we move forward.  If this one seems a bit scatter shot, remember that I am recovering from a pretty severe cold, and my head isn't fully clear yet.

Excess sugarcane bagasse -- what to do with it

Bagasse is the fibrous residue remaining after crushing/shredding sugarcane and washing the sugar out of it.  Bagasse provides the power required to run the sugarcane mills that process the sugar from sugarcane, thus making sugar production from sugarcane one of the most energy efficient operations in the plant crop world.  In Florida and Hawaii, energy derived from burning bagasse not only powers the mills, but is also sold to the public as electricity.  This is referred to as co-generation.  When burned in the mill boilers, the energy derived from one ton of bagasse is roughly equivalent to the energy obtainable from one barrel of oil.  In Louisana, electricity is still too inexpensive for mill owners to make a profit burning the excess bagasse, generating electricity and selling it to the public.

Now that the sugarcane harvest season is over, and mill yards are no longer obscured by standing cane, one is struck by the huge piles of bagasse that build up next to them.  The photo above was taken of the mill yard at Raceland Sugar Co., Raceland, LA, from Hwy 90 (future I-49) overpass over Hwy 1 after most of the cane was harvested, and after the occurrence of a killing freeze on Dec. 15.  Note how the massive bagasse piles obscure the view of the mill.  One needs only to drive next to these piles of bagasse to appreciate just how massive they really are. A list of Louisiana's mills and their locations is found on the website of the American Sugar Cane League. 

In the green fuels debate, there has been much discussion about conversion of fibrous residue from plant products into cellulosic ethanol.  It would seem that, if cellulosic ethanol production or the production of some other fuel, such as butanol, from plant fiber is close to becoming economically viable, a great place to test its potential is in an already existing industry where the fibrous residue is a by-product that has already been gathered into central locations.  One issue facing sugarcane breeders, and ultimately the sugar industry, is whether it is an asset or a liability to the industry to develop and release sugarcane varieties possessing higher fiber levels than the current standard of 11-12%.  Perhaps it is a question that gets answered differently depending on whether we are taking the short-range or the long-range view.