This week spring is here

Wow, who would have thought. March 13th and it sure feels like spring. The forecast is showing days in the 70's ahead, into and over the weekend. And beyond. I'm pretty sure we did nothing to deserve this, so might as well sit back and enjoy it. Don't worry, we will get paid back in some fashion for this. You could get to work on some of those projects around the yard. I've already started cleaning up some mulched perennial beds in front of my house. Kind of hated to cut down the Miscanthus (silver feather grass), but it has to go sometime. It stood tall and proud all winter long, a showy golden specimen well into April most years.

Okay, let's stop right there.Turns out that cleaning out those beds too early (mid-March) is not a good idea. Removing that layer of leaves, and old vegetation allows the warm sun to penetrate and heat up the ground, which leads to new growth, which leads to sad faces when that new growth gets frozen out a week or two later, when the temperature plummets, as it inevitably will this time of year. Oh wait, did you think spring was here to stay? In mid March? Well, you can think whatever you want, just don't act on it, like I did (paragraph above).

These are photos of a job we did near Chetek, WI in '11, The flat red-colored area is for seating around a fire-pit, and we hydro-seeded the black dirt areas elsewhere. The slope we covered with random boulders, a much less expensive option than building walls and terraces. As things green up and fill in with vegetation it won't look quite so stark.

Got three phone calls for prospective jobs today. It seems as though there may be a bit more activity this year, just based on my informal polling data. People are by no means ready to throw caution to the wind and start writing checks hither and yon, but after a few years of sitting on their hands, it may be safe to venture outside again. If gas prices go over $4 a gallon, as they're expected to, I'll get back to you on that nascent economic recovery. One way or another, I'm pretty sure, things will work out. They always do when I realize I'm not in charge, that I've got to hold up my end of things, but that one a lot bigger and better than I is calling the shots. Liberating, that view.

Deja vu -- Again

Here we go again. Gas is closing in on $4 a gallon, locally, and all we do is wring our hands and complain about it. Diesel, my fuel of choice (need) has already hit that mark, and will no doubt move higher as we get closer to summer. This certainly raises concerns for me and others in my business, as well as any business that relies on the movement of goods or services. What effect will this higher price for fuel have on my business, and our economy in general? Hard to quantify, but it's probably safe to say that the effect won't be positive. Less money in the pockets of consumers is rarely good for anyone, let alone a business like mine. The sad thing is that this need not be the situation we find ourselves in, I believe.

Our President appears to be, and even claims to be, helpless in the face of this increase. What would you propose as a solution, Drill more? As if that were somehow too ridiculous to merit serious discussion. This while talking up algae--yes algae--as a viable energy source. Yet drilling is precisely the solution to the problem. Oil doesn't drill itself.

If I were in his shoes, I would have a fire-side chat with the American people. I would look directly into the camera--from my bully-pulpit--and announce to all of America that energy exploration and production just became my highest priority. I would announce my goal to turn the United States around, in an energy sense, from an importer of two-thirds of its oil, into an energy exporter. I would set a timeline of five years for this, and I would make every attempt to open areas for exploration--federal lands--that have been closed for years and decades. As the Bakken oil reserve in N. Dakota, and the Marcellus natural gas finds have shown us, there is more oil and gas under our feet if we're willing to look.

By some estimates we now have a hundred year plus supply of natural gas at our disposal, due in large part to a practice known as "fracking", that has revolutionized the gas drilling business. By some estimates (the U.S. Geological Survey for one) the Bakken reserve in N. Dakota holds many billions of barrels of recoverable crude. There is more to be found and drilled, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic, on our shores (or off-shores). If our President made such a statement to the American people, the price of gas--driven by the futures markets--would come down very soon. By demonstrating a resolve and committment to solving this problem using our own land and resources, and eliminating any dependance on foreign sources (most of them unfriendly) we also strengthen our country from a national security standpoint. The Straits of Hormuz (yawn)? Sorry, doesn't affect us. No more wars fought for oil.

Then there's the potential revenue to our Treasurey from the sale of all that oil to foreign customers. Those numbers could put a serious dent in our now approaching 16 Trillion dollars of national debt. Like nothing else I know of. How about creating millions of new, high paying jobs? Also goes with the territory. Ask N. Dakota about that.

But don't worry, none of this will happen under this President. He has demonstrated, time and again (Keystone pipleline shoot-down among many others) where his priorities lie (algae). So the price of gas will continue to rise until, or if, we decide to fire him in November. Perhaps you can guess my political persuasion by now; sorry, I didn't intend to turn this blog into a political forum, but one can only ignore the obvious for so long. I make my living in a green industry, and consider myself something of an environmentalist, whatever that means. I also recognize our need for energy and oil, and would rather that we control our own destiny in those arenas than rely on the whims of the world marketplace. I guess that makes me what I would call a "Pragmatic Environmentalist", rather than the radical kind. A pragmatic environmentalist balances the needs of people with the needs of the planet. Building a bridge over the wild and scenic St. Croix river valley (next to a coal-burning power plant)? Bridge one, radicals zero. We have oil needs that will cripple and bankrupt us if we don't drill a lot of wells? Drilling two, radicals zero. You get the picture.