ON CONCRETE AND GOLDENROD
Sept. 15: Early colorization of leaves, mainly sumac, has gone on alongside our road because the county has sprayed herbicide in the ditches. I saw a sprayer truck putting the poison to a stand of cattails, these plants being always a sign of good water and soil health—a healthy “ecosystem” as it’s called these days. So by all means, let us apply some chemical potion that’ll kill ’em.
This ditch-spraying makes no sense to me. Mostly grasses grow in ditches, and they help to clean the water that’s absorbed back into the earth. Sumacs do the same, and they don’t grow too tall or live very long. Saplings of large, long-lived trees that might pop up in the ditches to eventually obstruct them are sickle-mowed easily enough. What must this plant-toxic spray do to frogs, toads, turtles, snakes, returnable-can collectors and other critters who like to hang out in the ditches?
This overspray kills low-lying branches of roadside trees and the edges of farmers’ crops, too. Elect me president and I will put an immediate stop to this practice. Or I will do the exact opposite of what I’ve promised as a candidate and bomb our rural ditches with radioactive materials, and fill them to the brim with Agent Orange.
Human mismanagement of the flow of rainwater was a partial subject of a book I’ve just read: CONCRETE … A Seven-Thousand-Year History by Reese Palley. Mr. Palley is very much concerned about extensive pavements of impervious concrete interfering with the regeneration of our aquifers. How many millions of gallons of rainwater and snowmelt are directed into sewer systems worldwide each year instead of being allowed to replenish the subterranean water works our wells draw drinking water from? Pervious concrete is going to have to be the parking-lot pavement of the near future, and yes, there is such a thing as concrete that will let water flow through it.
This book was mailed to me by a distant friend who knew I couldn’t resist a book on masonry with such an enthralling title. What I mostly got out of it was the author’s very good case for the pyramids of Egypt having been made not of cut limestone, but of poured concrete, composed of natural materials that are indistinguishable from stone under analysis. The most enormous blocks of the pyramids are all of the exact same length, and the hand-cutting of gargantuan limestone blocks would have made for tremendous waste, given stone defects and other stone-working vagaries. There has never been any sign of where this waste might have gone, and to me the notion of cutting limestone on any large scale with copper tools is ridiculous.
Did alien beings descend to assist with the cutting of stone—with lasers, perhaps—and the hoisting of it into place? Such speculations, in the book, are those of “pyramidiots.”
This afternoon I brought up from our fields the last batch of fresh goldenrod flowers. Toni, my wife, has stripped the stems of leaves and hung the flowers to dry on a line on the porch. This wonderful goldenrod, which often takes the allergy blame for ragweed that blooms at the same time, has kept me from developing kidney stones for a good many years now. Toni makes an “infusion” (a very strong tea) of these flowers about once a month, and in the mornings I’ll drink a half-a-cup of it until the quart is gone. Keeping the nostrils closed while drinking it straight (without honey or some other sweetener) is a good idea because it doesn’t taste too good.
Here’s what you might do next year, kidney stone sufferers: Find a stand of goldenrod in full, perfect bloom, a stand with lots of bees on it. Don’t disturb the bees. Cut the stems of these flowers, just enough stem for a handle. Bring in your bouquets, strip the leaves from the stems and hang the works on a dry, airy spot for about a week. Put the dried flowers in jars for storage.
Bring water to a boil, pour into a quart jar with a cup of dried flowers in it, let steep for two-three hours, strain out the flowers and refrigerate. There you go.
Goldenrod will not only prevent kidney stone formation. If you’re suffering a stone, it will also serve to dissolve and pass one that a urologist is apt to tell you you’re not likely to get rid of without a $4,000 operation. Added bonuses are that goldenrod is a “cure-all” and antidepressant.
Sept. 15: Early colorization of leaves, mainly sumac, has gone on alongside our road because the county has sprayed herbicide in the ditches. I saw a sprayer truck putting the poison to a stand of cattails, these plants being always a sign of good water and soil health—a healthy “ecosystem” as it’s called these days. So by all means, let us apply some chemical potion that’ll kill ’em.
This ditch-spraying makes no sense to me. Mostly grasses grow in ditches, and they help to clean the water that’s absorbed back into the earth. Sumacs do the same, and they don’t grow too tall or live very long. Saplings of large, long-lived trees that might pop up in the ditches to eventually obstruct them are sickle-mowed easily enough. What must this plant-toxic spray do to frogs, toads, turtles, snakes, returnable-can collectors and other critters who like to hang out in the ditches?
This overspray kills low-lying branches of roadside trees and the edges of farmers’ crops, too. Elect me president and I will put an immediate stop to this practice. Or I will do the exact opposite of what I’ve promised as a candidate and bomb our rural ditches with radioactive materials, and fill them to the brim with Agent Orange.
Human mismanagement of the flow of rainwater was a partial subject of a book I’ve just read: CONCRETE … A Seven-Thousand-Year History by Reese Palley. Mr. Palley is very much concerned about extensive pavements of impervious concrete interfering with the regeneration of our aquifers. How many millions of gallons of rainwater and snowmelt are directed into sewer systems worldwide each year instead of being allowed to replenish the subterranean water works our wells draw drinking water from? Pervious concrete is going to have to be the parking-lot pavement of the near future, and yes, there is such a thing as concrete that will let water flow through it.
This book was mailed to me by a distant friend who knew I couldn’t resist a book on masonry with such an enthralling title. What I mostly got out of it was the author’s very good case for the pyramids of Egypt having been made not of cut limestone, but of poured concrete, composed of natural materials that are indistinguishable from stone under analysis. The most enormous blocks of the pyramids are all of the exact same length, and the hand-cutting of gargantuan limestone blocks would have made for tremendous waste, given stone defects and other stone-working vagaries. There has never been any sign of where this waste might have gone, and to me the notion of cutting limestone on any large scale with copper tools is ridiculous.
Did alien beings descend to assist with the cutting of stone—with lasers, perhaps—and the hoisting of it into place? Such speculations, in the book, are those of “pyramidiots.”
This afternoon I brought up from our fields the last batch of fresh goldenrod flowers. Toni, my wife, has stripped the stems of leaves and hung the flowers to dry on a line on the porch. This wonderful goldenrod, which often takes the allergy blame for ragweed that blooms at the same time, has kept me from developing kidney stones for a good many years now. Toni makes an “infusion” (a very strong tea) of these flowers about once a month, and in the mornings I’ll drink a half-a-cup of it until the quart is gone. Keeping the nostrils closed while drinking it straight (without honey or some other sweetener) is a good idea because it doesn’t taste too good.
Here’s what you might do next year, kidney stone sufferers: Find a stand of goldenrod in full, perfect bloom, a stand with lots of bees on it. Don’t disturb the bees. Cut the stems of these flowers, just enough stem for a handle. Bring in your bouquets, strip the leaves from the stems and hang the works on a dry, airy spot for about a week. Put the dried flowers in jars for storage.
Bring water to a boil, pour into a quart jar with a cup of dried flowers in it, let steep for two-three hours, strain out the flowers and refrigerate. There you go.
Goldenrod will not only prevent kidney stone formation. If you’re suffering a stone, it will also serve to dissolve and pass one that a urologist is apt to tell you you’re not likely to get rid of without a $4,000 operation. Added bonuses are that goldenrod is a “cure-all” and antidepressant.