Weather

Someone suggested I call the class "Waste Product Sciences".

The problem with "Waste Product Sciences" is that it wasn't waste. It was another product. It sort of conveys that all this stuff is waste and it really isn't. It is particularly interesting to run economic reverse projections on the amount of manure produced prior to the plague years in Europe. The weather pattern was significantly differnt in 1348.

People had to eat breeding stock to make up for their lack of calories in the normal harvest. It is really hitting home this year. We had a very odd year in California. I am a farmer by profession. My early bloom crops like almonds, cherries, oranges, early peaches, plums, apricots, apples and nectarines took a huge hit this year because the rain fell when they were blooming. This knocks the flowers off the trees and keeps insects from polinating the blossoms. Notice that it wasn't a frost, but rain at the wrong time of year that was the problem. Now in the 1340s we see a significant climatic cycle that basically compromises about 3-4 years of stored food. This year, I had one tree that produced peaches, 2 prune trees (prunus vulgaris "French" the imperial didn't go) , about 1/3 my normal apple crop, no pears, no cherries, no almonds, no oranges, good lemons, no other plums, no apricots and the grapes (cabernet) look good.

I am considering writing a first person naritive of what it would be like to have to live on this little. I would be slaughtering breeding animals in September.


BEST SITE OF THE WEEK::

http://digital.library.ucla.edu/immi/