2025 in Review

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As the year winds down, I am looking back at 2025 and realizing that while there was no major life pivot point, there was a lot to going on.

Over the course of the year, we replaced three appliances: refrigerator, hot water heater, and dishwasher. None of that was planned. There was some inconvenience, but we appreciated that the separate apartment in our basement has its own version of all three…reducing the impact. Still – we realize that we should plan for other future maintenance needs. I’m not sure whether the roof or the HVAC will be next.

I continued my exploration of Missouri – focusing on prairies during the spring and early summer; I signed up for walks in 4 prairie remnants in southwest Missouri and seem to have learned to ID some plants I saw.

I also took a geology class and enjoyed a field trip in May that highlighted the geology close to home.

My husband and I made a short trip to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge in the part of Missouri that was glaciated – quite different where I leave in the southern part of the state in the Ozarks!

Later in the year I enjoyed walks at Ha Ha Tonka State Park – which is pretty close to the middle of the state.

I savored volunteering at a butterfly house from May to September; it was more enjoyable than the one I volunteered at in Maryland because it was native butterflies --- no close monitoring of the entry/exit to prevent exotics escaping into the wild.

We had some health challenges this year requiring outpatient surgery and some PT (maybe more) for my husband – PT for me that has become on a long term exercise regime.

Nothing kept us from enjoying our trip to the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival this past fall.

I maintained my monthly trips to Dallas/Lewisville TX to see my dad…occasionally my sisters. There is a routine aspect to them…but also something unique that happens each time. It is often stressful – hard to witness the month to month decline of my dad in his mid-90s.

My mood at the end of the year is not as optimistic as it was at the beginning. Have I crossed over to a pessimistic view of the future for our country (and for myself and my family)? It has occurred to me recently that maybe I have. There have been a lot of changes in the US over the past year that seem to increase the possibility of a dystopian future. Will 2026 be a pivot point for the country….or has the pivot occurred? There seems to be relatively little that individuals can do, but that doesn’t mean it is OK to do nothing.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 20, 2023

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

These four challenges will shape the next farm bill – and how the US eats – Thought provoking. Will the author’s dream priorities for investment (organic agriculture as a climate solution, infrastructure to support vibrant local and regional markets and shift away from an agricultural economy dependent on exporting low-vale crops; and agricultural science and technology research aimed at reducing labor and chemical inputs and providing new solutions for sustainable livestock production) be funded….or will Congress stay entrenched in continuing agriculture as it is today.

The Energy Revolution in 5 Charts – 1. The energy transition is a technology revolution (it’s not a brown to green caterpillar…it is a caterpillar to a butterfly; we are moving from a commodity (fossil fuel) to technology-based system). 2) The renewable revolution is exponential, not linear (and we are at or past the knee in the curve). 3) The renewable revolution is led by China (with the US and Europe recently enacting policies to compete). 4) This is the decade of change (exciting times for heat pumps, electric vehicles, solar, and wind). 5) By 2030, the debate will be very different with the renewable revolution obvious to all.

National Park waterfalls being honored on US Postage Stamps – Beautiful places. Would like to see (and photograph) more of them!

The Camouflaged Looper: This Inchworm Makes Its Own Flower “Costume” – Another reason to take a closer look at flowers….the small creatures that might we living (and munching) there!

Our tropical fruits are vulnerable to climate change. Can we make them resilient in time? – The work to help our food plants tolerate and thrive with climate change. The post is specific to Australia but has applicability elsewhere. Techniques have already been successfully applied to chickpeas to make them more drought resistant, survive higher temperatures, and produce better yields!

Commercial Rooftop Solar on Warehouses Could Power All of Them – Commercial rooftop solar on America’s warehouses could provide 185 TWh of clean renewable energy every year. Hurray! Power produced near population centers where it is used….and avoiding taking farmland for solar panels (unless the plan is to grow crops under the panels).

Water arsenic including in public water is linked to higher urinary arsenic totals among the U.S. population – Not good…and water pitcher type filters do not remove it…..it takes reverse osmosis, activated alumina, or ion exchange (anion) resins to do that.

Fashion World Remembers Mary Quant, the Miniskirt Pioneer – I was old enough in the ‘60s to remember wearing Mary Quant type dresses!

How do you stay optimistic in spite of it all? 6 hopeful souls share their secrets – Thought provoking…maybe we all need to think about the ways keep ourselves positive….not let the pessimism around us overcome us.

The clean energy milestone the world is set to pass in 2023 - Greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, the largest source of the world's emissions, are expected to fall for the first time!