2008 July Archive at Beside the Stream

Archive for July, 2008

Water Rights 2

Published on July 31, 2008 in water. 1 Comment

Mining companies were the first big water users in many of the western states, and much of the West’s water law today is based on dividing up mountain streams to run the high altitude mills that separated rock from ore. Water rights were allotted on a first-come, first-serve basis, which worked for miners and ranchers both: the oldest claims got their water first. Prior appropriation is one basic tenet of western water law. The second tenet is beneficial use–if you don’t actually use your water, you’ll lose your rights.

In Colorado, the water courts were set up shortly after statehood to adjudicate water rights. The Tribes had been moved onto reservations, so the miners, ranchers and ditch companies filed for water rights and claimed nearly all of the surface water.

Fast forward a hundred years. Mining claims played out and the mines closed. Since water rights specify a location, amount and date, those high altitude rights couldn’t be sold and were abandoned. Today only a few percent of the population lives on ranches, but ranchers and ditch companies still own most of the water. Cities grew later, and are having a heck of a time finding adequate water supplies because the surface water was claimed long ago, and owned by people who use the same irrigation systems their great grandfathers used. Thanks to the beneficial use clause, there’s little incentive for people who own early rights to conserve water. (If you don’t use your rights, you lose them, and a water right is a terrible thing to lose.)

When we go back to our total water use chart, you’ll notice that most of our water is used for irrigation. It’s the green bars.

Most of the irrigated acreage lies west of the Mississippi, so part of what these green bars reflect is what happens when the right to use water is privately owned and based on prior appropriation (where the earliest rights get their allotment first). In the West, the irrigators got the water and the political power both: the senate and congress of western states are packed with ranchers and old ranching families. And yet you can see from the chart, if irrigators (green) became 15% or 20% more efficient, it’d be the same as if every city (purple) cut its water consumption by 50%.

My, what a web we weave, when water management is governed by politics and law instead of science.

Water Use in the US

Published on July 30, 2008 in water. 1 Comment

I’m East for a week to give a lecture at Dartmouth on water quality, and to visit my parents in Vermont. I’ll be away from a computer, so I tried to do a week’s worth of essays in advance for Bob to post day by day (I ended up padding the pile with a few water pieces, but so be it).

This is the total water use in the US, from 1950 to 2000. You might notice that total water use today is about the same as it was in 1970, though our population increased by 80 million since then (from 203 million in 1970 to 280 million in 2000). Did you notice that immense conservation effort? Did it cramp your lifestyle? As far as I can tell, this reduction in consumption was nearly unnoticable.

Water is considered to be a public good in the US, while energy is private business. More energy used meant more (private) profits, so we live in a country where air conditioners can be energy hogs, but everyone installs 1.6 gallon flush toilets.

Figure 3. Energy Overview

With a pause for recession, our total energy consumption grew substantially since 1970, while total water consumption stayed constant (and per capita consumption is down by 1/3).

Energy use was left to market forces, while water use was curbed by laws requiring low flow fixtures. Hmmm.

A mosaic bathroom mirror

Published on July 29, 2008 in Do it yourself. 6 Comments

We finished building our house a year and a half ago, and a big mirror for the front bathroom was low on the project list until recently. It had to be nice, because I have an Chinese ancestor painting from the 1400s that Bob doesn’t like, so I put her in the bathroom and painted it red. It took four coats.

With a grand dame in the bathroom (and that much red), you’d better have a pretty substantial mirror. I had this fabric for under the sink (from Brunschwig through Ebay),

and thought a mosaic made from glass tiles would make an inexpensive mirror. The ingredient list is ridiculously short.

You need Weldbond glue, an Ace hardware item that glues glass to wood. You need glass tiles (through Ebay, for me, with the colors based on the skirt fabric) and a piece of plywood. Once that stuff is collected, you’re good to go. It took two sittings to glue these tiles onto the plywood.

The blue and yellow tiles are different thicknessess and it’s not perfect by a long shot

but we screwed the plywood into the studs, glued the mirror right on top (held in place with three screws until the glue set) and grouted it.

Grout makes each imperfection stand out, and the only reason this mosaic works is because every single piece is off, creating a cockeyed symmetry. In any case, the result is so ancestor-worthy that I’m forced to finish up the skirt to complete the picture.

Ta da! You can’t go far wrong with glass tile and glue on a plywood backing. You can’t get a cheaper mirror. And when Bob trims it out in dark wood, it’ll be fancy enough for my Chinese lady for certain.

My chickens have no breasts

Published on July 26, 2008 in birds. 6 Comments

I called Holly to set a date to process the chickens. It’s not hard at all, she said. Once you see how we do it, you and Bob can do it at home next year. I’m thinking, or not. They have an efficient outdoor set-up with a professional scalding tub, a plucker, and a stainless counter and faucet that drains into a 5-gallon bucket. I took lots of pictures, but had no computer card in my camera… so I don’t have to sort through 100 scenes of butchery, and you don’t have to see any either.

Suffice it to say that in the morning my chickens looked like this,

in the evening they looked like this, and in between wasn’t horrible at all.

Their carcasses looked so angular to me that I bought an all-natural chicken from the store for a side by side comparison.

These chickens both weigh about 3 pounds, but mine is over 11 weeks old and the grocery one is probably 8 weeks max. My chicken has yellow skin from eating bugs and grass, it’s legs are much bigger,

and my birds have no breasts. Literally.

I raised Light Brahma chickens, an heirloom variety, because they were supposed to be the friendliest and calmest. I chose a meat bird based on temperament, and I ended up with 18 leggy, breastless birds.

This is Caravaggio’s <Supper at Emmaus> from 1601

and this is the chicken they’re serving.

Oh my Lord I’ve raised Caravaggio’s chickens.

Not Dead Yet

Published on July 24, 2008 in birds. 3 Comments

Last week, I scheduled the chickens’ demise for Wednesday noon. Tuesday morning, I woke up and saw the chicken pen was empty. I had left their door unlatched the night before and they were gone. It was sort of a mistake, but I wouldn’t mind a bit if the roosters ran away and tried their luck elsewhere. Unfortunately, they didn’t go far. They all said Hi when I found them in the tall grass next to the ditch. When I suggested that they might want to go back to their pen, a dozen promptly toddled in. The last six took a little herding by Jessie, but they’ve become institutionalized: they like their enclosure and their little toys. They don’t want to run away.

I fed them treats all day Tuesday. I made them a pot of rice (their favorite leftover), and they loved it so much that I made them another. I went out at midnight last night to take their feeder away (no food for 12 hours before slaughter so their guts aren’t full), and they looked so sweet all roosting together.

This morning dawned bright,

and the roosters all started crowing.

It’s a secondary sex characteristic. They’ve only just learned how to do it.

As sorry as I’ll be to see the chickens go, well, not everyone feels so fondly.

Umami

Published on July 24, 2008 in recipe. 0 Comments

I’ve heard the word ‘umami’ over the last few years, and recently looked it up. This is what I learned:

You know how our taste buds have receptors for sweet, salty, bitter and sour? There’s now a fifth basic taste: umami (ōō-mä’mē, like you mommy without the ‘y’ in you).

“… in 1996, a team of University of Miami researchers studying taste perception … discovered separate taste receptor cells in the tongue for detecting umami. “Up until our research, the predominate wisdom in the scientific community was that umami [first identified in 1908] … was just a combination of the other four qualities [salty, sweet, bitter, sour],” explained Dr. Stephen Roper, the University of Miami physiology and biophysics professor who helped zero in on the taste along with Nirupa Chaudhari, the team’s lead researcher.”

“Umami is a Japanese word meaning “savory” … and applies to the sensation of savoriness, specifically to the detection of the natural amino acid, glutamatic acid or glutamates common in meat, cheese, mushrooms, anchovies and other protein-heavy foods. The action of umami receptors explains why foods treated with monosodium glutamate (MSG) often taste “heartier”.

“Glutamate has a long history in cooking, appearing in Asian foods such as soy sauce and fish sauce; in Italian food in Parmesan cheese and anchovies. It is the taste of Marmite in the UK, of Golden Mountain sauce in Thailand, of Maggi Sauce worldwide, of Goya Sazón on the Latin islands of the Caribbean, of Salsa Lizano in Costa Rica and of Kewpie mayonnaise in Japan.”

Naturally occurring glutamates in potatoes are concentrated by deep frying, making potato chips addictive. Caesar salad, featuring both anchovies and Parmesan, is a glutamate feast. And so is my favorite ingredient, fish sauce (nuoc mam, if you’re Vietnamese). Adding a dash of fish sauce to salad dressing, stews, soups or anything savory adds a layer of complexity and depth of flavor. It makes a dish noticeably better, but you don’t know why. And since fish sauce is made from fermented (i.e. rotted) fish, it’s not something I ever mention, but I see now that I’ve been adding umami. Ah, umami (with apologies to Li Bai)(a poet of the Tang Dynasty formerly known as Li Po)

Leeks, cream, and fish sauce, my three favorite ingredients.

I could live without leeks, and maybe even cream.

Growing Leeks (Time: 3 weeks, 7 weeks, 15 weeks)

Published on July 22, 2008 in gardening. 0 Comments

These Musselburgh leeks are three weeks old.

These are the same leeks transplanted at seven weeks,

It took a long time before they were thicker than a chive,

but at 15 weeks they’re coming along nicely. They were planted at the bottom of a trench, and now I’m hilling the soil around the stalks. Love those leeks.

A wild women-only party

Published on July 22, 2008 in Celebration and Colorado women. 3 Comments

I think it was the wildest party I’ve ever been to. There was an entire costume closet laid out in front of a mirror, including hats, boas, jackets, bustiers, dresses, hot pants, a fake rump and wigs galore.

Some people chose one costume and stuck to it.

The woman on the left kept her maroon and fur ensemble for the whole night; the woman on the right kept the cape and the fur leggings, and changed everything else.

Some people started slow

before totally diving in,

I wish I had been bolder. I did flowers and a pink wig,

but I would have loved to have tried on that booty.

Staining concrete

Published on July 21, 2008 in Do it yourself and dogs. 6 Comments

Bob stained the concrete porch. It was a lot of work.

We started Monday evening at 5:30. First we moved the furniture from the porch, we swept it,

and then we scrubbed it with water. At that point, I thought we had done a good amount of work and should do the next step tomorrow, so I made a nice chicken curry while Bob sprayed the concrete with acid, scrubbed it up and rinsed it down. There can’t be any humans or dogs on the concrete until the process is completed, so I explain the new rules to the dog–not a single pawprint please.

The next morning the concrete is glaringly clean.

The stain is based on a chemical reaction that varies depending on the amount of limestone in the concrete. You know sort of what color it’s going to be, but the exact shade depends on the concrete itself. Bob sprays the stain on the concrete and lets it react for eight hours.

Here is the stain when it has fully reacted,

and here it is after a light scrub and wash. It is a horrible shade, don’t you think? But have faith. Bob rolls on a sealer, the floor turns a mottled mahogany and is done… except that the finish needs 48 hours to cure before we walk on it.

Once concrete is stained and sealed, you never have to touch it again. It’s dead easy to clean. And it’s gorgeous.

And (in case you didn’t notice) Jessie would like full credit for not putting a paw on the porch for the whole three days, which (she’d like to remind everyone) is a long time for an old dog to remember. For the record.

A rainbow

Published on July 19, 2008 in Photography. 4 Comments

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