Dogsitting life

A little sun between the storms today.

InadvertentResearch: Wheat

Let's talk about wheat.

The war in Ukraine put a drastic shortage on wheat in Europe. Ukraine is one of Europe’s largest wheat exporters. Drought in the United States left the winter wheat crops in a deplorable state. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said 30% of U.S. winter wheat was in good or excellent condition as of April 3, well below the trade expectation for 40% and the year-ago 53%. That was the agency’s first national assessment of wheat conditions since late November.

Crop health has rarely been this poor in early April. Only 27% of winter wheat in 1996 was good or excellent within the first 10 days of the month, and 2018 was close behind with 31%. Final yields were poor in 2018 but terrible in 1996.

Winter wheat production represents approximately 70 percent of total U.S. production, on average. US farmers planted 34.4 million acres of winter wheat for 2022, the most in six years (USDA, January). However, most of the Plains breadbasket is in the grip of a drought that is expected to persist through April, according to the latest seasonal outlook from the U.S. Climate Prediction Center. April rain, the most important element in a successful wheat crop for US production, was less than needed. Despite the increased planting, in May the USDA forecast an 8% reduction in output from 2021.

Globally, the wheat situation is bad everywhere except Russia. Ukrainian production is diminished and what is produced will be unavailable for export due to war. India has faced such a heat wave that crops are damaged, leading the country to forgo exports altogether, keeping such wheat as they can produce for domestic use. The USDA expects total world wheat production will decline 0.6% in 2022/23, with a 35% drop in Ukraine accounting for the biggest shortfall. Wheat crops in other countries are suffering from drought, including Morocco, where production is projected to be down 70%. As a result, the agency lowered its projection for world wheat ending stocks by 5% , the lowest level in six years.

All of this has pushed wheat futures soaring. Chicago futures for wheat are nearly double what they were in July.

Americans eat an amazing amount of wheat, even if they don’t realize it. Cookies, bread, noodles, you name it, wheat is on the menu nearly every meal, and definitely the backbone of snacks and desserts. The U.S., once the bread basket to the world, has been importing wheat to make up its shortfall over the past decade. As we go into the 2022/2023 year, the May report of the US Wheat Associates shows beginning stocks are down, production is expected to be down to decade lows, and consumption shows no sign of decline. Further weather fluctuations could imperil the reduced projections. Our staple food could get very expensive very fast.

Lightening Strikes

Lighten-ing Strikes

This challenge is about adopting NothingWhatsoever as a Way of being, about looking at my possessions and entanglements and making surgical cuts to let go of what doesn't actively heal me. Typical decluttering has me looking at what to get rid of; lighten-ing has me justifying anything I decide to keep, from forks to gym memberships, jobs and relationships.

Top of the list are the Super Scary Storage Units. I have no idea what's in those boxes. Step one is to divide a space out for keeps even if I leave it in storage, and designate a section for donate for anything already sorted and not in the keep area. I mean really. I don't need anything in there except my birth certificate, a signed copy of a book by a friend, a notebook of my novel, and maybe that stash of amazing olive oil from a grove in southeastern Italy. Even the books for my dissertation are optional. Once I get enough stuff in the donation area, I can get help hauling it away. The storage units are on the other end of town and it feels like a Dreaded Quest to even think about going. I'm avoidant in the extreme about this. So, time in small chunks will be a dramatic improvement.

Also on the list are any and all bills. I haven't used my gym membership. I can either use it or scrap it. We'll see how often I actually leave the house once the paper is done. A thorough inventory of what I'm signed up for (seriously? I was paying for a subscription to chess.com? I don't even remember that.) and then an evaluation of the list. Sounds simple when I put it like that, doesn't it?

NothingWhatsoever. I have a habit of signing up for everything that sounds great. And everything sounds great. I need less to do in my life as I heal from burnout, heal from injury, and heal from trauma. No new things, and a lightening of existing projects and commitments. I've already decided to take the summer off from classes, and this first week I resigned from an editing position. The disentanglement of that will take another week or so, mostly in the form of having them tell me who to send my work to and crafting a letter to my series editor and authors for a smooth (ish) handoff. There's an annual Writing Workshop that I usually attend that has a powerful magic for me. It's meeting virtually again this year (June 13-19, so zero week of next challenge). I'm not committing to going yet, even though it's only a month away. I have a feeling that a lot will be revealed during the eclipses (lunar May 26 and solar June 10). I'd like to make no new commitments until after that.

The elephant in the room is my relationship with my daughter. Nothing makes sense right now on this front, and it hasn't in years. At this point, if I'm being honest, my relationship with my daughter is a past thing. To have a relationship now would be to start something new. Her dad is clearly, violently opposed. I'm not certain I'm willing to take on a fight just to say I can. It certainly wouldn't be a relationship with my daughter, so what's the value?

I have two farm workdays scheduled, May 22 and June 5, at the farm that grows my food for the season (May-December). I like that these come right after the paper delivery and right after court. Hoeing onions or weighing lettuce are the perfect tasks for resetting my spirit and listening for inspiration. Even so, the weight of commitment is noticeable. I know there will be a million opportunities to sign up to help. I need to limit myself to these two. If I want more farm time, I can go to the garden up the mountain, my spiritual home.

Dawn

May the Light of the Full Moon

The full moon in May has many names:
Colonial America: Milk Moon
Cherokee: Planting Moon
Choctaw: Panther Moon
Celtic: Bright Moon
Medieval England: Hare Moon
Neo-Pagan: Grass Moon
Wiccan: Hare Moon
Algonquian: Flower Moon
English: Milk Moon
Siouan (Assiniboines) Tribe, Montana: Idle Moon
Inuit of Northern Canada: Goose Moon
Chinese: Dragon Moon


Flower Moon Folklore
Clothes washed for the first time in the Full Moon will not last long.
The Full Moon is an ideal time to accept a proposal of marriage.