Fruitless Michigan 2012

You can hand pollinate apple tree or other similar flowers with peacock feathers, feather dusters, or similar tools, labor intensive and not as efficient as bees, but it will be better than nothing at all. Maybe you can actually let the kids climb the trees. LOL

Originally posted by benrl
perhaps it is time for the nations of the world to stop focusing on the technology of war.

But there is no money to be had by the defense contractors in saving fruit.

So.....

Originally posted by chiefsmom
reply to post by Realtruth

 

Yeah, I know they will by them. I'm just bummed because I can't make it myself or the applesauce this year!

Are you in northern MI?

Southeastern Michigan.


You it's not only Michigan that has been hit hard, Wisconsin, Ontario, and I believe parts of Ohio too.

reply to post by Realtruth

I am in Southeastern Michigan and have two mature apple trees that do not have a single apple this year. Last year they had so many I couldn't keep up with them and the deer were coming to feed on the wind falls. I had a few bumble bees around this spring but did not really see any other bees. Haven't seen the bumble bees for a while now too.

reply to post by Realtruth


I can confirm. We've been out to several farms north of GR and nobody has anything. Not just apples but every orchard fruit. We picked about 10 lbs of blueberries this afternoon, but we usually buy about 100 lbs of fruit every couple weeks for jams, preserves, canning, etc.

Hope you guys can struggle through OP?

reply to post by benrl


You are right. I have said this for years in ATS. in the not too distant future mankind will have to either build cities underground, as well as have to farm underground, or we have to leave not only this planet, but the Solar System.

The Solar System has been encountering some part of a different region of the Local Fluff (interstellar cloud) which is much denser than the area in which the Solar System has been for thousands of years. This is going to affect the climate on Earth, and every planet in our Solar System.

A couple of years ago, we thought that this new region of the interstellar cloud was about from 10,000 - 50,000 years from now. But recently NASA made new calculations and found out the old calculations were wrong.

It is believed that the Solar System will completely enter this interstellar cloud in 100 years.

Many of you are aware of my other threads where I have posted evidence that our Solar System is in fact entering a new region of the Local Fluff, and we are in fact slowly entering an interstellar cloud that is denser than the one in which we have been for thousands of years.

Some of those threads include the following.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Scientists have known that our Solar System was approaching this interstellar cloud since at least 1978, and for a while it was thought that it would tkae us 10,000 - 50,000 years to reach this interstellar cloud, but new evidence has pointed out to our scientists that in fact their calculations were wrong, and we will be entirely within this interstellar cloud within 100 years or so.

Ribbon at Edge of Our Solar System: Will the Sun Enter a Million-Degree Cloud of Interstellar Gas?
ScienceDaily (May 24, 2010) — Is the Sun going to enter a million-degree galactic cloud of interstellar gas soon?

Scientists from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute, and Boston University suggest that the ribbon of enhanced emissions of energetic neutral atoms, discovered last year by the NASA Small Explorer satellite IBEX, could be explained by a geometric effect coming up because of the approach of the Sun to the boundary between the Local Cloud of interstellar gas and another cloud of a very hot gas called the Local Bubble. If this hypothesis is correct, IBEX is catching matter from a hot neighboring interstellar cloud, which the Sun might enter in a hundred years.
...

www.sciencedaily.com...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/63ffeeb144dd.jpg[/atsimg]

The Sun traveling through the Galaxy happens to cross at the present time a blob of gas about ten light-years across, with a temperature of 6-7 thousand degrees kelvin. This so-called Local Interstellar Cloud is immersed in a much larger expanse of a million-degree hot gas, named the Local Bubble. The energetic neutral atoms (ENA) are generated by charge exchange at the interface between the two gaseous media. ENA can be observed provided the Sun is close enough to the interface. The apparent Ribbon of ENA discovered by the IBEX satellite can be explained by a geometric effect: one observes many more ENA by looking along a line-of-sight almost tangent to the interface than by looking in the perpendicular direction. (Credit: SRC/Tentaris,ACh/Maciej Frolow)

www.sciencedaily.com...

The following is an excerpt from a paper published in 1996 about this interstellar cloud.

Our solar system may be headed for an encounter with a dense cloud of interstellar matter
Our solar system may be headed for an encounter with a dense cloud of interstellar matter–gas and dust–that could have substantial implications for our solar systems interplanetary environment, according to University of Chicago astrophysicist Priscilla Frisch. The good news is that it probably won’t happen for 50,000 years. Frisch presented the results of her research Monday, June 10, at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Madison, Wisc.

Frisch has been investigating the interstellar gas in the local neighborhood of our solar system, which is called the Local Interstellar Medium (LISM). This interstellar gas is within 100 light years of the Sun. The Sun has a trajectory through space, and for most of the last five million years, said Frisch, it has been moving through a region of space between the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy that is almost devoid of matter. Only recently, within the last few thousand years, she estimates, the Sun has been traveling through a relatively low-density interstellar cloud.

“This cloud, although low density on average, has a tremendous amount of structure to it,” Frisch said. “And it is not inconsistent with our data that the Sun may eventually encounter a portion of the cloud that is a million times denser than what we’re in now.”

In fact the Earth, and every planet in the Solar System as well as the Sun, have been already feeling the effects of a portion of the energy and gases from this new region of the Local Fluff.

ESA sees stardust storms heading for Solar System

PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Monday, August 18, 2003
Source: Artemis Society

Until ten years ago, most astronomers did not believe stardust could enter our Solar System. Then ESA's Ulysses spaceprobe discovered minute stardust particles leaking through the Sun's magnetic shield, into the realm of Earth and the other planets. Now, the same spaceprobe has shown that a flood of dusty particles is heading our way.
...........
What is surprising in this new Ulysses discovery is that the amount of stardust has continued to increase even after the solar activity calmed down and the magnetic field resumed its ordered shape in 2001.

Scientists believe that this is due to the way in which the polarity changed during solar maximum. Instead of reversing completely, flipping north to south, the Sun's magnetic poles have only rotated at halfway and are now more or less lying sideways along the Sun's equator. This weaker configuration of the magnetic shield is letting in two to three times more stardust than at the end of the 1990s. Moreover, this influx could increase by as much as ten times until the end of the current solar cycle in 2012.

www.spaceref.com...

Space radiation hits record high

Now, the influx of galactic cosmic rays into our solar system has reached a record high. Measurements by NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft indicate that cosmic rays are 19 per cent more abundant than any previous level seen since space flight began a half century ago."The space era has so far experienced a time of relatively low cosmic ray activity," says Richard Mewaldt of Caltech, who is a member of the ACE team. "We may now be returning to levels typical of past centuries."

www.newscientist.com...

Surprise In Earth's Upper Atmosphere: Mode Of Energy Transfer From The Solar Wind

www.sciencedaily.com
"Its like something else is heating the atmosphere besides the sun. This discovery is like finding it got hotter when the sun went down," said Larry Lyons, UCLA professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and a co-author of the research, which is in press in two companion papers in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

www.sciencedaily.com...


We are living in very interesting times indeed.

reply to post by Realtruth



In my news alerts the other day there was a blurb about Erwins Orchards suffering crop loss but still planning fall activities.
That was a bummer for me. We love their orchard. 3 years in a row now I've gone out for apple picking. Delicious apples, freeze well, kids learn a lot and have a blast.
Hoping that there are still some apples for picking

This MI weather has been Messed Up.

I'm still mad about losing my lilac blooms.

I'm hoping this doesn't drive the prices up too terrible. Fruit prices can already be a bit high.
My kids love fruit and smoothies and sometimes we go through a smoothie craze. I get what's in season and then freeze it for future things.


Eta:
Just talked to husband. Well, apparently ALL the apple crop was lost for Erwins.
I am super sad. I get that they can be purchased.
But their apples were awesome. Was thinking of them about a week ago. How delicious a fresh orchard apple is in the crisp of fall.




ETAF: Still heading out to show our support. We'll get our pumpkins there and see what else we can do to help.

reply to post by benrl


Yah but then the poor war machine would lose funding.
Awww. Poor war machine.

reply to post by Realtruth


This just irritates the snot out of me.
I really try to avoid chemicals in my yard.
I dig out the weeds by hand and try different things to get rid of them (would love suggestions) and everywhere around us, people are obsessed with these perfect green lawns. Chemical sprays weekly, always watering the grass.
Few of my neighbors bother with trying any sort of organic gardening let alone putting that water to use by growing things that can help their food bill or heck, donate the food to the local elderly.
Our next door neighbor came to our house last year with a big thing of Round-Up (don't get me started) and offered it in exchange for a daisy plant.
It's like No One in this area has bleepin clue about an eco-system or Monsanto.
A person doesn't have to be gung ho on the environment to grasp that perfect yards might be 'pretty' but it comes at a price.

Bout two years ago I was a GS leader and we were working on the Wonders of Water (or whatever) book. I did a lot of digging into the local problems and yep, those pesky chemicals are messing things up so badly.
You can tell people all you want about what's going on, but the response is usually a blank stare and snarky grin to follow and "ohhhhhhh."

People worry about the economy bringing us down. HAH what's going to bring us down are people whose concerns about this world stop at the end of their nose.

Sorry for the rant, crabby this am.

Hi guys and gals

I'm in Southern Britain and I am experiencing a slightly different kind of problem. We've had a very warm March and a very dry April and then it has rained consistently since. My vine fruit, apples and plums are okay at the moment (autumn fruit) but the summer fruit has suffered considerably, I have no gooseberries on my bushes, (however, I have loads of green growth) and my soft fruit is rotting on the bush before its even ripe because of the constant rain and no sun. The rain is almost biblical and am not sure when its going to stop and summer is going to arrive. Even the temperatures are low for July.

Everything in my allotment is at least 3 weeks behind where it should be. I have a poly tunnel at home and this is currently closed most of the time - whereas in past years at this time of year it would stay open to reduce the heat build up and I would be damping down the paths to put a bit of moisture in the air. Not this year.

Its very frustrating. The harvest is looking poor and I'm having to rethink my stores for the winter. But what would life be like if it didn't give us these challenges? *ho hum*

Originally posted by Realtruth

Originally posted by MichiganSwampBuck
Thanks for the report Realtruth, flagged and starred. I'll be watching your posts. PS I also put you on my friends list.

Looks like your from the Manistee area can you confirm another anomaly I was just made aware of?

I am also an avid fishermen and a fanatical fishing friend of mine just left to yesterday, because he said the salmon were running up the Manistee River 2 months early. Now typically I would call it BS, but this particular friend doesn't cry wolf, nor travel hours for nothing.

He is also heading to Sault Ste. Marie for the early Salmon run there too.

Wow! I haven't heard that one yet. I work at a campground, near a body of water that has docks and a boat launch, so we get a lot of fishermen here. I'll ask around tonight and see what people have heard. Thanks for another good heads up!

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


He actually is coming back today, apparently the reports he got about the salmon, in the last 7 days were a few schools here and there, but he didn't see anything or catch anything salmon in the streams at all.

I know they are catching them left and right in the lakes at about 70 to 90 feet, but the streams were really a surprise to me.

reply to post by Realtruth


If the salmon are congregating in the lake near the rivers and streams, this would be the first step before spawning. It's way too early for that even because at that point the water would have to be around 55 degrees F and there would have to be a down pour to encourage the run. This is September talk, not July! Anyhow the campground tonight was busy and I never got around to asking any fishermen about things on the Manistee or the PereMarquet Rivers.

Concerning bees, I commented on this in another thread, but this spring, when the maple trees bloomed, the woods literally buzzed with the swarms at the tree tops. This was totally normal. Then in May, on the early wild flowers around my home, I counted more than a half dozen European bees, several of two different types of bumble bees, and a number of three or four different types of wild bees that ranged from nearly like the domestic to something that more resembled an ant but was actually a bee. Yesterday there were so many bees on the clover in my lawn, I was considering putting shoes on. I was lucky to not have been stung. From what I could see from the roads, there are perhaps a half a dozen domestic bee hives within 2 miles of my home and I have no idea if they are even living hives. Domestic bees do OK around here and seem to have a stable local population.