Blogger Expands Culinary Horizons, Improves Dad Score

So I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation proposal yesterday. Big deal. Here's the biggest success of my day:
She asked for pancakes. I had never made pancakes. (How does a guy go 39 years without making one of the easiest, most rewarding foods on the planet?) I remembered my Dad making pancakes. He made us bunnies, whales, all sorts of shapes. I broke out the cookbook, found the ingredients, and went to work. She told me I wasn't whisking properly, but a few minutes later, she joyfully received her bear pancake. (I was aiming for bunny. Ssshhhh!)

Sweet! Now watch out for that fork, honey bear.

And don't forget to eat those carrots.

Lake Herman Ice Check: Seven Inches!

For lunch, I stepped out of the office and chopped a hole in the lake.

Punching holes in Lake Herman: another guy compulsion

About twenty feet from shore, the ice on lovely Lake Herman was a whole hand thick, at least seven inches. Ever-reliable Dad reports he saw someone drag a shelter out to ice-fish over the weekend. Cross at your own peril!

And how was your lunch break?

First Freeze on Lake Herman

Lake Herman was still wavy yesterday, but it settled down enough overnight to freeze:

Don't drag out the ice shack just yet: that's at best a quarter inch of fine, smooth slush. But with below freezing temps until Saturday, the ducks and geese may have to put in overtime to keep open patches for themselves over Thanksgiving.

Madison Hiking Utility Rates: Local Power, Anyone?

Tuesday's MDL reports the Madison City Commission plans to raise my neighbors' rates for electricity, water, and garbage. on electricity, the city says, Don't blame us!

Ericsson described the municipal electric utility as only a "distributor of power" and not a producer. He said that the city had to increase its rates partly due to the increased cost of electricity that Madison was billed from its suppliers -- the Western Area Power Administration and Heartland Consumers Power District.

According to Ericsson, the city electric utility wasn't itself generating many new expenses and thereby creating bills that needed payment.

"We're buying some capital things, but not a lot of things," Ericsson said [Chuck Clement, "City Moves on Utility Rate Hikes," Madison Daily Leader, 2010.11.09].

Come now, Commissioner Ericsson. How can you blame Russell Olson and all the nice people at Heartland? Instead of shifting blame, the city could Power Forward™ with some local energy production, if it would just listen to its creative neighbors and local entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile, just how much will electricity bills rise in Madison?

In 2010, city electricity customers would pay about $105 per month for 1,200 kilowatt-hours of electrical power. With the rate increase, customers will pay about $114 for the same 1,200 kwh, an increase of $9 per month [Clement, 2010.11.09].

Quick comparison: Here at Madville Times World Headquarters, safely removed from the city limits of Madison on the western shore of freedom-loving Lake Herman, my family used an average of 1431 kilowatt-hours per month over the past year (minimum: 566 kWh from mid-September to mid-October of this year; maximum 3765 kWh during the December 2009–January 2010 billing cycle, including that cold Christmas blizzard). That's includes our heat, which is all electric. Average monthly bill with Sioux Valley Energy: $93.

More electricity, less cost. Ah, country living....

Water is cheaper in town, since the city has its own wells, while we Lake Herman denizens have our water piped in from Chester (or De Smet?) and support a network of 2200 miles of pipe. Hmm... have your own source, pay less... is that another argument for Madison to develop its own local power sources, or maybe even get gung ho like the Army and set a goal of energy self-sufficiency?
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Update 2010.11.13 08:30 CST: General Manager Mike McDowell writes from Heartland Consumer Power District's new multi-million-dollar headquarters that Madison's increased electrical rates aren't Heartland's fault, either.

Lake Herman Dirtiest in October, Still Safe

We volunteers in the Dakota Water Watch bacteria monitoring project took our last samples for 2010 on October 12. The biology lab at Dakota State University just sent back the draft results for the season.

Charlie Stoneback and I sampled five different sites on our Lake Herman through summer and fall. The highest E. coli ratings for the year came this month, in that warm October weather. Charlie got the highest bacteria reading, 210 colony-forming units per 100 mL, at the sample site right next to his house, at the mouth of the golf course creek. That was over twice as high as the reading he got at the same site in July.

The next highest October readings were at my two sites: 144 cfu/mL at the mouth of the stream on the south tip of the lake, 100 cfu/mL at the mouth of the stream that runs into the lake from the southwest, next to Camp Lakoida. I never got a reading over 100 in any of my other 2010 samples.

What do these numbers mean? Well, there's some E. coli in Lake Herman, and the little buggers apparently enjoyed the warm October weather that didn't really break until this weekend. But even Charlie's high number doesn't exceed the Environmental Protection Agency's single-sample maximum for immersion recreation of 235 cfu/mL (environmental scientists, check that number for me!).

In other words, swimming in Lake Herman is still relatively safe. And we're still filtering nutrients and keeping the water a little cleaner and the property values a little higher at Lake Madison.

Lake Herman Cuts Taxes 23.5%

The Lake Herman Sanitary District budget process was not nearly as interesting this year as last. Board member Lawrence Dirks and I went through two meetings, weighty parliamentary questions, and a whole lot of public input before we finally settled on doing the same thing we'd done the year before.

This year's budget process took one 17-minute meeting. No one came to voice an opinion or even observe whether I'd have to apologize to the library staff again. No apologies were necessary. The budget slid through with relatively little discussion.

The 2011 budget also reduces the tax levy by 23.5% to reflect actual projected expenses rather than racking up a surplus.

You're welcome.

Weather Report from Lake Herman: Wet!

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it... other than shooting YouTube videos! John Nelson on the east side of Madison reports four inches last night alone. Here's the view from Lake Herman of our prairie monsoon season:

Part I: The Driveway—Too Much Water



Part II: The Boat Ramp—Conservation of Gravel and Energy



Part III: The Yard: Gophers Afloat

Eye of the Storm -- Blink! Rain, Rain, and More Rain

I made it to town between downpours. In the Mundt library, I missed most of the second gullywasher of the afternoon, oblivious in my earphones. The rain broke just in time for my sanitary district meeting.

I stepped outside, looked up—hey! This isn't a hurricane... so how come this storm has an eye?

The rough rainy grey moved in fast to close the gap.



Downtown, folks parking by the Stadium Grill needed galoshes:
The storm drain at North First and Egan was still playing catch-up on gullywasher #2:

Thirty minutes later, that corner was dry.

As I raced the dark, on-rushing front home, I found more water. Lots of water in the ditches headed for the lake, big water on the golf course... oh yeah, and someone's black Angus grazing in the ditch south on 451st (glad I didn't meet him in the dark! Come get your livestock, neighbor!). And then there was all this water by my house:


This isn't my current driveway; this is the gravel trail down to our old cabin and the fishing point. Splash splash—hardly need to get out of the car to fish. We also have a minor stream running across our front yard. What fun!

The black clouds raced overhead, then boom! Big northwest wind, and the heaviest rainfall of the day. Time to check the sump pump... where'd I leave that hose?

Man Rolls Truck on Highway 34, Walks Away with Scratches

Paramedics arrive at scene of vehicle rollover at
Highway 34–Territorial Road intersection,
Lake County, SD, 2010.08.24 ~10:30 CDT

Whew—that was close! As we Heidelbergers headed to town this morning, we saw a tan car in the turning lane on Highway 34, west of Prairie Village, that leads to Territorial Road and the country club. The car appeared ready to turn south, off the highway, but then appeared to move back into the westbound driving lane.

Behind that car, an orange and white pickup truck was westbound. Good thing he wasn't on his cell phone. The driver saw the car coming back into the main lane, slammed on the brakes and swerved north. Brakes and tires smoked, leaving tracks on the pavement. The truck missed the car. It hit the north curb several meters down from the Moonlite Inn's west entrance, went in the ditch, caught the dirt, and flipped and rolled sideways.

The cab got crunched a little. Windshield and back window popped out. The fabric cover on the bed tore off and tools and such spilled out of the back. The driver of the truck, the only man inside, opened the door and walked away with scratches. (Your assessments of classic Chevy engineering are welcome.)

Lake County law enforcement and paramedics tend to
rollover victim (seated in police cruiser). Driver of other
vehicle and grandson (right) wait to speak to officer.

This accident happened on the big highway curve right by Prairie Village. The highway will busy this weekend with everyone coming for the steam threshing jamboree. Come to Madison, have loads of fun, spend loads of money, but please, watch where the heck you're driving!
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Update 2010.08.25: MDL publishes the names of those involved: Dean McCool was driving the truck; Judy Conrad was driving the car in front. MDL omits the key detail that Conrad's car was straddling the turning lane and the driving lane.

Sioux Falls Sewer Woes -- I Love My Septic Tank

The next time someone around Lake Herman suggests we build a central sewer system around the lake, I'm going to remind them of the grief Sioux Falls residents are having with their sewer system this week. One pipe fails, and a million gallons of sewage backs up. Mayor Mike Huether orders thousands of homes and businesses not to use their toilets, laundry, or showers (just what you want to hear after a hard day of working on the road crew or getting back from a five-mile run in the summer heat). The city has to discharge sewage into Covell Lake and the Big Sioux River at a rate of 900 to 1200 gallons per minute.

If the Lake Herman Sanitary District were to replace private septic tanks with a shared public sewer, we wouldn't include a storm sewer that would amplify water flow and increase the risk of overloading the system. But consider that one plugged or broken pipe in a central system puts an entire quadrant of Sioux Falls at risk of basements full of sewage. One pump station malfunction threatens everyone's property and health. And whatever the problem—too much volume, one defective pipe, one human error—everyone one the system pays for it via taxes.

With our septic tanks on Lake Herman, there can still be problems. An old tank can crumble and leak. Drainfields can get saturated, plugged with roots, or packed by driving trucks or heavy equipment over the yard. Homeowners can flush grease and oil and objects down the drain that plug the system and cause a backup.

But when something goes wrong with a septic system, the damage is usually limited to one house and yard, the property of the person who more than likely neglected or misused his system in the first place. The costs of onsite septic system failure—wrecked carpet and drywall, stress from cleaning up, four or five thousand dollars to replace a tank—never impact an entire neighborhood at once. If I fail to take care of my septic tank, my stupidity doesn't cause my neighbors grief.

Living in the city has much to recommend it. But the joys of central sewer are not an element of city living that I envy or that I wish on my neighbors here on Lake Herman.

High Water at Lake Herman: Algae, Weeds, Snails!

I got to break out the waders and boonie hat and play Junior Science Ranger again yesterday: we had another round of water sampling as part of our area lake bacteria monitoring project yesterday. Samples so far this year have come in relatively clean. Bacteria counts have been well below the maximum state and EPA standards for safe swimming and other recreation. (You still take a swig at your own risk.) We've had some soupy and stinky algae days, but yesterday the water seemed remarkably clear—not northern Minnesota clear, but we'll take what we can get.

Lake Herman has dropped significantly in the past dry week, perhaps as much as a foot. But the lake is still remarkably high at my home shoreline and at my two water sampling sites at Camp Lakodia and, pictured above, the south tributary on Rick Doblar's land. (Click each photo for bigger view.)

Looking north toward the state park... see the brown triangle beyond the tree? Usually, that's all green grass. But the water was high enough in June to inundate that low ground alongside the tributary and drown the grass.

That usually dry ground is still plenty wet. Out at the tip is the point where I usually drop my gear on dry ground and wade in to take samples.

Lake Herman's south bay is about a meter deep just off shore and stays that depth for quite a ways out. The water is rife with what my biologist friends say is sago pondweed. Good for ducks and geese, bad for your boat prop.

Snails dig sago pondweed, too.

Rainbow and Lightning: Thunderstorm over Lake Herman

So we come home from a lovely day at the Brookings Summer Arts Festival. Windy, warm, just what we expect at Pioneer Park, and still loads fun—pix coming tomorrow!

But hang on to those art tents, Brookings—we're sending you a storm.

This thunder and lightning passed over Lake Herman just in time to produce a rainbow from the setting sun peeking under the cloud line in the northwest:



As a demonstration of how bad the typical cheap camcorder is, the microphone does not pick up the amazing, constant thunder around us. Fortunately, neither does my four-year-old, who is happily asleep, her cheek still adorned with the nice blue butterfly a girl at the arts festival painted on her cheek this noon.

The temp was in the 80s a couple hours ago when I got home from my bike ride. As the storm passed over, the temp dropped to 67. Right now at 21:21 CDT, it's 61°F on the west side of Lake Herman.

The storm here was relatively gentle: the rain was light, and the wind didn't blow hard enough to move our chairs around on the deck. But that lucky position of the storm line just off the horizon allowed the sun to break out and cast the churning clouds in that fearsome orange and crimson relief that says, "You are small."

Here's a video pan of the storm from WNW to NE over Lake Herman:



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Update 2010.07.12: See views of the same storm from Brookings-way from Tramplingrose.

Madville Times "Lake to Shining Lake" Bicycle Ride Saturday 8 A.M.!

This time we thought we'd plan ahead....

Blog and bike enthusiasts alike, up for a bike ride tomorrow morning? Regular commenter, avid cyclist, and MHS debate alum Tony Amert is in town for America's birthday and suggested we ride our mountain bikes from Lake Herman to Lake Madison and back, as we both did most separately a couple July 4ths ago. Then we thought, heck, why not invite everyone else?

The plan:

• Meet at the public access boat ramp on the west side of Lake Herman at 8 a.m. Saturday, July 3, 2010. That's on Cottonwood Cove Trail, within view of my green house.
  
• Recommended gear: fat tires (we're riding lots of gravel) and water
• Estimated distance: about 22 miles from lake to lake (longer if we get lured by detours)
• Planned route: see map! We'll go south around Lake Herman first, through the boonies to Lake Madison, and up to the new public access area. From there, we'll wend out way back toward Madison and Lake Herman.
• Possible detours: east on the paved bike path to Johnson's point; charge through downtown; loop through Lake Herman State Park and Dirks Resort.

Come climb some gravel hills (slight bumps, my Black Hills friends will call them) and anoint yourselves in the cooling waters of Lake County's crystal blue-green gems. Come ride!

Alert: Boater Missing on Lake Herman

Lake County Search and Rescue just drove up in my yard looking for a missing boater. I didn't catch all the details, but evidently a couple folks from Camp Lakodia in a canoe or kayak got in trouble on the choppy water and capsized. Search and Rescue got a call that one had reached a dock, but the status of the second person is uncertain.

Search and Rescue has a boat and its jetski on the water searching right now. The team ran through my yard and headed south down the shore to check the docks at Schafers' and Walkers'. Lake Herman neighbors, keep your eyes peeled.

I think one of the Search and Rescue folks said on the walkie talkies that the missing boater may be deaf, so you may not be able to call out and get a response.

Madison Pix: High Sun, High Water, High Corn

Bicycle, camera, no need to rush home... photos around town! (Click pix to embiggen!)

Looking west down Northwest First Street... in prairie towns, the sky is still the biggest thing around.

South on Highland Avenue, the water in Silver Creek is about two feet from the bottom of the bridge.

On the town side of the road, the ditch toward Gehl is full of water.

I take it all this rain has been good for corn... at least the corn on the high ground. This corn on the way to the state park looks like "knee high by the Fourth" won't be a problem. But like the water elsewhere, this corn is creeping into the ditch.

The Lake Herman spillway that sends water to Madison (and Lake Madison, and Lake Brant, and ultimately the Big Sioux River) is topped out.

Dick Simpson's dock isn't fit for sitting... unless you're wearing your swim trunks. His dock panels wait on shore for drier fishing weather.

GF&P is keeping its dock at the public boat ramp just barely above water. Last year around this time, nine or ten of those big concrete slabs forming the boat ramp lay above the water line. This year, only four slabs are dry. Another gauge: I went swimming yesterday in front of my place. The shore where I could just get my toes wet last June is now under two and a half feet of water.

We refer to the bump in the shore southeast of the boat ramp as "The Point" (akin to "The River," "The Hills," and "The Cities"). I think some maps call it "Stony Point." From the boatramp, one usually sees a long line of rip-rap stones where fishermen can sit in the shade. Those stones are all submerged.

The lake is also thickly green. The water was remarkably clear after our dry April. The May and June rains have brought in more field runoff, which I suspect means more nutrients from fetilizer and more food for algae. Those little green stringies really catch in a guy's whiskers....

Heidelberger Files Petitions... for Sewage Chief!

The Lake Herman Sanitary District appears to be in for another three years of a dull status quo. In an absolute repudiation of anti-incumbent fervor, no one but the incumbent, current Lake Herman Sanitary District presiding officer Cory Allen Heidelberger (that's me) filed a nominating petition for that office by today's deadline.

See, Larry, that's why I couldn't run against Senator Thune this year. I still have my lake to protect from the encroachment of urbanization and expensive wastewater systems with moving parts.

Unless a surprise petition reaches me by registered mail with a Wednesday postmark, I will preside for another three years over one of the least active and least necessary taxing entities in the state of South Dakota. Ah, government.

Madison Names Price for Bike Trail Land Acquisition

On the agenda for tonight's Madison City Commission meeting: discussion of the how much the city will pay landowners for allowing construction of the Lake Herman Recreation Trail on their land.

You have page through nineteen liquor license applications to get to it, but on page 45 of the agenda packet, you can find out how much the city plans to offer David Pitts and other landowners for the privilege of taking the right of way permanently out of their use.

If I'm understanding what's written in the city's "acquisition formulas," each landowner gets $500 up front. Then the city goes to Shirley Ebsen's office at the courthouse, gets the highest per-acre assessed value of the land in question, and multiplies by 2.

For temporary easements (the land the city will need to run the equipment up and down along the construction route), the city multiplies that land value by 20%. The city will add another 10% for crop damage.

For permanent easements, the city multiplies the land value by 140%.

Now I haven't taken the tape measure out to David Pitts's land, but I'm guessing the rec trail would slice about three acres off the east edge of his land. Let's wild-guess the value at $3000 an acre. By the above formula, the permanent easement for that strip of land would be the following:

• $3000 x 2 x 1.4 x 3 = $25,200.

What do you say, David (and fellow farmers): is that price enough to seal the deal?

And if it isn't, is the city willing to go higher? Is this bike trail worth paying the price the market will demand? And if not, will the city risk the political fallout of eminent domain?

A bike trail would be nice. It would draw tourists and boost economic development. But as I heard a wiser financial head than myself say this week, the bike trail is a want, not a need. The city tonight will make clear the price it wants to pay. If David Pitts doesn't want to accept that price, then so be it. Eminent domain should not follow.

By the way, I went for a couple of bike rides this weekend. Both days I rode the county road that parallels most of the proposed bike route, 234th Street, from Lake Herman State Park to Madison, just as I have for 21 years. Nice smooth road, traffic generally light and polite. Sure, I'd enjoy another path, but I can get where I want to go now just fine with the existing infrastructure. Of course, if the county would like to widen the shoulders, I wouldn't complain. David Pitts might not, either.

Lake Herman 60 Degrees, 70% Ice-Free

...and I go for a bike ride....

Whoo-hoo! Lake Herman is open... mostly! 60° Fahrenheit, big bright sun, and 20–30-mile-per-hour south wind have pounded the local ice cap apart (click pix to embiggen!):


The view from the porch: lake wide open toward the north! The white on the far shore is the ice heaved up by the wind onto the rocks.

Looking east toward the state park, we see some ice still hung up along our shore in "Cottonwood Cove."
South side of the lake still socked in. Tomorrow's seventies and more south wind ought to fix that.

Of course, what's a beautiful day like today without a bike ride! I stopped by Lake Herman Auto, where my neighbor Dan Uthe has had a 2008 Smart fortwo on display this month. dan didn't pay me to stop by to do an ad; I just wanted to compare the Smart to my favored mode of transportation:

The Smart is a little longer than my Burley, although if I were riding in long-wheelbase mode, it would be close. It cost me $900 to get my Burley six summers ago; Dan's asking $13,998 for the Smart. On dollars per inch, I think I got the better deal.

But if my bike had a car rack, I'd have bungeed that Smart to the back of my bike and brought it home.

Brass Monkey Alert: -33°F at Lake Herman

I look out my window at Lake Herman, South Dakota, this morning. I'm greeted by a gorgeous clear sky... and my thermometer:
Well, at least I have an excuse to use the Chiller font.

I heard a guy on the Weather Channel Wednesday griping about the old snap in Atlanta. He said it's especially hard on people who have to work outside. Predicted Atlanta high: mid-20s... above zero.

p.s.: Madison Central schools are closed today, as are a whole bunch of other South Dakota institutions of learning. Anyone care to guess how many of our high school kids will manage to get their cars started to drive to Sioux Falls today?

Lake Herman Solid for Ice Shacks and Bikes!

Who needs a bike trail to Lake Herman...

how I got home today

...when there's a bike trail on Lake Herman!!!

No breakthroughs, no broken bones... sure I'm smiling!

The ice shacks are out on Lake Herman. I rounded the south shore, then pedaled straight across from the state park to the western shore. No big heaves, no mushy spots... but remember, that was 150 pounds of guy and layers on 30 pounds of bicycle. If you really want to haul your two tons of pickup truck out on ten inches of ice, that's your business.

Lake Herman State Park, southeast shore

See more photos from my solstice ride on Lake Herman @ Flickr. Happy Solstice, pagans and believers of all flavors!