We woke to a new, light layer of snow.  How much we can't tell because the very brisk wind is blowing it around.  The snow is coming in waves off the lake and is heavy and wind driven right now.  They say we may get as much as 7 inches depending on how the system sets up.  The temperature is in the low single digits and expected to stay that way for the day.  The windchill is right around 0F.  We had a couple of days with temps above freezing which reduced the snow mountains to hills.

I take any dietary advice, no matter what the source, with a heavy dose of skepticism.  It seems that what every is advocated today with all the strident urgency the "experts" can muster will be seriously moderated, if not totally reversed, in the near future.  Now those experts are reversing the advice on cholesterol.  Mom's doctor tried to get her on a low cholesterol diet but it required such an unrealistic change that we ignored it after we stopped laughing.  We refuse to use low fat or no fat alternatives because they are, usually, heavily laden with salt and/or sugar.  The only exception to that rule we make is for our yogurt because our local stores only carry the brand we like best, and has no additional chemicals, in the 2% and 0% forms.

Update on the snow: right now blowing sideways and so heavy we can hardly see anything across the street.  The guys our landlord pays to shovel snow (and tend the lawns in the summer) were out earlier but will have to do it again.  The mail did come but I am not going out there.  I will put out our mail and collect today's tomorrow.

The Contrary Farmer has found an application of genetic modification he can get on board with--and I agree.  For the most part the genetic modification industry has sold us on the notion that their work can boost yields and defeat weeds, and bacterial/fungal/insect pests while being healthy for human and animal consumption.  The industry has failed on all counts.  The weeds and pests are increasingly resistant to the chemicals the crops have been engineered to tolerate while recent studies show that the yields between traditional and GMO crops are not significantly different while the costs of the GMO crops are significantly higher.  However, a judicious application of GMO technology can be beneficial and shouldn't be thrown out simply because the industry over-promised the benefits.

I love the phrase "Gardens are, by definition, a mediation on impermanence."  Mine definitely are impermanent.  I have remarked before that the garden I plan in the spring is never the garden I wind up with in the fall.  Some things simply don't work out and are replaced.  Some things that once worked don't any more for what ever reason.  The garden of last year is no harbinger of the garden to come this year.  Which is why it never gets boring.

I have followed this story for the better part of a year.  It has only gotten grimmer.  Think about what you would do if you only had access to water from your tap two days a week.