Woke to a heavily clouded sky, with a temperature hanging at 59o. I was out walking before 8 o’clock. First ¼ mile I was listening to ‘Courageous Faith’ but felt I was struggling to find a good pace; then I turned off the book and let the metronome in my head take over. Found a beat my legs could keep up with without having to run and kept my eyes to the front. Looking at the fields to see if there are birds or critters around slows me down, even without a camera. Finished today at 56:09…a little off yesterday’s pace but I’m happy with it.
I know music would help but I haven’t taken
the time to find an hour’s worth of songs with a good solid beat to keep me
moving. There are a couple that come to mind but putting two songs on repeat
for an hour doesn’t appeal to me at all.
Counting a steady beat in my head seems to work but I noticed today that
my internal metronome slowed occasionally. When I got back to camp, I
downloaded a metronome app that I’ll try out tomorrow. Not as entertaining as music but at least it’ll
keep a steady beat.
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Felt a couple of raindrops on the return trip when I was about 20 minutes from camp. The air was still warm so I figured it would just be a jump start to the shower I was anticipating when I got back to the camper. But it didn’t amount to much; more along the lines of what Sam Elliott once called a 12-inch rain, which he described as one raindrop falling every 12 inches. Except this was more of a 36-inch rain. Kim got back from his walk about 25 minutes after I did and by 9:30 the occasional raindrop had turned into a steady but gentle rain that hung around most of the day. Got our walks in at the right time.
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We are driving a truck that hasn’t been paid
for…that’s right, the funds haven’t been transferred from 4Front Credit Union
to the dealership in Tucson yet. The credit union doesn’t transfer funds after
4 p.m., and because it was Friday it would be Monday before the transfer could
be made…if all necessary paperwork was in place. As of this morning, the credit
union hadn’t received the proper documentation from the dealership for the
funds to be released. The dealership is like, “Ah, hey, we need some money” and
the credit union is like “Ah, yeah, we need the paperwork” and we’re stuck in
the middle. And the three-hour time
difference isn’t helping the situation. We’ve called the dealership a couple of
times, told the salesman exactly what’s needed and all the different ways to
contact the credit union, but it was passed off to the business office and, as
of noon today, the salesman didn’t know if they had acted on it. Agh! This is almost
comical…emphasis on almost.
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Seven javelinas lit up the Nutt Rd. cam at 4
a.m….6 adults and one little one.
According to the time stamp, they were in and out of camera range for about
7 minutes. We only saw 15 second videos,
though. There was a crow out at the
desert camera mid-morning and while it was good to have something show up, a
crow did not cause excitement. And,
lastly, there was a visitor caught on the yard cam about 5:15 p.m. It wasn’t a
cat, grackle, or roadrunner…it was a male cardinal poking around the area where
the ground beef had been. Aren’t cardinals’ herbivores? A quick check on
Google showed that while they prefer seeds and berries, they will eat insects
and some other foods if the need arises, so they’re considered omnivores. Hmmm…wonder what ‘some other foods’ means.
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Didn’t fancy spending a rainy day in the
camper so we decided to finally visit Biosphere 2, not knowing exactly what it was.
It’s over by Oracle and we’ve driven past it many times in our years out here…today
was the day to check it out.
It was an interesting tour. The best way to
get the full effect of the self-guided tour is to connect to the Biosphere
wi-fi and then download the tour app. The
app contains an audio explanation at each stop on the very well-marked tour. Most
people were listening to one phone as a group. If there were several groups in
the same area listening to their phones it could get a little confusing but overall
it was a good way of experiencing the Biosphere at our own pace.
Some information I gleaned about Biosphere 2: Biosphere 2 is considered a sophisticated
model of
earth with seven biomes: rainforest, ocean with a coral reef system,
mangrove wetland, savanna grassland, fog desert, agricultural system, and a
human habitat. 
In front of Biosphere 2
Constructed between 1987 and 1991, Biosphere 2 was originally meant
to demonstrate the viability of closed ecological systems to support and
maintain human life in outer space as a substitute for Earth's biosphere.
Its mission was a two-year closure experiment with a crew of eight humans. Biosphere
2 was only used twice for its original intended purposes as a closed-system
experiment: The first mission from 1991 to 1993 with 8 crew members, and again
from March to September 1994 with a crew of seven. ‘Biospherians’ were sealed inside the glass
enclosure to measure survivability.
Both attempts ran into problems including low
amounts of food and oxygen, die-offs of many animals and plants included in the
experiment (though this was anticipated since the project used a strategy of
deliberately "species-packing" anticipating losses as the biomes
developed), group dynamic tensions among the resident crew, outside politics,
and a power struggle over management and direction of the project.
Nevertheless, the closure experiments set world records in closed ecological
systems, agricultural production, health improvements with the high nutrient
and low caloric diet the crew followed, and insights into the self-organization
of complex biomic systems and atmospheric dynamics.
The enclosure is now owned by the
University of Arizona and serves as a tool to support research already underway
by UA scientists. As a laboratory for large-scale projects, such as the
Landscape Evolution Observatory, the university's stewardship of Biosphere 2
will allow the university to perform key experiments aimed at quantifying some
of the consequences of global climate change.
I came across an article written by Mark
Nelson on the website dartmouthalumnimagazine.com. He was one of the original 8-person
crew. Here are a few paragraphs from that
article detailing his memories of the mission:
Biosphere 2 had to support life while not unwittingly
polluting it with machines and materials whose presence might have unforeseen
side effects. Everything that went inside was screened to avoid synthetic
materials that emit trace amounts of noxious gases our life systems couldn’t
handle. As a result, wool and wood were used for flooring, wall paneling and
furnishings in living areas. Chemical deodorants and cleaning supplies weren’t
allowed. Same with fires—even lit birthday candles.
We grew our food and raised and slaughtered
livestock. We worked in labs, maintained equipment, and spent time in our
living quarters. Growing good nutritious food was a top priority, requiring
everyone to work three to four hours a day for five days a week. None of us had
come from a farming background. Hunger became a new experience—and our constant
companion. We existed the way humans had for time immemorial. Did our farming
improve as we went along? You bet. Hunger is a great motivator. If you don’t
grow it, you can’t eat it.
We reveled in simple pleasures. One delight
was coffee made from beans from our young rainforest’s coffee trees, which we
could make only once every two or three weeks. We treasured each cup. For a
pizza, we spent four months growing a crop of wheat, which then had to be
threshed and ground. Tomatoes, peppers and onions had to ripen. No 30-minute
delivery for us. Not sure I would have been a good candidate
for this experiment.
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The very first Ghost Bike we found was near
Biosphere 2 and belongs to Raphael ‘Rafe’ Sagarin, a marine ecologist who was on
staff at the University of Arizona and working at Biosphere 2 to transform the old
coral biome into a living model of the Gulf of California. He was out cycling in 2015 and was hit and
killed by a drunk driver.
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Since we were so close, we went to DeMarco’s
Pizzeria in Oracle for a late lunch of a BLT and Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. DeMarco’s is still doing take out only, even
though you must go inside the restaurant to order. In 2020 when the pandemic hit, the owner wasn’t
very optimistic that the restaurant would survive. But it did and I wonder if
they’re doing a good enough take-out business that they don’t feel the need to
go back to dining-in, with the need for more staff, supplies, etc.
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40 Days of Lent challenge: In secret, give a small gift to someone. Given how we spent our day, I did not
complete this challenge. However, that
doesn’t mean I won’t eventually…just didn’t get it done today.
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