“Do solar panels really work?” That’s what the woman asked as I showed some folks our barn with solar panels on the roof. I thought, Wow, how could you be so misled? Then I thought about all the challenges Americans are dealing with now: the misinformation, disinformation, and lies being spread and all the folks in high places making decisions to abandon renewable energy, vaccines, climate science, and the poor worldwide.

On a sunny day, our solar panels charge our electric car and supply electricity to all the houses within view of our farm. All with no emissions. It gives me a good feeling. Solar power is the cheapest form of electricity generation. Yet many of our leaders are turning away from scientific truths about renewable energy and the climate crisis just as they are with the scientific truths about vaccines.

Almost ten years ago to the day, I wrote this blog post about our first solar installation in Swoope.

A Simple Test That Proves Solar Panels Work

Just go touch the wire coming from one of our solar fence chargers. You’ll get a jolt out of it. We have more solar fence chargers than I can count. They have a small solar panel the size of a square dinner plate and a small rechargeable battery that stores electricity when the sun is not shining. When the sun shines on the panel, the photovoltaic cells in the panel turn the sun’s photons into direct-current electricity.

We charge miles of single-strand fence wire with these solar chargers, and it keeps a hundred head of cattle where we want them to graze. I have measured anywhere between four thousand and 10 thousand volts of electricity coming from these small but very effective devices. Please, if you know someone who doesn’t believe solar panels work, bring them over for a test.

Constant Ringing in My Ears

No, worse. I’ve got tinnitus of the brain: a constant and ever-changing worry about our democracy caused by a convicted felon and pathological liar and his amorphous, inept followers. It’s hard to write about the good stuff that we see and feel around us. But here goes.

When the Chores Are Done

At the end of the day, when Jeanne and Val and I have finished work on the farm, I make myself a gin and tonic and pour Jeanne a glass of wine. We take our boots off and sit in the native plant garden between the house and what we call the party barn. The colors of the flowers and the sounds of the bees and birds drown out both the tinnitus in my ears and my brain. I could sit here forever.

I feel the urge to duck when two hummingbirds whiz past my face. I smile. A goldfinch hangs upside down eating the seeds out of a sunflower. Sometimes I will stand in front of the six-foot-tall Joe-Pye weed and watch the bees pollinating. It’s mesmerizing.

The Space Between

It’s September. And we are in that glorious space between summer and fall. The native fall flowers are surging: goldenrod, lobelia, jewelweed, boneset. The swallows, swifts, and martins have flown south. The last generation of Monarch butterflies are fueling up for their migration to Mexico. The sugar maples will be turning blaze orange and yellow soon.

The Marriage of Science and Passion

The Restoration American Chestnut 1.0 we planted in Swoope 10 years ago has the most burs ever. The American Chestnut Foundation, its scientists and volunteers have been working to bring back this iconic tree since 1983 using a method of genetic selection called backcross breeding. This tree is 15/16ths American and 1/16th Chinese. The Chinese Chestnut is resistant to the blight that destroyed the tallest, fasted growing, most abundant tree in the eastern United States in the early 1900’s.

Don’t Be Afraid

Recall the story of Lie and Truth in which Lie convinces Truth to bathe in the well, and Lie steals her clothes and parades through town in them while naked Truth hides in shame. Many in this country prefer to believe lies rather than face an uncomfortable truth. Many are running from the naked truth. Don’t be afraid to stand up for science and the truth.

Note: This was written by a real person: me. There are no paywalls, popups, surveys, ads, or AI. All photos by me or as noted otherwise.