Sunday, July 22, 2018

Corn and Tents

Today we rode in the Carnation Valley again.  It’s a low traffic area and it’s less stressful than riding near the crazy Issaquah drivers.  Awhile ago, Bill mentioned corn sweat coming from the neighboring fields.  It’s a thing!  WAPO was discussing it a couple of years ago.

“Corn sweat” is an extremely simple way of referring to evapotranspiration, the process by which moisture in plant leaves evaporates into the air. Plants draw water out of the ground through their roots for photosynthesis, and the water in the plant cells is exposed to the air once it gets above the ground. It evaporates off the leaves just as sweat evaporates off our skin — although it doesn’t take place to keep the plant cool, like it does for us.

So evapotranspiration is not making things hotter. But it is making things more humid — which can certainly be just as bad.

There is a lot of corn out there.  This used to be a golf course, now it’s corn.  It’s also humid.

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We saw this in the RV park this afternoon.  It’s being towed by a VW Golf with EU plates.  I couldn’t tell what the country code was.  These people are way tougher than I am.  They’re in full sun, facing west and it has warmed up considerably.

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The side view.  They’re not really level.  People and their rigs are so interesting.

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Other than this paltry offering about sweating corn and tent trailers, I have zippity doo dah all to report. 

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