Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The Saddest Thing I Have Seen In Years

Got computer issues again, should be back online sometime next week.  Stay tuned, you will get your fix ASAP.

In the mean time....how about a little tidbit to tide you over?

I just made a trip on the north road.  Am half way to my destination, on a sad mission. 

Noted a couple of things on the drive.  The rolling hills of southeastern Oklahoma are turning into a wasteland to match the wasteland of east Texas.  Brown hills now, instead of green.  Swaths of trees through the richly forested hills are dead.  Evidence of fires.  Brown sticks everywhere.  Red River is as low as i have ever seen it.  South Canadian River is BONE dry.  North Canadian River is barely a creek.  And passed A LOT of cattle trucks headed north, and a lot of hay trailers and  trucks headed south. Will be interesting to see how things look as i head further north tomorrow.

Hay is at higher prices than i have ever seen them.  Don't know what round bales are running in my area (we use square bales,) but in west Texas the going rate is $165.  I do know that square bales of coastal  in east Texas just hit $10 a bale.  I remember when hay went from 75 cents a bale to $1, and everyone was all upset.  I also remember getting 20 bales of timothy for my birthday about five years ago (funny, there was once a day when i would have gotten excited about a piece of jewelry, but in this life i get excited about really fabulous hay) that ran $10 a bale, and being shocked at the price, but it was worth every penny.  Now COASTAL is that price.  YIKES!!! Gonna be a tough winter.

Which brings me to the saddest think i have seen in a very, very long time. 

Wish i could say that the drought has been broken (or that the heat has broken,)  but we have had a few cloudbursts the last couple of weeks.  Nothing to speak of, very short in duration, and most of the time they don't even wet down the road, just tamp down the dust a bit.  All over the cars.

Anyway, i was in town during one of the heavier cloudbursts, and saw a truck pulling a trailer with about a dozen round bales on it. 

Uncovered.

My heart broke for him.

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