Monday, October 3, 2011

Documenting the Drought

We just got back from our first morning walk in... forever it seems. It was about 70 degrees; still warm with the sun on your back but refreshingly cool in the shade. I decided we would walk to the two stock tanks behind our house to check on them. I already knew the smallest one was dry and the bigger one behind it was very close. No good news here. I did take some pictures to document it though. (I remember my mom taking us for walks when it would flood and her taking pictures to record it, however I don't remember her taking pictures to record drought years. Probably because it was never this bad?) So, here they are, along with some cute pictures of the kids.

This is from the top looking down at the boys who should have been completely covered in water where they were standing.

Here's Rose standing at the very bottom of the tank. Look at those cowboygirl boots. So cute.

The boys again.


Supermodel Baby
tank dos. completely dry now.
We have a third stock tank in the back of the place but that's a fairly long walk for the kiddos so we will check on that one later. Don't worry about the cows and horses; we are keeping a trough filled for them right next to the chicken coop. Oh, for those of you who might be thinking, How do you not check on your tanks daily with all those animals depending on you? What kinds of farmers are you? To be completely and totally honest, we have three cows, two calves and two horses that need water from the tanks. It's not like we're running a big cattle operation here. I generally spot them all on a daily basis to keep tabs on them and make sure if I didn't see them in over 24 hours we go looking. And I saw all of them this morning. They were hanging out under the trees between the barn and chicken coop.
Goofy kids. They make everything better.
Seeing as how Beard-O and I are still young we have never experienced this kind of drought before. Um, so bad people were actually praying for a hurricane. When is the last time you've done that? This drought echos the drought of the 1940-1950s drought. Have you ever read The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton? Yeah. it feels kind of like that sometimes. (It even came up in the newspaper here and that was back in July.)

Tomorrow I'll be back with pictures from our weekend, which unlike this post, was not depressing at all. I'm off to make some flour-less peanut butter cookies (know of any other flour-less PB cookie recipes?) and maybe a pumpkin pie. Because I can. And food makes me happy. So there.
Have a good Monday everyone! (If it's raining where you are... know that I'm jealous.)

2 comments:

  1. Are these pictures of the largest of the front three tanks? (Looks like it.) If so, there's no expressing my shock. I have never seen that tank dry. As bad as I know the drought to be, these pictures really brought it home. Gosh.
    I think it's good you're documenting this. Your kids and their kids will appreciate it one day. :)

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  2. She really IS a supermodel baby!!! work it!
    Wow... I mean I know what "drought" means but it is just soooo stinkin dry.... prayers for rain!

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