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.)

Spanish and Comment Tutorial

Hola! Good Thursday my lovely readers. I recently decided that I need to learn Spanish and so I really hopped on board that train and downloaded a whopping two pod casts yesterday. Don't be jealous of me getting my smarts on. (I'm sorry, I'm in a strangely fantastic mood this morning) Anyhow, I did minimal research to find out the best pod cast to download. I enlisted the help of my good friend, Miss Google and as always she gave me lots of options. I choose option 2 and clicked over to my iTunes and promptly clicked Download. Free. My first lesson (of my choosing) was learning how to ask where the laundry detergent was. I felt this was most closely related to my vocation and if need be I can now say "I don't know" and "where". But I can't type them because I know not how to put accent marks on letters. (I shall ask Miss Google) "No sé" and "¿Dónde?" the power of instant know how! Yea for me!! Today I will learn how to say "Watch out!" As in "Watch out! That coffee is hot!"

Guys, try not be too hopeful for me, but the sky is really dark to the East and the wind is picking up. Last night it rained to the East of us and everything died out before it got here. We were sorely disappointed. (There are currently 17 rain drops on my window but I am trying super hard NOT to get my hopes up, this could just be a really cruel joke)

looks promising...right?

In non weather related news.... I saw this accent meme thing and am thinking about posting one here. It's where I record myself saying words that usually showcase a Northern or Southern accent. Or Midwest... trying not leave anyone out. Except the west coasters... y'all are accent-less. So... here's what I need from you. I need THREE words to add to my list. What would you like to hear a Central Texan say? I don't think I have a very heavy accent so... there. Maybe I can get the kids to play along too. Children always have fun accents. Go leave me a comment (it's not that hard CLB. Just post using the Name/URL option at the very bottom of the list...no logging in required.) Goodness, I'll walk you through it so you can stop giving me lame excuses. (by the way, thanks for still reading!)

STEP ONE

STEP DOS

STEPS THREE AND FOUR

Don't let me down. If I don't get those 3 extra words then I can't record a video of myself saying random words. It would be so much fun!

And that ends my blogging for today... Have a wonderful Thursday!
Mama

I Might Mention the Weather

It's hot. Dry. Everything is brown and dead. Every once in a while I find some green shoots of grass but they are instantly gobbled up by sheep. I don't like looking outside because it's depressing. And this post is also depressing. The last time it rained was June 22. We received a glorious 1/2 inch. Two weeks ago there was still a bit of green grass in front of our house... no longer.

 

woa

Those are some cute kids though.

I really feel for the farmers and ranchers that are dealing with this. My brother is having to truck hay in from other states to feed his cattle. That gets expensive.

Just about every church sign we pass has some version of "Pray for Rain" spelled out. The governor set aside a day (I think back in April) to pray for rain. 

Those cracks in the ground were 6-8 inches deep. In the beginning of May. They haven't exactly gotten any better. 

I think I'll recruit the children and go out and do a rain dance. It's worth a shot, right?

Farm at Sunset

Last night we headed out to check on the cows. It was right after 8pm when we got going. They greeted us at the gate in the back pasture. I forgot to take my camera off of "kids and pets" for the first picture so it's a little dark.

 

Isn't it beautiful?

This here, this is not beautiful. This is drought. We could use some rain. We could use a slow down pour for several days, maybe even a week or two? It's so frustrating to see such lush weeds and brittle brown grass. (I think we could do some shredding...) 

Again, a hard to see picture here. It's of the horses. They were running around kicking up their heels. I always get nervous when they do that. 

So, that was our little trip at sunset. I have the usual things to do today with the hopes that I can get all 4 loads of laundry put away (and wash more laundry),  clean up in the laundry room, get some plants potted, plan out supper, tend to the garden and chickens and horses.

Just for fun here's what I looked like last night. I need to explain my attire first. I went to town yesterday and was wearing jeans with this shirt. When I got home it was a blazing 143 degrees outside so I grabbed the first goofy looking skirt I saw in my closet. Then, because I didn't want to be bit on the ankles by a snake I pulled my boots on. This was all fine until T wanted to take my picture. So, here I am. Keeping it real for y'all. Laugh all you want.

Hilarious, no? At least I have the sense to not walk around in public like this. 

Wait, is the Internet public? Is this blog public? 

Possibly regretting this,

Mama