Hurricane Sandy

Our thoughts and prayers are with all the folks affected by Hurricane Sandy on the east coast. As I write this I am watching the news, which includes considerable coverage of the storm's extensive impact. It clearly devastated millions of people, and the news also interviewed many of them. I found it interesting that every single person on the news tonight said, "I need," or "We need," and asked for something from their neighbors, countrymen or government. Not one person said thank you to the National Guard, cleanup crews, or individuals handing out supplies during the news segment. It was much the same last night. One man was at a loss that his two homes were both affected. No said how they were going to rebuild, but rather how with enough help they would rebuild. I realize this doesn't represent the entire population, but it seems to be the general response of most towns, neigborhoods and people the media has come across.
I couldn't help but think back to this summer, and the weather related disasters that occured closer to home, including the over one million acres burned by wildfires in Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota. These fires consumed homes, generational businesses, livelihoods, livestock, and took numerous people's lives. These people also dealt without power and other modern conveniences, for weeks in some cases, in the middle of a record breaking hot summer As with the hurricane, they will take years to recover from.
One surprisingly common response to my posts by people who live in eastern, more urban areas of our country was that mother nature was taking back what was rightfully hers, and what had been mismanaged for too long by people like my family. To say it politely, such disrespectful and uninformed comments were frustrating, irritating, and hurtful. I can't help but wonder if those people feel mother nature did the same thing in their backyard, but find it doubtful they would respond the same way about their own home, possessions, businesses, animals and family members.
I also interviewed a lot of people affected by the western fires, and every single one of them began by giving heartfelt thanks to God, followed by thanking friends, neighbors, firemen, strangers and anyone else that had helped and aided in putting the fires out and rebuilding afterward. Each one also stated that they would rebuild, and help those around them rebuild. No one asked for anything but prayers.
I find the contrast in our country concerning, and very noticable in light of the multiple weather related incidents that have affected various parts of the U.S. in the last year. We are all keeping the east coast in our prayers out here in the west. But, we're also well aware of the implications of their response in comparison to our own. This isn't a difference that is going away anytime soon either, and that is also very concerning.

Photo update

Here are a few shots of what's been going on around here the last week.

 

We weaned yesterday, and it's 101 degrees today. Earliest and hottest round of weaning that I can remember.

 

 

 

We pulled bulls. Not this one, he isn't ours. But I thought he made a nice picture sitting under his own private tree, swatting flies and watching traffic.

 Here are our bulls, getting their pecking order re-established for the winter.

 And here they are about to continue their argument from the previous photo after we showed them where the water is.

 My wonderful grandmother turned 90. Here she is with all her grandchildren. The weekend before her party, we threw a surprise party for my mom. It's been an August of celebrating around here : )

I finally saw a part of the fire that burned to within a half mile of my aunt and uncle's home, and was much closer to some of their neighbors homes and buildings, as you can see here. This fire burned over 63,300 acres in the Black Hills of northeastern Wyoming.

This Industry

I've interviewed 12 people over the last few days, and visited with several more on the route that lead to those interviews. I've heard the personal accounts of how people across the western states are planning, working and striving to make it through this tough year, how they're recovering from the devastating fires that swept so much of the country in recent months and what their strategies are to survive what are sure to be more challenging months, and possibly years, ahead.
On a year that is setting record high temperatures combined with record low moisture, when the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) publishes its support of meatless Mondays, when other government agencies including the Forest Service are telling producers in some areas that they won't be able to graze their permits next year either as a result of a fire that burned their permits this year, when corn is shooting through the roof and politicians are continuing to support its use in ethanol production (which costs more to produce than it makes in return...wonder why we're in a budget deficit), when the USDA is reducing meat in school lunch programs, when certain species of wildlife are placed at a higher value than livestock by the public, and when over a million acres have been burned in western states alone, killing thousands of head of livestock, wiping out homes and entire operations in some cases, I saw yet again what makes our agriculture industry so unique, wonderful and powerful in my opinion: God and the farmers and ranchers themselves.
There was resilience, hope, humor and grit surrounded by a solid belief in the Lord amongst the people I spoke to. It's humbling to visit with such people, who in a matter of minutes made my family's situation this year look plumb rosy in multiple instances. There were the stories of help provided by friends, family, acquaintances and in several cases those people who use private lands for recreational and hunting vacations. There were the stories of the sheer workload being taken on by landowners to recover from the effects of 2012, and the fact that I never heard any hesitation, complaints (except for how the government fights fire, which I agree with wholeheartedly) or excuses. Instead, I heard about action, plans, ideas, innovations and answered prayers. I also heard about continued prayers for those who did have to sell out and regroup. People spoke of how good we have it today compared to the 1980's or 1930's. Miraculous moments that occurred during some of the fires were explained, as was how the western cowherd is going to be fed this winter, not if. There was a resigned willingness to dig in and survive, come what may, combined with the ever-present hope you'll always find in agriculture that the weather will become perfect starting tomorrow and the government will back off, and that prices will reach a level we all have in the back of our mind. We are, and always will be the most optimistic pessimists, or most pessimistic optimists, you'll ever meet.
I am proud to not only be a part of this industry, but to be a part of its core; which are the people who raise the food and fiber that feed and clothe the world. The fact that I get to do a part in sharing the stories, ideas and news relevant to agriculture is just a bonus, and this has been a great week on the job for me!

Fire in the West

Please keep the west in your prayers as we deal with numerous fires that are causing loss of land, homes and lives. These photos were taken today in Weston County, Wyoming, and is burning the land of people I know personally. It is also headed in the general direction of my uncle's ranch. Countless people are in this same situation, and the weather isn't looking to give us any favors in the near future.

Fire Pictures

That's my brother, and the other guy on the hose is part of the family whose place the fire was on when I took this. Water was sometimes hard to come by (they ran all the cisterns on this ranch dry).

We topped the hill to this sight - flames around six feet tall. Unfortunately this grader was pushing the dirt the wrong way, you want the pile to the outside of the flames, but he still slowed things down. There were multiple blades and dozers on this fire to help contain it.

There goes our neighbor in a county six-by-six. We followed him across the fire line and went to work spraying water on the flames.

The guy you see here is another member of the family whose place was on fire. While the majority of the outside help was problematic and unhelpful, our local/county fire fighters and ranchers attacked the flames whole heartedly, as they have been doing all week on dozens of fires across the county.

A heat cyclone.

A flame being sucked up in the heat cyclone.

My Week

This is what I look like right now, and this picture was taken just a couple hours ago. I am only on my computer because I am thawing out hamburger, so I can take hamburgers back to the fire when I go (people fight fire round the clock, and get hungry. Local ranch wives do the majority of the feeding.)
Multiple fires have kept everyone where I'm from extremely busy and tired this week. The one in the above photo has burned on at least four rancher's land that I'm aware of. Thursday night my brother and I left at 9:00 p.m., and got home at 6:00 a.m. from fighting fire. This morning we put one out before eating breakfast. Prayers for everyone's safety would be greatly appreciated!

To make things even more exciting/nerve wracking, several funnels came across one of the larger blazes this afternoon, sucking the flames up into it. Made for an interesting photo if nothing else.

I will be back with regular posts when life returns to a normal, smoke and fire free status around here.