Heat Wave

It’s Sunday, about 9 PM and it’s still 101 degrees outside my door. The official high for the day was 108. I am told it’s worse out West. A couple of weeks back I told Sean Paul Kelley that we’ve done OK this year on rainfall. I lied. While we had timely showers during the spring, this killer heat wave has scorched the land, leaving green grass kiln-dried, like hay in a bale, and corn crops withered, several weeks before they should have.

We made hay on irrigated land, but what dry-land grass the heat didn’t kill, biblical swarms of grass-hoppers decimated. Livestock ponds are going dry and the fish die from the hot water. Without rain, and soon, we are in trouble.

Cattle hide from the sun’s sweltering rays during the day, coming out to eat only in mornings and evenings. My poor milk cows are confined to a paddock with limited shade. I fear for their lives when it gets like this.

I had a really nice garden this spring and Leah has filled the panty with canned goods. We have eggs and cheese and meat and grains, but money is tight. I need money to pay the bills.

Production costs on the farm are high, and while food costs may seem high to you, they’re not high enough. The same can be said for just about any essential product, including parts and supplies I think too expensive.

A lot of this comes down to the cost of energy and it’s not going to get better. Call it peak oil or resource depletion or what you will. I call it a fact. It affects everything we do. The cheap and easy oil is gone and gone for good, never to be had again.

We remain in a crisis period. It’s world-wide and it’s not going to get better until it gets far worse.

Politicians and preachers may tell you otherwise but they’re either full of shit or have something to sell.

Revolution is in the air around the globe. It will be long before it arrives here.

War will follow.

It’s better to know than not to know.