Monday morning, August 26, 2013
I turned cows into a
field of hay grazer we had irrigated into existence this week. We’d hoped to cut hay
from this field, but we are already feeding hay from a dwindling supply and it
made little sense to make one bale while feeding another when the cows could do
the harvesting for us.
We border a river, so
we have livestock water, but most stock tanks not fed by a well have gone dry.
The pastures above that river are sick; large patches of bare dirt marred only
by an occasional bleached bone and dirt tubes created by desert termites
occupy space normally inhabited by grazing cows.
Anything remotely green
has been sawed off at ground level by grasshoppers.
Buzzards circle above,
waiting for the next victim.
We did manage to grow
and harvest milo but we sold the grain for a ridiculously cheap price, probably
below the cost of production when all costs are considered. We’re baling the
stalks because that’s the only thing we have left to bale.
I’m reasonably sure we
will be forced to sell some cattle to get through winter; most of the ranchers
in this county have already done so.
I turn on the TV,
looking for a bit of distraction from these woes only to learn that my country
is threatening war on Syria, once again based on questionable if not downright
deliberately misleading information, the next step in some evil plan devised
years ago.
How can people believe
these lying sons of bitches?
The Internet describes multiple
crises from around the world; an ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan, economic
woes in Europe including unemployment rates above 50% for Millennials, riots
throughout the Middle East, bloody conflicts and famine in Africa, new and
damning information concerning the spread of genetically modified food grains
and the ill effects they have on the health of the planet. Mainstream media
lies with impunity; those trying to tell the truth are persecuted and
prosecuted.
High finance fraudsters
continue to profit with the aid of central banks and governments; the divide
between rich and poor has reached unprecedented levels. Poor and local
producers are denied access to markets while mega-corporations continue to
gobble up resources.
Republicans damn
Democrats; Democrats damn Republicans; the scope of material allowed in public
debate is so narrow you have to split hairs to differentiate policy between the
two.
Oh, and Miley Cyrus
bent over and spread her ass on stage….
Knew I was forgetting
something important.