{"id":860,"date":"2012-07-18T19:04:26","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T02:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/?p=860"},"modified":"2012-07-18T19:04:58","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T02:04:58","slug":"over-100-miles-blackened-seared-and-even-still-burning-countryside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/2012\/07\/18\/over-100-miles-blackened-seared-and-even-still-burning-countryside\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 100 Miles…blackened, seared, and even still burning countryside!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 100 miles of black countryside<\/strong>–as far as the eye could see–right up to the pavement of 2-lane US Highway 95<\/span> going north from Winnemucca NV through southern Oregon to Boise ID.<\/p>\n

As I started North out of Winnemucca, a digital road sign warned me to “expect delays at the Oregon border.”\u00a0 I commented to myself. “More construction ahead,” since delays are the normal warnings for construction on a federal highway. No mention was made of fire, or smoke.\u00a0 And vehicles were approaching from the North.\u00a0 So I concluded that people were getting through.<\/p>\n

Just before the Oregon border, the black country began.\u00a0 And I could smoke curling into the air some distance away.\u00a0 Cars were still coming through from the North. My 1\/2-ton pickup truck was the only vehicle coming from the South.<\/p>\n

Over 100 miles of blackened, seared, and still hot terrain!\u00a0 What an unnerving, desolate feeling washed over me.\u00a0 These gently rolling hills did not support timber.\u00a0 This was cattle-grazing land.\u00a0 With barley and some wheat grown–those “amber waves of grain” we sing about in July. Crops that help to feed the West.<\/p>\n

Fires burning in Colorado, gobbling up almost 400 luxury homes.\u00a0 Fires burning along the foothills in Utah, dramatically shifting eastward\u00a0 just before a 500-home development\u00a0 overlooking Utah Valley.\u00a0 Fires burning in New Mexico, with tornado-like winds driving smoke clouds that obscure vision and fill lungs.\u00a0 Shriveled and dying trees in Texas that struggle mightily to survive three waterless years in a row.<\/p>\n

And meanwhile, back in the Midwest,\u00a0 silage corn and corn dedicated to ethanol for fueling vehicles at\u00a0 reduced cost, withers, dries, and awaits an early plow–26 states and over 1,000 counties declared disaster areas so farmers can borrow money to replant.\u00a0 As well as weather the disaster until the\u00a0 rain comes.<\/p>\n

I heard the news.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I watched the news.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I read the news.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not until, I drove that 100+ miles of burned-up countryside, did I fully grasp the perils our beloved America faces.\u00a0 Do you know that first the weather begins to change.\u00a0 Then the hot winds and moistureless skies appear.\u00a0 Then the crops die.\u00a0 The animals disappear.\u00a0 The birds and insects desert us.\u00a0 And famine looks us in the face.<\/p>\n

We are dairy farmers.\u00a0 Seventh-generation farmers.\u00a0 And\u00a0 we are back to 11-cent milk.\u00a0 Better than the 9 cent milk of 2008, but not much better!\u00a0 We still lose money on each and every cow, each and every day.\u00a0 We’ve just had a cap placed on the amount of milk we can produce.\u00a0\u00a0 Seems Americans are drinking more jazzed-up sports drinks filled with stimulants.\u00a0 And drinking less milk.\u00a0 And even in the midst of a hot summer, consuming less ice cream. \u00a0 Putting less butter on their machine-made waffles.\u00a0 And asking for less cheese on their pizza.\u00a0 Yogurt alone, is carrying the weight of the dairy industry!<\/p>\n

Bernanke’s grim report on the state of the American economy, which is recovering much too slowly and incompletely after 4 years, is somehow not as daunting for me as those blackened acres.\u00a0 A finality looking me in the face.<\/p>\n

My perennial optimism that a thorough airing of the political issues facing America this election would wake us all up–Democrats and Republicans alike–is still present .\u00a0 Barely.<\/p>\n

So where is the rainbow?\u00a0 Where the shimmer of rain drops?\u00a0 In a sky where the drops fall too high up to hit the ground.\u00a0 Dry rain they call it.\u00a0 Lightning\u00a0 flashes without\u00a0 water.\u00a0 Dry lightning they call it.\u00a0 Igniting more fires from this Western tinder-box.<\/p>\n

Where is the rainbow?\u00a0 Where do I go for relief?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To the Family History Library<\/strong><\/em> and the world of genealogy<\/span>!\u00a0 Where the indexers hit over 10 million names indexed in just 24 hours!\u00a0 A record that I applaud!\u00a0 Where the 1940 census for the whole US is now 60% indexed.\u00a0 Where ancestors can be shaken from the records, and fit like pieces of the jig-saw puzzle,\u00a0 into place.\u00a0 Where your ancestors are almost as fun to retrieve as my own.\u00a0 Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle.<\/p>\n

PS<\/strong>\u00a0 Your favorite genealogist is a little more sensitive to the plight we all face, regardless of where we live in this great land of ours.\u00a0 And if our ancestors could do it, we can too.\u00a0 Mine crossed the ocean.\u00a0 Crossed the plains.\u00a0 Crossed the nation on railroad cars.\u00a0 And delivered newspapers by hand and sleigh.\u00a0 If they could do it.\u00a0 I can do it.<\/p>\n

PPS<\/strong>\u00a0 Stay tuned for a much more positive, all is right in the world of genealogy, approach next episode.\u00a0 I am here at the Family History Library conquering Tazewell County Virginia and its early residents–origins in Fauquier and Loudoun counties meeting origins in Pittsylvania county\u00a0 and leaving a whole new legacy behind as they migrate into Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, and points West..<\/p>\n

PPSS<\/strong>\u00a0 I have honey bees and robins in my yard this year–first time in 5 years!\u00a0 That is a positive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over 100 miles of black countryside–as far as the eye could see–right up to the pavement of 2-lane US Highway 95 going north from Winnemucca NV through southern Oregon to Boise ID. As I started North out of Winnemucca, a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions\/862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}