am not sure how to write this .. too many thoughts zip through and am not capable of typing them all .. watched some TV news images the other night. Are with me still.
A group of farmers, out in the flatlands .. Victoria?, NSW? dunno. Hanging in. Seven years of drought (though that could be relative .. saw patches of green).
Waiting, waiting for the rains .. then, in two hours, a years worth, two years worth - all in one go. Farms, houses 55 kilometers from the nearest river flooded. 200 kilometers of fences flattened by detritus carried by shallow flowing water.
One farm had hung on to 1700 lambs. The next years income.
All dead, strewn across previously parched paddocks, some washed downhill, legs akimbo. Some lambs ended up in the undergrowth of the scrub. Blackened lips, eyes matt blank, in contrast to the iridescent blue abdomen of flies twinkling with the delight of fertile breeding ground.
The dams fill, overflow, carefully preserved water swelling, upfilling, breaching the embankment, all water escapes, trickles away.
and yet, and yet .. these people still have a sense of humour.
A phone rings. It's a neighbour .."Hey, have got some of yer stock on my place .. and they're getting fat! .... bit dead though".
9 comments:
We never know what nature and life is going to toss at us. Therefore a sense of humor is important. If it wasn't for humor I would be insane instead of just bat shit crazy.
Sorry Wombat - My view of farmer's hard times is that it's the Revenge Of The Animal God.
When they die, their purgatory will be the incessant bawling of motherless calves, and bleating of lamb-less ewes.
Raising table meat uses far too much WATER.
People need to think of other things to eat, and eat less meat.
Despite all that, I will be with my farmer friend at the Colac Saleyards on Monday and it will be Hell for me and a tribute to my regard for her.
Ann, human beings are omnivorous (as are pigs .. heh, but don't intend to take this discussion into that area).
We all, somehow, have to juggle beliefs, and compassion - with basic nature. Not always easy.
Have changed my mind, about the discussion.
Ann, we are all very fortunate, and can view things from a "safe" perspective. I notice that you have a high regard for horses. Think on this .. if you ever found yourself in a situation where there was NOTHING to eat, starvation loomed large for both you and the horse .. would you consider eating the horse, or die?
Easy to postulate, perhaps.
O, Billy B, can't respond to that .. how crazy is bat shit? .. heh.
The four horsemen of the apocaplypse...
Ah, the simple life of the farmer.
My dad tried to make a go of farming in California for 15 years. That accounts for my unfamiliarity with fiscal responsibility...we never had any fiscals to be responsible for.
Best year he ever had was the year he took out crop insurance on all the corn he planted and a flood washed it all away. Other "good" years in the ordinary sense are good for all the other growers too and the prices go way down in response to oversupply. It is the hardest way to make a living but the only one that really made him feel right.
I'm not French and I ain't gonna eat any horses. I could live off my own fat for longer than the horse would live.
I have just hand fed 3 drenched horses after we had 40mms of rain in one hour.
The bone dry ground absorbed none of it of course - the place is a lake.
After checking the rain gauge and laughing while soaked to the skin, I saw the tank overflowing into the overflowing 44-gal drum under the overflow ... and I celebrated with a long shower - a rare treat.
The washer is loaded and (unusually) throttling away. bliss.
well, bliss if it stops sheeting by tomorrow.
In the middle of the nightmare of sheeting rain, I was contemplating all the poor souls who have endured days of flooding.
Errrm, Ann .. ya wouldn't like t' put some of that in a four litre bottle and send it registered mail, by any chance? Bit dry over this way, haven't seen any "sky water" fer at least three weeks, and all my vegies are a bit - errrm, shrivelled.
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