Thursday, July 16, 2009

The hills are lush


Lately I'm doing too much traveling. Can't be helped, but I've been "off ranch" three times in the last three days. But I insist on making lemonade: there are always things to see and things to photograph.

Coming back from "mail town" after a meeting the other night I was impressed by the abundance of grass on our plains this time of year. Last year the continuation of the drought had us burned down almost to the dirt. But this year the rains have given us waist high grass and plenty of it.

Ranchers are just "grass farmers" that use cows as combines. Could be a good year.

4 comments:

BobG said...

Looks like a good place for sheep and cattle. How's the water situation for livestock?

Rio Arriba said...

Good water, in some places only five or six feet underground. Very little running surface water where I am (like none), but lots of wind-pumps. Some ranchers are changing over to electric pumps run by solar panels.

Mark B. said...

"Some ranchers are changing over to electric pumps run by solar panels."

More's the pity. The Aermotor -- and the company must've made a killing on those back in the day -- is an iconic symbol of the Great Plains.

'Berg

Rio Arriba said...

True, Mark. I love the Aermotors and have many pix of them. I just did a "worked" print of one behind my house called "The Lifeblood of the Plains." Some of the ones around here are very, very old and still clanking away. Kinda like some of the ranchers!