Weather

To read the blogs on the Gazette lately, you might get the idea that folks talk about politics more than anything else. Conversationally, I have not found this to be the case in any way, shape, or form. The number 1 thing I've found people discuss is the weather.

It's windy or not, hot, cold, damp, dry, cloudy, sunny, raining, pouring, humid, or (insert any weather term). Any you know what? We never seem to get tired of talking about the weather current and past... "Why I remember the blizzard of..." is a common historical weather story we've all likely heard. We get an advertising paper called "The Messenger" and the first thing I do is leaf through it to see the old photographs they show. They have on several occasions shown extreme weather related pictures such as snow to the top of phone poles which I enjoy seeing.

I suppose there have been academic studies made as to why we talk about the weather. It effects most of us every day one way or another so we have a vested interest in what is currently happening with it that may determine our ability to survive on this sometimes hostile little planet.

I have my own theory... The weather puts us all on common ground. No matter who you are, the playing field is always level when it comes to weather. You can find out just what you are made of because of the weather, and the worst of weather seems to bring out the best in people. Look at all the volunteers that poured into the Gulf states after hurricane Katrina, and that doesn't begin to count the volunteers that organized clothing and food drives to assist folks that got hit by that devastating weather event.

Though I've not witnessed a bad weather event in our corner of Nebraska, I've heard stories of folks coming to their neighbors aid when bad weather has hit. Group efforts in the past have saved thousands of head of livestock during blizzards. You probably already know that, but a lot of city folk have no idea.

Just yesterday my farming neighbor stopped by and sprayed the weeds in our "North 40" for us. Naturally the weather came up in our conversation as the cool damp/drizzle we've had has made it tough to get his hay put up, but it's helping the wheat crop. Is there such a thing as perfect farming weather?

So today's blog is really just about what we all talk about anyway so I"ll close by saying... Weather around our farm(stead) has been cloudy and cool the last few days with intermittent light drizzle. We got a good 3" of rain a couple weeks ago, and another 45/100 overnight...