Palouser,
I had to smile at that comment. It takes us a while to put together a group picture like this one --------- Is common in the south central California valleys ------------- Not sure that is what you meant , but was my first thought.
That camper caught in the middle, made me wonder if weedman was ok? March winds in this area can catch a snowbird by suprise. Seems like we are going to have this for two months.
There was a trailer load of horses in the middle of it that had to be cut out of their trailer--- neighbor said.
The real culprit here is not the wind or the amount of it ---- which is way above normal. The real problem is the late freezes last spring. We had four hard freezes after our normal last frost date (April 15-20). The worst was middle of May when we spent more than 12 hours below 17*F.
At the time wheat was 10 to 14 inches high and starting to boot. It burned brown and shot some "sucker" heads. Enough we had to harvest some of it. But the problems for this year were established. Not enough stubble or plant strength to hold the ground through a rough winter, and not enough subsoil moisture to survive as continuous crop wheat planted back.
We should always learn the most when things are at their worst. But I have a greater understanding of the 30's and 50's in this region. Many just get weary of the education process. Most of the time we are wrong to some degree in our decisions, but when the cost of a mistake is great we find out who can handle life without pride.
When we are dry we need to plant something every time it rains. It will fail as a crop but not as cover.
The old idea of waiting for a full profile to plant a crop fits somewhere, but not here and not now.
