California Farm Water Coalition

1.) What crops are you gonna grow this year? 2.) Look at the market, you think that price gonna be the same in a few months? 3.) Where are you planting each crop? 4.) Seeding time, can you work from 9:00am to 11:00pm in order to get done in the little time you have? 5.) Your seeder broke half-way through, what are you gonna do? You don’t have the money to buy the new fancy ones. 6.) Where you gonna get a sprayer? 7.) Can you spray the crops at the exact right time so that bugs can’t eat it all? 8.) It rained a lot last night, think you can work in that soil with the big equipment? I’ll give you a freebie, you can’t. 9.) Your crop is ready to harvest, but their predicting a hail storm, did you decide which fields to cover? Hint: you can’t cover them all, look at the price 10.) One of your fields is completely ruined by the hail storm, insurance gonna cover all the money you put into the ground? Another freebie, no. 11.) You’re going to harvest all the other crop now, how do you know when it’s ready? 12.) Can you sit through another session of long hours to get the crop in before the price changes? 13.) How many bins should you have to hold each crop when you’re done? 14.) Who’s gonna drive the truck to move full loads while you drive the combine? 15.) Say it’s real dry on another area of land, that combine’s been running for a few hours, what do you do if something catches fire? 16.) You’re finally done harvesting all the crops, did you store it all? 17.) Who are you selling your crop to? 18.) Are you getting enough bang for your work? You lost a lot of money on that totaled field remember. 19.) Think you now have a lot of free cash now? I’ll answer for you, no, that money has to go back into the farm.

Think you’re done? No, not by a long shot hun.

20.) It’s winter now, did you get all your expensive equipment where the snow and freezing water can’t ruin it? 21.) Flash forward, time to clean your equipment so it’s ready for this times harvest, but some animal decided to make that machine it’s home over winter. There’s no coverage for that, how are you gonna fix what the animal ruined?

I’ll give you slack and skip winter, but now I add the other lingering questions

22.) Did you remember to clean out everything before it was put away for winter? 23.) How are you going to make sure your soil stays good? Plants can take out those important minerals other plants need. 24.) Did I mention you’re still paying taxes for your home? Water, electricity, ect. you have the money? 25.) Oh, you’re fields that you work so hard on? They aren’t close to each other at all, there’s miles between some of them, how do you move all the equipment to different fields? 26.) Guess what, it’s time to pick what you’re going to plant again. Take the profit of last year, where do you put it?

You get my point yet? Farming takes a lot, it’s not mindless, it’s not all easy work. And thinking everything is all safe and sound for farmers. Look up to my uncle Dale, heavy equipment hit him in the head at 14 and he was gone in a snap. Rest in peace.

My point is, respect farmers. Be nice to them, if you own a company work with them don’t just do what you want, talk to them ‘cause sitting so long alone can take a lot out of you. It takes strength to make it in the farm world, you should hug them and always let them know they’re loved and appreciated.

What is this picture of? Does it look like clouds full of rain to you, and hundreds of the other hopeful Californians? I’ll let you in on a little hint about this picture that I took Friday night driving to a friend’s house:

This is smoke from fires.

As many of you know, California is literally burning up. With over 8 million acres burned so far this year and with much of that acreage having burned in the last month to two months, its scaring being a rancher. We constantly have to think ahead and keep updated on the fires and where they are. We have to be ready to pack up on a moment’s notice and get out. Some ranchers don’t have trailers at all; Some don’t have trailers big enough for all of their animals. I saw a picture today of someone fleeing the Valley Fire with their horses in the bed of their pick up truck, bumper nearly dragging on the ground. I’ve heard stories and know people who have simply had to open the gates to their pastures and pray that their animals have the ability to get out and run. My Facebook feed is flooded with people looking for their horses, of people with trailers or extra space on their ranch opening their doors to people trying to flee, of people that only had space for their animals but not for feed and are desperate to feed their horses, rabbits, dogs, cats, chickens, sheep, goats, or cattle. I’ve had several friends who have had to evacuate their properties while escaping the Butte, Valley, Lumpkin, and the numerous other fires in the state. I have friends who started school 3 weeks ago but haven’t been to class because they’re volunteer firefighters and they’ve been on the front lines the whole time. 

There’s been different stories coming out of the fires of the animals who didn’t get a chance to escape. Stories about cattlemen coming back to their herds to find most of them gone or firefighters that took videos of cattle and wildlife running through their camps or their lines trying to escape. I know of a sheep rancher who had left his gates open for his sheep to escape, but the fire blocked the gates and many of the sheep perished against the fences. I know there will be horses that will never be found even as their owners search desperately.

Its scary to look at the Cal Fire website at these fires. Valley Fire: 50,000 acres in the last 24 hours, 0% contained. Butte Fire: 65,215 acres in the last 4 days, 20% contained, Lumpkin Fire: 425 acres in the last 2 days, 21% contained. Its hard to read about these.