Spring has been hot here in western Oklahoma this year. I can always count on the blue wild flowers spread across the farm to brighten things up in March and they did. They have lasted until this month but are getting ragged now.
The wind is a constant for us in this part of the world. Seems like it has been stronger than usual for longer than usual. Days on end of fifteen to twenty mile an hour winds shape the trees during the growing season. Our trees all lean over to the north because of the constant hard south winds. We had five days of winds blowing night and day thirty to fifty mile per hour. That was a grind even for those of us who are use to the wind.
Rains always come in the spring and they have to pretty well carry us through the year until snow flys in the winter as showers get few and far in between in the summer. This spring has been dry which is a repeat of the past three years. As a child I watched the dust storms sweep across the land moving in from the north bringing black dust. The day would turn dark as the dust blocked most of the light from the sun. Of course the dust storms weren't always from the north. Some of them blew in from Texas.
Farming has changed along with the farmers. They have bigger equipment and can plow deeper to hold down the land when it's dry. We also don't try and make the ground a perfectly smooth landscape like they use to. We leave the clods and vegetation on top the ground to hold it against the heat, wind, and lack of moisture. If we didn't I would be looking at more of those dust storms like I use to see as a little girl.
