[gardeners] heat

Allen and Judy Merten (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 09 Jul 1998 12:10:39 -0500 

Now George,
    What are you people to the east of Texas going to do if you ever do
get a drought. 91f at midnight indeed! George its been in the 90's at
6am here after being up to 106-108 during the day. Mind now the heat
index is around 115f., still only 1.7 inches of rain since April 19th.
That total came in 4 rain events, .1, .1, .1, and 1.4 a virtual gully
washer by this years standards.
    All joking aside. That was jokes except for the facts. We are all in
a hell of a fix. George, the year before last we went 11 months with no
rain. Cattleman big and small had to sell off herds because they
couldn't afford the high price of hay from our symphathetic Yankee
ranchers from Colorado and other places. There were some fine people in
the Midwest that actually donated hay. Thats d o n a t e d like free.
Lots of it. But still many cattleman sold out lock, stock and barrel. My
dad sold his herd. First time since my greatgrandparents bought the
place that there wasn't a single cow critter on the place. The prices
were so low that some of the farmers and ranchers talked about shooting
the cows and burning the carcases instead of selling for so little to
the Yankee buyers. The gov't found out about it and told them that they
couldn"t quailify for emergency loans at low interest rates if they
didn't sell to the Yankees.
    Now I have a question for all the grocery buying persons in the
household. Did you notice any drop in beef prices? We sure didn't see
any here in Texas. You know where them Yankees sold all  that beef?
Overseas to them foriegners!! Now think on this one. Where does the
gov't get its money to make those loans? You and me cuz. Taxes! The
gov't doesn't have any money of its own! Ok. Now I am all for the gov't
making low interest loans to people that have suffered from weather
disasters drought, flood, earthquake, tornados whatever. The bone I have
in my teeth is when the gov't lets people like those Yankee cattle
buyers buy cheap off of one mans disaster and sell it over seas at
obscene profits. The gov't should have made 'em sell it here for what
the market would bear. Which wouldn't have been much since there was
such a glut of cattle to be sold,shipped and slaughtered that some of
the cattle had to wait so long to be shipped that they died from lack of
water and the heat from being overcrowded. Any body ever been downwind
of a large herd of cattle on a hot day? The extra heat given off by the
cattle would blister your face.
    Wait a minute. Get your hands off my soap box. I gotta go George.
This gov't fella saying something about "exciting to riot"or something.
    Your Texas Cuzin
    Allen