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Jerry Avise-Rouse's avatar

I’m sure you hear or saw reports of the dust storm across Illinois and Indiana 2 - 3 days ago. We watched that gray/brown cloud ahead of us as we went to a grandson’s baseball game in Macomb, IL. Thursday.

I was caught up wondering about our “ modern” farming and other land use practices that you know so much about as I watched that dust storm.

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Denise OBrien's avatar

I had not heard about the ones 2 or 3 days ago but did hear about the one a month or so ago that caused accidents and killed people - outrageous!

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Jerry Avise-Rouse's avatar

It was weird to see. High puffy cumulus clouds in an otherwise sunny sky, then this green/brown wall just underneath them. I thought, “ OMG! A dust storm!

When we lived near Mason City there was always one particular field east of there on the Avenue of the Saints that would produce a black impenetrable cloud across that highway whenever the wind was strong from the south. I watched that farmer do nothing to stop it. In fact, all the tillage practices they used encouraged it to happen. I was surprised no one was ever reported as running off the road during those.

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Denise OBrien's avatar

Grrr…..!

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Kayt Sunwood's avatar

Well said, Denise! Let's listen to the song, gather courage to face the raging winds of destruction, and join together to RESIST! RESIST! RESIST!

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Suzan Erem's avatar

The dust is real. I posted a video of a guy planting I caught on the way to the airport a few weeks ago - how can they not see what's going on 3 feet behind them? (There's a joke in here somewhere about having their heads in a place the sun don't shine...) Most days I feel like your hydrangea, but we still gotta keep going, with whatever we've got on any given day...

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Sarah Vogel's avatar

Beautiful essay, Denise!

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Denise OBrien's avatar

Thank you Sarah.

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Jim Sayers's avatar

The dust bowl of the past led to the creation of today’s federal soil conservation programs. I wonder about significant effectiveness after all these years.

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