It’s wheat harvest in the Palouse—you have to see this country to understand it: towering, rolling, completely unfenced hills of loess that grows wheat and lentils like nobody’s business. In the old days they used a 40-horse hitch to get a plow or harvester up those slopes. Now it’s specialized tractors with independent suspension, and if you want to get somewhere in a hurry in the Palouse—detour through Idaho. When equipment is moving on those two-lane roads, you just wait for a town or a 3-lane hillclimb to pass.
The geography of your region is very interesting. I love the name “Palouse” The traffic situation sounds like our region during cotton harvest, when the rural roads are clogged with “module” trucks delivering cotton “modules” to the gins or with “big rig” cotton seed trailers hauling cotton seed to the press to make cotton seed oil and seed cake for livestock feed. I’m afraid there’s not going to be much of a cotton harvest this year due to the severe drought we’ve had this year. Many farmers didn’t even plant a crop this year as it would cost more to irrigate it than the crop would be worth.
The first time I ever saw a cane haul truck, I thought to myself “If you welded some armor plating over the sides of that thing, you’d have a pretty respectable punknaught.” They’re story and a half high trucks pulling wheeled articulated road train bins for the sugarcane, after it’s been burnt off, scraped together by bulldozers, then dumped by giant claws into the carriers. Harvesting equipment often looks like it could double for military vehicles.
Wow, that’s bigger than our largest combines—
BTW if you want some interesting geology, look up the Missoula Floods. There’s some talk of making a national ‘trail’ out of the Channeled Scablands. Looks sort of like Mars, with grass. It was where the last ice age ended catastrophically. Native Americans preserve some legends which indicate there may have been human witnesses—but no survivors who weren’t on high ground. The Missoula Floods zigged around Spokane, hence the high rock on which I live, and around the Palouse, which has fragile loess so deep it buried a mountain range up to its tops (only Steptoe Mt. sticks up above, and looks like Tolkein’s painting of Hobbiton)–but where that kind of land existed further east, it was washed off and ripped up by the Flood. The hills are finely terraced from successive floods.
If anybody gets tired of rain and clouds and cooler weather, please send some this way. Our nightly lows have been hovering near 80, with temps over 100 for over 21 days and counting. — One is not overly fond of weather below freezing, but one is not used to temps over 100 for more than a few days at a time, despite being native to this city.
Farmers and ranchers in Texas would dearly love a better harvest this year and next than they’re likely to get.
—–
But hill country and mountain country suit me down to the ground, pun intended. Of course, I have relatives who would say the same of very flat country (the plains), and I live in flat country (coastal plains) here.
The Okies aren’t any better, believe me. Revolting temperatures.
And last night, even though it’s August, the temperature Upcountry dipped into the high 60s, very pleasantly so. Global climate change? What’s that? 😛 o_O I’m hoping that the hurricane season remains quiet, even though some parts of the country might receive less rain accordingly.
you can have some vt weather, please. way too much humidity, 92% as general rule most of last month- insane!!! and either very hot and threat of rain, or downpours.
makes me think of an article I read recently re chicago- they ahd climate specialists come in and project changes. wetter and hotter. they are now planting swamp oaks, and paving with water-permeable concrete mix. interesting stuff.. but does not bode well for a return to weather I remember.
the weather in Vt, is more like weather down in metroNY region I remember growing up. which is why I left. bad enough all the tourists followed me.. but the weather too??? seriously? oi!