This abandoned farmstead stands in ruin from blasting winds which
have shifted topsoil from field to cover the house and improvement.
The old turning plow in foreground was left at the end of row in the field.

Date: 1935
Photographer: B. C. McLean
Location: Bacca County, Colorado
Watershed: unknown
(see digital image source)

I’ve finally succumbed to a cold — first one this season of any consequence.

The good news is that I won’t be passing it on to anyone at work because I’m not at work — for now.

I was hired as a contractor to work through the first week of March. Then the students went to the plant to support the other unit’s refueling outage. I’ll go back to work about the 8th or 9th of April — the week before classes pick up again. My last day was supposed to be Friday, but that turned into a snow day.

The snow is all gone. Living about 500 feet above the river valley, when we have frozen precipitation, we generally get a bit more than many of the surrounding areas and it usually lasts a little longer. But, still, it’s Arkansas and March, so the snow didn’t stay around long.

I’ve taken about a 5 day break from reading e-mail and looking at blogs… I’ll get back to it. Just taking a bit of a break.

During the last couple of weeks, I’ve been looking at, and downloading, a lot of images associated with the Depression years and the dust bowl. I read a book called “The Worst Hard Time” and found a copy of the old Government propaganda documentary “The Plow that Broke the Plains.” With all of that as a starting point, I picked up a copy of Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.”

I read quite a bit — and I used to read a whole lot more — but I’ve never been one to get into the great classics of literature. This time, though, having spent some time getting to know the background, this book is an easy and interesting read. I’ve never tried to read it before, that I know of, and I think I would know since the protagonist’s last name, Joad, is so close to mine. (Did I really just use the word protagonist?)

A Very Trying Time.

Caption: “Dust Over Dakota.” A forlorn farmer leans into a dust storm. In: “To Hold This Soil”, Russell Lord, 1938. Miscellaneous Publication No. 321, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Image ID: wea01403, NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) Collection
Location: Great Plains, United States
Photo Date: 1935 Circa

Family walking on highway, five children.

Started from Idabel, Oklahoma. Bound for Krebs, Oklahoma. Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. In 1936 the father farmed on thirds and fourths at Eagleton, McCurtain County, Oklahoma. Was taken sick with pneumonia and lost farm. Unable to get work on Work Projects Administration and refused county relief in county of fifteen years residence because of temporary residence in another county after his illness

1938 June.

Lange, Dorothea, photographer.

Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection

Original Digital Image File: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b38702

Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm - Cimaron County, Oklahoma

I’m currently reading a book about the dust bowl period of the Great Depression. It’s a time that most people living today know very little about. Life was different then. Values were different.

I like photography. I like taking pictures and sharing them with others. I also like finding public domain images, cropping them and adjusting them and then sharing them with others.

Along with my own pictures, I plan on presenting images that I find from other times and other places.

Photo Information:
Taken: 1936 Apr.
Rothstein, Arthur - photographer
Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
Location of public domain digital image: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.00241