Unidentified man – probably in Washington, D.C. during the Great Depression.

This photo is untitled and has no identifying information.  Based on neighboring image files, this was probably:

• in Washington, D.C.
• during November, 1937
• photographed by John Vachon

Part of Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

More information about this item (Library of Congress)

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Shot in Back Hills of South Dakota on Spearfish Canyon Road, August 25, 2007.

This image is near the end of the following video:

Construction worker on the Westmoreland subsistence homestead project.

Resettlement Administration staff photographer Walker Evans took this photo in July 1935 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

Part of Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

More information about this item (Library of Congress)

We’ve had our share of weather over the years that we have lived in Arkansas – heavy rain, winds, tornado warnings, snow, heat waves, and a lot of ordinary pleasant days.  (The photo on the left is our yard in the summer of 2009, just after storms that  blew down trees and limbs along with disruption of electrical power.)

This year started out warm.  We had daffodils in January, which is quite unusual, and the whole year has been mostly warmer than normal, with a below normal dip in February and a nearly normal April.  Flowers bloomed and trees leafed out far earlier than normal.  Early spring looked like summer.

Along with the warmer than normal temperatures, we’ve had far less rain than is usual, though the year started out wet.   Our average rainfall is about 50 inches a year, which results in a lot of plant growth – normally.

Not this year. Precipitation has been negligible since the middle of March.  We normally mow at least once a week, with the frequency tapering off towards fall.  This year, we’ve not mowed since April. (The picture below is of the same area of the yard as the one above, just at a different angle.)

The warmer than normal year has evolved into an extended heat wave – with highs often over 100°F – which has pushed our drier than normal conditions rapidly into extreme drought.  Trees are going into dormancy because of the lack of moisture, though dormancy may may not save some.  We have three flowering trees in distress that we would like to save – two dogwood and 1 redbud.

One of our three dogwoods (on the left, below) is doing well.  It’s closer to the house and has been getting water, where the others (on the right, below), further from the house, have not.

Today, I bought some 5-gallon plastic buckets and water hoses.  Two buckets were placed at the base of each tree we’re trying to save, with three small holes drilled into the bottom of each to provide a slow drain flow so that the water will have a chance to soak into the ground below the tree.  It took 200 feet of hose to run out to the farthest dogwood.

With the heat, drought and distressed, dry vegetation, the danger of fire is extreme. Fortunately, there seems to be a heightened awareness and appreciation of the conditions.  All but five counties in the state are under a burn ban.  Firework displays for the Fourth of July holiday were mostly canceled and use of fireworks by individuals has been banned in most of the state.  While firework stands have been open, I haven’t seen any doing any business.  Three people were arrested on felony charges in another part of the state after a field they were riding through caught fire from fireworks they were setting off – resulted in fire damage to buildings and vehicles.

A wildfire yesterday afternoon and evening ten miles southeast of us grew to over 500 acres.  The rural and town fire departments around here have mutual aid agreements and several departments responded to the fire as did the State Forestry Commission and National Forest Service.  Tanker trucks from somewhere delivered water to portable plastic “ponds” that the rural departments used for refilling their tanker trucks.  Arkansas Air National Guard planes were used to drop water.

And, with the dry conditions, we also have an overabundance of grasshoppers.

There is a hint, though, of a possibility of some relief.  The forecast, after Sunday, currently is calling for highs in the 90s rather than the 100s and each day there is a probability of rain, less than 50% each day, grant you, but that’s better than a 0% chance of rain week after week like we’ve been having.

How’s your weather just past the halfway point of 2012?

Camping traditions have wide and varied origins.

Southfields, New York. Interracial activities at camp Nathan Hale, where children are aided by the Methodist Camp Service. Campers of the Methodist Camp Service and other organizations, singing around the camp fire.

The campfire photo is by Gordon Parks, working as a trainee photographer  for the Farm Security Administration in Aug 1943.

• ‘Life’ Photographer And ‘Shaft’ Director Broke Color Barriers (Washington Post)

Part of Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

More information about this item (Library of Congress)

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I was looking at old films online and came across this fascinating look at San Francisco – filmed just days before the 1906 earthquake. Most of the buildings in the film were heavily damaged or totally destroyed. It’s likely that people seen in the film perished or were injured.

The film was originally thought to have been made in 1905.  In 2010, David Kiehn, with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, using clues from the film, scoured microfilm of early 20th century publications and was able to establish that the film was created just 4 days before the earthquake.  Apparently, it was shipped from San Francisco the on April 17, 1906, the day before the quake.

CBS Sixty Minutes piece on the film and establishing that it was created just before the disastrous 1906 earthquake:

Traveling in the western United States and living there, as we did a long while back, we’ve been exposed to the western wildfires and their impacts, but never to any significant degree.  For us, the closest we’ve been to a fire out there was when there was a fire that we could see from our house  on a mountain on the edge of town.

Last year, we were in the area where the Waldo Canyon fire is burning, near Colorado Springs, Colorado.  This image is from the Pikes Peak toll road, near the bottom.

Using an online map of the fire, I’ve modified the image, below, to show the approximate location of the fire as seen from this vantage point.

For several years, I belonged to a local volunteer fire department.  I’ve fought several wildfires in this area.

Right now, our fire danger is about as bad as it gets.  I’m getting our camper ready – fueling it and securing stuff inside – just in case we might need to relocate.

It’s not likely that we would have fires on the magnitude of the Waldo Canyon fire.  We don’t normally  get the wind like they do out west.

But, then again, this is not a normal weather year for us.