I took this picture out of the van window as we were driving home from the visit to my mom in Iowa over Thanksgiving weekend. I liked the way the sky looked, but I didn't realize it had that greenish tinge. There were many birds migrating and I could see large flocks flying from Northwest to Southeast. They must have known there was a storm coming in a couple of days. My hometown is in central Iowa in the midst of some of the best farmland in the country. Now that I've lived in the city in Minnesota for several years I am always surprised by how very flat the land is. You can see for miles and miles. This time of year it is pretty desolate and colorless with farm fields showing black dirt or grain stubble. Then there's the smell of hog confinement facilities which have popped up all over Iowa in the last few years. My husband's hometown is in the county with the most hogs I believe. It is so sad to visit his old farm, now in a state of total disrepair, with hog facilities in every direction and not a single farm with a family living on it in sight. Stepping outside at his parents who live in town was really disgusting. They pump the liquid manure out of the facilities and spray it on the fields surrounding the town so as you can imagine it really stinks! As a former farm girl it is rather depressing to see so many deserted farms and see how the family farm culture we grew up in is disappearing fast and nearly gone never to be regained.******************
A quick update on my mom...she came through her surgery on her broken hip okay. She's in quite a bit of pain, particularly when she has to be moved for some reason, but I guess that's to be expected. She'll be in the hospital a few days and then move to the nursing home for the rest of her recovery so she can have therapy, etc. I hope it will all go well, so many things can go wrong along the way.
6 comments:
What a beautiful shot of the sky...and from a moving van too! Excellent photo. :)
Nancy,
Glad to hear your mom came through her surgery OK! Hopefully, her pain will soon be gone and she will have a smooth recuperation process there in the nursing home.
Prayers go out for her for her recovery and may she be given patience and peace the whole way through.
Very nice SkyWatch photo, with the silhouetted farm and added interest of the flocks of geese flying overhead!
You describe well what is happening in agriculture in many parts of Iowa and I'm sure other states. It is sad to see so many abandoned farmsteads and the big factory-type farming operations taking their place. That must be hard hard for your husband to see his old home farm in that condition. And, I know that hog manure smell is terrible.....we have a few confinements in our vicinity.
The times I go to Des Moines to see my daughter, then I notice all those hog confinements visible from Hwy. 20 as it gets closer to I-35. Fortunately, in our area, most farmsteads have residents.....if not farmers, then acreage owners or renters. I think we're close enough to Waterloo-CF that lots of people live in the country and commute to work in those towns. But, the difference is very noticeable when one heads west into central Iowa.
That's a beautiful sky photo, never seen such color combination. I hope all goes well with your mom :)
I think it's a nice shot despite the green tinge but if you wanted you could probably take that green out in a photo editing program.
My area is the opposite of the one you described. I used to live near what I called cow city. When the wind blew in the wrong direction it was so foul i couldn't eat. But due to all the new housing the cows have been moving up north. I no longer smell anything no matter which way the wind blows.
Beautiful shot. I hope your mom heals well!
Nancy: Neat capture of the sky and birds, that is an unusual color.
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