Kansas Dust Storm

Dateline October 6 2011

Ever heard of the "Dirty Thirties"? or the "Dust Bowl"?

For those of you who have never heard of this

 it was during 1930 to 1936 (and in some places to 1940)

where terrible dust storms blew across

the American and Canadian prairies.

It was caused by severe drought conditions and many 

years of poor land management.

If you'd like to read more on this you can go

HERE

Well starting on October 4th we had 3 days of what

I call a mild case of the "dirty thirties".

THIS is what we saw out our windows.

I didn't dare take my camera outside

until after it was all done blowing.

The only places that seemed to get hit by this

were the ones that were down wind of

fields that weren't planted with a second crop.

Because of our record breaking heat and drought conditions

this summer and fall and the fact that they cut down

the windbreaks to the south and west of us

and didn't plant those second crops

we got hit bad.

Just going outside to feed the chickens or collect eggs 

or run to the car got you grit in your teeth

and dust in your eyes and in your hair

not to mention make your

allergies flare!

Where the dogs would lay on the kitchen floor...

there was a little pile of powdered dirt.

That same stuff came into the house through a couple of 

places under our front door! 

When I realized what was happening I put a towel along

the bottom of the door but it was too late.

Some of that dust got into the house and I had JUST finished

dusting and vacuuming everything 

because my sister is coming to visit soon!

Oh well...I can't complain about being bored ;)

That pumpkin had just been put outside a couple of 

hours before this picture was taken...if that!

When I finally got outside to take pictures...every step I took blew up a dust cloud.

Below is how this stone is supposed to look.

When I went out to collect eggs at night while this was happening

it looked like a blizzard in the beam of my flashlight!

The poor plants were covered.

When you live in the country you expect dust.

We sure weren't expecting this though.

And here just before this happened I had gone around

and swept off all the window sills and porches 

and sidewalks and was thinking

"what a cute little clean cottage".

Two days later....it rained. For 3 days. 

Fortunately hubby had taken the leaf blower out and went

around the place blowing the dust off every surface he could!

We still ended up with a mess.

But hey...we finally got rain!

I'm connecting with Amy for 

Farm Friend Friday

Have a great weekend!

ps...things are finally turning green here after 1.5 inches of rain last weekend :)

Yes...3 days and only 1.5 inches of rain!

I'm sure I heard the tree's give a happy sigh though.