As winter approaches the sun rises farther to the south. This morning it cones up right over this farmstead. With it came a few wisps of cloud that we haven't seen much of lately10/31/07 Wednesday
It’s 8:33 tonight. Nothing on TV but psycho murder, psychic whatever, and Hell’s kitchen. All crap. I get tired of all the murder stuff that seems to be the mainstay of “entertainment” on “Zombievision” (my nickname for TV). So this is a good time to write in this journal.
Today we finished up the last of the cotton fields. I can’t say who’s field it is because of a confidentiality clause but it’s got the best cotton of them all. Way above the rest. Instead of using the little plastic bags provided to put the cotton in I found some full size garbage bags in the truck. We picked enough cotton to fill four of them. They were just getting ready to pick it so we got there just in time.
What else? The CRP check didn’t come so that keeps things tight, holds off plans for a bit. There were other things I wanted to write but can’t remember them at the moment. So I guess that’s all for now.
OK. Looking at the pictures I just downloaded I found something I wanted to mention. I noticed yesterday all these spots on the fig bush and looking around saw some on the flowers I planted this spring. I went online to try and learn what kind of fungi, bacteria, or virus it might be. I found a reference to herbicide overspray settling on plants and the description matches this type of damage. With that thought I looked around and found every plant and tree we have has the same kind of dead spots. 
Now I am sure this is from what they spray on the cotton to defoliate the leaves so they can harvest. They sprayed the fields next to us with airplane and the farmer across the highway used a tractor spray rig. Where it came from we can’t tell but we are surrounded on four sides with cotton fields. This will be a problem. The apple trees have all been hit hard. What will this do for our plans to create an orchard?
I’m not sure how to approach it. First of all I don’t like the idea of this potent a poison covering everything around where we live. I mean, they spray the cotton and all the leaves fall off dead in just a few days. The fig is right next to our window. What do I say and who do I say it to?
2 comments:
I'd definitely say something to the extension agent, and talk to the owners of the property. If the shoe were on the other foot, and you were spraying something, and it affected their cotton crop, you had better believe that they would be crawling all over you. Write an editorial to the paper, talk to the Farm Bureau, make a fuss. Hit harder on the health issue than your future orchard, as that is your best bet....find out what the herbicide is, and find out what the health hazards are associated.
I think I'll just talk to the owners. We plan on living here for the rest of our life so getting along is important. The company doing the aerial spraying is the one with the legal obligation to correctly apply poison and protect our property. Our farm is an island in a sea of cotton and hasn't been farmed in twenty years but grew cotton then so I suspect they are not even thinking or aware of us.
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