June, and cattle trucks loaded with light-weight California steers are rumbling through the yard. Warm weather and adequate moisture is bringing on tall grass and hay season. Swathers, rakes, tractors and balers are out in the fields all along the Valley.
On roadways the little magic triangle, about a foot length per side, reflective neon orange, bolted, nailed or tied with bailing wire to the back of agricultural equipment warns drivers about the very limited speed farm implements travel. There is usually a very big slow moving object attached to that magic triangle. Be courteous and respectful and slow down when you see it. It has the power to save lives, yours and the driver's of the farm equipment.
Cutting, raking and baling hay gives a body a lot of time to contemplate the state of the world. An equipment operator has to stay aware of ditches and irrigation boxes, know how close to cut the grass and how near to an edge to drive. But the lull of the constant rhythmic rocking machinery, the heat and the repetition of driving from one end of the field to the other has the ability to allow a mind to wonder, to mull over the problems of the world for hours and come up with some unique solutions.
You might have missed the news this spring when Exxon/Mobile announced their historical record-breaking profits in the first quarter of 2006. You probably did hear the President trying to blame you for their high oil prices. Your addiction to oil he said. Addiction isn't correct. Our nation does have a dependency on oil. Dependency because we have not encouraged developing alternative energy sources to give us economical energy choices. Oil is the player with this administration and wind and solar are scoffed at.
Biofuels are an interesting energy alternative, but to cover the globe with plant matter to satisfy our need for energy in the future may not be too practical either. Nuclear alternatives scare me.
Its waste product is to be shipped in containers, made by the lowest bidder awarded a government contract, across the United States to sit in a damp, ground faulted repository near Las Vegas for 100,000 years. A safe alternative to oil dependency is to harness nervous energy.
Collect nervous energy. Energy from patients sitting in a doctor's office waiting results regarding a disease they are not insured for. The anxious energy built up while waiting in line to cash your paycheck for gas money.
The anxiety from knowing this Administration took us to war on a nation with deceptively false information where now a civil war has begun in a powerless vacuum. Collect the anxiety from children afraid of their schools.
Use the energy that comes from the nagging in the back of your head when you know something is wrong. People don't like being uncomfortable. We don't like thinking our government is corrupt, defending oil company profits, defense contractor freebies or pandering to condemning religious groups.
From medical information about the number of people in the United Stated using, and the amount of anti-anxiety drugs we as a nation consume, we are uncomfortable about something.
Harness that anxiety, use the energy to correct mistakes made in November of '04, break our oil dependency, and watch for the magic triangle.
n Marie Johnson is a Carson Valley rancher.
