Determination

Many farmers in Colorado are going through a tough time this year. This is a cornfield on the eastern plains. Actually, it is in better shape than most. The corn is patchy and ranges in height from four inches to fourteen inches. Not good for the middle of July.

I probably notice this more than a lot people for several reason. One is my friendship with Cliff. Another is Jerry’s blog. Yet another is because of a dream that is now a couple of decades old – I’ll write about that later.

Water is the main reason farmers are facing this situation. It rained on July 4th. That was the first significant rainfall in over six weeks. Another reason is the irrigation water to eight plains counties was cut off. There was a possibility of having a major water shortage in the metropolitan area. People would be driving dirty cars and not having lush, green lawns. Gosh, we can’t let that happen!

A few days ago in the paper, there was an article saying by the year 2010 our state would lose another 2.1 million acres of agricultural land to commercial and residential development. 2010 is only four years away. Seems like many cities and towns are more interested in increasing their tax base than anything else.

What you can’t see in the first picture is Ray. He is standing behind me. He farms this property. I met Ray when I stopped to take the picture of the cornfield and we got talking. Ray readily admits his crop is gone this year. He also said he is being contacted about once a week by a developer wanting to know if he is interested in selling.

I asked him what he was going to do. There was a long pause. Then he gave the most determined and confident answer I have heard in a long, long time. Ray said, “This land is a way of life. It’s not suited for a damn outlet mall.”

That is determination.