The Huffstutlers considered long and hard about buying a piece of land to build their home. This stock tank on the land they eventually purchased was bone-dry during the drought, something that hadn’t been seen in the driest times in the 50 years before the drought.
our future home. But with a dry tank (longtime residents say they have never seen this particular tank dry in their 50-plus years in the area), research and thought- ful consideration had to be done. Before we could start designing house plans, picking out cabinets or looking at fl ooring, we would have to secure not only a water source but a back-up source. And then there are those whose livelihood has been
threatened. The cow-calf guy. The stocker operator. The wheat farmer. Although I don’t own a single cow or run a single
yearling, I’ve worked closely with the state’s beef pro- ducers over the last 8 years through my writing as- signments and assisting with Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association’s Animal Health and Fever Tick committees when I was a TSCRA staff member. My heart aches for each one of them as they have been forced to reduce their numbers again and again. I’ve hated watching the county’s cattle numbers get smaller and smaller through my unscientifi c process of noting one more empty pasture after another. I’ve often wondered if there will ever be as many
cattle here as there were when I moved to Electra 2 weeks prior to our August 2010 wedding. But then it
68 The Cattleman May 2015
greens up a little, and the cows return. And like an optimistic rancher, I too hope they’ll stay. Farmers and ranchers haven’t been the only ones to
feel the crunch, though. Nurseries have closed, while others have had to fi nd new niches to stay open. Like- wise, the plant sections at Lowe’s and Home Depot sit half empty; after all, who’s going to buy plants when you can’t water them? The pool business has suffered as well. And although I haven’t seen fi gures, I can’t imagine that it has been a good time to sell a house — or anything related to one. More people want to leave than move into an area where drinking water isn’t guaranteed.
More people want to leave than move into an area where drinking water isn’t guaranteed.
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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