Tumbleweed

I have previously written about the wind storm which we experienced on November 26, 2011.  One of the consequences of that wind storm was a major influx of tumbleweed.  When I drove to work Monday morning after the storm, the tumbleweed were lined up all along the fences and intermixed with the plants along the entry way to the prison where I work. This is not surprising, as the prison is outside of Lubbock proper, in the open fields, with nothing to stop the tumbleweed influx.

I lived for a while in the country, and after a wind storm in the winter and spring, we did "tumbleweed management." It required a day with some wind.  We would removed the tumbleweed stack up on everywhere: on fences, in hedgerows, along house walls, and where ever else something could stop a rolling tumbleweed. We would take the tumbleweed to an area that did not offer an obstruction, and release it to roll on, to gather at some other obstacle.

Years ago, I think in the winter of 2002, I was traveling northeast of Lubbock, and a windstorm blew in.  The tumbleweed blowing across the road was incessant, with tumbleweed after tumbleweed after tumbleweed rolling past. It was just amazing!

The first year I lived in Lubbock, I was at the post office in early December mailing Christmas presents.  The young man ahead of me had a large box:  probably more that 24 inches high (I am thinking 30-36 inches high) and about 18 inches wide on each side.  The postal clerk commented on how light it was.  The customer said he was sending a tumbleweed home to a friend for Christmas, just to prove they really existed, and how big they could be.

As a youth, my family listened to country and western music, and I am always reminded of the song "Tumbling Tumbleweed." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbling_Tumbleweeds  http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/sons-of-the-pioneers/tumbling-tumbleweeds-13413.html  
http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/sons-of-the-pioneers/tumbling-tumbleweeds-13413.html

Seeing tumbelweed, even in this day and age, when the west is not as isolated and lonely as it was, the song speaks to me of the isolation and loneliness of the prairie, the wide open plains, and the impact of the wind on this part of the world.