Blog Archives
room’s got the blues
For the past 17 years, I’ve driven by this farmhouse several times a week. I’ve stopped to look at it twice, a sort of embarrassingly low number.
The first time I stopped, there was a bird nest in the mailbox, a couple of barn owls, and a snake. And a bunch of junk piled up inside.
The second time, I didn’t see any wildlife but the bird nest was just as I remembered it. The junk was still there, only with more rodent/bird droppings and increased disintegration. But what I somehow don’t even remember from the first visit was this very-blue room. It must have felt so design-y and original when it was new, which makes it feel even sadder now.
Hockley County, Texas
photographed 5.31.2026
tank and ladder
I always think I ought to stop and photograph one of these tanks but I never do. Honestly, I think I want to photograph them out of a decades-long habit of thinking they are Very Important Subjects, which may or may not be true.
So, finally, I did stop and get a photo of one. But now I wonder why I didn’t even bother to get closer, or to look at that ladder, or look around the other side.
But it’s a start. Or an end. I haven’t decided yet.
Hockley County, Texas
photographed 6.14.2026
fresh water (in the rain)
If you want to get really worried about the future of water in places that are above the Ogalalla Aquifer, you could read Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains, by Lucas Bessire.
Or you could look at the shifts in annual rainfall and think about how long it takes to recharge our aquifer. And think about how farmers are already moving away from growing certain high-water-consuming crops. (Who REALLY needs corn, anyway?)
Or you could think about how rural counties are falling all over themselves to get data centers to come here. And then think about how the data centers claim their eventual water usage will be “about the same as two houses.”
And maybe, sometime in the future you can think fondly about the days where there WAS fresh water out.
Hockley County, Texas
photographed 6.14.2026
pivots around water
A lot of farms around here are irrigated by center-pivot systems and their spindly frames and slow-motion circles are familiar sights. But for some reason, getting to see one in operation right next to the road is a rare thing; when my photographer friends and I saw this one, of course we stopped (after making the traditional u-turn) to get a closer look.
And photographs. We also got photographs.
Hockley County, Texas
photographed 8.3.2024
a bird’s nest in the mailbox
There were some subtle signs to tell us that this farmhouse was unoccupied. The holes in the roof. The broken windows. The height of the weeds. A couple of kitchen appliances in the yard. The bird’s nest in the mailbox.
(Although the flag was up, as though someone intended to mail the nest?)
(Also, we scared up a pair of barn owls and saw a snake. For a place with nothing going on, there was a lot happening.)
Hockley County, Texas
photographed 8.3.2024
One Day | One Image 