Blog Archives
rural electrification
A typical scene on the high plains – a farm buildings, some farm equipment, a horizon, and some wind turbines.
(FYI: Those clouds later built up into one hell of a thunderstorm.)
Roosevelt County, New Mexico
photographed 5.31.2026
field of vision
Through careful framing and a wide lens, I was able to fit the entire town into a single frame!
Inez, New Mexico
photographed 5.31.2026
let there be light (fixtures)
It was a cold day. And it was raining. And it was also (bonus!) windy.
So naturally, we took a drive to Sundown, Texas, to find possible photographs. That part of the trip was a letdown because there wasn’t much there…although I was fond of these gigantic light fixtures, hovering with no real purpose above what was left of a fueling plaza.
Today it is supposed to be 108° here, which makes three days ago seem like a dream.
Sundown, 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
alma r.
When I find places like this – abandoned farmhouses – I don’t know anything about who lived there or why they left, of course. That leaves me to create a narrative, which is usually more or less the same: farming/ranching got too unaffordable and the family had to leave.
This farmhouse had at least two resident owls. And a brand-new KitchenAid dishwasher, still in the original box, and a stack of printed book-covers like I remember from school but that I don’t think anyone uses any more. And I wonder if Alma R signed the wall the day she left, or if that was a later addition by some visiting vandals.
Cochran County, Texas
photographed 5.31.2026
One Day | One Image 