Family walking on highway, five children.

Started from Idabel, Oklahoma. Bound for Krebs, Oklahoma. Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. In 1936 the father farmed on thirds and fourths at Eagleton, McCurtain County, Oklahoma. Was taken sick with pneumonia and lost farm. Unable to get work on Work Prjects Administration and refused county relief in county of fifteen years residence because of temporary residence in another county after his illness

1938 June.

Lange, Dorothea, photographer.

Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection

Original Digital Image File: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b38702

Tags: American history, Great Depression, history, Oklahoma, on the road, photography, WPA

This flower was in the the Adolph C. and Eugenie Mayer Bolz Conservatory, in the Orbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin. We visited on December 22, 2007, the first day of winter.

Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 90 mm
ISO Speed: 400

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Tags: Mike’s photos, photography, places, plants, travel photos, Wisconsin

Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm - Cimaron County, Oklahoma

I’m currently reading a book about the dust bowl period of the Great Depression. It’s a time that most people living today know very little about. Life was different then. Values were different.

I like photography. I like taking pictures and sharing them with others. I also like finding public domain images, cropping them and adjusting them and then sharing them with others.

Along with my own pictures, I plan on presenting images that I find from other times and other places.

Tags: Great Depression, history, people, photography, weather

Photo Information:
Taken: 1936 Apr.
Rothstein, Arthur - photographer
Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
Location of public domain digital image: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.00241

We took a drive today over to see some of the areas that were hit by the Arkansas EF4 tornado on February 5.

I deliberately did not take my camera along. I wanted to take a look at the area, not to exploit it for my photography. (The picture on the right is from the National Weather Service web site — the license number has been altered for privacy reasons.)

The route I took crisscrossed the path of the tornado from where it crossed the Arkansas River to a point north and west of Morrellton, Arkansas.

The twister crossed the river very close to a nice home that sits overlooking the river. It looked like they only lost a few trees. They were very lucky. Many of the folks at Lucky Landing on Lake Atkins weren’t. Even though it’s been eleven days since the storm, that area is still a mess. I can only imagine how bad it was that night and the next couple of days.

Often, in news stories, they’ll have people saying that devastation when you see it in person is so much worse than what you imagine from the little you see on TV and in pictures. I was a bit surprised in that what we saw was pretty much what I had expected.

I also wasn’t surprised to see how much the media got it wrong. The town center of Atkins wasn’t hit at all. The feed mill that was reported to have been destroyed and blocking highway 64 looked to be in perfect shape when we drove by it today.

The twister also took down four or five transmission towers on the Pleasant Hill 500KV transmission line. As a result, the power plant I am working at is operating at reduced capacity until new towers can be erected and the line repaired.

It’s raining here again. Fortunately, though, this system doesn’t have any severe weather in it, just lots of rain… and some lightning and thuinder.

(Second picture from the National Weather Service: A car from the destroyed dealership in Mountain View (Stone County) was thrown over some professional buildings across the street and ended up in a ravine.)

The Devil’s Walkingstick

Aralia spinosa, commonly known as Devil’s Walkingstick, is a woody species of plants in the genus Aralia, family Araliaceae, native to eastern North America. The various names refer to the viciously sharp, spiny stems, petioles, and even leaf midribs. It has also been known as Angelica-tree. - Wikipedia

This photo was taken on our last camping trip at Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas, on Seven Hollows Trail.

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Tags: Arkansas, camping, hiking, photography, places, plants, travel photos

On my Askimet spam page for Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War blog, the message today reads, “Akismet has caught 258,378 spam for you since you first installed it.”

That’s a lot of comment spam.

I really, really hate spam of any kind.

I really, really like Askimet. I just moderated 10 spam comment that got past it — out of 4000 since the last time I checked the comment moderation page. If I had to go through each and every one, I’d have comments turned off to that blog. There is just too many.

Tags: blogging, comment spam, give me a break!, internet ethics, spam

From the National Weather Service:

Damage that occurred in a large swath from Atkins…to Clinton…Mountain View and Highland on February 5th was the result of one tornado.

The tornado tracked from 5 miles east-southeast of Centerville in Yell County to 3.2 miles northeast of Highland in Sharp County. The track length was 123 miles…which is the longest tornado track since 1950. The tornado has been rated EF4 on the Ehanced Fujita Scale…with winds between 166 and 200 mph. The damage path reached a half mile to a mile wide at times.   

Tags: weather

From the National Weather Service:

Aerial survey was completed late this morning for the tornadic storm that tracked across west central and northern Arkansas on Tuesday. The areal survey team concluded that the path of the tornado was continuous from Yell County… northeastward into Sharp County. The tornado was earlier rated an EF4. Based on preliminary information… the length of the tornado track will be at least 120 miles long.

An NWS ground survey team has also found the starting point of this tornado to be 5.6 miles east southeast of Centerville… in Yell County. An ending point… along with a more detailed path length… will be determined once the teams return later this afternoon.

Tags: weather

The storm that swept through the area south and east of Atkins, Arkansas, was initially rated as an EF3 tornado. After surveying the damage, the National Weather Service has upgraded it to EF4 and stated that a single tornado may have tracked from south of Atkins through Clinton, Mountain View and Highland. An aerial survey is planned for today to determine if it was one or several tornados.

An EF4 has winds of between 166-200 mph, with devastating damage that can level newer houses and create “missiles” such as thrown cars or telephone poles.

Unfortunately, in the aftermath of the storm, cleanup efforts have been hampered by traffic of gawkers driving through to see the damage first hand. If they don’t have a need to go through the area, they should stay away.

Tags: weather

OOPs… I posted this to the wrong blog. That’s what I get for not being careful using a blog editor instead of doing it in WordPress. I moved the original post over to where I intended for it to be.

See the full size images at Haw Creek Out n’ About

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