Hank Van Exel calls it "cow-killing weather."
"I hate saying that but at over 100 degrees, a little thing becomes a big thing in a hurry," Exel said.
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I remember a few years back when I was living in California, we had a string of 30 days with temps above 100 degrees before topping out at 115 and dairy cattle were dying like flies.
It's illegal to bury livestock in that area (hell, it might be for the entire state, I don't know) because the water table at the time was so low and they didn't want to contaminate it, so farmers had to have the tallow plants come pick up the dead animals. They'd put their dead cattle right outside the gates to the property and call the tallow plant for pickup.
Only problem was, the local tallow plant in South Modesto had shut down because they started building houses in the area and the fucking Bay Area Transplants started complaining about the stench, leaving only one tallow plant in the region, so they were seriously overwhelmed and pickups were delayed.
My commute was about 5 minutes of town driving, then another 40 minutes of country driving, past piles and piles of dead bloated cattle rotting in 100+ degree heat for days at a time. The stench was horrible.
It got so bad that the powers that be suspended the rule about not burying cattle.
Yeah, you read that right - people were moving into the area where the tallow plant was located and then complained about the smell, causing it to close.
You can't tell me they didn't smell it when they were looking for homes because that stench was flat out overpowering and lingered even when the plant wasn't actively rendering cattle.
But these were the same group of people that bought homes next to dairies for the 'country living' experience and then complained about and then sued over the flies and noise coming from those 24 hour a day 7 days a week operations.
It got so bad the County had to enact a Right To Farm ordinance just to stop the lawsuits.
Well, we had a few Adam Henrys buy homes next to the County rifle range...no more range...go figure.
ReplyDeleteWe see the same phenomenon next to firing ranges. Club has been in existence since 1934. New subdivision starts up, and everybody agrees to allow an easement for "noise pollution". The original owners move out and the new owners start collecting petition signatures to shut the club down.
ReplyDeleteI know of two clubs in my area where this happened. One of them is one of the few thousand yard ranges available around here. Nope. Sorry. Closed.
I shoot at a private range next to an airport. New subdivision a mile away has already started to complain about the noise. Next to an airport.
There's nothing quite like driving behind a Baker Commodities truck. Full or not, they have their own special air.
ReplyDeleteEvery time you tell a story about your old place of residence Kenny, I cringe. I mean between dead cows piled high, uncontrollable wildfires, people urinating and defecating on the streets, the pictures in my mind are of third world shitholes. And here are Californians thinking their "enlightened" and all that BS. What a crock. Those people are a bunch of Neanderthals is what is sounds like.
ReplyDeleteIt was actually a pretty nice place until the liberals went hog wild and ruined for everybody.
DeleteIt's funny, but all of my really good memories there don't involve people or cities.
Same thing with airports. Dulles was built way out in the Virginia countryside. Then exurb development crept in, and the transplanted commuters complained about jet noise. So we pilots had to fly noise abatement profiles which are wasteful and uncomfortable for the passengers. I don’t know why the homeowners always win!
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, unless you live really close to the airport and under the flight path, you get used to the noise. I was a military dependent and there was always an AFB close to where we were stationed. After a couple weeks, we never noticed the noise. The family that came to visit us would at the beginning of their stay, but by the time they left, they didn't hear it either.
DeleteWe had the same sorta deal here in Riv County, CA. Developers built houses near a dairy. They even dug an artificial lake and the houses were pretty nice. But the residents wouldn't stop bitching about the smell, even though the dairy was in operation since way before their houses were built.
ReplyDeleteI remember the A7s at Selfridge. They made a terrific sound for such ugly jets. The constant C130s in the pattern overhead doing touch and go as their continuous mission of letting USAFR pilots and crew get their flight pay faded into the background.
ReplyDelete