It's been a while

This is the view from Turbine 55. Everytime it comes time to walk this turbine I look down on the John Day River and wish I could jump in the river for a quick refreshing swim. So I finally asked around and found out how to get down there. Just before the 4th of July it was in the upper 90's here and the road to the river was right by the turbines I was walking that day, so I decided to drive down for a swim. However, the night before we had a rather spectacular lightening storm and on my way down I ran into this. I got part of the way down but decided to turn back so as not to get stuck in case the fire jumped the road. A few days later I went down again and the river is a rather nice place for a picnic but I forgot to take pictures. The road was a bit soft in places due to the water trucks but Betsy made it no problem.
Last Friday I went back to T-55 so I could get a comparison picture and this is what I got. It's not the best but it's hard to get a good idea of what is going on but all the grassland below the winter wheat is black and gone. The view from the river was much more revealing.

Just another environmental note on the area, all the crop trees in Hood River have no fruit due to the lack of bees. Since I am quite the fruit eater this a shame for me. Speaking of crops, this is a sign I came across a few weeks back. Guess what kind of biosolids they are talking about. That's right, human! I find it quite discusting but they get paid to use it so I guess if I were them I would too. By the way last Friday I walked 28,670 steps at work.