Where Does The Dust And Water In The Clouds Come

where does the dust and water in the clouds come

Dust to Dust « Barnstorming

February 16, 2012 by briarcroft

Over the last several weeks we have been running low on wood shavings on the farm, the absorbent bedding we use to cover the stall floors in the barns for our horses. In the winter, the animals spend a significant part of the week indoors due to the cold and rainy weather, so their bedding is important for their comfort and for the ease of cleaning every night after we get home from work. The large truck load of shavings we had delivered into our shavings shed last summer was rapidly diminishing to the last few wheelbarrow loads so I called the shavings company we've happily dealt with for twenty years to request a new delivery.
Wallmonkeys Peel and Stick Wall Decals - Among the Swirling Clouds of Dust and Gas, Three New Water Worlds Emerge out of This Cosmic Maelstrom. - 48"W x 48"H Removable Graphic
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As is the case when local sawmills are slow in the winter due to less demand for lumber, I knew there would be a wait but it is worth it to get the perfect load: large fluffy shavings with no dust creating a cushiony bed for our horses.

It arrived today while we were at work and I hurried outside in the dark after dinner to admire the shavings shed now filled to the brim. As I got closer and turned on the barnyard vapor light, my heart sank. This was no load of shavings–typically aromatic curly remnant flakes. This was a building full of sawdust powder–way too fine, heavy in the shovel and extremely dusty. In short, it was several tons of a mess that I could not undo or send back and now have to deal with. What the sawmill had cast off as leftover waste product has become my ten foot high mountain of recycled regret.

Among Swirling Clouds of Dust and Gas, Three New Water Worlds Emerge Out of This Cosmic Maelstrom Photographic Poster Print by Stocktrek Images , 24x24
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This pulverized stuff is not fit for man nor beast. It gets into noses and lungs, irritates eyes and gets swallowed down with hay. I'm sick with disappointment. It was all I could do to haul it into the barn and watch the dust clouds go airborne as I spread it in the stalls. My poor horses wonder why I've condemned them to eat from a dust bowl. It is bitter irony that I'm paying good money for something that was to help me keep things clean when the reality is that it will make things so much harder to keep clean.

After shoveling a few hundred pounds of dust, I came back to the house covered in a veil of powder, my eyes itchy, my nose running, my throat burning. I can look forward to six months of this daily aggravation, but at least I won't have to sleep in it like my animals. I can climb in the bathtub with water up to my ears and soak it off, at least until tomorrow's chores.

This is just like times when I must cope with being let down, when those I have always depended on just don't come through. Disappointment may cover me like a shroud, and I'll stir up clouds of it wherever I go, eating and breathing disillusionment so much it hurts. I can choose to be perpetually grimy and disgruntled from wallowing in the stuff daily but that is not who I want to be.

I can seek out fresh air, breathe deeply, put on protective equipment and dive back in to do what needs to be done so that someday the mountain of misery will be made miniscule.

There will always be a bath at the end of the day.

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2012年2月18日土曜日

Where Does The Dust And Water In The Clouds Come