The agriculture down here consists of cabbage and sugar cane. In fact, they grow a few rows of sugar cane every so often in the cabbage fields to act as wind breaks to reduce dust storms and stop the crops from drying out from the incessant wind. In other locations there are fields of sugarcane alone. When they are ready to harvest the cane they actually set fire to the field to burn off all the leaves before they harvest the canes.

We have seen huge plumes of smoke in the distance and have had black ash falling on everything when we're down wind of the burn. The smoke appears to rise to a certain elevation and then level off as the wind carries it. the smoke resembles anvil head thunder clouds from a distance. Apparently there have been some deaths associated with these burns in the past as illegal aliens from Mexico have been hiding in the fields only to be surrounded by flames with no escape. They now are required to announce via loudspeakers that a burn is scheduled to happen to give these people a chance to at least get out of the way.

Hey, I've got an idea! If they decided to plant sugar cane fields all along the American bank of the Rio Grande, they could limit the number of illegal immigrants sneaking across the border by setting fire to different rows in the fields each day, deterring anyone from trying to sneak through. They would also generate a cash crop and provide employment vs building some wall for billions of dollars. Hmmmm....maybe I should run for president in 2020. BTW...what a week the Very Stable Genius has had!

And while we're on the topic of fire, our portable BBQ has been acting up so we were on the lookout for a new unit. It was only $39 at Canadian Tire when I bought it 2 years ago so it doesn't really owe us anything. But, we happened onto a deal at Lowes on an aluminum body Char Broil infrared unit, similar to the one we have at home but the portable model. It was marked down from $160 to $130 and then I got a price match from another place for another $15 off. Even with the exchange rate, it was still a great deal and it is excellent to cook on. It also fits well on the shelf I built that attaches to the rig so I'm not bent over or looking for somewhere to put it within reach of the hose that is hooked up to the rig's tanks.

Our 30 days here are up on Sunday so we'll be heading west into some more scenic landscape that should be more interesting and photo worthy so stay tuned.