Many of us have heard the adage that you should not put all your eggs into the same basket. In today’s day in age this may not make as much sense as it once did. If you drop a carton of eggs out of the refrigerator today, you are out a few dollars for the eggs and likely won’t be able to make that delicious omelet or baked good that you were hoping to create until you make a trip to the grocery store. Not terribly long ago when many of our grandparents and great grandparents were farming and ranching, gathering the eggs was a serious thing. See in many small towns where family farms surrounded the community, things like eggs and milk were used as currency. Many folks would come to town once a week or so and trade eggs and milk or cream in exchange for credit at the grocery store. If you kept all the eggs in one basket, or all the cream in one can, and had an accident, your family might not eat very well for that week.
If we fast forward to modern times, I think that too many people have forgotten the importance of being diverse and being careful not to place all their focus into one particular thing. Every day there are more and more people on this earth. There is more and more draw on our resources, and a big focus has been placed on going green. Major automobile makers have said their entire fleets will be electric within the future, and that petroleum powered vehicles and equipment will be a thing of the past. This simple rancher from Nebraska has a few observations that those in government and others who want massive energy overhaul may have overlooked.
On this ranch most of our water that is pumped from stock wells is done so via solar pumps. All of these pumps have the ability to connect to a gas-powered generator, should a storm or overcast day prevent them from pumping. We have two wells that have a windmill, a solar powered pump mounted below the check valve and the ability to be connected to a generator. There are days when it will be cloudy enough that the solar panels will not produce enough energy to power the pumps. The wind doesn’t blow hard enough to spin the mill on these days either. It is a rare occasion, but when this happens, my saving grace is the generator. Were it not for the back-up of the generator, I would not be able to pump water for cows to drink.
I am fully in favor of developing technology that uses all of the resources that God has provided to us, in fact farmers and ranchers have been relying on wind for years to pump water up from the depths of the ground. I do however think that as a society, we cannot rely on one source to produce the energy for this great country. There has to be a balance. Last winter the bitter arctic cold that swept across the nation caused rolling blackouts in the power grid. It is time to realize that it is going to take every kind of energy producing technology to meet our needs.
The next time that you hear some politician talk about how they have the cure for an energy crisis, just remember what happens if you drop the basket with all your eggs. That’s all for this time. I wish all of you a happy new year. May your crops flourish, your calves be healthy, and your rain gauge never be empty in 2022. God bless and keep tabs on your side of the barbed wire.
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