Between having to boil drinking water since Friday night (a city water main broke) and some unexpected news from Harding County, South Dakota, prairie thoughts dominated the weekend.
The water business increased my admiration for Ma Ingalls and every other prairie woman ten-fold. I thought about them every time I ran a potful of water and heated it on my clean, electric stove. Those prairie gals hauled and heated water constantly. Water for washing, cleaning, bathing, cooking. Every drop of it hauled in cold, then heated on a wood stove. Throw babies in cloth diapers, without rubber or plastic pants, and I get tired just thinking about their workloads.
So prairie folks were on my mind before the news came that Sky Ranch for Boys, where Hiram and I worked after college, is closing. The ranch, a residential facility for troubled boys, is at least in part, a victim of economic times. Their website announcement says:
We are deeply saddened to report that our program will cease providing residential treatment and educational services for troubled teens in the first part of 2011. This painful decision was a result of the trend away from the kind of residential treatment program Sky Ranch offers in favor of less expensive, community based alternatives for kids in trouble and at risk. The Ranch is currently caring for less than 20 boys (down from 40 a few years ago) and that number is expected to decline sharply in the weeks ahead as states implement new budget policies. Although exacerbated by the recession, this does not appear to be a short term trend.
After reading the announcement, I kept thinking about the boys who will need residential treatment in future, but won’t have it available. And I kept thinking about all our friends in Harding County who will be affected by the closing: teachers, counselors, caseworkers, cooks, and so many more. Will they be able to find jobs in the vast, sparsely populated, short grass prairie they love? Will they have to sell their ranches and move away? Will the tiny, struggling towns die? These prairie thoughts, disturbing and unwelcome, put a weekend spent boiling water in proper perspective.
I am ashamed of my complaining.
I am grateful for a secure livelihood.
I am praying for my Harding County friends.
