There is an Outer Limits episode from 1963 called Cry of Silence. Evil tumbleweeds take over a town. I terrorized my young brother-in-law with that back in the day.

It seems to me that the work would go faster if the citizens all got together and organized themselves into tumbleweed parties.

Heck, that looks like my front yard when I lived in Tucson in the 70's. Wind was ALWAYS blowing there...

God help 'em if the kids find the matches!

Where do they dump it btw? Can it be processed into something useful?

Where do they dump it btw? Can it be processed into something useful?

Where do they dump it btw? Can it be processed into something useful?

Quite a palaver, apparently:

http://www.go2kennewick.com/go2kennewick/default.aspx?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&id=747&Itemid=812

[Apologies for the hiccough above; didn't realise I was suffering from twitchy finger! Must be the thought of suffocating in tumbleweed.]

My favorite version of the song :)

The tumbleweeds are a real nuisance down here on the border. One time late at night me and some buddies were cruising home down back roads, beer and reefer helping us along, y'see, and Jake sees a tumbleweed right there in the middle of the road. "Watch this" he sez, like he's the Starship Enterprise gonna vaporize that weed, and we hit it and lost the wheel, sliding sideways, and rolled over in the bar ditch. We figgered it out after, why the weed wasn't tumbling: someone carefully held it down with a cement block right out there on the road. Never found out who done that, maybe was the cattle getting back at us, shrug.

Human communities grow where the topology is friendly, with predictable results. Near the river, for easy navigation and shipping, and you get endless floods. Beautiful view, social aloofness and fresh, healthy air atop difficult hills brings you impassable roads in winter and buildings playing bobsled with the mudslides and earthquakes. And in the Southwest, you build in as much shade and as near water as you can find, which almost always puts you in a windchannel.

The good news is that clever, engineering minded people are constantly bringing us new weapons. From dams and tidal gates to wood chippers and scoop loaders, man can and does fight back!

I've been contemplating these here dome houses. If I'm going to build again, maybe, just maybe ...

Here's a link:

http://www.monolithic.org/

Dome houses caught my eye. If I build again down here in NM I might look closer.

Here's a link in plain text to fool the spambots:

monolithic dot org