Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Sheresa Lea of Clovis and her dog Rita stand on the part of the backyard of their home on County Road 7 Wednesday afternoon that's not covered by tumbleweeds.
CLOVIS — Over Sheresa and Chip Lea's 15 years in Clovis, it wasn't a shock to find a few tumbleweeds caught on the property after a wind storm.
Tuesday's wind storm was a slightly bigger problem.
"We have horses and donkeys and chickens and all (their pens) were covered up," said Sheresa Lea. "We had to dig them up last night."
It wasn't just the animal pens. Tumbleweeds built up around their fence lines, back porch and driveway.
The weeds pretty much filled their six-car carport, Sheresa Lea said. The weeds piled up mere feet from the telephone wire on their back yard.
"We've never had such a mess as this," Sheresa Lea said. "You could just see them building up. We just got the worst of it."
Chip Lea said their tumbleweed problem started to get worse on Christmas, with similar incidents occurring mid-January and only two weeks ago.
The cause, the Leas said, is lack of proper management on farm lands on the west side of Prince street and the lack of proper plowing.
"It's not well-monitored. It's lost wages having to come home and clean it up," Chip Lea said. "It's just ridiculous."
A friend assisting in cleanup, Barry Lewis, said land maintenance is much more pressing when living out in the country.
"If you're a farmer, you've got a responsibility to take care of the land," said Lewis. "A landowner has responsibility to be a caretaker and when you're not a caretaker, everyone suffers. Living in town, how often would you see this?"
It's not unheard of in the city, either. In 2014, a wind storm bombarded several homes with tumbleweeds, with Cannon Air Force Base personnel and private citizens helping clean up the mess.
The potential consequences of a property buried in tumbleweeds are immediately noticeable.
"One spark out here," Lewis said, "and everything they've got burns."
It won't take merely a couple of days to clean up the backyard, Chip Lea said.
"It's the price of living out in the country," Chip Lea said. "It is what it is. We clean up and go. This is weeks of cleaning up. This is the first year we've had a major problem."
Curry County Road Maintenance Supervisor Calvin Davis and City of Clovis Code Compliance Supervisor Marcus Brice said they haven't received complaints this week regarding tumbleweeds.
