A water hose against the wind: What the Panhandle knows about living on the margins

My best friend's father lost his home this week.

The entire house — gone in a few minutes. A spark, 40-mile-an-hour winds, drought-cured grass, and that was it. They tried to fight it with a garden hose. They escaped with the clothes on their backs. The barn survived, where their RV was parked.

I have been on the road for my Dirt Road Tour of Rural Texas, and when I called to check on them, she was out working cattle. The house was gone. Everything in it was gone. The cattle still had to be moved.