Bates Funny Farm

About Bates Funny Farm

After a rain on the South Plains the playa lakes fill up, meadowlarks work the fence wire, and Littlefield smells like wet caliche and cut grass all at the same time. Bates Funny Farm mows through those good stretches, when Lamb County turns briefly and improbably lush and every yard needs cutting the same week. The work is mowing, trimming along fences and foundations, edging where the grass meets concrete, and blowing the walks clean. Out here water is the whole story, and a lawn that gets tended through a wet spell holds its color long after the playas dry back down. Level, striped, edged clean under that enormous sky is a fine thing to leave behind.