Episode 23: Lee Wells | Tragedy in West Texas and How You Can Help

Lee Wells talks about the ongoing wildfires in West Texas, highlighting the damage caused to the food supply and the distressing impact on ranchers and their livestock. He emphasizes the urgent need for donations and corporate sponsorship to provide essential feed and support for the affected animals, describing the efforts he has undertaken to raise funds and coordinate relief efforts. Wells appeals to his audience to come forward and help those in need, underscoring the severity of the situation and the crucial role of external support in aiding the affected communities in the region.

Transcript

  Welcome to the ranch and table podcast,  where we discuss all things related to our Texas ranch and  our ranch to table restaurant located in downtown Rockwall.  I'm your host, Lee Wells.  Hello and welcome to another episode of the ranch and table. I'm Lee Wells, and thank you for joining me.  I want to start out by saying today's episode is early and it's early on purpose.

I have another episode already shot, ready to go. We're going to postpone that until next week. And here's why I want to talk to you about. The fires in West Texas and the panhandle and in Western Oklahoma, I want to talk to you about the devastation and what you can do to be a part of it, be a part of the help.

It's a big deal. I was talking to someone earlier today and they had been busy and did not know. What was going on and it dawned on me. I have a platform and I have I have an ability to get out and communicate. And so I need to do that. So I'm rearranging a few things to be able to do this.

Now, as you might can tell, I may look tired. I may look great on this camera. I don't know, but I'm about 75 hours into a little bit of sleep and a lot of phone, a lot of text, email phone calls, just coordination. And let me just start out by saying Of course, I need to mention my sponsors because they're good to me.

And so let me pause for a second and let me talk about Sterling Tea, if you don't mind. And I'm going to get right into what I'm going to talk about. But Sterling Tea is an amazing company. They're doing amazing things with tea. Over 200 flavors, hundreds of restaurants and businesses use them.

They are the very best. And if you're listening to me, you can take advantage of Wells 20, which is a discount code to take 20 percent off your entire order. And Brenda and the whole team out there are just great people. And go to the website, sterlingtea. com,  order some tea. You'll love it. I promise you, you'll love it.

We do the peach mango at our restaurant and it's actually won awards for best tea in town. It's really good stuff and I appreciate those guys.  Don't want to, I don't want to just not say anything about them. They're wonderful people, but I am very driven right now, very disturbed by what we're seeing in West Texas as of today, which right now it is Monday night, about midnight, almost Tuesday morning.

And I'm recording this so that my.  Firm can get this post produced and out to you as quickly as can. Tuesday you'll hear it. And it takes a little time for us to be able to get all this process together. And especially today, cause I'm going to show you some pictures. I'm going to show you some things that are going on to help you understand what's going on out there in West Texas and Western Oklahoma.

1. 1 million acres burned to this point. That's unbelievable. That's hard to wrap your head around and 1. 1 million acres in just a matter of. About a week or so, just not very long. The winds have been sustained at 50 miles an hour. Even though they've died down some, they're still going 30 miles an hour.

It's an amazing phenomenon that's happening right now. And they're not able to get it contained as of tonight. It's about 15 percent contained is all they're saying that they're able to contain it at this point. It's broken up into five different fires across  the area, the landmass, and it is each one of those have teams working on it.

One of them, they said, is about 50 percent contained. The rest are really not. Contained right now because the winds are so sustained, the winds are so hard that it, even if they get it to stop a jump, a skip an ember will ignite again out ahead of it. And I really don't want to get into all the causes and all the things that may have caused it.

That's not my point. That's not my reason for this. This discussion,  my reason for being concerned is number one, it's going to affect our food supply and the thousands of beef cattle that have been killed by the fire and the smoke has been it's just horrible. And to think that's going to have an effect on us is a very real. 

It's a reality. It's going to happen. West Texas is where a lot of beef goes. A lot of beef across the United States and across Texas comes out of that area that's literally on fire right now. I made a Facebook post. You can go Look at that. You can go watch that. It's about 12 minutes long and that was Sunday night late that I shot that with my phone just right in my face and I talked about the struggles the hardships of these ranchers and I get it I just want to tell you a few years ago.

My operation was a lot smaller than it is now We've grown a lot in the last few years, but at one point I had most of my cattle in one spot out in poetry. And in some of this, that may be in this area, you remember the grass fire that happened out in poetry several years ago, that grass fire came from someone that was burning trash burning trash and.

Whatever on the back of their property and got out of control and got into in a wildfire fashion grass fire, and it wiped out my entire lease. Every blade of grass I had was gone. And not only that, but the fire trucks came in and cut the fence about six times. Both sides of my lease, getting to and from where they needed to go to put the fire out.

And long story, it keeps going it was a bad deal. The guy only got a hundred dollar ticket for causing the fire, but it cost me thousands of dollars. It cost me a lot of heartache. I didn't have anywhere else to go with those animals. And so it caused a lot of trouble on me. And I had to really work hard to come out of that hole and to find a place and to scramble.

And these guys are on such a bigger level. I'm not trying to compare myself to them. I'm just saying I understand when every blade of grass is gone, every bit of hay is gone. Your fences are cut. The wood post are burned out the devastation that happens. And then of course the animals that are, that, that die along the way, because of smoke inhalation, mostly get some do burn some are just singed and they're able to run.

But the smoke is what usually takes them out because there's no oxygen in that smoke. And then that smoke settles in. And even if they try to get away from it, there's not any oxygen there. And so it's a horrible, it's a horrible thing.  And I want people to know what's going on. I have listeners all over all over Texas.

I have some in. In the panhandle area, some in West Texas come on and comment for me and let people know how it's going because it is it's a bad deal.  Here's what I would like to share with you today is I have been working For three days straight  with some sleep, but three days straight to raise money to be able to put  grain and  pellets feed  in to the areas that need it the most. 

So if you have, there's hay that's being transported, they said Friday night, late Friday night. The late, the latest number that I saw was a half a million bales of hay, round bales of hay were on site. And that is, that's amazing. That's,  that is so cool. From almost every state, every contiguous state in the United States, the lower 48 had at least from from Tennessee over West, and then of course, Nebraska, everywhere.

Surrounding that could get trucks to them. Louisiana, there's guys that are hauling, Hey, I'm all over getting supplies to people. And it's not just, Hey, there's also medical supplies, vet supplies, water for the firemen. There's a whole lot of things that are going on, but there's not a lot of grain.

And I'll tell you why. There's not a lot of grain because my allergies are kicked up. We had, there's pollen all over the trucks outside. I've been outside working cattle, moving cattle today, picking up supplies that have been in and out. It's late at night, so I'm sorry. I've apologizing right now for my voice and for my sniffles. 

I apologize. I'm not going to stop. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to get this done. So I can go to bed. But what's happening is there's a lot of hay going out to the area, which is a beautiful thing, but there's not a lot of grain. And I'll tell you why. Grain's expensive. Your feed stores do not have very much markup room on grain.

There's not a lot of profit that's made on grain. And so literally they're moving that grain through for the best  bulk and wholesale and how much  volume they can produce and sell.  It's not going to be a lot of money per bag and certainly not a lot of money per pound. And so there's not a lot of room to donate.

Because it costs so much.  And there are people that are donating there. There are, but what I'm finding is it's very hard for them to donate very much. Because it costs them literally that much money to just push out the door and give away. And what I did is I contacted a man that I know who manages the general manager for Northeast Texas Co op.

And I met him a couple years ago, friend, I do a lot of business with the Co op. And I called him the other day and I said, Hey, man. What are we going to do? What can we do? And he said, Lee, all I can offer now they're sending some trucks of grain, they're donating, they're hauling it, they're great people.

He said, what I can do for you and anybody that you can work with is I will give you this certain bulk feed. It's a 14% pellet  safe for horses cattle goats. And so pretty much any livestock can have it.  He said, I will sell it to you at my cost and I'll sell you as many truckloads as you can get.

Sold or donated for donations for, he said, I will produce that. I'll make it for you. We'll load it on your trucks and I won't make a dime.  And man, I don't know that we  realize what all. goes into making all of this happen. We see all the trucks taking off and going with 30 bales, 40 bales at a time, somebody gave that hay away for free.

And then somebody's using their equipment and time for free. And a lot of times those trucking companies right now are not charging for fuel. I don't know. I don't know if you realize this or not, but it for about a 400 mile trip, which is what it is from the Dallas area out to the Canadian, the panhandle area, it's 350 to 400 miles, depending on where you're going, where you're coming from  and on a big truck  on a big truck that can be anywhere from 700.

Depending on the fuel economy and how heavy and what the wind is doing, 700 to 1, 000 to get it out there back. Just the fuel.  I don't know if those trucking companies are paying their guys. If their guys are taking off and volunteering their time, probably not. It's costing people a lot of money. I'll send a load of hay that I sell.

I sell that load and deliver it locally for 1400. 1, 400, I think is what I'm doing right now for a local delivery. And the number of good is good. Hey, it's what my horses eat. And I'm going to send a load. I'm going to send a load is for free. I'm not going to charge anybody. There's nobody to charge.

I'm going to load it up. I'm going to put it on a truck. And I'm going to pay for it to get all the way to West Texas so it can get unloaded and handed to somebody at no cost.  I don't know that we can ever put our mind around how much money is being donated, how much time is being donated, how much love  is  being put out  towards the people who are in such a loss.

And And I don't want to get sappy and I don't want to get, I don't want to cry. I was very emotional the other night. I'm trying not to be emotional. I'm trying to be very pragmatic, very business. Because I'm coming to you that are listening, my friends that are on this podcast with me those who would hear it maybe for the first time.

I'm coming at you and I'm going to ask you for some money. And I don't ever do that. I'm a pastor and I don't do that. I don't ask my church for money. I did Sunday. I asked the church Sunday for money. I said, I don't ever ask you for anything, but I'm asking you for my ranching buddies, my friends who are in trouble.

I will ask for somebody else. I won't ask for anything for myself, but I will ask for someone else. And that's the real reason I'm on this podcast with you tonight early. Push my other podcast  with an elected official out for a week, because I'm going to ask you for some help  because I've, I'm going to donate all my time.

I'm going to donate. What I can send myself probably several loads of hay probably several thousand dollars worth. I don't mind doing it. I'm just so thankful that  I'm not in their position. I'm blessed to be where I'm at and I am very happy to help,  but here's what we're up against.

A load of this feed, which is what they need right now. It's what the animals need,  but this load of feed is like 6, 500 to 7, 000 a load, and that's at cost. That's and that's what donated trucking. So what you don't realize is probably is even if I come up with 6, 500.  If I don't find someone that can haul for free,  I'll end up paying for the shipping to get there.

And I don't mind doing it.  But I need some help because we need to get this grain, we need to get this grain product, this pellet  out there to those people who need it. And here's why. These animals have been through it. These animals have they've been they've, the ones that have survived have still been traumatized. 

They're still in shock. They've run for their lives  and somehow they've lived, but they've been damaged by the smoke. There's no doubt. Every animal that's out there in that area has lung damage right now.  Nasal burns when pipe. All that's in damage mode right now. I'm going to put up some pictures for you to see what the landscape looks like and what some of these, what some of these animals look like I want to show you a picture of a calf that survived its mother, didn't. 

They're bottle feeding this calf and you see the hair is singed off of his face. You see the blisters on his nose from how hot the smoke was and how it burned and destroyed his face and his nose. And he's a survivor. You can tell by looking, he's going to make it. But these animals need nutrition and the hay is good.

We need it. It's got to go, it's got to be there, but then they also need nutrition to help them repair their bodies. The number one thing that's going to  bring back the health of these animals that have survived is  good nutrition. Time and good nutrition is the only thing that's really going to heal them.

And so  I'm, I feel led to lead the charge to send as many truckloads. As we can possibly get money for to send out there  And I have at this point tonight. I have two loads paid for so Over the last couple of days this weekend good wonderful people have donated I don't even know the number of people.

I can't keep up with the number of people I will go back and count later. But right now we're sitting at right at two truck loads worth about just over 12, 000 that has come in over the last couple of days. And I would like to see another remember 6, 500 to 7, 000 per load, depending on how much we can fit on the size trailer that we're hauling.

And so I need some corporate sponsors. I need somebody with some money. I need some businesses that will. write a three or four or 5, 000 check. And I have a 501 C three it's tax deductible. You can, it's all legitimate. There's no issues. There's nothing to worry about on that side of it. And you'll have your tax write off certificate, your your letter, your documentation, but we need, I love that people have given 20 and 25 and a hundred dollars and over and over 10, I got a donation for 10 and I love that, that they're getting involved and they're doing something,  but it takes a long time.

It takes a lot of those. To get where we need to go. I really need, I need somebody that's got a thriving company to say, you know what, Lee I'll step up with you and I'll give 5, 000 or I'll give let me give 6, 500 and get one of those loads paid for, and then what I will do is I will get the transportation lined up and I will get it out of here and get it to the people that need it right now.

I have a place for it to go. Just right outside the fires. It's a ag extension office. They have covered parking or covered storage to be able to keep all the if it does rain, keep the rain and moisture off of it so that it doesn't get damaged once we get it out there. But what's happening is as soon as this, these are supplies, as soon as these supplies get there and are available.

To these ranchers, they're going straight to the ranches because they don't have enough of this kind of feed, these kinds of resources  to be able to feed their cattle and to get them well and healthy again. And I'm really thankful. So thankful for everybody that's given, I really appreciate you.

God sees it. You'll be blessed. That's no question. We know that but I need some help to get I would like to send I'd like to send for a two trucks a week.  I have two trucks leaving out this week with 20 to 22 tons of feed on it at cost and then I'd like to have two more trucks next week  I'd like to have two more trucks after that as long I want the co op to say stop We can't do anymore at cost because of the donations and the generosity of wonderful people who Are probably sitting at home or sitting in your car and you're not going through this trial.

You're not going through this struggle like these people are. I talked about it  on my video last night. Grown men having nervous breakdowns because they don't know how they're going to get through this. Men having heart attacks because they, they're so stressed about their loss and about what they're going, how they're going to get through it. 

Their real hope, the only hope they have right now is on the shoulders of people like you and me. That's the truth. That's not a sales line. I'm not trying to sell you something. Not trying to, I'm trying, I'm not trying to make anything at all myself. That won't happen. I'm just trying to be honest and be real and let you know that there are people  and maybe somehow  I can communicate this to you.

Maybe you don't get it. Maybe you don't understand it.  Take a guy's word for it that you're hearing right now.  These people need us. They really do. They need our help right now. They need us to step up.  They need us to come off our wallets. They they need us to give right now. And it's a very worthy cause.

It's saving lives of animals that we really need to save right now. And I appreciate your time. I appreciate you, you're listening. I appreciate you being a part of this this broadcast. And I just want to thank you for your time today. for. Thank you for making it all the way to the end here with me.

I really  don't have a real deep thing to say to you today. Other than there's some neighbors that are  perhaps a little farther away than you've ever met. There's some friends that you haven't, you don't know their names. There's some folks that are in need. Your neighbors are in need. And and I just want to encourage you to do your best.

I'm going to put on the screen. Some ways for you to help and for you to be able to give and I just encourage you to do your very best. And if I'm somber, I apologize. If I'm not jovial tonight I apologize. I'm, I just have a. Real desire to see some good things happen to some good people out west.

That's had a really rough couple of weeks. So have a great day. I hope your life is great. I hope that your life is on track and I hope that you can help somebody else from that great vantage point that you're at right now of things going well for you. Have a great day. I'm signing off. Lee Wells.