Go Away Drought

Well, after no rain since my beans were planted, I was guessing that we probably slipped back into “abnormally dry” on this week’s drought monitor, and I was correct.

Tuesday saw spotty heavy rains around the state.  But as they moved towards me, the fizzled out.  I could smell the rain and see lightning it was so close, but not a drop.  The next afternoon, was shaping up the same.  But then I saw a rainbow when I was walking back from pasture.

Not a drop of rain, but there was a rainbow.  It wasn’t a huge one, but it lasted for a crazy long time.

Yes, Pretzel, you are my pot of gold.

You know because of all the rain just to the east of us.

The goats were busy eating and playing and didn’t even notice it.

Eventually, just about dark, one of those pop-up cells clipped me, and I got a decent little shower.

Sky had to go check it out.

a wet deck!

There must have been more overnight because the deck was wet again in the morning.  And as I was leaving for my last day of work for the school year, it rained.

And it rained most of the day. We ended up with around an inch of rain.  The plans in my garden looks so much better, and I’m hoping this will make the seeds pop through (nothing has sprouted).  Hopefully, it will make the rest of the soybeans come up too.  I was getting a bit worried.

Out of Drought

I am pleased to report that we made it out of our drought and abnormally dry conditions.  We are back to normal moisture levels in the soil!

That’s exciting, but I don’t want to jinx it.  I am literally about ten miles from the yellow.  Last spring we spent about two weeks out of any drought conditions, and then pretty much all rain stopped.

Goats coming up because it was sprinkling

The required goat in the barn door because it’s raining photo (Ava with a bonus sparrow on the fence)

Can hardly see Pluto and Dolly

And Ms. Goose playing in the rain gauge

So let’s say I am excited to be here and optimistic that it will last.

Lots of dandelions

Maybe I’ll actually get to harvest wild grapes instead of them drying up

Lilacs after the rain Saturday morning

Of course, with rain comes lots of mowing.  I managed to mow after work on Friday, but I had to wait until it dried off Saturday to use the push mower and weed eater.

Sky in the yard after mowing and rain, but before trimming

It also means that my fence in the Back Forty is damaged again.

I mean, why on earth would the neighbor want to have waterways and do anything to protect the soil from eroding or not destroy their neighbor’s fence every time it rains?

Aphrodite with Cruella and Estella; Odie behind

How I would dearly love to find some place without neighbors.

Holy Hail

I must say, as nice as the showers were Friday evening, the quick moving storm that hit Sunday afternoon was not.  The rain had just started when the power went out.

When I was on the phone reporting the outage, it started hailing.

I mean it really hailed for quite some time.  The biggest ones were about 2 1/2 or 3 inches.

I lost two windows.  Thankfully, it’s just the storm windows.

My super industrial can’t be damaged 1970s steel siding has a lot of dents in it.  We’ll have to get the insurance people out here to see about roof damage.

Along with the windows on the north being broken and the dents in the siding, there’s all kinds of grass plastered on the north also.

Thankfully, I had my car in the garage, but the poor truck has some dents.  That just makes it a real farm truck.

There’s tree debris all over every side of the house and my deck.

from the pine trees on the north edge–they are blown all the way south into my driveway

the crab apple blossoms were blown north onto the deck and side of the house

The goats were, thankfully, in the barnyard when it hit.  They all were inside right away.

LilyAnn peeking out the door right after the storm passed.

a pile of kids (with Pretzel, Heidi, and Ostara in the bunk)

another pile of kids

After the storm, it took me a while to find Ms. Goose.  I was worried as big as that hail was, but she was on her nest in the greenhouse.

She’s under the bench in the back

Three generations hanging together–Astra, Perdita, and Moxie

Mostly I’m just grateful.  Everyone is fine.

Everyone was out playing after the storm passed. Even Bun Bun was safe!

I was a bit worried about going into the night without a light for my birds, but I dug out the camp lantern.

Luckily, I was just getting that set up when the power came back on.  But I’m really ready to be done with hail.