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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Rainfall warning? Rainfall WARNING???

Rain.

It's one of those things that we can't live without.  Or live with.

In the spring it rained so much we were damn near floating away.  I couldn't work; I could barely get to the barn without my boots getting sucked right off my feet in the mud.  Our neighbours and friends couldn't get into the fields to plant, and those who did worried that all the seed would wash away.  The cellar of the old farmhouse here had rivers going through it, and this house is on the highest part of the property.  My father muttered, "I've been living here for 67 years and I don't think I've ever seen it this wet."

In June, the rain finally stopped.

It stopped for over 6 weeks.

The fields were full of stunted corn that started late in soggy soil, only to get pummelled with heat and dryness.

Nature gives and takes away.  She don't care.

The crops ended up being okay... but the price of hay has gone up.  If a farmer could normally get four cuttings off a hay field, he'd get three, if he was lucky, this past summer.  Hay is scarce and expensive.

And today.  RAINFALL WARNING.  All the little cricks around here are full and still rising, there is standing water in every low field, and my corral is slop.  It rained so hard on Sunday, the water actually got in under the big barn door and trickled down until I ended up with a tiny river running down the aisle in front of the stalls.  And now we have a rainfall warning.

I get all catastrophic about things, so in my mind, my horses are already half dead from starvation, the house is half underwater, the old stone walls of the barn have been pried apart by torrents of water rushing against the foundation and the whole damn thing is falling down.  Also, in my worst case scenario the dog will never go outside to defecate ever again because he's convinced he will melt.

In reality, the horses are in the open shed... one is wearing a rain sheet to keep her dry when the other two chase her out.  I have a bright yellow rain suit and waterproof boots.  I have a couple wheelbarrow loads to push across that wet corral this afternoon, and I have to just do it, because it ain't getting any drier.

Well, at least, not until the temperature drops to where it usually is this time of year... and it starts to freeze over and snow....


(And despite all of this, I still want to live in the country for the rest of my life.)

3 comments:

Heidi Willis said...

This is all so true. It seems whenever we are having flooding, my friends are having droughts. Seems like God could even things out a bit, eh?

In Texas, we'd have long droughts, and then when it would rain, everything would flood because the ground was too hard to soak up the rain, and things would still die, and the after the rain we'd be no better off. I think Texas is cursed.

Love your country life.. it's not better in the city. Just different!

Anonymous said...

You just described my life Heidi! That rain was crazy!!! My paddocks turned into small lakes and the mud is almost up to the tops of my boots. I have two large paddocks and one smaller one with shelter and they all open up to one large one. My three keepers were in with the shelter. The mare I'm selling had to be by herself cause she beats the other three peace loving ones up. So she had to stand out in the rain by herself...in a lake...and gale force winds. To compensate I put a whole bale of hay in there with her which kept her busy and warm digesting all that roughage. Still - after living in Arizona for 15 years, give me dry conditions anytime!!!

mugwump said...

We have bitter cold today. Snow to the West and North, but nothing but dry, wortless white dust here.
If it's too cold to ride we should at least get some moisture!