It’s Friday, it’s July 6 and we finally have some moisture on the ground. An inch to be exact. And we are so very, very thankful for it.
Our crops were starting to suffer, but this is a good start. It’ll buy us time and hopefully we’ll have more moisture soon.
This is the part of farming that I don’t enjoy. This is the part of farming that keeps men and women up at nights and makes them wonder if it’s worth it. Imagine building a $250,000 house and watching someone pour gasoline throughout, then play with a match around it. Yes, you have house insurance, but it doesn’t take into account the blood, sweat and tears that it took to get it to that point. Imagine.
Yet, we do it every year, time after time, knowing that Mother Nature can turn her back on you at any given moment. Why? Good question. Some say if we don’t like it, we can just get a job in town somewhere. But once you’re a farmer, it’s in your blood and it’s hard to stay away. Feeling the dirt beneath your feet, watching the sun rise and set each day, being able to breathe clean, fresh air from your office…well, that’s not easy to find.
So we head back out, watching the skies, paying attention to nature’s queues, waiting for the moisture that we need, the sun that we need, the right mixture of heat/wind/etc. If that’s not faith at it’s finest, I don’t know what is.
Today we celebrate a small victory. And I celebrate not having to water our garden…and I give thanks.
With as dry as our yard is, these puddles won’t last long!
These cukes are enjoying the rain, and a reprieve from being watered!
The wind combined with the rain made the sweet corn in the garden lay down, but it should stand back up with the sun now shining!
Wag'n Tales 
So glad for you! We are still waiting…
I’ll be praying that you get some much-needed relief as well! 🙂
That’s good news! We got over an inch last night too. It was SO needed.
Yes, a true blessing!
Glad to hear you are getting a needed rain. Here in south-central Wisconsin we are bone dry and our corn is starting to tassel…some are starting to chop for silage to salvage what they can. The rest of our corn is truly burning up. Our last rain left spots on the dust on our mailbox to show its only presence. We are combing wheat today…that is going well, but earlier in the week our neighbors started their straw field on fire from a spark from the merger hitting a rock. Our fair president lost a building with 350 bales of hay, the tractor, baler and planter inside. When the baler started on fire again the next morning, it was because there was still hay in the baler…do you salt your hay in ND? I know we did as a kid, but not many seem to do that anymore…still there are fires when the hay just isn’t dry enough. What is worse, is the lawn and areas aroung the barn are also so dry, if you pull out any equipment from the fire, it could start the rest of the place on fire. Yes, we too have crop insurance, but it is dry throughout to Tennessee…worried that everyone will put a claim in. Still in northern WI, they were sandbagging because the faucet in the sky just wouldn’t turn off. Val, you must just be praying a little harder than we are for that faucet to be turned on. Wishing you all well!
Not sure if we’re praying harder, but I’m certainly glad that these prayers were answered! I’ll work double-time on praying for relief for all those in such terrible drought conditions. It’s a risk we take, but it doesn’t make it an easy one. It’s amazing what we make it through, and then come through it stronger the next season. Perhaps our light rain and cooler temps will make it your way for some relief this weekend? I certainly hope so!
Thanks…I can’t remember hitting over 100 degrees here since I was a kid, but we’ve had such high temp for over a week…we’re snowbunnies, remember! We start our fair on Thursday, and another local fair was this week…rough one for them and the animals!’
Glad you at least got SOME rain. The soybeans here are still green, but small, and the corn in the garden looks terrible. But on the plus side, the temps are at least in the 80s this week instead of the upper 90s like last week.