Rain, Rain, Come to Stay

It’s been probably two months since it rained here. The fields are dry and brown and the ponds have dried up – or will soon. Yesterday, we found out the neighbors have been feeding hay already. They have a lot more livestock than we do and their animals are starving on forage. I honestly haven’t paid much attention to the state of our fields, except to note that David bush-hogged the pasture the sheep are in when nothing is growing. The cows come into the barn with an algae line about halfway up their sides, so I know the pond is okay, and I just assumed they were still grazing. But last night, I checked.

I walked out into the pasture to evaluate the amount of grass left. Most of it is brown and dormant, but there were two green and growing spots down in the hollows. It’s mostly grass, with one area being weedier than the other, but it looks like we’ve got a couple more weeks of forage out there. We only have two cows out on (I’m guessing) five acres. Still, as I walked back up to the barn to finish up my milking chores, I prayed my daily prayer for rain. I closed the back gate to the barn to keep the cows out, gathered up my milk pails, and walked back to the house, praying some more under the clear, blue, sweltering sky.

Hours later, I was awakened by a kaboom! Thunderstorm! I jumped out of bed, pulled on some shorts, and dashed out the door to open the gate so the cows could get under cover. I have dashed out into many a storm for the benefit of my animals, but the lightening was coming too close and too fast and I did not feel comfortable covering the distance between house and barn and then laying hands on a metal gate. So I waited. In the brilliant flashes of light, I could see my cows waiting it out alongside the fence near the trees. It was forty five minutes before the lightening slowed enough that I felt it was reasonably safe to make the journey. I felt badly for making my poor girls stand out in that weather, but it was wonderful to finally have weather to stand out in.

When I finally climbed back into bed, I laughed, and I prayed again, “Thank you, Lord, for the rain, but I’m going to complain now. I always complain. We could have done with a little less lightening.”

We’ll take the lightening, though, if that’s what it takes to get the rain, so keep it coming. I’ll try to remember to leave the barn open at night from now on.