Being at the Right Place at the Right Time

This afternoon we got 3/10's of an inch of rain.  Yesterday we got 8/10's of an inch of rain.  We have been in drought conditions at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  Our pasture definitely needed the rain.  We only had 2 inches in July and only 3 inches in June and only a half an inch so far in August, so the rain in the last two days has been a blessing!  Later in the post I'll show you some cool pictures.  I think they are anyway.

The rains gave me an opportunity to test a new toy out as the ground is now soft enough to stick the probe of my voltage meter in the ground for testing the electric fence.  I bought it for ten bucks and wanted to see if it worked, but it has been so dry that the ground has been harder than the surface of a pool table and I would not be able to get the grounding probe into the ground - until today.

Here you can see the probe stuck in the ground at about the 3 o'clock position in the photo below.

The Grounding Probe

And here is the indicator on the electric fence voltage tester.  It hangs from the 'hot wire' and a wire runs from the bottom to a grounding probe.  It has five lights on it.  The lights will light up based on the strength of the charge.  It clues you in to where you might have problems where something is grounded out or if your charger is pushing voltage through the wire.  If all 5 lights light up, you have a strong charge.  Guess what? The charger lit up all 5 lights in every section I checked.  Awesome news.  The little solar charger is keeping the fence 'hot' and the animals stay in the paddock that I want them to be in.

Prior to having this, I would pick up a blade of grass, lick it to get it wet, and lay it on the wire.  If I felt a tingle, I knew the fence was hot.  I guess you could call that a Redneck Voltage meter.  It was free.  Now I'm all fancy and up-town with my $10 tester.  

No more lickin' grass...

So as I was walking around testing the fence, I looked up to take in the scenery and lo and behold:

Wow!

Isn't that cool?  It couldn't have been more perfect timing.

Rainbow over the barn

Rainbows are so cool.  The rainbow represents a promise (Genesis 9) between God and Noah that He would never again destroy the world by flooding.  I think they are beautiful, especially over the farm and home place.  I went to the western edge of our property and watched as the shadows lengthened in the late afternoon and the rainbow spanned over our land.  Beautiful!

"Ain't that purty?"

In fact, it made me so happy, I wrote a song.  Here goes (with apologies to Judy Garland):

Somewhere under the rainbow, way down low
Jeff Davis Parish is where we live and it's northwest of Thibodaux.
Somewhere under the rainbow, a red barn lies
You've got to watch where you walk,
Or you'll step in a big cow pie.

Someday I'll wish upon a cow
And wake up where the flies are now behind me.
Where troubles melt in the summer heat,
In the grass, not on the street,
That's where you'll find me.

Somewhere under the rainbow, our cows moo
Our chickens run free in the pasture
Fertilizing the grass with poo!

Crazy?  Yeah, probably.

Stunning!

Unfortunately, I didn't find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but I'm not complaining.  I'm blessed.