After 50 days

 

After 50 days of no rain, on October 30th, finally the clouds opened and 3 inches fell.  It took a long time for any rainwater to show up in any puddles in the yard and pasture, but finally you could actually see water standing.  It didn't take long, though, and the ground soaked it all in.  

We had a drought last year, but it was during July - August and it was a lot hotter than it was during September - October of this year, so the effects of the dry spell didn't seem as pronounced this year.  The grass in the yard died in some spots, but that was about the extent of it.  We kept the garden alive by irrigating every single day.  Rainwater is SO much better than tap water, but if we didn't water, most of the garden would have died.  Our water bill over the last 50 days was double the cost of our normal bill, but that's okay, we'll enjoy fresh vegetables and that makes it all worth it.

I began walking around the house to check on the rain barrels that we have positioned along the drip lines in the back.  They were all filling up with water.  With a two inch rain, we maximize our rain-holding capacity at 700 gallons of water.  As I was checking out all the buckets and barrels, I made a grim discovery.  On the southwest corner of the house, we have a rain barrel that holds 70 gallons of water.  That's what we call the bee barrel, because the bees go there to drink water and bring it back to the hive.  As a result, we never pull water from that one for irrigation.  In fact, we don't go near it because there's so much activity around it from the honeybees.  As I got close to it, I saw a dead, bloated squirrel floating in the barrel.  I figured that during the drought, there wasn't much drinking water around.  The squirrel must have tried to get a drink and fell in the bee barrel and couldn't get out and drowned.  Rest in peace, Peanut, Jr.

We're hoping that since the temperatures are still in the 80's, that this rain will give a little boost to the grass in the pasture and give the animals some new, tender growth to eat on.  I walked out to the garden and was amazed!  The rain seemed to make the plants jump out of the ground overnight.  I could visibly see a difference in the growth.

It also softened the ground in the sweet potato patch which will make the ground conducive for the sweet potato harvest.  I'll be showing some updates of that annual process a little later this week.  I think we have a little more rain coming in the forecast.  That's a good thing.  We can further fill the water troughs for the cows and goats that are under the drip line of the barn.  If we fill those, that will hold us with rainwater for the winter.  

Thank you, Lord, for the refreshing rain!