This has been a strange and challenging year. We went from trying to keep calves from freezing to trying to keep them from drowning when it warmed up. The ground was still frozen so the runoff couldn't go down into the ground and we had flooding. There were places in the county where roads were washed out, our old barn flooded, and we had water over the road in places I had never seen it over in all the years I've lived here.
The spring was cold...and windy, which is not too unusual, but it was cold well into spring--to the point where I was afraid to plant anything for fear it would just freeze--and windier than normal. We had a hailstorm on May 2. That's also a bit unusual. There were also reports of frost in the county on June 23.
And then it dried up....
And again, we've had less rain than I can ever remember. We are currently in what the weather people are calling a "flash drought" that caught everyone by surprise after the extremely wet year we had last year. Thank goodness we had some submoisture or we'd have no crop at all. Some of the crops planted later didn't even come up. The pastures are brown and water holes are drying up. Thunderstorms create more fear of lightning strikes and fire than anticipation of actual rain...especially after the horrible fires to the south of us. I have spent more than one night scanning the horizon for fire when a thunderstorm rolled through bringing about 20 drops of rain and too much lightning. The USDA finally opened the CRP for emergency haying--a few weeks too late for it to have much quality--and there was a fire caused by a swather almost every day for a couple of weeks. Thankfully, M only started a small one, saw it immediately and put it out right away. He was on pins and needles every day that he sat on a swather.
That's where the gratitude comes in. There have been no major fires too close to us. My heart aches for those who have lost their ranches--their hay, pastures, fences and animals. Fire really scares me, I can't imagine how I would cope in their situation....and I hope I never have to find out.
We are in harvest mode now, and while it has not been going too smoothly so far, the crops are not as disappointing as one would think they would be with the lack of rain. There are nights I lie awake worried about financial obligations if we don't have a crop, but faith kicks in, and I know we'll be ok. I know it could be so much worse. I'm so lucky that M still has a good attitude and sees it as a learning situation for our boys. They are learning that times can be tough and how to deal with adversity. R has had to learn about range management since our pastures and stock water situations are not ideal. J has learned that he's going to have to do a lot more mechanic work than he wants to get through harvest with the equipment we have. Everyone sucks it up and does what they can with what they have.
We had 3 tenths of an inch of rain the other night, and everyone was so happy. Amazing what a few drops of rain and some cooler temps can do for everyone's spirits. Again...gratitude for what we have. I may still pray for fewer challenges, however.
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