Friday, May 27, 2011

The Rhythm of the Rain

A year ago (almost to the day), I was blogging "Enough Rain Already". This year we have had plenty of rain for sure, but it has had a different rhythm. We had 2 weeks with maybe one day that it did not rain, then a couple of dry days, and now rain again but there aren't rivers in the barn and I don't sink 3 inches in muck in the barnyard.

Each day it seems to rain at a different time. Some nights we are awakened by the sound of rain and wind and then it dries in the morning. Some days it is overcast all day and then we have a late afternoon rain. Some mornings it rains out of the blue and when I start replaning the day the rain stops and the skies clear.

We haven't had to think about watering the gardens. It seems to dry out a bit when I need to work in the soil. Yes, it seems there is a rhythm to the rain. I think I shall suggest to James that he write an ode to the rhythm of this spring's rain. It would be a nice compliment to the piece he wrote about the Hawk.

I do have to mention that another reason all the rain has not bothered me so much is that the new improvements to the barnyard have helped greatly; the drainage system Adam and I put in and the wood chips I put down in front of the barn where there used to be animal bedding raked from the barn that turned to muck. I think I should get some more Boxerwood wood chips. That reminds me that yet another reason that the rain is fine with me is that every day this spring when I have worked at Boxerwood or done a river trip the rain has held off until the last 15 minutes of the session or rained very briefly or rained in the early morning and then stopped.

The local farmers finally got a 2 day window to get the hay up even if they had to work at night (yes, tractors have headlights).

I know this rhythm has not been shared by many other areas of the country. I don't remember ever having so many areas of flooding in one year-- the Midwest, the Mississippi delta, and I heard today that Lake Champlain is 2 and a half feet above flood level and Montpelier and Barre VT have rivers running through them.

Hopefully, other areas will soon start to get a rhythm to their rain.

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