One Day Closer to Rain

Well, it’s gotten dry again. Real dry! The grass is getting brown and crunchy, the sheep paths dry and dusty. The dazzlingly beautiful days are a product of the low humidity and dry atmosphere. Other days are stiflingly hot and humid. We are headed for the Dog Days of summer.

All the neighbors have finished haying, so I asked one of them if it was okay if we start praying for rain. He chuckled at me and said “oh, yes ma’am…we NEED rain!”

Lately, all the rain has missed us. We're that little white arrow...right outside the rain area on the radar picture.
We’ve seen the storms go all around us. Sitting on our hill, we can watch the weather ride up the ridge of the Appalachians, and see when there are storms toward the Blue Ridge. A lot of times, our particular location misses out on the rain because of the proximity to the mountains. Other times, we are just a little too far away from the mountains to benefit from the moisture. It takes a storm with a certain amount of energy to make it over the hills from West VA or up the Valley from the south.

Last week, I was certain we were gonna get “the big one”. The clouds built to enormous heights. When I was talking to an egg customer at the gate, I could hear the distant rumble of thunder. Jed was convinced we were going to get hammered. He followed me everywhere. (When his “super-dog hearing” senses thunder somewhere in the continental US, he begins to worry and becomes a 100-lb Siamese twin to any human walking about the place) He cried loudly when I walked down to the hoophouse alone. He whined around the front porch until I finally allowed him to come up and sit with me. I thought I would watch the storm roll in, and possibly take some pictures. The front porch is a good storm watching spot, as it is sheltered but exposed at the same time.
We waited; we watched…the storm fell apart as it came over the mountains…only to reform elsewhere, bringing some other community the much needed rain. It was so disappointing! While I was discouraged, Jed was much relieved that the fearsome thunder was gone.

So, we wait…we try not to worry. We know we desperately need the rain, but are helpless to do anything to bring it to our crops and fields. But, every day that passes brings us one day closer to rain...one day closer to the much needed moisture. All we can do is keep the faith! It will rain again.


“Faith is the substance of things not seen, the evidence of things not seen.”