Rain

It’s interesting how my viewpoint of rain has changed over the years. I guess it is the difference in city living and country living. For most of my life, I lived in the city. My only thoughts of rain were about staying dry, delaying my flight, or whether it was going to rain “on my parade”—mess up my planned weekend activities. The weather man always agreed with me, forecasting sun for a good weekend. But things changed when I moved to the country. Now I have a different perspective on rain. So many ranch things are dependent on it! Fertilizing the pastures must be followed by rain. Hard fast rains fill up the ponds (ranchers call them cattle tanks). Slow rains sink in and make the pasture grass grow. Rain at the right time makes a good pecan crop, or plump wild grapes. Rain at the wrong time can ruin a cutting of hay before it is baled, or make the pasture too wet to navigate. The rain always affects our garden crop each year—both the vegetables and the weeds! Those are just some of the things that rain influences. So that’s why country folks are always talking about the weather. Right now, we’re in a drought in Texas. It’s hard to watch vegetation change from green to brown. So many areas and animals are hurt by it. But as one of my rancher friends says about rain, “We’re one day closer.”