Rain, rain don't go away...

Ok, ya'll know I never ever curse the rain.  EVER.  I know it can be depressing... I know it can totally put a cramp in your style when you have outdoor plans.  I KNOW.  But I don't care....The corn that B-rad spent 4,342 hours planting NEEDS RAIN.  The beans that Brady spent 4,342 hours planting NEEDS RAIN.  No rain, no corn, no money.  Boo on that.  

Last Wednesday (oh look, I'm a week behind - AGAIN!) night I had plans to help Shauna clean out her closet. Wednesday was the day last week that it rained like a freakin' monsoon.  Before I left work, it had gotten so dark that the street lights came on.  It poured & lightning & thundered.  I even got an 'emergency alert' on my phone about flooding.  Eh, they ALWAYS make mountains out of mole hills when it comes to the weather so I didn't think much else about it.  I hopped in my car & headed to Shauna's.

There was a lot of water standing in places it usually doesn't but still, I drove on.  I stopped at Highlander Point & the road was flooded.  Like flooded so much you couldn't see it but still, I drove on... I got to Shauna's, the sun came out, we ate dinner & cleaned the closet. 

 Later in the evening it got pretty dark & the thunder started again.  Then I got this pic from B-rad...

Please note that we do NOT typically have a small creek running through our backyard.

Insert here a 30 minute text argument between him & I about how I was NOT coming home.  The back roads are not straight & flat so water standing is a real concern.  Plus I HAD to get  have a teeny tiny car that sits pretty low to the ground.  I thought he was joking...yea, he wasn't.  At one point he told me, 'Do not even F***ING attempt it.'  Uhm, ok he was serious.  So the planner in me started to have anxiety:  'How will I store my contacts for the night?; (I can't sleep in mine)  'How in the HELL will I see if I can take them out?'  'How will I get to work tomorrow if I can't go home?'  'I can't go to work in the SAME clothes I wore today & will apparently have to sleep in!'    Of course, it was no problem with Shauna if I crashed at her house, but 'planning' a sleepover is much different than having it dropped into our laps.  

B-rad decided to go out & drive the roads (he has a pick up truck) to see if any of the routes would be safe for me to use & around 9:15 he gave me the all clear to come home.  He told me about a few trouble spots where driveways were washed into the road & I was on my way.

Our driveway was not immune to the washing away.  We have huge ruts now where the gravel is gone. (And guess whose teeny tiny car scrapes when she drives over them if she's not careful?)

The only difference in our driveway is that is washes into our yard...not the road.  Happy day.

We got over 5" of rain in maybe 2 hours.  You guys are always asking me questions about the farm & I do love to hear myself type,but if you really stop to think about it - you can figure out why rain really is important. 

When it rains, obviously it provides water... & who DOESN'T need water?  Animals need it to drink, WE need it to drink & plants & grass need it to live.  Think back to the last couple of summers that have been super dry- ponds dried up & in some cases they were urging people not to fill up pools or water their gardens because water supplies get really low.  On the flip side, too much of a good thing is also bad!  Getting that much rain that quickly is not ideal.  The ground can't absorb it so it 'stands' in places it normally doesn't.  When the water is standing over the corn or beans & floods it-one of two things can happen... #1-it stays flooded & kills the plant.  #2-when the water recedes & the leaves are covered with mud it will kill the plant.  The mud doesn't allow photosynthesis to take place (how ya like that word, Alicia?!)  B-rad explained that with mud on the leaves, it's like the plant is in shade all.the.time.  (And that concludes the science segment of this post...)

Of course it's horrible when the rain is so extreme that people get flooded out of their homes & lose everything they've worked so hard for.  I don't 'like' the rain when that happens, but I still try really hard not to complain about it.  God giveth rain & God taketh away rain. 

My attitude is that we lose a lot less of our crop when it rains that hard that fast then we would if we had no rain for the whole summer.  Just imagine looking out over hundred of acres that you invested your time & money into & it was literally burning to a crisp.  It's quite depressing... 

Soooo-Who's up for rain on 4th of July?  ME!  ME!  Woo hoo!