Country Roads

 

April 21, 2022



It’s time to start getting outside digging and clearing flower beds and preparing the garden for planting. Flower bulb catalogs are reviewed and visits to the local greenhouses and landscaping businesses are planned. But we need warmer temperatures and the most important weather element rain is needed very badly.

With a week left in April, only a sprinkle or two of rain have been received this month. What ever happened to April showers? If there are no April showers, will there by any May flowers?

It’s been so dry and windy there have been terrible wild fires in the area. High winds caused dust to blow several days and nights and has caused hazardous driving conditions. Farmers are keeping an eye on their pastures wondering if there will be enough grass to feed the cattle through the spring and summer? The pond water levels are quickly shrinking and the water wells that haven’t been used in years are being sought out and checked just in case they have to be put into use.

This has so far been an unusual winter and spring. We had warmer than normal temperatures and little snow during the winter months. Now no rain so far this spring. Usually we have pastures greening up and ponds full, all ready for the cattle to move in by the first of May.

Last week my husband and I checked and repaired pasture fence. Without the usual heavy snow drifts laying on top of the fence line, and without heavy rains washing out some of the fence posts, there thankfully wasn’t much repair work needed to be done. Where new posts were needed the ground was pretty hard when the steel posts were driven in. We both were thankful we still had our fences mostly intact. We thought about those farmers and ranchers who had their fences destroyed by the wildfires that moved quickly through their grasslands.

Farmers are wondering when to start planting the fall crops. It’s like gambling, as farming usually is. Sometimes the seeds go into the ground even though it’s dry with the hope that rains will soon come. Cattle will still be moved into the dry pastureland, in the hopes the rains will come to make the grass grow. Vegetable seeds, plants, and flowers will be planted in the dry gardens, in the hope the rains will soon come. There is a saying the farmers are very familiar with, at times like these, “It will rain someday when it’s good and ready to. It always does.”

I’m sure the Easter worship service in every church in Nebraska and Kansas included prayers asking God to please send rain. He will when He’s ready to.

 

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