We Have Had a Lot of Rain

Thursday morning we woke up to rain. It rained lightly on me while I was milking the cow. I ended damp, but not soaked. Phil, who was moving the cows through waist high grass, came in absolutely soaked, as the rain lightly coated all the grass stems.

It was too bad, to be so close to finishing block and concrete, but we could see that the rain, though it paused, would continue. Phil went to pick up packages at the post office, which included my five dahlia bulbs. So I did my first planting of the year, right up against my greenhouse comfrey, where I didn't need to weed much, and where the baby plants might have some shade. I had just finished when the downpour came.

I milked last night in an utter deluge. I wore Phil's yellow rain slicker, which covered my shorts, and decided I didn't mind if my legs got wet. The problem was, the rain streamed off the slicker and ran into my shorts, so I ended up soaked on the bottom half, though technically that was covered. The calves must be eating some of the hay, as when I offered milk, only Einstein came over. Elle refused to leave the shelter, and I wasn't about to coddle her by going in to her pen to feed her.

It continued to rain this morning, as we enjoyed a bit of Tropical Storm Andrea. By about 3pm, though, the rain finally ceased, so the boys were able to jump on the (mostly dry) trampoline by evening.

The swales filled. One of the best things about cows is that their hooves makes thousands of little ponds to store water. We had thousands of little ponds.

All that water made pulling green onions from Belle's pen fairly easy. I'm hopeful that by picking 50 or so plants, not only will they not spread their seeds for the future, but maybe Belle's milk will not be off flavored.

What did we all do with a few indoor days? Jadon read cartoon books to his brothers. They are big fans of Foxtrot, which they shifted to after Jadon read the complete Calvin and Hobbes. Jadon did a 1000 piece puzzle, with a little help from Phil and I (we are suckers for puzzles). Phil ordered some needed posts and hose connectors, and researched better mineral box designs and such. I slept a lot. (Jadon hangs a sleeping bag vertically across his bunk. I crawled in yesterday afternoon and slept for an hour and a half: it was so dark, and quiet.)

And I have been reading Homer's Odyssey, in my beloved Fitzgerald translation. It's been a decade since I read it, and going back through, seeing the interpersonal interactions, soaking in the beautiful language ... what a fabulous read.