The drought is broken

8/18/08 Monday
The drought is broken, at least for now. This is the third straight day of moisture we’ve had. This morning it’s coming as a heavy mist that quickly covers my glasses making it hard to see what I’m doing as I prepare beds for planting more blackeyed peas. It’s got me pretty wet but not much more than when I’m sweating profusely in the heat. But it’s cool out so over all a lot better than getting hot, sweaty, and stinky. I’ll be working out in this all day, or at least as long as I can. I must take advantage of this to get as much planted for fall as I can. There is lots to plant for sure. I finally built some trellises last week but have many more to put in.

Saturday we didn’t make it to the farmer’s market. Sure it was raining pretty hard but that wasn’t the reason. With weather changes comes pain as these broken bones contract and expand with the barometric pressure and Saturday was exceptionally bad. I got up, took a pain pill and crawled right back in bed. Cherie could see how bad it was so quietly let me doze. She said the dogs even could sense it and were unusually quiet and peaceful despite not being let out due to the rain. Normally they are bouncing with energy in the morning, wrestling and fighting till we hustle them out of the house so we can move around without getting run over. I stayed in bed four hours before feeling up to moving about. I can’t remember what I did but I am sure I went to work on the farm.

Yesterday the lesson at Sunday school was on conflict, discussing the problems Paul had with the Jews in Jerusalem who incited others to riot by spreading half truths and lies. The teacher talked about how easy it is to criticize versus encouraging and the results of that. It spoke to me and I shared how much we were hurt at the other church when it was evident others words were influencing those we sought to fellowship with. And, to be fair, I told of how my problem from the brain injury of speaking my mind without comprehending the inappropriateness or effect of my words contributed to that. I commended the class for their understanding and the love that they showed, thanking them for the acceptance. It was all we were looking for at the other church but didn’t find.

Yesterday I planted sunflowers and…perhaps beets and two kinds of lettuce but that may have been Saturday, I’m not sure. I know I had the tiller out and worked it hard.

Robert, the guy with leukemia I’ve told about here, died this morning. At least it was quick and not drawn out for months. How hard this time is for his wife, Vickie, but I know our class is a powerful and caring support for her. That is what the Christian family is about, caring, loving, and supporting in times of need. I don’t think we ever met Robert and Vickie so will stay out of the way for now. I’m sure she doesn’t need too many folks around, just a few to be close when she needs them. I really don’t know but think so. This is just another area where I lack the social know how on how to act.

The mist has cleared up and the sun is out so it will be a good but humid day to work. I don’t think the temperature is going above the eighties so that will be good.
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I just came in from the garden. Almost every watermelon I had on this patch has been broken into and eaten. I don’t know if it was coyotes or Gretchen but there are dog prints all over and they are different sizes. If it was Gretchen then Rascal and Trixie got in the act too. This is not good either way for there is no hope of me having a sellable crop if animals destroy it. We’ve been told about coyotes’ ability to tell when a melon is ripe before eating it. I’ve always known we need fencing but we don’t have a thousand or two dollars to put one up. I did pick up the solar electric fence thing from Harbor Freight a month or three back and bought a spool of wire for it a couple of weeks ago but, like everything else, just haven’t had the time to put it up. It’s all so frustrating. Feels like I’m beating my head against a wall and it won’t give. Wally was complementing me on how I keep going despite my difficulties at Sunday school and while that's encouraging it sure doesn’t feel like I’m doing a whole heck of a lot.

So enough whining, I’ve got work to do. At least the animals don’t eat up my blackeyed peas and I’ve tilled up this area for them so time to put them in the ground.