Practicing patience

I’ve been crabby, grumpy, despondent, whiney, and down-right irritable lately and then the most amazing thing happened; I got over it. Almost instantly, I begin to laugh and joke and something even caused me to clean out the back of the farm pickup truck! Life was so good that my energy level soared to the rooftops and I made several favorite dishes to my hubby’s delight. I even encouraged him to start sprucing up his beloved two-cylinder tractors for this summer’s shows. What happened? Well, the miracle of miracles happened. And the story goes like this…

Woe is me

This spring’s winds finally got to me. I have to admit it. I know I was all enthused about the wild winds of South Dakota in my last article, but geeze, there is a limit to my enthusiasm and patience! The dirt and dust of late April to May 5 was just more than even I could put up with. For, our home became a complete disaster. My thinking disintegrated to: “Why should I clean the house when the dirt blows in faster than I can vacuum it up?” Thus, this dirty house resulted in a very depressed farm lady. Life was not good.

Going from yuck to yeah

And then it happened and life was good again. In a matter of just a few hours, my sour mood went from yuck to yeah! Because, hallelujah, the heavens miraculously opened up, and we received some much needed moisture. I hesitate to say how much because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings if you didn’t get any rain. Suffice it to say that it was enough to register in the rain gauge and make some puddles in the farm yard.

In a farmer’s mind, there is just nothing better than to wake up from a deep sleep and hear it raining. At our house, it was raining hard enough to hear it hitting the roof and drizzling down the eave spouts. I was so elated that I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I had to get up and check out the scene.

My bloomin’ curiosity

Yup, it sounded like it was raining outside. I turned on the outside light and stuck my head out the front door just to make sure. As I peered out the door, I thought I spied something else, but I didn’t have my glasses on. Durn the luck, I had to go back to the bedroom for my specs.

Returning to the front door, I looked outside and there our rain gauge was proudly doing its duty. Besides doing its duty, the gauge was doing it in a big way! It appeared to be registering a major amount of fluid but I couldn’t see for sure just how much rain we had received. Humpf!

My bloomin’ curiosity wouldn’t be stilled so I slipped on a pair of flip-flops and grabbed a jacket and headed out the door to get a closer look.

“Dumb woman,” I thought, “what are you doing out here at 2:30 in the morning in a rain storm!” And then I discovered that the wind was blowing so hard that I still couldn’t read the gauge. I had to bring the gauge inside to get an accurate reading. No problem, all my efforts were worth it because there was plenty of fresh rain water in the gauge, but I was reminded of another time when my nighttime efforts weren’t so fruitful.

The waters a little yellow

It happened just like this time; I woke up hearing it raining outside and I had to go check the rain gauge. That time it was light enough outside to read the gauge which recorded an unbelievable two inches of rain in it. I was so excited that I carried the gauge inside to show my hubby. He looked at the gauge and then laughingly asked, “Don’t you think the water’s a little yellow?”

Long story short, the water was more than a little yellow; it also had a pungent odor. Upon closer observation of the farmyard, it had definitely not rained two inches. Instead, our old dog, Junior, had just conveniently relieved himself during the rain storm via the rain gauge.

Reflections

I learned, after the Junior dog experience, to install a taller rain gauge. And another thing I learned was that miracles do happen; we just have to have a little patience. Thanks for the moisture, Lord.

Jane Green and her husband, Jim, live near Clark. Contact Jane for some public speaking, to order one of her books, or to register your comments. E-mail her at: jgreen@itctel.com.