drought

The Old Farmer’s Almanac tells me Dog Days are between July 3 and August 11 as those are normally the hottest days of summer. This year it was hard to tell one hot day from another as the weather week after week was HOT, HOT and more HOT and not even a tropical storm to bring some rain.
We are in Stage I water restrictions that means no watering with sprinklers except on trash day once a week and other limited use of water. Our lawn is brown but we weren’t watering before the restrictions.
I remember the drought during the 1950s when my father, a rancher in South Texas, considered contributing money to seed clouds if praying for rain didn’t work. My mother discouraged that idea and kept praying. Let us hope that it does not take a hurricane to bring rain and get some water into our watershed.

Until then I will keep toasting Chac,the Mayan Rain God.

After days of endless searing heat we have beautiful rain today! It may not be enough to break the drought, but it is welcome relief. Husband and I had coffee on the veranda and put out extra containers to catch the rain water and rejoiced that the rain barrel would be replenished.

I love the rain. Perhaps that comes from growing up in South Texas where rain is usually scarce. I remember the severe drought of the 1950s when ranchers asked the preacher to pray for rain and put a little extra in the offering plate while contributing secretly to a plan to seed the clouds. Rain was always critical to my father as a rancher. He would stop whatever he was doing and watch it rain As a child I learned to do the same, and I can still remember the smell of the first drops of rain on dry, dusty ground.

Today I still appreciate the rain as we are in Stage II for lawn watering restrictions because of the current drought across Texas. We don’t want a hurricane but a little disturbance in the gulf that would bring us some moisture is always welcome. So far our rain gauge measures 3.4 inches and it is still coming down. Thank you Chac, the Rain God!

Disclosure:
The illustration I used came from Facebook, but I did not know the source.