We Needed The Rain

Rain days (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

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Today, while on our way to Wal-Mart, for the first time I noticed the effects of not having any rain. The grass here is burned from the hot temps, it has burn streaks everywhere and the corn fields and gardens are all dried up and burned to a crisp everywhere we pass by. It’s been so hot it’s unbearable, but thanks to God for the occasional breezes. Since living in the country unlike living in the city you can’t help but notice the devastating effects of not having any rain. The only reason I am getting any of our free delicious food from our home vegetable garden is that we water it every other day.

English: Walmart Home Office, the headquarters of Wal-Mart – Bentonville, Arkansas Español: Walmart Home Office, la sede de Wal-Mart – Bentonville, Arkansas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, it started raining on our way back home and I noticed that the birds were no longer hanging around in the trees as usual, but were pecking and hopping across the burnt grass. Oh how I love watching the birds since living here, they are so absolutely beautiful. But, what was that all about? The birds were hopping like rabbits in burnt grass, even Tom my neighbor’s cat was watching the event, and did he try to chase after the birds. So eventually he became preoccupied with rubbing against my husband’s leg, meowing for his daily milk pan to be filled. I guess they were getting a drink of water from the ground or eating the wet dry grass. I don’t know why they were behaving like this, but I viewed it as strange. Normally when it rains they stay in the trees and sing so beautifully there, and you could see them hopping from one tree to the next. I told my husband what I observed and he did not have a clue why they were behaving like this. It was just a few weeks ago that I was driving thru the country here and noticed such beautiful fields of corn, flowers, and vegetable gardens. It really made me sad to see that the hard work of many people went to waste. My neighbor told me her okra field is all dried up because the rabbits are eating away at the little growth that started because the okra dried up. I am going to miss her okra this summer because last summer she had a huge field of okra and we had delicious okra galore to eat. So the other day she came by and gave us some cucumbers, ripe and green tomatoes. She said the cucumbers are not as big as they would be and are kind of twisted up because they did not get enough rain. I noticed today that my green peppers are growing really nicely and it’s a first for me to grow them so I was still so excited at the sight of seeing them hanging from the plant. Also, my string beans are growing really big and nice and I picked some today while standing and waiting for my husband to start the car up. I don’t know if I should have planted my eggplant seeds so early because that plant is huge now. My friend in New York told me that eggplant takes a long time to grow though. So I am thinking of buying a canning set so I can do some canning of my tomatoes and eggplants when they are ready to be picked. Also, my basil is growing so tall, I already dried some for cooking but I want to make some delicious pesto.

So on our way back home, I began to wonder if it does rain anymore it’s really too late now for these crops. Except I am sure there are seeds for veggies that can be grown later in the season. My neighbor plants all kinds of greens, like collard, kale, and mustard greens later in the year, and last fall they grew up so nicely and were such a beautiful sight to see, and they were of course delicious. So we will see how things go.