Many reasons rain's welcome in ag

When you live in a desert, rain is rare, by definition. When you live in a desert and are involved in agriculture, that rare rain is precious and always appreciated (even on the occasions when it also causes some inconvenience.)

Usually when that water does fall from the sky, it is so quickly absorbed by the thirsty earth, that any perks other than just moister ground are not experienced.

But every once in a blue moon, there comes a storm that really brings a big bucket and the water flows.

And that can be a good time, especially for an ag-kid.

If you are out working, then you probably were allowed to stop early when the rain started coming down hard. You got to enjoy the rare experience of getting wet without taking a shower or falling in the water tank.

Maybe Mom made some hot coffee of cocoa when you all got back home. Maybe you were in town in your not-a-pickup and had to get a friend to take you up the river that used to be a dirt road to get back to your house. Either way, the first perk of a really road-washer is that you get to take a little break and spend some time with the ones that you like to be around.

Then the next bit of fun has to be caught and taken advantage of quick before the water does soak in and things dry up. But if you hurry and you know the right sort of friends, you can catch a morning of kayaking down the ditches before they stop running and dry all the way up.

If you know where the water likes to run and there’s a proper sort of low spot where it eventually ends up, you can find a temporary swimming pond and practice that usually unused skill while the water is still fresh and cool and suitable fun.

When it starts to dry up into the perfect viscosity of mud, the fun isn’t over if you like practicing your stunt-driving skills and you have an available and available two-wheel drive pickup.

Start with the one-eighties in a place with a safe margin of space in case your skills are rusty since it’s been a blue moon since the last practice run.

Remember, a big rain is a short vacation with more work in a day or two, so have fun, be safe, and enjoy the flood.

Audra Brown needed a boat, but still doesn’t have one. Contact her at: [email protected]