Two years ago this week, we had to start feeding hay to the horses because the lack of rain had left the pasture brown and dry. It’s not good to have to start feeding hay in July; makes for a really long winter and a pretty big hay bill. If I remember correctly, and I sometimes do, I only had to mow the yard four or five times that whole season.

This year, I’m mowing the yard every four or five days. “El Nino,” according to the online article, keeps moving moisture across the country and a good bit of it has been falling in these parts. We haven’t had any local flooding but the Missouri River keeps flirting with its banks and levees. Of course, we haven’t seen anything like the ten inches of rain that came to northeastern Nebraska and southern South Dakota in one weekend a little while back. California, on the other hand, is still suffering through a multi-year drought and fire hazards.

While it’s been pretty hard here this year to catch the three dry days in a row needed for mowing, raking, curing and baling hay, the good news is there’s tons of it. Yards and pastures, road banks and fields are as green as April here at the threshold of Dog Days. Miles of corn are tasseling and it sure looks like a bumper crop this year. The farmers with lots of corn and no hay would say things are looking mighty good at this point.

It’s hard to find a time or a place where there isn’t some advantage of one kind or another and even harder to find such where there aren’t at least a couple of folks that could see how things could be better. And likely as not from time to time, we count our blessings with a bandaged finger.

It is the nature of this life we live on this planet. Circumstances are pretty much always a mixed bag. Some years are green, some are dry and even in those green years we have tornadoes and hurricanes.

It’s good to carry good memories, give thanks for rain and pray for protection from the storm. And to remember that in most every situation, we can choose to be blessing to others. A glass of cold water won’t end a drought but it can sure ease the pain of a parched throat.

H. Arnett
7/11/14