Rain Can Kill as Much as Drought and Fire

The local forecast here claimed that no rain was expected until this coming Thursday. Terry even got off work Monday and headed over here to spend about two hours cutting the hay. Dwayne finished up working six straight days Monday night – after covering two days for a coworker that had to take his son up to college and get him settled in. Yesterday evening – I ended up taking a late nap – only to be awakened by the sound of – rain. The Doppler showed a small patch. Okay – figured it would pass and we’d be done with it. It’s only now given us a break and the clock reads 8:17am Wednesday morning as I write. Almost feels like the atmosphere had a collision that spent the night creating the rain right over our heads. I’m beginning to wonder about our hopes and efforts in trying to get this house power-washed and sealed. The last time Dwayne took a week of vacation to get the job completed – we had solid drenching rains for ten out of 12 days. We’ve dealt with rain for the majority of the rounds of days off – since. And apparently – the forecast has now changed. Chance for showers and storms has developed for the rest of this week and throughout Labor Day weekend. We were ready to give up and use the last week of vacation to finish getting this house sealed. Our wedding anniversary is September 11th and my birthday is September 29th. I informed Dwayne that both should be just blown off so we can get this taken care of and be done. I’ve reached the point where that decision might as well stand. And I’m just letting go from there. I really don’t care at this point. It rains or not – we get it done – or not. We’re only two people and we can’t get everything done with Mother Nature standing in front of us with a hard case of PMS. The cutting of hay is as good as lost. Terry informed me that this cutting was thinner than the first – usually expected. However – this cutting was expected to turn out better than several others in our area and would have been a great help. This field had not been fertilized this year. Several others in the area had been fertilized. They were lost by the torrential rains that washed the fertilizer down into low patches of fields – causing the hay crops to burn in patches too large and too many for making any effort to bale. Listening to Dwayne it seems he has already given up on trying to finish sealing the house until next year. He’s decided to move his focus onto another project – sealing the inside of the basement. Might as well protect the basement from any possible leaking through the water table of the soil. We’re not able to move the sloping dirt away from the house until we move the barn next year. Runoff from rainwater heads right for underneath the back of the house and under the full-length porch. The cinder-block for the basement was sealed during construction before back-filling. However – it’s been nine years and we just can’t take that chance. Considering the fact that this house was constructed on the cheap beyond the log shell – only wise to cover our back door. God knows – we don’t need any nightmares. The Honey-Do List is long and costly enough. We’re not the only ones facing obstacles here in the circle of friends and coworkers. Everybody’s had their problems trying to accomplish anything on their own lists. Work schedules make it almost impossible for them all to get together and go door to door helping each other. We can’t even manage to hook up with our neighbors to get anything done. Dwayne’s off when they’re working – and vice versa. It looks like we just may end up having to hire help to get things done around here. I wake up every morning giving the day to God. Good AND bad – He gets all the Glory. And right now – He knows I’m pretty angry. I don’t know what His reason is for all this going on. But I do know this much. He always gets the last word – and it’s always good. So – for whatever reason He has these things going on – I’m turning it all over to Him and leaving it up to Him to bring something even better out of the disappointing picture in front of our eyes at this moment.