We had a really quick and really nasty storm a couple of weeks ago. The first and last bit of rain we've had around here until today. Unfortunately the storm knocked out our power, which with our cruddy power company usually translates into several days in the dark. No different this time, we went 4 days without power. Signs of an aging infrastructure I suppose. That's probably going to be the "norm" for most power outages unless it gets even worse.
While we were out of power, DH decided he just had to get his computer up and running for at least one night. He's much more dependent on computers and television than the rest of us, but we love him anyway. So, he hooked up his custom built pc to the generator we had to run the freezer, fridge and a fan for a few hours a day. Despite having two surge protectors between his precious computer and the generator, he still managed to fry the power supply unit. So, even after the power was restored we were without a computer for another week or so which meant no blogging for me for awhile. Fortunately things are now back up and running on the technology front.
Unfortunately, we are still in the middle of this really awful drought. The area's largest river is all but dried up. The "falls" are no longer falling and are instead reduced to a rather pathetic dripping. The crops are suffering, of course. Corn and soybeans are still doing "OK" thanks to drought resistant genetics. But the garden and orchard are in sad shape this year. We have little in the way of peaches and apples thanks to the lack of rain and a late freeze earlier this spring. We have nothing in the way of cherries. Zip, zilch, nada. Good thing we still have some frozen and canned. The zuchini, brocolli, cauliflower, and sweet corn have all been experiencing pretty stunted growth even with our sprinklers running all day (at least all day since we've had power...life with a well means no power=no water). The popcorn isn't even coming up. It's really not looking good for the pumpkins this year either. They usually need a lot of rain early in the season to do well. It did rain some today, a good downpour for about 5 minutes. Definitely not enough to even come close to getting us back on track.
Our next best chance for rain is supposed to come this Wednesday when the half-blind, all-seeing eye of the weather center predicts we'll be once again getting some nasty storms. They also predicted we would have rain almost every day last week. Clearly they are not infallible. Still, I hope the rain comes on Wednesday and stays around for awhile, I just hope it doesn't bring the wind with it. Apparently, this is the most widespread drought since 1988 and we're right in the thick of it. Yuck. Without things getting any better, and it looks like they probably won't get much better, we can all expect food prices to hike up and up and up. Blech.
But even in trying times like these we must remember to count our blessings and be thankful. We can be thankful for the fact that this drought hasn't taken a huge toll on human life the way a similar drought could do in villages in Africa or other third world countries. That fact also gives us all the more reason to consider reaching out in any way we can to help those people in third world countries suffering the effects of natural disasters. We can be thankful for our good, old fashioned American resolve and resiliency. We can be thankful for what we do have. In our case, we have a pantry stocked full of canned peaches, cherries, tomatoes, juices, jellies, jams, pickles, beans, soups, etc. Which means we'll still be able to enjoy the fruits of our labors even without a grand garden this year. Most importantly, we can be thankful for a loving God who knows and cares about our troubles and even when He doesn't solve all of our immediate problems for us, we can rest assured that He hears our prayers and is still in control.
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