Rain Rain Go Away

The childhood song comes to mind with the amount of rain that has come through this spring. We, of course, would never ask that the rain go away. It has had a profound effect on everything around here.

The drought had required we sell most of the herd. We simply didn't have enough grass or hay to feed the number of cattle we had. It was incredibly difficult to do, but we could see the negative results of too many cattle very quickly. Now we have a little more than 1/3 of the number of cows we had just two years ago.

This isn't always a bad thing, especially when it is considered how much grass we had at the time. Every season change though, we encounter too much grass for our cattle. They can't seem to keep up. The spring rains have done wonders for this! We have so much grass. Beautiful, lush green fields glimmer in the wind. Now the heat his impacting it, and the emerald is fading to amber. I love the season changes and the natural transitions. We may not get the leaf changes of the north, but we get the lovely flower and emerald shifting to ambers and golds.

The most recent rains have flooded us. As we get closer to summer, the heat and hours of sun help to reduce the impact, but the big lake was taking over for a while there. We had whole pastures out of commission, and it delayed a lot of work. Our MILPA garden was delayed planting. Our first hay cutting hasn't happened yet. And, our grazing rotation had to be adjusted to account for water access and grass that was under water.

We did get the winter grasses into balage, and we anticipate a good start to hay season. So far this year, the farm has had 25", and it looks like we're about to get more. We will never complain about rain. It is a much better problem to have than drought. Even with flooded fields, our land can handle more cattle than a drought allows.

God has a plan. Sometimes it's frustrating trying to wade through the problems, and finding our inadequacies. But, He is ALWAYS with us, and is working for our good. His yolk is light, and He willingly trades for us. The hard part is continuing to let go and watch Him work. Praying He keeps reminding us that He is here.