Dreaming of Mud Boots and Dirt Tanks

I try to keep up with what's going on in the rest of the world although I love living under my rock. Sometimes I peek out and check things out and it makes me want to dig deeper under said rock. One of the things that we keep a vigilant eye on, is the weather. Ranching (and farming) tends to make you a tad obsessed about it. Its not like we can do anything to change it, but we follow it like a hawk. Ranching in the desert makes you even more insane about it. We gather around the radar on the computer screen and when you run into someone at the feed store you ask, "Did you get rain? How much?" I called my neighbor, Cotton Picker, the other day and said ""Get outside and start dancing. There's a big black cloud hanging over the ranch"  She laughed and said, "I can't; I've got company!" I replied, "The more the merrier".
Around here we measure rain in drops and we will get up before dawn, trudge out to the rain gauge and check it with a flashlight to see how much rain we got. Seriously. This is important business folks. We had a 12 yr drought in the Texas mountains and when it rained, we had to replace all of our rain gauges because they had dried up and cracked and would no longer hold water. My mud boots dry rotted and crumbled. True story. Needless to say, when it rained, I vividly remember standing on the screened porch and crying at the sight of water falling from the sky. The sounds of rain on a tin roof is a beautiful thing.
Yes, deserts are dry, but they do receive rain. Or so I have been told. :) Actually I have proof. This was about 5 years ago:


Our arena then:

 and now:

Summer swimming holes:



Not much swimming going on today:



Fishing was always on the schedule:



No fresh fish this summer:




Our days are spent driving a feed truck and doling out cake to the masses. The last moisture we received was 12" of snow on Christmas.
The good Lord always provides though, doesn't He? DH came in today talking about fat cows. Huh? There is no green grass, but God sent us the Yucca. Cows LOVE yucca blossoms and it is good feed. Our yuccas are blooming like crazy. And soon the prickly mesquite will provide beans that they like too.

Yes, our hope is in the Lord and we are faithful that our rain gauges will one day look like this again:


Last year the sale barns were overflowing with cattle because so many people droughted out and had to sell. We were in good shape because we had old grass from the year before, but it is hard. When you ranch, it's not like you can just go look for another job. You can't just leave the land that you've poured everything into. Lots of people were out of work though. I know that's the case in other areas as well, not just agriculture.

Cow prices are good, but feed prices are high. The price of hay quadrupled. Lots of cowboys driving trucks and working in the oil field today because ranchers have sold their stock.

Still not giving up on the rain though. God's timing is perfect, but we're staying on our knees and praying for rain and still praising God that we get to ranch for a living. And when it rains, I want a pair of these:

I saw these on Julie's blog, Better Than I Deserve and a seed was planted for this post. Now if we could just get that seed some rain.