Careful what you ask for

What was it, maybe five or six months ago that we were crying for rain?
Whenever rain would make a spotty appearance, I would go into work and compare notes with co-workers spread over three counties about who received how much ... if any ... precipitation. The pond at our house, which reportedly benefits from a small spring, shrank enough that I was able to install posts to build a fishing pier.

The garden struggled, never as happy with water from a hose as from the sky. Crops failed and wildfires were a considerable threat.

Finally, however, the rains came, as we knew they eventually would. And they kept coming, not so much flash flooding types of rain but a constant soaking.

Yep, now we’re hoping they take a break.

Our house sits about a hundred yards off the road and our driveway is not paved. Usually, the grass and dirt path is no problem to drive, but the lower sections have become difficult to get the truck up. The front-wheel drive car still manages it, as long as you’re careful.

To keep from tearing up the drive (and to keep from getting stuck) I started taking the pickup over the old driveway, which passes over the dam and runs directly onto the highway, probably 200 yards away.

It wasn’t long before small ruts began to appear on the old drive. And, it’s more than a little disconcerting to feel the truck slip a little when I’m driving over the dam.

We finally came to the conclusion a couple of weeks ago that something must be done.

I asked a coworker if he could recommend a place to buy a load of gravel and he suggested his nephew. Over the phone, nephew said he would run out there in the next hour and check it out.

A few days later, I talked to the nephew again and he still had not gotten together whatever information he needed, but there was still hope something could get done before the next rain. All I wanted at this point was a load of gravel dumped on my property ... I’ll spread it by hand where it’s needed.

It didn’t happen and, after an all-day rain, I feared Leah would have trouble getting the car up the drive, so I stopped on the way home and bought eight bags of rock.

However, I wasn’t able to get all the way to the carport without getting the truck stuck, though I did get it out soon enough.

Strategic placement of even that small amount of rock made the driveway easier to pass, buying us more time there.

Three days without rain – one with abundant sunshine and modest winds – helped dry out the surface some, but not enough to get a dump truck in, which I’ve now lined up with a local business. Then it started raining again.

It rained quite a bit yesterday and the forecast gives an 80 percent chance of rain (or snow!) the day after tomorrow. And when it’s not raining, it’s supposed to remain cloudy.

Yes, it was only a few months ago that we were crying for rain. Now, we’re crying for it to stop, knowing fully that if it does, we’ll likely whine for its return this summer.
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Links:
My favorite online weather source is Weather Underground, particularly for its hurricane tracking and its radar. (For a $5 annual fee, they remove the ads and give you even better use of the radar. When I wish to believe they can actually predict long-range, I check out AccuWeather, which offers a 15-day forecast. Of course, everyone knows about The Weather Channel.