Rainy Days

The forecasters said 100 percent chance of rain.  They usually hedge a bit on their forecasts—80 percent, 60 percent.  But not this time.  They were sure.  And they were right.

The rain began Friday evening, slow and easy, not like a typical shower that rolls in with a lot of show and bluster and soon moves on.  No thunder, no lightning.  Just dark clouds and rain.  Saturday morning, drippy rain continued.  Not hard rain, not enough to keep visitors away from harvest festivals, but enough to get you wet if you chose not to wear rain gear. 

By late Saturday afternoon, the clouds darkened even more, and the rain began falling ever heavier.  Soaking rain.  And it continued all night.  Pounding on the bedroom windows, pouring off rooftops—and soaking the doughty land that had suffered most of the summer.

Sunday morning.  The rain continued, heavy at times. Making puddles where puddles had not been for months.  Giving my garden’s winter wheat cover crop the boost it needed.  Green showing everywhere as the little green wheat shoots pushed through the thoroughly soaked soil.

By Sunday evening, when the raindrops ceased falling and the clouds moved on to the east, the rain gauges in my part of central Wisconsin measured four inches. My brother in Wild Rose said that he’d measured five inches. The most rain we’d gotten at one time all summer.  And how welcomed it was.  Smiles all around.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS.  What do you do when it rains?  Let it rain.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

October 24, 2:15 p.m., Wisconsin Library Assoc. Annual Meeting, LaCrosse Conference Center, LaCrosse, WI  “Garden Wisdom.”

October 30, 5:30 p.m. Temple Theater, Viroqua, WI. Showing of “Jerry Apps: A Farm Story.” Wis. Public TV. Refreshments.  Free to the public.

November 1, 6:30 p.m. Minoqua Public Library. Minoqua, WI. Rural Wit and Wisdom.

November 7, Platteville Historical Society, Platteville, WI.

November 11,  5:15 p.m. Wisconsin Book Festival, Madison,” Garden Wisdom.”

November 13, Barnes and Noble Book Store,  Madison West. 7:00 p.m. Launch of

“Tamarack River Ghost”.

November 14, Columbus Library. 6:00 p.m. "Tamarack River Ghost"