Rain and More Rain

Between 10 a.m. yesterday and 10 a.m. today, we received 4 inches of rain.  The ground was already saturated, and this rain came fast at times.  There are flood warnings throughout the area with more rain in the forecast.  

I was posting about our crazy weather on Facebook, and a friend replied "It isn't raining at all in California!!"  She and her family are enjoying Disneyland while the rest of her Kansas friends and relations are slogging through some truly unusual and challenging amounts of rain. 

But this afternoon, the sun came out.  I pulled on my mud boots and took a short walk down to the flooded lake east of our house. 

It is a muddy, now-sunny, rain-washed and blustery world here, but I truly wouldn't trade it for all the joys Disney has to offer. 

The cattle were curious and did not bolt, even though we just released them into this pasture a few days ago.  

This lake floods the roadbed every spring, but it is a few feet higher than usual today.  

I waded out into the flooded lake and turned to take John's photo--and this was the exact moment that I realized that my left mud boot has a pretty serious leak.  

Moving Cattle

Upper left--John is making a final count of how many head he has released to pasture.  He's usually accurate but this time around he thought he had 15 loaded, and counted only 14 as he released this bunch.  My count is always wrong; I came up with 13.  

One of my favorite times on the farm is moving cattle to summer pasture.  We rent this beautiful pasture pictured above, just on the edge of the Flint Hills. When the cattle are first released they gallop away, anxious to get away from the confines of the trailer, but very quickly they begin to appreciate their new surroundings.  They are scarcely 100 feet away when they begin to sample the lush, green, grass.  Soon a peaceful scene unfolds as they all graze, and we know they have a delightful summer ahead in this beautiful setting.