Okay, that's an exaggeration; more like wishful thinking. But we did get a morning full of gentle rain, which was a wonderful treat. It's been months since we've had some cool weather and a rainy morning!
If your not from the midwest, you may not even know how dry and unbelievably hot it has been this summer. So I'll share a picture. This is the state of Missouri and a Drought Monitor that I got from the National Weather Service website. All 114 counties in MO have been declared a "disaster" in order to obtain federal assistance. We live in Cass County, which one of the 4 counties labeled 'Excepational'.
So I'm not exaggerating when I say it's been dry and way too hot... which had unfortunately created devastating numbers in agriculture. Over 84% of corn, 74% of soy bean, 99% of pastures are in "very poor" condition, while 91% of water supplies and 89% of hay supplies are short. And it's obviously not just in Missouri, but all over the midwest!
Of course I'm not looking forward to the higher grocery prices that will come this fall and I'm sad that I can't take the kids to the berry and peach farms because they are closed due to no crop. But want to know what else is really crappy about this drought??
My yard... our grass is so dead that we haven't mowed in EIGHT WEEKS.
My hostas (and all my other flowers). And I could have watered them and my grass more often than I did, but I have a very large yard and I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a losing battle...
And more than just the dead grass, our yard has cracked! Did you know dirt shrinks when it's dry? This has also made our roads, sidewalk, and driveway crack too.
And the shrinking dirt has caused the foundation under our master bedroom to sink... which has made our bedroom start to pull apart from the rest of the house. Jackson likes to play cars by our door, because if you put them down up at the door frame, they roll down. Who needs Hot Wheels Tracks when you have a sinking foundation?
The gap in our shower is nearly an inch and a half at the widest. And you can see that it's not just pulling apart, but going down by looking at the tiles that make an "X".
Oh it pains me to look at these photos! We stopped using our shower several months ago so we don't get a ton of water through that crack and because our shower door quit latching. We did have a quote to fix this and it was more than a year of mortgage payments. Ugh. The contractor we talked to-- his business is booming! Did you know you should water your foundation when it's dry outside!? Yeah, we learned that a little too late.
Oh, homeownership...
But, at least we had a rainy morning. We are still blessed enough to have food even if it will cost more and we still have a roof over our heads. Be sure to pray for our farmers and remember that there will be some families who won't be able to keep up with grocery prices. Be sure to donate to your local food banks! Not only will more people need food, but they will be receiving less from the farmer surplus.
And pray for rain!
Praise God for rain!!
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