This Is Why We Aren't On Vacation

A week's vacation is not in our cards this year. Despite the fact that we have four small children who sleep terribly unless in their own beds and the whole I'm not working thing, this is the real reason we are not somewhere in the mountains, or at Disney World, or on an island:

 This is how Farmer Joe spent his morning, feeding hay.

 This shouldn't be. This time of year should be the time when we can leave for a few days without a lot of concern...the cows should be on grass, lush, green grass, and I should be somewhere with my feet in sand or something. Check out the customers already, too. These two friends need a snack!

Joe is trying to keep up with the demands of the herd. This year is different. Note the brown pasture. Note the scrubby looking ground. Note my husband's expression...he wishes the captions of these photos to be "it's too damn early to be feeding hay!" (and photographer friends, I know there's pole in most of the picture, but I was standing on my front porch, shoeless, at 6:45 this morning, with a baby banging on the storm door. You try to get a good picture...)

Ahh yes, the drought, remember that? The bane of my existence this year. The reason I am praying at night. Not just for the crops, but now there's a well issue in the back of my mind. What if we run out of water?

Holy smokes.

This weekend, we were able to get away for 24 hours, to Champaign to visit some friends and our beloved church and college stomping grounds. Thus this picture...

Our friends were discussing watering lawns. We saw lush lawns, being saturated by ticking sprinklers, and we rolled our eyes. Joe's response to this is we can't water the other thousands of acres, why should we do the one we live on?

Good point.

However, as a townie, that's what you do. You water. You water grass, flowers, and play in the sprinkler without batting an eye. You never worry about running out, because that's not generally a concern. But now, as a country mouse, I am starting to get concerned. We have friends who have had to start hauling water. We have ponds our cattle use as a drinking source and a pool to cool off on a day like today that are starting to recede and dry up. It's bad, folks, and we aren't even in the worst part of the country.

So, when you're praying for rain for us, pray for us to be able to get away, too, because unlike a desk job in an office building, when you're at home on a farm, you're still usually staring out at the brown pasture and hot crops.  And that can wear on a person.