What’s Next After Monsoon Season?

I think we have all said it more than once while complaining about the wet spring, at least I know I have heard some version of this dozens of times. It goes something like this, “When it stops, we probably won’t get another drop of rain all summer so we better not complain.”

Somehow it seems like we have embraced the notion that the more rain that comes this spring, the more likely we will have a scorcher. Whether there is a scorcher summer coming or not, I am over the rain, and I am over the storms and the power outages.

There, I said it outloud for the world to hear and if my “complaints” trigger another drought this summer and fall – then so be it. As it stands, my garden would be perfect for some kind of mud mania wrestling, you know, the kind where the ladies wear bathing suits. And I spent hours last weekend cutting downed trees in the pastures behind the house. Lastly, I don’t sleep during a humid night without the air conditioner humming.

Maybe I am going a little too far, truthfully these are minor inconveniences and my sincere appreciation is extended to all of the linemen, the guys who work for the City of Water Valley Electric Department, Entergy, Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association and the Natchez Trace Electric Power Association (their territory catches the corner of Yalobusha). There has been a storm almost every weekend for months, and these guys are out working in it day and night.

And my complaints pale in comparison to the dire condition facing our farmers as it remains too wet to plant. I’m not sure there has been a single acre of cotton planted in Yalobusha County. A lot of the corn that was planted looks spotty, and time is running out to get anything in the ground but soybeans.

And the planting complications follow a terrible year in 2024. Even if a farmer had a bumper crop of corn, beans or cotton, most lost money because the prices are so low.

So with apologies to our farmers and linemen, I will continue. I think my frustration boiled over sometime Saturday, I had two projects before the morning rain hit. First was to get my tractor across the creek behind the house so I can do a little cutting before everything grows up. The creek crossing is only passable when it is dry, but once the tractor is over there a little rain won’t slow me down.

Long story short, I spent over an hour clearing the trail after finding a large downed tree blocking the road. And when I got back to the tractor, the front tire was flat. Scratch project one, not enough time (or energy) left to fight that dang tire.

I was about halfway through the to-do list for my garden when the bottom dropped out, completely ending my outside time Saturday. There is nothing I despise more than being cooped up on a Saturday, and I think last weekend as like the 100th time this year.

Then the Sunday storm came along and knocked off the power and it was humid when I went to bed.
Now for one bright spot, I found an easy solution to help on these balmy nights when the power is off – a battery-powered fan. For full disclosure,

I like a little fan noise in the background every night. The fan noise from my new battery-powered fan is perfect, and it also pushes a pretty good breeze across the bed, making a humid night without electricity almost tolerable.

My brand choice is Dewalt, simply because I have other tools made by this company and several batteries but I am sure Milwaukee and others are just as good.
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should add that for some odd reason, my wife tells me I need to be more of a glass-half-full guy, so I guess we close with a notation that there will be plenty of firewood. I saw several people in town cutting firewood Monday.

Oh wait, does this mean we are going to have an unseasonably cold winter?