Rainy season

Rain. Rain. Rain. We've had several days of unrelenting rainfall here. Tuesday evening it began raining in the afternoon and as of Wednesday afternoon, it still hadn't let up. In fact, it's been raining hard and steadily to the point that there is standing water in my yard and driveway - and we live on a hill!

There is a brass bucket on my front porch. It's about a gallon and a half or so, and it's completely full right now.

Of course, after I got home from work Tuesday night, I slept like a baby until late Wednesday morning. The rain does that to me. It hasn't been really stormy, though I have heard occasional thunder. A couple of times the lights flickered off and on. Basically, this has just been a typical fall rain in our state. It's what I call the beginning of our "monsoon season". From now until cold weather arrives, we'll get a lot of rain and there will be some flooding.

You'd think that by now, the state and construction companies would understand this semi-annual weather phenomenon and do their work accordingly. Ditches need to be deepened and cleaned out. Fill dirt needs to be hauled into low lying construction sites. However, the reality is that water will run over the highway in some places and construction sites will sit under water for days and days.I'm pretty sure Lake Tahoe hotels could be under the lake and still not be as wet!

If I were a home buyer, this would be the time I'd be looking at homes to see if the yard is flooded or there's any chance the water will run under or into the home.

These rains will give gardens their last rocket-shot of growth and production before it gets cooler and they begin to die off. Of course, it will also renew water wells for people like me, who use a well. This ground water is important for many people around here.

It's also a signal that it's time for repotting plants, bringing some of them inside, and getting things pulled together for winter so that if there are power outages, we can still cook, eat, and have drinking water.

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