What the rain brings

Mist rising to the east

Right now the weather pattern over Roundtop Mountain is one where the mud never truly disappears. It rains heavily, often with thunderstorms. Then it clears for a day or two and the rain returns again. So far even this pattern hasn’t entirely erased the precipitation deficit caused by a lack of snow and a lack of April showers. But the gap is, at least, diminishing. I’m tired of the mud, though.

The rain makes the deck and the stairs slippery, even with that sandpaper tape. The tape works well enough but doesn’t stay on for long. And I can’t add more to the steps as long as they never dry out. I’ve slipped and fallen on those steps more in the last 10 days than I have in the last year or two. I’m still nursing bruises. The Wellies that I wear to avoid the mud probably don’t help either. What I need are Wellies with ice crampons. Even Dog slipped the other night.

The rain is making the woods grow like crazy. I’m at the point where I’ll have to trim back the new shoots trying to find room to grow into my driveway. The sides of my car are scrapped by leaves and twigs every time I head in or out from the cabin. This is a chore I’m forced to do at least once a year. When I’m done I’ll think I have trimmed everything too much and needn’t have worked so hard. But within a year and maybe even by fall I’ll have to do it again. True, it’s not as bad as mowing grass would be, but twice a year seems like a lot to me. It’s not just grass that grows fast in this weather. Everything else does too.