Not since the '70s!

        There are sloughs locally that have gone dry for the first time since the 70's. Two  years of dry weather have done it. A local cattleman said he's paying $1000.00 a month to water cattle that would normally drink slough water. The little pond across the street from The Little House (see picture below) is so shallow that egrets wade in the middle of it. The rain on Friday that kept me from picking rocks registered .2" in my rain gauges. A wet cycle locally began in '83 and caused Lake Sinai to expand swallowing up three farm yards. It's now a very large body of water and it has fallen 18"? or so. Is this the beginning of a dry cycle or just a two year aberation? Wait and see.

       Today is the birthday of the late Mary Oliver so a poem is posted in her memory.

Takk for alt,

Al

                The pond across the street  pictured this morning.

A Dream of Trees

by Mary Oliver

There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,
A quiet house, some green and modest acres
A little way from every troubling town,
A little way from factories, schools, laments.
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,
With only streams and birds for company,
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.
And then it came to me, that so was death,
A little way away from everywhere.

There is a thing in me still dreams of trees.
But let it go. Homesick for moderation,
Half the world's artists shrink or fall away.
If any find solution, let him tell it.
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation
Where, as the times implore our true involvement,
The blades of every crisis point the way.

I would it were not so, but so it is.
Who ever made music of a mild day?