Soggy

I think our drought is over, at least for this year.

Last year I'm not sure I even heard our sump pump go off. I won't swear to it, but memory can't provide such a recollection.  This year it's my bedtime lullaby, provided, of course, there's at least some break between pumpings to reassure me that things are working properly. We did have to go out and reposition the pipe taking the water away from the house several times, finally using a drill and screw to keep the force of the water from pushing the pipe out of position.  By "we" of course I mean Rich and Paul.

The yard, being clay, is doing an excellent job of keeping saturated. Any little hollow is a puddle. We're very lucky that the high winds which struck Minneapolis knocking trees over all over the place, taking out power to over half a million people, just missed us. Something about this area tends to part the storms. We've noticed it for years. Weather goes just south, nailing Hugo, or just north, nailing North Branch/Hinckley.  Storms split east/west as well, heading up 35E or just over the Wisconsin border. Friday's storm crept up as a solid band and then just wimped out over us.

We still got plenty of rain, later, but when radar showed light rain over us for half an hour, we had dry back steps, the limit of view provided by our back light. Don't think we've been deprived. Plenty fell later.

Besides a higher electric bill from the sump working constantly, we also have the joy of a super bumper crop of mosquitoes. We don't go out if we can help it. Every time the dogs go out they last about two minutes and beg to come in, and with them a handful of mosquitoes come too. You need to remain hyper alert with free hands to slap for about half an hour after each of their potty breaks. Steve has gone fishing, which is a bold move, considering he's feeding both the little nibblers in the water and the little nibblers in the air.

We should be hitting a dry part of summer soon. I hope so. It's been hard for Paul to find good times to spray the apple trees, which by the way already have such big apples that the branches are hitting the ground. They haven't even had their first fruit drop. Apples are important this year because there will be no peaches (heavy pruning, no bloom), and very few blueberries or raspberries (drought and neglect last year). Robins are already raiding the very green cherries, so not sure what will be left to ripen there.

Even if we sprayed with Off!, and found a way to keep wood dry, we couldn't have a backyard bonfire because the fire pit is lower than the water table right now.

I could keep on whining, but it's past time to get ready for work. On the bright side, we had the roof replaced a couple years ago, so right now, only the outside is...

Soggy!