Rain, Beautiful Rain!

We have been under drought conditions for all of this century and part of the last. It has been so long that some people are beginning to think it will be a permanent situation for Southern California. In the past, rain predictions meant the roads might get a sprinkling, or folks should turn on their wipers. But this week we had real rain, with headlines like the following:

• 

  Southwest at Risk for Severe Storms Again

  News - Oct 20, 2010; 10:00 AM ET Thunderstorms threaten to cause flash flooding and turn severe over Southern California and Arizona today.

Of course, everything is made to sound terribly dramatic, be it rain or drought, but we did get nearly 3" from this storm, and maybe a bit more a few days later.

When the weather finally blew past, we were left with the most beautiful green haze on the hills all around. We were also left with a downed tree in the goat pen. It was an ancient avocado long since turned into a giant condo for the blue birds. I honestly don't know what held it upright for so long.

The only problem was that the downed tree made an excellent bridge up to and over the boundary fence! With just a few strokes of his chain saw, however, ML turned the liability into an asset: now it's a wonderful goat playground!