For a little patch of green...

 When I was a young bride and had just moved to the ranch with Hubby, my dear mother-in-law used to tell me about her own mother-in-law who didn't like to garden or grow flowers or keep a lawn.  She thought it was a waste of time, but my mother-in-law loved all these things.  She told me, "Sometimes keeping a little patch of green keeps a woman sane out here when all around is dry and brown."  She was right.  So right.  A couple of days ago the fellas rigged up the trash pump for me and set it at the stock pond by our house.  Most years, I can pump water out of the pond through my hydrant, but the water is too low this year for that set-up so the only way to get a good soak on my lawn is to use the fire hose and flood the yard. It's an all-day process that requires a lot of moving of a heavy hose, but it is so worthwhile.  That brown grass is much greener today for the effort.

 Here is the pump.  The yellow hose sucks water up out of the dam and the gray hose brings it to me.  The guys can use this pump when they go to a fire so they can fill a pumper with water directly from a stock tank or reservoir.  It works so slick, and the pump is easy enough for a woman like me to run.  One pull on the rope, and it purrs.  It's got a good Honda motor.

The pond is lower than usual.  See all those green pond weeds around it?  The water level used to be way up the sides and clear out in the distance where it is still green-ish.  Hubby says I might as well pump all the water I want out of this pond since the evaporation is taking it down daily.  We have a good stock waterer for the horses that are sometimes in this pasture so it'd be ok if the pond goes dry.  Sometimes when our stock ponds and reservoirs go dry, we hire a Euclid to come and clean the bottom and dig it down deeper so it can hold more water.

Right now my yard looks decent.  It's not a bright, healthy green, but more of a struggling, browny-green, but I'm thankful for my patch.  The garden flowers are trying to push forward, but it's so dry and the wind is so harsh that they don't have near the gumption to keep going.  Some flowers come up, but just can't bring forth much of a bud and then fizzle out.  The lilies are just now blooming and bringing much joy to their gardener.  I'm allowing anything (flower-wise) that wants to grow in the flower beds go right ahead.  I'm not being selective.  Any little bit of green or pretty blooming color is welcomed to live in my gardens this year.  I see that the gladiolas have pushed their spears up in the veggie beds.  Their blooms always look so exotic in my rustic, country garden.

This week we are expecting temperatures to stay in the 90's along with winds.  The poor fire fighters in the forests are really struggling.  Today we have an east wind and there is still a strong smoky smell in the air, but tomorrow when the wind switches to the west, it will be even stronger.  It reminds me to pray.  I hope you have a nice little patch of green around your home that you enjoy tending this summer.