Feast Or Famine....aka Flood or Drought

     If there's one thing I've learned since moving into the hills of Tennessee its to NOT take water for granted!  When we lived with city water my only concern was paying the bill.  I never worried IF we would HAVE water....we simply turned the faucet on and WHOOSH....water came out. (Imagine that!)  After 20 years of living out in the middle of nowhere on spring water, I have to say I've lost more sleep over water than absolutely anything else.  In the winter I have to worry about it freezing and in the summer I have to worry about it running dry and in the spring I have to worry about the lines getting plugged when we have too much rain.  All in all I can NOT worry about water about 6 or 7 days of the year....give or take a day or so.  I can assure you that you have never lived until you have spent days hauling water from the spring through the snow to the house just so you can flush and have water to cook and wash with.  I can also assure you that your missing TONS of fun spending hours outside in the freezing weather with a teakettle of boiling water trying to thaw out several hundred yards of frozen line.  Oh....and lets not forget about watching the water flow diminish to a steady trickle in the summer and fall and wondering if it will ever rain again.  Yes sir!....I have learned to never take water for granted....EVER!  Water has probably been the most common prayer request and topic of intersession we've had out here.  Recently we had already been experiencing the water "slowdown" since we had not had rain for weeks.  We had started hauling water in buckets from the creek to keep the garden and roses alive which is something we don't usually have to deal with till late summer and early fall.  In town where I work (which is 35 miles away) rain had been so frequent that the prediction of more brought curses and oaths from the people (aka city slickers) but when I would check with Susie there was no rain to be seen out here.  Well.....all that changed yesterday when it started raining ......and wouldn't stop!  We were awakened this morning with rain dripping on our bed through our roof...which is NOT a good way to start the day!  All told so far, I think we have had somewhere around 3"-4" with some more predicted.  Susie and I took two walks today just to survey the damage.  We have a number of trees down which will just give us a head start on next winters firewood but for the most part, even though the creek was up, it only went over the road in one area and even that was not bad enough to make the road impassable.  I actually have to give the road crew kudos in the fact that they have already resurfaced the road at the washout sight and have already re-paved and dozed the debris out of the way.  So...having said that....."Lord willing and the creek don't rise (again!)...we will be able to get out of the hollar in the morning for church.


PS....The above picture was taken at the middle falls at Burgess Falls State Park and NOT at our farm....as much as I wish it was! (If this was at the farm do you really think I would have a reason to stress out over water?)