Friday, July 9, 2010

Praying for Rain

See the tire swing behind my blooming Bee Balm? When we bought our home 6 years ago the previous owners asked us if we were going to keep the tire swing. We said yes we would. I loved the tire swing. No, I never did swing in it but I really wanted to. Our nieces and nephews and other young kids when visiting us would spend a lot of time swinging away. Tim and I noticed a few months ago that the branch that the swing was hanging from, was not looking too healthy. We had to tell the young ones that they were not allowed to swing on the tire anymore. It broke their hearts and it broke ours, too.
On Father's Day we woke up to this. The branch broke overnight. We are thankful that no one was hurt. We saved the tire and we plan to find a healthy tree branch and put the swing back up!
Look how nice my Bee Balm is looking..well I should say, WAS LOOKING.

This is how they look now. We have been having very hot weather here in Central Pa and very very little rain. We have well water and I have been trying to water the flowers but I get worried using our water to try to keep my plants alive. It breaks my heart to see them like this. I pray we get rain soon..Lots of RAIN! We need days of a good soaking rain.


This is our lawn. It is a crunchy, brown, horrible mess.

The field behind our yard is a field of soybeans. And beyond that field is a field of corn. They say that the corn should be "knee high by July". It may be knee high but it is looking bad. As much as I am upset with our flowers and grass dying at least we don't depend on those for our living. I feel so bad for the farmers. I pray that we get rain, soon. I will never complain about a rainy day every again!


On another note, Tim and I would like to thank all of you who have commented on the loss of our Dexter Dog. Your words of comfort have meant a lot to us and we thank all of you. We are missing Dex but we know he is running around in Heaven right now and all his pain is gone. It also helps to have Howie Dog with us. He is our crazy dog and when we feel like crying he makes us laugh. Again, a big thank you to all of you for being our friends.

I will end this post with pictures of my flowers before the drought and heat wave..sigh....

15 comments:

Holly Hills Primitives said...

Hi Patti, we finally got some rain here yesterday, so maybe it's headed your way! It's terrible dry here too and we could have used more, but at least it lasted all afternoon. Your flowers are beautiful! Have a great weekend, Dawn

Pat said...

We had the same thing happen to the branch where we had a swing for years. Lou had made a wood seated swing for the girls when they were young. The girls became adults as well as all their cousins so when it came down it reaaly wasn't missed. But I was just saying last week that he would have to made a new one and hang it on another branch for the next generation.

It's terribly dry here in Baltimore County too.

Cass @ That Old House said...

Patti -- your lawn could be a twin to ours. At least the grass will green up and come back after rain; some of the plants won't. But the farmers are the ones really suffering, you are so right about that.

Lovely, lovely bee balm. That's another one I'd like to tuck into the border soon!
Cass

peggy said...

hi Patti, I love pictures of flowers and gardens. I am sorry you aren't having rain. We had a good one yesterday and it has been very hot here in Michigan.
Also I am sad that you have lost your sweet dog. I'm sure he gave you lots of love that you returned to him. best wishes to all.

Erin | Bygone Living said...

You have such a beautiful yard! Wow!!

Beryl said...

Hi Patti, hope yall get some rain soon, we could use a little of the wet stuff too. Its so hot here in Alabama, I can see our meter going faster and faster. How did people put up with this heat before AC...Take care...

Kate said...

Patti,

Woke up to pouring rain here in Walnutport which is an hour or so West of you, so you probably got some much needed rain just as we did! YIPPIEEE! Never thought I actually welcome the rain, but since my flowers and lawn were looking much like yours I actually celebrate it's arrival!

bspinner said...

We had a little rain last night but only enough to wash the dust off the leaves of the plants. We lost three new shrubs we planted. To be truthful we didn't ask anyone to keep an eye on them. We were sure we would have had some rain during the 10 days we were gone. Northen Minnesota and North Dakota had fields that were left unplanted because there was so much rain they couldn't get into the fields. Wish we could get some of their rain!!!!

Sorry about the swing!!

bspinner said...

We had a little rain last night but only enough to wash the dust off the leaves of the plants. We lost three new shrubs we planted. To be truthful we didn't ask anyone to keep an eye on them. We were sure we would have had some rain during the 10 days we were gone. Northen Minnesota and North Dakota had fields that were left unplanted because there was so much rain they couldn't get into the fields. Wish we could get some of their rain!!!!

Sorry about the swing!!

Unknown said...

So sorry to see your sweet Dexter is gone. We too lost a long time family member of 16 long years. She was our Maggie, a chocolate lab, but we now have Phoebe a yellow lab that looks much like your sweet porch sitter at the top of your blog. They could be related. Our Maggie brought us so many wonderful years and I know she is like your Dexter, running and playing like a little girl again and just waiting for all of us to be walking down those unexplored trails together again. Tears.
Love your blog and I would be more then happy to send you lots of our rain. We have finnaly gotten a whole week of sunshine and my solar batteries have been recharged again and I can go back to sewing my critters and playing in the garden with Phoebe and Wallace are Chow mix sweetie. He is only 11 years old.

Unknown said...

I meant to add that it was better a broken branch then a broken arm. Yep, I know all about those broken limbs. Mine as well as the trees.
Jan

Cheyenne said...

That is the one thing with country living, we are always praying for rain, sunshine, wind to die down...whatever. Right now we are in the middle of haying and are praying for the rain to stop? Isn't that wild?

Anonymous said...

Your pictures are beautiful and so is your shop.... and Howie is adorable! You have my sympathy on the loss of Dexter.

Angie Berry ~ Berry Homespun Primitives said...

Well your flowers were beautiful, sorry they aren't doing so well now. I have a few looking like this too. We had a good couple weeks of rain and it was wonderful. But we have been on the 7th day straight of heat index 105 to 115. As you can imagine, the flowers aren't liking all that heat. Glad no one was hurt with the fall of the tire swing. We have one also and the kids just love it.

So sorry about Dexter. He was a beautiful dog! I'm sure you have many wonderful memories of him that will live on.

TeresaM said...

WOW Patti!!!! You guys sure were dry up there! Holy smokes!