Rain, Rain, Don't go Away
I've been fascinated with rain lately, which is odd since summers in Texas usually provide very little rain. So why have I been obsessed with rain as of late? Because it's free water for my dry yard.

I've had a yard now for about three weeks. I have sinced turned into a yard freak. If I could spend all of my time out there tooling around my yard, I would. I love it. I think I love it mostly because I'm obsessed with the fact that it doesn't look great, yet has great potential. My weird desire to 'straighten things' now has a new outlet. The yard.

I go through phases of being neat, countered with phases of caring less if I have clothes all over the floor. With the new house, I'm in 'nesting' mode. I'm so tired of looking at boxes and bags and things out of place that I have an intense desire to put everything away, right away. My home needs to feel like home. Now.

However, it takes quite a bit more time to unpack and put things in the proper place, than it did to cram it all in boxes. Sometimes I have to wait until I get 'the feeling' of where something should go before I can open the box and begin distributing the contents to the proper places. Not to mention, now that I have several rooms and an entire house, I often move things around several times before I'm satisfied with the location. When there are options, it makes it more of a challenge to properly unpack. The apartment options were pretty much living room, or closet. Now with more options, nesting takes time.

This 'nesting' routine and my current desire for neatness has spilled over into my yard. I haven't been able to spend as much time out there as I need to, but it's already starting to shape up a bit. I still have many dead things to remove. The former owner's attempt at a green thumb has left me with some very ugly and sadly dead tree and bush hopefuls. Alas, I must lay them to rest.

I'm beginning to think of new things to plant. I'm limited on cash at the moment, but I'm hoping to find some simple things to improve the look of my flower beds, in preparation for spring when I can do more. My new favorite word is xeriscape. This will be the key to my landscaping success. I'm very excited.

I've been worried about watering the yard, hence the thinking with the xeriscape water conserving native plants. My goal at this dry, hot time of year is pretty much to not let the yard die. My dream yard is nice and green and filled in completely, with pretty green landscaping bushes and flowers around the house and near the fence. The yard I have, however, is not quite yellow, somewhat green in a few spots, crunchy to the touch, and with a few odd sparse patches here and there. Bushes and flowers are nill, and/or dead. Not too nice, but not too shabby, either. It's gotten much better since I've been caring for it.

I can't afford to water the yard as much as it needs to be watered. Water is expensive, and it's very painful to watch my money sprayed all over the ground, only to disappear forever. Not to mention, it's an evening consuming project to water each section of the yard. It's not a large yard, but it takes several days to do the whole yard, then I start over at the beginning. I see now why people invest in sprinkler systems. Much more convenient, and dryer for me, I'm sure. I still manage to get shot in the back, or in the head by the sprinkler at least once during my watering routine.

So imagine my excitement to hear thunder clouds last night. This is rare in Texas in August, so at first I wasn't sure I was really hearing what I thought I heard. I'd come home from a dinner thing with the intention of watering my yard. I started in the front and made it through the first section. I moved the sprinkler to the next section, and again heard the glorious sound of thunder. A little closer, but still not with rain potential for my lawn, yet.

Up until a few weeks ago, I hated rain. It makes my Jeep dirty, and when hail comes with the rain, it threatens to damage the Jeep. This is no bueno. Plus, when going from apartment to Jeep in rain, I get wet. Again, no bueno.

Now that the Jeep has a lovely, dry home inside my garage, and I can get from Jeep to house through the garage rain-free, I am a big fan of rain. As the sound of thunder drew closer, and darker clouds began to roll in, I began a one-sided rain conversation of sorts, pleading with the rain to please come and rain on my yard. I was pretty close to doing a rain dance. . . when the lightening attacked.

I noticed the wind picking up and the lightening increasing, so I figured rain couldn't be far behind. I went outside to turn off the sprinkler and move the hose back to its hose spot by the house. Just as I reached the sprinkler, which was at the far side of the yard away from the house, an extremely large lightning bolt decided to flash close by, immediately followed by an enormous clap of thunder. I'm not sure exactly what a 'clap' of thunder is, but all I know is I saw bright light right before a really loud noise, and it scared the crap out of me.

I decided the hose could hang out in the yard for awhile, since it probably wasn't the safest thing for me to be outside holding a wet hose, standing near my house. So I hightailed it back inside where I would be dry and not in danger of lightning. Within a few minutes, I heard the most beautiful sound in the world. Hard rain.

I looked out in the backyard and watched it rain for awhile. It was a blessed sight. Lovely rain falling on my grass, accented by shots of lightening every minute or so. I could almost see my grass turning greener before my eyes.

Well, not actually. But I like to think so.

I'm praying for free water again tonight.

C.T.