Timing Is Everything

I spent most of the day doing inside work, as it looked like it would burst out raining at any moment. Dark sky, heavy clouds, the feel of rain in the air.

About 2PM I decide that it isn't going to rain, and get the sheep out for a walk. The power company mowed the sides of the road and around the poles of the power lines, and new grass is sprouting.

It starts raining on the way up the hill.

No big deal, we can all handle rain. The sheep and goats are THRILLED with the grass. Yum yum.

It starts raining harder. Sheep don't seem to care, so why should I? I traipse through the newly cut areas, figuring out where I can put fencing to make a new pasture. Goats are inching back towards home.

Now it starts pouring. Sheep start moving down the hill. I follow. Half way back it starts to hail. We all move faster. Then it becomes torrential hail and rain. My entire property looks like rice patties eerily tilted. The sheep run under the neighbor's garage eaves. I join them.

After some time I decide the rain and hail aren't going to stop, and the goats, some of the sheep and I head back home. The rest of the sheep stay out to eat the field behind the neighbor's. I haul a bale of hay through the mud and muck in the driving hail to the shelter, followed by complaining goats. I put everything away, head up the hill. I am completely soaked and dripping.

Hail stops, rain lightens. By the time I get to the house the rain stops. I go out at dusk to gather the rest of the sheep. It still isn't raining.

*Sigh* Perfect timing.