A Muddy Road
It's that time of year again. The weather is fickle: warm and sunny one day, snow flurries the next, a little rain a few days later, and sometimes a bit--okay, a lot--more wind than we like. But, the crocus and daffodils are blooming beautifully, the grass is green at last, and the trees are leafing out. Our allergies are blooming, too, but we really do love spring, with its promise of new life and warmer, outdoor days ahead.
Here in the Nebraska panhandle, it's quite likely for us to get our spring moisture in the form of snow, but this spring's weather has been mild. Perhaps we should be grateful that last week's rain wasn't snow instead, because two inches of rain equals more than a foot of wet snow, and no one wants that right now. To tell the truth, we weren't really expecting nearly so much rain all at once; that just doesn't happen here very often.
But we aren't complaining, because we needed the moisture. Most farmers were thrilled with the slow, steady rain that fell onto their bare fields, just a few weeks before planting time. Meagan and Andy would have been pleased with the rain, too, except for one thing: the mud.
We're not talking about a little bit of annoying mud. No, this is the kind of gooey, ankle-deep mud that makes their quarter mile long lane impassable.
Now, normally, their lane is covered with gravel or crushed concrete, so they have had little problem navigating the lane after a heavy rain. In recent winters, though, they have had a lot of trouble with drifting snow on their long driveway. Andy's dad, who farms just up the road, is always able to clear the snow from their lane, but he decided that he could raise the level of the road, in hopes that the snow would blow off instead of piling into impenetrable drifts every time we get a significant amount of snow. And Stan was thrilled to find a source of free, delivered, fill dirt, so he kept busy while he waited for planting time, spreading the dirt on the lane with his backhoe.
He was almost done when the rains came.
We didn't really expect to get so much rain. It was a nice, soaking, two-day rain, followed by another rain a couple of days later. It smelled wonderful. The grass turned green overnight. The trees leafed out. And the lane became a miry, mucky mess.
For nearly a week, the lane has been too muddy for most vehicles to drive on. So, Andy and Meagan, along with Andy's folks, have devised an intricate system of travel. At first, Stan drove his four-wheeler up the lane, and transported Andy back to the gravel road to a vehicle that he could drive back and forth to school every day. After a day or two, it became simpler to just leave the four-wheeler parked at one end of the lane or the other, to provide transportation to and from the vehicle parked out by the road. But Meagan and the kids were pretty much stranded at home for most of the week, because the four-wheeler isn't big enough to carry the whole family, and even if the kids were old enough to try it, they don't have the right kind of boots or the stamina they would need to trudge all the way down the lane, through the muck.
It hasn't been so many years ago, when virtually all of the roads and city streets turned to mud after a rain. I read an article stating that, in 1910, there were only 144 miles of paved road in the entire country. In the late 1940's and early 50's, my dad and his brothers needed a Jeep to get to town so they could attend high school, but even then, they boarded in town during the week, and went home for weekends only when the roads were passable enough for their Jeep.
The early settlers stayed on their own homesteads for weeks at a time. Some of the women, in particular, yearned for the companionship of other women, but had to stay home with their families because the roads were inadequate for travel to the nearest town, except in the summer.
Now, we complain when our paved roads have potholes. We gripe about gravel roads that are rough and dusty, or muddy enough that our cars need washing after we drive in the country. It is rare for us to encounter the kind of mud that blocks our way, making travel impossible. After all, our SUVs have four wheel drive!
Meagan's family made it to church this morning, with some of them riding the four-wheeler to the vehicle at the end of the lane, and some walking on the edge of the lane where the mud is starting to firm up a bit. If the rain holds off for a few more days, Stan will be able to level the rutted road and spread some crushed concrete on top, so it will be passable again. Then, Stan can stop feeling guilty for the mess he thinks he's caused, and Meagan and Andy can stop feeling guilty for making Stan work so hard, and everyone can go about their business as usual again, grateful for crushed cement--and rain that makes the flowers grow.
Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone. Zechariah 10:1
Here in the Nebraska panhandle, it's quite likely for us to get our spring moisture in the form of snow, but this spring's weather has been mild. Perhaps we should be grateful that last week's rain wasn't snow instead, because two inches of rain equals more than a foot of wet snow, and no one wants that right now. To tell the truth, we weren't really expecting nearly so much rain all at once; that just doesn't happen here very often.
But we aren't complaining, because we needed the moisture. Most farmers were thrilled with the slow, steady rain that fell onto their bare fields, just a few weeks before planting time. Meagan and Andy would have been pleased with the rain, too, except for one thing: the mud.
We're not talking about a little bit of annoying mud. No, this is the kind of gooey, ankle-deep mud that makes their quarter mile long lane impassable.
Now, normally, their lane is covered with gravel or crushed concrete, so they have had little problem navigating the lane after a heavy rain. In recent winters, though, they have had a lot of trouble with drifting snow on their long driveway. Andy's dad, who farms just up the road, is always able to clear the snow from their lane, but he decided that he could raise the level of the road, in hopes that the snow would blow off instead of piling into impenetrable drifts every time we get a significant amount of snow. And Stan was thrilled to find a source of free, delivered, fill dirt, so he kept busy while he waited for planting time, spreading the dirt on the lane with his backhoe.
He was almost done when the rains came.
We didn't really expect to get so much rain. It was a nice, soaking, two-day rain, followed by another rain a couple of days later. It smelled wonderful. The grass turned green overnight. The trees leafed out. And the lane became a miry, mucky mess.
For nearly a week, the lane has been too muddy for most vehicles to drive on. So, Andy and Meagan, along with Andy's folks, have devised an intricate system of travel. At first, Stan drove his four-wheeler up the lane, and transported Andy back to the gravel road to a vehicle that he could drive back and forth to school every day. After a day or two, it became simpler to just leave the four-wheeler parked at one end of the lane or the other, to provide transportation to and from the vehicle parked out by the road. But Meagan and the kids were pretty much stranded at home for most of the week, because the four-wheeler isn't big enough to carry the whole family, and even if the kids were old enough to try it, they don't have the right kind of boots or the stamina they would need to trudge all the way down the lane, through the muck.
The early settlers stayed on their own homesteads for weeks at a time. Some of the women, in particular, yearned for the companionship of other women, but had to stay home with their families because the roads were inadequate for travel to the nearest town, except in the summer.
Now, we complain when our paved roads have potholes. We gripe about gravel roads that are rough and dusty, or muddy enough that our cars need washing after we drive in the country. It is rare for us to encounter the kind of mud that blocks our way, making travel impossible. After all, our SUVs have four wheel drive!
Meagan's family made it to church this morning, with some of them riding the four-wheeler to the vehicle at the end of the lane, and some walking on the edge of the lane where the mud is starting to firm up a bit. If the rain holds off for a few more days, Stan will be able to level the rutted road and spread some crushed concrete on top, so it will be passable again. Then, Stan can stop feeling guilty for the mess he thinks he's caused, and Meagan and Andy can stop feeling guilty for making Stan work so hard, and everyone can go about their business as usual again, grateful for crushed cement--and rain that makes the flowers grow.
Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone. Zechariah 10:1
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