A walk in the rain

Having dumping five inches out of the rain gauge, it is in the process of filling up again.  The rain shows no sign of letting up, so I put on a raincoat and my Canada hat, which works almost as well as an umbrella, and went for a stroll.  Cliff told me to check and see if the disked-up part of the pasture was washing.  

 It didn't look too bad on the west side. 

 I'll bet the cows are enjoying the coolness of the rain, after suffering through record temperatures all summer.  

 The pond has been dry for several weeks.  Isn't it amazing what five inches of rain can do?  

 Oops.  The east side of the field washed terribly.  This is what happens when you have sandy soil and try to farm on a hillside.  On the bright side, once this mud dries out so I can walk on it without sinking in, I should be able to find a few of these: 

I found this one in the seedbed last weekend while walking with my sister-in-law.  It isn't perfect, but it's always a thrill to find proof that you are walking where Indians once walked.

  Yep, I'll bet I find some arrowheads in a few days.  

More memories

I went looking in an old photo album, hoping to find a picture of the 8N Ford tractor I mentioned in yesterday's post.  Cliff cannot recall ever seeing a picture of that tractor, although I seem to remember seeing a hazy picture (aren't all my old photos hazy?) of Cliff on that tractor, holding our son.  If such a picture exists, I didn't find it today.
What I did find was a group of pictures from that time period depicting a very exciting episode of our farm life:  We had a pond built!  

This is where the dozer-man was marking the outline of the pond.  

There was some rain, which started the pond filling with water before it was done.  Cliff took a vacation day from work to watch the pond being dug, but the guy only worked half a day and then went fishing.  

Judging by the size of my children in this picture, we must have had the pond built in 1971.  
We swam in it sometimes.  We had it stocked with fish, although I don't remember catching anything but tiny sunfish.  
Our cost was $666.  Oh my goodness, we thought we were in tall cotton.  
I'd love to have a pond like it on this place, but the windblown sandy soil on which we live doesn't hold water like that Oak Grove clay did.