First Good Gully-washer of the Season

Yesterday we got our first good gully-washer of the season. Half of the rainfall in our area comes in the Winter rains, the other half in the Summer monsoons.  The monsoons started a bit late this year, then opened up and dumped on areas of the county, but we managed to just acquire a few little sprinkles here and there.

Then, Thursday morning, As I was out working on transplanting some plants, and talking with Wyatt about the Buckeyes, we looked at the skies darkening in the East. We figured it couldn't be much, since the weather forecast was supposed to be a lower chance of rain than the forecasters had said the night before, and it wasn't supposed to increase until the afternoon.  We got a good laugh out of Miss Shadow Paws.  She knows that owls and hawks want to eat the chickens, so this owl, which has set atop the clothesline since has now suddenly become suspect.

We thought you might enjoy this video. She is very sure-footed, and jumps from the shorter spool to the larger one, then barks like crazy without understanding why the owl won't fly away.  What a goofball!

Just as I told Wyatt to get in gear and go clean the Buckeye pen, the sky opened up.  In no time at all, the buckets were overflowing, and the puddles had appeared and were growing.

The troughs, a temporary catchment though improper long term water harvesting solution, were not keeping up!

The chickens were worrying Wyatt, and the goats were worrying Bailey, and the lightening hadn't arrived, so they took off to check on everyone and gather any last unused buckets to catch more water.  As the property saw water standing everywhere, Wyatt wanted to run back out in the rain to make sure everyone had and could get to a dry spot out of the rain.  I looked over at the soaked boy when he returned and Bailey and I laughed at the shirt- had we called in the National Guard? =)  Nah, just the chicken guard.

Here is some water pouring down...

 And Shadow got back at it any time we let her... but we had to be careful of the lightening, because normally there is lots of it, though yesterday almost none by comparison!

It was much later when we managed to get video of the geese, and they only want to play when the video is no where close!  They were often up to their mid legs, and diving in the puddles, rolling and playing like it was a party!

Certainly the happiest animals here during the storm!

The kids rather anjoyed a smoothie break, but Wyatt was accidentally left unsupervised with the whip cream - OOPS!  He does make some excellent smoothies, but Bailey and I are hiding the whip!

Hope you all have plenty of rain!  How are your animals fairing in the monsoons?  How is it where you live?