~and it all started with a rain barrel~

     It was weird to think of just how quickly the words came out of my mouth on this past Sunday afternoon. 

     Mike and I had been outside planting many of the seeds that we've been gathering over the past few weeks.  When we finally finished up, I told Mike that we ought to try out the new rain barrel we brought back from Kansas in early February.  The recent rains had filled it to the brim and like two kids with a brand new toy, both of us wanted to see just how it worked.

     Mike had brought the hose over to me in the front yard, near to where the chrysanthemums had been transplanted from our old house on the far side of town.  We were trying to figure out just how to get the water to drain out, when Mike laid the hose down on the ground and the water began to run out.  The only issue was that it was soaking an area that we didn't need to be watered.  Without even thinking, the words spewed out of my mouth.  It was an utterance that reminded me of just why we got the rain barrel to begin with.
     We want to be better stewards of the water.

"Mike, it's running out and we're wasting it!"

     Quickly we picked it back up and moved it to the spot where it was most needed.  After soaking down the seeds and plants, we checked to see how much water was actually drained from the barrel.  The answer was "not much".  It would appear that we have plenty to learn about using that type of system but at least we have made the choice to start learning as much as we can about water conservation.
     About this time last year, Mike and I made the decision to move to this part of America.  Mike sat down at the kitchen table in Montrose, Colorado with an atlas set before him.  He opened up to the great state of Texas, looked at it for a moment in time, and then drew a circle around the city of Wichita Falls.  That's how we made the decision to come here.  We knew that this part of Texas was in the midst of a 5-year drought, something that Mike's late Aunt Margaret told us about each time we would call her at her home in Olney.  We really didn't realize the extent of how dry it was but it didn't take us long to find out.  People said we were crazy to leave the beauty of the Colorado mountains and move to a place where water went by two names.  
     
Slim and None.

      By the time we had begun packing our belongings in early May as we anticipated our move, the drought was broken by an abundance of heavy rains.  So much water fell that great floods came with it.  By the time our moving truck rolled through the city of Wichita Falls on May 29th, the flood waters had subsided for the most part.  Only a few spots of water remained to be dealt with.  
     I remember so well our first few weeks here and how surprised I was to see the lack of anything beautiful growing in folks' yards or hanging from baskets on their porches.  Back in the mountains of Colorado, we had flowers and plants galore.  The front yard was always filled with them and our deck was adorned in huge pots that showed the colors of the beautiful things planted inside.  Our house was filled with plants, in fact the old sunporch had so many that we had to give away several of them before we left.  There just was no room for them in the moving truck and our cars.  When we arrived here, it was totally the opposite.  Years of living in drought like conditions had prohibited folks in our new home from having many flowers, gardens, or lush vegetation at all.  By the time mid-June rolled around, several of the stores in the area began once again to have beautiful flowers for sale.  The happy faces of people buying them once again was a wonderful sight to see.  
     The current drought map of the United States indicates that parts of Texas are still considered abnormally dry so every chance that we get for moisture to fall is a real blessing to those of us (the Renfro Family included) who call Texas "home".  Wise people remember that the drought may have left for now, but it most certainly can return once again.  For Mike and I, it just means that we have to learn to do what we can to save every drop of that precious commodity that falls.  And for us, it all begins with a rain barrel.

It was so nice to see Lake Arrowhead filled with water this past September.  Texas is a beautiful state with so much for people to see and do.  Mike and I are going to try camping there come this summer.

     And life goes on~