Sunset after Rain

We got rained out at the farm on Saturday!  We went out early and even checked the radar beforehand.  The radar showed a teeny tiny green spot some distance away from us, but as soon as we pulled up huge rumbling clouds were already descending.  When we checked the radar again, we were sitting in the middle of a fuchsia-colored cloud and there were severe thunderstorm and flood warnings.

I've been terrified of lightening since hearing my fifth grade teacher tell us three grizzly stories of people who were struck, so I unloaded the milking stuff and headed back into the truck with Clothilde and the big kids.  Ethan is braver about that sort of thing, but just seconds after two really close lightening crashes, he jumped in as well.  We sat in suffocating, hot and humid misery in the truck for 45 minutes, while I read everyone fairy tales.  Of course during the worst of it Mirin decided he had to pee and couldn't hold it. 

Once it seemed to be letting up, we went back out.  We had about five minutes to do a few more things.  Clothilde fell asleep on Ethan's back in that space of time, which made her even more miserable when the rain came pelting down again, and the lightening started up even worse than before.  We all ran for the truck again.  Mirin and Rose had to strip down before getting in because they were all sandy from trying to shelter in the pit.  Mirin claims he saw flames in his pit after one of the really close lightening crashes.  Ethan peeled the sleeping, soaking wet toddler off his back and handed her to me to be comforted.  We sat in the hot, humid, suffocating truck again.  It was two hours since we had left for the farm, and hardly anything had been done.  The radar was updated showing an unmoving thunderstorm parked right over us.  We were all soaking wet and/or sandy and completely miserable.  The big kids were whining like ungreased hinges.

"Can we just go home?" I asked Ethan.  We did.  For the first time in all these years of farm chores, we turned around and went home.  Ethan dropped me and the children off, and went back out to finish the chores alone.  We had a wonderful evening after that.  It's amazing how nice it is to not be wet, cramped and feeling like you can't breathe.  We baked cookies and played card games and had an early bed time.  Bliss!!

Ethan didn't have such a good time of it, of course.  The goats were extra uncooperative, and he wasn't back until 11pm.  But he said the sunset was really beautiful out there, and there was even a rainbow when he arrived.