Precipitation in Paradise...

Precipitation in Paradise...  We had a surprise thunderstorm last night.  The forecast was for overcast, but we got a bit more than that – four tenths of an inch more, to be precise!  Our backyard is now once again a mud bowl, and it will take a few days to dry out.  Meanwhile, we have more rain actually forecast for this afternoon.

A couple of months ago, the locals with long experience here were worried about a drought.  Now they're worried about their hay rotting in the sopping fields.  Crop dusters (both fixed wing and helicopter) are having a boom time here, as many fields are too wet for a tractor spraying rig to traverse them.  I also saw a fantastical machine the other day (too far away to get a photo): a spraying machine with around a 100' wide spray boom, all running on the sort of giant balloon tires you see on dune buggies, but scaled way up.  Those tires spread the weight of the rig over quite a large ground area, and he wasn't sinking into the muck at all.  The photo at right will give you the general idea, but the one I saw was much larger...