Rainy Season Blues

Dear Reader,

We have faded from spring to summer in Central Florida, but today still had a few traces of nice spring weather.  I am sure when summer is actually here, I will long for the cooler days of late April, but it still feels pretty hot. Today is nice ,though, I wonder if it has to do with the rain that we are supposed to be getting next week. The months of March and April are pretty dry in Florida, but this year has been really dry. We had a mild winter, so the green grass came back a bit early, but by April, it looked almost like the middle of January, except that it was hot. Now it seems like the rains are coming a bit early, but I don’t think anyone is complaining.

On social media I have seen ranchers in the North and out West lament about seasonal depression. I think I would be depressed too, if I had to deal with six months of snow and freezing temperatures. My brain stops being able to function properly when it gets below 70 degrees. One thing that I find interesting, though, is that in Florida ranchers get seasonal depression too, just in the rainy season. Part of June, July, August, and September turn Florida into the endless swamp the conquistadors discovered it to be. People think that Florida comes to life when summer is here because that is tourist season, which is true, but for ranchers it is also getting the truck stuck in the mud season, cattle getting sick for various reasons season, cattle getting bogged down season, and being trapped in the house for days because of the rain season. But we are not quite there yet, so for now I will enjoy and take advantage of a dry round pen, a dry driveway, and not having to wear rubber boots almost every time I go to the barn.

It seems like the last few months I have been in such a rush to get things done and move on to the next thing that I wasn’t able to enjoy the beauty of what was happening around me, even if there was just a lot of brown. But there were also a lot of babies being born and frolicking around the pasture, there were lots of beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and the sounds of the birds and bugs coming back after a dormant winter.

Our easy spring is starting to look like a busy summer, with projects to be done round the ranch, vacations to go on, and animals to tend to. But I say that in a good way. In the summer, lots of times little cousins come to stay for a few weeks while school is out and it is fun to see them interact with a different environment. There are long evenings hanging out at the barn or playing ball in the yard until the mosquitoes come out. And there are also rainy afternoons at the laundromat because it rained on our clothes on the clothesline.

Summer is probably our harshest season in Florida because of the rain and humidity. But it also makes it exciting. I don’t know how many times we have dashed outside to get things done before the rain, and as soon as we close the door coming back in, it starts to storm. There are also times where the rain catches you, and all you can do is walk dejectedly back to the house soaking wet. There have been times where I thought, I am going to be struck by lightning and die. If you want to guarantee that something gets done during the day in the rainy season, you have to do it in the morning, because in the afternoon you are likely to get rained out. Things like exercise, riding horses, or hanging out laundry. But rainy evenings aren’t all that bad. It’s pretty cozy to curl up with a book or gather as a family to watch a movie while the wrath of nature pours outside.

By the time the rainy season comes to an end we will be more than ready for it, but it’s nice to enjoy the moments that can only be found in that season.

Sincerely and Humidly Yours,

The Rancher’s Daughter