Time for a Sod Soaker
This country needs a good sod soaker. Over the next few days, there may be one.
Annual precipitation at my place is roughly 12 inches per year. It’s enough to grow scraggly limber pine forestlands and sagebrush/grass/forb rangelands. There’s a 4-month long, cold but dry winter season delivering 12% of the annual moisture as dry snow. Running from November through February, nights are long, days are short.
The water cycle ramps up after these dry winter months. March through April bring heavy wet snows that account for 25% of the annual precipitation, coincident with gradual melting of the foot-deep or so snowpack that accumulated over the winter.
Then May and early June transition to cool, long duration light rains. The sod soakers. The late spring rains. The rains that last a few days. Light and gentle. Slowly soaking the duff and litter, then infiltrating into the soil. Accounting for another 25% of the annual. Gravity provides water to thirsty plant roots, wetting their feet as the sun powers vegetative growth.
Spring moisture. 50% of the annual in 1/3rd of the year. Add the water from the melted snow and the interspersed warm sunny days. Brown transitions to green. Wyoming green.
Time for a Walk in the Rain
Sod soaker season is a great time for a walk in the rain. A few weeks out of the year to don raingear and take off across the landscape. A time to watch the land come alive, with wildflowers blooming and migrating birds passing. Vivid colors galore, on the ground and in the air.
A time for cool drizzle to splatter on the hood of my waterproof coat. Quiet background music that allows my mind to wander. To relax. To refresh.
I’m looking forward to the next few days as a sod soaker settles into my neck of the woods. I’m hoping it will be a long and wet one, saturating the ground before the warm dry season begins in July and runs through October. Rejuvenating the landscape and the life that goes with it. Rejuvenating me.
The power of sod soakers and walks in the rain.
Until next time, I hope you can get out for a walk in the rain, wherever it may be.
Cheers…