water

it is february twenty-seventh and my thermometer says it is very nearly fifty-four degrees ( fahrenheit )...which is fifteen degrees above the average ( yes, i know,averages lie...still it is an index ) high for this day of thirty-nine...however nowhere near the record of seventy-one, just to be clear...it is not an unheard of temperature for the day...just not the "usual"...

in the past tweleve hours we have received almost two inches of rainfall...and, looking at the radar from the national weather service a moment ago, there should be more...we will see...what has fallen has to go somewhere and there is considerable in the fields...

the water in this field has topped the berm and is filling the ditch...

in fact all the ditiches look like rivers at this point...

many ( this is not a scientific survey...it's me riding around with a camera ) of the fields have stubble, and so roots, left from last season's crop and will probably hold the soil together fairly well...a bonus of no till farming...

it seems there are just as many that have been turned under after harvest which has me wondering about soil loss from runoff erosion...not being immersed in farming i have no real idea why the disparity in post-harvest field treatment exists..."weed" control perhaps...one hopes it is a good enough reason to offset any possible loss to erosion