For probably the third time in the 20 years that I have been married to a Swisher County boy, I saw rain in Tule Creek. Tule Creek, usually dry, has three forks, the Upper, Middle, and Lower Tule. The three finally merge together roughly five miles east of Tulia. This is the watershed that eventually feeds into Lake Mackenzie, which has been extremely low for the past few summers because of prolonged drought. The Texas Panhandle has a reputation for being a dry and brown place, but this year has proven us wrong. Just look at this photo! This is Tule Creek, bursting at the bank, rushing to Lake Mackenzie.

A year ago, the region was in extreme drought, and we cringed at the never-ending cracks in the ground as La Nina had a choke hold on the area. We prayed and prayed for rain all of last summer.

God answered this spring in a big way.

This has been one of the rainiest springs I can remember. The lakes across the area are full, the ground is saturated, and now we wait to plant sorghum and harvest wheat. The Panhandle is flat, really flat, but the landscape is dotted with what we call playa lakes. They’re indentations in the ground that collect water. Right now, they are way out of their banks,. A really cool phenomenon happens when the playa lakes fill – the frogs come out. And boy, were they talking. Check out this video of the frog song I captured. If you see me jerk the camera it’s because I was swatting mosquitos.

The landscape has awakened and it is bursting with color this spring. With the rain, though, we sometimes get hail. A lot of Scott’s wheat has hail damage. It’s so disheartening to work for months to grow a crop, only to see it get thrashed, and of course, the worst damage is on his best field. To be clear, this didn’t happen to all his wheat. His fields are spread over several miles, so some of the fields are fine.The pictures below show pitiful heads and grain on the ground. More rain and severe weather are in the forecast for the weekend. We’ll take the rain without complaints, but we can do without any more hail.