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What time of the year is it? It’s so confusing these days.

Is it summer? Is it fall? Do we live in a desert all of a sudden? Will my turnips survive?

Wow.

There’s so many questions these days. It’s enough to make one’s mind spin in circles, especially those of us who garden according to the seasons.

I went out late Friday night to do the usual chore, water the cool weather plants such as chard and kale, broccoli and collards, pansies and radishes.

But wait, what was that off in the distance? Was it ligntning? I had to do a double take. It had been a while since I’d seen it, so I wanted to be sure.

There was no mistake about it. It was lightning. So I looked upward, trying to gauge when the rain might start falling. Nothing but stars. I looked to the west. Clouds and lightning. I looked to the east. Clouds and lightning. I looked to the south. Clouds and lightning. I looked to the north. Clouds and lightning.

Above, nothing but stars.

I had yet to hear any thunder, so I turned on the water just the same. On the way to adjust the spray, that first crack of thunder came, so I turned off the water. I looked up. Still nothing but stars.

About 30 minutes later, I went back outside. Still not a drop of rain, but the winds were picking up. I considered turning on the water again, but decided no, I would wait. This feels like rain. Then the crack of thunder struck pretty close, even though in reality it was miles away.

I went back into the house, only to walk onto the porch to watch the rain. It was well past my regular bedtime, but heck, the way things have been going this may be the last rain I’ll ever see, I thought. It was a light rain. Very light. If it hadn’t been for the thunder and lightning, it was one of those rains you wouldn’t get out of if it came while you were outside. It left as quickly as it came. The rain gauge registered nothing.

I went outside and stomped in disgust. A cloud of dust rose.

A couple of days later, a friend who lives about 10 miles away said they saw the same thing: clouds and lightning everywhere but over their heads.

I got up early the next morning and watered the plants.

I could blame Al Gore for all this strange weather, but global warming was created as a political agenda. Politics has a way of taking a tiny bit of true evidence and blowing it out of proportion. As our presidential election begins to heat up even more, you’ll see plenty of that. The sad part is, the commercials and claims do no more than inflame the already inflamed. Nobody is changing anybody’s mind about global warming or impeachment or election meddling or immigration. We want to believe the news that aligns with our own views.

Whether global warming is as bad as Al Gore says or not, whether it is as fake as Trump says or not, really doesn’t matter. It just makes sense to take care of earth the best we can for ourselves and for future generations.

And besides, those turnips need water.

– Mike Barnhardt