We’ve been so long without our normal rain that we’ve almost forgotten how to live with it. We’ve forgotten about the voices in the rain.
Up till this point, we’d had a pretty dry year. Many of our neighbors reported that their water sources dried up. We worried about our own running out, and have been conserving water as much as possible to avoid hauling 5-gallon jugs from the spring over on Letnikof Cove.
Then the rains came. One morning I hiked up to the winter water tank, opened the spigot, and listened. Inside, I heard the echoing plash of a half-open water hose filling a vast bucket. I then visited the summer water tank, watching as I approached for the flow of water down its side, where a full tank overflows through the broken top (the man who sold the tank to our predecessor said it would never freeze and break; it did just that the first winter after it was installed!). I saw nothing, but when I peeked under the tarp, I found the water level within millimeters of cresting the edge. It would achieve overflow long before evening.
By Saturday morning, our winter water tank had filled completely.
Our water crisis is over. We’re returning to normal. And, the voices have come back. Continue reading
