I was a farm kid so I learned first hand how important a rain gauge was to the farm operation. Rain was an essential ingredient for a farmer to produce a successful crop so it is obvious the farmer needs to know the amount of rainfall his maturing crops are receiving.
Also knowing the amount of rainfall for each cloudburst is essential because that information needs to be shared with neighboring farmers over a steaming cup of coffee. Actually it becomes a competitive contest to see which crop land received the most rain.
“My gauge showed one inch and 3 tenths,” reported the neighbor as he cradled his hot cup of coffee in one hand and clasped a smoldering cigarette in the other.
I remember my Dad’s eyes lighting up as the competitive juices began to flow and he replied, “Our gauge recorded one inch and 4 tenths.”
Our neighbor was disappointed of course but how do you argue with a rain gauge?
I found out that city slickers don’t know about rain gauges. When I was attending grad school at the University of Oklahoma our plant taxonomy class was on a field trip gathering Oklahoma plant species.
We stopped for lunch at a quaint little town that had a 1940’s type restaurant. We all slid into old fashioned, high backed booths and the waitress began taking our orders.
The cash register sat at the end of a long counter fronted by stools with swiveling seats. Since a rain storm had just passed through the area farm work had come to a stand still and the swiveling seats were all occupied by coffee drinking farmers.
We were sitting eating our meals when suddenly one of our classmates burst into laughter.
We asked him what was so funny? It seems he had been eavesdropping on the coffee drinking farmers and had overheard something that he had never experienced before.
“You guys won’t believe this but those farmers are talking about how much rain they got,” the young man replied and then he began laughing again.
In the student’s defense he was a biology teacher from the city of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He was a city slicker! He probably thought the evening news weather report was the only way to find out about rain fall amounts. 🙂
Several of us in the group grew up on the farm so we quickly straightened him out that sharing rain amounts is what farmers do when they drink coffee. Every farmer worth his salt has a rain gauge.
In the early years farmers didn’t even have to buy a rain gauge. As Christmas approached the grain elevator, an insurance company, a bank or possibly the local lumber yard would give rain gauges away with their business names proudly printed on the metal holders.
I was a pumpkin farmer for twenty years and I depended on my trusty rain gauge to keep me updated with the amount of rain falling on my fields.
Most rain gauges have a short life span, a year or two at most. But that’s no problem because a trip to any hardware store will introduce you to quite a variety of devices to capture falling rain. They do not have the hardware store’s name on them however. The holiday freebies are over and now you need to pay the big bucks for a rain catcher.
About ten years ago my wife and I attended a benefit where they had a silent auction along with a free will meal. As we slowly walked by all the silent auction items something caught my eye.
There it stood in all of its radiant splendor. An official meteorology rain gauge! I began to lust for that beautiful device. You see it measured rainfall to the nearest hundredths of an inch.
Think how I could dominate the discussion at coffee time with such a device. Especially since most other rain gauges measured only to the nearest tenth! 🙂
Luckily the benefit attenders were not as impressed by the official meteorology rain gauge because when the silent auction was over I became the proud owner of that beauty! My pumpkin crop would now have the most accurate rain fall totals ever to be recorded during my pumpkin farming career!
As the years flew by I proudly recorded each rainfall in my rainfall notebook and every recording was to the nearest hundredths. It made me proud. 🙂
Then something strange began to occur. I had the rain gauge attached to a wooden post about three feet off the ground.
Something began to attack my official meteorology rain gauge. One morning I rose and peered out the window to admire my beautiful gauge. I gasped when I saw it laying in pieces on the lawn!
The large funnel that caught the rain had been removed and teeth marks revealed an animal had chewed on it. The funnel normally emptied into a smaller tube that fit inside a larger tube. Both tubes were scattered in the grass and they too had received bites.
I rushed out and put the rain gauge back together. Thankfully teeth marks on the plastic was the only damage done and the rain gauge was ready to measure the next rain happening.
Baby raccoons were suspects to the mischievous behavior and several more rescues of the dismantled rain gauge took place that summer.
My twentieth year for growing pumpkins became my last and the old rain gauge seemed to sense the end was near. When I went to put the tooth scarred rain gauge away for the winter I was shocked to see the thick plastic outer tube had cracked and broken.
The gauge must have sensed there would be no more need to measure rainfalls to the nearest hundredth of an inch. Its usefulness was over.
Sadly I placed that once majestic rain gatherer into the garbage can and promptly headed to the hardware store to get a replacement so I would be ready for the next gardening season.
Measuring rainfall has never been the same since. The gauge I replaced my official meteorology rain gauge with met a tragic end when I accidently drove over it while mowing the lawn.
This spring I returned to the hardware store and purchased another rain gauge. It is fastened to a post in the middle of the Iris patch. That should eliminate the possibility of another mowing accident.
As I put my newest rain gauge up I noticed it was made of the thinnest plastic. The way things have been going with rain gauge survival a minor hail storm this summer could easily end another rain gauge’s career.
Only time will tell.
It hasn’t rained yet since I erected my newest rain gauge. Maybe it won’t rain! Climate change may be calling for a drouth. If that happens my new gauge may last longer then I expect. 🙂
Until next time.
