Rain, according to Merriam Webster, is water falling in drops condensed from vapor in the atmosphere.
I have lived through sprinkles, downpours and floods, but this particular year has been scarce in any precipitation falling from the sky at all. 
The Cherokee Indians, my husband’s ancestors, used “rain dances” to summon rain to nourish crops that would serve as food for the tribe. Legend dictates the rain received is filled with the spirits of passed Chiefs and as raindrops fall, the good spirits battle with the evil spirits. This is the reason that the dance is religious in nature.
It has always dumbfounded me as to how it can be raining on this parcel of our pastures and on the connecting grasslands, the sun is shining with no rain. I realize that there are scientific reasons, but not considering them, it just seems as if one cloud became so heavy and filled with water, it just burst open as the next one was just empty.
During the summers and the rain became insufficient, my mother would always comment “Guess we’re not paying the preacher enough!” I can remember asking her how much money our preacher needed to make it rain.
I have concern for those families who depend on their large gardens in the summer to fill their freezers for winter food. The lack of rain will surely affect the scarcity of food quantity.
Farmers’ enormous crops of mainstays will be limited, causing reduction in income. Ranchers like us will be short on hay to feed our cows. It has rained all around us, but not too much right where we need it. We see the fog-filled deluge about two or three miles away, but it never seems to make it here.
We are so in need of the rainfall now that every time we hear the drops ping against our red tin roof, we run out to the screened in back porch, sit down in our rockers and watch as the drops splat into our pond. We really need some entertainment here in the country!
If you drive by our ranch any time this dry summer and see us in feathered headdress with an extended rain stick, just know we are calling the rain down and we are paying our preacher more.
This is one of our favorite recipes using some of our garden’s bounty.
Okra, Tomatoes and Corn – 5 medium ripe tomatoes, peeled and diced and be sure to keep the juice, two ears of sweet cut off corn, ten medium pods of tender green okra, cut in small pieces, one finely chopped Vidalia onion, 4 slices of bacon. Cook bacon until crisp and drain before breaking into small pieces. Into the bacon grease cook chopped onion until transparent. Add tomatoes, corn, and cut up okra, and bacon pieces. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for about 30 minutes until juice has reduced.
–
Peggy Sims is a Kosciusko resident. She writes a weekly column for The Star-Herald.
