Rain.....we were doing fairly well till two months ago, too. 'Normal' or 'average' is considered to be about 14-16" per year, more apt to be snow from about Nov. thru April, with the rain most often coming during the maybe 5month 'average' growing season.....but we have had lots of snow in both Sept. and even into June. Most calves we lost to snow was a really bad, if short lived, blizzard in May. Could not travel in any way to pick baby calves up. Very heavy, wet snow built up equally badly on horses hooves, 4-wheel drive pickups, and tractors. ALL were useless, plus losing ones direction was a real threat, too. We stock really conservatively, and have begun cutting numbers, so will see how it goes. We can get good fall rains, and our native grasses can recover pretty well fairly late into Oct. when we do. We are really blessed to have made the decision to put in lots of pasture taps when we got rural water here a few years ago. Seems costly, but sure makes a difference even when we don't have a drought, having the water well spread out to get the grazing more even.
Not sure how visible the eclipse will be here. I need to check out the details of it soon. It is supposed to be best in NE, not too far from us, and maybe in an area of SD within a hundred miles or so. We are about 120 miles from Valentine, which may be quite close to one of the special areas of NE to see it, but don't recall for sure just where that is. I'[m old enough to have seen a partial one many years ago. If you get to Mt. Rushmore, well worth the trip, imo, try to also see the lighting ceremony in the evening. That is pretty special. It seems like every part of SD has its special scenic places, and we recently found one new to us south of hiway #18 near the town of Rosebud. A road, BIA 5 follows the Little White River for a few miles, and it like dropping from SD prairies and plains into a miniature Black Hills, changing from cedar trees, Elms, and such to Pine Trees, Oaks, and similar trees like we see in the middle of the Black Hills on the west end of the state. Lived here for 77 and 81 years and it was the first time we saw that beautiful area! Guess there are real reasons this state is called "The Land of Infinite Variety"!
Hope you get to see the eclipse and many interesting places!
mrj