Another Dry Summer?

[Bird]

Good luck with the garden, DFB. Unfortunately, I tried to use my little Homelite pump recently and couldn't get the motor started (hasn't been used in over a year and then by my brother and he didn't run all the gas out of it)./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bird

 

[blaze]

About 40 miles northwest of Orlando

 

[Tdog]

Bird & Jimmoore,
Well the cool front made it through about 4 AM this morning. It made a lot of noise & rained almost 2/10ths of an inch - - I could kick up dust easily. By the end of the day it was a perfectly clear, and beautiful [& dry] day. We will get some more great weather out of this - - just no precip.
Oh well, back to the water hose tomorrow.

 

[Bird]

Tdog, you got more rain than I did. So I watered the garden this morning. How close are you to Baton Rouge? We have friends there, but haven't been down there now in 7 years. I love that Cajun cooking.

Bird

 

[MReeter]

Blaze,I sure wish I could send you'all some of the excess rain we've had this Spring.We live in N.W. Mo.and it seems to rain about every other day here.Very few of the area farmers have anything planted,fields are being taken over by weeds.We have managed to plant a few things in the garden,but the plants are just "sitting" there not growing at all.We've had to mow the yard,10 acres of it,twice a week just trying to keep it under control.The way things usually go is next year you'll be water-logged and we'll be burning up.

 

[Tdog]

Bird,

I'm about 70+ miles from BR. I live north of Lake Pontchartrain in rural, & dry, St. Tammany Parish.

 

[Bird]

I'm afraid we're going to be "rural and dry" too this summer. The last two years we've been plagued by grasshoppers and a lot of people thought a colder winter would take care of that. Well, we don't have what northern folks would call a cold winter, but we did have more days below freezing than I can recall in a long time. But unfortunately, we already have thousands of tiny grasshoppers./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bird

 

[Tdog]

Bird,

I don't envy you the grasshoppers. Don't you live in central Texas? When I was in high school about 40 miles west of Waco [& in an age long-long ago!] one year we were plagued by crickets. They would pop under the tires of cars, merchants would sweep them curb-high into the streets, they would swarm around streetlights at night. They would get in the house & their chirps would keep you awake. I understand that that hasn't occurred there since. Guess it was just a one year deal.

Bummer that this is the 3rd year of your infestation.

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Guess it was just a one year deal.</font color=blue>

Nope, it still happens periodically. I can remember that happening in Dallas one year in the early 60s, and it's happened once in the 6 years we've been here. I had to sweep dead crickets out of the shop building every morning that summer for a few weeks. Fortunately, we had no problem with them getting in the house (of course I sprayed diazinon around the house), but the local TV newsmen talked about some folks having that problem in Dallas. Personally, I'd rather have the crickets than the grasshoppers; the crickets are a nuisance, but don't do any damage to crops, gardens, etc.

Bird

 

[alan40]

Rained here in Northen Vt. last night. Went out this morning with the family and put in our seeds. Of course with a four year old helping sometimes we get our seeds confused.
He has his own little patch and we buy him a packet of mystery seeds. We have alot of fun trying to figure out whats what.
Now for the good news!!!!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif It's raining now and supposed to go on for the day. We need it!!!
Wish we could spread it around the country.
Have a great Memorial Day,
Al

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Wish we could spread it around the country.</font color=blue>

Me, too, Al. We got a quarter inch yesterday morning and just a few sprinkles this morning. And with the sun shining now, you can't even tell we got any rain. The garden sure does need watering, but I don't know what we'd do with all the stuff if I did water it./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Neighbors came and picked squash and cucumbers day before yesterday. Yesterday, I picked blackberries, onions, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, and bell peppers for us. This morning my brother and his wife came and picked turnips, beets, onions, broccoli, and bell peppers. Besides eating our fill, my wife has canned 3 cases of green beans in the last two weeks, and they need picking again.

Hard for me to imagine just now planting, but of course, my garden will probably be burned up and plowed under when yours is in its prime./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[DFB]

Bird, You sure can have my rain this week! Got 500+ plants in before it started to rain yesterday morning. Been raining steady ever since in southern Vt. About halfway done. Not supposed to clear up untill Thurs./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

DFB

 

[Bird]

DFB, I heard they got 2" to 4" 30 miles from me when I got that quarter inch./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif So I did spend a major part of the afternoon watering the garden, and still wish I had an inch or two of rain.

Bird

 

[Tdog]

Alan,

Thanks for the thought. I'd sure like to have a little of your sprinkles & I know Bird would too. We got another 0.2 of an inch last night. Not enough to dampen the soil below the surface. Not complaining - - I was happy to have it - - just wish we could get little showers like that every day or two instead of every 2 - 3 weeks, at best.

Giving your young'n his own mystery pack of seeds & his own garden patch is a great idea.

 

[blaze]

Wildfires very near our house, less than a mile away. Choking smoke lingers in the air, especially in the early morning hours. Interstate 4 and the Florida Turnpike, our major highways were shut down yesterday and again today. We are in serious need of rain.

South Florida might get a little today but it probably won't affect us.

 

[Bird]

Al (and DFB), I really appreciate the rain you sent us early this morning; got 1.13"/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif unexpectedly after I just spent all afternoon yesterday watering the garden./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif But we still needed the rain, so for that I'm thankful. However, it would have been so much better if you hadn't sent that howling wind along with it that's blown limbs down all over the yard, blew half the green plums off the trees, laid most of the corn on the ground, and peeled one corner of the barn roof back./w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Bird

 

[DFB]

Sorry to hear that Bird,/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif But that wind didn't come from here. So far all its been is a continous warm, gentle rain. No winds.

A couple of weeks back we had severe winds that flipped the covers right off the cold frames and took some vinyl siding off of the house./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

DFB

 

[Bird]

Well, I guess we were lucky; at least I don't find any damage to the house or shop building.

Bird

 

[jimmoore]

Bird, got about 2" here w/o the wind, thank goodness!!

jim

 

[Bird]

Jim, I'm glad for you that you didn't have this wind. I said it peeled a section of the barn roof back because that's what it looked like from here at the house; turned out I wasn't that lucky. The barn has a 12' "shed?" built onto one side. It not only goes all the way down that side, but extends about 10' beyond the barn on the end away from the house. Railroad cross tie posts, 2 x 10 and 2 x 6 framing, roofed with galvanized, corrugated sheet metal. So when I glanced out there and saw that sheet metal sticking up at the far end, I just assumed it had pulled loose from the framing, but no, the wind had lifted one corner, framework and all. That corner post was old enough, it broke off at ground level and then as the framework lifted, it pulled the next post out of the ground, so the end of the post was sitting on top of the ground. I didn't know whether a B2710 FEL was strong enough to lift that corner or not, but it did; got the one post back in the hole it came out of, and the broken one sitting back in place and temporarily reinforced with a steel "T" post until I can fix it right. I got all the limbs out of the yard, then my wife and daughter helped me pick up a little over 20 gallons of green plums out of the yard; a nuisance to pick up, but no real loss because the trees are still way overloaded with plums this year.

Bird