My rain guages didn't come cheap, but I have plenty. I had a kid! Consequently I have dozens of makeshift rain guages scattered all over my yard. Here's a picture of While I'm kinda kidding, it does illustrate that it does not need to be fancy. In the sun, the water will evaporate out of the guage, so you can't keep an accurate running total with one. You must check and dump fairly regular no matter what type it is if you want to be accurate. 5 gallon buckets are a liability, as a kid can go head first into one and not get out. A child small enough to do that is also one young enough to not know any better.

Why on Earth does anyone need a rain gauge (other than a cup or bucket)? Are you going to keep historic documentation on rainfall or do you just like to know exactly how much rain fell at your house for conversational purposes? My rule is: If it rains, don't water. If it doesn't rain and plants look thirsty, water! I never lose plants from over or under watering. Keeping historic records on rainfall seems meaningless as patterns vary from month to month and year to year. While one year July may have little or no rain fall, the following year July may produce one half of all rain for the year. Go figure! One cannot calculate rainfall based on historical data and even averages seem to have a great deal of difference to actual amounts most of the time. For instance, in January, our average rainfall is 4 inches yet, in 2002 we had over 6½" and we are lucky to have gotten even 2" in 2003, 2004, and 2005. So if averages have a difference of 50% or more, what good are they? Therefore, I have given up depending on rain entirely! I wish I could just turn my entire property into a giant greenhouse and forget about weather. Everyone complains about the weather but, noone ever does anything about it.

Bon, I keep trying to convince myself that our drought situation is not as dire as it seems, but...c'mon....who am I kidding? I know how bad it is. I still haven't planted a single thing in the back garden. I want to. Truly I do. We didn't spend all that time breaking the ground and removing the existing vegetation and then fencing it all only to turn around and not use it. The plants we grew back there did great last year (except for the ones the voles ate), but that was largely because we had some good rainfall in the weeks after planting. I still had to water a lot in July and August. So, every day I think about planting something back there and then I waffle on whether to do it or not. So far I haven't planted anything. I feel like if I do plant back there, then I'll have to water. I don't want to water it. There's cracks in the ground about an inch wide in the non-gardening area surrounding it, so my head tells me not to plant the back garden unless we suddenly get a flood of rain. I wouldn't mind heavy flooding as long as it didn't damage anyone's homes and didn't hurt anyone. I wouldn't even mind if my garden flooded because the plants that died would be sacrificed for the greater good. I don't even want to think about dead trees either. We've removed a few and have more to remove, mostly native trees that were here when we bought the place. All the years of recurring drought got to them and killed them. We only try to take out the ones near the house. The dead trees out in the woodland are allowed to stand until they fall. Dead, standing trees can provide homes/shelter for wildlife, so we let them stay in there because we don't walk through there in snake season, making it less likely a tree will fall on our heads. Ironically, since they are the last thing we need, new cedar trees keep springing up everywhere. They aren't allowed to stay. The raised beds in the front garden are in great shape and, like your raised beds, that's my primary focus. I added tons of compost to all but a couple of those beds this year, so they retain moisture well and the plants are growing well in them. There's not enough room in them to grow everything I planned to grow in the back garden this year, but I'll just succession crop as much as possible and try to get the maximum production from them. When Scott first mentioned this week's rain a few days before it arrived, I tried not to get my hopes up. Eventually, after watching the QPF predicted rainfall numbers go up, up and up, I started believing. That was stupid of me. We never get what the QPF says we will. I can remember two times that we've gotten more than it says for a specific time period, but generally we get a whole lot less, or even nothing at all. One of these days I'll learn to stop getting my hopes up. I know how little rain we've received here this year, and I know how low it is in comparison to what we'd have in year-to-date rainfall in an average year. I just try not to dwell on those numbers because they are too depressing. Seeing them in black-and-white in our local, weekly newspaper just reminds me how bad it is, and when I saw the numbers today, I just cringed. These are the numbers from our local cooperative weather observer, whose place is just a couple of miles from ours....less as the crow flies. Our rainfall is often very close to his numbers. Year-to-date rainfall through May 6: 4.91". Average year-to-date rainfall through the end of May: 15.45". There is no way that we will get enough rain through the rest of May to get us anywhere near that 15.45". Even if he recorded a half-inch this week like we did, it doesn't help nearly enough, and our numbers in next week's paper will look almost as bad as this week's numbers. Our chances of rain for the next few days are very similar to yours, but it wouldn't surprise me if all the rain misses us as it so often does. We used to have such lovely springs with lots of rainfall and often had good rain even throughout June. Even though drought was a regular feature most years in July and August, it was bearable. The last few years, though, the spring rainfall keeps falling short....really short. Normally, in the summer months, by the time we reach Severe on the Drought Monitor, I've stopped watering and called it a year. Here we are in May, normally one of our wettest months, and most of our county is in Severe Drought and has been for a while, and the western end is in Extreme Drought. You just kinda start wondering what the point of planting is if it is all going to die. I'd say that at least half the people I know here who usually have gardens have planted very little, or nothing at all, this year. I can't say that I blame them, but it makes me sad when we drive by an empty garden plot that usually is green and thriving. My garden actually looks great, all things considered, but the amount of work, worry, irrigation, covering and uncovering of plants, etc. that it has taken to get there is ridiculous. Just keeping the garden alive to this point has been a full-time job. I'm stubborn, though, and don't give up easily, so I'll keep plugging along for a while. Dawn

Jeanie, surely you know about Old Indian Weather method? Hang rock outside of window or door. If rock is wet, is raining or foggy. If rock is hot, sun is shining. If rock is white on top, must be snow. And in OK, if rock has shiny covering of ice, too cold.! Go back inside, dummy! I do hope that everyone knows that there is totally, absolutely NO racial or ethnic slur even remotely intended there. It's just an old joke, is all. Pat