OK Carmen, you know it's not nice to not share ;) Send it our way, alright ? We got about .01 of an inch yesterday, just enough to mock me.

none :(

I got almost an hour of fairly heavy rain.
I don't know the rain total here, but it was good.
The ground is wet down deep and my Seminole pumpkin vines took notice and are standing up straight and tall.

Lou

Grrrrr....
Nothing here and doesn't look promising for the immediate future.
But I'm happy for those of you were lucky -
Off to drag out the hoses.

About 10 spots as I was out for my morning run yesterday! Taunting!

1/10th of an inch :-(

Still none here! Even with a 50% chance!!! I need to see a presentation on how to do the rain dance please!

We have an 1150 gallon cistern that we buried in the backyard and a 3/4 HP submersible pump for watering and washing the boats. All the gutters and downspouts from the roof, except for one front garage area, drain back to the cistern and it has an overflow out the seawall.

Here's a link to my pool blog that has several entries about the cistern with lots of pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: My pool blog

St Pete Times, Thursday, front page of the Baylink section, had an article that featured a battery-operated, solar charged pump for rain barrels
It's called a Rain Perfect Pump and looks pretty cool.

I forgot to mention in my last post that it takes about a 15 minute rain shower to fill that cistern and start overflowing.

Beautiful rain here again this evening... Thank You Lord!

Lou

not a single drop in my area :((

Got another nice rain shower this evening.
Lou, thank you Lord is right, my prayers are already going out for safety in this upcoming huricane season, I hope it's nothing compared to what all is goin on in other parts of the country.
Happy Gardening
Carmen

Still no rain here. We have about a 30% chance today. Maybe we'll get lucky! However, I feel my luck has run out because out AC went out! AC broke + weekend + holiday weekend = $$$$ Not happy!

Just came in for lunch and to check weather reports for the 80th time---weather channel says 80% of widespread showers but the weatherunderground and nooa still say 20%. guess which one I'll stick with!!!
Erin - welcome to Florida gardening weather issues and living without ac - when we first moved here, our house didn't have ac and we went for about 7 years that way. Took a lot of cold showers! and wished for cooling rains...that never ends.

The AC and I have a love/hate relationship. I lived in Michigan the first 25 years of my life and never had AC. We had a pool in the backyard and ceiling fans! If it was really hot, right before bed, I would go swimming and then go to bed. Now I'm thankful to have AC but I'm either sweating my butt off outside or freezing my butt off inside! I'm never comfortable! We're currently still waiting on the repair man to come fix the AC. However, as soon as we realized it wasn't working I closed all the shades and turned on all the fans so we're maintaining 78 in the house! It's not too bad actually!

>so we're maintaining 78 in the house!

Hate to say it, but I'd try to get used to 80 during the day. You'll find that when the really wearing hot weather kicks in, the less contrast between going in and out the better. You won't like it at all at first (I can still remember when I was in college in Rochester NY and I'd leave there in a blizzard in May and come home at at time when of course the AC wasn't on yet, I'd think I was going to die for the first three days or so, but you do adapt pretty quickly, and you'll like your electric bill a lot more.)

C9 - the journey of your pool and cistern is totally fascinating. And I'm most impressed by your installation of walker friendly steps!

Oh, and Lake Mary continues to hold her umbrella over herself and keeping the rain showers away. Bah humbug. I really wish I had the back garden rain harvest system in, but I'm stuck on how-to gutters.

~dianne

Coop, we bought a rain barrel at Sandi's feed store on Hwy 77 north of the mall for $50. Bought another one furthur up 77 in Southport before. We had bought the last one Sandi had, but if you call maybe she will have some more at some point.

UGH I did it again! I thought for sure we would get rain today. My cool glass, liquid barometer said it was going to storm. Stood outside a moment getting eaten up with yellow flies and it started to sprinkle so I put out all my pot and baskets again where they could get some fresh rain and then . . . it went away and we didn't get anything! Thanks Kumquat! I will be checking it out. I really don't want something unsightly though. Don't really have a lot of room to put it so it will probably be out in the open.

Erin, you can use a heavy duty trash can. The 55 gallon brute's in gray would probably blend in somewhat. I went with black, because black is a good color for causing something to disappear.

This is only 32 gallons but it was less than $20. Walmart usually has decent prices.

Since this lid is domed, I turn it over for rain collection. Drilled a hole in the top. Made the screen thingie. I keep a mosquito dunk in it when it actually has rain water. Trouble is, once you get started, you quickly realize how much more water holding capacity you need.

Oh, and if you are really needing something to look nice, you can always paint it. This is a black plastic nursery pot. Just prime it with the spray on plastic primer, then use whatever kind of paint you want.

~dianne

Friday night I thought of this post. OMG, here in South Orlando/Kissimmee we had a HUGE storm on Friday night. Hail, my garden flooded, it flooded into my back room, etc. WOW.

Nope still none :(

Arrghh. Checked the cistern and it's almost uncovered the pump (which is elevated about a foot from the bottom so that there is always water weight in it). All I need is about 15 minutes of a good rain to fill it back up.

HM- BTW, I flew C-9's in the Navy until I retired about 4 years ago. Last May, it rained every day for something like 35 days. This May, I'm not sure we've gotten any rain. Welcome to Florida!

Thanks, Dianne! I have no idea in which post I mentioned that, but we thought really long and hard about all the design aspects. That included getting the handrail base poured now, with the intention that we could install it when needed, whether my FIL visits or when it just gets easier for us.
-Lisa

It will come, June 1st. is start of rainy season...dry season, was not as bad as previous years, so get over it! LOL (in Fl. 30 yrs.)

susieq07 - Maybe it isn't as bad as previous years in YOUR yard, but you should know if you've been here so long that Florida's rain comes in patches. In my yard it has been unusually bad due to the many record breaking hot days and early onset of the heat this spring.

For me in Central Fl...rainy season doesn't actually arrive till after summer starts (June 21)...most of the time we won't see regular thunderstorms till the third week of June.

Hope it will be a normal or above normal rain for everyone!

Like Amber mentioned when its this hot for weeks and weeks in a row the occasional rain we get doesn't do much good (long term)...especially if its SO far between rains. So much worse for those that don't get any at all.

Thunder boomers and gully washing downpours here, I hope others are getting some of this needed rain as it moves across Central Florida from east to west.

Lou

I am getting a downpour in Astatula. Was out mowing grass and all of a sudden it started to downpour.

Yay! Heavy black clouds, thunder, and.......RAIN! At last! I swear I can hear my plants singing - oh, wait,.....perhaps it's me!

Coming this way - yippee!!

Ooooooooooooooh I hope we get some of it up here in the pan handle. However, I will not be holding my breath. Only a 30% chance POO!

Ah....... so wet.

thank you Lord for this wonderful rain woooo hoooo

Which one of you is doing the rain dance!!!!
it is pouring here.
Happy Gardening
Carmen

Yes, almost an inch here!! I LOVE it and so does my plants! Always nice when I don't have to drag the hoses and use city water.

Well, I didn't mow today. And that is just fine. I'll take the rain, tyvm. 3/4" here. Our plants are doing the happy rain dance!

It would be really nice if the buddleia I transplanted over here would wake up. Speaking of buddleia, any tips on where I can find a yellow buddleia?

Rain, such lovely rain. I sat on the front porch with my cuppa and watched and reveled in wet stuff falling from the sky. And in breaks from the rain, dashed about spreading grass seed and lime and seed cover. And plugging more mimosa.

~dianne

Being part Native American I started doing the rain dance, and prayed for rain.
During the lull in the showers I threw down the sombrero and did the Mexican hat dance, and prayed for hair.
Then I did the pee pee dance and went changed my depends, and prayed for sanity.

Was a busy day,
Lou

Dianne I found my yellow Buddleia at the USF Plant Fair in April. It was from Colorfield Farms who always have a large selection of plants there. They are in Wimauma so closer for you than USF is. It might be worth a phone call if you can't find a YB more locally.

The Annual Butterfly, Herb and Native Plant Fair at USF in Tampa is only just over a week away on June 11 and 12.

OK, sorry to bring down the festive celebration, but send your rain vibes our way. Although just about 3 miles from my home got about a 1/4 inch yesterday, still bone dry in our section of the beach. We are really desperate. It's bad. Cocoa Beach South needs your good thoughts. We're in a rain vortex: Satellite beach will get the uppermost of the rain south of us and the rain seems to stop at Ron Jon's to the north. Sigh.

It is all around but keeps going around us!! I'm thinking of "accidentally" leaving some expensive electronic gadget out, that might bring some rain.
I even went out biking the other day and got caught in a major monsoon a couple of miles away, got home and bone-dry. sigh.

@Lou
ROFLOL!!!

The cistern is full!!! Yay!
(this is the overflow)

CocoaBeachLorax, I feel your pain. On the coast here in West Palm Beach and we are in the worst drought since 1971. Nary a drop. I knew this was the wrong time to start up gardening again. If we can just hold on a few more weeks, it usually starts to rain around the end of June. Man, this is murder. (I'm a native, btw.)
Julie in West Palm Beach

YES! My rain dance worked! This is whats blowing in! Looks a lot darker in person and I can hear the thunder! WOOT!!!!!!!

{{gwi:673030}}

Well, that piddled out! GAH! I bet it didn't even rain 1/4 and inch!

We had lots of thunder and some lightning, but only 5 minutes of drizzling rain. The pond is drying up. What ever happened to the rainy season starting in June? The last few years, it has been much later.

We finally got some measurable rain here. First in months.

I guess I'm the lucky one...had a little over an inch Wed. night and over a half inch last night! I wish you guys would have gotten some of it as well. Keeping fingers crossed you guys get some later today!

Julie, I think you and I are in the same vortex, it's raining all around, but just missing our little pocket of coast line.

It's making me a bit crazy, I have "dry weather mania" or something. DH says, "You have a monkey on your back, and he's thirsty".

We just missed our best chance yesterday, looking forward...

We have a 50% chance Thursday and Friday! I'll be looking forward to it all week!!!!!