Dorothy, How wonderful that Glenn is so close to retirement and that y'all will be able to have the greenhouse....what fun! I bet you'll be able to grow anything you want within reason...though probably not melons or southern peas and other heat lovers. You know, if you wanted to heat it, I know Randy has mentioned before that he heats his with a wood stove. The cats are big brats. When I first start seeds, they want to lay on top of the clear dome over the freshly-seeded flats. I just squirt them in the face with water in a little spray bottle and, if that doesn't work, I add a drop or two of TKO orange oil or Realemon lemon juice because they don't like it. After they are spritzed in the face a couple of times, they mostly stay off the plant shelf and away from the plants....as long as the plants are not catnip or catmint. When I transplant catnip and catmint into the ground, I put tomato cages over them so the cats can't squash the plants flat before they have a chance to grow. Once the plants are tall enough that they are branching out, I remove the cages and the cats occasionally find the catnip or catmint and roll on them or chew on them, but they really don't hurt them too badly. I try to keep the door to the guest room closed when the plant shelf has plants on it, but sometimes other people in this family leave that door open and then I have to scold the human being who left it open and the cats who seized the opportunity to go explore the plants on the seed-starting shelf. I have one cat who likes to bite seedlings off, especially while they are quite small. So, even though it is only one cat who usually misbehaves, they all are basically banned from the guest room from Feb.-May. Heaven help us when a guest actually comes to visit during that time, because they have to be reminded (nicely, of course) to close the door to the room when they leave it. LOL The cats are not a problem during the day because they spend their days outside, but they have to be inside the house or garage at night to stay safe from predators so sometimes they get into the plant room and have a little kitty cat wild party. I used to leave them on the screened-in porch all night and they liked that, but then a racoon tore a hole in one of the screens to come inside after the cats (Tim got the raccoon before it got a cat) and that was the end of them using the screen porch as a sleeping porch. Dawn

The NWS has upgraded the Fire Weather Watch to a Red Flag Fire Warning for southwestern OK and adjacent counties in western North Texas. The Red Flag Fire Warning will be in effect from 10 a.m. thru 9 p.m. Thursday, 4/14/11. This type of warning means Extreme Wildfire Danger will exist during this time frame and that any fires which start during this time will move very quickly and will be hard to stop. A wind shift late in the day will complicate the situation even more for any fires occurring at that time. You can check the map at the bottom of the linked page to see if your county is included in the warning area. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Webpage of Norman office of NWS

bumping this down the page as this warning ended last night

Jay, I missed your earlier post because I was writing mine. I was trying to watch the radar last night to see if you got more rain, but the storm split a couple of times and I wasn't sure if the rain reached you. I'm glad you got those plants staked so any wind that accompanied the storms couldn't blow them over. Three and a half inches of rain is great and I suppose the seven inches is wonderful too although that much in a short period can cause problems, especially in tight soil. I'm sure you'll get additional fruitset during this cool spell. How wonderful that will be. I am seeing a lot of new blooms the last couple of days, so think our plants will set more as well if the highs don't go too high. We just haven't cooled off nearly as much down here as many of you who are a lot further north. Today is the first day that it feels really good and cool outside. Any cooldown at this time of year is good though, even if it only means a high temp of 90 or 95 instead or 98 or 102. Y'all, our rain arrived very late, around 3 a.m. and was a very loud thunder-and-lightning storm with a little rain thrown in. We had a little more than 3/4s of an inch, so added to this week's earlier rain, we have had 1.7" this week, which is a lot of rain for us in July. My garden is looking deliriously happy and quite green. No violent weather here. I was watching the storm make its way towards us when it was still in Texas and producing winds of 100 mph, but I knew it would run out of steam (in terms of windspeed and such) before it got here, and it did. I'm glad a lot of you who have been needing rain up there in central OK have gotten a lot this week--your drought type numbers (rainfall, fractional water, KBDI) were starting to worry me. George's and Scott's drought numbers still do worry me. Lisa, Just a little more rain and your gauge will start overflowing like it did last year! I'm glad you got your new car out of the hail zone in time. Carol, So the rain was just a little late arriving? Better late than never. George, I have been mystified by the way the rain keeps missing y'all there in Tahlequah. I have watched it closely since spring, and it does astonish me that y'all are having our usual 'dry holes' in the radar/rainfall. Never in my life would I have thought you'd ever have a rainfall shortage there (or that Scott's area would be abnormally dry either). I am hoping and praying that you and Jerreth get rainfall there so that your garden will produce well. I hope Scott gets some rain too. Y'all have been far too dry for far too long. You have my sympathy, George, because I understand the frustration of being surrounded by rain that somehow continues to miss your particular location. You are starting to sound like me last year, but you can't help it....you're experiencing similar conditions and frustrations. Hopefully you'll get some rain today and, if not today, then soon. Down here, we always say it takes a flood to end a drought, so it wouldn't surprise me if you get some really heavy rainfall to end your drought there, and hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. Y'all know that the Oklahoma weather is all messed up and out of sync when Marietta has had more rain than Tahlequah. A lot of us still have rain in the forecast on one or more of the next few days. How odd is this rainy pattern for the end of July/beginning of August? Now, let us all hope for a cooler-than-usual August, because that would be almost too good to be true. Dawn