I was so thankful to get some rain a couple of days ago. During the dry weeks, I watered watered watered and with kids grabbing the hose and begging you to fill the kiddie pool or turn the sprinkler on, it takes FOREVER. Watering was a two day chore for me (one day I'd do the front yard: flowers and such, the next I'd do the backyard: my garden, fruit trees etc)

I planted some little baby trees WAY back on our little one acre plot and the hose does not reach. So lugging water to them was a chore. I'd be several hundred feet away with the watering can and hear a scream. My son (almost 4) had blasted my daughter (almost 2) with a super soaker or some such nonsense. I'd start yelling "Come help me water the baby trees! QUIT FIGHTING"! Not my finest moment.

I am also grateful to escape the heavy rains and flodds, though!

Last night before going to bed, I looked at the radar map. Quite a mess west of us. Still had some laundry on the line, and went out and got it in.

Drat, no rain overnight. Was really hoping for some too.

Oh well, I'll fill up the rain barrels, it'll rain then. :)

Moni

The rain that missed us the last two days has caused problems all over.

THE MIRACLE RESCUE: When the powerful storms hit near New Braunfels in central Texas and dumped up to a foot of rain, one family was swept away from their campsite by a huge wall of water that came from somewhere upstream and seemed to come out of nowhere. The mother held on to a tree for a couple of hours before being resuced, the 11-year-old daughter put on a lifevest/floatation device that came floating by (believe in miracles?), and was in the water for over 2 hours before a retired firefighter from Colorado rescued her.The father, himself currently a Fort Worth firefighter, was swept 32 MILES downstream by the waters before he was rescued. It was several hours before each family member learned the others had survived and they were eventually reunited.

Yesterday the flooding continued just south and east of Dallas, including in the Hillsboro area where flash floods closed some highways and one county announded the entire county was underwater and travel was impossible. Imagine that!

Now that same storm has moved across Arkansas where I understand it has hit another campground like the one in New Braunfels. I don't know if they've found everyone yet.

I was so frustrated when the rain missed us, but then horribly relieved we didn't have the very heavy rains here and all the problems that come with it. I hope they find all the folks from the Arkansas campground.

Moni, I caught tons and tons of rain (about 600 gallons) from the last big rainstorm here in mid-May, using my one rain barrel, 5-gallon buckets, tons of cat litter buckets that I've save for years, Rubbermaid roughneck totes....anything I could find and set out to catch the water. I thought that 600 gallons would last forever, but with three weeks of no rain and a couple of acres of plants to water, it didn't last long at all. My poor old rain barrel has been empty for so long now.

Our granddaughter doesn't understand why the ground is 'broken' (cracking clay) and offered to fix it by pouring dirt, water and birdseed down it. I told her that I thought we should just wait for rain to come and fix things. The question is, when is that rain going to come?

We have fairly good subsoil moisture from rain earlier in the year, but the top 6" or so are drying out pretty quickly. No matter how much I water, just a day or two later you can't even tell I watered because the ground is as dry as a bone. I am sure this dryness is going to result in reduced yields from the veggie garden. At least the trees and shrubs shouldn't suffer because we have great deep, deep moisture from last year's near-record rainfall. That's how it is here for us with rainfall---feast or famine.

Already, some of the gardeners here that we know are saying they won't water....if rain doesn't fall, their gardens will die. Water is so expensive and it takes so much to keep clay well-watered (once it is dry, water just rolls off of it like it is concrete) that they feel like they'd spend more money on water than their garden produce would be worth. I have hit that point before, and sometimes as early as mid-June if the drought began in winter, but I'm going to try to keep watering as long as possible...at least until mid-July. That's assuming no watering restrictions.

Some folks who water with well water are having trouble maintaining enough water pressure to water. That's not good.

A lot of Oklahoma is getting rain, but we aren't, and it doesn't seem likely to improve.

Ironically, I've decided I don't want for any rain to fall here until after I harvest the peach crop at mid-month. If a heavy rain falls now, it will water down the peach flavor and make the peaches and plums split. Since I don't 'need' or want rain this week, watch it show up now.

Sadly the noon news just reported there were 12 deaths in that campground that flooded in Arkansas. Sometimes those initial numbers are incorrect, and I certainly hope that it turns out to be less in this case, although any deaths are tragic. They reported the river rose 20 feet overnight. They also talked about the fact that when the ground becomes so dry and hard as it does during a hot, dry period, a heavy rain can't soak into the ground fast enough and contributes to heavy flooding. They said more deaths occur due to flooding than any other extreme weather conditions.

Suzie

I've been so busy, I missed the news on the flooding. :-(

We got 1/2" last week but it wasn't enough. I, too, was hoping that last round would give us some more but I guess I'll just count my dry and safe blessings.

I'm one of those on a well so we can't water, other than a quickie one just after planting to get things established. My gardens can make it fine through most dry spells but if this turns out as droughty as some are predicting... Ew. At least the tomatoes that don't pout will taste great!

Diane

Diane,

The death toll is up to 16 and there's about 36 people unaccounted for. Apparently the floodwaters rose at a rate of about 8' for several hours and campers/residents in a 25-30 mile stretch of weather were sleeping at the time. (The water rose approx. between 1:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m.) Some areas are so remote there's no cell service, so I assume no NWS radio alerts would work there. I saw footage of a woman on The Weather Channel talking about how they clung to trees and she could hear her 16-year-old son and his friend yelling for help as they water swept them away. Luckily the kids were able to grab hold of trees and hang on until rescued. Can you imagine? I also saw footage of debris piled up everywhere, including big RVs lying on their sides. The situation in Arkansas mirrors what happened in New Braufnels a couple of days ago, but with a higher death toll since it happened at night.

On one river, TWC said the water rose over 20' in just about 3 hours or so and even people who'd driven in (many had to hike in because they were at very remote campsites beyond the roads) and who woke up early in the flooding couldn't get out because the low-water crossings flooded or washed away in the first hour.

This is just a horrible story and reminds us how treacherous flash flooding can be. They expect it may take 2 or 3 weeks to search thoroughly and they don't even know how many people they're really looking for because a lot of the campsites are primitive so there's no ranger and you don't "sign in"....you just show up, claim the spot and use it.

It has tried to rain here once or twice today, but nothing really materialized, except thunder and somewhat cooler wind.

Dawn

Egads. After reading this, I headed to catch up on my news sites while eating dinner tonight. Very nasty stuff. The area that was hit is maybe 70-80 miles from here, very rough terrain.

Horrible, horrible stuff.

I haven't been paying attention to the news either. I have been so busy harvesting cherries and apricots that by evening I am out like a light.

I missed all the flooding. How sad. My sis and her husband have an RV and love to camp down close to the rivers. I wonder if they have ever thought about the flooding issue.

We are needing rain here too. The last two have just been 1//4 ones, just enough to bring up seeds. So far our well is good. We dairied for years and you wouldn't believe the hundreds of gallons of water that requires keeping things clean twice a day. We have never lost pressure so I water feeling pretty secure about the well. What we need to do is water deeply and then mulch heavily.