YEA JAY!!! Rain! Did you go out and dance in it when no one was looking?? I would have!

I've been praying Mother Nature would send some your way! I told Her I had too much. My cantelopes are splitting because of too much water. I'm so very, very happy you got those trees in the ground before nature's drink! This is going to be a better year for your garden just because of the cooler temps and the much needed rain! Keep your goodies away from the birds, although I'm sure they're thirsty too!

I'm still celebrating for you!!! REALLY!

Paula

Paula,
I stayed out as long as I dared and got wet before I decided due to the lightning I'd better come inside. Then just a few minutes ago before I took my bath I went out and soaked up some more and checked the rain gauge. Had 3/4 of an inch. Still raining lightly and looks like could come some more for a while. A good start. With the cool weather coming that will help. They are saying 90 tomorrow and then 81-83 for the 3 days after tomorrow. The rain is picking up again while I'm typing. I raised my bedroom window a little so I can go to sleep hearing the patter of rain. If we get enough to green up things around that will help with the birds. They are hungry like everything else. Jay

I saw the rain earlier coming down pretty well in parts of Cimmarron County and that you were starting to get a little, but I didn't want to jinx it by saying anything. You guys in that last county and a half out there have not been able to catch a break for a long time now. I hope you get more in the next few days.

We ended up with two inches here at my house. I checked the two reporting stations in the area and one had 1.78 and the other 1.20. So varied a little. I have two gauges about 50 foot apart and both had an even 2 inches.
Paula thanks for sharing. Dawn kept all of her 12 inches. Almost appears kinda greedy. LOL. I know she didn't want it all at once anymore than I wanted this drought. May not be over but a good start. If it will just keep coming. Now with cooler temps hopefully we will have some great gardening weather.
Scott yes I was in Guymon Sat night eating and talking there with an old barber and his wife. We have never seen two years back to back like we've had. And to have it so close and too miss us. Like they said the storms either split and went around us or went dead 30 miles from us. The western half of Cimmarron County has got quite a bit more than us since the first of July. Last night the storms dropped down out of CO and I could see the big area north and west of us moving this way but couldn't believe it till I read it in the gauge. A mile long smile this morning. Thanks everyone for caring and now maybe I won't be such a grouch on the forum. Ha. Jay

Jay,

I am so excited for you! Your plants aren't going to know what to do with all that water. The cooler temperatures will be great too.

Looking at the line of storms last night coming out of Colorado, I was really hopeful, and I started to post a message saying "Jay Is Getting Rain". BUT, having been burned so many times by rain on the radar that missed your house, I didn't dare jinx you. I even showed Tim the rain on the radar and said "Can this storm possibly miss Jay's garden this time?" and he agreed with me that there was no way that big of a storm could miss your place this time.

And I gladly would have sent you some of that 12" of rain we got that one day, but the roads were flooded and I couldn't get out of our place to go to town to mail you some rain. : )

Rain has been sparse here lately, but I think we'll get some today or tomorrow, and just in the nick of time because our green pastures are now brown and the lawn is not far behind. (I just won't spend money to water the bermuda grass I despise.)

Scott, I figured you were looking at the radar just like I was!

Paula, Sorry the rain is splitting your melons. I wish we were having some rain here. I have the opposite problem--the heat and dryness are killing my plants. I have tried to water a little, but they are just burning up in the heat. Somehow, the cold front slowed down and didn't reach us until this morning I guess. It was 102 here on Sat. and 95 on Sun. and we were supposed to be between 88 and 91. Our humidity is good in the mornings, but drops to the 20s by the afternoon. If rain doesn't fall this week, my garden is going to be toast. I could run up a huge water bill trying to keep it watered, but know from experience that when it is this hot, I can't water enough to keep the whole garden going unless I want a water bill the size of the national debt.

The important thing for all of us to remember is that Jay's region still needs tons and tons of rain, so keep praying for that rain to fall!

Dawn

Dawn,
Our rain came great overall. Everyone in this region got some rain and some a lot more than others. Some got a big rain Sat night when we got the 2 tenths. I'm thankful for all of it. One coworker only received 6 tenths but they have had over 5 inches in the last 4-5 weeks. Just to the northwest of us about 70 miles they received 7-8 inches in 3-4 hours. The head on one creek was over 9 feet they said. And that area had 2-3 inches Saturday night. So they are in about the same situation as you were. Most of ours came nice and soaked in. We do have some large water holes but overall not that much runoff. And they are saying a good chance for the next few days. Hopefully we will get some more and the areas that have received so much will get some relief. Hope you get some rain in the next few days. Yes we can use more just like this. Some areas also received some bad hail they said. Luckily we missed that. It is funny how much better the garden looks the morning after a good rain. The rain had finished around 5 so everything was wet as I walked along the ends. Didn't go in although as sandy as I am all the water was soaked in. Jay

Congrats Jay!

I am going to be hiking to the highest point in Oklahoma in about 10 days (if my foot heals up in time) with a few of the kids. Maybe it will be green around there by then.

Woo Hoo - Jay got rain!!! I am so glad.

Again today it appeared it was going to rain so we rushed to finish things outside. When I looked at the radar, it was to our NW and our SE, but we didn't get a drop. Pretty discouraging when you are close enough to get the clouds, and sometimes even hear the thunder, but it passes you by. We are having a much dryer than normal year.

I now have a lot of my fall things done and have had one rain since I started. Everything is sprouting very fast and looking good but I am watering. I plan to put in some turnips, beets, and a few greens, but I haven't rushed to get that done. When it gets a little cooler, I will also plant lettuce in a large container that I can keep going into the winter. It lasted until the week before Christmas last year.

Scuse me...going amaradillo hunting.

Jay,

Did you get more rain on Monday evening or overnight?

We finally got some decent rain on Monday afternoon--a bit less than an inch at our house. We also had a little rain last week, so July has been decent to us in terms of rainfall....not a record July by any means, but considering that sometimes we get little to no rain at all in July, I'm just excited rain has fallen here this month.

Scott, Did I miss something? What did you do to your foot that might keep you from hiking Black Mesa?

Carol, It missed us all day long. For a long time (and you could see it on the radar), the rain fell in a doughnut shape all around us and we were in the 'doughnut hole' where nothing fell. The rain finally found us around 1 or 2 p.m. and it rained very, very lightly for several hours and more heavily for a brief period. We went down to Lewisville to go to CostCo and it poured on us down there. I was hoping it was pouring down rain here, but the rain here was much lighter than the rain down there.

Those darned armadilloes! We had so much trouble with them early on, but eventually fenced the garden and that took care of them. We still have them in the yard every now and then, but not like we used to.

Dawn

Scott I haven't heard how much Black Mesa has received but know it has been raining in that area. Rain amounts are varying quite a bit like normal for summer storms. Hope your foot heals and you have a great trip.

Dawn got another half an inch this morning around 3. Was lots of lightning and thunder. Really thought it was more. Very thankful for that. There was some big storms around last night. Most of ours has fell real nice. But the water holes are filling up now. The grass will be green shortly. I need to seed some but will wait another month and see if I think it is going to stay cooler.

Sprayed the garden last night. Debated. But with rain possibilities predicted for every night decided to go ahead. Will wait a few days and then spray again as I'm sure most washed off. Was trying a spinosad spray to see if it would help with the horn worms. Picked two more yesterday. Have never had them this late. Jay

Jay,

More rain is great news! Every little bit helps.

I am going to spray today with Kocide because I really think the rain will kick up the Septoria again. I haven't had much trouble with it since I picked off all the affected foliage early in July, but we haven't had much rain since then either and I just know this week's rain will have my plants singing the blues if I don't spray today. I should have sprayed before it rained, but I didn't. I just hate spraying my plants with anything because it puts an end to me picking tomatoes right in the garden and eating them there as I work.

Last night I looked at the Accu-weather forecast for Marietta and I hope it is wrong. While the high temperature sounds good (90) and is about what our local TV station forecasts (89), the Accu-weather RealFeel heat index is forecast to be 110 here this afternoon. We so seldom get rain here in Love County at this time of year that I forget how the humidity and heat combine to give us monstrous heat index numbers.

On the other hand, our hottest period of weather here is usually the last two weeks of July and the first couple of weeks of August. Of course, I always dread this time of year because of that. Thanks to the recurring cold fronts, though, we have had a more pleasant late July than usual and I am hoping that carries over into August as well. I think the cooler July weather the cold fronts have brought us will give us ave. temps. for this month that are cooler than usual, and that is very rare.

There's lots more rain in the forecast for the rest of the week and I hope all of us get some of that rain.

My garden has perked up a lot and the tomato plants seem so much happier since the rain fell. I think natural rainfall does something for them that 'city water' just doesn't do.

Dawn

I don't know what is wrong with my foot, but I am hoping it will pass. I can't walk on it after sitting until it "warms" up. It is like the heel spur I have had, but in a different area.

If things work out, we will be hiking to the top of Black Mesa next Thursday, Satuday, or Sunday. We have planned to spend a couple of days hiking in Colorado. Maybe just sightseeing instead.

I love waking up early in Guymon or other similar high plains town and being outside. It's a nice change of pace.

Dawn,
I worked late again tonight as we have been finishing some construction and commissioning some new equipment. From work we watched a storm build and move east and a little south and decided it missed Elkhart. Talked to my sister on the way home. It hit them. They received almost two inches of rain and had 75 mph winds and was sitting in the dark. Guess it blew some poles down.
I had sprayed a few with Kocide last week and then last night sprayed everything with the Bonide Copper mix. Not sure if it is Kocide. Sure most of it got washed off. Was trying to decide if I thought I needed to do a little more tonight. But as soon as I pulled in the drive and got out it started raining. Has quit now but think there is more coming. Glad to get all we can especially the way it has been falling. Thankful we have missed the flash floods and hail. I was so afraid as dry as we has been we would get a bad hail. The ground it starting to soak down some. If the rain lets up before dark will inspect the garden but won't do anything. But will get back to spraying as soon as I can. Most things were looking better last night already. I was looking at the plants around the house here as I came in. With the rain and cool weather they have really jumped. It was cool but humid here today.

Yes Scott I enjoy waking up and having beautiful sunrises and open spaces. And lots of great people in this area. Jay

Scott,

Hope the foot thing corrects itself. Tim had plantar's fasciitis and had ultrasound no-incision surgery about 7 or 8 years ago to fix it. Other than the fact that he doesn't run marathons any more (still runs half-marathons and 10Ks), his foot is as good as new.

Jay,

Well, you always said rain was 'one day closer' evey day and now it finally has arrived. "More rain" almost seems too-good-to-be-true, doesn't it? At least you have well-drained soil so it is almost impossible for you to have too much rain there. From looking at the forecast, I guess you still have a great chance of having more rain on several more days this week? How wonderful that will be!

Our best chance of rain is Thursday here.

Accuweather was wrong, I am happy to say, and our heat index only went into the upper 90s and not 110 (what a relief that was!). Still, the humidity stayed high all day and we really aren't used to that.

I was watching the radar today and thinking that it was going to be your lucky day again, but we've jinxed you so many times by saying "I think Jay is getting rain" only to find out that you didn't, so I kept my mouth shut! LOL

I hope the rain continues to fall, and that your tomato plants thrive and grow and bloom and set fruit that you'll be picking this fall. Also, some of the tomatoes you have ought to be loving this rain and all the growth it will bring them (and hopefully without cracking and splitting).

Keep posting your rain reports so we can share your joy. I know from experience that rainfall-after-drought is the loveliest rainfall of all.

Dawn

Dawn,
Again thanks to all for the caring during a time when it got depressing when it was raining so close and all around us. I was teasing my sister tonight for being greedy with what they have received. She said we lived in the dessert all summer time for us to be a little greedy. It looks like there could be some more move out of CO later tonight. And a good chance tomorrow and tomorrow night. It is still soaking in good in my sand.
Went out just before dark and looked around some. Light rain but I enjoy that. Things looks so much better than they did. I usually don't go to close to the plants while wet but seen two blushing and that the birds had got into one of them so pulled them. Did see one Golden Cherokee I've been missing. So hopefully will get to eat at least one of them. I'm hoping for lots of fruit set during this cool period. I also did a little measuring on the Black Cherries that I posted on the other thread. Jay

Jay,

I think all of us have walked in your shoes at some point in our gardening efforts. Nothing is more discouraging and demoralizing than to plan and work and plant and have high hopes that are destroyed when rain doesn't fall and, especially, when it falls all around you but keeps missing your place. You know....been there, done that.....

I know the folks here on this forum have encouraged me and kept my spirits up during some very tough dry months and years here in Love County.

Many non-gardeners just don't understand about rainfall really. Their attitude is "Well, turn on the hose and water" and, of course, they have no idea how expensive that can be when virtually no rain falls for weeks or months on end, especially if you have a very large landscape and garden to maintain.

So, my joy over your rain is truly heartfelt because I know the overwhelming sense of relief that arrives when rain starts falling and begins to put an end to a long period of drought.

When it comes to rainfall, go ahead and be greedy....hope and pray for more, more, more and enjoy every drop that falls. You know how it is in this part of the country....you never know when rain will come again.

I'm watching our weather forecast on the evening news right now and the TV station forecast has dropped the fog from the forecast because the wind has come up, but still says we'll be hot and steamy in the morning.

Our chances for rain on Thursday are higher every time I watch the news.....now we have an 80% chance. Oddly (because Love County tends to be dry more often than not), we are one of the 'wettest' areas in Oklahoma this year, which certainly is an odd feeling. I think our rainfall is at about 120% of normal and more rainfall will just push the percentage higher.

I'm getting worried about George and the other folks in Tahlequah because they are having one of our dry years. I don't think I ever imagined there would be a time that we'd ge more rain here than George is getting there.

I saw your post about the size of your Black Cherries and wonder if your seed crossed with something else? I haven't heard of Black Cherry toms that big.

Dawn

We have not had a "real" rain at our pecan place in 46 days. We did get a couple of rains of .3 and .4 inches during that time, though. There is only a strip about 10 miles wide and 30 mile long that did not get rain there. Everyone else nearby got at least an inch from each of those two rains.

This may sound bad, but really it has a silver lining. Since there is little pecan crop for us this year, there are no pecans that need rain to size and fill. Plus the lack of moisture actually contributes significantly to extended health of the trees into the fall because of a lack of disease pressure. All of the trees in the floodplain (deep, wet soil) are still in great shape and should have a decent crop next year, although the ones in elevated areas are showing signs of dryness and will not have much of a crop. Fortunately 80% of our place is floodplain.

On the other hand, our house has also missed most of the rain, but we did have one about 8 or 10 days ago of about .8 inches. Other than that we are dry going back about 45 days also. I have been watering like crazy when possible, but my garden is relatively small and all raised beds except a few melons. The soil around here holds a tremendous amount of water and the young trees that I have mulched thickly and kept a 6ft diameter grass-free circle around are still in great shape (knock on wood).

We might be the driest in the area here, but still not as bad as many other places to our far west and to our southwest. As most of you know, the agweather site has a few great graphics showing soil moisture at various depths at the mesonet sites, and there is a new site that uses some sort of satellite imagery to detect vegetation condition for the entire lower 48 and is now available daily online. Wish I wrote that new web address down.

Scott,

I have been amazed at how little rain you've had this year too.

I also am amused when I look at the soil moisture maps because Love County actually has soil moisture for once! (It seems so odd to be able to see that.) You know what, though.....the ponds are still drying up and the horrid clay is cracking and there's far too much dry, dormant vegetation (mostly cool-season grasses). So, even with rain and good soil moisture, we still are very dry. In other words, a lot of moisture doesn't seem to make as much difference as you'd think it would.

I look at the Fractional Water maps and KBDI maps and marvel at how dry some areas are that simply are not that dry hardly ever. It is a crazy year.

Looking at the Texas maps is really scarey though. Their D4 drought areas continue to spread every week and you start wondering how much longer this can go on. How much more can they take? What are they going to do? It was not so long ago (2005-2006) that parts of Oklahoma were in their shoes....in the "Exceptional Drought" category and I remember well how surreal it was.

I love the Mesonet and look at various parts of it daily. Lately I've been learning how to use the Fire Prescription Planner because we can use the data it provides in a model form when fighting tough winter wildfires.

I have watered when I've had to, but as little as possible, and the water bill is still terribly high. The other day Tim asked me if I'd started watering the foundation/soil around it so it won't crack. I told him that we've had almost 30" of rain this year and I didn't think it needed to be watered. Or, at least, it doesn't need it yet. If we don't get a really good rainfall in the next week or two, I may have to start turning on the foundation area's soaker hoses.

I am about to decide that no matter how much rain falls here, it never will be enough because our summers are just too hot and our clay contracts and expands too much. The local water companies have had a terribly time this summer with clay shifting and cracking water mains and also with water pumps going out. I think the water companies in our part of southern OK are having their worst year ever in terms of equipment and system problems. Thank goodness rain has been falling or it would be much worse.

Scott, how much rain have y'all had there this year? We're right at 30", and in a good year we get 34" to 36", so I guess this will be considered a "good year".

Dawn

Our three nearest mesonet sites show 20, 20, and 19 inches in 2009.

I believe we are pretty close to those numbers but slightly under. I would guess 18 inches here from my memory of how the larger rainfall events compared at my house to the nearby mesonet sites those days. Fortunately we were fully saturated at all levels when the rain stopped at the beginning of June.

I just checked the radar loop before going to bed and it looks like we will have to wait at least another day for our precip.

Dawn,
There is nothing that changes peoples attitudes like a rain. Whether they farm or garden. And like I've always said water from the ground just doesn't produce a crop like rain water. And then town water with chlorine I think is worse if that is all they get. It has been nice to come home and not spend at least an hour with a water hose in my hand. Can now spend time just looking at the veggies.
A coworker who I've mentioned in other posts was helping me yesterday and said he was afraid he was about down to 2 plants out of 12. Him and his wife always have a nice garden. Every plant the tomato horn worms hit got diseased and he thinks there is a correlation. My theory is everything was severely stressed even if they didn't show it bad and then the horn worm attack just added some more and weakened them to where the disease hit. He is talking about pulling the other two and tilling up the whole garden. His onions did ok and eveything else he said has been bad. I said give it a few days now. Things should brighten up. Gardening is like many things it is for the long haul. And it is hard when you put so much time and effort into it and it falters and then you see two plants like the ones on the end of main street. Someone put them in a corner and haven't done much if anything to them. They have weeds and haven't been watered much except for the neighbors sprinkler spraying over. About 3 foot tall and yellow but loaded with tomatoes. The novice gardeners and the ones less devoted than we are think is it really worth it.
Scott hopefully you will get rain today or soon. Jay

Good Morning Y'all!

We hit the rain lottery this morning and I hope some of you also got rain as well.

Shortly before daybreak, we awoke to massive thunder and lightning and a fairly heavy, though short-lived, thunderstorm. I lost track of the time because the storm kept knocking the power out, but we probably got rain for a half hour at the most. The rain gauge has right at 1" in it today, although the Burneyville Mesonet station has only 1/4 that amount. The last two times it has rained, we received less than Burneyville, so I think it all averages out about the same.

Scott, I keep thinking of all the rain you've had the last few years and 20" is just astounding. I'm more or less getting your rainfall and you're getting ours. It is a crazy, mixed-up year, not that I'm complaining about the rain because I am not. : )

Jay, I am sure you're right about your coworker's plants. I just bet they were stressed and it is merely coincidental that the disease showed up shortly after the hornworms. I hope he "chills" and gives his garden a chance to rebound because I bet it would bounce back and start producing better. I feel like he is getting disgusted with it because it isn't doing as well as it normally does. Or, maybe he's just worn down by all the effort it has taken to get it this far and just feels like throwing in the towel (or the trowel!).

There are years I just give up and stop watering and let the garden go because the water bills climb to astronomical levels. This is the primary reason I've begun raising about a third of my tomato plants in containers---even if I have to stop watering the big garden, I can keep the containers going, assuming there is no water rationing, and we haven't had water rationing with our water co-op since we've been here.

With our heavy, thick, dense clay soil, once it is really dry you can't even water it enough to make a difference. The water rolls downhill on the surface of the soil or it seems to soak in, but then that area is totally dry again the next day. My amended and improved beds are only slightly better. So, I know there are years that I "win" and keep the garden in full production all summer, and there are years Mother Nature "wins" and I abandon the garden to her, and there are in-between years when the garden merely survives but is not spectacular. This is actually turning into a spectacular year in terms of production even though I've fought some pretty wicked weather on and off since April, and plant disease as well. I have high hopes for the fall garden simply because rain continues to fall at least once every other week or so, and sometimes more often.

There's a young woman out near the river NW of us who grows tomato plants like you describe. She tills up the soil and plants them, and after that, the plants are on their own, surrounded by towering weeds and grasses, and covered in fruit--and they get no care whatsoever. One year her dad told me that her plants looked better than either his or mine and had more tomatoes. I just rolled my eyes and said something like "Well, that just figures". Maybe you and I should try that method? There is a garden a couple of miles south of us that the gardener "abandoned" in May after we had about 18 or 19" of rain in 5 weeks. All the other crops were overtaken by the weeds or rain, but the tomato plants--with no care and totally surrounded by weeds--are 5' tall and loaded in fruit. This all sort of fits in with my theory that slightly stressed plants outproduce unstressed ones, which is one reason I water as little as possible---not quite dryland style, but close.

I am going to start a new thread about today's/tonight's weather forecast because the forecast I'm listening to on the weather radio warns of the possibility of strong storms tonight/tomorrow that could bring down power poles. (I thought I heard that wrong, but I didn't!) I think maybe everyone needs a 'heads up' in case they're expecting today's and tomorrow's storms to be just another summer rainshower.

Dawn

Dawn I think there is something to the stress theory. I've always been told a plant will try to make seed. It is their nature. I've even witnessed this summer plants 1/4 to 1/3 the size of mine with more tomatoes. In most cases not near as good of color and not near the growth. I think they feel the need to produce as they might die. Mine are just happy to look pretty till it get closer to frost and then they shift gears most years. I know a market grower who after the first fruit set only waters if he has too to keep them alive. Claims the flavor and fruit set are better. Mine showed lots of signs of stress this summer but only a couple due to dryness. The hole I had trouble with I have watered well since I put out the last transplant and it looks fine in that hole. I have another one last week that got too dry. What I've decided is I dug the holes deep and added back loose soil and partially decomposed leaves ect. I can tell that water is soaking in fast on a few of the holes. And that is the holes that have been dry. I won't dig as deep this year. Jay