Hi G.M.,

Well, this is absolutely the worst year ever for our garden since we moved here in 1999, and I really didn't think it was possible for anything to be worse than 2006. It seems unthinkable that a new "worst" year would happen only two years later, but here we are in 2008......

I've still got some tomatoes and peppers producing, and okra, melons and pumpkins as well, but they desperately need rain. I just refuse to water. The "survivors" are scattered all over the garden, and I'd have to water the whole thing, and I refuse to spend that kind of money on water because it 2006 it didn't help so I found it to be a waste of money.

Yesterday's rain went to our east and to our west, and there we sat with a big hole in the clouds and the sun beating down on us. I think we ended up hitting 99 degrees or 101 degrees, depending on whose thermometer you trust.

Today's cooler weather IS very welcome, and I am praying the rain falls today and saves what is left of the garden.

It is just as well that it has been too hot and too miserable to garden, as we've been spending outrageous amounts of time at fires. (sigh) In 2005 our wildfire season started "early" for us, and that was in October. This year it started "earlier"....in July. This morning our county commissioner's implemented a burn ban and that should help.

I don't know how similar your rainfall in Cater County has been to our rainfall here in Love County, but I think both have been about the same and both counties are really dry. Our rainfall for 2008 is "only" about 6" or 7" less than what it ought to be and that doesn't sound so bad, does it? BUT, if you look at the last 12 months, from August 2007 through July 2008, we are down about 16" below normal for those 12 months and THAT explains all our troubles, doesn't it?

Some people (Scott, Ilene and Carol....I am referring to you, LOL) have gotten more rain in one day or one week than we have gotten in a month or two months or three months. While I am happy for them, I'm not so happy for us!

Well, there's always next year, I guess. And, really, despite the drought I had great production early in the season and that made cutting off the water and walking away from the veggie garden easier because the freezer, pantry and tornado shelter are full.

At this time, I am not going to plant a fall garden, even though I have tomato seedlings ready to go into the ground. (Beyond ready, really.) I reserve the right to change my mind if 4 or 5" of rain falls this week, though. LOL (NOT holding my breath and waiting for that to happen.)

We've been doing our best to keep the foundation and shrub beds around the house watered, and even that requires a lot of water at this point.

I make wildlife puddles for the wild animals to come and drink from and they are getting heavy usage. (Three of our 5 ponds are completely dry.) It is not unusual to see squirrels, deer, rabbits, doves, cardinals and our own kitties drinking together at the two large puddles just about 15 or 20 feet from the garage/barn. Dry times and thirst make strange bedfellows! Sometimes the deer stand about 20 to 30 yards away in the pasture, watching and waiting for me to stand there with the hose and fill up the wildlife puddles and then, as soon as I head indoors, they come to drink.

DS has rescued hundreds of small fish from our creek because the creek is dried up and the fish were in imminent danger of death, having survived in deeper "holes" after most of the creek dried up. Our fourth pond will soon dry up, and that will leave only the lily pond, which I fill up constantly with the water hose--we seem to lose 6" or so per week to evaporation and wildlife who drink from it. Some of the springs still run, but the swamp really hasn't been swampy since last July although it had a small amount of water in it in early to mid-spring.

Some years, it is just all you can do to "survive" the heat and the drought, Merry Heart, and I think this is one of those years. Someone told me the other day that my flowers looked "beautiful" and I kept thinking to myself "They do?" because I think they look awful. (DH says I expect perfection, though, so that they look awful to me even when they look great to everyone else, and he may be right.)

I'm looking forward to fall, and now that the burn ban has been implemented here in Love County, I am a little less nervous about my yard, garden, barn and house truly burning up. HOWEVER, most of the fires we've been to lately have NOT resulted from people burning brush or trash, but rather have been structure fires, hayfield fires (started by cutters, rakes or balers) or suspected arson (sad to say, but true).

I guess we'll plant winter rye grass in September to give us a green zone around the barn and house. Although green grass WILL burn (I didn't know that for a long time), it tends to burn more slowly, so if a fire were to reach the property this fall or winter, hopefully it would burn slowly enough that we could get it put out before it did real damage to our buildings or trees/shrubs. Maybe rain will just start falling, and everything will be OK.

Dawn