Scott, I wish I could share my moisture. It seems so odd that our area is so much different than everyone else's. The impotency faced with a drought is huge. I spoke with a gentleman in Stillwater, yesterday, on the phone. I was rattling about how "we" got all that rain right after I prepared the beds until he mentioned they didn't receive any at all.

The unfairness of it all .... bites.

Not even 3/10 darn it!

So sorry to hear it, Scott. My prayer last night before bed was that everyone who needs rain would get it. You got 3/10th and we got 3" so far. If only there were some way to even it out.

We actually got 0.51 inches in the 24 hr period. This is the first time the radar estimate has been so far off. Not enough rain to do the trees much good, but better than nothing. The grass will green up a little.

Next Friday looks like a stormy one. Nice week until then.

Scott I was hoping you would receive some. We have been fortunate. Haven't received as much as some very close to us. Guess our doughnut hole is still around us just weakening some. I've had almost 3 inches in less than 2 weeks. Not enough to build a lot of subsoil moisture but enough to keep me from watering and to green things up. I hope you get some rain soon. I'm considering heading east to around Ponca City soon. If you have any pecans I might try to drop on over and pick up some. I'm not satisfied with the store pecans anymore. Jay

Jay, I have a lot of pecans in the freezers and the price is lower than before. Quality is good, but not perfect. Much better than any store, but not as good as the first few weeks after harvest.

I will lose some of the crop this year. The upland trees that mature late will not be any good due to the lack of water. Bottomland trees are OK. I'm lucky to have a crop at all, but who knows if anyone will buy them. Likely between 10k and 20k lbs.

Scott, I was hoping you'd get a couple of inches. Still, some rain is better than none at all. We got about 0.57" and sure could have used more. We're in Severe Drought so that half-inch didn't help ease the drought conditions very much. The trees that were defoliating before the rain continue to defoliate, and the plants that were wilted and dying only perked up for a day or so and then went back into their drought-induced wilting/stunting. I've stopped watering everything except the perennial veggies, herbs and flowers and the fruit trees. The garden's annual plantings are dying and I'm not trying to save them. It is just too dry here, and the Drought Outlook forecasts persistence and worsening of the drought conditions here. I didn't even plant a fall garden except for a handful of plants in pots.

The trees that always get stressed in hot and dry summers (sycamores, redbuds, willows, cottonwoods, etc.) have been dropping leaves for months. The oaks, elms and pecans starting defoliating about a month ago, as did the plum trees.

The native persimmons aren't looking too good, but I think they'll survive if we can get 2-4" of rain between now and the end of the year. There used to be three decent-sized native persimmon groves within a mile of our house. We had one, a neighbor to our southeast had one and a neighbor to our southwest had the other one. Ours is the only one left. The others died in 2011 or in 2012 as a result of the drought of 2011. Ours survived but just barely and now they are endangered by the drought of 2013. Actually the drought that is killing them is the drought of 2012-2013. We've been in drought since June 2012, and that's a long time for native trees to be moisture-stressed month after month.

I hope that the pecan prices will be better this year so that you'll get a good return on the money invested in the maintenance of the trees.

Jay, We're in a doughnut hole too and have been since July. We never made it out of drought this year. I think we almost made it out of drought in early July because we had good rainfall in late May and in June, but then the rain stopped and that was that.

Everything that's not irrigated is now brown and crispy and crunchy. It is going to be a long, hard fall and winter if rain doesn't start falling. We have had a few fires, but not any big monster wildfires. I'm not sure how much longer our luck will hold.

I haven't made any plans for a 2014 garden. I'm going to wait for rain to fall. If we don't get good autumn rain, I won't plant much in 2014. If we don't get good winter rain, I may not plant anything at all.

Dawn

Dawn we have been fortunate here. I'm very thankful for every drop. It has been a very different year like I've posted before. But the last 4-5 have been also. I was concerned in early August about the disease possibilities due to the wet weather and cooler temps they were predicting at that time for August. Then the intense heat set in for over 3 weeks and that did as much damage as anything. I still have some very nice looking plants. I have also lost some and some look terrible but the fruit is ripening. I'm picking lots of tomatoes now. More than I can use. Will be like that for another 7-10 days and then I will have a drop off. Due to the lack of fruit set during the hot spell in August and early Sept. I will post a report on my tomatoes and reviews soon. I have only one plant I haven't picked at least one fruit from. And it has one on now if the frost will hold off long enough for it to mature and ripen. I've had some disease issues but at this point I haven't sprayed with anything all season. Not even the garlic spray. In fact I never ordered any. I have some squash bugs mainly on the spaghetti squash and been trying to control them by crushing them. The loaded Brandyboy got something. Some of the stems have had pith necrosis. I will let the fruit continue to ripen. The grafted plants have done very well except for the 3 that succumbed to some sort of wilt. The rest of the garden has done well overall. The heat did basically wipe out one bean variety. A few of the vines show some signs of new growth since the cooldown. They are saying Wed could be upper 80-90 and then another cooldown. I'm an optimist. I bought 2 trees to replace two that I lost during this drought spell. Hopefully I can keep them alive.
I have about ordered all of the seeds I will need for next year. I pretty much have the tomato grow list in my head. I have 2 varieties I've been trying to stabilize that I'm real pleased with. Next year will tell if either are very stable at this point. The Texas Star cross I've been selecting from produced 2-3 ounce fruit this year instead of the cherry that is produced the first year I grew it from the crossed seeds. Many with the star marking of Texas Star. And when picked right many of them have the WOW factor. The best yellow bicolor I've grown besides Lucky Cross. And they have been very productive. I just hope they will reproduce the same type and flavor.
I hope you and Scott both get rain soon. This country couldn't look any better. Although there still isn't a lot of subsoil moisture in many places. I'm still going to grow more and more plants that will handle the heat and drought. Jay

Starting in July 2010 it's been a rough few years.

Scott it started a year earlier for me. Really 2007 was the last real good year with somewhat average temps and wind and average rainfall. 2008 was a drop off and in 2009 we had 8 inches and it has been 12 or less every year since. We have just over 12 last year and almost there this year. Of course some have had way more than I have. I've started deep watering the trees. Will continue to do that for the next 10-14 days. Try to build up the sup soil some before winter. Jay