ok - I know it's not the best of situations, but I saw a plack this weekend at the Affair of the Heart that applies. If we're talking about building the Ark - "Noah should have squished those 2 flies". LOL!

I'm kinda grateful for the rain....I just put down pecan hulls on my newly planted blueberries and so far....in the month they've been in the ground....I've only had to water twice. Maybe I should quit praying for the rain? LOL Hubby's at deer camp the rest of the week so I'm really kinda wanting to take the week off too! (selfish, selfish gardener!)

Paula

Paula,

I love the plaque! And, if we are going to get picky here, couldn't he have squashed the 2 flies and the 2 cockroaches too!

As a gardener who has endured more drought years than rainy years, I KNOW that I should be grateful for more rain. I love sunshine, though, and hate the cloudy days and we've had way too many cloudy days these last couple of months. I'd just like to have 3 or 4 sunny, bright, clear days in a row. Yesterday was beautiful day #1 here, today is beautiful day #2, and we won't have a clear, sunny beautiful day for #3.

I guess I need to pick one room in the house and paint the ceiling sky blue and then paint big, white puffy clouds on the ceiling. Then, I could have my 'clear, sunny skies' even when it is gray and gloomy outside.

Go ahead and take the rest of the week off too! LOL Why should he be the only one who has a vacation? Has he brought home a deer yet? I'm not a hunter but we certainly are surrounded by them here. I always joke with Tim during hunting season that I am not 'in style' because I'm not wearing camo like everyone else here. LOL

Dawn

It has arrived here. And headed on it's way. It is cooler but the low tonight is supposed to be mid 30's so not like a few we've had. Wed night is supposed to be the cold one this week. Tomorrow and Tues will be sunny and then cloudy and cold Wed. I want sun also and so do the corn farmers and those who are still trying to get wheat in now that is has rained. And I want to get my garden worked as I feel that we may stay wet all winter. And want to get things ready for spring soon. One nice thing is I pulled up a graph of our yearly rainfall and since late July at least we have some blips and not a flat line on the bottom of the graph. Yesterday when cleaning things and scattering the last batch of grass clipping from the rec dept. I found a SQ x BC plant up next to the porch with some good ones still on the vine. I snacked on them as I worked. And then pulled the vine. The last for this season and not sure if I have any seeds left. Just a friendly warning be on the lookout for the cooler and wetter weather. Jay

Jay. Thanks for the warning. When I came inside a few minutes ago, I looked at the Mesonet map and noticed the OK Panhandle was cooling down, so figured it was either already at your place or about to reach you too.

I think we are supposed to have sunshine here Tuesday, but other than that, we have rain in the forecast on Sun., Mon., Wed. and Thurs........because, you know, we need more rain. We're already under a Flood Watch here on our side of the state line for tonight and tomorrow because, says the NWS, our saturated soils cannot handle more water. That's a disadvantage of clay...it holds water so tightly.

We have had roughly twice the rainfall that we had in 2008--almost 23" last year and almost 46" this year, so I really think we're in good shape (for once).

We aren't likely to set a record for the rainiest October ever (that would be 24" for the month of October and we are only at about a quarter of that) or even for the rainiest year ever (58", and I think it was in 1980-something) but I am positive it will be the rainiest year since we moved here in '99.

The oddest thing here? It is October and we have green grass instead of dry brown stuff! That's a pleasant change. Almost no grass fires, and fields full of bales of hay and good-looking pastures that will mean less supplemental feeding all winter long.

How wonderful you found the SQ x BC plant (Sweet Quartz x Black Cherry, I presume.....and I know that because you and I speak the same language---Tomatoese). Do you still have tomatoes inside ripening? I hope so. It is too early in the fall to run out of fresh tomatoes.

It is great you got rain this year--and so much more fun to garden with moisture than without. I hope it is a wet winter and that the groundwater supplies replenish and that the ponds and creeks all fill up. It would be nice to go into spring with adequately moist soil.

Dawn

No rain here...yet! When I was taking Lexiback to the City around 2, I had sprinkles on the windshield but that was all. Some really dark clouds have rolled thru. Before DH left for Deer Camp, he tilled me a nice spot for the garlic I hadn't gotten in the ground yet. He made it 9' x 9'....which was way too big. He also marked it off in 3' squares! The up-side is that as I was plotting and planting, I realized this spring I'll be able to plant peppers inside the grids and keep better track of those too! Got them all in the ground so "let it rain"! Thanks again, Jay!

Dawn - I think we should add the Vine Bores and Squash Bugs to the list of what Noah should have squished!!! We can deal with the rest of the insects but those other little suckers are too sneaky! No venison coming home to my freezer yet...but the week is still young. Right now, those boys are scurrying to rebuild the cover that blew off their camper. I'm watching the radar for them. What did we do before cell phones?

Everything's done now to wind up the growing season for me although I still can't pull my bells. They're still producing! Guess I'll leave them 'til it freezes!

Dawn - would you mind posting the link to the mesonet site you watch? Weather.com & Accuweather just aren't giving me enough info without a lot of searching sometimes. That is...if you're not too busy painting a ceiling blue! =)

Paula,

No painting the ceiling blue today, but I might do it one of these gloomy, gray days. I'm just watching the Dallas Cowboys on TV and watching the 2-year-old color in her coloring book. (Nice, lazy afternoon.)

The OK Mesonet is amazing and once you play around with the website and learn what each screen can show you, you simply won't believe how much weather data you can have at your fingertips. You can access not only current, real-time data 24/7 but historical data that goes back to the mid-1990s.

You'll need to download the latest version of the free Weatherscope software offered there on the home page, and then you can use the left and right menus to navigate, as well as the menu at the top of the page.

On the home page, you'll see the Burneyville station because that's the one I use for us. One you figure out the station closest to you, you can make it your home station and the data will be there whenever you go to the mesonet page. I have the Mesonet bookmarked on my
'Favorites' list and use it ALL the time.

I also like the Weather Underground website because you can click on 'hourly' for each day and it will show your forecast for 1 a.m., 3 a.m., 7 a.m., etc. I use that to figure out if we're likely to be below freezing enough hours for damage to be done. You can get to the WU at wunderground.com.

Here's one example of how the Mesonet works. Say you wake up tomorrow morning and want to check the temperature. You click on the word "temperature" on the left-hand menu and you get both a map showing current temperatures and a right-hand menu where you can check today's high and low temp, yesterday's high and low temp, the heat index (if applicable), the wind chill (if applicable), the temperature change in the last 24 hours or in the last 3 hours, etc. It is amazing to have that info available for the entire state at the click of a button.

Also, as you're navigating your way around the mesonet site, be sure to click on 'Decision Products' at the bottom of the left-hand menu because it will give you access to a lot of data under OKFire (important info during bad drought and bad fire seasons) and AGWeather.

Have fun! I think we Oklahomans are incredibly lucky to have the OK Mesonet--it is very cutting edge to have this type of real-time data available at your fingertips and residents of most other states don't have access to a similar system.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Mesonet Home Page

EUREKA!! Dawn - that is an amazing site! Better than I'd hoped for!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! And when I clicked on the link, it automatically loaded my location so there was no searching! I don't know if it's my new computer tower with Vista or just a great site! I think EVERY Oklahoma gardener should link that site to their favorites.

Now I can warn DH if he needs to wear his thermals! =)

Paula,

You're so welcome. And I think the real 'thank you' goes to OU and OSU for developing and implementing such a marvelous system....with a double 'thank you' to all the taxpayers in Oklahoma who fund the system.

Isn't it amazing? I'm glad it loaded Norman for you. I didn't know it would do that. (The Mesonet has improved a lot since I first found it 4 or 5 years ago. Well, either it has improved, or my understanding of how to use it has improved.)

Between the OK Mesonet and the Norman NWS's Enhanced Webpage, you don't even need your local forecasters. I especially like using the two of them together to figure out how quickly a cold-front is going to reach me. Since they color cold the temperature map, I can tell about where the leading edge of a front is just by the color changes.

Some nights, I look at the Mesonet temperature map around sunset and then again around 9 or 10 p.m. to see how quickly the temps are falling if a late spring freeze or early fall freeze is a possibility.

You'll find yourself using the Mesonet for all sorts of handy things....including thermal and wool sock warnings!

Dawn

Down here in southern OK, 14 counties are under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 1 a.m. and a couple of counties, including us, have Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in effect for the next hour or so.

If you're in southern or southeastern OK, you can check the link below to see if you're affected.

We should be getting hit here in the next half-hour, but I'm not really expecting any trouble.

Y'all stay safe!

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Norman Weather Office Maps and Radar

Both lines of storms roared through here in rapid succession although we only really got rain from one of them--the other just gave us thunder and lightning. We had 9/10s of an inch of rain in about 20 minutes. The rain was VERY heavy east and south of us and some flash flooding is occurring in several counties south of the river.

Owiebrain, the rain should be about to y'all by now.

Dawn

It drizzled here a bit late yesterday afternoon, then rained hard for a few minutes about 8pm and rained most of the night. Have .5 inch in the gauge this morn and still sprinkling. We don't need more rain. Need sun. I planted brocolli a couple months ago and it is half the size it should be. It's not going to make. The Chinese Cabbage though is huge. I'm about ready to pick some and start some kim chi.

We were driving back from Houston late last night. We hit the rain/lightening/hail storms in Gainesville and then again just south of Ardmore. We missed the worst of the Ardmore storm though.

We were grateful for the Starbucks and WiFi in Gainesville. Seeing radar is a lot easier than cell phone calls describing it!!

I guess OKC didn't get any, right? I didn't have a chance to check the gauge this morning.

Texas weather was lovely all weekend. We enjoyed it greatly!

Lisa

Dorothy,

The last thing we need is rain too!

My broccoli likely isn't going to make either and I am so disappointed. I still have a few bags of spring broccoli left, but not enough to get us through all the months until we get to harvest fresh broccoli again.

It hasn't been the best year for a fall garden because (as you well know) of all the moisture and clouds/lack of sunlight, but the green beans and cukes have produced well anyway, and the tomatoes and peppers have too.

Lisa,

Where'd you go in Texas and what did you do?

The rain along the I-35 corridor was fairly fast-moving, so y'all must have been traveling at just the "right" (or, LOL, "wrong") time. There were two separate lines, though, and I bet you caught them both because the one in Texas started earlier and was more long-lived and the one in Oklahoma hit slightly later and went east/northeast pretty quickly.

Dawn

Dawn: We went to Houston via San Antonio :) We were delivering Christmas Boxes for Haitian children to the central gathering point in Houston. We decided it was cheaper to drive 100 plus boxes than to mail them. I haven't run the numbers yet, but I think it was.

It was amazing how we managed to get both. I think the idea was floated that it was the girls' fault for having to go potty earlier. :) We soundly rejected that faulty logic.

I think it rained here, in Tahlequah, sometimes heavily, all day yesterday and all night last night. I really don't like the deeper-than-ankle-deep mud in our barnyard!

George

Lisa, That was quite a long drive through Texas that y'all made.

George, I share your feelings about the mud. It is looking like we may be ankle deep in mud all winter long.

Today and tomorrow are supposed to be sunny all day here (Yay!) but then it is supposed to rain on Thursday. Our temperatures here are running 15 degrees below normal, so I'm starting to wonder if we'll have more snow and ice this winter. At least if the mud freezes, you'll be able to walk on top of it instead of walking through it.

Dawn

Well we finally got the rain here, been raining all day. AND the temp only got up to 55 degrees and has dropped a couple of degrees since then.
Dawn, my bones are really screaming at me about this winter... LOL! I'm a big worry wart on this type of thing. Whatever happens, we'll be safe and warm in our little home here. The pecan tree has been trimmed to where we won't have icy branches falling on the house, we have heaters, camp stove and fuel to run them with. AND I've stocked up on so much food I think we'd survive if we were snowed in for months! LOL!

Beth

Beth,

We had sunshine! Rain returns Thursday though. I am starting to think it might be a hard winter too because our daily high temps and overnight low temps are consistently averaging 15 degrees below normal and have done so for almost all of Sept. and Oct. That cannot be a good sign.

I'm glad you're prepared for winter. I think we are too. We don't get much ice here, and are happy if we get one snowfall a year because we seldom get that. We do seem a little more prone to get sleet or freezing rain instead of snow, and I'd rather have snow.

It was almost 10 degrees colder here last night than the forecast had predicted...went all the way down to 39 degrees which surprised me. I'm glad it didn't get a few degrees colder or the misty drizzly light rain could have been sleet.

I'm not a cold weather person, so if it gets colder than usual, I'll stay inside more. With the cougar roaming, I'm unlikely to work clearing brush at the back part of the property (the back prop line is about 1000 feet from the house) this year like I have most years in the past. (sigh)

Maybe I need to come up with something else to do inside if it is a long, cold rainy winter.

Dawn

Rained yesterday and was drizzly and cloudy much of today and now, just now, the sun has come out. To the east there is still a dark bank of clouds and the hill in front of it is lit up with sun on the trees with their fall colors. Very pretty. Hope it stays clear but not supposed to. Rain shows again Thursday and Friday.

But DD and I made the most of the day. She came to help me go through kitchen cupboards. Our town has a recycling center now and I decided to throw away some of the old 1/2 gal plastic ice creeam containers that I used to freeze leftovers in and now with only 2 people to feed, don't need. So it was a profitable day. We both hate housework so get together to do it, sometimes me going to her house, sometimes her coming to mine.