We have had some rain and thunder (perhaps more thunder than rain) and it is a lovely 64 degrees with no rain falling here right now. We're headed for a high around 70, so even if no more rain fell at all, it is going to be a really nice day. Our forecast gives us a 100% chance of rain today and a 30% chance tonight, so I'm hopeful. We've been in drought for so many months that it is getting ridiculous, but if we could get 1 or 2 of those big rainfall days like Larry gets, we might finally make it out of drought. That's a really big 'if' though. The storms look good on the radar, but they are patchy and we're apparently in a dry slot right now. Autumn rain that falls between Sept and Nov is our best chance for making it out of drought, so I'm hoping for lots of rain. I was in my back garden killing squash bugs yesterday and, despite having decent rain the last couple of weeks, there's new cracks in the sandy soil back there. By new, I mean they just appeared yesterday......it aggravates me that an area that receives irrigation and that has received probably 13-15" of rain since the beginning of June still is cracking. The grass greened up a little and we have helenium, liatris and goldenrod blooming in the fields, so it looks kinda nice out there right now...if you just ignore the cracks in the ground.

Temps have dropped to the low 50's here by day, and 40's by night. I've stopped feeding the goldfish in their outdoor pool (too cold for them to digest food) and should bring them into the garage at this point. I've emptied out all the annual flower pots and containers, although many were still clinging to life by a thread, but left the veggie patch to clean out later because deer are still feeding on the 2nd self-seeded crop of mizuna and the tops of my still green and lush (but flowerless because the flowers have been eaten) snapdragons. The lawn grasses keep growing, and we steadfastly are ignoring them. We are DONE mowing for the year, even if the grass reaches waist level. I'm still waiting for a good hard freeze to clean out perennial beds and to collect and burn the wasp and hornet's enormous paper nests. That killing freeze cannot come soon enough to suit me at this time.

Looking good Ricky!! I hadn't heard of Rub Bagby but I gargled him and he certainly has an impressive resume. I don't recall seeing his Swamp Boys sauces in the stores around KC either but there are so many to choose from that I may have missed it. I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Not many mustard based sauces around here. Arthur Bryant's original is probably the best known....some people love it and others really hate it. The only time I stop smoking meat is in the coldest part of winter when it can be hard to keep the temperature up. I did about 7 lbs. of pork belly burnt ends last weekend which turned out great.

Been in the 80's but low 40's predicted by Sunday, so. . . . . Where they are where they're going