Hi. I'm new to AL and GWF. I'm no longer an AGW skeptic. However, since I'm pretty sure people will wait until it is too late to help themselves, I don't really debate the issue. Folks get really fired up about it, probably because they fear the proposed solutions more than climate change itself. Hard to blame them, really. Here's a pretty good link to read the argument from the AGW side if anyone is interested. http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php The cool thing (literally and figuratively) is that with the right trees in the right place, and a nice garden, we can create our own tiny micro climate and produce good food. Nothin' wrong with that, no matter where you stand on AGW! Here is a link that might be useful: AGW facts

Randy, Well, I guess it is a good thing the rain gauge is not broken, so you can keep track of the rainfall. (What else can you do right now....can't mow the grass!) Our creek has not come up into the woods yet, but it is running like crazy. Some of our neighbors are warning me that we may see the creek start running backwards this summer as backwater from the Red River flows backwards into the creeks. They insist this has happened before.....in the 1980s and in the 1950s, but the concept defies logic for me? I just emptied 4" out of our rain gauge this morning....and this is rain that has fallen since I emptied the gauge at about 3:30 p.m. Friday afternoon. Keep in mind that our professional guessers had forecast a drying trend with the rain tapering off over our area this weekend. I guess that is NOT going to happen. lol Actually, by Thursday evening they were backing off the earlier "drying and clearing out" prediction, because the upper level low was re-establishing itself over us. I am so tired of this. Dawna, I wish I had written down the rainfall totals every day this month because our mesonet station has gone bonkers....I think it was damaged when the Gainesville flood occurred. Our rainfall total is USUALLY pretty close to that of the NWS cooperative observer who lives about a mile from us, but this year the totals aren't as close as usual. So, I have been keeping track of the differences in his rainfall total and mine (in my head) and when I see his monthly total for June, all I have to do is add the difference to get our number. For what it is worth, we had a little over 14" of rain in June 2004 and I did not think we would EVER approach that total again. Well, we just might surpass it in 2007. I know this rain could end any day, and it might not rain again for months....so I am really TRYING to appreciate the rain and think of it as a blessing from the Lord. I certainly have not forgotten the drought, the wildfire season we barely survived, the water bills that were so incredibly high and YET the plants were dying and the ground had massive cracks in it anyway. I remember all of that and I am truly grateful for the rain, yet I am just sick of it anyway! Y'all, I now have large limbs crashing down out of some of my trees. I don't know if they are so heavy with water and new foliar growth that it is causing this, or if it is being caused by the wind that comes with some of the thunderstorms. Either way, it is a mess. I remember 100-year-old pecans and oaks falling over in Fort Worth in the early 1990s when a prolonged pattern of heavy rainfall left the soil too wet to support them. It was awful. I would hate to see that happen here, but I am starting to fear that it might. I NEED some sunshine and blue skies. Dawn

Oh, I can give you some first hand knowledge on the little Carolina Chickadees in my yard!! About a month ago, I noticed that they had already built a full nest inside one of my little birdhouses. Now, they seem to be unable to make up their minds about where they want to nest. They have been in and out of every little house that I have hanging.I have personally seen them in 7 of the houses. They are leaving little pieces of green moss in each house. I assumed that this must be a territorial issue. I figured that they must be leaving the moss in each house to discourage any other pair of Carolina Chickadees from nesting there. Just my thoughts tho. I still don't know what they will finally choose.

That brought back some bad memories of my highschool days. We lived on a farm 10 miles from town. My folks came home from the weekly shopping trip and Mom was very shaken. They had witnessed a deadly accident right before their faces. It involved highschool classmates of mine. Four of my classmates were barreling down the highway and my folks were waiting behind a car at the stop sign waiting to cross this highway when the first waiting car truned right onto the highway in front of my classmates. The driver decided to pass the offender, stepped on the gas, and entered the left lane only to meet head-on an oncoming auto. All 3 occupants of the oncoming car were killed. My 4 classmates were badly mangled and the driver barely survived. This happened in an instant in the intersection where my parents were waiting to cross the highway. That was in about 1953. Now it is 2014 and bad traffic decisions have not changed.