My rain guages didn't come cheap, but I have plenty. I had a kid! Consequently I have dozens of makeshift rain guages scattered all over my yard. Here's a picture of While I'm kinda kidding, it does illustrate that it does not need to be fancy. In the sun, the water will evaporate out of the guage, so you can't keep an accurate running total with one. You must check and dump fairly regular no matter what type it is if you want to be accurate. 5 gallon buckets are a liability, as a kid can go head first into one and not get out. A child small enough to do that is also one young enough to not know any better.

Dan those sound great, let us know how they turn out and post some pics through out the prep process if possible. I'm a slow learner and pictures really help me grasp things lol ;) Sal

Thanks again everyone for appreciating the labels. Yummykaz-(Rebecca)- you are more than welcome to use them. Readinglady (Carol)- I enjoyed all the other ideas for labels, thanks for the link. Also the watermelon link you provided above was good too. I have always wanted to try a watermelon jelly- I think I'll skip that one now. The 2nd recipe you had listed in that link for watermelon rind pickles is close to a batch I made once, and other batch recipes I've successfully done are also listed below, (Since tnflower_lover requested mine.) I too have a copy of Marion Brown's old book. The first recipe below (from readinglady) is from "Pickles and Preserves" by Marion Brown, 1955, reprinted University of North Carolina Press 6 cups watermelon rind (trimmed of green outside skin and all soft pink inside pulp) 7 1/2 cups sugar 2 1/2 cups water 1 lemon, thinly sliced 1/2 ounce ginger root, broken up Cut preppped rind into pieces. Cover with water and boil 2 hours or until tender. Cool in the water. Drain and measure to make 6 cups. Boil together the other ingredients for 10 minutes. Add the rind and cook for about 1 hour, or until the rind is transparent. Always keep the rind covered with syrup while cooking. If the syrup is too thin, add additional sugar; if too thick, add water. Remove from heat. Seal hot in sterilized jars. (reading lady added- "I'd process BWB as per jam".) I (reba_grows) have a 1982 Kerr home canning and freezing book that I use as a jump off point for a lot of canning. In it, they have a recipe for watermelon rind PRESERVES. Mine usually ends up more like a preserve VERY sweet in a thick sweet syrup. KERR Watermelon Preserves Select melons with thick rinds. Peel off all green and pink leaving only the white rind. Dice, soak in mild salt water overnight (1/2 cup salt to 1 gallon cold water). Drain and cook in clear water about 30 minutes or until tender. Drain well. For 4 pounds (11 cups) of rind, make a syrup of 9 cups of sugar, 8 cups water, 4 lemons sliced thin. Add 4 sticks cinnamon, 4 teaspoons cloves Tie the above spices in a cheesecloth or muslin bag (or use a stainless steel tea ball) and add to the syrup. Boil the syrup, lemon and spices for 5 minutes before adding the watermelon rinds. Add rinds and cook until transparent and clear, (careful with your stirring so nothing sticks or burns). If desired, a few minutes before the preserves are done add a few drops of red or green food coloring to tint the preserves. (I added a tiny amount of yellow once-it turned out pretty-reba.) Remove spice bag. Pour into sterilized jars, (I just use clean hot jars since they will sterilize in the WBC-reba),leaving 1/2 inch at the top (I leave only 1/4 inch as in the BALL recipe below- reba). Add lid, screw on band. Process in boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. (I process 20 minutes as in recipe below-reba). Next, from a 1999 Ball Blue book is the one that I use the most often except I add cinnamon sticks in a teaball with a few whole cloves to the syrup-reba. BALL Watermelon Rind Preserves 1 and 1/2 quarts watermelon rind, 4 tablespoons salt (for the soak...I use canning salt, reba), 3 and 1/2 quarts water divided, 1 tablespoon ground ginger, 4 cups sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice (I use bottled but newly purchased-reba) 1 medium lemon sliced thin (I use 2). To prepare rind- Trim red and green from rind. Cut rind in 1 inch pieces. (I borrowed miniature heart, diamond and clover cutters once- too cute for words.) Dissolve salt in 2 quarts water. Pour salted water over rind and let stand 5 to 6 hours. Drain, rinse, and drain again. Cover rind with cold water and let stand 30 minutes. Drain again. Sprinkle ginger over rind. Cover again with clear fresh cold water and cook until fork tender. Drain again. To prepare syrup- Combine sugar, lemon juice and 1 and 1/2 quarts water in a large saucepan. Boil 5 minutes. Add prepared watermelon rind and boil gently, for 30 minutes or until syrup thickens. Add sliced lemon and cook until rind is transparent. Remove from heat, skim foam if necessary. Ladle hot preserves into hot jars leaving 1/4 " headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust 2 piece caps. Process 20 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. Yields about 6 half pints. In the same 1999 BALL Blue book they also have- BALL Watermelon Rind PICKLES (not preserves)- 4 quarts cubed watermelon rind 1 cup canning salt 1 gallon cold water 7 cups sugar 1 medium lemon thinly sliced 1 tablespoon whole cloves 1 tablespoon whole allspice 1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds 3 sticks cinnamon 2 cups vinegar (that's what makes these more picklely and less preserves like) Peel watermelon rind like other recipes above. Cut rind into 1 inch pieces. Dissolve salt in water, add rind and let stand 6 hours or overnight. Drain and rinse, drain again and set aside. Tie spices in bag or ball. Combine sugar, lemon slices, spice bag or ball and vinegar in a large saucepot. Bring mixture to a boil and cook 10 minutes. Add rind to syrup and SIMMER until rind is transparent. Remove spice bag/ball. Pack hot rind and hot liqued into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust 2 piece lids. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. Yield about 6 pints. One of these should be a winner as far as ingredients and amounts, but I would still process the preserves 20 minutes, or 10 minutes for the pickles, using 1/4" headspace for either. Also, when I soak the rind, I do it along with ice cubes in a ziploc bag added to it (so it doesn't dilute the salt brine) to keep them good and cold for a while. I know someone also requested the Kosher green tomato pickles- I'll have to find the recipe and post in another post, another time. Weeding in the garden took it out of me today. PS I do not grow my own watermelons- too much trouble and space for me. I have not had the problem of thin rinds here in the east (West VA).

Thank you so much Mtn. I'll pass your tips along to my DDIL who fell in love with my mini loaf pan and 'borrowed' it. She thought it was so clever that each loaf had a different design on top. She's on the board of a local animal rescue and volunteered to host the next meeting. I think it might be prudent to purchase another pan for myself. lol She is a very creative and enthusiastic individual and immediately said she was going to use 2 colors of icing, white for a base and then she would add a light yellow tint to highlight the lemons on top. Interesting that your icing hid the relief. I went back to look at the post where you linked the W.S. pans and the lemons show fairly well. It appears they used a really thin icing on the lemons and then a thicker one around them and to drizzle over the side. I wouldn't dream of making them without icing! Ah clever Mtn! - you found white and yellow striped ribbon! Perfect