I've linked the latest 7-day QPF below. It looks horrible....well, unless you're still in drought, in which case maybe it does look good. We only have 2" in the rain gauge, and I say "only" because rain was much heavier in other parts of southern OK, so I feel lucky we didn't get more. I have no words to describe the mosquitoes here----there are just clouds of them in the air. They are waiting by the back door when I walk out in the mornings. I think Miracle May is going to give us ridiculous numbers of certain pests like mosquitoes. With ants, I've been using a Spinosad ant bait, but I am not sure how effective it is when rain is falling constantly. It always has worked well in the garden's raised beds, but they drain a lot better than the rest of the yard. I don't know how we're ever going to be able to mow again. I might try "mowing" tomorrow with the string trimmer---not 2 or 3 acres, but at least the parts of the yard nearest the house. Hmmm. I wonder how long the big lake-like puddles would have to sit in the yard in order for the bermuda grass to die. Is that even possible? If so, I hope the puddles persist that long. I noticed piles of sawdust alongside the wood boards that edge the asparagus bed and found carpenter ants there, so I ordered an ant bait containing abamectin to use there. It is organic and is effective but pricey. My normal routine of spraying Garrett Juice + Medina Orange Oil or liquid molasses to kill fire ants doesn't work when it is raining almost daily. I think the rain washes away the sprayed products before they can work. We have rain in our forecast every day for the next week, and that has been true most of the month. We don't necessarily get rain every day, but we get it on far too many days lately. The Red River now is expected to crest at a little over 35' on Thursday at the bridge between Thackerville, OK, and Gainesville, TX, and then begin falling, but if more rain keeps falling, then the river level may not fall as expected. Poor Lake Texoma. It is getting tons of runoff. They opened the floodgates a day or two ago and have been trying to release as much as possible but not so much that they are contributing to downstream flooding. A couple of days ago, Texoma had risen 19' in the last 30 days, and I expect that number is rolling over to 20' today. If any of you have plans for Lake Texoma for Memorial Day weekend, I'd call ahead and confirm that the campground or marina facility you're using is still fully open for business. Some businesses have been shutting down as rising water begins to interfere with access to their facility or the safe operation of their facilities. Robert, Our driveway has ravines like yours, and this morning little streams of water are cascading down those ravines. It is hard to figure out when to fix it, but I think it is still too early here. I doubt we'll do much before July because normally in a rainy year like this, we stay really rainy well into June. Scott, It is so good to see lake and river levels recovering in the western half of the state, but the ones in the eastern half are too full now and the number of flood warnings and flash flood warnings seems to be escalating. To our south in Texas, there's a lot more flooding than we are seeing here. I do hope that the rain is falling slowly enough that a lot of it can absorb and recharge the aquifers instead of just all running off and causing flooding. I feel fortunate that those of us north of the Red River have it there to catch all the runoff. A lot of the problem areas in North Texas aren't even from flooded rivers, but rather from flooded creeks that cannot channel the runoff into larger bodies of water fast enough because creeks are just so much smaller than rivers. I feel sorry for everyone in the Norman area that is being flooded. It just seems like flooding is the new normal for Norman, at least this year. Oh wow, a bright yellowish-white light suddenly is shining through my living room windows. Either the Mother Ship from another universe has come to beam me up, or the sun is shining. I'm hoping it is sunshine. I don't intend to step foot in my waterlogged garden today. I harvested everything I could yesterday, so there shouldn't be anything out there that needs to be harvested today. The pathways are like little canals and have been testing the limits of my waterproof boots. I might start some icebox watermelon and muskmelon seeds in paper cups inside today. The snap peas have powdery mildew, so far only on the lower leaves and not on the peas themselves. Once the PM starts in weather like this, it doesn't go away and once it starts affecting the peas, I yank out the plants. I need to have replacement plants ready to go into that bed and climb that trellis. If I get too bored indoors, I might change my mind and go out later today and make a list of which tomato varieties have set fruit versus which ones have not. I think there's more green tomatoes on the plants than I had thought, so we still might have a good tomato year if the raised beds can drain well enough to keep the plants happy and productive. 7-Day QPF

Paula, I worry about you and Ken and all that high water. Y'all be extra careful! After all these years of fearing that wildfire would burn us all out of our homes, now we are at the other end of the spectrum. It hasn't even taken hail to knock fruit off our plum trees. Every time we have had really high wind and heavy rain together, the ground is covered with fruit. I still hope to get enough plums to make some jelly, but that looks more and more iffy every day. My garden is the same as yours---without raised beds, there simply would be no garden left to produce anything. This week I yanked out the snap peas----the plants, though heavily loaded with peas and still in bloom, were rotting off at the ground, and they are in raised beds. I harvested all I could find as I pulled out each plant and put it on the compost pile. I'm not going to plant anything else in the ground where they were growing until we have had a few days of sunshine to dry out the waterlogged soil in those raised beds. I fear that any seed sowed there now would just rot or wash away anyhow. Robert, What is a sunny day? (grin) I feel like we have become obsessed with mowing and edging the property, precisely because we cannot do it. On the first sunny, dry-ish day we get, Tim will be mowing, and I'll be out there with the string trimmer tidying up the edges, and along fence lines and such. Tim did mow the other day, so at least the grass in the area closest to the house, garden and outbuildings is low, but the roadside and the pastures are high. You know, that snakey sort of high. I can't wait for us to at least be able to mow pathways through the fields. After Tim mowed the other day, he had just parked the riding mower in the garage when gas became pouring out from underneath it. As he was pushing it back out of the garage, I was running to the house to grab cat litter to absorb the spilled gasoline. He eventually found a hose loose and then two parts on the ground that surely must have had something to do with the loose hose, which I assume was a fuel line. So, before he can mow again, he'll have to fix the mower again. It is always something, isn't it? We've never had to work so hard just to mow the grass. Larry, Thanks for the laugh! You always say something that puts a smile on my face. I like the idea of a boat delivered by a drone. Yesterday when I heard the UPS truck coming down the road (you can hear it from a long way off once you are used to what it sounds like) I went down the driveway to meet the driver down at the road. I wouldn't have wanted for him to bring that big old truck up our flooded driveway as he might have gotten stuck in the mud. Has anyone here been counting days and nights of rain? Is anyone approaching 40 days and 40 nights? It might be time to start building an ark, and if I was building that ark, it would have two sections---one for two of each kind of animal and the other for two of each kind of plant. Oh, who am I kidding? It would have a third section for 100 tomato plants. Dawn

I have heard from Macmex and they are fine and had minimal damage. Still wondering about Mulberryknob. The only thing this has to do with gardening is the fact that it involves seeds, but it was kind of funny. A few years ago George shared some hot pepper seeds with me and I plant them almost every year because Al likes for me to dry them and grind them into flakes and he sprinkles them on his food but a bottle will last him a long time. Last year in late Fall I picked several branches of these little bright red peppers and just stuck them in a glass to dry. Al still had pepper flakes so I just never got around to grinding that bunch and thought I would probably just keep them for seeds. This weekend George sent me a message and asked me if I had some of those pepper seeds because his didn't germinate this year. I didn't see the msg until yesterday, but as soon as I saw it, I cut the stems off of some peppers and stuck them down in a little plastic jewelry size bag, and put that bag inside a bubble wrap type mailer and took it to the post office. It was super light, and the envelope probably weighed more than the contents but it puffed up a little because the seeds were whole and the plastic bag probably had a little air in it. I had to wait in line for awhile, and when I gave the lady the package to weigh, she said, "That will be $2.45." I gave her a questioning look and said, "Really?" She said, "If you can make it thinner, it won't cost as much". Without a pause, I made a fist, reached across the counter to the envelope and gave it three quick hits with the side of my folded fist. She pulled back a little and gave a little giggle, and said, "That will be 94 cents". The woman at the counter beside me laughed and said, "That would make a good commercial". It was not my intent to entertain the Post Office patrons, but it seems I did. George said he received the package today, but I didn't ask him if the pods remained in the plastic bag, or if I blew them all out into the inside of the mailing envelope. I have now been educated by USPS and realize that although you are light weight, it will still cost more if you look fat. LOL

It's in the 70's here. We ended up not going camping. Turns out there were no places left anywhere near where we wanted to camp and they had changed the rule so dogs are no longer allowed. Can't do Austin. Austin has some huge event going on and rooms that are normally $150 are $400-$700. We looked at other accommodations and several mentioned bed bugs. Ugh! Can't go to the beach either unless I want to experience Spring Break with the kids. Looking for something else to do. May just turn food tasters and look up some of the 'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives' places.