I feel like I'm a Dust Bowl farmer. Just came in from 2 hours of weeding in the midday (wrong time, of course, but that's when I got there), and EVERYTHING is DRY DRY DRY. I get little clouds of dust when my foot scoots in the dirt. There are CRACKS in my soil it's so dry. I watered everything pretty good late Sunday night, and the dahlias are wilting again, my very few little zinnias are crinkling their leaves, even the weeds seem to be gasping for water! I don't like to water mid-day, so my poor plants will have to wait a few more hours before I can water them again.

We haven't gotten good rain in probably a month, maybe more. While I was out there a cloud came over and 10 raindrops fell, and the temps cooled for about thirty seconds. THAT'S IT!

I was hoping to sow a bunch of seeds out there today, but now I'm not sure. I don't know if the drought or the grasshoppers would get them first!

Bryan, I'm sorry, and shocked, that it's SNOWING where you are, but I sure would like that front to pick up speed and come down here! MAYBE we'd get some rain! Hope you can protect your crops, or that they're "winter" hardy! LOL!

Susi.

Bryan -- I understand! It snowed on Mt. Hood yesterday and I'm not done planting either! However, it has stopped the downpours (which we desparately needed), but its now been cold too! I even have had fires in my woodstove in my barn/workspace to keep me and my starts warm! Hard to believe in Feb. I had temps in the high 70's and no rain and now rain and nothing about 60! It makes it hard to predict for customers what will be available when!!

I hope to get my zinnias planted tonight!
Good luck!
Wendy

50, rain which we do not need, despite the cries of the drought police, and in fleece again here. This is a really bad Spring. I too thought of the woodstove to take the chill off the other night, but the furnace is easier. Bryan I feel for you in your snow, hopefully it's shortlived.

SNOW!!! That's a four letter word. Up until this weekend we had just enough showers(about every other day) to make it really hard to work, not much help for soil moisture, just a pain in the butt precipitation. I did manage to get Suns and Zinnias seeded several times between the drops but it was messy. Now, since last Friday, I've gotten over four inches of rain and storms are forcast fro the next 4 days, aaagghhhh!!!

I hope the weather evens out for everyone.

Bryan, did you get me private e-mail last week?

Steve

On Sunday morning I woke up at it was 24 degrees on my porch. Which means five degrees cooler in my flower field. My husband and I are actually engaged in serious discussions about MOVING because we figure if we want to be FARMERS, we might should consider a locale where it doesn't hit 24 degrees on JUNE 5. We went looking for new properties today! I've been here 4 years and of those four years, the lilacs have only bloomed twice. The other 2 years, they got frosted and flower-killed (both were 20 degrees or so on May 15). It's really weird-- we're in this terrible cold sinkhole-- we can see 13,000 foot snow-covered peaks out our window and I think the cold rolls off those at night and slams us. Plus, it's always hot during the day, so everything starts growing growing growing and then gets SLAMMED. We're at 7,600 feet I think... but what's weird is, I know people uphill, at say 8,000 and 8,500 feet, who get apples every darn year (we NEVER get them -- the blossoms get frosted) and whose lilacs bloom without fail... The person I know who lives HIGHEST, nearly 9,000 feet, the night it was 23 degrees at our place, it was 37 degrees at his place. This just can't happen-- we can't farm in this climate-- my lilies are all (once again) complete toast. I'm lucky I can grow anything at all! We have so much invested in this place and yet I'm SO fed up, and every year at this time I feel this way...

Kristen, who thinks she wins hands-down on the bad weather situation

I'd have to agree. Hands-down, you got it.
It sounds like your whole darned property is a cold sink! The cold really IS rolling off those snowfields, or the slopes above you at any rate, and coming to rest at your place. That's why the higher-up folks are warmer than you. Their cold is coming down to you. I can get around this somewhat by having one area, albeit small, that isn't in a cold sink. In my big cold-sink field, NOTHING tender gets planted out before mid-June, and I don't even try lilies down there any more, nor celosia, zinnias, salvias, or any perennials whose buds are prone to frost damage. I wouldn't even put a greenhouse down there. Do you have any area that is sheltered from the cold coming down the hill?

Are you SURE you don't want to move?

Jeanne