lol

That's funny.

I don't even need a soil test to tell me that our soil has severe H2O deficiency too.

It keeps trying to rain here day after day, but what little rain falls gets sucked up by the soil so quickly that within a few hours, the soil looks just as dry aa it did before the rain fell. We've had 0.05" of H2O fall from the sky at our house this morning. It isn't much, but any moisture is better than none.

I hope you get some meaningful moisture soon, and that everyone else who needs rain gets some too.

They said we were expecting rain, the radar looked like it was raining, but it dissipating in the air. The air felt damp but only an occasional drop fell. My allergies need relief.

We have been getting a very slow rain, rain gauge shows about 3/8" in the past two days, not much but I wont send it back.

We finally had some reach the ground today, but at 57 degrees it's a little cool to stay out in it. It has been light and slow but at least it is good for the plants.

I think we all have that same soil test! We finally have received 1-1/3 inches over the last couple of days and are just thrilled.

I hope it continues for all of us.

If it ever quits raining I will check my rain gauge. Lots of thunder today.

Parts of our county had measurable rainfall-up to about 4/10s of an inch. At our house we only got 5/100s of an inch. Any moisture is good, I guess, but when I went to empty out the rain gauge last night, some of that 5/100s of an inch must have evaporated because only 3 drops of water fell out of the rain gauge.

The plants and I are loving the cooler temps though, even if very little moisture is reaching the ground here.

One of the wildflowers I've missed most this year is the rain lilies. They bloom after a fairly heavy rain in summer or fall, but hadn't bloomed this year. I've been watering an area behind the barn with a sprinkler lately trying to green up that grass for a little fire protection. That watering paid off. The grass is green and we had one rain lily bloom the day after I last watered. One lonely rain lily. There again, guess it is better than none.

For us, having rain in the forecast is great and gets our hopes up that some meaningful rain will fall but not much actual rain is falling and it is coming in patchy, widely-scattered showers. Instead, we're getting occasional fires caused by lightning strikes. In that way, this weather continues to create problems. It is nice that it feels cool in the mornings and evenings and, at least once this week, it felt cool all day long.

Some long-dormant wildflowers are greening up a little and starting to bloom a bit. They're nothing to get excited about, but we've got at least one of each of the following in bloom: green milkweed, greenthread daisy, lazy daisy, rain lily, yellow puffs, purple flowered horse nettle and frogfruit. Goldenrod has been in bloom for a month, but the number of plants blooming is about 5% of what we usually have. With a little more moisture we could have a few more flowers in bloom by the time the monarchs migrate. I don't know if we're going to get that moisure, but at least a slight chance of rain is in the forecast for almost every day.

Shoot, I had my fingers crossed for all of you! It surely looked like you were getting some rain. Here's hoping for Sunday night.

Just emptied one and one quarter inches.

We got another tenth of an inch yesterday, last night and this morning so far, combined.

Carol, I'm going to have to record a lot of those 0.10" rainfalls to catch up with your 1.25" rainfall. lol

The lighting did cause grassfires during the overnight hours. You just have to laugh about it, or you'd cry every time the pagers go off while you're sleeping. It is so crazy that the desperately needed rainstorms are bringing us so little rain and are starting fires. Our luck has to change sooner or later though.

Friday afternoon a big dark cloud came out of NM on a NE west of us 20-25 miles journey then as soon as it was 3-4 miles north of us also headed straight east. It missed us by the 3-4 miles but left 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches in it's path. So missed again. Had intended on going to ten watering intervals but things were getting too dry. So watered yesterday and today. Hopefully rain will be coming soon. I'm thankful for those of you who are receiving something. Here it is more miss than hit. Jay

I emptied out .45 this morning. Its not a lot but much more than some are getting.

In reference to the H20 deficiency. I heard a local asked one of the commissioners if they could possibly build a bridge across the cracks in his fields. Have never seen it this dry for so long. With winter coming looks bleak. How I will keep things alive I'm not sure. Jay

Dawn and Jay, You have stayed too dry for too long. I don't know how you grow anything.

I emptied my rain gauge again this afternoon with just under an inch of rain. At my house that makes almost 2 1/2 inches for these storms. I should have planted a fall garden, I guess. I am still getting lots of peppers, a little okra, and a few long beans. Ugly tomato plants are blooming again.

Carol,

More rain? Oh, I am just officially green with envy! (At least I am green, because most of my plants are brown. lol)

We had such hope of good rainfall late yesterday afternoon. The clouds built up and got huge and turned that incredible blue-black you get with severe weather. We were in Gainesville at the time and hurried to beat the storm home. We got rained on in Thackerville, and shortly after we made it north of Thackerville, hail started falling...down in Thackerville, not where we were. We got home and had nothing. Well, nothing but a Severe Thunderstorm Watch. Not a drop of rain fell here, but undoubtedly heavy rain and hail must have fallen somewhere east/southeast of us....maybe in the Gainesville to Sherman area on the Texas side of the river or maybe anywhere from Thackerville/Marietta east of I-35 over towards Madill and Durant. The skies were so blue-black that they were scarey.

Anytime I am feeling sorry for our area regarding how desperately we need rain, I just think of Durant. I believe our county has had about 2.5" of rain since June 1st, but they've had less than an inch. If Love County is extremely dry, the Bryan County is exceptionally dry.

Unless good rainfall comes in Oct., Nov. and Dec., 2011 will go down in the record books as the driest year ever in Love County. It would only take about 4 inches of rainfall to keep it from being the driest year ever...but it might be the second driest year.

I have struggled to keep the grass somewhat green around the house just so it will slow down the movement of any wildfire that might reach our place. We have some green grass on all 4 sides of the house, but it is oddly green....darker in some places, lighter in others, brown in others and just plain old weird looking. It looks like I took dollar bills and chopped them up and spread them on the ground in terms of how uneven the color is. Come to think of it, for as high as the water bill has been this year, it might have been cheaper to chop up dollar bills and mulch the ground with them, and it would look about as good as the yard looks now!

It has to rain again eventually, and I mean real rain...the kind that makes puddles, etc. and not the kind that practically evaporates before it reaches the ground. There has been a lot more moisture in the air over the weeked, and the higher humidity kept the number of fires down. This morning we even had some dew on the ground. Dew has been very scarce this summer. It also was the first time in 5 nights that the fire pagers didn't wake us up during the night, so the higher humidity definitely is helping us a little bit in that regard. I don't know that the dew is enough moisture to make much difference to the soil or plants, but any moisture is good.

Dawn