Moni,

It started raining here yesterday afternoon, although it has been a very light and slow rain, so not any large accumulations. We have rain in our forecast for every day this week and I expect we're liklely to get it because Tropical Storm Olaf is out there in the Pacific Ocean sending waves of tropical moisture across the SW USA and Mexico and all that moisture is headed our way! It also has been hitting Texas for several days, including those areas with Exceptional Drought, so I am hoping it is falling in time to help some of the ranchers save the cattle they have left.

If it stays cloudy, cool and rainy all week, then I bet my garden will stop producing warm-season crops like black-eyed peas and okra, and probably tomatoes as well, since they thrive on heat and sunshine, but that's OK because we almost always need the rain and we've had oodles of tomatoes, okra and black-eyed peas.....and the harvest always does end at some point.

Dawn

It sprinkled on us just a few drops last evening right before sunset. We had just finished planting the blueberry bushes but we put the sprinkler on them anyway so they could get a good drink in their new home.

Not sure when the rain started but when I got up around 2 AM, I could hear the pitter-patter. And now, @ 8:30 it's still steady. From the looks of the radar...this is going to keep up most of the day. I'm looking forward to a day inside! Dawn - I had to go to 3 stores here in Norman to find pickling lime. Finally found it at Homeland!

I can almost hear my new blueberries saying "ahhhh...."!

Paula

I noticed puddles on the ground so I went outside and checked the rain gauge and about 16 hours of light rain has yielded 1.5" of rain, which isn't bad.

Rain continues to fall and is expected to continue, on and off, for days.

Paula, Pickling lime is becoming increasing hard to find. I think a lot of people are switching to alternatives because it causes upset stomachs in sensitive people (or in regular people if you don't rinse all of it off). I think either last year or the year before that, the manufacturer of Pickle Crisp, which I'm sure contained lime, discontinued making/selling it because of consumer reports of gastric distress.

I hope your pickled pepper rings turn out well. It is going to be a good day to be working inside.

Dawn

A nice, gentle sprinkle going here as well since morning.

I just stuck my head out of the door and the birds are going nuts!!! I couldn't believe the racket. Sounds like something out of the Hitchcock movie. It's kind of freaking me out because it's not normal bird sounds -- sounds like several hundred birds getting electrocuted.

Diane

Cloudy and drizzly here but so far only 1/10". DH has taken a few days off to do some work around the house (starting tomorrow) so I was hoping we would get a good soaking today as we are starting to need it, and then the rest of the week clear up. But with the weather we take what we get.

It was a perfect day for butchering chickens Friday tho. DH and I got all 20 in the freezer and cleaned back up fairly early in the afternoon, but were too tired to do much else for the day. Need to pick the bush beans which have just gotten ready.

We have had a odd day, with very little variation in the weather. It looked virtually the same all day, except the rain stopped about as soon as I said we had an inch-and-a-half in the rain gauge. Our overnight low was 56 and it was foggy, misty, drizzly. Our daytime high was 58, and it was foggy, misty, drizzly. Now it is back down to 56, and it still is foggy, misty and drizzly. This is the first time in ages that our temperature has remained almost the same the whole day. We're only up to 1.6" now in the rain gauge, so the mist remained very light.

Dorothy, You've been busy!

I looked at the bush beans this evening, but decided to wait until tomorrow to start picking them. Maybe it will stay dry log enough to get that done. I still am hoping for more sunlight to keep the beans producing well for a few weeks, but I don't know that we'll get it. Every sign I'm seeing is 'screaming' that it is going to get cold early.

Dawn