Jay, it is raining here (Edmond) right now. Woke up to thunder and lightning.

The weather man here said, the rain would start sometime last night.

But he never said, it would start in the late afternoon, which it did, ever so slightly while we were riding back in to OKC yesterday. We sure got lucky, and didn't really get wet before we got to the cars.

Just where do you live Jay? I thought of you a couple of weeks ago, while driving back from Albuquerque, and going by Elk City.

Moni

Rained here last night and we've had a little moisture dusting but not much else. They say we'll get more though. I'm in north Claremore, almost to Foyil.

The rain here just arrived within the last half-hour.

Oddly, our temperatures went up overnight, reaching a high of 73 degrees before the rain started rolling in. It has dropped to the mid-60s now.

Jay, I hope the coldest part of the weather stays west of y'all so all you get is rain and not ice or snow. Colorado sure has been pounded by snow.

At least none of us have to worry about drought for the next few months.

Dawn

Woke up to rain this morning. But I don't want rain. It was sunny Sat. then rainy or cloudy Sun, Mon, Tues, then Yesterday bright and sunny almost all day, clouding up after 5 pm. I want another day like that, because I AM SICK OF RAIN AND CLOUDS. Dad told me Mon that we'd had rain or clouds 18 days this month, so now it's 20. Yesterday was only the 5th totally clear all day sun that I had counted this month. Had a couple partly cloudy days.

Dorothy,

I share your feelings. As long as we have a day or two of sunshine, the garden plants produce. When the clouds come it, the garden stalls. So, my fall garden has spent most of September and October in a stall, with just a few periodic burst of production after a couple of sunny days.

This morning's heaviest rains are going west of our part of Love County and just slamming Ardmore as they go into Carter County. I understand they have some roads flooding there already. We're having a mostly gentle rain with a couple of minutes of heavier rainfall every now and then. I'd rather have no rainfall, and I feel guilty saying that because normally we need more rain here, not less.

It was sunny here Sunday and supposed to be sunny yesterday, but we only had sun until around 9 a.m. and then all the clouds rolled in quite quickly and that was the end of the sunshine. I was very disappointed. I had hoped for a full day of sun.

Dwn

I am starting to crave sunshine more than chocolate and I can only say that means I am desperate.
Leava :)

Leava, More than chocolate? Uh-oh. Clearly you are in a desperate crisis there. Wish I could send you some sunshine dipped in chocolate, but there is no sunshine here.

Dawn

Well we got drenched. It really started coming down when we left WM around 1:00 and then poured steadily for the next hour or so. It's off and on sprinkles now.

Where are you Mr. Sun?

Leava, more than chocolate? Oh no :-(

I've decided to curl up with my crochet hook and a cup of cocoa and try to enjoy a cool day. But I think I'd rather be outside working in the sun...

Mandy

Moni,
I live 44 miles NW of Guymon,OK.
We ended up with one inch of rainfall. It snowed out at the plant for about a couple of hours today but melted and never accumulated. Sure cold. Our predicted high last night was 47-52 by this morning had been changed to 35-37. They are saying 27 tonight. 32 righ now. I think the mositure is over. Can see clearing to the west. They say clear all next week. My garlic is going to be late going in. Jay

We ended up with an inch-and-a-half, and previously had about 6.5", I think, for the month, so it looks like we'll probably end October with about 8". That's wetter than usual for us in October, but not even close to the wettest October here, which was 24" in 1981.

Y'all are a great deal colder than we are Jay, but I think we've all been deprived of sunlight far too many days in October. I'm hoping for a nice stretch of sunny days now that this round of rain has passed.

My garlic is going to be late too. I keep looking at the garlic and the wet, squishy ground and just shaking my head. Even Tim, who is a non-gardener himself, told me the other day I needed to add compost to my most well-draining raised bed before I plant the garlic in it, or it is going to drown. Most of the time he doesn't pay attention to the soil, but it is hard to miss the fact that water is standing everywhere.

It could be worse, though. We could have the snow that Colorado's been getting.

We got 1.2 inches and have puddles everywhere. This is strange weather. I have some Sungold plants that I didn't tear out and they are pretty and green and covered with little tomatoes and even more blooms. I don't go to that area very often since it contains so few things now and some little tomatoes had ripened and split with all the rainfall. I stripped all of the other vines weeks ago, then two weeks later did it again. I could have left them both times. Some tomatoes were very green and we used them for fried green tomatoes a couple of times. I have a dish of them sitting on my table and they are turning. So much for that info about them having to have a blush to ripen, because these had no pink at all. I guess I was pre-mature in pulling up all of my pepper plants also. My beans are still producing. The cole crops are still growing but I don't think there is any way that they could produce. They have grown too slower through all of this mixed up weather.

Dawn yes CO has been getting it. And cold also. Saying mid teens there tonight. We are shipping gas that way. Had some engineers and IT techs in doing work from the CO Springs area. One headed down the dirt road to my station driving like he was on the freeway. After getting out of the ditch he slowed down. Scared him pretty bad. Guess he had no clue how slick the dirt roads can get. These aren't sand. They are a silty clay that gets slick. We are less than 3 inches from normal now. A lot better than I expected. The moisture now will give us good subsoil moisture for next spring. Jay

30 here this morning and sun on it's way they say. Warm up to begin. I'm ready. Jay

We got an inch yesterday, making 2" for the week, 11.3" for the month and 66" for the year. And I am so ready for the promised week of sun and warmer temps.

Dorothy, So your rainfall is back to normal? Or, higher than normal? It is frustrating but I'd rather be too wet than too dry (though only up to a certain point).

Sunny and gorgeous here, though still muddy and squishy.

I'm looking forward to the sunshine and warmer temperatures too. My okra is still blooming, but then the pods aren't developing further because of the cold temps and lack of sun. Maybe with a few days of sun and warmer weather, we'll get one more good harvest from the okra and the cukes.

It was really cold here this morning for as far south as we are--43 overnight, and still 46 around 9 a.m.

Dawn

What's normal? We've already had more rain this year than last and last year was above normal at 60" for the year. With two months to go I wonder where we will end up this year. I hate being dry too, but this year has been too much of a (usually)good thing. Our cucs, okra, tomatoes, and peppers are gone and today I noticed the loofa vine frosted back. Although the pole beans aren't completely dead.

Today was bright and sunny if a bit cool and breezy.

We are still 17 plus inches under last years rainfall, but I think we had the most of anyone in Oklahoma for last year, with 67.78 inches, so a little less is OK. Very breezy here today also.

Based on the last 3 or so years, normal for you seems to be something in excess of 60", which astonishes me.

To tell you the truth, the weather has been so odd the last 3 or so years that I am trying to figure out what the 'new normal' is because the old norms haven't applied.

We may freeze tonight. Our local weather guy said 37 degrees for the 'outlying areas and lowlying areas' like ours (42 or 43 in town) and no clouds or wind, so I sort of expect a little frost although not a really heavy one unless it goes even colder.

I picked 1 measley okra pod today and there's about 20 blooms that probably won't form pods, so I think the okra is done.

I harvested oodles of peppers today....I'd just as soon put them on the compost pile because, quite frankly, I've already put up 3 or 4 times as many as I usually do, but I seem to be incapable of tossing good food on the compost pile, so tomorrow I'll dry them or can them or something.

I picked a lot of little tomatoes and will dehydrate them tomorrow, and I'm in the process of draining 3 gallons of green beans that I just blanched, so they'll go into the freezer in a little while.

I have 6 or 8 pickling cukes sitting on the counter looking sad and forlorn. You can't do a lot with such a small amount of cukes. Maybe I'll just make a jar of refrigerator pickles tomorrow. There's 20-30 tiny cukes on the plants now that will reach picking size in a few days if they don't freeze tonight and if the sun keeps shining.

I have light frost damage on the tops of all the pepper plants and tomato plants from last weekend, but it only affected the top couple of inches, so that's not a big deal.

Every weekend we have a 'close call' with an almost-freezing or barely-frosty night, and then if we get through that night, the garden has another week to produce. So, if the plants survive tonight, I might get to harvest more beans and cukes next week.

I'm just about tired of picking, washing, sorting, blanching, freezing, etc., or of stemming and seeding, freezing or dehydrating. I think I am really just about ready for it all to end. The holidays are coming and I haven't done much to get ready, except for the jams and jellies that will be gifts.

I'm not really ready for cold weather or ice or snow. I'm just ready for a break from the garden....and I haven't even dug the fall potatoes yet. I kinda hope the rain stays away for a while even though our ponds are not completely full yet.

It was breezy here too until right at sunset, and around 60 degrees or so. It was pretty pleasant, but the leaves and the pecans were falling, which means I need to get busy picking up pecans. I need a good pecan crop because I'm down to the last bag of 'old' ones.