The Rain Day That Wasn't

Yesterday was the annual "Rain Day" festival in our little town.  Not only did the festival not occur due to COVID, but the link to the facebook page where it was supposed to be live-streamed was broken when I checked yesterday morning, AND it didn't rain.

We could really use the rain - it's been very dry.  My garden is suffering, although we've been able to keep it watered enough that it doesn't actually die.  In fact, lots of things are growing there (including weeds - haven't had enough grass clippings to mulch!)

I was at the bank downtown yesterday, during the time when every OTHER year, the Rain Day Festivities have been in full swing.  I did stop by the Farmer's Market for a delicious cantaloupe.  I also met 2 cute little boys with a lemonade stand.

Today, we have come by 2 bushels of peaches, so it's off to do some canning for me!

In Like a Lion...

March washed in this morning in a BIG way!  There was over 1 1/4 inches of rainfall since midnight when I left this AM to drive North for Voice Therapy.  The creek across the road was high - I stopped and took a picture of it.

While I was gone, they dismissed school early due to flooding, and had a tornado watch, during which the girls sat in the basements of their respective schools for 30 minutes, and my Mom sat in the basement of the Doctor's Office!

I returned after therapy, and getting an alignment at Firestone (Lifetime Alignments - it's a great deal!)...about 2 1/2 hours (and over an inch of rain) later.  The creek looked like this:

 

The girls had slogged part way up the hill while I was sitting at the bottom waiting for the bus.  (So sorry, girlies!)

I wish I would have waited to scrub all the blood off the veranda out back.  Ernie tore his ear on something - probably the vicious sticker bushes in the woods, and bled all over EVERYTHING out there.  I could have just swept it off all with the puddles today...had I waited.

In the meantime, the Autoshop found my registration stuck to the tire of another vehicle that was in the shop at the same time, and we discovered that Ole Bessie had some rather necessary work that needed done before she would pass.  I've now spent almost $500 just to get her to that point.

L won her final Basketball game, but there is some big tournament this weekend, lasting from Friday night until Sunday that she is supposed to be a part of.  Hooray.

Gotta run...it's time to round up the troupes and head in for groceries and guitar lessons.

Enjoy the new month, and stay dry.

Wet

It's raining again.

I picked the peas in my garden yesterday, and the vines were rotting underneath from all of the moisture.

From a distance, my flower garden is looking pretty nice.

 

Up close, it looks like we live in the Pacific Northwest.

A Plethora of Rain and Exclamation Points

Normally I wouldn't complain about the rain, as I rarely irrigate my garden any other way.  It also seems sacrilegious somehow to whine about too much rain when we've had to haul water for the past 2 summers when our well went dry.  But here I am, dismayed by all the rain we've had.

For one thing, I've had to keep dusting my plants with diatomaceous earth to keep them from getting munched by various veggie munching insects, as the rain continues to wash it off.  It appears at this point, that the bugs are winning.

In addition, I have to repeatedly remove water from the pool, and add various chemicals, as the rain water unceasingly dilutes it.

Bother.

This morning, the girls and I went out and picked a trio of berries before the rain started.

 

We also found a trio of beautiful Black Swallowtail caterpillars on L's parsley.

 

 



All the rain is making the veggies grow (as well as the weeds.)  I picked Sugar Snap Peas for the first time on Monday.

 

I don't think it is caused by the rain, but I've noticed the overabundance of exclamation points in my emails, blog posts, and texts lately.  Typically I go through and edit out over half of them before posting or mailing (with the exception of texts) and too many yet remain.

I listened to a podcast last week called "How to Do Everything," which bemoaned the excess of exclamation points recently, and suggested going on a 30 Day Exclamation Point Fast.  Thus, I am not using any exclamation points for the next 27 days.  Join me, won't you?  At least take a listen to the podcast, it's quite humorous.

When it Rains, It Pours...Except When it Doesn't

We have had a really dry and hot summer for our area.  Since it started early, way back in April, things are pretty brown and crispy around here.

The garden is quite stunted, but still green.  That is because I have been watering it with water from the 1000 gallon cistern that is filled with rain from our roof.  I have emptied the cistern twice now - one good rain will fill it up.  We haven't had a "good rain" for quite a while now. 

Yesterday, I finally broke down and dragged hoses all the way from the house to the garden to water from the well.  I was feeling a bit guilty about it at the time, hoping that the well was doing ok.  Unfortunately, I sort of lost track of the time, and the garden got sprayed for 2 or 3 times longer than necessary.

This week, both of my brothers and their families are visiting.  This means that we have more than twice the normal number of people hanging out, taking showers, and washing dishes.  Last night, we got the 3 girls through the shower, and one of my sis-in-laws got a shower as well.  Afterwards, I turned on the faucet and nothing came out.

JP and I got flashlights and opened up the man hole of the cistern.  We could see the bottom!  Yikes.

Fortunately, the water hauling peeps were out to fill up both cisterns for a grand total of 3000 gallons of water and $145 by 8:20 AM.  The well had managed to dribble a bit more into the cistern over night, so it isn't COMPLETELY dry...just overpowered by 14 people and unconscientious garden waterers.

Today, we celebrated (belatedly) my Dad's 70th birthday by going to a Frontier Baseball game.  It ended up being a double header, since last night's game was apparently rained out.  (None of that rain made it HERE!)  We saw them win game one, then sweated and melted through 6 innings of game number two, which they also won.

We saw lightening the whole way home, and by the time we pulled into our driveway, there were a few drops of rain falling.  The sky remains dark and threatening.  Maybe now we'll get that "good rain" we've been needing.

In any case, the rest of us finally got our showers.  Let me tell you, it really felt great!

Outing of the Week 6 - Rain Day and Wild Things Game

Today is the infamous Rain Day in the Burg. It all started in 1874, when someone started keeping a record rainfall on his birthday, July 29th. It has now rained 113 Rain Days out of the last 137. True to keeping, we had a doozy of a rain storm this afternoon. Luckily it let loose about an hour after we returned home from the Rain Day festivities in town, where they close down High Street and fill it up with booths of food, crafts, drawings for prizes and fun things for the kids.



Later this evening, we met up with 24 of our other friends to fill up a section at our local Frontier League Baseball stadium to watch a game. (The Wild Things are the team in blue.) Unfortunately, the game started late after a rain delay (see above) and we snuck out at 10 PM after the 7th inning stretch! I just looked on line to find out that we won the game 12-7.




Fun, fun, fun...tired, tired, tired!

Sun, Rain, and a Surprising Lack of Rainbows

We are finally getting our April rain, which should in turn produce May flowers. I'm hoping that it will produce a May vegetable garden as well, but the rainy weekend and JP's call schedule have not gotten us any closer to plant-able ground. I did spend over an hour yesterday tugging out roots up to 6 feet in length. My muscles are complaining today.

The weather was very quickly alternating between rain and sun over the weekend. We were disappointed that we couldn't see any rainbows! Typically, this is the time of year when they are abundant. I shot this one off our deck in town last Spring.



This double one was at our other house the Spring before last.



No rainbows on Poplar Ridge yet. No fungus either. JP went morel hunting yesterday in the drizzle, and came home empty handed. Perhaps the rain will bring them out.

Dad has managed to get the deck on his house, despite the weather. Now that the doorway to the 10 foot drop is safe, he is cutting a hole in the floor of the house to put the stairway in.



Dad and I planted another 15 boxwoods this weekend, making a total of 25. Now you can see the hedge row that we are intending. The winds blew snow across the lawn last winter, and buried the driveway in several feet of snow within an hour of plowing. I doubt that they will grow enough to be a great snow fence by this winter, but maybe by next...



Meanwhile, I continue to slog through the boring parts of Spring: school work, my one-afternoon-a-week job, the endless cooking and laundry...knowing that some of those chores are coming to an end for a few sweet summer months. Then I can dig in the dirt for hours a day. The end is in sight, and perhaps a rainbow or two will light the way!

Rainy Day

The rain held off until L finished her final swim lesson of the summer before it let loose in earnest. She seemed none the worse for her experience yesterday.

J's teacher worked with her until she was able to pass Level 3.

The builder cancelled the concrete pour scheduled for today due to the weather. Instead, they worked on the cupola. Unfortunately, I didn't have the right hardware to install the weather vane, so the pig is still in the garage.

The excavator was only able to work until around noon, but got fill in around the porch and garage, and opened up the front yard some.

I stood on the porch and watched the rain today...it was a pleasant way to waste time. Our flock of turkeys stayed in the underbrush during the downpour, so I couldn't see them. Every time it thundered, they would gobble their displeasure. An Eastern Bluebird was flitting from tree to tree...what a treat to see him! I am anxious to put up my Hummingbird feeders, so I can watch those lovely little flashes of color this summer as well.

The girls wanted to go out in their rain gear, and came back caked in mud.