And the Rains Came

Wednesday had possible storms in the forecast–both morning and evening. I was already rather grumpy because the predicted rainfall totals showed my farm getting between a quarter and a third of an inch.

However, at this point, since we are still in a moderate drought any rain is welcome. I was a bit surprised when we actually got a tenth of an inch in the morning. I was hoping this little extra might put the total for the day closer to half an inch.

I did my chores early in the afternoon, just in case we actually got some; however, the app on my phone was showing pretty much all of the rain missing me. Then the rains came. It sprinkled enough that it brought the goats up from pasture.

Daisy in the doorway; Popcorn outside (don’t worry–he went in when it got bad)

The wind and rain picked up. They built up and then began back building and we spent about two hours under a severe storm warning.

There was a tornado warning in there for a while. Actually, there were at least twelve confirmed tornadoes touching down in the state yesterday. This rotation was radar indicated, so I don’t think there was anything that touched down with this warning, thankfully.

When it was all said and done, we also ended up under a flash flood warning. Trust me, I did not flood. I live on the top of a hill. Thank heavens.

At one point there were four advisories (these and a thunderstorm warning)

The next morning, I went out to assess the damage. The garden obviously had some wind.

There was obviously some rotation here too. I don’t know how else those tomatoes would be in three different directions. I do think everything up here will recover.

I think the only real damage was the loss of my tarp hut.

Could have been a pool if the board hadn’t gone through it.

There was no way it could survive the weight of all that rain pooling in it.

Don’t worry, Freddie. I’ll fix your tarp hut

The next problem was trying to figure out how much rain we got. My food pans only hold about four inches.

I didn’t get the water tubs filled yesterday. I figured they would be easier to dump and scrub the next day if I let the goats drink them out more, but I have no idea how much it was, and the trees would impact the level as well.

I finally decided the big tub where the goats like to nap would give me my best estimate.

According to this tub, we got about 5 1/2 inches of rain in the two hours of this severe storm.

Grateful beans and pasture

This is all rain that soaked into the ground. You might have noticed that the barnyard wasn’t really muddy. It’s wet, but that rain all went into the ground. I can hardly wait to see next week’s drought monitor.

In the Garden

We’ve had some rain.  Since Father’s Day there’ve been rain showers most days.  Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten as much as a lot of places around the area, but I am still hopeful that we’ll go back to just a moderate drought instead of a severe drought when the report comes out next Thursday.  When I checked my garden on Thursday, it looked much better.  I’ll even get my first zucchini soon.

zucchini

Unfortunately, I’m still having disagreements with the deer on whether or not my garden is a buffet for them.

cabbage–well, half of a cabbage

I am also happy to say that the things I replanted are starting to germinate.

zucchini

You can still see the huge cracks and how dry it looks even after the rain we’ve gotten.

sweet corn

I hope this time we don’t get so scorching hot that my new little seedlings get baked.  That’s what happened to the okra that managed to germinate last time.

okra

I also found a bag of onion sets at the farm store that wasn’t too bad, so I replanted where the onions didn’t come up.  Funny thing is that I kept uncovering the ones I had planted previously, and they hadn’t rotted.  They just haven’t had enough rain to make them grow, so some of them I just put back in the ground and hoped the rain we just got would be enough to get them going.

onions

And of course, the rain is making the weeds grow, so I need to get back in there and weed some more.

sweet corn, weeds, and onions

Overall, It’s not looking too bad for the crazy weather we’ve had.

Crazy Weather

I tell you, the last month or so of weather has been crazy.  We were in a moderate drought.  I think I mentioned that we were finally getting some rain.

Astra, Myson, Bambi and Ava in front wishing they didn’t have to go through the mud last Saturday.

We actually had eight days in a row with rain.  Some were just sprinkles, but we had over two inches of rain throughout that time. It was enough to make a lot of mud.

Litha trying not to walk in mud

But it didn’t even change our standing on the drought monitor.  We’re still in moderate drought; although it is better for some parts of the state.  I was hoping we’d be upgraded to just “abnormally dry”.

Then we got hot.  We spent the first part of last week in the low eighties with horrible humidity.  I will say, it makes the grass and weeds grow.  I can’t even keep up.

Where I lost the magnolia tree is just out of control.

Then there was more rain. Sometime in there, my soybeans got planted because they are coming up quite nicely.

soybeans

My garden is coming to life, but I can’t get in there to take care of weeds.

That is one big garden. All those weeds calling my name…

tomatoes, peppers, cabbages, and lots of weeds

zucchini

potato

onion

sweet corn (you can get more in a crooked row)

The first rain also let me see who was visiting my garden.  It was dried up and hard to see by the time I got took my pictures, but there was a raccoon clipping the corner of the garden.  Then there were coyote and deer tracks as well.

colored corn in a coyote paw print

The deer sank deep!

My asparagus took off with the rains.

asparagus

In fact, some of it might have gotten ahead of me and gone to seed.

asparagus

The end of the week saw much cooler weather.  You can’t see Friday’s high temperature of 50°F, but it was a record low high for this date.  Seriously, it’s the end of May.  It’s Memorial Day weekend.  We are not supposed to have a frost advisory. Luckily, I think everything is okay.

But look at the end of the forecast–back up to almost ninety!  That’s crazy!

And an update since I wrote the post yesterday.  This morning, I managed to get the whole garden cultivated and the yard around it mowed (after the picture was taken).  One more yard to go this weekend (and we’ll see if I actually get any more weeding done in the garden.