Blessed Rain

I am not sure about the rest of you, but I am absolutely thrilled with the past few days weather. Our area is 12 inches below most years rain fall average. I have had several things in my veggie garden burn up. I am hoping that this rain will prevent losing any thing else.

I have to laugh when I look on here and see that all of my messages are regarding rain, or the lack there of. Oh well, it is something that is very important to gardeners. Over all, I have been thrilled with the progress of my flowers and hope to be able to report later that my veggies have done well. Only thing on veggie end so far is a cherry size tomato on one of my plants. Only problem is that it is not a cherry tomato plant. ha-ha.

Anyway, I am listening if anyone else is interested in sharing any rain stories. Have a great week everyone.

Ruby

The rain is a "mixed blessing". Yes, it has watered all our gardens, but now we are getting to much rain! We're having violent thunderstorms (lasting for hours) for the past 2 days with flooding. Some parts of Maryland are "under a state of alert" because we have received so much rain that creeks are overflowing & officials are worried that dams might not be able to hold back the water. You know it's bad when the Federal Government had to close down several agencies & tell employees to stay home due to standing high water. Apparently, a 100 yr. old tree fell down next to the White House because of very saturated grounds. The tree I'm referring to is pictured on the back of a $20.00 bill (right side). The Weather Service has put the entire MD/DC area under alert until late tomorrow night.

I hear ya, I will be able to go Trout fishing in my tiny back yard soon!!! Rain, it ain't raining, its POURING. My house was shaking last night from all the thunder & lighting!!
According to Old Nordic history,Thor (the God of Thunder & Lightning) only used his hammer when he got mad at his wife Freya, well, the lady has done peeved him off 'cause he is on a rampage!!!!

Ugh- we have had enough. I know there are places in PA that still need the rain and I would be happy to send them some!

I can feel for you "flatlanders" but the sheets of rain that come down here just pour down the mountainside. I'm feeling like I'm catching up on watching all the rain we've been missing for the last 3 years up here. But if the Shenandoah floods, I'll just end up having to stay up on the mountain. The gardens are all loving it so far, though. Luckily the trees up here are well rooted in boulders, so it's not likely we'll have any severe damage from the excess rain or wind. We haven't had as much thunder and lightening as I'd normally expect with such storms.

ALL I know is that my CACTUS don't like it!!! LOL Everything else is going mad crazy out there!!! LOL

Well, we just had a tornado warning here in my PA county! This crazy front just keeps swinging back and forth over the same areas and bringing rain and severe weather.

I went into work today and found that the building had taken a direct hit of lightening last Thursday. We had lost several phones and some of our most critical machinery.

IndaShade, Take care, those tornados are nasty buggers. I went through a big one 26 years ago where I live, cut our little town in half. I still get nervous when the weather is right for one.

We have had enough rain for now, great for weed pulling, and the weeds are sure getting big!

My mother called last night, they live in Manassas. They have had over 11 inches of rain in the past few days. A large tree in the back yard went down, luckily not hitting the house or anything important but it took down her clothesline, a fence and the grape arbor.

Lightning stuck the garage and killed the door opener and they've had no phone service for several days including cell, although the cell was finally working yesterday, no cable tv.

I checked the gauge here last night and including yesterday we've had just under 4 inches of rain. I'm in Fort Valley just east of Woodstock.

Mickgene, judging from the 1995 floods, your worst worry up there is probably damage to the privately owned roads and what it costs to have them repaired. And of course keeping watch for any creek flooding. The creeks crest before the river.

This message was edited Jun 28, 2006 12:22 PM

hart,
Mercy...that's scary!! Hope everyone's ok!!

well...a blessing for some. i'm seated at my computer because it is close to where the room is that we now have 4 pumps going and i have the watch so dh, who was up all night pumping can catch some well needed sleep. we have been up the entire last 24 hours attempting to keep the water at bay so save our house. we are lucky we still have electric at this point. although we have no water use in the house since it will go into the septic which is ready to over flow as well.

i walked downstairs yesterday morning to find my entire first floor ankle high in water. it has continued to perk up via the downstairs shower which is the lowest point of the house. and i'm in the mountains!

my gardens now have 4 rapidly running rivers going through them.


is the the water a blessing....???? well, really not for us...that's for sure.

edited for typo's

This message was edited Jun 29, 2006 8:10 AM

yes...I don't think it is blessed rain now. and more to come this evening.!!

Chantell, eveyone's okay. Luckily the tree fell in the only direction in which it wouldn't hit the house or a garage.

Tobee, I saw some of the flooding in PA on tv last night. I sure hope the water abates soon for you all.

hart, i'm at the north west point of nj...where ny, pa and nj all meet. and even though the deleware is about 15 minute drive from me and not effecting our situation, we are still getting so much water!


the problem for me is we are sitting low and there are mountains above us draining onto our property. so we are hoping it will begin drying out soon. we heard there is going to be severe thunder storms this afternoon which will bring up to another 1 of rain. so as soon as i get dh up he's on his way to hd or lowes for a generator because if the electric goes out and we can't run the pumps we are surely going to be completed flooded out of this house!

i moved here years ago from san fran.......and i'd rather have an earthquake any day then water flowing...nothing you can do about water. at least with an earthquake, you hide under the kitchen table and it passes!!! couple little shakes after and you're on your way! (and i was in some bad one's in my lifetime).

Dear Tobee43 - I am so sorry to hear of the water damage that you are experiencing. Yes, about the time that I started this post earlier this week, I was becoming aware that the water was beginning to create problems for those north of me.

It has now been about 24 hours since the rain stopped here in Central Virginia. The sun is out and shining bright. The yard is still very soggy but thankfully, we had no damage other than the bottom of our driveway washing out.

I hope that things will soon settle for you and your household. Let us know how things are going. You are in our thoughts.

Ruby

thank you ruby...i'm certain when you began this thread you were most happy to have your trees and plants being rained upon as we all were at that moment.

who would have guessed this would have happened??? no one, not even the "weatherpersons". shoot we were told that last sunday it was gone....then sunday, then said monday, and of course on tues. they said wed. so it's either they don't really know...or they lie to us to keep businesses by the shore and resorts going.

i just took a walk outside and one side of one of our gardens is washed away with the water. what a mess we have to clean up! yikes....and we are supposed to go into 90 degree weather next most likely bringing with it critters that are probably unknown to mankind!!!!!!

tobee - I'm so sorry!! Ya'll will definately be in our prayers!!

thanks so much chantell that is very kind of you...it's not raining now but getting so sticky, yucky out there. the air's going to be so moist that it won't dry out anything.

i call it wait and pray time!

Absolutely!! Waiting is so difficult in almost any situation!! And you're right the thickness of the air is just unbelieveable!!

Tobee, things any better for you this evening?

I drove through Front Royal this afternoon and it had apparently rained. Looked like they may have had some flash flooding? All of the lights along Shenandoah Avenue from north of the two Shenandoah River forks into town were out.

Like you, we have mountains all around and so we know exactly what can happen when all that rain runs down a mountainside.

I have to say I feel the opposite of you. There was a little rumble when we were visiting California the first time. I was totally freaking out. The natives weren't fazed and all thought I was nuts I'm sure. LOL

At least with a flood you know where to go to get away from it.

Gotta agree w/hart here. Lived in the High Desert for 3 years back in the mid 80's....was there during one earthquake...put the fear of God in me unlike anything else!!! Felt like the entire house was on a swing...VERY scarey!!

good morning,

well...we were able to get some sleep last night...not because of anything good...but because the water is so deep in the house that the pumps didn't need attending. this morning it appears that the water table is somewhat down, but it's still running out of that darn downstairs shower....just perking right up. the weather report says the water is subsiding and we are expecting no more rain at least for a few days. it's going to be warm and clear today so we should hopfully dry up...i hope, i hope. it's just that darn water keeps coming off the mountains...it's got to stop sometime!

hart, chantell...LOL...you are both funny...i think this is what it is: it depends on where you were raised as to what frightens you. holy cow...when i got to the east and had my first thunder and lightening storm i thought the world was ending! san fran does not have thunder and lightening! although i do remember once as a child we had a brief one and it scared the heck out of everyone.

now i also remember playing jacks with my sister on the kitchen floor, when the room began to move up and down...so we slide ourselves under the kitchen table while the room is rumbled and swaying around us and while we continued to play. at one point the frig completely fell over only to be stopped by the kitchen counter than held it back from completely crashing onto the floor....while we continued to play jacks! we probably didn't even blink an eye...LOL....but give us some thunder and lightening and we would be scared to death!

so for both of you, not used the rumble and swaying, i'm certain it was really scary....just like that horrible thunder and lightening which STILL scares me!

edited for my terrible typo's!

This message was edited Jun 30, 2006 7:37 AM

Call me picky, but I prefer my floors and ground to sit still. LOL

I tihnk if it has stopped raining, the runoff from the mountains will stop soon too. During the bad flooding we had here in 95, some of the creeks crested at more than 20 feet above flood stage within a day or two of the heavy rains. The river didn't crest for several days after that but by the time the river flooded the creeks were back in their banks. A day after that, everything was down below flood stage again.

Speaking of the water coming out of your shower, people forget that basements were originally designed to handle things like excess water. Then people started finishing their basements and putting in things like bathrooms and showers.

When it floods here, the homes that have basement toilets and showers are the first to get flooded. When the public stormwater system is flooded, the water finds those perfect outlets. Check with your plumber. You might be able to have a backflow valve or something similar installed that will keep them from backing up in heavy rain.

There are two other areas here where you see flooding when perhaps other homes are fine. One is homes that were built before some of the towns had zoning ordinances and the builders hooked the homes' stormwater systems to drain into the public sewer system. Anytime there are very heavy rains, those homeowners have sewers backing up into their homes.

Then in some areas where the water and sewer systems are old, underground pipes have cracked and water can seep into the pipes when the ground is saturated. The pipes get full and people's toilets and showers back up with water.

I'm telling you all this boring stuff in case there's something here that will help you avoid getting flooded in the future.

oh hart, i very much appreciate it. and really...you like your ground to be "still"....how silly of you! LOL

however, what the problem is that (and i'm sure you don't want to hear the entire story, so i'll make it has brief as possible), but what happens is our leach fields because of the shale and clay soil cannot hold the water. the leach fields back up into the house via ( and your correct on this one) the downstairs toilet. now...that didn't happen...why because two years ago tennessee gas line came in and ripped our property up to place a gas line in. they hit our leach fields and as a result of a federal investigation, and spending over 30 thousand dollars on attorney's and engineers etc then reconstructed and re graded the property to pull the water away from the house. however, as a result the water needed to find another place to flow and it found the FRONT of our house...entering via the foundation and flowing under the concrete slab in the garage and finding it's way all the way to our pool area. (which now has running water around it). and of course as the water is finding it's way out it's hitting that low point..i.e.: the downstairs shower. and of course to make matter worse we are in a gully in the mountains with houses all around us. their runoff goes right through our property...so we get flooded! we are just happy that the toilet has not backed up at this point...it is far easier dealing with clean rain water that's for sure!

Wow...now THAT'S a story. I'm so sorry you've had to go through all that...geez!!!

I know there are backflow valves you can have installed on your toilet, probably on the shower as well. Might want to check that out, but it sounds like you're going to have to do some more stormwater management work on your land as well.

chantell..yeah a story and a half!! we have been dealing with this for almost 30 years now.

hart, i told my husband about the backflow valves, when this mess is over he will call a plumber and see what can be done. although he's not hopeful, only because we'd think....or hope....that someone would have told us that before! however, you seem as though you really may know something about these situations and we are going to trust your suggestion and see what can be done. certainly wouldn't hurt and may be possible that it will help. and for that i cannot thank you enough!

As I recall, once the valve kicks in because of flooding you have to reset it or have someone reset it. I know they're available because when I was covering the flooding here as a reporter they were offered as an option to some of the people whose basement bathrooms were flooding.

Essentially it's a valve that kicks in when there is flooding and prevents any water from backing up the pipe.

I found this article which has a brief explanation of them.

http://www.msdlouky.org/programs/backflow.htm

Here's some more info from a manufacturer.

http://www.petersonvalve.com/

"Blessed Rain"???????? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I have slugs, big fat, happy, plant chomping, nasty looking slugs!!!! Due to it being 8.15 PM on a Sunday night and no stores open, I rummaged in the kitchen, found some salt and went to town!! My hands are sore from grinding (of course I had sea-salt in a grinder, didn't think seasoned salt would be too cool) So now it is WAR!!
Any other good suggestions????

Beer. If that doesn't work, drink it yourself. hic

LOL

Ditto! I was always told dig a shallow hole...fill a saucer w/beer and set in the hole. I did it various places in my garden...years ago...and believe it or not it seemed to work

Hey ! Can I join in? I haven't been at DG's very long & have been rather hesitant to begin. I live in south eastern WV and have had a swarm of Mosquitoes! since we got all of this rain. They R driving us craaazzzy! My poor little dog has even been comin' into the house about 6:00pm to get away from them. Have you ever heard of a mosquito plant? I think that I need a dozen of them!----I am very thankful that we didn't get the water that you guy's did, although we did get alot. Although we do not live in a flood prone area, we do have mud slides. And as usual I worry too much. Thanx for listenin'. I do love to talk about flowers (& take pictures of them).

Welcome aboard!!

Hey hey, of course you can join in!! We are a friendly, somewhat crazy bunch ~ no comments y'all about speaking for myself! We all love plants, we ARE obsessed, taking pictures, complain, whine, dance happy dances, talk, discuss, argue etc etc!! And completely harmless!!
All you need is to have the same ailments and you'll be good to go!!
Becky

Becky,
NO one else is obsessed....what ARE you talking about...I only went SIX Giants to find that one cactus you found!! LOL

hart, thank you so much for taking the time to gather that information for me. i very much appreciate it! i have made a quick copy and will review it. i see the program was set up for those with sewers ...so i'm hoping they are not the only ones that would be able to utilize the valves.

we are finally drying up. however, ou inground pool area is surrounded by a moat of stagnated water. dh is now pouring bleach into it hopefully to prevent critters or monsters from appearing from it's depths.

it appears, although one of my beds was washed out that many areas did benefit from all the rain. we have over an acer of gardens and it does take me 6 hours a day to water so although we had such problems, i was on watering garden vacation for the week. if you can believe we had to water today, even though the ground is still so wet!


and welcome music! you are in the presence of great company!

i thought i would share with you all a picture of the horticulture therapy gardens from last year. we made the ny times one year.

I hope it helps, Tobee. I know what you mean about the watering. I live in the mountains too and the soil here drains dry about as fast as it rains.

That was just to give you some info on what the valves are all about. I can't imagine it makes any difference at all whether you're on a public system or not.

Chantell, we're signing you up for the Cacti Anonymous 12 step program. LOL

hart, we of course have heavy clay and shale. it's an extremely difficult problem to deal with since the water cannot absorb and of course just either sits on the tops or rolls on in. after living with it you'd think one would be use to it, but this was the worse i think ever in the 30 years plus i have been here.

chantell....cacti...do any agave???

here's unknown cultivar...i haven't named as yet...trying to cultivar "pure" white ones...LOL...i'm getting close!