Rain today

greenjay, I just looked up, and guess what? It rained for 10 minutes! Hard too. Yay!

Any little bit sure helps! It makes things look and smell so fresh! I LOVE the smell of rain. Glad you got some revclaus!

It was enough here to actually soak into the ground.

Did I hear you say you wanted some rain? Well...my friend and I went into town today....15 miles...just as we left Sears the rain started....by the time we got near home there were floods. I did some really creative driving...got almost to my house and the last wash was running swifter than any I had encountered so far....so backed out and went another way.

I think I will stay home until the end of monsoon season!! Send Chocolates! LOL Jo

Oh gosh Jo! You were smart to go around. Its always my fear there is no road where I am driving.


This message was edited Aug 3, 2006 6:01 PM

arizonabelle just came by...the bridge we drove down to see how the water is....closed right after we went over it! Also the secondary road that we had to travel to get home...now closed! What an adventure. Glad I'm home snug with my doggie! Jo

Goodness, Jo, the road u used closed, how great you made it home first.
Creative works, driving thru flooded roads doesn't.

Yeah....and tomorrow is another day! I hope the rain hold off until I get home from my two appointed rounds in town (my church and the Widowed Support Center where I always volunteer on Friday's...unless I'm off to a good DG RU!)

Jo

Perhaps a boat would expedite your errands next time.

LOL Jo

No rain here, a few clouds, and north wind which blew the wildfire smoke away from us for a day or so anyway. Today I can see the mountains all around I will go out and take a couple of pictures now that the foothills are viewable. Donna

Here is a photo to the west. I live in the Cascade Mtn. foothills. The central peak in view has one of the few remaining wildfire lookouts that operate in the summer.

Donna

I forgot to mention that in the previous photo that the foreground is my little corn patch and the tomatoes in front.

Here is a photo of the view to the south west of the foothills. The largest wildfire in this area about 70,000 square feet now is further to the northwest of this view.

Donna

3rd, and last, this is the view of my immediate little valley to the south. When I moved here 12 years ago there were only 6 or 7 houses in sight, now many. Donna

Lovely setting, Donna. But those fires! We had views like that around here during our worst season ever three years ago. The smoke was so thick we had to keep our apartment totally closed off. Are they making any headway with the fire?

Judith

OK Donna I woke to the smell of campfire clothes. The air is putred with the smell of dead trees. My eyes are watering and I have had enough. PUT OUT your camp fire! LOL We are starting to burn but couldn't take pictures of it cause you can't see 1/2 mile. Yuck.

You are exactly right, again today can't see anything and makes my eyes really burn. This morning after quite a bit of wind was fairly clear, so I decided to go for a short drive. Went 22 miles, and had stopped 3 or 4 times to watch birds, bluebirds, several hawks, and finally stopped to watch swallows. When I tried to start my 12 yr old S10 pickup, nothing happened. no lights , no sound, nothing. Silly me before I left I made sure to check my gas gage, but only glanced at the rest of the gauges.

Luckily I was only a couple of blocks or so from a residence. I walked over and the lady very nicely let me use her phone, this is after her husband drove up to my pickup and used his jumper cables on my battery. made no difference. I called AAA as I have towing with them, up to 100 miles. I talked to a woman at AAA, I have no idea where she was located., I gave her the pertinent information and gave her my exact location.

She obviously didn't care about my directions prefered to use Map Quest or some such. She told me the tow truck would come from Omak, and should be to me in about 90 min, and wanted me to wait in the pickup until it got there. So I walked back up to the pickup, which wasn't too easy with my poor arthiritic foot. I waited 2 1/2 hours and no towing rig showed up. The lady from the house went out to get her mail and saw me still waiting. After several tele. calls, her making 4 0r 5 trips to my pickup from her house, the driver finally called her to say he was about 10 min. away. This more that 3 hours after my first call.

AAA did not give him correct directions and he got lost. Anyway my pickup is sitting in Tonasket in front of a car service place that was closed. I am trying to get in touch with the owner. So that shot a good share of my day. When I did get home the entire valley is again filled with smoke.

Donna

Last night when I went to bed it was raining, and this morning when I got up it was raining too. I don't think I can remember that ever happening before, but I have a short memory. In any event, it's terrific for our dog days of August. Anybody else had rain lately?

We have had rain about once a week since the July 4 weekend. It has been fantastic for the late-summer flowers, but I notice also that the trees are already turning and the nights are cooler than usual.

It rained over here in Aurora, too. Rained hard for quite a while in the middle of the night, and was still spattering when I took off for the dentist this morning.

My lilac was so happy, it not only perked up, it's sending forth some new growth. Everyone tells me that I shouldn't water lilacs very much, but this one LOVES water. The more, the better. The cooler temperatures have no doubt helped as well. The past couple of mornings, I've needed a jacket.

I love the sound of rain.

I'm a little concerned that the plants are getting into "fall shutdown" mode so quickly. Our trees are turning, and my marigolds have not even begun to put out yet!

Last week I told the board of directors to have the landscapers shut off the sprinklers last week of Sept. Last year we had that big snowstorm on 10/10, and I think something similar may happen again. I want the trees and shrubs to go dormant (or at least be partly dormant) before we have harsh weather this year.

greenjay, the trees can start turning early because of the drought (drought injury), and it's not considered fall shutdown. We're still down about 7" from normal. Since we only get 14-15", that's a substantial amount.

Talk about RAIN! This picture was made about an hour ago...through the window of my sun room...

You can't tell how deep this is...but I call it "A River Ran Through it!".

My son in law just built me a new burm...higher than needs be, but he quit too soon....now the water runs to the end of the berm and RUSHES down through my yard.

I don't have grass...but we did the weeds today and they were knee high.

We have had the wetest monsoon that we have had in a long time...so today was the first day it had dried enough to work in the weed patch. Good thing we did it...about 1 PM the skies opened again.

I'd say our drought condition is over!

Jo

I swear my weeds grew three feet in the last 24 hours. I was out there weeding yet again today. Almost a shame, though. Weeds are almost the only thing I can get to grow.

Rain... I can only dream...

No rain in montana lots in Alaska. We need it bad.

We also got rain lastnight, and this morning. Im hearing thunder right now, so we can hope. It was such a nice cool day.
Oh my gosh Jo.. good thing you DONT have grass LOL. Thats amazing.
Not too awful long ago, maybe 9 years ago, we got a huge amount of heavy snow on Sept. 9. It took out alot of powerlines due to the weight, and the thick branches on the ground everywhere, is a site I will not soon forget. I watch REAL closely the weather from the beginning of Sept.
I too thought the leaves were turning because of an early fall, but I dont see the temps too low in the mornings, so I was confused LOL. Not hard to do. Thanks for the clarification Judith!

We've been having a *huge* amount of rain, for us -- weather people are saying this may be the wettest summer ever. How hard/much *has* it been raining? Well, I live on the 4th floor and during yesterday's gully washer, a guy in a boat with a bunch of animals floated past! LOL! It's rained enough since early July/late June that the maintenance guy has quit watering the lawn -- and this is a man who *loves* his sprinklers!

jo

I got through with all the weeding I was going to do today, went inside to take a break, and just as I got ready to go outside and plant the plants I wanted growing out there--

--it began to rain.

Again.

Now, when it stops, I don't know if it would be good to plant irises with the ground so wet. I'm afraid they'd rot.

I put buckets and watering cans out to catch some of this free water, though I don't think I'll have to water anything for a while.

You can sure tell how important rain is to us in the Rocky Mountain west!

Roadrunner (I'd call you "Jo" but there's another "Jo" on the forum), isn't this supposed to be your monsoon season? Looks like you finally got it!

Shelly, it rained for about three hours this afternoon around here, probably where you are too. I can hardly believe it.

While it was raining so hard the "well" around my 3 trees filled up and ran over....then it took the watre over 5 hours to completely soak in the ground.

Yes, it is our monsoon...and this has to last us most of the year! Jo

Here's what happened tonight!

RR, i am just so jealous of you folks, tho I read that one big storm dumped 12 inches on the Coronado Nat Mon and wiped out all their roads. That's just below you isn't it?

Rev , what a great way to end the day.

Blooms...Coronado is where I volunteer on Wednesdays....I'm out of a job until they get it fixed....which will be a long time...their budget grows slim.

They did call and ask if I would volunteer to work their booth they have at the Cochise County Fair each Sept...so I will do that!!

I love that park...and we are one of the Field Trips for 4th graders in our county...now the area we always use for that (picnic area) is destroyed!! The water system is damaged also.

Here is a picture of a visitor to the park last summer...I had helped him to dress up in the chain mail and stuff we keep for this in the Visitor's Center. They enjoy it!


Jo

Yeah, I love the medieval denim!

Revclaus, I took a similar picture, but I think yours is better. I couldn't get quite the color on mine.

Montana & Wyoming need rain so bad, alot of my 8 ft trees are dying from lack of water, & the irrigating reservoir is about empty.

Yeah, Jo, I know what you mean about the Park system's lack of money... heaven forbid that our government spend money on something FOR us.
I love that I live so close to Arches NP... with Canyonlands NP just down the road.

really sorry you've lost your weekly outing. I was thinking if we got 12 inches dropped on our valley the whole town would be wiped out.

sure wish we'd get about an inch over a 24 hr period tho. haha being specific in my wishing. ~~Blooms

Hey, you guys musta been looking at the same rainbow.. how neat is that?

revclaus and White_Hydrangea
That looks like a double rainbow! I never knew such a thing existed until I moved to New Mexico. We have had so much rain that there hasn't been sun to create a rainbow. It has been cloudy all day each day giving our gardens about 1/2 inch per day. They are so happy!

White, you must have been looking west, I was looking east! Amazing!