We haven't had any good rain since the storms back in the middle of May - if a storm that brought down trees all over our neighborhood and three on our back fence can be termed "good". Every night we watch the rains coming from Atlanta and Athens area dissipate before they reach us and then reform just over the river in South Carolina. With such high temperatures the yard is really beginning to suffer and doesn't look like even a chance of precipitation until at least Friday.
No Rain!
Yep. We did not get those storms in mid may, so no appreciable rain in May, not a drop in June. The driest spring I have ever encountered and I have been around a long time. Pastures, corn fields are dead. And no rain in sight.
You're doing even worse than us, Farmerdill. I hand water every night but the lorepetulum are drooping and some of the daylilies are not even opening properly - just shrivelling on the stalk. Lets hope that we get something on Saturday!
i cant believe the rain just passing over like it ha been. i am in jackson but am on augustas border and we are so dry.
drove past the corn fields the other day and wow so dry. its awful.
might need to learn how to rain dance if this keep going.
im trying to water but having no luck starting to lose things.
Dill, do you have irrigation or do you wait for the rain to water for you?
I had a well dug last year for outdoor irrigation. It's saving everything I have... I see the pictures of the flooding in Iowa and it's hard to believe it just wont come this way.
I do everything the old time way. Usually works, but this has been an unusual year. The only space that I irrigate is my backyard kitchen garden. That little 40 x 70 ft space takes up all my water hours, and I doubt that the worth of the vegetables covers my water bill. Years ago I set an irrigation pump to move water from the pond to one field where I grew sweet corn. I am just too old to move the pipe and pumps around anymore. Mute, anyway as the pond is about half dry and falling rapidly.
The main garden.
:( Praying for rain.
Me too.
Farmerdill,
we finally planted a little ( 8' x 24') raised vegetable garden this spring because I love home grown tomatoes and cukes, and I simply refuse to pay $2 for a red, yellow or orange bell pepper and $8 for a watermelon. Enjoying the heck out of it. Thankfully, we have well water but I am concerned that if a drought gets too severe the wells may go dry, so being frugal there as well.
If it makes you'all feel any better, my big toe hurts really bad tonight, and that usually means "Rain" in a couple of days. Prayer never hurt, either!
I'm sorry you're in pain, Guardians, but if that means rain - you'll just have to suffer!
:) !!
At last!!! some rain reached us this evening after missing us again yesterday and this afternoon. (Even though this did mean my flight had to be postponed until the morning because the airport was shut-down for incoming flights into Atlanta - I'm still delighted).
Hope other thirsty gardens received some, too.
Glad you all got a liitle rain Art, passed us by again. Had some real rain down town I am told. we could see a couple of clouds go by in the distance.
Does that mean it missed you, Farmerdill?
A couple of drops, not enough to get the street wet. Wrightsboro Road from Grovetown to the Gordon high way is imitating the Sahara desert. With the price of gas, I have not not been roaming further out, We had a singing group from Thompson at church last night and they had not gotten any rain either.
Makes me wonder why the state was so quick to relax a lot of the restrictions. I received a $380 water bill this month. Has 2 types of surcharges on it I've never seen.
We've always irrigated and never even came close to a bill of that magnitude.
BB
I sure don't undersand the relaxing restrictions either. I heard that now, here in Clayton co. it's ok for kids to play in a hose in their yard and we could wash our cars, but we still can't water our plants. I never, just never water our parched grass, but have a lot of things potted that need a good drink every couple of days with this heat. My poor rhodis have not recovered well from last years drought.
For Mother's Day my son gave me a 250 gallon tank to catch rain water in from the roof. Last Sun AM, I was awakened at 6:00 am with a nice rain, I think we got about 1/2 inch but the tank caught 200 gallons from the roof. Now DH has hooked up a sump pump for me to pull the water out of the tank and water with. It won't last long, but sure beats carrying buckets. Hopefully we will get a little more soon.
"Rains from Atlanta"...what rain from where in Atlanta?
I live in the downtown area heat bubble. No rain for awhile now. Some pop up storms today completely missed us.
Yesterday we had so little it didn't do a thing.
We had a teensy bit on the weekend but nothing got under the trees...
Oh for a nice steady good day of rain....
GGG
That wonderful rain storm we had on Sunday morning gave us 1 inch of rain and lightning knocked out our computer router and the tivo. Mixed blessing.
This message was edited Jun 24, 2008 5:33 PM
I was in Atlanta yesterday and it rained a little bit on the way back to Lagrange along Fairburn exit. Not much at all.
BB, have you asked them to double check your bill? They have been known to make mistakes, just hard for them to admit. Thankful to have a well and plan to hook up to county water when they run the lines down our country road.
Bugme:
Haven't called them yet. Does anyone know if they have a seperate billing schedule if you run a commercial growing operation?
BB
I would definitely call and talk to them about your questions.......maybe they have a separate rate for you, especially if you advise them of your food ministry operation.
Just over the border here in Alabama, not a drop lately.....'they' are saying thunderstorms Thursday, 'they' said New England was going to win the Super Bowl too.......:)
Paul from Alabama
It rained up here in Cleveland, GA on Sun. and Mon. We actually had a good downpour on Monday afternoon which inspired me to plant knuckle purple hull cowpeas (thank you Farmerdill) and a second planting of pickling cukes, McCaslin and Kentucky Wonder brown bean poles. The KW poles are a first for me. Anybody growing/grown them? Your opinion?
Boy, how do things dry out so fast in 48 hrs? I'm hoping that by planting tried and true Southern stuff I'll end up with something to eat. In the meantime, the cabbages look beautiful, butterpeas and peppers are coming along. The grasshoppers are aggravating the okra. That aggravates me as my mind is wandering to fried okra and gumbo at this time of year. This is the worst tomato crop ever with heat effecting the set. I have a second round of tiny tomato seedlings planted with hopes for a Fall crop when things cool off. A farmer/gardener must always be hopeful, yes :)?
I stand in my garden with a hose and think about all the Georgia farmers who don't even have the measly spring water offerings that we are blessed with. Gosh, I hope they are able to get through the year. It must be so hard to depend on farming as a livelihood and makes me appreciate the food we grow and buy all the more.
BB do check on your water bill. Our Atlanta bill, was off by almost $300 dollars last month. DH requested a check. We have hardly been in Atlanta in months. I don't know what you are using for your garden source, but if you are not on a well that number doesn't sound out of the ballpark what with the new water rates.
Laurel:
I'm calling them today. Been extra buy because my granddaughter has arrived so I've had my hands full
I am growing Kentucky Wonder beans. I have a nice stand already up and the deer helpped themselves to 2 others. Replanted them. They are a great bean.
I have to replant my cowpea as the deer got them as well. Crowder peas and Filet Morgane are doing well however as they are closer to the house.
Unfortunately, I do not have a well and am at the mery of the county
BBB
We had lots of thunder yesterday, that is all.
Eureka!!!!......Water from the sky......haven't seen the rain gauge yet but it rained a good bit late last night......thunder and lightning too.....Plants look refreshed and renewed out the window......I've been up half the night reading the Dripworks website, kinda ironic designing a drip irrigation system while listening to the rain but they say plastic irrigation drip systems buried under mulch will last 10 years easy, whereas the rain?.....It' already over.......:)
Paul from Alabama
Got a tiny bit of rain last night if ya call the clouds spitting on the ground rain. A friend told me that I should see about getting a well. I am out in the counrty and we have county water I guess ya call it. Supposedly you can't put in a well out here since we got the county water company.
Does anybody happen to know if that can be over rode if your a grower or who you would even talk to about it.
They was telling me years ago that if you went to the water adn wildlife services or it has a name somethign like that, one of the state gove agencies that if you were growing and especially food that you could get a well put it for free or low costs. Don't know if they still do that or not, but those growing might check into it.
BB... We have two rates for water here. and the comemrcial rate is lots higher than the regular rate, so take the average amount of water you use and see which one is cheaper. Here ya pay a flat rate for the first 3,000 gallons whether you use it or not and then it so much more for every 1,000 more gallons ya use.
I can't speak to your laws in Alabama, Starlight, many Atlanta neighbors are putting in wells to get around watering restrictions. The house water stays county and they irrigate and maintain pools with the well water. How can they prevent you from drilling a well on your own property?
BB, granddaughter? I thought you were twenty seven! I have grown Kentucky Wonders, but I remembered them as being white seeded. I'll have to check this out. A very nice man at the seed and feed surprised me by sticking a bunch of assorted bean seeds in my bag. When I went to lift the bag it was so heavy and I peaked in and saw the seeds. He said it was end of season and he wanted to get rid of the seed. He wanted to give me corn too, but I don't have space. That, along with the "'yall come back 'ya hea'", were so sweet.
Laurel
I hope sure hope you all have a good bit rain too yesterday? It was a good downpoor here and I guess last night too since all was wet here this morning.???
It's amazing to me to see how "local" a rainstorm can be. My grass in front yard was yelling with excitement, same as last week. I have't waterd since actually.
Last night we watched the rain have a little hole just over our subdivision and thought it may bypass us completely but thankfully got some later.
I tuned into the weather channel last night and they were talking about the drought. Looks like most of GA is experiencing extra dry conditions but with NE section having severe drought. They said that our best chance of rain since May will be this weekend - and let us hope that this is true.
No rain here in Jonesboro- we heard distant thunder last night, but that was all, it's been over a week now since we got that little 1/2". night before last we heard on the news that Henry Co had a pretty good storm with trees blown down, but not a drop here, 7 miles away.
We got close to 1/2" around 6:30 pm yesterday. The ground is nice and moist. Hoping for more over the next few days. Just what those cukes and beans needed to sprout.
Bronx, I did the Kentucky Wonder research and it seems there is a white seeded variety (which I grew years ago) and then there is the brown seeded one I was given that is supposed to be "robust" flavored. Nothing like robust beans :). I usually interpret that to mean it's no good for stir frying and you have to cook them to death. I replaced the white KWs with McCaslins, which I'm crazy about. We grow an 8' double row of Blue Lake Bush beans because they come in early.
Laurel
We got a quick deluge today at about 2:30. Hurray!
Maypop, lots of people were complaining about high water bills recently. City is supposedly settling up all their accounts and mis-calculations from the last year because they are getting read to set the new billing which will increase the water prices ginormously.
Because I am afraid that putting in a well will tax ground water (or I won't get any ground water) I'm putting in a cistern as soon as I can find one big enough!
GGG
Three days to go, and still no measurable amount of rain in June. Actually no rain at all since the second week of May, when we got 3/8 of an inch. June is normally a fairly wet month.
I'm sorry to hear that Farmerdill - I hope it comes your way today or tomorrow - or both.
GGG I saw an HTV program last week where an Atlanta couple did a "green" hardscape and landscape. They dropped a huge cistern under the driveway for rain and gray water. Very fancy. It even had a filtration system.
We saw three sizes of cisterns at the Ace Hardware up here this past week. The largest was 350 gallons and was about $450 dollars. I don't remember the manufacturer. Maypop is spring fed and our water goes into a cistern with a submerged pump. The cistern overflows into our pond. It's a great system. I've written about this before. A "deviner" was used to find the spring and it has never dried up! We have to keep trash cans of water in the basement in case we lose our power though. No power, no pump.
Hope you get a good rain too Farmerdill. I thought we'd get some last evening, but just a few splats.
Laurel
Just checked the wireless rain gauge (Highly recommended) and we got .52 today, about the same yesterday and over an inch 6 days ago. Yay!!! I'm glad to get a break from running around watering everything.
Still none in Lagrange. It will look like it is going to rain and then the clouds just vanish.