Wow that is a lot! I hope we get those numbers down some. I am already germinating my seed and come Wednesday when we get paid I will finish filling in my second bed. Thanks for the info.

I know my eyesight is pretty bad nowadays, but Good Grief! Are we really in the 12-15" needed range? We had about 1.5".

It was so very, very nice this morning, even if the smell of smoke was wafting on the wind. It wasn't long after I woke up at 4 a.m., I noticed flashing lights thru the slits of the blinds. I got up to check it out, and there were 5 fire trucks, Hazmat, the Fire Chief's SUV, and anpther SUV outside parked in front of my house and along the block. The air was billowing with smoke. I grabbed my purse, medications, my drink and ran outside. The vacant house next door was on fire. Didn't take them long to get it taken care of. I had to call my ex because he has the number for the owner (an old friend of ours) so they could call him to let him know. Later went to check the damage and it appears it may have been electrical in nature, and only the kitchen appeared to be damaged. Those guys work so quickly. I don't know who called them at that early hour; maybe a passer by. Kinda freaky, guys!

Anyway, I had more MGs blooming this morning than I've had the last month. The rain must have triggered some blooms. Everything looked so fresh and sparkling new in the garden. And......drum roll.....I have two melons on my dwarf vines. Yeah, doing the happy dance! They are soooo cute. I've worked so hard to keep the SBs off these vines, and hopefully it will pay off as I continue to check and monitor them.

I am getting a bit concerned that we might get an early freeze this year...........hmmmmmmmmm.

Susan

Carmen, You're welcome. Glad it is helpful info. I follow the weather closely since it holds so much power over the ability of our landscapes and gardens to survive, and I like to link stuff like this occasionally to keep us all grounded in reality! lol After a wonderful rainy day in the middle of a drought, it is so easy to think everything has changed. Really, not much has changed in most of OK. Everyone is still desperately dry. It usually takes us just as many weeks or months to get out of drought as it took for the drought to develop. I think it is easy to forget that on a nice, cool, rainy day.

Susan, Isn't it awful? Think about your average annual rainfall, though, compared to what your year-to-date rainfall is. Then, think about whatever rainfall deficit you had when 2011 ended because that factors into it as well. In our county, our 2011 rainfall was roughly half of our average rainfall, so we started 2012 with a deep moisture deficit and partially empty ponds and creeks.

Isn't it a horrible feeling to wake up to flashing lights outside? A house burned across the street from us in Fort Worth in the early 1990s and it was just horrible. I imagine a passerby did see it and report it. Lots of times, it is police officers driving through the neighborhoods at night who first notice flames and smoke.

My morning glories have been going nuts for a couple of weeks--ever since the last big rainfall, and I've really been enjoying them.

Congrats on the melons! Little melons are cute.

You know, I don't know why, but I am feeling an 'early freeze' vibe as well. I don't know why. Maybe it is just that we're so happy to have milder temperatures that we fear an early freeze will bring an abrupt halt to a lovely fall growing season. Usually, I trust my instincts, but I dearly want for the 'early freeze' forebodings to be wrong, wrong, wrong. Gardening here in OK sure will make a gardener paranoid and leave them expecting the worst in every season!

Dawn

I think the entire season shifted by a month or two. It was nippy when I took my morning walk this morning. IT'S AUGUST. We should still be having 1000 plus degree days. I'm not complaining :), but it is not normal. Early freeze. Yup. I think so.

We need 12-15" of rain to end drought! that's lot lot of water! I was reading long range forecast for this region, temp will be cooler (below normal) and rainfall will be above normal for the month of Sep/Oct and probably some hurricanes in mid-September and early October... this sounds like a weather i wish for. But fall temp will be much cooler than normal worries me as we may get early frost :-( -Chandra

The weatherman was predicting a lot of rain for this weekend....

1.5 to 2.5 inches for us

up to 4 inches up north

I do hope we get some rain today! My garden is parched right now as I have had to go over to my daughter's earlier this week and no time to water. The melons will be okay since it is a well mulched bed, as well as the Okra. I still have a couple of producing cuke vines, though.

The Monarchs are starting to migrate. I have a huge mama in the yard right now laying a few eggs. Yippee! She was HUMONGOUS, too.

Yeah, Dawn, I am so hoping we don't go from having that warm winter last year to a bitter cold, snowy, icy winter this year. Altho I know the ground could use the moisture. I like snow for one reason - because is seeps into the soil slowly as it melts.

Susan

Susan, Our purple martins apparently have migrated, and that always is an early sign to me that autumn is approaching. They always leave the purple martin houses in July, but are around for a few weeks longer so I see and hear them in the mornings and evenings. I haven't seen or heard any in 8 or 9 days, so they must be headed south.

The hummer population is picking up every day. The males have been migrating since July, but in the last week there's tons and tons more. It makes me wonder if they already are migrating too.

I'm glad you have a Monarch. They've been scarce here since mid-summer.

I think it is sort of a bittersweet feeling to see the migrations beginning. Once that starts, we know we are headed into autumn and cannot deny the fact that summer is ending. I keep telling myself there's lots of warm days and cool evenings ahead, and I am hoping the cold days and nights are still a long way off.

I know we need rain and I welcome every drop. I really don't mind snow either because it does soak in so well as it slowly melts. I hate, hate, hate the ice though. I'd be happy if we never, ever had another ice storm. At our end of the state, snow is not especially common so having it is a real treat.

Dawn

We are not the only ones needing rain, a few weeks back it was said that it would take 21"s of rain to put the Mississippi river back to where it need to be,I think some of the river is shut down now. That alone will drive up shipping cost, if there is anything to ship.

Larry