The weather man here said, the rain would start sometime last night.

But he never said, it would start in the late afternoon, which it did, ever so slightly while we were riding back in to OKC yesterday. We sure got lucky, and didn't really get wet before we got to the cars.

Just where do you live Jay? I thought of you a couple of weeks ago, while driving back from Albuquerque, and going by Elk City.

Moni

Oddly, our temperatures went up overnight, reaching a high of 73 degrees before the rain started rolling in. It has dropped to the mid-60s now.

Jay, I hope the coldest part of the weather stays west of y'all so all you get is rain and not ice or snow. Colorado sure has been pounded by snow.

At least none of us have to worry about drought for the next few months.

Dawn

I share your feelings. As long as we have a day or two of sunshine, the garden plants produce. When the clouds come it, the garden stalls. So, my fall garden has spent most of September and October in a stall, with just a few periodic burst of production after a couple of sunny days.

This morning's heaviest rains are going west of our part of Love County and just slamming Ardmore as they go into Carter County. I understand they have some roads flooding there already. We're having a mostly gentle rain with a couple of minutes of heavier rainfall every now and then. I'd rather have no rainfall, and I feel guilty saying that because normally we need more rain here, not less.

It was sunny here Sunday and supposed to be sunny yesterday, but we only had sun until around 9 a.m. and then all the clouds rolled in quite quickly and that was the end of the sunshine. I was very disappointed. I had hoped for a full day of sun.

Dwn

Dawn

Where are you Mr. Sun?

Leava, more than chocolate? Oh no :-(

I've decided to curl up with my crochet hook and a cup of cocoa and try to enjoy a cool day. But I think I'd rather be outside working in the sun...

Mandy

Y'all are a great deal colder than we are Jay, but I think we've all been deprived of sunlight far too many days in October. I'm hoping for a nice stretch of sunny days now that this round of rain has passed.

My garlic is going to be late too. I keep looking at the garlic and the wet, squishy ground and just shaking my head. Even Tim, who is a non-gardener himself, told me the other day I needed to add compost to my most well-draining raised bed before I plant the garlic in it, or it is going to drown. Most of the time he doesn't pay attention to the soil, but it is hard to miss the fact that water is standing everywhere.

It could be worse, though. We could have the snow that Colorado's been getting.

Sunny and gorgeous here, though still muddy and squishy.

I'm looking forward to the sunshine and warmer temperatures too. My okra is still blooming, but then the pods aren't developing further because of the cold temps and lack of sun. Maybe with a few days of sun and warmer weather, we'll get one more good harvest from the okra and the cukes.

It was really cold here this morning for as far south as we are--43 overnight, and still 46 around 9 a.m.

Dawn

Today was bright and sunny if a bit cool and breezy.

To tell you the truth, the weather has been so odd the last 3 or so years that I am trying to figure out what the 'new normal' is because the old norms haven't applied.

We may freeze tonight. Our local weather guy said 37 degrees for the 'outlying areas and lowlying areas' like ours (42 or 43 in town) and no clouds or wind, so I sort of expect a little frost although not a really heavy one unless it goes even colder.

I picked 1 measley okra pod today and there's about 20 blooms that probably won't form pods, so I think the okra is done.

I harvested oodles of peppers today....I'd just as soon put them on the compost pile because, quite frankly, I've already put up 3 or 4 times as many as I usually do, but I seem to be incapable of tossing good food on the compost pile, so tomorrow I'll dry them or can them or something.

I picked a lot of little tomatoes and will dehydrate them tomorrow, and I'm in the process of draining 3 gallons of green beans that I just blanched, so they'll go into the freezer in a little while.

I have 6 or 8 pickling cukes sitting on the counter looking sad and forlorn. You can't do a lot with such a small amount of cukes. Maybe I'll just make a jar of refrigerator pickles tomorrow. There's 20-30 tiny cukes on the plants now that will reach picking size in a few days if they don't freeze tonight and if the sun keeps shining.

I have light frost damage on the tops of all the pepper plants and tomato plants from last weekend, but it only affected the top couple of inches, so that's not a big deal.

Every weekend we have a 'close call' with an almost-freezing or barely-frosty night, and then if we get through that night, the garden has another week to produce. So, if the plants survive tonight, I might get to harvest more beans and cukes next week.

I'm just about tired of picking, washing, sorting, blanching, freezing, etc., or of stemming and seeding, freezing or dehydrating. I think I am really just about ready for it all to end. The holidays are coming and I haven't done much to get ready, except for the jams and jellies that will be gifts.

I'm not really ready for cold weather or ice or snow. I'm just ready for a break from the garden....and I haven't even dug the fall potatoes yet. I kinda hope the rain stays away for a while even though our ponds are not completely full yet.

It was breezy here too until right at sunset, and around 60 degrees or so. It was pretty pleasant, but the leaves and the pecans were falling, which means I need to get busy picking up pecans. I need a good pecan crop because I'm down to the last bag of 'old' ones.