So a big storm front moved through Indiana last night. I awoke to a thunderboomer in the wee hours and drifted back to sleep thinking that it may be bad for the house, which is almost completely scraped and ready for priming at this point, but good for the vegetable garden.
When I woke to the morning news on the TeeWee, it turned out to be another cruel hoax. The southwestern corner of the storm front just clipped us. Carmel, a few miles north, caught sixteen hundredths of an inch of rain (more than they'd recorded for the entire month of July at that site) while downtown Indy, a like distance to the south, recorded five hundredths. I guess we got somewhere between those totals, but the end result is that the pavement is hardly damp this morning.
I'm keeping the plants alive with constant applications of the watering can, but growing 'maters and melons and peppers takes water. Ma Nature's cooperation would surely be appreciated.
Trade you. I'm pretty sick of the flash-flood watches and random driving bans due to flooding.
ReplyDeletePendleton got totally soaked this morning, it was raining when I got up at 5 AM and it was raining when I dropped the youngest off at day care. We crossed 238 on 69 and it shut off like a leaky faucet. Couple drops here and there.
ReplyDeleteNice summer thunderboomer for those that got hit by it.
UR Doing it RONG!
ReplyDeleteWe had a flash flood on my street last night. My house fared well, but several of my neighbors had some wet basements.
Well, if you would only have paid the Global Warming Surcharge Fee for that Zed Drei you are polluting Mother Gaia with, you would have received your fair share of Sky Water from the EPA.
ReplyDelete90+ miles to your northwest we got .4" last night, which was added to the almost 3" we got last week.
ReplyDeleteYES, thank you and the corn and beans thank you as well.
Sorry, you're not getting any..
All The Best,
Frank W. James
We have been getting 105 and 108 so often, I don't hardly hear complaints anymore. In Oklahoma, about the weather, that is almost unheard of.
ReplyDeleteI got 1/4th inch last week. I think that was the second rainfall of July. The first was almost 1/2 inch.
The grasshoppers are getting desparate; corn and milo fields are firing, a few totally toasted white/yellow, without the ears finishing development. The few bean fields still mostly green are developing brown spots all over, and some fields have just been disced over (nothing there). Hay and other thefts are way up, and the sell-off of cows from cow-calf herds continues. My hay is getting shorter and thinner, noticeably. Creeks and ponds are drying or have dried up. Not a pretty picture; the crops, finances, and cow herds will take years to rebuild.
But at least I found a bait that seems to diminish the grasshopper problem (Nolo Bait, or Semaspores).
I've managed to keep the tomatoes and peppers alive, and that's it; until temperatures break in OK, they're not going to produce anything.
ReplyDeleteFriend said that since Dust Bowl was already taken, he's calling this the Fire Bowl, seeing as how a spark from something dragging is all it'll take to burn another few thousand acres.
Firehand, I was real worried about parking the truck in my mom's driveway day before yesterday, given that it's mostly grass and the engine was hot.
ReplyDeleteTropical Storm Don was supposed to bring us rain but we only got a brief shower; much better than nothing I'll admit. More than once, now, we've had drizzle that literally evaporated before it hit the ground.
I haven't even tried planting anything this year.
Tam:
ReplyDeleteTomatoes, melons, and peppers:
Make a dirt dam around the base of each plant - should be about 15 to 18 inches in diameter, and about 2.5 to 3 inches deep. Do it by digging a shallow basin about 1 to 1.5 inches deep around the plant, and using the excavated dirt to make the dam. You may need to bring in a little dirt from other spots in the veggie garden to get the dam high enough.
Get hose. Put end of hose inside dam. Turn water on very low - slightly more than a trickle. Set timer for 15 minutes per plant for normal weather every three days, or 20 to 30 minutes per plant in hot weather every 2 to 3 days. SET TIMER. When done, the entire inside area of the dam should be good and wet.
Do NOT use a sprinkler (anything that sprays water on the plant leaves) on the tomatoes or mellons. Bad things will happen.
Peppers need a little less water than tomatoes and melons.
To check need for watering: push finger into dirt. If dirt is damp about one half to one inch down, no water required. If not, WATER.
BoxStockRacer
BSR,
ReplyDeleteSadly, the garden hose at Roseholme is currently Tango Uniform; all watering is being done manually.
Bummer.
ReplyDeleteBleg for an old used one? Or not, if it's not high on the must-be-done list.
BoxStockRacer
The outside faucet needs to be replumbed. :(
ReplyDelete