Will it ever rain again??

[topside1]

Hi all just got to say rain on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee is non-existent. Two good rains in the past two months, the 10 day forecast continues to show abnormally hot dry air invading our region until who knows when. Incredibly enough I'm already rotating pastures, front lawn, and areas that aren't even fenced just to keep the goats full and to keep the pastures reasonably green. If this continues much longer I will have a clear picture of what others in Texas went through last year....Pray for rain.

[Arina]

Strangely enough, in New Mexico May is the driest month of the year, however it has been raining every day (!!!!) with cloud cover (!!!!) and temperatures below 74 (!!!!!) - this is not NM weather description in May, when there are forest fires, high winds, bone dry forest, high temps and sunshine from horyzon to horyzon. But Bush still denies climate change.... because it is so "normal" . Not that we would protest the rain in New Mexico!

[BobDFL]

Join the club.

We're at about 25 inches below normal since last year. It's so bad we're constantly on the look out for brush fires. The funny part is this is our rainy season .

I'm almost to the point of wishing for a Tropical Storm or Hurricane just to get some rain.

[chris30523]

We are in between Fla and Tenn. and we are dry also.But we had a rogue thundershower today put down just enough to wet the hay we just fluffed.Didn't even settle the dust

[rranch]

Ugh! We still only get sun one day per week. I want some dry weather! This constant mud is driving me NUTS. The snow pack in the mountains here this year is the highest(record year) for some time. I guess we win the rain, you win the sun.

[wildhorse]

I just checked our forecast......no sign of rain GRRR.

[waygr00vy]

yes, wishing for a tropical storm that will sit right off the coast and continuously dump water on us for atleast a week!!

[topside1]

I'm not even mowing my house yard (1 Acre) just in case.

[moosemaniac]

You're welcome to some of mine. It's supposed to rain Saturday & Sunday.

Ruth

[Jim S.]

Too late, John. We are entering the pop-up storm season now, our chances of anything organized like a front rapidly diminish in a normal year between mid-June and October. The prediction is for continuing drought in the SE for the next 3 months, with only a moderate chance for improvement.

Here, we are 15" behind. It would take a weeklong rain to even start to have a lasting effect. We have had 2 rains of 2" each since March, and they didn't do much but improve things for the short term.

The upside? Far fewer mosquitos, and WAAAAAAAY less humidity. I have not started the central a/c yet this year. The downside? I'll be off tomorrow through Monday, and spend every day of it fencing more pasture.

Slept with the window open last night, the smell of fresh-rolled hay wafting in as the night cooled.

We got 45 bales on heavily-fertilized fields that typically yield 60 with no fertilizer at all in spring. If we'd had rain, we'd have had 70-75 with fertilizer normally. It is some of the nicest hay I have ever put up, green, leafy and fine-stemmed. But it is short on quantity, big-time, making it also the most expensive hay I have ever put up. Normally, I produce enough hay to supply my farm, the cutter's farm and sell to another farm for its needs. Not this year. Every spring bale will be barn-stored, too, to preserve it all. Normally, I have so much that I barn-store what I can and leave the extra outside.

Not so sure there will be a fall hay harvest here. We need a week of rain between now and July 4 to make it. If we miss that, Katie bar the door! There will be bargain animals all over the place for sale.

Good luck, Chris! SOMEBODY on here has to have a good drought hay harvest this year.

[wardarden]

Tennessee John,

We are dry as a bone down here in Murfreesboro TN too. DH and I were talking last night about hay this year. Lots of people we know are cutting and baling this week so the dry is good for that but our pasture/lawn/garden is in pitiful poor shape. We were discussing ways to try and get enough round bales to last till this time next year! I am already worrying about not having but one hay cutting this year. Dire straits indeed! Off task..... I heard on the news the other morning that Al Gore may win the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the environmental issues. Anyone who denies that we are in a global crisis needs to wake up!


Maybe we could all do our rain dance!


Arden Ward
Trinity Rose Dairy Goats
Murfreesboro, TN

[Sweet Goats]

WOW, here in COlorado, we got MORE SNOW yesterday and last night. we aare so WET that the goats can hardly get out to get hay. we had been in a 7 year drought.

[chris30523]

baling tomorrow.Started to re-fluff after the "rain"and all we got was a dust bowl.Decided maybe it was dry enough.I found a square baler to borrow so we can put up all the hay we bale for ourselves.Got 1100 off this field first cutting last year we will see who has a good hay year.
Chris

[ozark_jewels]

Well, we are getting just enough rain to keep things green and we got a decent first cutting of hay. But it is dry out there now and plants are starting to shrivel. The water table is way low, our ponds are drying up already. The creek is also very low. Our pasture is half as tall as it should be.....

Here are ponds that normally this time of year are overflowing and sparkling clear.

[topside1]

Emily is that a Bald Eagle or an Osprey in photo #1???? No rain here yet, luckily I have three streams on the property and the vegetation is still thriving in the low lying land near the creek beds. Thanks goodness my winter hay has been bought, $20.00 per round 4x5 and $2.25 a square because a fall cutting looks doubtful. I won't even mow the pastures until January just to keep all forms of browse available. Enjoy the weekend everyone...TJ

[ozark_jewels]

LOL!! Thats a Muscovy hen and her four ducklings waiting for me to leave so they can take their scum bath in peace.
We do have a bald eagle nesting in the creekbottom somewhere.....

[suburbanite]

Nice eagle-duck you got there.

We've had only 11 of our usual 19 inches of rain here this year.

On the topic of ducks, was walking by a shriveled stock pond and spooked a pair of mallards. As they flew off over the water the (lee-tle 9 inch) bass in the tiny lake jumped up into the air all along their path, trying to catch the ducks. If any one of them had nailed a foot they'd have been carried clear out of the pond; I guess all bass think they're bigger and badder than they actually are.

On the topic of rain, I'm less worried about getting 60% of normal this year and more worried about getting that kind of rain for the next several years.

Also, you floridians wishing for a tropical storm...be careful what you wish for.

[ozark_jewels]

Right after I posted the above, it started raining......and its raining still. Its tapering off now, but maybe it will start that second cutting growing. Wishing it for all the rest of you who are short on rain.

[Kimon]

Originally Posted by waygr00vy

yes, wishing for a tropical storm that will sit right off the coast and continuously dump water on us for atleast a week!!

Bite your tongue! hehehe, trouble is those storms have a potential and the potential we don't wanna talk about here although the H-Kit is ready.

[waygr00vy]

Yes, I know....that is why I wished for a tropical storm, right off the coast...lol. I am just so darn tired of my burnt up field and this dustbowl everything is turning into. I've lived here my whole life and would rather take the floods and tropical storms/hurricanes we've had than fires and drought. Just a couple of weeks ago I had to evacuate my friends horses because of a fire...that is still burning. I was here in '98 when we had a very bad fire year. NOT FUN!! It rained on and off today...not enough to even really show in the rain guage though