I just checked for offical totals. Right now my area of arkansas has gotten a total of 7.25 inches of rain since the first of may. We are looking at, at least another week of scattered thunderstorms. It rained off and on all day today. Its suppose to keep going like that for at least another week.
The paper today said we haven't had that kind of rain levels in the month of may for 127 years. To put it in perspective. We average around 49 inches a year. By the time this is over we probably will have gotten a full ten inches this month alone. 49 inches works out to be about four inches a month each year. We will have gotten at least ten by the end of the month. Thats nearly a quarter of the years rain in one month.
The air is staying so heavy with water that right now I feel like you do when you get water up your nose in a swimming pool. The burning has stopped but I still fill like their is water in my sinuses. Thats how wet and humid everything is.
The closest thing to a flood I have seen in Arkansas, in my lifetime, was when I was in K-grade and we got like ten inches of snow in the north east corner complicated a week later by another 4 inches of rain. The flooding which was up to my fathers knee lasted all of about a week. It took a month to get the roads between where we lived and my grandparents reopened due to bridge washouts.
We haven't flooded like that yet. But, its getting bad. Crops are starting to suffer for some of the farmers. Even the rice fields don't know what to do with all this rain. We have a pretty good flooding system. We went down to lake Nimrod and the Nimrod dam Monday on our way back from Mt. Magazine. The flooding there seems under control. They had the flood gates open full blast and the water on the drier side still hadn't covered the rocks enough you couldn't walk across the river bed. Its whole purpose was to help control the flooding. There are three dams on that river that work to control flooding not to mention all the lock and dam's on the Arkansas. Hopefully they will be able to do their job.
But all this rain is going to move out just in time for the Spring thaw in the Rockies. The Arkansas starts up that way. Lets just hope our creeks down here have drained out enough that the Arkansas can handle the load when that water hits or my attempts at gardening and homesteading this year will be for nothing. We aren't in a flood plane, but we are in a flash flood plane. Gotta love it. Not
What I really want to know is how can my plants be withering from to much water while the weeds are growing so fast, I can't keep up with them in this weather?
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Hubby had his first three day weekend this weekend. We took the kids up to Mount Magazine yesterday. Its the highest point in all of Arkansas. The view from the summit known as Signal point isn't as great as you would think it would be because of all the trees. But, they have put in a really nice stone map of arkansas. The views from the look out points were amazing though. We may go back at the end of june for the butterfly festival, I don't know.
Since he was home, Bear sat down and figured up all of our bills and how much he would bring home during a 40 hour week. The time with him will be nice. The lack of money won't. He is going to bring home about a hundred dollars less a month than we need. I am going to have to figure out how to bring our flexable bills down enough that we can keep doing everything we are doing.
The garden still has a couple of months before it really starts to put out anything. I harvested the lettuce but that won't last long. I still have a bit more I can harvest that wasn't quite ready yet. Without my pea's though, Its going to make it harder. I swear Im going to start planting in November. Ill get some of those gardening blanket things to cover the plants when its going to get below 25 but truth be told we probably only have about two weeks of scattered days that ever get that cold at night. Mainly at the end of January.
I just hope I can keep this writing course. It would suck to have to quit again because of money.
Since he was home, Bear sat down and figured up all of our bills and how much he would bring home during a 40 hour week. The time with him will be nice. The lack of money won't. He is going to bring home about a hundred dollars less a month than we need. I am going to have to figure out how to bring our flexable bills down enough that we can keep doing everything we are doing.
The garden still has a couple of months before it really starts to put out anything. I harvested the lettuce but that won't last long. I still have a bit more I can harvest that wasn't quite ready yet. Without my pea's though, Its going to make it harder. I swear Im going to start planting in November. Ill get some of those gardening blanket things to cover the plants when its going to get below 25 but truth be told we probably only have about two weeks of scattered days that ever get that cold at night. Mainly at the end of January.
I just hope I can keep this writing course. It would suck to have to quit again because of money.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Visit is over something wrong with my peas
Well, Luce finally came for a visit and has gone again. We had fun though I must admit, I'm glad to have my house back.
My peas came up and looked real pretty. They bloomed and everything, but they haven't produced any peas. The plants are starting to die and I don't know if its because of all the rain we have gotten in the last month or what.
Ive discovered that if you have a week straight of rain, chicken coops and runs can smell as bad as a pig pin. Now that its quit raining we put down fresh straw and it smells much better.
With Luce here we killed and cleaned one of the roosters. I can say with all certainty when plucking game hen roosters be very careful. You would be better off to skin it rather than try to pull the feathers off. One good yank and half the meat off the wing will come with it.
On a not so joyful but possibly just as interesting note, we don't really know if Hubby has survived the layoff or not. We know its almost over but they haven't told him if he is to be there on Monday or Tuesday. If he doesn't know in another half hour, that very well might mean that hes been layed off. I don't know what we will do if that happens. I can tell you this much. It put a damper on Luce's visit and sent my stress level through the roof.
My peas came up and looked real pretty. They bloomed and everything, but they haven't produced any peas. The plants are starting to die and I don't know if its because of all the rain we have gotten in the last month or what.
Ive discovered that if you have a week straight of rain, chicken coops and runs can smell as bad as a pig pin. Now that its quit raining we put down fresh straw and it smells much better.
With Luce here we killed and cleaned one of the roosters. I can say with all certainty when plucking game hen roosters be very careful. You would be better off to skin it rather than try to pull the feathers off. One good yank and half the meat off the wing will come with it.
On a not so joyful but possibly just as interesting note, we don't really know if Hubby has survived the layoff or not. We know its almost over but they haven't told him if he is to be there on Monday or Tuesday. If he doesn't know in another half hour, that very well might mean that hes been layed off. I don't know what we will do if that happens. I can tell you this much. It put a damper on Luce's visit and sent my stress level through the roof.
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