I think today is the last day of the year in the 90s, low 80s going forward. Officially in fall gardening now. Not sure if I waited too late to start beets.

I started a bunch of seeds a while back, very little came up, even with drip. Just too dry I guess. Needs twice a day watering, which I can't do.

I planted some stuff after the garlic came out beginning of August. Napa cabbage, Gailan, Tokyo Silky Sweet turnips, Bok Choy, radishes all came on very quickly. Have already harvested radishes, turnips and thinnings of the other greens. Root parsley is coming up among the turnips but still pretty small, cilantro still pretty small too. Beets were old seed, I think I saw one that germinated but basically not.
Peas that I planted in August are just now getting big enough to start flowering... I think!! Still hoping to get a few before it's over.
Everything had to be watered through august and up til last week.
Now for days and days it's been highs in the 50's with intermittent drizzle and some nippy winds. Lows in the 40's but nothing near freezing. Today it was alternating blasts of sun and showers, but finally stopped raining. Tomorrow high could get to 60F with some sunshine but then we're back to the same cold and rainy pattern. Should be fine for greens and peas.
There are a couple of cocozelle still coming on the squash patch, so I might pick those at the end of the day tomorrow and call it a year.

Yesterday we hit 100 (no idea what the index was!). It was the first day of fall but summer left a goodbye present on its way out the door! Right now at 3:30 it's 95 and a 100 heat index. Two more days of this heat before it breaks.

And we might FINALLY get some rain if this tropical thing in the Gulf comes up through Georgia but it's too early to tell. Right now our weather guy says we'll either get not much rain or we'll get clobbered. Miss Pessimist here thinks not much but she'd love to be proved wrong. Not that we need to get clobbered but a couple of inches would be nice. They'd get sopped up immediately. If 5" fell it would probably all soak in fast. Meanwhile Dances With Hoses is going through the rain chant collection trying to find a new one that might work...

1” rain fell at the house today in 30 minutes or less. Trace of rain fell in town three miles away. Cooler nights upcoming later in the week with the first foray into the 50s since spring.

Well, it looks like Dances With Hoses can close the rain chant book and retire. Hurricane Helene is going to bring all the rain we want over the next few days] as it comes up right through Georgia. Yesterday the path looked like the eye would pass right over us but since then it has shifted a little to the west.

Today is Prep Day, mostly tying down some things. We were talking about running the gennie cables into the house ahead of time. It has a remote start so nobody will have to go outside to do that if needed. It's rare when we lose power for any length of time more than four hours so there's no need for the huge expense of a whole house generator. The last big outtage was five days in February 2014 when Winter Storm Pax's ice brought down so many trees, limbs and power lines. That was before we had a generator and was the reason we got one.

It will be interesting to see how fast and how much the land sucks up all the rain. No chance of flooding here at the house as it's built at the top of a long slow rise.

Helene looks to becoming a real bad hurricane, has all the hallmarks. Everyone in Florida and Georgia and even beyond in neighboring states ought to be monitoring the situation closely and doing everything possible to prepare or evacuate today.

Forecast track and intensity currently has Helene going right over Tallahassee in about 36 hours as a category 3 hurricane (cat.4 not impossible) and right over Atlanta in 48 hours as a Category 1. Numerous Tornadoes and flash flooding are real threats being forecasted far from the center of the storm. This hurricane is a large one (90% percentile in radius) and it’s coming ashore rather sooner than later.

Stay safe @GoDawgs @PlainJane and other gardeners in and around the track! That is a very wide rain shadow on this one.

We've been battening down the hatches this morning. I tied down the tomato cages and the well cover, filled all the gallon watering jugs I keep around so they won't blow over and cleared the front porch table of any loose stuff. Pickles did the same with stuff under the pole shed. If the power goes out (probably), there will be 5 gallon buckets of fresh water for general use since the well will be offline. We keep several big trashcans of water ready at all times for emergency toilet flushing.

Well, it finally came! I was going to go outside, around 2:30 - when it's usually totally shady in the back - and it was very dark, so I looked out, and it was raining - HARD! At 3:00 it had rained .15", but was letting up a lot, but at least something came! This was the most I've gotten this month - total was well under a half inch, so far, which is why that ground was so hard. Maybe I'll get a little more from the edge of Helene. I hope everyone here in the south is spared the brunt of it!

Stay safe those affected by the hurricane Helene.

Quiet before the storm here.

Helene wiggling to the east more, now tracking east of Tallahassee. Perry, FL might be in the crosshairs yet again. @PlainJane I’d keep an eye on Helene’s track today, wouldn’t take too much of vector to the east to put this hurricane very close to Jville. Hurricane Beryl defied all the experts and weather models and caught a lot of people off guard. Helene is perfectly capable of the same thing.

still having a drought.
Doing a rain dance now, holding a coffee cup.

Well, they were right yesterday, when they said that it would be more humid today! At 10:30 am, it was 72°, and the humidity was up to 95%. No more rain overnight, just dew, maybe fog, much earlier. 81° is the forecast high today, but back down after that, staying humid, and maybe some rain, but that changes every time I see it.

I see that Helene just strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane. Sending positive thoughts to all in her path..

I sweat more than what fell from the sky.
Not even enough to register on the gauge.

In Central North Carolina Wednesday night we had flash flood warnings and 5 1/4 inches of rain from 10:30 p.m. until 3:30 a.m. Thursday.
Rain started again today at 2:30 p.m. with more flash flood warnings. Another 3-4 inches expected by tomorrow afternoon.
The worst of it will be in the western mountains of North Carolina.

Wet time here in N.C. We have had 12 1/2 inches of rain 08/28/2024- thru 09/25/2024

friedgreen51 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2024 4:06 pm Wet time here in N.C. We have had 12 1/2 inches of rain 08/28/2024- thru 09/25/2024

Wow! That's more precipitation than we get in an entire year here, including snow!

We are on the "dirty side" of Helene. Areas on the right side of the hurricane get more rain, wind, and tornado formation. All of the recent tropical storms and depressions have really dumped rain here.
We received another 2 1/2 inches this afternoon!