Author: admincatsg

Its not quite fall/autumn yet but the weather is cooling down. Its not a big cool down, especially if you lived in a different area, but for Texas its a cool down. By cool down the days are in the high 80’s with some low 90’s thrown in for good measure. The nights are now in the low 70’s with some high 60’s in the offing. Getting down that low would be nice.

But for the garden it means that things are now growing. Plants are springing back to life. My tomato plant, its been babied all summer, is now showing new shoots and even flowers. Maybe I’ll even get some tomatoes. Some areas of Central Texas have gotten some rain, and they have mentioned even better success with their gardening.

As for rain, here at the house we’ve had a little. Nothing much to speak of, but some. I say some as areas north and south of here, and even east and west of here have gotten rain. But here its been little bits – half an inch here, a tenth of an inch there, more like dribs and drabs instead of a good rain fall. Such is life here!

But nonetheless we are on a cooling trend. After this long hot summer, and the slight rain we’ve had here even my lawn is filling back in (yeah!). I’ve planted a few seeds, beans, peas, some swiss chard and at least the beans are coming up. I do have to admit I am using some older seed and that may be the problem. I may end up going and getting newer seed and seeing if that will sprout. But it is good to see the plants perking up, and seeds sprouting.

Maybe I’ll get something from my garden this year after all. I can hope.

Where some areas got more rain than they could want, mainly in the form of flooding, here at this location, we got 1.58 inches of rain. I admit that most of the rain came in one quick downpour. We got an initial inch of rain in about one hour mid afternoon. Here we even had some periods of power fluctuations. Luckily we didn’t have the power go all the way out, but I was concerned about that happening.

For a while it was just a slow rain. Here there doesn’t seem to be any flooding, but other areas may have gotten more rain than we did. Earlier today news had said that the Dallas area had flooding. So I wouldn’t be surprised if some areas in Travis Co. have gotten enough rain to flood. I’m sure some areas in the greater Austin are have flooded, and I’m sure tomorrow’s news will give reports of any.

But more rain is still expected come early morning, probably before sunrise. The forecast suggests thunderstorms may begin around 4AM. We shall see. But I admit its nice to finally get some rain. We do need it.

It may not sound like much, but it is what we got. We got a touch of rain overnight, only 0.06″ of rain. Not even a tenth of rain, but it is what it is.

But this afternoon we actually got additional rain. Grand total for today was all of 0.42 inches of rain. That may not be much for rain, but its what we got. And since we are in such dire need of rain we will take it! And be thankful for what we got. Some areas may have gotten more than we did, but at least we got some measurable rain.

I’m sure the yard will be happy and thankful for it.

YEAH!!!

After hitting a high of 99.9 degrees earlier, we have now dropped down to 78 (in less than 1 hour), and the humidity has risen from mid 33% to now 79%. Will we get rain? I’m not sure. But it has been windy and the skies are dark with clouds. So there is hope in our hearts that rain is on the way. As it is only about 3:30pm it is possible. I will update if it happens.

Its still hot by any standard – mid 90’s here. But today they say will be the hottest day of the week, 99 degrees. We’ll see if it passes the triple digit mark.

The rest of the week is forecast to be a bit cooler, still hot but definitely cooler. For example tomorrow should be 95/71, then Friday 90/72. That mean in two days it could be 10 degrees cooler than today. We just have to make it through today.

Hopefully with this change in weather my yard and garden will begin returning to life. One of the websites around here, Austin Organic Gardeners, gives a weekly suggestion of what you can plant – both direct sow and transplant. And its begun making suggestions again. So hopefully this means it will be time to get our gardens back growing things.

Let’s hope!

Well we are actually getting cooler weather. Its not what I would call a cold front, more like just a slight cool down. We’ve even been getting some clouds, usually a bit later in the afternoon. And some areas have even gotten small short showers. They may be extremely localized showers. And they may be significant showers. But they don’t last long.

Today we got a few small sprinkles here at the house. Small sprinkles as in they weren’t enough to wet all the ground, just leave drop spots on the driveway.

But at least they are cooling down the area. Its 8:30pm and its down to 85 degrees. That may not sound like much but that’s down from 9pm and 90 degrees.

We’ll see how long this lasts. But at least it seems as if we will cool down enough to let plants grow and hopefully survive. The cool down will be good for gardens, at least I hope it will be.

Yup. We are hot and, well, just hot.