We daily lifestyle bloggers are lucky because our blogs read like journals and for farming bloggers the weather is one of the most important notations in our journals. So, all I had to do was scroll back to see when we last had rain.
Our last rain was on May 8th. You and I remember that because it was the night of the storm and the mink attack when we lost Nelson.
So it has only been a month without rain. And one month does not a drought make. It feels longer. Everything is still green and we are a long long way from drought conditions but it is pretty dry. I make a habit of only watering the kitchens gardens every three days to encourage root growth. If you water too often the roots will stay close to the surface and the plant will not be as resilient and robust. Watering too often also compromises the nutrient levels. Watering deep and twice a week is actually better for the plants long term survival.
Everything is dusty and still and why am I so cold? This morning it was just cold.
Today it is so cool outside that I am sure I will get a lot done. Also I am going to walk out into the wheat and bring in the furniture. This is one of the things I keep reminding myself to do then just don’t get time or simply lose the inclination. I have nightmares of forgetting and then the harvester hits them. Though most combine harvesters actually have metal detectors on the outer reaches so if there is something metal the machine will stop. And while we are on interesting bits of information about combine harvesters – the combine also has a cute device called a rock stopper. And until the rock is removed the machine will not go forward. Cool – huh!
I am at my best in the mornings – are you the same?
Here we are then.
At last
🦋 Friday. (Not that Friday means any less or any more work on the farm but it always feels like an achievement).
Cecilia
PS Substack:
My latest podcast is UP! This is a hard edged work in progress – really pushing me out of my safe space. Which is a good thing. Taking risks is the way to stay alive.
This one is called Three Kitchens and an old, old love. I should pay someone to write my titles – I have always been crap at headers.
I have discovered as I write that I have had the most amazing education in living sustainably. This exercise of placing myself in these old homes enables a huge raft of really clever information for self sufficiency and frugal living. Which as we know is sustainable.
As I describe all the kitchens and houses that I visited and stayed in as a child I feel even more sure of myself as I begin to teach these methods for developing ones own Sustainable Style.
If you like what you hear please share my Substack link with a few of your friends. There is a chance one might become a subscriber. To date I am being paid $55 a month to write on SubStack – which frankly is a damn sight more than I have been paid in the past! So, thank you to you all! $5 dollars a month.
The Kitchen's Garden 
23 responses to “How long since it rained at your place?”
I don;t think it’s rained for a month here either and it’s chilly in the mornings but warm in the afternoon. Supposedly there will be a high of 30ºC this weekend with posible thunder storms.
You might be needing those thunder storms – and we all had such wet winters this year!!
I know – rediculous isn’t it!
Poor Boo!
It rained all night and still is raining a bit. Cheers yippee!
Oh that is great news!!
I’ve been having to water every morning for a while now, and don’t see rain on the weather map in the near future – I’m an early morning person, too
If I lived in the central valley in California I would be expecting this kind of dryness but we don’t irrigate here as a rule. Not set up for it.
right
Someone walking by while I was out watering the other day mentioned that by his records it hadn’t rained since May 14th. It did, however rain day before yesterday but we only got four tenths of an inch. That’s just a little bit better than nothing in my estimation. It’s been very very cool here. Overnight temperatures in the mid 50’s. 55 this morning at 7:00. The days have warmed up into just the upper 60’s so working outside has been lovely.
But the mosquitoes are out which means total coverage with Off for me. How did those little guys know that Memorial Day (the start of the Summer Season) just 9 days ago? They must have little calendars, or maybe Apple watches with alarms set for hatching out day.
You would think that their smart watches would tell them that it is still too cold for the mozzies! I had one in my room last night. Horrible
I think it was early May here as well, but today we got a few hours worth early this morning. It is still cool and overcast so maybe more later. I see the cows over by the fence in your picture- Do you think any of them used your broom scratcher set up? I really thought that was ingenious!
We’re having a cool dry start to our southern hemisphere winter. We got rain last weekend for the first time in over a month. 7.5 mil / 3 inches over 2 days. Enough to refresh the garden but our house & garden supply rainwater tanks remain only half full. We are subtropical so dry cooler winter months are somewhat usual. After two previous years of ongoing rain & flood events it however looks like we can now expect warmer drier El Niño conditions for possibly a couple of years. Makes for pleasant sunny weather but worrying climate conditions. We have plan B, C etc for water but they’re not optimal.
El Niño has not shown her colours here yet – I feel we are in a transitional period.
Every damn day.
Ah – same
Funny you should ask–today we woke up to rain for the first time in at least a few weeks. Being a native Oregonian, I like it. But I was enjoying our lovely sunny summer days so I hope they return soon. Also–use AI to write headlines. I’m crap at them, too, so sometimes I ask Google’s Bard for help. It gives me a list which I rarely use any off of, but it sparks ideas.
Huh. Now that is a good idea.
Do you just feed in a sentence and say – make into headline? What a great use of AI.
I wrote a small description, something like “what are some good headlines for a post about ________.” It worked great, try it! And let me know how you like it. Although I will say that I always enjoy your headlines because I know your rule for them!
The rule is pretty funny!
It’s raining right now. The cane farmers are gnashing their teeth; too much rain is bad for mature sugar cane, and it makes the ground soggy so the big heavy harvesters get bogged down. I am happy, though, because the grass my chooks graze on needs watering, my Peace rose is in bloom, the tiny pink orchids in the callistemon tree are flowering, and the scarlet hibiscus is going bonkers. It hasn’t been really cold; this is north Queensland after all, but it is cool(er).
Oh no. I am sure that will happen here. Sods law right? Interesting how is it cooler than normal in a lot of places. But El Nino is coming they say.
30C here in West Sussex. To blooming hot. Went to a barbecue this afternoon. Had a pulled pork sarnie with apple slaw, chips, and 4 bottles of ice cold water. I refilled my own bottle. I used to love heat. Now I detest it. It makes me dizzy and breathless. That sort of temperature used to be a one-off oddity in the UK – now it’s here in June. In July. In August. It’s no longer rare. We’ve also had no rain since the beginning of May.
We finally got some rain this week, two days of light, soaking rain that made everything happy again.