Drought Update

This is from Meteorologist Ryan Breton of WCSH6. 

We are still in extreme drought. UGH! We just cannot seem to get more that a few hundredths of an inch of rain at a time, anymore.

Plants are still blooming and Caesar Pond is ice covered

Oh my goodness...I have never seen the Red Elderberry blooming in mid-November! Here are flower buds that are thinking of opening.

And, here is a gorgeous flower cluster. There is one other flower cluster on a different branch. There are no leaves on the branches except where the flowers are.

And, the Stella d'oro daylily is still trying to bloom. 

This is crazy! At the same time, Caesar Pond has had ice on it for two days in a row as the nighttime temperatures are below freezing. 

I love when the pond ices over and the sun's reflection is on the ice. We will probably see lots of thawing and freezing cycles until it finally freezes over for good, for the winter season, probably in January.

A dusting of snow

We have had a few dustings of snow in November. Nothing measurable. This is what a dusting looks like.

Nov 10th rain

We got 1" of rain yesterday into the evening, with a few torrential downpours thrown in. That brings us to 1.48"/5.19" (historical ave) for November thus far.

Nov 6 and Nov 8 rain

We got just a tad of rain on Nov. 6th and Nov. 8th: 0.15" + 0.12" respectively. That brings us to 0.48" in November thus far! Whoo Hooo! I am being a bit facetious here... But, there is more rain to come.

Planted 21 cloves of garlic today

I chose the 3 largest of the bulbs of garlic, with the largest cloves, and planted 21 cloves in my garlic bed. Before planting the cloves, I refreshed the soil with some compost and some humus. The cloves were planted 4" deep, then covered with soil. We then raked two piles of leaves which Drew then mulched and put on top of the soil. This is weighted down with wire fencing to hold it all in place throughout the winter. The leaves then become part of the soil for summer.

First rain in November

From two short rainfalls this week we got 0.03" on November 2nd and 0.18" on November 4th. The historical average rainfall for November is 5.19". Come on Mother Nature, let's see how close we can get! We are at 0.21" thus far! Keep up the good work! Sometimes a little encouragement goes a long way.