RAIN! – Please God Let It Count

Making the bed this morning, I glanced out the window and saw that the strawberry jar had been raided again by the birds. So, as soon as that task was done, I went out to the shed and got a chopped down tomato cage (Bob had thoughtfully done that for me years ago), and cut a length of bird netting. Then I covered the strawberry jar:

Not a pretty job of netting – but it will stop the marauding winged thieves. I just covered the jar with loose netting and secured it tight against the jar sides with plastic wrapped wire plant ties.

And as I was inspecting the veggie beds, I noticed I had 1 or 2 snow peas on the pea vine!

I also saw a teeny tiny yellow crookneck squash showing; but the veggie boxes are so saturated with the sporadic rains & scarce sunshine, that I think it will probably rot before it matures …

Turning to go back inside the house, I noticed there was a puddle of water in the bird bath that had accumulated overnight – hallelujah! I deliberately left it bone dry yesterday so I could gauge how much rainfall actually fell in yesterday’s on-again/off-again short sudden bursts:

It isn’t a lot of water, but it is enough to give me hope that putting the rain barrels in place was not wasted energy. So far, despite sudden rain bursts, the barrels have remained pretty much empty; there was not enough water falling from the sky to make a difference.

However: when I did check the rain barrels, I was still very much disappointed. Despite the rain fall yesterday, and the rain that fell through the night – as evidenced by the Froggie terra cotta bird bath – 3 of my 4 rain barrels WERE STILL pretty much dry ;-(

Rain Barrel 1: Just a little bit of noticeable water ...

Rain Barrel 2 was the fullest barrel. I AM encouraged, BUT I was expecting more.

Rain Barrels 3 & 4 held hardly enough collected to wet their interior bottoms. Very disappointing. It rained ALL NIGHT LONG! WTHeck???

While I was back inside, eating a bologna sandwich for lunch, and asking Elohim “Why?”, rain started coming down pretty fierce and hard around 11:30 ‘noon; and around 1:00 p.m. a little storm blew in off the river … so maybe, when I check the rain barrels again, I may actually have more in them than a handful of water. Hope, hope ...

Gusty winds accommodate incoming rain.

Please God! Let it matter.

While the rain pounded the windows, and the trees were whipped around, I watched a disturbing food doctoring video on FB that was posted by another gardener; it can be viewed at this link: https://www.facebook.com/RAVINDER9416483611/videos/2194851997275351/UzpfSTE1MjQ3NTk1ODEwNzE0MTU6MjI5NTU0MjM2Mzk5MzEyOQ/?eid=ARBwP616jAUjaVsfrGuh_GiOKDDJ2f3ePw0CZTNRzgVmndkKetFYT5FZv1rBBqY_hghTh2npgPGv0zQM. SEEING makes a BIGGER IMPACT than being told …