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Post by chrysanthemum on May 13, 2023 7:40:18 GMT -6
I’ve checked it a couple of times recently, Woodeye, and I’m having the exact same problem. It zooms in just a little, but then there is no more option to zoom at all. Using my best approximation for my area, it showed just forty-one hundredths of an inch of rain for us this morning. I’d be shocked if that’s all we got, but maybe it hadn’t been updated for the three-day cycle. I didn’t check the twelve-hour cycle. I think I’ll go do that right now.
Okay, I just went and checked, and the twelve-hour record is about three times higher than the seventy-two hour record since it’s updated more frequently. It still doesn’t really zoom in better. I can use my fingers on my touch screen to zoom a bit, but once I remove my fingers it pops back out to the less detailed view.
I haven’t been out yet to check my rain gauge, but things seem to be clearing up here. We had hard rain during the night and probably some wind, but I never heard any hail. I’m thankful for that.
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Post by woodeye on May 13, 2023 8:30:47 GMT -6
Thanks for checking the site, chrysanthemum. That verifies that the problem is the website. I don't know why the site has made the changes, in the past there was an "image" option that gave a satellite view instead of just the map view. That's gone too. 😞Congratulations on your total rainfall! 👏
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 13, 2023 8:35:35 GMT -6
I just went out and looked at the rain gauge. It was a healthy one and a half inches of rain. It didn’t come up to the one and sixth tenths line, but I think the bottom of the meniscus was above the one and five tenths line.
The garden was looking good. I even had more Red Noodle Bean and pumpkin blossoms this morning.
There may be more rain this weekend and into next week.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 13, 2023 9:19:09 GMT -6
I haven't been able to get the iweather site to zoom in all week. I guess they must have cut back to the bare bones there?
I think we might have gotten 8/10ths of an inch here last night, which is great news. I just opened about 1,980 holes in my Plasticulture yesterday. It was dry as a bone under there from being covered up during the drought in April and really needed some moisture.
I've been watching videos of flooding in San Antonio though. That looked to be concerning. I hope all is well there. Someone in San Antonio posted a photo of a rain gauge with just under 3" inches inside.
I'm glad Chrysanthemum only reported about 1 1/2" inches at her location. 3" inches would have been hard to absorb with all the rocks there.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on May 13, 2023 11:12:04 GMT -6
The storms were glorious and it is succulent and gorgeous this morning . No damages here, either. It sounded horrible, but the storm wasn’t as strong as some others that have passed through before for which we already cleaned the tree trash. Glad ya’ll didn’t receive damages. Was worried about Chrys getting flooded, though. So glad it was just a good frog strangler.
When we took the chickens to the run this morning, we saw the ground saturated when our tennis were soaked. I’m relieved to have an excuse not to scythe this morning. It really is easier to scythe when moist, but today is too wet. All my garden plants are getting massive. Absolutely glorious after . What? . . 3 years of drought?
Because I let the landscape grow in, the birds are blissful and the bugs abundant. I’m cutting it now, but not in a destructive manner. Ladybugs everywhere . . . The landscape looks packed with vegetation, but when I slice the vegetation it reveals bare spots where there is no growth, the result of a very long drought.
The larger roost system from bigger vegetation will mitigate the effects of the drought. It is so painstaking (and painful) to remove all this biomass but it works so well. The biomass will go right on top of the garden beds.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on May 15, 2023 7:36:27 GMT -6
I’m not going to complain. LOL But wow. I know how Ya’ll felt when you got all that rain a while back. Whew. Good news is: I know where to put a little pond. I put flags out to denote future drains. I’d say the goodness is the drought is over, but I”m not so sure about that. A lot of heat and a bit of wind . . .
It was SO hard to raise my potato beds late winter during a drought. Right now: YASSS!!
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Post by woodeye on May 15, 2023 9:12:25 GMT -6
That's great news, FrostyTurnip, so happy that the drought has taken a vacation at your place, I know that you have been fighting tooth and nail for every drop of water you could get for a long, long time. I dumped out my rain gauge yesterday morning and it had about 1-1/2" of water in it, so I'm hoping that you got at least that much.
I was going to step out this morning and have a look around, but it was pouring down rain at the time. I don't know how long it had been raining before I attempted to walk around out there, but I do know that the rain continued for another 30 minutes after I tried to go out. I think the rain has subsided enough now to go check the rain gauge again, so I'll do that shortly.
It feels so good to have mud again!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 15, 2023 10:18:28 GMT -6
It's actually enjoyable to pull weeds right after a rain. The bad thing is if you lay them down anywhere they'll just take off growing again. I've laid weeds upside down on muddy days, only to see them rearrange their roots and grow upside down.
When it's muddy, I take a couple of 5-gallon buckets out there to carry my weeds to the compost, then cover them with a tarp, so they'll die.
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Post by woodeye on May 15, 2023 10:56:36 GMT -6
That's a good idea, heavyhitterokra. Yes, weeds around here have long been notorious for being notoriously hard to deal with.
It seems as though the lack of rain, which in turn creates the lack of mud, causes one to want to celebrate when there is a substantial quantity of natural mud once again.
In fact, the natural occurrence of mud in huge quantities has been so rare that it seems like it only happens once per year in my area.
Perhaps we should consider adding "Mudder's Day" to our calendar of events? 🤔
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 15, 2023 21:43:32 GMT -6
That one made me laugh outright, Woodeye.
I’m glad you guys got some rain [though I was definitely sorry to hear about your feed sacks in the story from the other thread, Heavyhitterokra]. We were on the edge of storms this morning and this evening but there were only a few light sprinkles. There’s more rain in the forecast for tomorrow, but so far we had that one and a half inches on Friday night and nothing since. I forgot to check my sweet potatoes this afternoon, so I hope they’re doing okay. I wasn’t counting on so much sun when I put them out on Friday. I thought we were going to have cloud cover and rain for days.
We do like pulling weeds after a rain around here. I have some big weeds around my olive trees that I need to get to. If I do get to them, my plan is to use them to mulch the trees, though I certainly woudn’t want them to take root again. There are certain weeds that I won’t leave on the ground for that very reason.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 16, 2023 16:41:07 GMT -6
I heard my first Rain Crow of the season this week. The sound of their whooping, and somewhat mournful, cries always remind me of my Grandma Fannie and her whiskey bottle, half full of whiskey and camphor, otherwise known as a 'Storm Glass'. She kept the whiskey bottle suspended from a piece of jute hay twine beside the doorway to her bedroom, so it was always handy to look at in the mornings when she got up at the crack of dawn.
What she saw in the bottle would foretell the weather 24 hours in advance. Unfortunately, a four year degree in Meteorology would probably be more easily obtained than the skill required to 'read' the camphor, which always looked a mess of indecipherable bits of haze to me.
The white colored 'spirit of camphor' floats around in the tea colored whiskey in a perpetual, cloudy-mist, never quite separated, never fully mixed . When the weather is changing, you can see the camphor moving to form what sort of looks like clouds inside the confines of the bottle. Whenever we'd hear a Rain Crow while working her garden, she'd make a mental note to go check the camphor at the noon break to see what kind of weather was headed our way.
It was sad to hear that the numbers of the Rain Crows are in decline. Hearing them cry always brings back such wonderful memories.
Here's a link to some information about Rain Crows: tpwmagazine.com/archive/2020/oct/scout9_wildthing/index.phtml
Here is a link to the song of a Rain Crow:Just for fun, here's an article published in the Scientific American Journal on July 16, 1853, having to do with the reading of a 'Storm Glass'.
As something has been said in one or two numbers of the “Scientific American,” in relation to " Storm Pointers," (usually called t: Storm Glass,") I send you the correct ingredients :—2 drachms of camphor; 1 drachm pure nitrate of potash; 4 drachm muriate of ammonia, and triturate them together until: they are thoroughly pulverized; the operation may be assisted by the addition of a few drops of alcohol. When well triturated, the mixture is to be dissolved in about two ounces of proof spirits (good whiskey) and put into a tall vial, such as eau-de-Cologne bottle, or into a glass tube about ten inches in height, and three-fourths of an inch in diameter, the mouth of which is to be covered with a piece of bladder perforated with a pin. The indications which it gives are of this nature —If the atmosphere toe dry and the weather promising to be fine, all the solid part of the composition which appears in the glass will be closely collected at the bottom, and the liquid above will be quite clear; but on the approach, of a change to rain, the solid matter will appear gradually to rise, and small I crystalline stars will be observed to float about in the liquid, which otherwise will remain pellucid. On the approach of winds, flocks of the composition, apparently in the form of a leaf, will appear on the surface of the liquid, which, in this case, will seem thick and in a state of fermentation. These indications often begin to exhibit themselves twenty-four hours before the actual breaking forth of the storm ; and after a short experience in observing the changes of appearance of the materials in the glass, not only the magnitude of the coming storm will readily be estimated but likewise its direction; for the quarter of the compass iron which the wind blows will always be indicated by circumstance of the solid particles lying more closely to the side of the glass opposite to that whence the tempest comes. During the winter the composition is rendered white by the multitude of small white stars which are constantly floating about in the liquid: this is particularly remarkable during white frost and snow, in summer, on the contrary, when the weather is warm and serene, the liquid is clear, and the solid matter lies at the bottom of the glass. Some of these indications are as yet unaccounted for; but the Leading principle is the solubility of camphor in alcohol and its insolubility in water, combined with the well-known meteorological fact, that the drier the atmosphere the more aqueous vapor does it take up, and vice versa; when, therefore, the weather is warm and dry_ a quantity of the water of the menstruum is drawn off in the form of vapor, and consequently more of the camphor enters into solution; and, on the contrary, when the air is surcharged with moisture, that moisture begins to be deposited, and the menstruum again will be weakened, and a quantity of the camphor is precipitated from the solution in the form of little crystalline stars. This may easily be proved by making an alcoholic solution of camphor, and adding a few drops of water. G. M, Hallowell, Me.
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Post by macmex on May 17, 2023 5:37:59 GMT -6
I've been hearing them over by my place but never had taken the time to identify what it was. Thanks Ron! Our place certainly fits the description of "riparian."
Had never before heard of a storm glass, either! Wow! Old technology often requires a high level of skill and dedication that moderns are unaccustomed to.
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 17, 2023 16:13:01 GMT -6
That was an interesting video and an interesting read, heavyhitterokra. Thanks.
The call of the rain crow didn’t sound familiar to me, but I know I’ve heard the term “storm crow” before, and apparently that’s another name. I would not describe our area as riparian, though.
We did have a good storm move in yesterday afternoon. I knew there were chances for it, but somehow it still kind of caught me off guard when the thunder started rumbling. It got really loud, really fast, and the rain blew in hard. It didn’t last too, too long but brought us six tenths of an inch of rain.
I’ve not filled the ollas since last week. I know they could use topping off, but my plants aren’t in need of that water because of the occasional showers we’ve been having. I’m very glad for that. It’s so different from last year where temperatures were already topping one hundred degrees, and it was dry. Apparently there’s another shot at rain on Friday night.
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Post by macmex on May 18, 2023 8:06:55 GMT -6
In The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien, Gandalf is called "Storm Crow," as a derogatory term, by one of the Rohirrim. The context is that he is warning them of a coming "storm" of evil and the need to take action. It's amazing to me, that Tolkien, an English scholar, would have thought to use the term in such an appropriate manner!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 18, 2023 12:41:03 GMT -6
Chrysanthemum,
That is great news about the rain and the cooler temperatures. Last year was pretty rough on you guys farther south. It was bad up here too, but nothing in comparison to what you all experienced down there in mid-to-southern Texas.
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