Rain

Rain...

Finally getting a little of it this morning. We got about an hour of a shower Sunday evening and now it is raining a little more this morning. It is not so much in inches as it is in our spirits that this will measured.

We have had a heat wave the last 4 weeks now with over 90 degrees every day. That is not common for us here and has set new records for the length of such highs. It looks as though this will continue through Saturday with several days topping 100 degrees and very high humidity.

It has been and will continue to be hard for us here throughout the Fall and Winter. The best we can hope for now are enough rains to revive the pastures and soybeans enough to get us through til next year. This is going to be a hard year through late next Spring because of this drought. I hope we don't have a repeat next year. Many of us won't survive it farming if we do. We are only hanging on by hopes and prayers now and another year like this one will see us done.

But today we have rain, so there is some hope in that...

Making the Most of the Brief Reprieve.

We had a weak cold front come through on Thursday. The rain all went North of us, but the temps dropped about 10 degrees and there is almost no humidity. We'll take it!!! lol Wednesday and Thursday both set records with 103 and 105 respectively. And put very high humidity on top of that and it was almost unbearable. But you take what you get in the weather department.

Rick and me took advantage of the "cold snap" and chopped silage all day yesterday and today. The silo is almost full and we will let it settle tonight and make a little more room. We have about 4 more wagon loads to chop if we can get it in the silo. We will do that about noon tomorrow.

We had been wondering if there was even gonna be any silage, or corn too, for that matter. This drought has really hurt the local farmers here. Poor crop production, livestock woes and the tobacco is not being helped by it either. It has just been a very rough year all the way around. But we will all make it, we have no choice but to make it.

Still Hangin' in There...

Well, I don't have to tell anybody who has been within 500 miles of here in any direction but it's HOT! We have set record after record here for the number of days in a row that it has been over 90 degrees. I think it has been almost 4 weeks now like that. It always gets hot in August, but hardly ever stays that way relentlessly.

Even that would not be too bad if we had gotten any kind of rain at all. The last good rains we had were in late June and a few minor events in early July. Since then....nothin'.

Tobacco kinda thrives in hot weather, but it still needs a good rain now and then, not as much as corn or soybeans, but some. My tobacco was bearing with it til about a week ago and then it started 'firing'. That is when the bottom leaves start dying, turning brown and crumbling up to fall off. Then it moves up the plant the drier the weather gets. Crops across the state are losing tens of thousands of pounds per week as this continues on. Tobacco that was topped before it began will fare better, but there is a large segment of the total crop that is just now being topped. Tobacco gains about 1/2 of its total weight in the last 1/3 of its life except when something like this happens. It is not going to be a very good year for tobacco farmers, I fear. We will have to cut it before full maturity just to stop the losses in the field. But there is always next year, eh? rofl

And I ain't even gonna get into cattle and pastures and the lack of hay for this winter. Just understand it is not looking good for the home team there either. "But what about government aid programs?" Yeah, right...and then you woke up. rofl.

Oh well, you pays yo' money and you takes yo' chances, as they say.