13 June 2015

Extremes

May was very dry: our big water tanks in the barn never got properly full after the winter and by May 29th the well had run dry. Things were getting desparate! Luckily, the weather changed on May 30th and we got about 10mm/0.4 inches of rain that day. June has been providing some good downpours, too - so far this month the Trenton weather station is reporting 50mm/2 inches of rain, where in the whole of May it only received 30mm (just over an inch).

My Fling swag included a rain gauge - it recorded 0.8 inches (20mm) just yesterday.


The grass around the upper vegetable garden beds was looking very brown at the end of May and the beans I'd sown in the bed to the left of the centre of this shot had stubbornly refused to germinate, so I'd sown some more:


But yesterday it had turned a more respectable shade of green:


 and I've got beans popping up all over!



This morning I noticed some yellow patches in the grass. On closer inspection I could see hundreds of small yellow balls on the grass. I think this is the lawn rust fungus - not something I've ever seen before - these wet conditions must be just right for it.


And more unexpected fungi - these shaggy ink caps were growing out of the side of the chicken manure heap I excavated from the small barn in April.


Our barn water tanks are now full up - to the point of overflowing, in fact - and our basement cistern is also full. Such a relief!

4 comments:

Casa Mariposa said...

What would you have done if it hadn't rained? I have city water so I've never had a well. Your post reminded me to stick my rain gauge in a pot and I'm hoping for a storm tonight. :o) Don't you hate it when seeds are uncooperative? I hope the new crop of beans grows like mad for you. :o)

Amanda said...

We have another well we could have pumped some water out of into the basement cistern, or, if we had to, we could have bought a load of water. You see water trucks a lot in our area, delivering to people who either don't like their well water or (in the summer) to people whose wells have run dry. In the eight years we've lived here we've got by with the rainwater tanks as our reserve, but this was nearly the closest we've come so far to being completely out. And it's very unusual for it to happen in May! I certainly don't take water for granted these days...

Susie said...

It was a crazy dry May for sure. The only time I ran out of water was during a very hot August in '05 or maybe '06 when I was living north of you (Madoc ON). As you said, I just ordered in a water truck. Seems weird, but people buy "water" all the time.

Helen said...

I must remember to set up my rain gauge! This month would be the perfect test for it.