Paula, I worry about you and Ken and all that high water. Y'all be extra careful! After all these years of fearing that wildfire would burn us all out of our homes, now we are at the other end of the spectrum. It hasn't even taken hail to knock fruit off our plum trees. Every time we have had really high wind and heavy rain together, the ground is covered with fruit. I still hope to get enough plums to make some jelly, but that looks more and more iffy every day. My garden is the same as yours---without raised beds, there simply would be no garden left to produce anything. This week I yanked out the snap peas----the plants, though heavily loaded with peas and still in bloom, were rotting off at the ground, and they are in raised beds. I harvested all I could find as I pulled out each plant and put it on the compost pile. I'm not going to plant anything else in the ground where they were growing until we have had a few days of sunshine to dry out the waterlogged soil in those raised beds. I fear that any seed sowed there now would just rot or wash away anyhow. Robert, What is a sunny day? (grin) I feel like we have become obsessed with mowing and edging the property, precisely because we cannot do it. On the first sunny, dry-ish day we get, Tim will be mowing, and I'll be out there with the string trimmer tidying up the edges, and along fence lines and such. Tim did mow the other day, so at least the grass in the area closest to the house, garden and outbuildings is low, but the roadside and the pastures are high. You know, that snakey sort of high. I can't wait for us to at least be able to mow pathways through the fields. After Tim mowed the other day, he had just parked the riding mower in the garage when gas became pouring out from underneath it. As he was pushing it back out of the garage, I was running to the house to grab cat litter to absorb the spilled gasoline. He eventually found a hose loose and then two parts on the ground that surely must have had something to do with the loose hose, which I assume was a fuel line. So, before he can mow again, he'll have to fix the mower again. It is always something, isn't it? We've never had to work so hard just to mow the grass. Larry, Thanks for the laugh! You always say something that puts a smile on my face. I like the idea of a boat delivered by a drone. Yesterday when I heard the UPS truck coming down the road (you can hear it from a long way off once you are used to what it sounds like) I went down the driveway to meet the driver down at the road. I wouldn't have wanted for him to bring that big old truck up our flooded driveway as he might have gotten stuck in the mud. Has anyone here been counting days and nights of rain? Is anyone approaching 40 days and 40 nights? It might be time to start building an ark, and if I was building that ark, it would have two sections---one for two of each kind of animal and the other for two of each kind of plant. Oh, who am I kidding? It would have a third section for 100 tomato plants. Dawn

NW Arkansas. it never got above freezing yesterday and then it started to snow last night, which wouldn't of bothered me, we'd just stay home, except my husband has a trip to Kansas today and I don't know what the roads are going to be like between here and there. I'm supposed to be driving a friend to the big city for a dental appointment and I'm not looking forward to it at all, since we live in the hills and they don't take real good care of the roads around here. Fortunately I have four-wheel-drive but even that is not enough. I kind of wish her dentist would call and cancel her appointment before we head out. Of all times for it to snow. Unpredicted, too.

Bruce, Thanks for letting us know how you and Janet are doing. We missed y'all at the Spring Fling, but we knew you were busy dealing with the aftermath of Mother Nature's weather temper tantrum. I am so pleased to hear how much recovery progress you've already made, and doubly pleased you have reclamation crews coming in so quickly. I believe your hard work and quick action will save some items you otherwise might have lost. It is impressive what y'all have managed to do so quickly, and it is inspiring for the rest of us who someday might face similar issues---y'all will be the shining example of what we need to do if we're ever hit by the same type of weather destruction. You know, here in OK in the springtime, anything can happen and it usually does happen to someone. I still cannot believe it happened to y'all. Hang in there and keep smiling and keep growing. I know you need your garden more than ever this year because it is such a great stress reliever and y'all certainly have had a lot of stress these last few days. Dawn

We missed the rain last night, but got 1" the night before. We did get some wind but all it did was break my cannas and sunflowers. I had them planted protected from the strong South winds then I get strong Northeast winds, go figure. The cool weather was nice. I was busy outside all day Friday. Today is not to bad. I dread next weeks temps. We are planning on starting to chop corn on Thursday. Long days and nights ahead, but no feed no cattle no money.