Somewhere I heard that when trees are stressed by lack of moisture they go dormant early...I hope that's the case, because box elder makes really crappy firewood. Our entire grove, which is usually a lush little wetland full of frogs and ducks and a primordial ooze that you could lose a pair of hipwaders in is already an unhealthy yellow-brown.

The yard is "greenish", but mostly quackgrass and weeds. I've been giving the higher class of trees (maple, elm, cherry, apple) a 5-gallon drink of water every week from our 300 ft well and they even look like third world refugees.

...Just 50 miles south of us they're having problems with "too much" rain. I would like too much rain. I have no idea how the aquafer where our well is sunk is doing, but even at that depth without something substantial for rain it'll eventually dry up.

Stetto, you better keep the trees you want watered, and really well.  We lost the elm that's been in our backyard for twenty years at the beginning of the summer.  Ike beat it up a few years ago and the drought last year finished it off.  I think most of the water I poured on it got soaked up by the grass around it, but when it went, it went fast.

Water?  Whats that stuff.  Theres not even enough of that to hardly drink around here.  We have not really had a rain all year.  We did have a couple three showers this summer of like .10 hundredths and one of .40 hundredths.  Ours hadn't yet anyway but there are people in our county that have had their water wells go dry. 

I'd make a crack about not taking a shower but once a month, but I don't want anbody thinking that is true 

Motto of the El Paso Surf Club (of which I was once a member) - "Real men don't need water."   

Heh, yeah its dry.  Our roads went from blow sand to compacted cracked clay now to soft powder so its like driving in 4" of snow.  Last real rain was in June that gave a gully washer and then a couple showers weeks apart that maybe gave 2 tenths, but we have had record number of 95+ and triple digit days, and a lot of wind so to say its dry is like saying  Kate Beckinsale is sort of attractive.   We have been fortunate as we have had plenty of irrigation water, its has kept the crops going where we could get it wet,  its kind of surreal to see the dry pastures that look like nothing but dirt with a few weeds next to a really bright green and lush alfalfa or millet field.  But I am feeding cows already, grass is non existent, even the emergency CRP grazing some guys got is just about gone already. Going to be a lot of cows at the sale barn I'm afraid.   

I think everyone just keeps hope there will be a real winter in the mountains or this will be nothing compared to next year.

Vicki was talking to a local rockhound, and she said that just south of us up until the 70s or so was a year round sand dune, it would move around even in a 3 mile or so area.   When we would get a good wind the rockhound would come out and look for arrowheads.  I guess it was prolific enough that apparently one of our neighbors even had a flat on his tractors from an arrowhead.  When the CRP came out they required they stabilize it,  so planted some weeds and grass to hold it and its been grassed over ever since, until this year,  it starting to blow in places again.

wish I could help you guys out....we've had maybe 2 weeks of warm weather all summer, the rest of the time rain, wind, thunder, lightning, wind, more rain....
I see there is lots of rain, but in places that don't really need it, like Indy.....

We are still dry, but like throwing a switch its starting to cool off some.  Still going to be 90 something today, but maybe 70 tomorrow.  After all this hot weather

Nary a drop of relief here.  We got a cool down, hmmm is that because Stetto and Canuckistan have not been posting as much lately???  Anyway some of our millet that we have out is about 3 inches high and headed out. LOL never seen that before.  Hardly above the drill row and headed out.  No way in creation can a person swath that.  At least the ground is not bare and maybe there is enough root system to keep the ground together and not blow too bad this winter.  Most everyone's corn has burnt up here, but surprisingly, we may get some milo out of all of this.  I dont know yet what wheat drilling this year will consist of.  We may wait until october sometime and try it then when the ground has cooled off and maybe some deep moisture will come back up. 

Sorry to hear that Ron. We've gone into a "fall pattern", which is supposed to consist of day-long soaking rainstorms and threats of frost. The morons keep predicting it, and it keeps not happening.

It is cooler though, for now. I believe one almanac or another predicted a long, warm Fall. All I know is that if we don't get a respectable snowpack this winter the tough sledding we had this year will be nuthin' compared...

That sucks, I had worried that's what my millet was going to do this spring, and I had some in the ground for 6 weeks before it sprouted. When it did, it just sat there just barely out for 3 more weeks until it finally started to grow after one of our big 1/10" rains and it got big enough for me to irrigate it without washing out. In the end it did pretty well considering but man its been a struggle.   And I have seen some dry land that came up and went domant or died, just looks like sparse dead grass. 

Well, I guess being the Gobi west is a little premature.  We actually had some measurable rail the last couple days, it clouded up and started to drizzle on Tuesday and rained all night, and most of the next day, actually got a good soaked in 1/2" or so, no puddles or anything, but its definitely damp.

If you guys got any of that Ron, you will be busy trying to get wheat in.  It also cooled way off, was down right chilly on Wednesday.  Back to 90 tomorrow, and then back down to 60 for highs after, its roller coaster weather time now.

we got .26 hundredths out of it all. 

Man, I hope nothing washed away. 

hmm...last week it was warm and sunny and everything was unseasonably green. (usually start to see the leaves turning at the end of August..). Over the weekend, then not only turned colour, but dropped from the trees...so lots of naked trees on the landscape.......

Well we got a harsh reality check there are other seasons than summer.  86 yesterday, 83 today until about noon or so, then when   the cold front came through dropped 30 degrees in about 45 minutes. by 6 it was 48 and a 20mph wind. Welcome to fall.