Wettest September....

Yesterday I had posted a picture of rain pouring off the roof, the gutters too full to take it all. (Unfortunately you saw the result, NOTHING. I am having trouble getting FTP to recognize the fact that I did too transfer that file to the server. Donna tried for an hour last night, but nothing still. I may have to go back to the same old boring plain vanilla blog.) We have had two of the driest summers on record. Yes, we bitched and moaned about it, but to a person, we enjoyed the good weather. We became almost Californicated, in that we just assumed the sun would shine and it would be hot. And Dry! And it was. The forests were so dry, that the Forest Service ceased all logging and off roading, because it could start a fire, and it would be a disaster. As it was, several fires were started by dry lightning, and they burned for several weeks.

Our reservoirs were way down, and the snow pack that we usually have in the mountains to sustain our water usage, was non existent. We were starting to ration water. No lawns, no carwashing, no filling swimming pools. Just for household use. September and October were just around the bend. And they are usually our two driest months. Everyone was getting nervous.

Then September rolled in and just as everyone was packing up for the last camping weekend of the year, the Jet Stream dropped south, and was marching storm after storm across the ocean from Japan, and dumping it on British Columbia and Puget Sound. It was wonderful. Fresh warm rain, and wind cleaned up our air, and refreshed our lawns. What was brown is now vivid green. The reservoirs that once were sucking dry air into the intakes at the dams, were filling up, and wonder of wonders, some of the streams were flooding.

the news caster said this afternoon that we have had so much rain in the past two weeks, that our deficit is now only 1/4 of an inch below normal. Heck we got that this evening.

Usually when it rains around here, it is a light cold, misty rain, enough to make you miserable, and not enough to keep your windshield clean. Just messy wet. But this year, it has rained, and rained, and rained! Almost Monsoonal. Monday the winds started in, and the trees that were hanging on to the earth with their stubby toenail-roots gave up to the force of gravity and mud, and came crashing down. Cable was out, and the electricity blinked and was out in a few pockets. It clears up, the sun comes out and then it clouds over and rains again. We have an expression for that up here in the Wet Northwest...Sun breaks. That is a phenomenon that means, rain, and mist and wind with an occasional peek through of the sun.

If the weather keeps into this same pattern, we are gonna be really wet this year. If the Jet Stream would march across the ocean, and head north THEN head down along the coast, then we will get a winter of snow, but it wont. I expect snow before Thanksgiving, and then maybe again around the first of the year, a good hard freeze in November and in February, and then mild the rest of the time.

I need to get the yard put to bed, and the woodpile covered, and the garage cleaned out and ready for the winter. Clean the chimney and the ashes out of the wood stove, bring in a weeks worth of wood to dry out for our first fire in November., and wash the outside of the windows....Prune the roses back, trim the pussy willow, fertilize the rhodie that survived Sadie's puppyhood, and then I will be ready for hibernation.

the deck needs painting STILL and the gutters need painting STILL, but those may have to wait until spring now. I may have a chance to do it in October when Indian Summer hits. I just hope we have one...