Another season dries out!

I always feel somewhat vindicated when the paper's tell us what we already knew too well. Today the Plain Dealer reported that the National Weather Service has declared our area "abnormally dry" for August. (http://drought.unl.edu/dm/DM_state.htm?OH,MW) It's not drought conditions, but it's the first step towards that. Ouch! It's kind of depressing to walk through the fields and see what would have been a great August crop fizzling into nothing.
What unpredictable weather! June and July were soaking - way above normal. We had great picking in late June and through July, but by late July we hadn't seen rain for a few weeks, then we only got one rainfall in August.
I read a few years ago that one of the effects of global climate change was "episodic" precipitation events. In other words, we'll see more and more of these 3-foot snowstorms, 5-inch rainstorms, followed by periods without precipitation. Last summer's total rainfall was appeared to be near normal because 9 inches of rain fell in a two-week period in August. But it was also the dryest May-June-July on record, as is this August, one of the 10 dryest on record.
I hear the remnants of a hurricane are headed this way - too late, but still needed for the health of the blueberry bushes.
We'll try a little irrigating next summer - it'll take us a few years to get a real irrigation system in place, and without a pond on the property, we don't have much water to go around.

At any rate - thanks to our loyal picking fans! It wasn't a terrible year all told. Certainly better than last year anyway. Coulda been better, but as they say, there's always next year!

Season winding down - still berries out there!

We're now approaching a solid month without a drop of rain! What a twist of fate. We had more than we needed in June and early July, now we watch the clouds pass over us. Yesterday there was a downpour east and west of us, but somehow we keep missing it.

This has meant a very sweet late-crop of berries, and a much lower yield than we have had in past years. Overall the crop has been much better than last year, where we had low amounts of rain all summer. There are still a good number of berries in the patch at this point. We'll have enough to be open for another week or two. Call ahead to see what it looks like: 440-965-5591.
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http://home.centurytel.net/chancecreekblues/