nw baltimore wx

And the occasional brachiosaurus would randomly eat them.

An update photo on the spontaneous sunflowers. Should be peak bloom next week here. Btw, if anyone is in the Poolesville area, I read today on WTOP's site that there's a 30 acre site out that way at full bloom now.

@losetoa6 A friend of mine is moving and needs to get rid of the exact table that I have. An 8 ft Olhausen. I think they'd take a couple hundred for it. Any interest? Anyone else? If so, PM me. The table is located in Columbia.

I did something different this year in the garden that's really helped keeping the weeds down. My normal routine was to collect all the leaves in the fall, pile them several feet high across the garden, let them compress to a flat slurry-mat over winter, rototill them under in the early spring, plant, and collect grass clippings throughout the summer and spread them over the garden. The grass clippings helped a lot but I still spent a lot of time over the summer weeding. The difference this year was that I didn't till under the leaves in March/April and I haven't had to weed at all. Now I have to decide whether to till before I pile on the leaves this fall. Does anyone have strong opinions on the benefits of tilling?

I had to look them up but may have to get one or two of those. If you want some company, let me know when and where you're going.

1.39" here yesterday. I'm not mad that I didn't get in the stripe of the heavier 2-4" just north and east. I'm at 5.48" for the month, all in the last 8 days.

It's hard to imagine a more perfect July morning. 2.09" storm total, and 4.25" for the month.

1.95" here. No flooding.

That's always a problem for me too. I've used stuff like the Scott's DiseaseEX with success, but I've found it works best as a deterrent rather than a cure. I haven't put it down yet this year, but probably should.

I always wish that I had a more open and bigger space, but I know I'd still get frustrated. I'm pretty fortunate that I don't have the battle what I know a lot of you have to because of the size and openness of your domain. Considering all the varmints that I could have patrolling my yard, I'm fortunate that a few squirrels and rabbits are the worst of it. There are plenty of cats in the area that keep the mice and mole population in check, and though there are tons of deer very close by, rarely do any come into my neighborhood. We had a family of raccoons try to move in under the back porch once, but a rag soaked in ammonia drove them off quickly and they haven't been seen in a couple years. I always worry about rats because I'm so close to the businesses and their dumpsters on Reisterstown Rd, but, knock on wood, I've never seen any. Between the cats and the several foxes that patrol the neighborhood, small critters are kept in check. But I know what you mean about the squirrels moving seeds all over the yard. There's a walnut tree close enough to my yard that I am regularly digging up saplings, and they're always in the most inconvenient places with a deep tap root that's never easy to remove. And don't get me started on the ground ivy that I have to constantly battle on the backyard perimeter... Higher cut turf also cuts down on the opportunity for weed seeds to germinate.

Cool little pop up storm moving overhead here. Big thunder, nice breeze, but no rain so far. ETA: picked up a quick .25" and then to full, blazing sun.

The birds here aren't picky but, out of convenience, in March I picked up a bird seed from a "bird store." Unfortunately, within a few weeks, a bunch of seeds sprouted under the feeder and I thought that's the last time I'll use anything other than the cheap box store seed. But, out of curiosity, I thinned the "weeds" and let them grow to see what they might look like. Now I've got a nice cluster of sunflower stalks growing under my feeder. The squirrels took the tops of a few, but the heads have set on about 10-15 so it should be a good show in a month or so.

Anytime that I'm around, you're welcome. We need to talk RR and Highstakes into coming over too, though I think they'll want to take all of our money. I am in the process of mini split shopping for in there (and the addition upstairs) so until I get that in, it'll be a little warm. It probably won't bother you since your outside so much. But either way, the beer is cold.

I brewed an American Blonde / Cream Ale today that'll be ready in a few weeks, but on draft now is a New England IPA and another blackberry sour like the one you had on Black Eye Susan Day. You should stop in again sometime.

Beautiful pics, Mrs. J! It looks like Close Encounters of the Third Kind!

1.37" here today.

Still steady rain here and when I went out to check the gauge in the garden, I was surprised to see that we've already gotten well over an inch. Nice!

I had about a half hour of heavy rain but now it's steady with rolling thunder. I'll take this all afternoon.

I’m not trying to steal your rain, but I need it so hopefully there’s enough to go around. In lieu of a rain dance, I’m brewing today which should being on the storms.

A paltry .06" here from the "line."

No. I should have been more specific.

I wonder if this is the same system that the euro picked up on last week.

Oh, man. Nice split developing just in time for me. This is going to hurt.

This may not be what you're looking for, but I use this. https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/zoa/getobext.php?sid=Kbwi

I would have taken the over on that, but thinking about it, it might be only five times.