It's Dry
It is August and while I always think of it as the driest month of the year, it isn't. February is our driest month by the record book with an average of less than 3" of rain. August, by comparison gets nearly twice as much rain.
August is the hottest month of the year. Our average highs for this month are between 93 to 101 degrees. All that heat evaporates a whole lot of water so even when we get rain it often feels very dry.
This August, however, seems to be drier than normal. In order to keep the roses and other flowering plants looking good in the front garden we had to add more times of watering. We have, over the years, added irrigation to many of our trees so I rarely worry about them getting enough moisture. I have been running the sprinklers for the azaleas we transplanted last winter. I hope by next summer they will have settled in enough to not need my attention.
One sign of dryness is when the septic drain field starts to show. Usually it's covered by nice grass and you can't tell where it is. The drain field for the house system is rarely visible. The one for the studio is closer to the surface but we still rarely see it.
But here she is in all her glory.
We are sitting here on the cusp of not one but two tropical systems headed in our direction. In another couple of days we may be getting 10 or 20 or 40 inches of rain and there will be no talk of dryness, only wetness.
Of course, it is very possible that both storms will barrel into Louisiana and miss us completely in which case we may still be very dry. Hurricanes and tropical storms are fickle and have no memory. They go where they go and we can only prepare and react. For now I'm hoping for a nice tropical storm. No high winds, no storm surge, just 10 to 15 inches of rain. That would make me happy.