Still No Rain?

We've been gone for two weeks as we attended our grandson's first birthday party in Chicago.  The whole time that we were gone, I was keeping an eye on the radar.  It seemed like the storms were rolling east and parting as they passed by the farm.  I took some comfort when I looked at the weather online and it showed that Piketon (nearby town) had 2.75" of rain in the last seven days.  Then we pulled in at the farm and this is what I found.

 Surely we had more than 1/4" of rain in the last two weeks?

 As I drove around, I became more convinced that all of those storms really did miss us - it was dry.

 The chicory-clover plots that I planted still are hardly germinated.

 Hopefully they'll take off if we get some rain.

 The pond was low.

But, for some reason, the field that I planted in turnips and oats is doing great.

 It's a little spotty but I think that had to do with my broadcast spreader running out of seed.

 The turnips are lush - they must not need much water.

 And the oats are doing ok where I missed with the turnip seed.

 The pumpkin patch looks like it's dying off (except the weeds).

Most of the vines are dried up but the pumpkins are turning orange in whatever state of growth they were in.

The weeds are quite healthy.

 There are a number of good size jack-o-lantern pumpkins out there.

 I think that they would have been even bigger with a little rain (or earlier planting).

 But I should have enough good ones to keep my bride happy.

 I did a mini harvest because Joan needed some banquet center piece decorations.

Various pumpkins and gourds should do the trick.

 Hopefully this will work for her.

 The apples are ripening - both red and green varieties.

They are starting to drop and they attract all kinds of critters.

 I try to throw them in front of my camera so that I can get a good deer herd inventory (see other post on trailcams).

 Here's some in front of the camera on that telephone pole.

 I thru them there to attract critters.

 Sometimes the camera catches the human variety.  They like apples too.

 Still a lot of grapes.  I think the turkeys like these.

 I'm finding quite a few persimmon trees along the field edges.

 The fruit is just ripening - turning orange.

 Also seeing some acorns.  Not every tree is loaded.

 These are white oak acorns - bow hunters friend.

 I saw lots of these on my walk.  I think these are service berries.

 I lost the pin holding this wheel on the last time I was out.  This is my fix.  We'll see how long it lasts.

 Sunflowers are done.  I took down the deer tape last trip and many of the seed heads have been eaten.

 Soybeans are mowed to a uniform height by the deer.

 Sunday morning sunrise sequence.

 It was a beautiful morning - only 58F.

Here comes the sun.

 I was out and about for a walk.  This is the clearing at the ridge stand.

 Looking up at the pond hi-rise from the atv trail.

 Driveway stand clover needs rain.

Deer cane (salt block) on the stump.

 250+ photos on several of the cameras.  No monster bucks but 6 or 8 nice shooters.

This was the camera that I moved to the persimmon tree.  Not a lot happening here yet.