Too much of rain?

No, not really, I rather have rain after such a dry spell in June, then no rain.  The only complaint I have (no one will actually listen or do anything about) is the amount of rain per time.  It looks like yesterday, we got 21 mm of rain in 5 minutes (for those who operate in imperial that is 3/4" ).  It was a lot in short period of time, bit of hail but small and soft.  It just too quick.  I rather stick to slow drizzle, but take any moisture.  My grass has shown sign of recovery and looking much better, still in some places, not 100%.  My little apple tress is full of apples (as shown i picture) and now will need support as branches are bending under wight of apples and this will get worst, as the apple fruit gets bigger.
Weather is very unsettle overall. In the past four days I think we had tornado warning in three of those days.  Some parts of the city got pretty nasty storms that included hail, Lucky, so far we just got a lot of rain at once.  I do not have to water garden and that is a bonus.

Photoupdate

Finally had a few moments and phone in my pocket so took some pictures in the garden. 
Things are growing well and with warm weather growing fast.  Seeds that I placed in the ground in place of frosted seedlings are germinated and growing nicely.  Big rain and subsequent little rain, provided enough moisture to stimulate rapid growth.
Potatoes started to flower and are huge

Cabbage in the tunnel

 As mentioned before, cucumber

 Tomato plants

 Beans full of flowers

 First tomato fruit inside the large tunnel

 I could not forget about rhubarb

 This is lettuce patch inside small tunnel

Success ...

Finally, we were able to grow cucumbers in our tunnel, I mean actual cucumbers that one can eat.  I will post picture shortly.  I checked this weekend and noticed full size cucumbers tucked under the plant and was amazed by the size, I mean, was amazed as I tried before and got only small size and not even close to decent size.  This year I think, we will heave pretty good cucumber crop.  Despite late frost, they are producing and producing well.  I am pretty excited about this as this is first time I managed to get to this point.
Almost forgot, after rain, things started to show and there is a bit of optimism related to garden and yard.  Spend some time on Sunday aerating lawn in anticipation of more rain, though, rain did not materialize.  We might have  thunderstorm today and hopefully this will help.  Grass looks not too bad but still showing sign of distress (yellow patches).  Bad news, couple of plum trees might not survive as late frost weakened them and they look pretty dead.  I will give them chance and keep them till at least next spring, but little hope they will survive.
That is the nature of growing things at high elevation and possibility of killer frost in June.

Rain

What can I say, prayer were heard, it is raining and ground is wet. Nothing to add, very happyalongwith my grass that started to show a bit of green out of that happiness.

Euro Soccer (football)

I forgot to mention, due to recent tournament, I might re-focus on soccer(football) for a little while.  Great soccer games, unfortunately mostly played early so I do record and watch them in the evening.  Yesterday highlights, Russia is out, Welsh players have eliminated Russians and are moving up.  So far, not too many surprises (perhaps should mention Albania great showing, big surprise here), Lame Portugal, really Ronaldo was , lets say boring and useless.  It looks like most of the star players don not shine during early stages of the games.  All I can say, game are pretty decent, good level and great entertainment.

Weekend work

So this weekend I have decided to tend to my tomato plants inside of the large tunnel.  Rather than leaving them with limited support cages, I installed strings for supporting growth of the plants upwards.  Got a hint from my sister who is rather accomplished gardener in Europe.  In fact I visited her last week and was amazed at her garden, but she has it easy given the elevation of +- 250m above see level.  She is about month ahead of my garden, as her tomatoes outside have already fruit the size of small apples.
Anyway, we did remove some "suckers" and  bottom branches on plans that have flowers and hopefully this will spur faster growth and fruit development.
Yard is in terrible shape due to lack of moisture. We had rainfall Saturday night and in all only got 2.09 mm according to my weather station gauges. That is nothing.  It was also exceptionally windy whole weekend and that result is further loss of moisture.  Grass look terrible and desperately waiting for any type of rain, forecast call for 60% chance tomorrow, hope this will materialize.  All we can do is hope now.  This year el Nino deprived  our location of rain and usually, June is the wettest month here.
Will keep my fingers crossed for rain.
My Already distressed plum trees were infested with aphids, so had to spray them with insecticide soap hoping that this will remove that infestation.  Will have to repeat this treatment few time over next few day to ensure success.  They do not look well, these trees partially due to lack of moisture, as they are unfortunately outside of sprinkler reach so I need to start manually watering them.
So it was busy weekend in the garden but also, due to father's day, busy doing things with my kids, including them working on garden chores.

Unwanted visitor

I discovered trespasser on the property in form of Northern Pocket Gopher.  I started to burrow  around some tree and brushes, I since I planted some apple trees last year and this year, I did not wanted to take chances that they may die as a result of the activity.  I decided to place special trap to try to get it.  First attempt did not work as it continue to dig more mounds and many holes appeared around the trees.  I could not determine which corridor was primary one and after investigating (flattening all the mounds) I discovered one that was rebuilt next morning.  I set the trap and nothing was cut in it.  It was time for the next step, flooding.  Got my garden hose and my trusty German shepherd to assist me in case it will come out suddenly, we embarked on eviction via flood.  I stuck the garden hose into the corridor that looked fresh and about 4' of hose went into it (I did attempt into multiple holes before that) around the water for about 20 minutes and ... finally give up  and walked away, but not before setting trap on that corridor.
This morning wanted to check if there was any activity in the area, so went to check and it seem like nothing has happened, until I looked at the trap and yes, in it was culprit.  Sad but unfortunately, that is what happens to trespassers (unwanted).  I am happy as the new tress were in real danger due to proximity to burrows.  I hope this was the only one (in general they are solitary like moles), but will monitor the situation.  Last year my neighbor has real infestation and he trapped eight of these creatures.