Seasonal: the low-down on Wyoming weather.

Sorry for the long delay in posts. Lilly is doing okay. She is still throwing up evven though we have located a couple of legume allergies and are avoiding those. We are still struggling to keep food down and keep her hydration level up and weight up. She is doing better however and the vomiting is less frequent.

I had a request to tell about the climate here in Wyoming. Specifically Converse, Carbon, Albany, and Natrona counties. I'm going to list facts first then will give personal experiences and opinions.

Converse County(Douglas):

Average Max. Temperature (F)													60.3
Average Min. Temperature (F)													32.0
Average Total Precipitation (in.)													14.18
Average Total SnowFall (in.)													51.9
Average Snow Depth (in.)													0

Albany county (Laramie) :

Average Max. Temperature (F)													53.9
Average Min. Temperature (F)													30.4
Average Total Precipitation (in.)													11.53
Average Total SnowFall (in.)													49.8
Average Snow Depth (in.)													0

Natrona County (Casper):

Average Max. Temperature (F)													58.9
Average Min. Temperature (F)													32.1
Average Total Precipitation (in.)													11.89
Average Total SnowFall (in.)													77.5
Average Snow Depth (in.)													0

Carbon County (Rawlins):

Average Max. Temperature (F)													55.2
Average Min. Temperature (F)													30.3
Average Total Precipitation (in.)													9.05
Average Total SnowFall (in.)													51.9
Average Snow Depth (in.)													1

I couldn't find any information on how many days of sun we have per year. Days of wind however was easy...364 (yes that's a joke). We do have at least some wind almost every day though. It's a very rare day when you walk outside and absolutely everything is still and quiet. You end up just standing there in awe, listening.

What they don't tell you about the snow depth is that the snow will be non existent in some areas and eight feet high in others because of the wind.

Michael, you asked about well depths...it really varies here. Ours is 100 feet deep and has two water tables draining into it since they hit water at 30 feet but kept going. Behind our pasture on the other side of the bluff (2 miles away) there's a property that has been for sale for years. Someone will buy it, try to dig a well, and put it back on the market. They've gone down as far as 1000 feet I believe and still have no water on that place.

Bugs - hmmm good question....grasshoppers, beetles, some caterpillars (tomato eating kind), lots of flies. We aren't overrun with bugs at all but it's still enough of a problem with my garden that I bought some guineas this week to raise in my garden. By the time they're big enough to be out from under the heat lamp I should have an ark built for them on one end of the garden. They'll be free range since the garden fence wont be able to hold them, but I'm hoping that with them being fed and watered in the garden, having a house there, and having lots of bugs and weeds to eat that they will stay close to it.

Snakes- shudder....we have mostly bull snakes and rattlers here. I never see the bull snakes except on the roads occasionally. We live in a high rattler area though since we have tons of rocks and a nice high hill covered in boulder and rocks, lots of mice, etc. Still, we only saw two rattlers by our house last year. (several more on the road) We are hoping that this year (our second at this location) will be better.

Finally, gardening...fairly easy: don't plant before the end of May outside, hope it doesn't snow and get cold enough to bother them during summer. plan for a short growing season. Occasionally the frosts will hold off until end of October but don't plan on it. Have the garden ready well in advance and plant as early as possible. Lots of people around here use hot caps or plastic milk jugs over the plants for quite awhile. I just got a book called Gardening in Wyoming. I'm hoping to learn a lot from it. There's an awful lot of things that just dont grow here. I even searched craigslist and found a glass shower door, I have plans to turn that into a miniature greenhouse and grow my peppers and possibly tomatos under it. Our soil doesn't help either. Past about a foot down most of wyoming has nothing but sand or clay. Therefore, it either tends to drain away too quickly or not at all. I ended up losing half my potatoes that I planted last year because they were too close to the surface so that they wouldn't grow mold and rot in the clay and I got sun spots instead. I'm fixing that this year by planting them in old tractor tires in dirt I haul in. We're planning on making a lot of compost, getting cow manure from my father-in-law, using our goats manure, and spreading the topsoil that came from where the house is in the garden. Hopefully soon we can get that done and have some nice soil to plant in. This year it will be a rush to get anything done and I may not have a full garden or a good garden this year. I'm hoping to at least get some flower gardens started as well as an herb garden and some vegetables. I ordered a whole lot that Im not sure how well will do in the unimproved soil here.

I think I've rambled enough...any questions I missed or anything else you want to know let me know.