What did you do in the garden today?

[oldhen2345]

when you pray for your country please pray for the rest of the world as well. nowdays everything is global.

Yes, Where we go one, we go all.

 

[3xhhheather]

Short list for today - ordering more grow bags since I started way too many tomatoes & peppers, transplanting daylilies before they get choked out by the mint I let go wild, and it rained so instead of moving mulch I'm gonna go walk around my favorite garden center.

 

[Birdsonghill]

OK, I'll try to get some pictures this weekend.

Yeah, that guy. He's why we can't have nice things!
Some of those laws are to deter industries that use a lot of water and tend to pollute the water they do use. Some were getting charged for the water they take according to the meter, and it was assumed their outflow was the same as their inflow. So they were collecting as much rainwater as possible, polluting it and sending it into the storm drains, but only paying for the small amount recorded on the meter, severely overtaxing the treatment plant and getting charged nothing for that.
The sensible thing would be to allow households to keep a certain number of barrels for outdoor use, and if you want more than that you should show you're not polluting, like have certain size buffers of trees/vegetation in between you and the storm drain or nearby body of water.

I am not connected to a municipal sewer system as most rural people are not. I had not thought about polluters using collected rain water to pollute and release into the system, or worse, not entering treatment at all. The more than 50 inches of rain we receive annually, makes the rain I collect insignificant. But if we had very little, I, for sure, would collect more to use naturally, rather than buy it out of a public pipeline. Water for your home use, including food production is your right to use. If God made it fall down on your home or chicken coop, it was provided to you for use at your home. I can understand limits to ponds and schemes to trap ground runoff from acreage, especially for industrial, recreational or non residential uses. If the government wants to outlaw the use of the rain that falls on your homes roof and force you to pay them to pipe water to you or buy bottled water, then they are tyrants. Evaporation of rooftop runoff, especially in dry climates, means most of the water that runs off your roof in a dry climate is wasted, for human uses, if not QUICKLY captured and stored in a way to minimize evaporation. Perhaps, people should not be allowed to develop cities in deserts or have huge irrigation projects that use vast quantities of water, in those same regions. I have family and friends living in arid regions. They have survived off of collected rainwater and the expensive deep wells or bottled water, on their homesteads for generations, now. Stop development that exceeds the capacity of local resources, would make better sense!!! If the authorities think that the water from your arid rooftop is going to make it to the irrigation systems of California or other over populated and too little water areas, then they are fools. All of the water from rivers going to irrigate crops/gardens and wash cars in desert cities is unsustainable. Rainwater is fairly clean and if you use it, it does not need miles of pipelines, large pumps and treatment plants. The sooner you collect and use it (and store in tanks to reduce evap.) the more efficient the use of that resource! No power or little required, no miles of pipes, no sucking the rivers down to trickles before they reach their destination. It would make more sense to require rooftop collection for home uses!

 

[Sally PB]

Finally got some rain here. It's chilly, grey day. Other than walking the dog and taking care of the chickens, I might stay inside all day.

 

[WthrLady]

It's not just over settlement in arid areas, it's large areas that suck other areas dry too. LA is a prime example of over settlement in an arid area (most people have no idea of that) that sucks water from several other states. HUGE problem.

I get annoyed when my down hill neighbors water their "lawns" for 16 hours a day, YES 16 hours to water the whole lawn on an irrigation system. What a waste. It comes from their wells so they think it's endless and free. Pay your electric bill, fine, it's your money. But the water isn't endless. When they overuse, it lowers my uphill well taking water from me! I only water the area around the livestock for free-ranging and to help prevent dry fire conditions. Otherwise all my water goes for people and livestock. (my well is already 420 feet deep!)

 

[TJAnonymous]

It's not just over settlement in arid areas, it's large areas that suck other areas dry too. LA is a prime example of over settlement in an arid area (most people have no idea of that) that sucks water from several other states. HUGE problem.

I get annoyed when my down hill neighbors water their "lawns" for 16 hours a day, YES 16 hours to water the whole lawn on an irrigation system. What a waste. It comes from their wells so they think it's endless and free. Pay your electric bill, fine, it's your money. But the water isn't endless. When they overuse, it lowers my uphill well taking water from me! I only water the area around the livestock for free-ranging and to help prevent dry fire conditions. Otherwise all my water goes for people and livestock. (my well is already 420 feet deep!)

That makes me think of San Francisco..... There were towns in rural California that needed to have water brought in via truck. People were literally lining up with buckets and small tanks just so they could do dishes, laundry, and wash their bodies, etc.... Made me think of a 3rd world country. And all this because the reservoirs were dried up due to a prolonged drought....and what water there WAS had been siphoned off to support people in San Francisco. Totally political which makes me angry. I try to stay away from politics but water rights have ALWAYS been a political topic.

 

[Birdsonghill]

Short list for today - ordering more grow bags since I started way too many tomatoes & peppers, transplanting daylilies before they get choked out by the mint I let go wild, and it rained so instead of moving mulch I'm gonna go walk around my favorite garden center.

It seems I never have enough grow bags! Or garden , except at weeding time!

 

[Sueby]

@Wee Farmer Sarah I got the Johnson & Johnson one so no 2nd shot! I felt jittery & nauseated for about an hour but am fine now. Hopefully that's it! How's the new car?

I can't tell you how much I can't wait to go see my parents. I haven't seen them since June & that was from the driveway. I can't wait to hug them both.

 

[Birdsonghill]

It's not just over settlement in arid areas, it's large areas that suck other areas dry too. LA is a prime example of over settlement in an arid area (most people have no idea of that) that sucks water from several other states. HUGE problem.

I get annoyed when my down hill neighbors water their "lawns" for 16 hours a day, YES 16 hours to water the whole lawn on an irrigation system. What a waste. It comes from their wells so they think it's endless and free. Pay your electric bill, fine, it's your money. But the water isn't endless. When they overuse, it lowers my uphill well taking water from me! I only water the area around the livestock for free-ranging and to help prevent dry fire conditions. Otherwise all my water goes for people and livestock. (my well is already 420 feet deep!)

I am experiencing threats to my well supply, because my state /county, does not regulate urban/suburban growth and the wells to supply this very affluent influx. Most of the new homes going in my area, could fully contain my house, barn, shop, chicken coop and sheep sheds, with room left over! Most of these homes have 3 to 4 people living in them at the most. All have large swimming pools, Spa tubs, outdoor kitchens, 3 to 6 car garages, and amazing to me, 6 to 7 bathrooms is common, for the typical 4 to 5 bedroom houses! They all are putting in deep wells(250 to 300 ft.) with maximum pumps and pulling down the water table! 3 acre fully irrigated lawns are typical, as well. Each of these new "well off" home owners are using the water resources of 5 or 6 average rural homes that existed here for the last generation! Even here in an area with abundant water, clean, affordable water is important! Our older wells tend to be about 45 to 70 feet deep. Until recently the water level in the wells was way up and never threatened to get to the bottom. In fact the water table at times is only a few yards down. Now people closer to the new developments are experiencing failing wells in high demand times (summer time)and my well is threatened at only 65 feet deep. Many of us are elderly and not "well off" financially. The cost of new wells is a strain for many or impossible for some! I would like to see these pools and lawn irrigations all fed only by the water they can collect from their home rooftops! I like a lot of these rich young folks. But they are greedy and extravagant with precious resources and do not help pay the cost they defer to others! Now we need more police, more fire fighters, more traffic lights,bigger institutions,higher taxes and for us old residents , new wells! Next municipal water is coming to the area from the nearby city. That will help by stopping new wells. But the big municipal pumps can do the same. (but less danger from possible contamination from excessive well entry points) At some point soon, rural/suburban development must be slowed or stopped! Especially the grossly excessive demands of the wealthy consumer for water and power!

 

[Sally PB]

We got an inch of rain. Now the weeds will pop!