Well, at least SOMEbody got rain! by SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Spoke with sis last night, she is mightily fed up with winter. I sure wish we could average out her snow and cold with our hot and dry. I wouldn't mind sending her a warm spell or two if she could just send us a couple of rainy/snowy cold fronts.

Glad to hear the rest of you are getting rain!

BTW- about those bees .... they are making off with about a quart of sugar-water a week. That's a lot of sugar water! That's why I'm thinking that somebody has a huge hive in their backyard... or, given the number of untenanted McMansions in the area, in their wall. I would surely love to find out where all those bees are living.

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Sunday, February 15, 2015 9:09 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

And the SouthEast is getting SNOW !!!!

Well, a bit, at least. For a day.

Folks in New England would be laughing, if they could feel their faces.

Dang weather is gonna pass to our north. Nothing here but freezing rain and a bit of sleet. Maybe some flurries.

Stupid non winter storm.

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Saturday, March 21, 2015 2:10 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Well.

Another year of basically no rain.

Most Californians are used to a couple of years of relative drought, and then a reprieve. THIS pattern is brutal. We've not only been at record lows for snowfall for the past couple of years, we've been at the tag-end of rainfall too.

For lessons, I went to the Australian Millennial drought.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_Australian_drought

What I read in National Geographic, as the Murray River went dry and stayed dry for years ... it was ugly. Citrus growers against olives against vineyards. Sheepherders against winter wheat. Farmers against cities. In the end, most farmers went bust. The cities instituted 5-minute showers, strict yard-irrigation limitations, started planning and building desalination plants. If you need water, you need water!

Overall, the Australian drought lasted 14 years. The CA drought has lasted less than four, but it COULD last more than 30.

The Texas drought. Most Texans "prayed for rain". (Yeah, THAT'LL help!) Not only have beef prices risen as Texans got out of the ranching business, but the ecology .... the oaks, the deer, the salamanders ... took a seemingly permanent beating.

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Saturday, March 21, 2015 7:03 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Yes, it did get ugly. Basically got to water wars, and a few more years it probably would have been that. The government put in a whole lot of measures to alleviate drought measures but of course the drought broke, and they were lambasted for being wasteful - like we'll never been in drought again.

The end of the decade long drought brought the shocking fires of 2009. I was on another board then, but faced threats to my own community and had to evacuate several times. I don't know what would have happened if the drought had not broken the year after as it was a real crisis, with whole areas being unhabitable and unfarmable. It will happen again, but I doubt we've learnt from experience.

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Saturday, April 18, 2015 12:57 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I saw a letter to the editor which references your drought. I hope it wakes some people up. I intend to pursue this with my City Council.

In the meantime- no rain, but a lot less front lawn. I had the lawn torn out before I decided what to put in its place, but here is a list (with pictures) of plants which I intend to put in

Island Oak (quercus tomentells), about 50' tall. To replace the silver maple which we had to take down due to heart rot. This will shade the front of the house and yard in the AM.

Ray Hartman ceanothus, about 15' tall. Since it can be pruned as a standard, I assume I can prune it to a multi-trunked small tree.

Bush anemone, about 6' tall - between the front windows as a "foundation planting"

Penstemon spectabilis

Golden yarrow (not a true yarrow, people just call it that)

Big pod ceanothus, about 6'. This is for the garden area which gets more water (because of the avocadoes, which I'm trying to keep going). It's to hid the wall between us and our neighbors.

Ceanothus arboreus, for the xeric area in back

Sedum

I'll figure out the rest later!

Anyway. I decided to plant the veggie garden last weekend, but realized that our climbing roses were leaning too far over to be able to access part of the garden, partly because our neighbor's grape vines were growing over them and weighing them down, partly because one of the stakes holding up the roses had fallen over, and partly because they hadn't been pruned in, like, forever.

So, with leather gloves and pruner in-hand, I pruned up a lot of stuff. Yanno, I like those roses. They were put in by the previous owner, they're an old strain called "Joseph's Coat" (many colors: rose, yellow, orange and everything in-between) but those frigging roses mean business with their thorns! There is not 1/8" between them, they're everywhere, and I got hooked time and time again.

THIS week, finally, I planted the veggie garden: tomatoes, basil, zucchini, peppers, eggplant. Last year was a bust, except for the corn. Almost everything failed; I think it was mites. THIS year, I have Neem oil. Maybe that will do the trick!

Next weekend, I intend to go to my sis's house and get some privet cuttings- she has a beautiful variety that I have seen nowhere else, with large, very adrk green leaves with an "eggshell" sheen, and then go to a stoneyard nearby and get some decorative (cast) "boulders" for the front and back xeric areas. The weekend after that, I hope to get to Escondido native plant nursery to pick up my selections! YAY!

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Saturday, April 18, 2015 1:18 PM

Here we've had a wet snowy winter, it rained here yesterday. If you want you can move here to down state NY and get your car washed...and take a bath. I'll take you out to lunch and we'll drink water.

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Saturday, April 18, 2015 4:07 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

I was surprised - as much snow as the upper midwest and northeast got, they're experiencing dry and drought conditions. Perhaps the snow was drier, which it is when it's colder.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Saturday, April 18, 2015 7:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
I was surprised - as much snow as the upper midwest and northeast got, they're experiencing dry and drought conditions. Perhaps the snow was drier, which it is when it's colder.

Come here, we have water I will buy you lunch...and water. It's kind of a "Mad Max" thing but with water.

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Saturday, April 18, 2015 8:02 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

"down state New York" in, near NYC?

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Saturday, May 9, 2015 7:34 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

One of the thing I learned about looking at the drought monitor for many years is that SOME part of the USA is under drought at any one time. Five years ago, it was Texas. In fact, TX a few years ago looked like CA today: the victim of a historic, multi-year drought. You can thank that drought for beef prices doubling over the last few years, and in the future you can thank the CA drought for vegetable price increases. A few years before that, it was NV and AZ. Next year, it may be MN or AL.

The ecology gets nailed. In TX, so many oak and mesquite trees, deer and fish died, that even though the rains have come back, the diversity hasn't.

Anyway, we got a late and unexpected 0.2" of rain last evening. Not enough to break the drought, but when you're adding up your water to five or six inches, even 0.2" means a lot! I can turn off my sprinklers ... which I've already cut back on by digging out my front lawn. Much is being made of the drought locally. People are becoming aware. But all of this awareness won't be enough unless we get a lot more rain this coming winter!

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Thursday, May 14, 2015 6:10 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Maybe the old shrew claimed she got rain.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3077917/Red-faced-Barbra-Strei
sand-cut-water-usage-pictures-emerge-lush-gardens-amid-California-drought.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

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Friday, May 15, 2015 5:47 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Another late rain, this time 0.75". Again, not enough to break the drought, but enough to keep the sprinklers off for another week.

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Friday, May 15, 2015 6:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Another late rain, this time 0.75". Again, not enough to break the drought, but enough to keep the sprinklers off for another week.

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

Thanks for the update, (I could care less) I hope things get better. (I hope all your plants die) It's going to rain here this weekend, (In your face) they're talking about thunderstorms. I hope things get better there, (I hope you resort to sucking the blood from your pets) take care.

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Friday, May 15, 2015 8:57 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
One of the thing I learned about looking at the drought monitor for many years is that SOME part of the USA is under drought at any one time. Five years ago, it was Texas. In fact, TX a few years ago looked like CA today: the victim of a historic, multi-year drought. You can thank that drought for beef prices doubling over the last few years, and in the future you can thank the CA drought for vegetable price increases. A few years before that, it was NV and AZ. Next year, it may be MN or AL.

The ecology gets nailed. In TX, so many oak and mesquite trees, deer and fish died, that even though the rains have come back, the diversity hasn't.

Anyway, we got a late and unexpected 0.2" of rain last evening. Not enough to break the drought, but when you're adding up your water to five or six inches, even 0.2" means a lot! I can turn off my sprinklers ... which I've already cut back on by digging out my front lawn. Much is being made of the drought locally. People are becoming aware. But all of this awareness won't be enough unless we get a lot more rain this coming winter!

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

Same here, even more so because we are so much a drier country than the US. But the patterns of drought seem to swing between coasts, and I don't know whether el nino and la nina ever quite explain it.

We got to stage 3a water restrictions in the noughties, no lawn watering at all, no sprinklers, garden watering by hand only on specific nights, no filling of pools and spas with drinking water. Personally I think you live in a dry area, watering lawns is a bit of a crime and something I never do. I'm afraid I have a garden filled with plants that only survive if they are hardy enough. Sometimes the place looks shitty, but things do survive. The only things I hand watered were my vegie patch, elm trees and I've got some 100 + year old tree ferns that I would hate to see die.

Anyway, its soggy as all hell out there now, so droughts not currently a worry.

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Tuesday, May 19, 2015 11:23 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Well, I got my water bill yesterday. (Ours come very two months).

My previous average water usage was about 21 centi-cubic feet per month. Because winter was so hot and dry, I was watering on a regular schedule- once per week.

After ripping out about 400 sq feet of lawn in the back yard, and ripping out about 1000 sq feet of lawn in the front yard, my water usage dropped to 8 centi-cubic feet - almost a third of what I was using before. Our family's average per-person water usage dropped from TWICE the average of our city to one-half.

I still need to plant the xeric plants; right now my front yard is just mulch, but I've been so busy doing other things. I DID buy a couple of fake rocks, they look quite nice, but I'm not going to put the plants in until the grading is the way I want, and it's not quite there yet.

In the meantime, I'm trying to learn how to cast concrete pavers. I made a frame for on of my molds, and I learned:

I can't saw straight.
I can't nail straight.
I suck at measuring.

But the frame fits the mold, so I'll be able to make the pavers a bit thicker.

Before I do anything fancy, though, I decided I better try casting my first paver. And I learned

The mixing bit doesn't fit the drill.
So I had to mix the concrete by hand.
Mixing by hand ... is tough!. It would have been better to mix the dry ingredients first.
The (liquid) color didn't mix in evenly because... mixing by hand is tough! It would be far better to mix the color into the water, THEN add the water to the concrete mix.
It takes a whole lot more concrete to fill a paver than I thought!
What do I do with the waste concrete?
I had to vibrate and vibrate the mold to get out all of the air bubbles.

But, I did try one fancy thing and will be interested to see how it works out: I made a light brown concrete, but sprinkled some green colorant in streaks into the mold to see if it will speckled the surface of the paver attractively, like a real rock.

But if I'm going to do this enough to make a lot of pavers, I'm going to have to solve all of these problems. (Puts on thinking cap.)

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Tuesday, May 19, 2015 11:53 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

I've seen it mixed for stepping stones and small sidewalk sections in a wheelbarrow. Dry ingredients first, measured in proportion by the shovel-full with a (pointed) shovel into the wheelbarrow (so many shovels-full each sand, cement, aggregate), then dry-mixed in the wheelbarrow with the shovel. Add water - or in your case, colored water. Mix it in the wheelbarrow. Like making pancakes, dry ingredients first, then wet. When I helped put up a block wall, I was told the drier mix is stronger and what we used was quite stiff, but in your case you need to fill in a form so it needs to move more. Add to the mold by the (pointed) shovel-full, striking down with the shovel and jiggling it around as you go, to work out the air pockets. Since the mold bottom is your finished up-side, you should probably be most careful right at the start to ensure a good, void-free surface. If you have an estimate as to how many concrete shovel-fulls will go in the mold, you have an estimate of how many total dry shovel-fulls to use, and proportioning it out, of each individual ingredient to use. Extra wet concrete gets trashed. When it comes to cleaning off your equipment - wash, wash, wash, wash with water down the sewer. You don't want any poor critters to walk through the residue (it's somewhat caustic) or try to drink it.

That's what I've seen and been told.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2015 1:46 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Thank you.

So many little things got in the way of doing it right:

I wanted to mix the dry ingredients (in my case, mortar mix and cement) but started to do it inside because I was going to use the mixing blade with a heavy-duty drill.

But there was so much dust coming off the dry mix, and I couldn't find any decent dust masks. I didn't want a lungful of cement. But next time: outside, and with a dust mask.

Not TOO concerned with splotchy color, as I want it to look like rock.

Anyway, I'll get to unmold the paver tomorrow; interested to see the results.

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2015 3:28 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Brenda

Does Canada have a drought monitor website similar to the USDA one?

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Wednesday, May 20, 2015 3:36 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Oh, I found one for North America.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2015 4:26 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

In case anyone is interested, here's a link where you can access drought maps (provided by different organizations) for different areas of the globe (not all regions are available):

http://www.drought.gov/gdm/content/regional-drought

NIDIS is The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).
https://www.drought.gov/drought/content/what-nidis/trackback

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Friday, July 31, 2015 11:55 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Weird weather. Lots of "monsoonal" flow .... hot and humid, coming from the south and east. (Usually our weather comes from the west.)

Western San Diego county (a few counties south of ours) had an inch of rain a couple of weeks ago from the remnants of tropical storm Dolores. More rain in one July day than all previous recorded Julys put together. We got third of an inch out of the deal, and in Indio (in the desert counties to the east) a bridge of a major interstate highway was washed out.

Yesterday and today, more monsoonal air flow. Not much rain here, but the deserts and mountains got a fair bit of thunderstorm activity. This weather pattern is looking more like Arizona and Nevada. It's weather that CA natives are NOT adapted to. Hot and dry, they're OK with. Hot and humid: not so much. But I have a few AZ/NV natives in the garden (sundrops, germander sage) and they're just loving this weather.

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FLY MY PRETTIES! FLY! FLY!

See, I really AM a witch, just like some of you think!

Actually, I just released the last of the "good bugs". As you might recall, I have two avocados that were here when we moved in. They're 60+ years old. Last year, they got nailed by a strange malady. By the time I figured out they were stressed, there was too much damage to the leaves to figure out what had really started the decline, but with a great deal of internet sleuthing I narrowed down the possible culprits to persea mites, two-spotted mites, too much boron, and a couple of other possibilities.

At that point, I became very religious abut watering grandma and grandpa avocado, and got to mid-July patting myself on the back for how well they were doing when I looked up at sunlight shining thru the leavers and I went UH-OH. I could see small dead spots on the leaves near the veins. I asked my (tall) hubby to pluck a few leaves, and looking closely at their undersides I saw small round silvery-shiny webbed spots, characteristic of persea mite. The clincher was when I tapped the leaves sharply against a piece of white paper and dislodged a few of the microscopic insects, which ran around on the paper.

What to do???

The trees are way too tall to "power-wash" or to spray with insecticide. Again, with further internet sleuthing, I found that predatory mites, lacewing larvae, and (maybe) a beetle called stethorus punctillum were useful against persea mite, so I ordered them all, and released the last of them this AM. Not too sure about the lacewing larvae, they arrived with high mortality, plus they seem to require careful placement (hard to do on a 40' tree!) but I did my best. I hope it works!

Rest of the garden is doing much better than last year, I've harvested some eggplant (that's why I made caponata), tomatoes, peppers, and basil. Curiously, "no fail" zucchini... failed. Not even flowers. Not sure of the problem, needs some investigation!

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I've had a great deal of pleasure watching the various species of birds and butterflies visiting my humble backyard! Juncos, yellow warblers, mockingbirds, crows, goldfinches.

I've tempted hummingbirds and orioles with the hummingbird feeders. And since our rescued English sparrow died (at a ripe old age) I've been tossing out the leftover seed, and tempted in mourning doves and English sparrows. So nice to see all those birds!

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Friday, July 31, 2015 3:22 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
"down state New York" in, near NYC?

About 20 miles from the city...WHERE THERE'S WATER!!

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Friday, July 31, 2015 3:31 PM

Last night we had thunderstorms, then the sky's cleared and full blue moon came out, have all of you in California resorted to cannibalism yet? Are you washing your cars with the blood of your victim's?

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Friday, July 31, 2015 3:43 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Despite a reported deluge of rain, California's priority is to channel more than half of it's fresh rainwater directly into the saltwater ocean.

I almost feel sorry for them. not.

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Monday, August 31, 2015 1:03 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

The summer heatwaves arrived. In consideration of all of the birds and little critters, I put out a large (18") cachepot of water on the ground, and got a real birdbath. Also, am putting out the birdseed from our bird who passed away, so between the hummingbird feeders and the birdbath and the seed, this should be a good yard for little animals.

I think that may backyard qualifies now to be a certified wildlife habitat. I'm going to check it out!

http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Create-a-Habitat.as
px

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2015 10:48 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

We're having an indian summer here in NWI.....

Last few weeks have been very comfortable in my house without any A/C. Yesterday and today were hot and humid as hell. At least Season 4 of Once Upon a Time is on Netflix now.

Anybody else notice how many women from LOST they put on that show? I can't think of a single guy from LOST that has been on it yet though.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 1, 2015 10:58 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Rain for the end of August but it fits as a local fair has started and will run through Labour Day which is next Monday. Leaves already turning colour on the trees. So much for an Indian Summer.

I'll trade you OUR Indian Summer for YOUR Indian Summer! Even better, I'll trade you our Indian Summer for your rain!!!!

Dear Lady, please be kind to us, although we've fucked you over pretty thoroughly.

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Wednesday, September 2, 2015 1:55 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Interesting. We don't get much wind here in the LA basin. It's either an ocean breeze ... we're enough miles inland that it dies out by the time it gets here ... or the Santa Anas from the desert ... but we're far enough away from the canyons and passes so the wind fans out and dies down by the time it gets here. And, LA is not noted for storm fronts!

There's a joke that goes ...Did you hear about the LA weatherman who took a vacation for three weeks in August, and nobody noticed?

So all of the trees here are pretty weak-wooded. No natural pruning. The roofs aren't built for wind. A wind of about 45 mph would wreak havoc around here!

OTOH, we DO have the occasional earthquake. I just felt one a few days ago, but it was very small. A friendly reminder from Mother Earth that she's boss.

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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2015 8:03 AM