Good for you!! :)
anyone know a rain dance??
It rained here last night and a few drops today. Not enough, I hope Alberto keeps churning our way.
Eufaula, did anyone reply to your question about a beetle remedy? I use the block hammer method for all pest big enough to pick up. I put them on a block and hit them with a hammer! Sharon
This message was edited Jun 13, 2006 4:52 PM
Alberto gave us no rain at all...... :(
I am afraid I am losing lots of plants this year. I just can't take the chance of watering every other day or so, with us being on a well. It breaks my heart to see my trees and flowers suffering but what can you do? I am praying God will have mercy on us and send rain.
The Mayans used to sacrifice young children, virgins, and prisoners for rain (I think that is one of the stories). I don't think it helped them but you never know.
Rain dance worked for me, almost prefect rain. About 3 hours of light rain to loosen up the soil and then a steady rain for the rest of the day. Sweet, about 4 inches in all.
My river birch look very happy.
You know you're in a drought when the following tough as nails plants start being severely affected:
ivy
sedum
Rose of Sharon
Forsythia
oak trees
Speaking of ivy look at this. Have you ever heard of someone watering it? Well that just what I did tonight. In fact, I've watered it 3 times in the last few days. It is DYING!!
This message was edited Jun 20, 2006 8:50 PM
close-up....
When Ivy dies... that IS sad!!
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0620water.html
Did yall know that the US Army Corps of Engineers "accidentally" released 22 billion gallons of water on top of what they already had to release for the 10 endangered sturgeon in FL?? This baffles the mind as to how they could make such a HUGE mistake.. They said it was a faulty gauge and the folks living up at the lake kept calling them and saying that something was wrong.. it was way under what they were saying it was and those people were right and the corps finally figured it out after the lake was almost emptied! I was on Lake Lanier this past weekend and I took a wave runner into some coves. It was so sad... Some folks had sailboats and pontoon boats up in the dirt and the docks were dry as well. I saw another couple rolling their dock down further to stay in the water. After the lake gets beyond a certain level, it is dangerous for boats to go out and some boat ramps have to close... Look at the picture in the AJC... thats what it looks like all over... Those poor folks on the north end must really have it bad.... I only saw the south side of the lake.
Forsyth county had that total watering ban and then some of the residents complained that they would stop watering when the county stopped allowing 200 new home permits to be given out each week. They are now with the rest of the state with water restrictions (of course!)
I just can't feel guilty about keeping my little plot of treasure alive when some clowns can't look at the lake at tell it's gone DOWN considerably. The guy in charge said the gauge had been right for 50 years... So I wonder how long it takes him to figure out the time if his clock stops working.....
Sorry if I sound a little grouchy!!!! thanks for letting me get it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Susan
Yeah, I've been hearing a lot about the lake fiasco lately. It is really such a sad waste of precious water.
Don't even get me started about the fish!
Whew, some people are so used to modern technology ... they can't even think on their own anymore. Went to WM the other day and the person in front of me was buying a little bit of Milstone coffee. Couldn't have been 1/2 lb. The scales were weighing it and charging the poor dear $9. The lady kept telling the cashier there was something wrong but she kept telling her that she wasn't weighing it ... it was automatically done by the scales. H e l l o!!! Maybe your scales are wrong??? And maybe when a lake goes dry someone needs to look into it and figure out what's wrong?
How true.... But wouldn't we expect a little more from a group of folks that have the name "engineers" ...??!! Seriously, thats a sad case of book smarts with no common sense whatsoever.. They said they kept looking at the gauge... and it had been right for 50 years... had they ever looked at the lake? I mean, after a while, don't they get a feel for the level??
Sorry... I'm still not over it the next morning either!!!!!
For those of you not in the area.... For ALL of us in the Atlanta metro area, our water comes from Lake Lanier. If their is no rain and the lake continues to go down it could create a really bad scenerio for all of us.
Susan
That's it I had it, I might as well move to yuma arizona! Or ill just start planting cactuses in my flower bed and replace the darn pinestraw with tumbleweed and stones. I think ill also make plans to keep my dirt yard the same and decorate it with cow head skeletons.
The plants and trees are so weak and brittle right know that we better hope that a hurricane doesn't hit soon or there will be a lot of forest destruction.
If you plant cacti this year, it will probably flood next year which will probably rot the cacti. I have some prickly pear and yuccas planted but I put them on high ground so they won't get waterlogged (when it does flood again as it has done in the past).
At some point we may just have to throw in the towel and hope for a better summer next year. I have a feeling a total water ban will be coming soon.
We can't control the weather so just try to make the best of it.
Okay ... here's my soapbox. They have a water band but allow scheduled burning. All day last Saturday the fire department ran continuously. Please tell me how this can possibly make sence? When it's this dry, you can't have controlled burning. Sorry if I'm stepping on toes, but I think it's putting people's lives at risk unnecessarily.
There shouldn't be any burning at all at least until this drought is over. The fire department would be stretched thin by the drought if they had to use water to put out a controlled burn fire and then have no or little water left to put out a burning house. But I'm sure that a watering ban would leave enough for the fire department to do their job.
In Cobb County or maybe it is the entire metro area, outdoor burning is banned during the summer starting on May 1st if I remember right. Personally I don't think they should have any burning - compost it instead. I hate it in the fall with all the leaf burning - why have auto emissions testing if burning is okay? But then emissions testing is rigged anyway.
http://www.ajc.com/dekalb/content/metro/dekalb/stories/0622metdkwater.html
DeKalb bans all outdoor water use
lovely
Susan
What?!?!
Do I just let all my seedlings die???
Water usage "ban" for dekalb county begins at 12 am on June 22. You can water this evening ONLY if you are supposed to be watering on this date. 30 day transplants are exempt.
Note that the Federal Gov't has different guidelines for water bans. They exempt food gardens. Apparently the federal law overrides state and local law. I don't know if I'd want to risk it.
I'm filling up every bucket etc. I have today to water outdoor containers in the next few days.
I suggest you try catching your air conditioning water. I'm going to try it!
GGG
Good idea GGG!!!
I hadn't noticed that Elaine.
I wonder if Gwinnett has the same ban. Going to find out.
Elaine!! your too funny!! I'm laughing about it!! :) Laughing at how silly it all is...........releasing all this water and making us go without! :)
I had a dream last night that I went to the river with gallon jugs and filled up the back of the pick up with water and brought it home...
Seriously though, I though about it on the way to my kids swim class today and I came to realize that in some countries, a drought like this would mean extreme hardship and that some people would not drink or eat and I began to realize that even if I get a ticket for being a criminal outlaw gardening rebel, or some of my things don't make it, well at least we have water to drink and no one in my family will seriously suffer for the drought... I know there are widespread implications of not having water for this time and I'm not trying to minimize that, I'm just trying to get a grip and realize that life will go on and it will rain again... But I guess it's just fun for me to be mad at someone like the Corps and such for the lack of water.. :) or :( depending on how you see it!!!!!!!!
Susan
we have had so little rain here on the island for the last four months (even a downpour from alberto left the ground powder dry a day later) i was spending most of my time watering to keep plants from collapsing. i decided to install a new pumping system on an abandoned deep well on my property and put in an irrigation system connected to well. everything is looking so relieved. i will be xeriscaping from now on. dooley worth, saint simons island, ga
Dooley.. great idea.. I have already asked my husband about digging a well and he didn't jump up and down about the idea, but maybe I'll keep working on it..
Does anyone have any information they could lead me to about how one goes about finding water on the property and having a well dug?? Thanks
Susan
Susan, I know I can not dig a well on my own property because the city is really weird about their water conservation "laws". However, we are putting in a cistern. This first one will be fairly small. basically it's built like a swimming pool but this one will be round and not very wide.
We can't put a new stairwell in our house since our basement is not up to city codes (ceiling too low). But we could have a new stairwell in a seperate but ajoined building, so that is what we are doing. The roof will be a modern aluminum butterfly shape, and a rain chain will carry water into a small, shallow pond for water plants, and then there will be a run-off valve for overflow into a nearby cistern.
We'd eventually like a larger cistern too, fed by a dry creek which will carry all the water from our neighbours properties (which floods everything) into storage. Free water. Previously unwanted free water!
GGG
When my inlaws lived in St. Thomas, they had a cistern and that is where all their house water came from. In the 7 years they lived there, they only had to call to get the tank filled once.. My husband and I have already discussed how if we were to ever build again, (and I plan on keeping this home forever) we would have huge underground water tanks dug and installed around the property first thing.
Yesterday, I was talking to the woman at my favorite garden center and she commented that during the last serious drought, they cut her home condensation lines to their AC and directed in into buckets and she got 10 gallons a day.. She said that when they took showers they trapped al the water and put it in a bucket and used that too. Necessity is the mother of invention!
Susan
i wish we could have wells but its a big old task here to get one done.
i am planning on getting buckets and setting them out so when it rains i will have a little spare water. its just so hard when you pay for water and then rstrictions are added .
last night on the news it said if we go like we are gouing we will be about 33 percent above average by the end of the season due to the hurricanes . how i dont see it i was almost passed by by the last one we had.
There were t-storms and rain all around us last evening just before dark. We were right on the edge of it all and got no rain. I was outside watering and did enjoy the cooler temps and the strong breezes. Am glad someone got some rain!
Here in Woodstock it sprinkled yesterday but only for a few minutes. We are not allowed to water outdoors at all (execpt for food plants) and so we are saving gray water. I find I can count on a good 5-10 gallons from the kitchen per day which is enough to do all my potted plants and other select shrubs and what not that need the water. I've just got to keep track of what needs it on a particular day. Hubby is currently trying to figure out a better way of "catching" the water and getting it out to the yard. We're definitely going to look into a rainbarrel.
Good news: fewer mosquitos this early summer.
Yes, less mosquitoes here for sure!!
Thundering and strong breezes here right now and weather radar shows bands "headed" this way... I hope so!!
Susan
Ya'll must have all been doin the rain dance yesterday evening......we finally got rain!!!! About a good hours worth around 7:30pm.
good for you7 but nothing here as usual. a few thunders in the far distance but thats it.
We had a few drops is all.... I looked at the weather radar screen after it passed and couldn't believe it looked so big on screen but the skinny thin part passed over my home.. Oh well.. I can water today and I will. I'm glad some of yall got some rain ! :)
:)
Susan
Lol this is starting to become like a rain lottery. Put a bunch of town names in a basket and what's pulled out is who gets the rain. Mothert nature is teasing georgia andf laughing!