For the Love of Water

                      (Bison at Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area, Cadiz, KY)

--Bison is totally unrelated just a photo from our April vacation. This bison and I had some sort of connection.

Snippets from farm life
--We have gotten .05 inches of rain in the last 2 months.
--Bought 3 lbs of strawberries for $1 a lb yesterday, they are currently in the dehydrator for fruit breads later this year.
--Bee swarm has taken over my mint, which is flowering right now. Must be 100 bees out there. No clue where the hive is, but after reading Pioneer Preppy's posts about his bees, I'm glad they are finding some food.
--Cicada killer bees have taken over the area in front of the barn, all attempts to remove them have failed so far.

--Heat wave is back which temperatures in the triple digits this week. Bear is gearing up for it already by being extremely lazy (sleeping most of the time, in the room with AC) and refusing most food except people food. He does this everytime it gets hot, so I'm not too worried. He is a pain in the keister to get to go outside to potty though. Have to drag him out a intervals. Maybe take him down to the river tonight to swim.

On my bookstand right now..

Research book..

Fiction for night time reading is ..

Ordered the 2nd James Rawles book, Survivors and A Joe Nobody book, Without Rule of Law they will be here sometime next week. This was after going into Barnes and Noble and having them look at me like I'm clueless looking for these books.  Should have known better since they aren't mainstream reading.

Basically just trying to stay cool this week.

Beth

Yuppies and the Drought

Reading the local new sources sometimes causes me to turn the air blue in our home office.

Drought stories are popping up at a greater rate locally and restrictions on watering and burning are being mandated for most towns near me. While we are on well water and don't rely on the town or city to provide water for us, the yuppies believe I should not be watering our food.

They comment on these drought stories with comments like prison terms for those wasting water on their gardens  (in my mind's eye, they are commenting as they drink their Double Lg extra Grande double shot something or other from Starbucks- who draws off the local water well) and sit in their corporate offices who are still watering their lawns (that don't grow food with town water).

Went out and about tonight (paying the insurance) and went by 3 golf courses who were actively watering at the time. I'm growing food for the winter and to put up for tough times. Last winter there were times we would have gone hungry if it hadn't been for my garden, but their 18 hole recreation time is more important!

We only water for an hour a day after dark and even that isn't keeping the veggies alive. I will be lucky if i pull a few melons this year. The pumpkins are baseball size and already turning orange. Corn is knee high and putting out tassels, definitely not a good yield sign. Beans are drying up. Taters are about dead, might be able to pull 20 lbs or so with what was grown earlier this season. Sure, I've harvested a bushel of onions and a nice container of garlic, but that's not going feed me for a year.
Can't tell what the salisfy is doing under the ground but the broccoli has yet to flower.

Meanwhile Mother Nature keeps teasing me. Out with Bear dog this afternoon and could see the storm clouds to the south of us and hear the thunder even. Rushed in to look at the radar. Was a pretty picture..

 But of course it stayed to the south of us and we didn't even see a drop. That will the news that next week we will be seeing triple digit heat again, the news just keeps getting better!

Updates from the Garden

I know I have been doing vacation posts for the last few weeks, so I figured I would catch all of you up on what's happening on the farm.

As of this morning, the weeding is finally done in the main gardens. The heat hampered us alot in getting out and weeding but plugged at it a few hours in the morning a day.
So far it looks like it isn't a totally loss.  The carnival peppers are coming into colors, the jalepenos are there though not abundant. The cherokee beans seem to be loving this weather and the onions are flopping over giving sign they are ready to be pulled and cured.

The potatoes are looking like they will be ready to harvest soon. Think I messed up and got a early variety this year. The amish paste tomatoes are looking amazing. It's hard to believe I grew them from seed this year. Usually I have no luck growing them from seed. The radishes are putting up flowers and I've been saving them for seed along with saving seed from the Egyptian Walking onions and the chives. The salisfy is doing its thing underground (first year for this). The corn is in the same state as the rest of the corn in the state, though I do have a few tassels showing. The dill is thin and hopefully will go to seed and fill out the patch next year and the sunflowers are slowly pushing their way skyward.

The broccoli should have flowers by now but doesn't. The ghost pumpkins (white ones) are very sad with only one bitty one trying to survive. 1 of 4 of the sun and moon watermelons is alive still. 3 of the 4 cantalope (this amazing orange and red striped one) are thriving. The sugar pie pumpkins are taking over the rest of the plot. Looks like a few of the basket gourds and dipper gourds will make it.

This heat wave is supposed to break tonight for us, but of course no rain in sight at least in the 10 day forecast. Hopefully this will allow me to get out more next week and work on harvesting in the herb gardens and getting the dehydrators going. House needs to be finished painting and we have been slowly working on putting tires on the M109 at night. Just changing one of those tires is a chore at 400 lbs a piece.

Of course there is still the wood to split, should have at least a cord when it is all done. Now to get the woodstove! Going to work on my fire pit later in the month, I believe for cooking more outside with the dutch oven and of course dying yarns and fabrics and such.

How Dry it is!

Swiped this from the NOAA site. The closer to red it is the dryer it is. According to NOAA we are at a stage D3 drought. I think its a little off since I believe we are in a localized area that is receiving less rain than most. Storms thru this area seem to divide and go north and south of us.

Places such as where Pioneer Preppy is are in a D2 or D1 drought. Down where MM Paints is is also in that D1 classification.

I have a feeling while certain crops of mine are enjoying the sparse rain, its going to be a failed garden year. Makes you think though.

If TSHTF and you were relying on your garden to put up for the coming winter, water and the means to pump it or carry it at least to your crops would be so important.