What has the drought we are having taught you?

[longbow]

Just asking......

Sadly, we are one stupid event with fire or smokes from a serious wildfire in our area.

I'm watching the demand on my well, and make sure we are not using too much water at any one time. I'm debating adding a flow meter in the pump house.

Watering the garden also has been changed so as to not waste water.

We have not had any water supply issues, just not pushing my luck.

 

[bwframe]

Great topic!

I have learned that my $20 water bills can change to $75. If I want tomatoes, cukes and peppers anyway.
I've also learned that weeds and tree sprouts grow just fine where grass will not.

Sad to say, but I think the real learning is yet to come. In the big picture some of the issues with this are not recoverable in the near future, maybe some not at all.

 

[rgrimm01]

We are going to be gutting the bathroom this winter. I have been considering rigging the soil pipe in such a fashion that all of the grey water is run to the yard(to the tree and flower area oasis that is a distance from the house) during above freezing temps. We do not have a well. I am not sure what the effect the detergents and phosphates would have on the trees, flowers and grass. I do not think the run off would be a consideration and not reach any streams. As far as that goes, the phosphates would probably be more apt to reach the stream/river utilizing the provided sewer?

 

[miguel]

Get rain barrels for the garden. Alot of them...

 

[jd4320t]

Get rain barrels for the garden. Alot of them...

What is this you speak of? I'm not familiar.

 

[miguel]

We used to have this stuff that fell from the sky...

 

[88GT]

I've learned that there's a heck of a lot of rain in one rain event. And when you haven't had any for 4 weeks straight, you'll do some out of the ordinary things to collect what you can.

 

[smokingman]

That rain always falls somewhere lol.

50 miles south of our new location in Northern Minnesota.
Photos: Duluth, northeast Minnesota reeling from floods | Minnesota in Photos | Minnesota Public Radio News

So far in the last 30 days we have had just over 11 inches of rain,with 9 inches falling in one 24 hour period.

Our garden is doing well on higher ground as is the house.We live on a river and are very thankful for the 85 feet or so of elevation between us

The high of 84 low of 67 with scattered showers(.25 an inch)was our weather today.Looks like mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid 80s for the rest of the week.Perfect summer weather. You can remind me in January when it is -30 for the high that the summer weather was great lol.

 

[Bruenor]

I'm looking to build some rain barrels to hook to my gutters, as soon as I find a good (i.e. cheap) source of barrels. I'm also looking at making a PVC drip irrigation system for the garden for next year. We didn't have time to put one in this year, so I'm focusing all of my energy on expanding the garden and planning for next year.

The drought, the heat, and the power outages that some have been experiencing has also made me realize that I need to keep more drinking water on hand. Thankfully we have had power expect for a 12 hour period, but if we went longer I'd want more water stored. I only have about five gallons on hand right now.

 

[gunman41mag]

just south of you guys & it's rain almost everyday for the last 5 weeks

 

[williamnewman1]

I've learned be very very careful with your pets (already knew this of course) , i work at a veterinarians office an we are seeing tons and tons of heat stroke animals and other complications. I would even say most of them have nothing to do with negligence. ................ stop and think , you know how hot we have gotten , well throw a sweater on then go back to the garden. then you are getting into what our poor animals are going through.

 

[Justin Case]

Get rain barrels for the garden. Alot of them...

We installed rain barrells last year, but I guess not enough as the two we have are now empty.

 

[Stschil]

I've learned that watering our gardens is costing us about as much as I would have been spending on gas for the tractor to mow the yard and takes just about as much time because we're doing it by hand so as not to waste it on the grass with sprinklers.

We've canned about 30 Qts of beans, and 10 pts of strawberry jam. Tomatoes and peppers are late, but should be picking this week. So watering has been worth it. But I, too, want to set up a drip system for next year.

 

[churchmouse]

This has shown us we need to re-evaluate or water usage. My normal water bill has over doubled due to the garden and empty rain barrels. A friend showed me his simple system made from pex tubing with elbows, tees and a valve here and there to set the flow. He drilled holes in the pex to direct water onto the base of the plants and there is little if any waste. This system is piped off of his rain barrels. Perfect. This is on the list for next year.

 

[03A3]

I would really like to have at least one cistern. Of course more is better. Unfortunately that is a big investment.

 

[longbow]

This has shown us we need to re-evaluate or water usage. My normal water bill has over doubled due to the garden and empty rain barrels. A friend showed me his simple system made from pex tubing with elbows, tees and a valve here and there to set the flow. He drilled holes in the pex to direct water onto the base of the plants and there is little if any waste. This system is piped off of his rain barrels. Perfect. This is on the list for next year.

Water bill? What is that? I just keep a small fund to replace the pump.....

 

[calcot7]

No rain no mosquitoes?

 

[eldirector]

I spent a lot of time this spring adding to our garden's irrigation system. Added a second rain barrel and more line to cover the rest of the garden.

It has been sitting dry for over a month. We've had to run the hose out there to keep the garden going.

I'm one dry well away from a personal SHTF. So, we've looked at conserving better. My wife and I are also prepping for the spike in food prices sure to come. I'll put back anything from the garden that we don't eat immediately (I would usually take some to work to share).

I'm still grumbling about how much I spent on my lawn over the spring. I'll be starting over this fall (assuming we get rain by then). At least I haven't had to cut the grass for over a month.

 

[K_W]

I'm reminded how much I love winter.

 

[churchmouse]

Water bill? What is that? I just keep a small fund to replace the pump.....

I have considered a well here but I would have to be real sneaky about drilling it
and not real sure about the quality of the water.