Dry & getting drier

[George.com]

It has been 40 days apparently since we have had any meaningful (a couple of mm a week or more ago) rain here. Usually things start to dry out in January but it seems to have started 2-3 weeks early. We also get the odd downpour in January. This year, nothing. The driest January apparently since records started. Typical temperatures 24-27, occasionally maybe a little higher. This year 27 has been normal & quite a days 31. Trees are dropping new growth and I notice even my old established grape vine is starting to brown at the ends. Maybe no grapes for autumn. Luckily we have a sodding big river running through the centre of the city so we won't go dry although we will be constrained by how much water the council is able to pump out. Watering round my place has only been for the vege garden & even then by hand or trickle hose to the roots.

rob

[len gardener]

g'day rob,

might be time to develop some good sustainable water management procedures in and around your home. it always rains sometime and if the tank isn't installed then you won't capture any water, each 1mm of rain that falls onto a 100 ssq/mtr roof collection area is 1,000 litres of water. in from oz and we are going through a solid drought now for over 10 years, had good rains of recent times but although many are fooled that does not mean the end of the drought unfortunately.

first i would suggest installing a substantial capacity rainwater tank or tanks as well as rain drums/barrels at other downpipes.

secondly heavy mulching around gardens and trees will not only conserve moisture it will insulate the root runs from the extremes of temperatures.

third start to think along the lines of using all water that use use more than once ie.,.

1 we use our shower water and some of our laundry water to flush solids only in our toilets by using buckets, don't waste good drinking water flushing urine, mine goes to a bucket then to the gardens & trees.

2 laundry water should go to the gardens or trees we have a good recipe for homemade laundry gel that is garden friendly on our site.

3 use a plastic or similar basin in the kitchen sink (no dishwashers they are resource wastefull) and using an earth friendly detergent that water is great on the gardens, we use less detergent with rainwater. we also only wash our dishes every second day, and any incidental rinse type water gets saved and used on the gardens.

no matter waht all the industry promoted advertising hype about washing machines the best type of machine for water and possibly even power saving is the humble twin tub, almost can't be beaten.

you need to become a water miser.

with the tank we bought we have turned off our town water tap for a lot of months now. and of late with some good rain fall the laundry water and some dish water ahs gone to the sewerage to be recycled for otehrs to drink. though we always use grey water for the toilet.

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:15:31 +1300, "George.com" wrote: snipped With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

-- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand."

[Dan L.]

You could move to Michigan. We have lots of water. I take a large tub bath every day. I also do not have a smelly bathroom, I flush the toilet often. My water bill is also next to nothing. Heat bill is another story.

However, The garden season is much shorter here than the south and I will be getting close to 12 inches of snow by friday afternoon. I have to go now and get that plow put back on the old truck.

Everywhere one goes there are pluses and minuses. If you do move to Michigan, good luck in finding a good job, hmmm or any job for that matter.

Still employed .... Dan

[George.com]

have taken some steps recently Len. I installed a couple of water butts off the down pipe at the back of the garage. All I need is some rain to fill it up. I have been collecting urea to use as a liquid fertiliser for the veges. It still gets washed away, only down into the roots of some plants to give me nice tasty veges. The lawn & garden (save for the edibles) hasn't been watered. We have a sprinkler ban in place from this week so I have bodged up some soaker hoses that deliver a trickle straight to the plant roots. I have mulched for a while nowThe car ain't been washed in months. Water usage inside keeps me, the mutts, cats & fish alive and hygenic. Some areas of NZ have put in local laws requiring new houses to have rain water tanks and grey water systems. I have recently had my walls insulated to the tune of several thousand so that is the retrofitting budget gone for a while. It will make my heating lower in winter. Glory be, we got about 2 mm of rain last night. The drought has broken.

rob

[George.com]

good old dubya, the midas touch has that lad.

rob

[Dan L.]

I do feel guilty my post really wasn't very helpful.

The only thing semi-thing I can think of is drilling extra wells. Several neighbors have more than one well. Some people that live next to a lake or river have their own purification system tapping off that lake or river. But one cannot do these things in the city.

Sorry ... Dan Ok, Im over it now.