Some rain

I hope this breaks the 2+ year drought. We had 6.3" of rain on Friday and Saturday. About 10 miles north of my home there was a report of 19.5 inches falling!

I don't know whether it'll break the drought or not. Some got flooded and some didn't get enough rain. I got slightly less than 2.1" myself, and the lake is still 3.9' low. Before the rain, it was 4' low so a tenth of a foot means there wasn't much run off here.

Up here in Michigan, we've had our typical cool, rainy Spring. Really have only had 1 or 2 nice sun-shiny days with temps near 70. I guess water is something we kind of take for granted. But, as usual, local governments mess it up.

We're on the Detroit Water System as are most of the suburbs. The suburbs buy the water wholesale from Detroit and then tack on whatever charges they need to support the local water dept. The farther a suburb is from the Detroit border, the more they pay for the wholesale water. Fair enough.

What cracks me up is that our local township just passed an ordinance that instituted a "permanent" even-odd watering schedule and bans automatic sprinklers from running between 5 and 9 AM. . This is something usually reserved for mid-summer when the temps are in the 90's and everybody is watering their grass. All in the name of conservation when we're surrounded by 20% of the world's fresh water.

This led to the mind-boggling situation that the Detroit Water
System raised the wholesale rates because everyone was doing such a good job of water conservation that they were actually selling less water and weren't getting enough revenue. So they made the water more expensive! This is exactly the opposite of what you would think: Demand goes down, the price should go down.

Anyway, the pond on my property a little north of here is in "overflow mode" again, spilling a steady stream of water to the drainage ditch that eventually dumps into a river that leads to the lower Great Lakes and then eventually out into the Atlantic Ocean.

I will take a 1000 gallons a day please.

My partially spring fed catfish pond is full and overflowing after getting nearly 3 1/2 inches this month. Some of the others are OK (down some but not dangerous) and a couple are danged low but not in imminent danger of drying out.

We are still way behind in precip but... we are OK for a little while.

The grass,what little there is, is greening up but there is less of it for this time of year than most anyone can remember. If we don't get more rain with few or no bad dry spells, all us little cow calf operations will be in danger of being wiped out. IF you have to buy supplemental feed when historically grass was available the economics will put you way in the hole in a hurry.

I used to think it was a joke but now it is looking like a reality...

The way to end up with $20,000 in your cattle account at the end of the season is to start with $40,000.

Pat

Flexible foresight! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

This rain added almost 2 feet to the pond level. We are still about 4 feet from full.

We also have no grass worth mentioning. The cows are eating their hay (fed to them non-stop for nearly 2 years) but they want green. They have stripped every leaf they can reach, and have been pulling over sapling trees for those leaves normally out of their reach.

A long-time cattleman told me they way to tell a real REAL cattle person from a hobbyist was- the person who really raises cattle HATES cattle. I don't even pretend to know much about cows, except that I can't stand 'em. I get some satisfaction every time I eat a burger!

We have had a really dry year so far too. I do have to say that when it rains it pours. I wish there was a happy medium here. I would not mind a nice light rain each night (save me from watering the garden and flowers).

strongly agreed with you .

We're having a nice rainstorm tonight. I hope it keeps up. Unfortunately, we're under a flood warning, especially with all of the melting snow. But in my book, I look at the rain as a good omen. I am very much so looking forward to spring showers. :)

Great ! it will definately solve the problem of drought . I also heard that it rained on friday but 6.3" is quite a good news.

some rain is important but we have to also need to do some steps like we have to also store this rain water for some time so that it can used while it is needed.