Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Friday, July 13, 2012

The "D" Word. How Dry Is It?

Dry. Its real dry. Last nite on the news they finally said the "D" word - oh its a drought alright. All you really need to do is drive around in farm country and see the curled up corn and the inch high alfalfa and the dead-in-the-field soybeans.
One of the gardens I've been watering. Note the corn on the left of the sunflowers. (Bucket for scale)

Its about time to get nervous. Food prices - for people and livestock - are going to start going up. Expect high prices for just about everything. I don't think there will be shortages... heaven knows there could be blood in the streets if they actually start rationing out soda and "Itos" for sure. If you don't think that corn and soybeans affects you, just remember that the majority of processed foods in the store are made out of corn or soybeans or both. That goes for livestock and pet food also.

At our place we can see the effects of this rainless summer everywhere. The grass is mostly gone, everything growing outside the fence is drying up, and the pond is really low. I might be imagining it but the water from our well is starting to taste funny also.

I've been watering everyday trying to keep the garden going. Unfortunately the weeds are going like gangbusters while everything else is suffering.  I'm actually considering shutting down part of the garden until later in the fall. The only upside is that I don't have to mow.

And this is where I watered by the bucketful yesterday. What a difference! (Same bucket)

Yesterday I finally broke down and bucket watered the corn and sorghum outside the fence. The soil snapped, crackled, and popped when I poured the buckets of water on it. I can't get to it with the water trolley so it was a lot of my tromping back and forth with buckets of water. It was a lot of work and I don't even know if it will work.

But its not just us. We saw our friends who own the orchard nearby recently - and we had a good laugh that he's doing the same thing. Only he's getting water out of his pond, filling 50 gallon drums in the back of his truck, and watering the fruit trees that way.

My poor alfalfa. I should be around ready for a second cutting but this hasn't even been cut once. (Still the same bucket)

This could be an interesting season, folks. I know that some of our friends are drowning in rain and here we are baking in the drought. Interesting times indeed. But chin up, we are all in this together, right?

One of my favorite scenes... a busy bee on a sunflower. At least he's happy!

What about you - are you baking or drowning?

Happy Friday (the 13th) everyone!

14 comments:

Linda said...

I live in Colorado. I am ALWAYS watering :P Fortunately my lot is small and the hose can reach everything.

becky3086 said...

We had some drought and now it won't quit raining. Either we are muddy or the plants are dying.No happy medium.

Unknown said...

Baking, 105 yesterday and smoky from forest fires. Rain maybe tonite and tomorrow, here's hoping!

Head Farm Steward said...

Baking. Not as bad as you but still...baking.

Traci Sumner said...

South of us is really baking. We're short, at least we were okay in June - nothing so far in July, and the weeds in the garden look better than the garden. Spending lots of time making sure the critters and my human kids stay watered.

Good luck & God Bless!

p.s. You have the WORST type of prove you are human words ever. Man, I can't read them.

Anonymous said...

RAIN IN FLORIDA. LOTS

SORRY ABOUT YOUR RAIN PROBLEMS IN OHIO. I'LL DO A RAIN DANCE FOR YOU. ALL YOU CAN DO IS LAUGH AND TRY TO FIND HUMOR. WE JUST GOT A VERIZON BILL TODAY. THEY UP OUR SERVICE TO OVER 145 DOLLARS A MONTH. DIRTY CROOKS. US SENIORS MAY HAS WELL FORGET ABOUT EATING, TV OR GOING TO A DOCTOR. GREED IS WIDE SPREAD AND NO ONE IN WASHINGTON WILL DO ANYTHING FOR US OLD FOLKS. SO I GUESS I'LL JUST GIVE UP AND HAVE A GOOD LAUGH OR I'D CRY MYSELF TO DEATH. EVEN THE PRICE OF WATER HERE IS SO UNREAL.

GRANNY

GRANNY

Chai Chai said...

I was thinking the same thing yesterday, meat and crop prices are going to increase significantly if the drought doesn't break soon.

NancyDe said...

I saw the map that showed the drought states - my island is on the map, but, at least in my area, we've been flooded with rain for months. Drive south, over the hump of mountain that holds the rain here and you can see the drought. I am worried about feed prices - we have to pay all that extra shipping on top of the cost of feed....

dragonlaurel said...

We spent a month an a half with almost no rain. The highs were going between 100 and 104 degrees almost everyday. The drought finally let up this week. Thank you!!!

I hope you get a visit from the rain clouds soon too.

David said...

hot and dry, but yesterday afternoon it downpoured. While the local airport only indicates .53 inches, the empty bucket in the driveway picked up 3.5 inches! While the boxed beds picked it up on the ground soil there was a tremendous amount of runoff, so much that the pedestrial tunnel at the trainstation filled up entirely!

Damummis said...

It was raining for most of the spring, now it is cooking. Everything was use to constant moisture is now suffering hard.

murphysranch said...

They just declared our county in CA a drought one. Hardly any rain this past winter really hurts the farmers and ranchers.

Anonymous said...

wet wet and more wet.... We are having the opposite in England wettest April - June since met office records began in 1910. Farmers are getting worried very little silage, hay cut. Field maize is going yellow too much wet, wheat needs the sun.
The slug & snail issues in the veg plot. Eek.

lori said...

We've gotten lucky the last couple weeks. We had a month of upper 90s and lower 100s heat with no rain. Then came the power outage storm...now we are getting the humidity with the heat and storms every evening...some with rain and some just rumbles. We are having issues with end rot on the tomatoes and peppers from the extremes. Having to pick everything green to keep them from rotting on the vines. Our last electric bill was $200 and I am trying to figure out what to do about it. I am looking into buying bulk grains to sprout in case feed prices skyrocket.

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