DROUGHT.

[powderman]

We had less than 2 in in July, same for August. So far in Sept we've had one tenth of an inch. Pond is down 4 + feet and over 1/2 of the ponds around here are dried mud. There are cattails rooted almost 5 ft above the water in my pond. No rain in sight. I'm tired of hauling water from the pond for the garden, everythings gone except a few tomatoes and my turnips. I've put a full bbl of water on the turnips at least 3X a week and the garden when I had one, I've hauled water all summer long to get what  I did. I have a little wagon I pull behind the riding mower that holds 2 buckets and a watering can. A good 10+ gal a trip. I hauled 60+ gal like that today, dumped it in bbls,  and syphoned it out onto the turnips. Summer squash produced well and tomatoes not bad either. Eggplant did well but even though I hauled hundreds of gal of water for the potatoes I only got 3 buckets full in 100 ft of row. The fertilizer I planted them with was still there. Anyway, I'm really getting fed up with hauling water and really hoping and PRAYING for rain. On the bright side, I don't have to cut the grass. POWDERMAN.       

[teamnelson]

Wow, sorry to hear that PMan. Our rain is a little light here too, but it never gets that bad. I filled up a new rain barrel full in one night just off the roof of the back lanai. Use it to water the plants under the lanai and inside the house. Praying some will come your way! 

[Old Fart]

Bummer.
We're several inches over normal here.
Which is good considering last year.

[MGMorden]

Would it not be easier to put a sprinkler out in the garden?  Not much of a farmer myself but I know my grandfather used to have a few reciprocating sprinklers with a hose out there that he would turn on if there wasn't enough rain.  He was only planting about 1 - 1.5 acres though so depending on scale it might be too big.  Just a thought.

We were hit really hard by it a few years back.  The local lake dried up to the point where all of the landings were drylocked.  Whole boating season was ruined (luckily I tend to fish the rivers more anyways, and they didn't go down as much).

[billy_56081]

We had a wetter than normal summer and last week we had 10 inches over night. No dry spell here.

[powderman]

We have no well, just a cistern and no outside spigots, it would be too expensive for me to water like that . Finally had a couple of nice days. We set a new record for # of days over 90 deg this summer set in 1954, and one day week before last set a new high of 98, the old record was 96, set in 1895. Hopefully the cooler weather is here to stay. I have 3 bbls and a bunch of buckets to catch the rain, but we haven't had any, and none in sight. I reckon I'll keep dipping out of the pond as long as the pond holds out. I WANT THIOSE TURNIPS. I have some real nice tops and a few that are about 2 inches now but it's taken a lot of watering to get them this far. I originally sowed them Aug 8th, resowed Sept 11, since only about 20 % or so came up. COME ON BIG DROPS. POWDERMAN. 

[Old Syko]

PM, I'm just NW of you across the river.  Got my garden out early while it was real wet.  Did better than usual until it came time to plant turnips and the rain was history.  Didn't even bother.  Covered the garden with manure to wait until next year.  It's so dry field fires are becoming a problem.  They seem to be starting from sparks getting through the exhaust on tractors and combines.  No rain predicted in the near future either.   

[powderman]

OLD SYCKO. I'm afraid that if my pond doesn't get filled before real winter gets here that I might lose my fish when it ices over.
It  was the same here. Lots of early rain, had to replant, then the rains stopped. I consider myself lucky that my pond is still there, so many around here have completely dried up, so I see a LOW pond as a blessing.
I'm amazed that there haven't been nearly as many fires as I expected. The woods, fields, pastures, even yards are ripe for it. We are under a NO BURN policy now, not even a campfire. No rain in the forecast for the next 7 days. I reckon I'll start filling the bbl again. POWDERMAN. 

[subdjoe]

So, what's the problem?  Other than a few showers in June to mess up outdoor graduations (or the contrary, clear and sunny with highs in the upper 90s), it isn't supposed to rain between May and mid-October.  Maybe mid-April to early November.

[Old Syko]

The ponds are leaving alright.  The shallow ones, 3 or 4 feet deep are already gone and weeds are growing in their place.  There's a small lake below my father-in-law's place that was spring fed and a bit over 50 feet deep at the dam that is now down to about half that.  The spring hasn't run for some time now.  Fish are already dying off from lack of oxygen I suppose.  Oh well, this is one of those things we can't do anything about.  At least we've not had to deal with remnants of any hurricanes so far this year and go without power for a week.  I guess it could be worse.

[gypsyman]

We had way to much rain this spring. I didn't get the garden in till 1-2 week of June. Then it dried up, and I was hauling water, just like you powderman. I have a trailer hooked to the back of my rider, and with one big blue barrel, that hold about 35gls. of water, and 4 5gl buckets stuck into each corner, I can haul about 55 gallons of water to my garden. It's about 300 yds behind my house, so to far to run a hose. A real pain in the butt. But, as I type this, am canning about 24 qts of tomato juice up, and hoping to get another 20 or so on Thursday. Beets will get canned next week, and have a buch of cabbage that'll turn into 'kraut in a couple weeks. Got to get it while the getting is good. gypsyman

[bilmac]

Irrigation is manditory here in Wyo. No irrigation, no garden. 900 feet is not too far to run a pipeline from your pond. The black polyethelene pipe is not all that expensive. Dig it in a few inches and you are drought proof. A harder problem could be getting electricity for an electric pump at your pond.The pump needs to be almost at water level. Gas powered pumps aren't all that expensive either.